New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-22
popnLAR coNrRoL oF THE eENArE.


The expansion of national and popular power
has been one of the most striking features of
our constitutional development In the people,
as such. the trainers of the Constitution wished
to lodge only q modicum of authority. They ae-
cented the nrinciple of delegation and pushed it
10 the extreme OF compelling an indlrecS elecuon
of President and VicePresident and an lndlrect
choice OF United States Senators. The judiciary
was made appointive; and only III the se4eclloH
Of members of the House Of Representatives was
the Voice of the people allowed to express ltseL
without htndranee and without mediation. Such
q system may have met the wants and lueiiS u
q generation little accustomed TO democratic
usages and little trained IN democratic theories
Of government. But il could not hope to endure
when once the democratic impulse got full play,
as it did first under Jefferson and then later
and with more effective energy, under Jackson.
The task of altering the Constitution is one from
which as q nation, we have always shrunk.
But American ingenuity easily devises ways to
circumvent embarrassing constitutional provls-
ions Rv inventtng the national party conVen-
lion and stripping the Electoral College-mor-
ally though not legally-Of all voiiton, the de-
sign of the fathers TO set up q sort OF pontncal
concl8ve in which Presidents should be balloted
for was effeetually frustrated. The people TOOK
into their own hands the elective power WhIcn
they were not thought capable Of using saTely
and wisely.
We seem nowadays to be in the midst OF an
other circumventtng process, this time dlreetea
toward securing popular control OF the CHlIe0
STATES Senate In many states the consutu-
tionaI right of the legislature TO elect Senators
has been practically annulled. In Louisiana,
Mississippi Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, V1r-
gtnta. South Carolina and Tennessee, nominations
for Senator are now made at legaItZed party
primaries The legislature merely ratines Sc
Iections determined at the polls. In other states
party conventions designate the candidates 10
be voted for in the legislature, thus reducing
the members of that body TO fgureheads as I'M
potent as our federal electors.
Recently the movement for popular control OF
the upper house of Congress has taken new
and almost fantastic turn Having reduced the
legislature To impotence, IT is now proposed 70
take from Governors of states the authority 10
I'LL vacancies in the Senate occurring during a
recess of the legislature. Alabama is the first
commonwealth 10 attempt this extension of the
popular election theory. This year the Demo
cratic voters in Alabama are TO nominate Sen
ators to succeed John T. Morgan and Edmund
W Pettus and the Democratic State Committee
has arranged not only regular Senatorial prl-
mary but 8 special secondary election IN which
Two alternate candidates are 10 be designated,
10 be appointed by the Governor IN case the
principals elected BIZ the legislature die or re-
sign. The legislature Of Alabama meets only
once in four years; so that both the states
seats in the Senate must be filed at the session
of 1901 Should either incumbent die after the
legislature has adjourned, his successor, ap-
pointed by the Governor, could hold office till
1911: and to prevent the issue by the Governor
of an ad interim certificate good under certain
conditions for nearly four years the people OF
Alabama propose 10 divest him of any option IN
using his constitutional power. The innovation
seems a startling one. Yet il is quite as logical
and defensible TO take the appointive power
from the Governor as 10 take the elective power
from the legislature. Where the present revo-
lutionizing process will end il is hard to say.
But it seems clear that if the people of the
United States are dissatisfied with the old ma
chinery of Senatorial elections, they can put
that machinery out Of operation as easily Ms
they snuffed out the Electoral College and con-
verted the Constitutions elaborate scheme OF
delegated powers into idle legal fiction.