The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-24
THE NATIONAL SENATE.
fl CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM IN
 THE UNITED STATES.
Which Has Justified Its BuiIders-scope
 of the Senate's Action and Jurisdic-

Which Has Justified Its Builders-scOpe
 of the Senate's Action and Jurisdic-
 ton.
 The freedom of the press guaran- teed by the constitution gives free
 play to the busy minds of small agita-
 tors who devote themselves to showing the public how badly everything in the government is going on. Their especial object of attack juste now is
 the United States senate. They ap- pear to have lost sight of the facts that the senate is a duly constituted body; that its sessions are entirely lawful; that it is a part of the lawmaking power; that by authority of the con stitutior it makes it's own rules; that each member of it is under oath to faithfully perform his duty as he un- derstands it; that he may debate pub lie 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 it's in- action are proper subjects for criticism
 by anybody and everybody. Argu- ments and persuasions lead to the for mation of public opinion; so do mis-
 information, inhammatory denuncia- tions, vulgar abuse, and threats, It is assumed by the Tittlebat Titmouses and Simon Tappertits that the senate is wholly irreclaimably bad, and that its main object is to obstruct the wise and beneficent measures sent to it by the house of representatives after calm and conservative consideration, and thereby to deprive the country 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 respect, shows how vile must be the people of a state from which such public en- emies are sent to the senate. With these self-appointed 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 buy the only question is how can the senate be turned aside from it's own course and forced to obey the com- mands of outsiders, or how can it be abolished. Several years ago, when an important measure was hanging fire in the senate, it was suggested private ly that people ought to march to the capitol with guns on their shoulders and shoot down some of the obstruc- tive 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 it senators could be chosen in each state directly by the people thereof They ignore the fact that the people never vote directly-each man for his choice flor public officers; but that they vote off their choice between several candi- dates presented to them through their party machinery. They don ot 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. It consists of the best product of the political forces in each state. The Titmouses and Tappertts in each state could doubtless select much abler 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- tions. If the people will not choose good legislatures, the legislatures may not choose good senators. 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 fully justified its builders. Examine the long list of senators who have served during the 117 years of our national constitutional life, and they will com pare favorably with any similar list that can be shown in the history of any nation in Christendom.
 The debate now going on in the senate on the interstate commerce powers of congress, and the linita- tions upon them under the constitu- tion, will satisfy anybody who reads 1t that the senate has not degenerateu since "the good old times" when other constitutional questions deeply affecting the interests of the people 1 were the subject of high debate. The l of different views on the 1 subject exhibit commendabe zeal in | the advocacy of what they believe to | be lawful and just. Let the people | read what the senators are saying and | doing, and they will find therein abun- dant answers to the frothy outpourings l of hack writers who have sterotyped | phrases with which to prejudice the | public mind against statesmen whose | daily record they never themselves read.
 The shrewd publican has a plate of | salt fish at the end of his bar with which to provoke thirst, which he is prepared to quench for a consider ation. So the men who thrive by libels 1n public officials first create an ap- petite for scandal by false statements.