The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-05
SENATE IN NO HURRY
CHOOSING OF ITS MEMBERS BY
DIRECT VOTE DOES NOT
PLEASE BODY
is NOT LIKELY TO PUSH
THE HOUSE RESOLUTION
Little Probability of Its Adoption at
the Next Session of a Resolution
Submitting to the Legislatures of
the Various States an Amendment to
the Constitution for Direct Selection.
Special to The Globe.

tne constitution TOR Direct oeIectioH'
Special to The Globe.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 4.-Next
session of congress will not witness
the achievement of forcing the senate
10 agree to the resolution passed by
the house of representatives that a
constitutional amendment be submitted
to the legislatures of the various states
making the election of the United
States senators by the popular vote a
new article in the constitution.
The senate is not in a hurry to agree
with the lower house of congress on
the question of submission of such an
amendment.
Nobody suspects that the senate ia
Vors the election of it's members by
popular vote. There isn't any reason
for suspecting any such thing. The
senate is q conservative body.
This very conservatism, however,
which forms an acknowledged element
in the general character of the senate,
makes it all the easier for the people
to secure the submission to their state
legislatures of a constitutional amend
nent of the kind in question. 1t is
possible for the different states to has
ten the acceptance by the senate of the
resolution passed by the lower house
of congress and at the present await
ing the decision of the upper one by
simply demanding a federal constitu-
tional convention. Anything agreed
2 upon by such body can be incorpor
ated in the constitution as an article,
provided a sufficient number of states
assent to the constitutional change or
revision thereby proposed to be eff
fected. The senate would not care for
the converting of a federal constitu-
tional convention, and would choose
the lesser of two evils by passing the
house of representatives resolution
and thus submitting to the legislatures
of the states an amendment in favor
of popular election of United States
senators
States in the Saddle.
Here is where the state have the
whiphand Of congress, for if so many
of them insist upon it, congress has
no choice but to call a federal consti-
tutional convention.
When at the next session of congress,
therefore, the senate fails as expected
to pass the resolution submitting the
proposed amendment to the states as
a whole, the latter can harass the SEN
ate, by sufficiently concerted action,
into compliance with the national will,
as personified by the house of repre-
sentatives.
This important movement, which has
for it's goal such a radical change in
the present system of choosing the
personnel of the higher legislative body
of the United States, suggests at once
the whole question of the senate'S eX-
istence-the why and wherefore of our
having two federal legislative houses.
At first glance the thing seems an an
omaly-that we should have estab-
lished two law making bodies, doing
the same work twice over! Our sys-
tenn of dual houses is readily explained,
however; we modelled our congress on
the English parliament, which had it's
house Of commons and house of lords
because England was a country with
sharply defined classes, both requiring
representation in the national legis-
lature. We had not any such good rea-
son for creating our congress on the
tWo-headed plan, because our republic
had but one. social class, yet we did 1t
none the less for no better reason than
that we seemed to think it wise to fol-
low the example Of the mother coun-
try, from which we had cut loose. And
set, had we copied or continued the
hnglish example as set in the case of
her reVolted American colonies, we
should have made our congress body
with one chamber only. Such was the
plan of constitution of the old colonial
assemblies, as it was of the original
NOAieoA Ooo'
Two Early Plans.
On May IA, 1887, two plans were pro-
posed before the national convention
which settled the details of the con-
StitutiOn. One of these plans favored
a congress with two houses; another
known as the Patterson proposal, IA
Vored single chamber.
Patterson was a delegate from New
Jersey, and his plan was supported by
Benjamin Franklin. Alexander Ham
: ilton was the strongest advocate of the
double-headed congress-he even want
to have United States senators given
Office for life. He declared in his speech
that "the English house of lords Is
noble institution, and that it formed
a permanent barrier against PERM
cious innovations on the part of both
crown and commons"
The convention finally centered it's
attention upon the system on which the
senate should be organized. The vari-
Gus states regarded the matter of rep
reSentation in various ights-the
smaller ones argued that representa-
ton In congress should give each state
the same degree of representation that
no inequality of size, population or
wealth should cut any figure in the dis
tribution of congressional seats. Every
single state should be equal in this re-
Spect with all the others, on the simple
ground that state is a state. But the
big states couldn't see this at all, and
- the scheme of confedel alton almost fell
through on this very point, in the de-
bate which followed.
Finally congress of two houses was
agreed upon, but state representation
in the lower one was based upon pop
uIation; that In the upper was to be
q uniform rate of two United States
senators to every state. So the stat
us of each individual state was in the
end recognized as equal with all the
rest, so far as the senate was and
IS now concerned, because if they have
full equality in either branch of con-
greSS they each and all have an equal
influence In the regulating of legiSla-
ton. The arrangement, in fact, was
q compromise not based on good sense,
as parliamentary representation in any
country can be ecr;TiittapIy based ONLY
according to the population in the var
ious sections from which the represen-
tatiYes are elected.
Senate Compromise.
The United States senate was merely
n compromise. And it's creators nro-
ceeded to invest it with special duties
and powers which the lower house
might just as nationally have been Civ
en-the revision of foreign treaties
and presidential appointments-and
constituted a trial-court of impeach-
nent cases. These dignities were sup
posed to have been conferred upon
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