The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02
DEADLOCK OVER
 ELECTION BILL House Will Not Accept the Senate Plan IS LEFT IN THE HOLE t
 Senate Must Now Explain to Country Why It Is Against the Direct
 Election of Its Own
 Members
IS LEFT IN THE HOLE
By RoDENICK CLIFFORD


 Senate, before the end of the present extra session, has become more prob able by reason of the disagreement over still another bit of leglslation-the election of United States senators by direct vote of the people.
 The House, by large majority , thez ,te being 172 to 112-has declined to d cept the Senate amendment to the direct elections bill It is another evi- dence that the House proposes to legis- late in Its own fashion ard to put the Issue squarely up to the country in the event that the Senate fails to ap- prove of the measures which have passed the House
 In rejecting the Bristow amendment to the direct elections bill, an amend ment which reserves to the federal gov- ernment the supervision of all elec- tions for United States senators, the House did not even ask for a confer ence It sent the bill back to the Senate in exactly the same form as that in which 1t passed the lower body. The House left to the Senate the method of extricating itself from the peculiar situation in which it finds itself.
 It has been conceded for weeks that the Senate and House would be at variance over the proposed revision of the tariff. The delay of the Senate finance committee in reporting the farmers free list bill evidenced the strained relations between the two bodies and. now that the wooden bill has gone over to the Senate, those re- lations have become more strained.
 fba It,c,, nd fhn O democrats were enabled to combine and to force through a motion that the Sen ate finance committee shall make some sort of report on the wool bill within 20 days after it's receipt was a straw to indicate the way in which the legisla- tive whirlwind was blowing. The Sen ate democrats were disgusted With the apparent purpose of the finance comnIt- tee to keep the free list bill and the wooden bill in committee room as long as possible, or not to report them at all.
 The temper of the Senate and House democrats was in no wise improved by the fact that the finance committee with held a report. for a long time. on the reciprocity bill. which passed the House by an overwhelming majority. and for the consideration of which the extra ses- sion was called by the President. When reciprocity was reported it was without recommendation on the part of the Sem ate committee, and this did not tend to make any more cordial the relations between the two houDeo.
 The first show down came, however. on the bill for the direct election of sen- atorss which has now been acted upon by both the Senate and House, but In entirely different shape. As the bill passed the House it left to the respective states the regulations regarding the time, man. ner and place of holding senatorial elec- tions. When the bill got over into the Senate the republicans were successful in obtaining the approval of the amend- ment proposed by Senator Bristow, a Kansas insurgent.
 This amendment provides that the fed- eral government may step in, If 1t chooses, and take charge of the election of senators in any state. The amend- ment is particularly obnoxious to dem- ocrats who come from southern states, in which there are negro disfranchise- ment laws. The democrats, reason that heretofore they have handled their eec- tions satisfactorily, and they see little reform in the proposition to have the federal government controf the manner in which they shall elect members of the Senate.
 Compiications are feared and conflicts between state and federal government are bound to ensue if the Bristow amendment should ever become law, believe the democrats The decisive vote in the House indicated that the members of that body will never approve the changes made in the direct elections bill by the Senate.
 In this connection 1t Is significant to note that the House vote on the Bristow amendment was almost entirely along party lines. Representative Burke, g dem- ocrat, of Wisconsin, was the only ono of the majority to vote with the repub- licans on the question of federal super vision of senatorial elections. Represen- tative Sells, a Tennessee republican, hail. ing fropsa state where the race problem Is uppermost, voted with the democrats, who would leave each state to settle it's own election affairs.
 Do you mean to say" said Represen- tative Witherspoon of Mississippi voc- ing the general democratic view, that the federal government is more qualified to say how we shall hold our elections than Is the sovereign state of Missis- sippi?'
 On the other hand, Representative James R. Mann, the minority leader4 charged that the democrats were opposed to the Bristow amendment because they feared that the grandfather clause in the constitutions of various southern states would be declared unconstitutional in the event of a contest over any senatorial election.
 The democratic House, however, was obdurate in Its stand that the government. of the United States has no right to inter- pose in the manner of selecting senators from the various states. and that each sovereign state should be allowed to make its own election laws, just as each state legislature now meets and elects a n1er- Der of the upper house of the national law-making body.
 So the bill went back to, the Senate after but a few hours debate in the House, but this short discussion was sufficient to illustrate the fact that the House will insist upon its position.
 As the situation now stands between the Senate and House, deadlock seems imminent over the direct election of sen- ators, the free list bill, and the woolen . bill. The ways and means committee of the House Is now at work on a revision of the cotton schedule, and when this bill gets over to the Senate the lines will be all the more taut between the democratic House and the republican upper cham Der.
 Those who were predicting that the ex- tra session would end by July or July 15 have now abandoned that idea The most optimistic members of either body