The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-28
TIE UNITED STATES SENATE.

the busy minds of small agitators who
devote themselves 10 showing the
public how badly everything in the
government is going on, says the Wash
ington Post. Their especial object OF
attack Just now is the United States
Senate. They appear to have lost
sight OF the facts that the senate is
a duly constituted body; that it's ses-
sions are entirely lawful; that it is
part of the lawmaking power; that by
authority OF the Constitution it makes
its own rules: that each member OF
it is under oath to faithfully perform
his duty as he understands it; that
he may debate public measures, and
vote for those he deems best for the
public interests, and against those he
believes would be injurious to those
interests.
The action OF the senate and its mac
ton are proper subjects for criticism
by anybody and everybody Argu-
ments and persuasions lead to the for
nation of public opinion; so do mis-
information, iniiammatory denuncia-
lions, vulgar abuse, and threats. 1t
is assumed by the Tittlebat TitmOuses
and Simon Tappertits that the senate
is wholly and irreclaimably bad, and
that its main object is to obstruct
the wise and beneticent measures sent
10 it by the house of representatives
after calm and conservative considera-
ton, and thereby to deprive the coun-
try of needed legislation. They find
in the senate able lawyers, some of
whom. during years of successful
practice, have had corporations among
| their clients, on whose behalf they
have argued cases in the Supreme
| Court. To them it seems bad enough
that lawyers should be permitted to
sit in the seats of lawmakers at all;
but for such OF them as become so
lost to all sense of honor as to argue
that any corporation could have any
rights which anybody is bound to re-
| spect, shows how vile must be the
| people of a state from which such
| public enemies are sent to the senate.
With these self-oppointed guardians Of
the people, whose only compensation
for their labors is the money paid them
by publishers for writing their So
| called CRITICISMS" which the people
the senate be turned aside from Its
own course and forced to obey the
commands OF outsiders, or how can it
he abolished. Several years ago, when
an important measure was hanging
fire in the senate. it was suggested
privately that people ought to march
to the capital with guns on their
| shoulders and shoot down some of the
obstructive senators.
Each state is represented by two
| senators chosen by the legislature
thereof A considerable portion of the
| people have been persuaded that the
millennium would dawn If senators
could be chosen in each state directly
b. the people thereof. They ignore the
fact that the people never vote direct
ly-each man for his choice-for public
officers; but that they vote for their
choice between several candidates pre-
sented to them through their party
machinery. They do not tell us what
guarantee we should have that state
conventions would present better men
for the senate than state legislatures
The senate needs no defense. 1t
consists of the best product of the
political forces in each state. The
Titmouses and Tapperttits in each
state could doubtless select much ADLER
and worthier men; but, unhappily. the
constitution of the United States
places in the hands of the people OF
each state the power, acting through
their legislatures, to make these selec-
tons. If the people will not choose
good legislatures, the legislatures may
not choose good senator's. So that all
assaults upon the senate are assaults
upon the source of all political power
the people themselves. The results
OF the constitutional system have full
ly justified its builders. Examine the
long list of senators who have served
during the III year of our national
constitutional life, and they will com,
pare favorably with any similar list
that can be shown in the history o:
any nation in Christendom.
The debate now going on in the
senate on the interstate commerce
powers of congress, and the limfta-
tons upon them under the constitu-