The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-01

- II TIE Dooy- Inc United States
senate Is the great delfberative politi-
cal council Of the American peonle Tts
history is the cream of American citi-
zensnlp, and to 1t We must look for the
spiehuor or American craftsmanship
Ihough we have fallen on times when.
any Jackleg can make better consti-
tuition than that our fathers buiIded
the work of the fathers proved wonder
iuiiy successful, and the United States
senate Is their grandest production. IT
Is the conservative element that was
lorIleo 10 shield the minority from the
ungoverned license OF the majority.
and that is all the expression free
government" ever meant TO the intel
Ilgent student of politics. Ours is
mixed government, national and fed
eraI, the latter a check upon and a
balance against, the former as when
the conservatism Of the senate saved
Andrew johnson from the radicalism
OF the mouse: as when the senate threw
out the Lodge force bill of 1890. The
senate is the theatre upon whose stage
the smallest state may play as great
part as the largest: there Delaware
and New York are equal Not only is
the senate federal in its membership,
out, under the constitution, 1t is fed
eral In its cOmpOsition-that is, the
state legislatures, made up of repre-
sentatives from equal communities,
choose the senators. If you doubt that
1t has worked admirably, get the roll
OF the senate for century and be con-
WINGED. Senators are chosen by the
legislatures, governors by the people
Who will dare say the governors OF the
states are superior to the senators
from the states? He is a reckless man
VINO Will say they are equal to the
senators
But that is to be changed at the de-
mand of public clamor The constitu-
ton Of the fathers is already nuIlified
In this practice Of making senators by
blanket primary. If jefferson Davis
had lived and retained the splendid
qualities of his prime. there would
nave been no blanket primary in Mis-
sissippi to bring into contempt sec
ton 3 of article l Of the constitution
OF the United States. True the pri-
mary does not nullify the letter. but
II destroys the spirit, and in as far as
possible the senate is made a national
body instead of a federal 1t is now
proposed to put the initiative and the
referendum to 1t, which abOliShes the
senate, makes the government entirely
national, and turns all power over to
the unbrldled license Of the masses of
the big states. 1 can see how that
might be favored by New York, Penn
sylvania, Ohio, and Illinois; but where
would Mississippi come in? She would
surrender her equality in the senate to
have her small popular vote swallowed
up in the immense popular vote Of Chi
cago or Philadelphia, where majorities
are made to order. Better turn back
and bear a while longer the ills the
fathers made for US rather than fly to
fads we know not of.
"
If 1 live / shall look down from the
gallery on the senate of the Sixty-first
congress something less than twenty
months in the future / hope to see
Theodore Roosevelt sworn in as
member on that occasion. I would like
to see William ]. Bryan senator.
Give these gentlemen two years sery-
ice and then reinforce the senate with
John Sharp Williams and Edward
Ward Carmack, and the layout would
be greatly improved. In the senate
new member is taken apart to see
what he is made of. If there is a flaw
it viii be found. His skeleton is hung
up to every gaze, and 1t takes a mighty
considerable fellow to stand the thing
Billy Mason came here some years
ago, and they said ne would laugh the
senate out of its boots. He tried it
and the senate froze him in his boots,
and ne never thawed during the entire
six years, though he had been a howl
ing success in the house. And yet the
senate loves to laugh. Carmack made
it laugh; but the senate will not stand
for horseplay.
A debate on general politics partici-
pated in by Roosevelt. Bryan. Car
mack, Foraker. Williams, Lodge, Till
man, Bailey and Beveridge. and last
ing a week, would be worth a journey
a world n
What a power of good it would do
Roosevelt! And Bryan, too, would
learn deal he does not now know.
Mind would clash with mind. wit with
wit, knowledge with knowledge. The
list of killed and crippled would be
frightful on thSs theatre, where none
but hard knocks count I would like
to see Roosevelt give Bailey or Car
mack a lesson on constitution by con-
struction. l would like to see Williams
and Beveridge on opposing sides of the
scope and force of the tenth amend
ment. I would like to be present when
Tillman and Foraker clash on the con-
stitutional right Of the south to vote
the Democratic ticket.
OF that list John Sharp Williams is
second to none in debate. Bailey is a
greater lawyer, Carmack a more bril-
liant debater, Lodge a more studious
scholar, Beverage a more indefatiga-
bic worker, but as an all-round man in
political debate John Sharp is the
equal of the best of them His is a
powerful mind. cultured in the best
schools of both hemispheres; his ac-
quired knowledge is varied and extern
sive; he is as ready as Carmack him
self; like Captain Colepeper's bulldog.
he never sprang but at the throat
vide the lacerated gullet of the Hon.
Littauer. who had charge of ship sub
sidy the last session. Not only is John
Sharp Williams a Democrat in princi-
pie; but he is the most thorough demo-
crat i'm demeanor since old Bill Nor
rison left here. For this he has been
harshly criticized; but his career shows
that a great man is only the greater
for a simplicity that makes him Iowa
BILE
1t was in December, 1903, that John
Sharp Williams was chosen leader Of
the minority in congress, succeeding to
the place formerly held by Richardson,
Bailey, Crisp, Mills, Carlisle and Nor
rison. Since the first convocation of
the Fifty-third congress the Demo-
cratic side has been a mob. Crisp did
not live long enough to show how
hopeless his leadership would prove:
but Bailey, an ADLER man. failed la