The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-01-27

nee. The baIloting has been in progress two
weeks. an expensive campaign has been conducted,
legislation has been neglected to the marked Diet
riment of the State, and still no candidate has
been agreed on.
The situation was even worse in the Legisla-
ture of 1897, when the air was so thick with
charges of corruption that one of the dominant
parties was split in twain as a result.
And over in Delaware, Millionaire Addicks has
held the balance of power for four or five years
unable to get control of enough votes. to secure
his election, but able to hold enough to prevent
the selection of any one else. Meanwhile the
State has been without representation in the Sen
ate for two years, and has suffered the shame of
being in the mercy of a man commonly regarded
as a corrupt and narrow-minded boodler.
These are some of the results of our undemo-
cratic method of electing United States Senators
"a method that we have long since outgrown. 1t
was put in force at a time when the election of
public officials by direct vote of the people was
looked upon as a doubtful experiment. The peo-
pie had not been bound together by railroads and
telegraphs; the public school and the newspaper
had not accomplished their great educational
work; free and unrestricted democracy was gen
orally regarded with about as much distrust as
socialism is to-day.
Alu 81 lit S6COuudES SGlCCIIOu Ol DCldJOFS was
arranged as a concession to the element that
doubted the success of our experiment in demo-
cratic government. As DR.. Albert Shaw said in
the December Review of Reviews, at has album
dainty proven itself an unwise and improper re-
s%triction; the States should have been left to
choose their Senators as they like"
Even if the system were not so often attended
by deadlocks and corruption, sufficient reason for
itC abandonment would bo found ~, tho NOW foo+
that it is so far out of harmony with the demo-
cratic spirit of the times. The people should
never cease the agitation against it until the Sen
ators themselves are made to feel the force of
public opinion sufficiently to submit the Consti-
tutional Amendment-so many times asked for
by the housekeeping the election of members
of our highest Legislative body by direct vote of
the people. Until that good result is accom-
plished the voters of the different parties should
show their faith in democracy by holding popular
primaries for the selection of Senatorial nomi-
nees.
f course, it is argued that these primaries are
demOralizing; that there are slanderous charges,
mud singing, etc. But there is never more mud
Singing than the moral standards of the people
permit. If there is mud Singing it is not a new
evil added to our political life: it is only the out
cropping of an evil already at work-just as a
boil is not a new evil in ones physical nature, but
only the Outcropping of bad blood already doing
damage. If the people are too depraved to select
their Senators directly, then they are too de-
PRAYED for a republican form of government.
Nor is the excitement produced by the Senate
rial primary an argument against it. Wisely did
old Nathaniel Macon say, "The tempest of democ-
racy is better than the calm of despotism." Equal
Iy wise and equally apropos is the saying of Ly-
man AbbOtt's: "The cure for the evils of democ-
racy is more democracy"
Give us a constitutional Amendment allowing
the election of Senators by direct vote of the