Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-01-25
ELEC1ING SENATORS
SOME FALSE ALARM PAPERS Elk.
ERCISED over OREGON.
The SpOkcSman-Revicw Reads the
Law to the Oregonian, MI This
Talk OF URCOnSiiiuiionaiiiy is the
VerieSt TommyrOs by Hidebound
Newpapers.

1t is good many years since the
fact daWned upon the people OF this
country that the United states SEN
ate was controlled by certain in
terosta' inimicdl to the general
welfare of the nation. y number Of
states have memoralied congress to
provide for an amendemnt to the
constitution that would permit the
election OF senators by popular vote,
and among those states is The state
oI n,,snln6ton with It's larse AepuD-
lican majority. The house of con-
gress-with great Republican ma
Cr.ty--has more than once passed
such a measure, which was always
quietly killed in the senate. That
body, probably, preferred to be an
swerable to the interests" than to
the people, but several states, not
ably Washington and Oregon, have
found way to elect senators by
popular vote without constitution
al amendment.
Since the election OF Governor
Chamberlain as senator, the Repub-
lican press of Oregon and Washing
ton--led by the Oregonian-have
pv-.- ....oo4Aa an h.4a~ Ol llls owe.
the very thing the people have been
demanding, the election of snators
by popular vote. In view of this
fact, it is quite refreshing to read
the following editorial in that stall
wart Republican paper, the Spokane
Spokesman Review:
"Conplaint is voiced by the Port
land Oregonian that the direct prim-
airy law has attempted overthrow of
the method of electing senators es-
tablished by the constitution of the
United States
"Proysion is made by the consti-
tuition Of the United States for cleo
tion of senators by the legislatures
Well, hasn't the Oregon legislature
just elected Chamberlain? True, it
has carried out its pledge to elect
a senator who enjoyed the confidence
of q majority of the voters of Ore
gon, bat is not that as endurable as
the election of a senator who en-
Joyed the onlidence OF some political
boss, or powerful railroad dictator,
or big timber trust or oil monopoly?
''The American people have found
way under the constitution to
make effective their preference for
United States senators exactly as the
American people some 100 years ago
found way to make effective their
choice of president and vice presi-
dent II was not contemplated by
the men who framed the constitu-
tion that the voters should elect the
president or the vice president. The
constitution directs that the presi-
dental electors shall be appointed
in such manner as the Legislature
may direct and it was thought that
these electors would choose a presi-
dent and vice president, Just as
the legislatures were to choose the
senators, according to their own
judgments, desires, whims or per-
sonal interests.
"Theoretically and constitutional
Iy the presidential electors who will
make Mr. Taft the next president
of the United States are free, if thy
were SO minded, to elect Foraker or
Fairbanks, or even Bryan or Ben
Tillman. Their legal right to do
that is identically the same as was
the legal right of the OREGON legis-
ialuIe 10 eject Fulton, uI the Wash
lie, ,-. e.slature Anh-D..
''If there has been an overthrow
af the constitution in the new plan
Of choosing senators in Oregon and
Washington it IS precisely such
overthrow as has gone with the cleo
tion Of presidents for the last 100
years. For many years, under the
constitution, presidential electors
were chosen by the state legisla-
lures with no public expression Of
choice or preference. Even SO late
as 1882 South Carolina's presidenti-
al electors were chosen by the legis-
Iature, and down to the year 1916
the presidential candidates were
nominated by congressional caucus.
perhaps the Oregonian would
like complete 'Testoration" Of the
constitution In the manner Of elect
ing presidents and vice presidents.
Perhaps 1t would hold that there Is