Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-22
CARTER SEES FRAUD
AssaiIs Resolutions for Popu-
lar Election of Senators.
CALLS 1T POLITICAL TRICK
Says Power to Regulate Elections
Should Be Vested in Congress.
PLAIN TALK ON AMENDMENT
Declares South Would Disfranchise
Negroes as Result Of Com
mittee Action.
PLAIN TALK ON AMENDMENT

Northern senators VINO support tHe
pending resolutions providing for the
election of senator's by popular vote were
charged with ignorance, and southern
senators with a scheme to saddle con-
stitutionally the disfranchisement of ne
gro voters upon the country in speech
made in the Senate yesterday by Mr.
Carter of Montana In language SO plain
that it at times approached bitterness he
assailed the resolution in the form In
which it was reported from the Senate
committee on judiciary.
Mr. Carter claimed that the question
of electing senators by direct vote and
of taking out Of the Constitution the
right of Congress to make any law
or regulation for the protection of sena-
torial elections against fraud. violence or
corruption were so indissolubly united In
the resolution that the people of the
polls could not separate them In order
to express their choice.
He contended that the resolution when
sent to the committee on judiciary car
ried only the simple proposition Of having
senators elected by direct vote. and that
the other proposition had been adopted
as a rider in order to get the support
of senators who favored giving to legis-
latures the right of DISTINGUISHING ne
grOeS.
Takes Power From Congress.
The addition to the simple proposition.
of which Mr.. Carter complained, would
provide that the times. places and man
ner of holding elections for senators
shall be prescribed in each state by the
legislature thereof, just as is now pro-
vded by the Constitution, but the sue
ceeding clause. giving to Congress the
right to make or alter" such regulations,
has been eliminated.
This alleged rider was characterized by
Mr.. Carter as curiosity In legislative
Jockeys manifestly used as a float to
bring the main amendment out of the
committee room" He predicted that 1t
would prove deadly weight in more
than one-fourth of the state legislatures
if 1T does not serve as "a sinker'' in one
or the other branch Of Congress.
1.-THE occasion demands plain speech
and forbids evasion" said Mr.. Carter.
He said that certain senator's, mot con-
tent with the ssuccess obtained in sup
pressing the negro vote through q curious
variety OF state constitutional provisions
and legislative devices now seek abso-
lutely to deprive the general government
of all power to protect the elections of
members Of the Senate from such fraud,
violence or corruption as may faint a
senatorial election north or SOUTH
He said that the adoption Of the amend
ment would give substantial though linn
tied national sanction to the disfran-
chisement of negroes in the southern
states.
Direct Vote and Disfranchisement.
an their disfranchisement," said Mr..
Carter, I'VE now passively acquiesce, but
with this supine attitude some senators
are not content; they ask us actually to
strip Congress of the power to question
election methods and actions in SO far az
the election of United States senators
may be concerned, and by the way of in
ducement to Congress and the nation to
consent to the permanent suppression of
more than a million votes at elections to
choose senators they will cooperate in
the adoption OF constitutional amend
ment providing for the election Of United
States senators by a direct vote of the
people,"
Mr. Carer admitted that perplexing
questions confront the people of the
south, but warned the senators support
ing the proposed constitutional limitation
that they had better allow time and a
tolerant public sentiment to aid In the
solution of certain problems rather than
tional sanction to deplorable expedients
which every patriotic citizen must ear
nestly pray may not long be deemed
necessary in the south.
The senator recalled the Lodge election
bill, it's defeat and the reaction that
swept practically every section Of the
old federal election laws from the stat
ute books. but there the reaction stop
ped. and the country settled down in
patience for a period of reflection and
observation"
South Must Force the Issue.
To the senator there occurred no reason
for fear that this period would not long
be continued. unless the men Of the
south snail insist upon immediate and
final disposition of the issue by the abro-
CATION of the power Of the federal govern
ment to deal with IT,"
The spectacle OF a state electing one
person for ten terms in the senate or ten
persons for one term would not be i'm
possible, the speaker urged. under the
amendment recited in the committee resO-
luton. Invested with the exclusive power
to control the time of the election of a
senator, a state could not be called to ac-
count for the manner of exercising that
power
with power to elect senators Of the
United States for an indefinite number OF
terms at one time, said the speaker.
the way would be made clear for the
passage of infiamed passion. partisanshir
or sectiOnalism from one generation to
another. II WILL of course. be commended
that no state would pass law authoriz-
ing the things suggested: to which / re-
ply, no state should be invested with
power to enact such law"