Bisbee daily review., 1910-12-23
SEMTE HAo SCHEME ID
 BEAT POPULAR VOTE IDEA

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec 22-- The outline of a scheme. by which number of republican senators from Northern states propose to place Southern democratic senators m position whereby they will be forced either to aid in the killing of the proposed amendment for the direct election of United States senators by the people or agree to an amendment that will practically nullify the steps they have taken in the South to eliminate the negro from pol tics be- came known here tonight
 The plan has been discussed in in formal conferences by sevral snators who ar opposed to the direct vote for United States senators and who have matched out this method as q cunning way of beating the amend ment without going absolutely on record as against their representa- tives in the senate.
 The subcommittee of the judiciary committee to which the Bristow reso- lution was referred today reported to the full committee the Bristow reso- lution so changed as to be identical with the one reported by Harry St. George Tucker in the house of Feb ruary 16, 1892, and passed by that body. The fuil committee next week will report this resolution to the senate, and the moment it goes on the floor there will be a hot fight While it is likely that a majority of the members of the senate are at heart opposed to the election of sena. tors by the people, there are not enough of these wiling to vote open ly against such an amendment to defeat it. and the friends of the resolution are confident that on 6 square and open test. vote it will carry overwhelmingly in the senate. Opponents of the measure likewise realize this aai have accordingly de- teTmined to beat the amendment by strategy without being compelled to vote directly against it.
 When the amendment comes egt on the floor tte scheme is for one cf those senators to rise and offer an amendment to the amendment by which to be elected a senatorial can didate must obtain not a majority Of the votes cast in the election nor even a majority Of the total voting population. out a majority of the votes of the whole male population
 In many Southern states, the negro while a very large part of the whole population, is rot a part at all of the voting population. It was sug- gested today that in order to main tain an appearance of fairness this amendment might be modified so as to require a candidate to get 10 or 45 per cent. of the votes of the whole male population instead of a majority. This would diminish the impossibility of such a performance very slightly in the Southern states, and it could be seen in what a con- dition this plan would place southern senators who favor the direct cleo. ton of senators,
 Tn those states-where the negro does not vote-it would mean that the successful candidate would have to receive the votes of practically ali the white men in the state, and in some states even that would not be sufficient to elect him. Tn order to secure representation in the senate at all. should the scheme succeed, the Southern states would not only have to re-enfranchise the negro, but would have to encourage him to cast his vote at the polls Southern dem ocrats who heard of the plan say they do not regard it as serious, be- cause 1t is too preposterous They assert that it is a perfectly transpar ent piece Of strategy upon the part of the republican senators to gre vent the adoption of the direct cleo ton amendment by making 1t i'm possible for Southern senators to support 1t. They do not believe that when the time comes the scheme will mater:alize in he senate, because of the indignation any attempt seriously made would arouse on the part of Northern and Western advocates sf the proposition to elect senators di- rect Notwithstanding this view, the scheme has been talked over serious i ly by a number of senators. and 1t is said to be the intention of those 1 opposed to a change in the plan of