The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-05-24
POPULAR ELECTION OF SENATORS


w. Carmack, coupled with the
victory won a month ago in Ar
kansas by Governor Jeff Davis over
Senator James H. Berry, calls at.
tention rather dramatically to the
changed methods by which seats
in the Senate are now filled in
many states. Partly because the
canvasses made by Messrs. Taylor
and Davis have smacked of the
sensationalism and the procedure
of the circus and partly because
in each instance the less conven-
tional and more picturesque can
didate triumphed, the suggestion
has been advanced that dignity
and capacity are likely to be
Sighted as Senatorial qualifca-
tons if popular choice is substitut-
ed generally for the indirect cleo
ton methods devised by the franz
ers of the Constitution. Two iso-
lated cases hardly proved ten
dency, however, and 50 far as the
system of choosing Senators in
party primaries has been applied
there has been no specially mark
ed divergence from existing stand
ards of qualification. Senators
like Tillman, of South Carolina
Daniel and Martin, of Virginia;
Clay and Bacon. Of Georgia; Nor
gan and Pettus, of Alabama;
Money, of Mississippi, and Foster,
of Louisiana, find it as easy to
retain their seats by appealing to
the voters as by dominating legis-
lative caucuses. That the more
democratic method of choice in
vites demagogy is, therefore, an
unestablished charge thus far.
The fact seems to be that Amer
lean sentiment is now moving
whether temporarily or not re-
mains to be seen-toward an an
nulment of the constitutional pro-
cess for choosing Senators, just as
it formerly annulled the indirect
process of choosing the President
and Vice President. The desire
for popular rule expressed itself
seventy-hve years ago in the sub
stitution of the unwritten authori-
ty of the Electoral College. To-
day the same purpose is evident IN
the spread of the primary method,
which substitutes the will Of the
voter for the will Of his agent sit
ting in the State Legislature. AL
ready in ten states of the Union
Virginia, South Carolina, Geor-
gia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee
and Illinois-legal provision has
been made for transferring the
practical power of election from
the Legislature to the voters. In
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Mime
sofa and other states in which the
primary system is being broadened
similar provision can be made, 50
that, unless there is a revulsion of
sentiment of which no sign appears
at present, within the next decade
we are not unlike to see at least
two-ffth of the states virtually
canCelling the power to elect Sen
ators vested by the Constitution
in the state legislature.
1t is a curious accident in poll
tics that the impetus toward this
important change in our elective
system should have come from GER
tain Southern States in which po
litical activities had reached the
point of stagnation. To give the
white voter something in which to
interest himself the primary con-
test was devised as a supplement
to the perfunctory legal election
The experiment attracted attention
at first only as a novelty. But its
uses were soon realized as means
Of evading constitutional restric-
ton which was becoming irksome,
and the spread of the system was
rapid. That it will cure the evils
complained of under the old meth
cd is by no means certain. 1t may,
indeed, aggravate them as time
goes on. But that it will have its
trial is a fact which the politicians