The age-herald., 1902-02-10
Washington Day By Day

WaSnlngt0n, fepfuaTy 5-NoptSidi.Y- While some newspapers and a certain class of politicians are decrying the Sem ate. which is childish absurdity they call 'our House of Lords and in vain babble demanding it's election by the people, a condition already existing-the Senate is more boldly than ever asserting it's | powers. actual and presumptive, under l the constitution.
 This sometimes intemperately demanded election by the people" in the political | jargon of the hour, means of course that Senators shall be directly chosen by the individual ballots of the voters.
 As a matter of law and fact the people have always elected the Senators. In that they have chosen their immediate repre- sentatives with that specific object clearly l in view.
 And there is nothing in the constitution more clearly a fact than that the Sena- tors are the representatives of the states | in the capacity of these subdivisions as integral parts of the nation. 1 It Is proper to say. "the Senator for Ala | Og way Ot tAdiupits DuN II lS HUI proper to say. the Senator from Ala bama." It fig quite correct to speak of "the | Senator from Selma. Alabama" Selma being the particular locality in which he resides; but in referring to him in his | official capacity, it is essential to order Illness and the constitution to designate Q him as the Senator for Alabama fw, bate and otherwise the erroneous and in- excusable phrase from Alabama is con- stantly used. The Senators represent the states as states. and the representatives represent the individual voters-"the peo- pie" if the politicians prefer. And it would be lawful for the two Senators for Alabama and all the nine representatives of the Alabama voters to reside and vote in the Second Ward of Birmingham or in the classic shades of good old beat of Jefferson County.
 There are forty-five states. and there fore ninety Senator's Nevada. with less than half the population of Greater Bir- mingham, is on the same footing in the Senate as New York with one hundred and seventy times greater population.
 There are two Senators for wretched little Nevada, and two for imperial New York. At two dollars a vote a man could buy the entire vote of Nevada with five years salary as Senator.
 And apart from the great number of in- divldual ballots that are stolen in this country and the still greater number that are obtained by the coercion of men who work for wages, there are hundreds of thousands that are purchasable for two dollars or less each.
 The aggregate number of honest votes stolen, and those obtained by coercion on the part of great employers of labor in New England, the middle states socalled, and the near west, is enormous. Add to these the purchasable votes all over the country. and we have probably third of all the voters of America subject in every election to corruption in some form; for the employer who drives his men to vote his way by threats of depriving them and their families of bread in the closing of his business Is immeasurably more cor rupt and despisable than the ward heeler who goes from saloon to saloon purchas- ing with liquor or money the votes of the absolute and disreputable class of the population.
 Given the election of senators by the in- dividual ballots of the voters one be- sotted bum of the Bowery might decide who should occupy the seat of Conk- ling or a Hill.
 These are mere suggestions of danger, and are not meant to be argument against principle in the selection of senators held dear by a multitude of good people. Upon the carrying of that principle into active practice at the proper time the privilege of argument does not in this place obtain.
 But no observant man needs to reside in Washington to discover that some of the present socalled senators of the people" constitute an element of danger to public safety greater than any equal 1umber of socalled senators of the tusts.'
 There are two sides to every public que 'tion, and he is not a wise lover of his country who does not carefully consider both.
 The point aimed at and meant to be solely considered here is the evident fact that the Senate is beginning anew to strike back. as it struck back without any material ao ,omplishment from 1893 to 1Ss7
 The Senate committee to consider the ty-makins power having found that power to be vested by the Constitution in the President ana otthe Senate exclusively, a matter of commtn knowledge that re- quired no demonstration. and having gone further and founa that the power in question extends the medinm of treaties the senate will by resolution in due time so declare; and thus we sle Tn the begin ming of the greatest of parliamentary revolutions
 Followed to its logical confusion. 1t means that the House of Representatives may have no voice whatever in Sevying taxes upon imports. for the PresideH and the Senate may frame treaties wftiN all the nationE and therehy reo,,lota tba Far-