The Washington herald., 1911-01-06
Senators by Popular Vote

Inc SuOcOmnlttee OF the senate COEf-
mittee on Privileges and Elections hav-
ing reported in favor of an amend
ment to the Constitution permitting the
popular election of Senators, it is be
liened that the full committee will soon
make report 10 the Senate and allow
the resolution to come to a vote. The
Members of the Upper House may then
come out into the open and put them
solves upon record in regard to this mat
ter upon which the people have for years
manifested the keeneSt interest
If the press of the country is any
indication, there is a widespread demand
for this reform from papers of all shades
of political belief. If the House of Rep
resentatives in recent years has been in
any sense what its name implies. the
people of the country have long been
in favor of the amendment. Five times
that body has adopted resolutions for
that purpose by overwhelming major
tiles. Three national Democratic plat
forms have declared for il and no ma
tional Republican platform has done SO,
ed in a partisan spirit. President Taft,
in his letter of acceptance, said that he
was personally inclined to favor it and
that he did not see how it could be made
a party issue. The legislatures of nearly
two-thirds of the States, Republican and
Democratic, have expressed their desire
for the change. In many States Sena-
torial primaries have been held, while in
others they are being vigorously advo-
Gated. all of which shows the deter
mined and nonpartisan purpose to bring
about popular control of the membership
of the Senate.
While opposed to any wholesale tinker
ing with our fundamental law, we think
it wise that amendments should be made
when experience has demonstrated their
necessity. We do not hold that We should
superstitiously cling to any method of
election simply because it was thought
wise by the trainers of the Constitution.
Since they completed their labors fifteen
amendments have been adopted. all but
one or two of which have been univer-
Madison Papers. Elliott's Debates, or
any contemporary account of the Fed
eral constitutional convention without
seeing clearly that the election of Sena-
tors by the legislatures was not the re-
suit of any systematic scheme. but was
a compromise of conflicting views ariS-
ing from the clash of monarchicaI with
republican principles and of jcalousies
between the large and the small States.
Some of the ablest members of the con-
vention favored the election of Senators
by the people as the surest way to place
the government upon the broad and deep
foundations of the popular will
There have been great men chosen SEN
ators under the old system, as there
would be under any system. The fact
that there can be but two from each
State. that their terms are three times
as long as those of a Representative,
and that there is great dignity and
honor in the position will always make
it attractive to men of the best caliber.
and will make it Il matter of State pride
chosen. But the scandals which have
attached to some legislative caucuses
and the character of some who have been
chosen by them. to say nothing of others
who have been seeking admission to the
Senate, in defiance of PRONOUNCED popular
opposition, have combined to bring the
present method into disrepute. to shake
the faith of the people in their highest
deliberative body, and, to that extent to
foment discomfort and furnish arguments
to the enemies of social order.
We trust that the Senators will not
continue to give ground for the assertion
that it is deliberately and stubbornly
thwarting The peoples efforts to change
the mode of their election.