The Washington herald., 1911-02-19
NEW IDEAS IN POLITICS.
M-DIRECT ELECTION OF SENA TORS.

elected. The result of this election Is
morally If not legally binding on legis-
lators-elect who have signed Statement
No. T. and none so far has cared to risk
his political future by refusing to be
bound by his own pledge.
To stiffen the backboues of such MEM
bers of the legislature as might be sub
jected to adverse influences, and to make
Il perfectly clear that the people of the
state knew just what they were about
when they provided for the exacting of
pledges from candidates, there was sub
mitted to the people, by initiative petit
ton, in June, 1908. a new law, providing
that 1--WE, the people of the State Of
Oregon, hereby instruct our representa-
tives and senators incur legislative as
sembly, as such officers, to vote for and
elect the candidates for United States
Senators from this State who receive the
highest number of votes at our general
elections" This was adopted at the
referendum by a vote of 69, ,6SS to H,162-
At the same election at which this law
was adopted legislative candidates nomi-
mated at the April primaries were elected,
and candidates for United States Senator,
who, had also been nominated in April,
were voted upon. Although the State
went Republican, as usual, and elected a
Republican legislature, the popular vote
for Senator resulted in the selection Of
Gov George E., Chamberlain, the Demo-
cratic primary nominee, over H. NJ.
Cake, the Republican candidate, by an
overwhelming vote. But out of the
ninety members elected to the two
houses of the legislature ffty-one had
signed Statement No. T. pledging them
selves to support the Senatorial candi-
date chosen by the people. In spite of
powerful influences brought to bear on
them, these fifty-one stood by their
pledges, and the unique spectacle of a
Republican legislature electng a Demo
cratic United States Senator was pre-
scented.
Not one OF the other tkirty-nine mem
bers OF the legislature paid any atten-
tion to the law directing them to accede
to 'he peoples expressed will. They were.
of course, not in any way bound to do so.
since the election Of Senators is a mat
ter over which. legally, the States have
no control The personal popularity Of
Gov. Chamberlain in oregon was suffi-
cient to justify the operation of the new
scheme in the minds even of the Repub-
come to be regarded as permanent fix
ture, 10 be replaced only by such an
amendment to the Federal Constitution
as is now proposed.
Whether the Federal government shall
have the power to exercise direct control
over Senatorial elections, as it has over
those OF members of the House OF Repre-
is the principal point in con-
troversy at the present writing between
those who advocate direct election of SEN
ators and thos, who, while opposed to
to the pressure Of public opinion. The
more advanced progressives demand the
unrestricted right OF the voters of the
States to elect their own Senators in any
way they please. while their opponents
insist upon the right of The United Statse
to surround the elections with such safe
guards as Congress may prescribe.
The argument for the direct election
of Senators has nowhere been better stat
ed than by former President Theodore
Roosevelt in a recent article. Col. Rose
welt says:
Il believe that the weight of convic-
elect the Senators by popular vote, and
that the general feeling is inclining this
way. The arguments made against such
method of election are practically the
same as the arguments originally made
against the election of President by pop
ular vote; and the electoral college was
designed on precisely the same theory IN
accord with which it was supposed that
the legislature rather than the people
should be trusted to choose the best
type of Senator. Such change in Sena-
tOrial elections would no more alter the
fundamental principles of our govern
ment than they were altered bp the
change in Presidential elections. At pres
ent, although the form of an electoral
college. Is preserved, the vote for Pres
ident is really direct popular vote; and
this absolute reversal in practice OF the
theory OF the Constitution as regards the
choice OF the most important public
officer in the land offers a curious COM
mentary on the attitude of those who
declaim against all change by practice
in the construction of the letter of a
written Constitution"