The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-08
ID RESUME DIRECT
 ELECTION FIGHT Even Opponents Concede
 Success To Bill BORAH IS OPTIMISTIC Says Fight Will Be Easy With Some of Old Opponents Gone and
 Support of Southern Sen
 ators Given
BORAH IS OPTIMISTIC
BY wATTERsoN sTBALEY

Washington. March 7.-(Special)-
 The long battle for the direct election
 of United States senators. which came
 sion of Congress, will be renewed with
 the opening of the special session on
 April 4. On the first day of the ses-
 sion Senator Borah of Idaho, whose
 leadership of the forces favoring this
 measure gained him general recogni
 tion as one of the strongest of pro-
 gressive senators. will reintroduce the
 resolution on the first day of the com
 ing session and will push 1t from the
 start. Its passage in an unamended
 and wholly satisfactory form Is re-
 fight is looked upon as practically won
 now. The basis for this belief are the
 changes that have already taken place
 in the Senate, the retirement of sen
 ators who have consistently and des-
 perately fought this reform at every
 step and the seating of senators who
 are committed to it's support. It Is es- timated by its friends that in the Sen
 ate on April 1t will have made net gain of about 12 votes. When it is realized that 1t lacked only eight votes of the necessary two-thirds majority when the final roll call came last week and that this strength was shown de- spite the fact that the obnoxious Suth- erland amendment. which had been tackled on the resolution. made it i'm possible for a number of southern sen
 ators, who strongly favor direct cleo tions. to vote for 1t the confidence of its advocates can be understood
 Republican senators who voted l aga inst the resolution even with the
 Sutherland amendment and whose votes
 made possible the adoption of that amendment, included Hale of Maine, | Burrows of Michigan. Depew of New York. Dick of Ohio, Flint of California, Kean of New Jersey. Bulkley of Con- recticut, and Scott of West Virginia. l All of these men have now left the 1 Senate and are succeeded by either | democrats pledged to the direct cleo ton proposition or by progressive re- publicans, who will vote for it.
 Southern democratic senators who were compelled to vote against the resolution
 on the final vote because of the Suther-
 land amendment but who opposed that tamendment and would have voted for
 the resolution without it. included Senator 1 Bacon of Georgia, Bankhead and John-
 ston of Alabama, Fletcher and Taliaferro of Florida, Foster of Louisiana and
 Money and Percy of Mississippi. All of | these, except Money and Taliaferro, re-
 main in the Senate and can be counted
 upon to strongly support the resolution.
 Senator Moneys place will be taken by
 John Sharp Williams and Taliaferro will | all ha cd hv uybo | support Is assured.
 These changes in the Senate make Sem
 ator Borah believe the fight in the next
 session will be comparatively easy. Since 1 adjournment he has conferred with Sen ator Bacon and others concerning the re- | introduction of the resolution and 1t has | been agreed to permit slight modihca- | ton of it so far as the question of the time of holding the elections in each state
 Is concerned. This modification will be
 made In the judiciary committee and the
 resolution as presented by Senator Borah
 will be identical with the one voted upon | last week.
 | Even the opponents of the direct elcc- | ton of senators concede that the fight | has been won and that opposition in the coming session will be futile and hope less. For more than a generation the l Senate has stood like a stone wall against | this change in the method of electing | members of that body. Until the last ses- sion it has been successful in smothering the measure every time without voting upon it. Every effort to avoid a vote | was made in the session just closed, but | it's friends were strong enough and de- | termined enough to force the issue. In the end they were beaten by the slimmest | kind of majority and bit for legislative | trick by which the resolution was amend ed would have carried 1t through Next | time success Is assured and 1t will receive every democratic vote.