The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-02-14
- 4. =. SENATOR'S >.
- ELECTED DIRECTLY >,
e by THE PEOPLE. .,
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senator Root, an interested wit
ness. says no. why? viii it detract
dignity and lordship from that august
body and put it on plane with the
lower" house? To be one remove
from the common peoples touch
smacks of exclusive aristocracy. The
smell OF the barnyard and the garn
of the farmer Is too much for the
patrician. The outside of the plat
ter must be made clean If within is
like raving wolves. 1t is awful to
smell of the occupation of the farmer
and mechanic and come in contact
with their working clothes: but 1t is
perfectly delightful to come In contact
with an honorable senator who OBJ
tanned his election by bribery The
former can not he endured. but the
latter can be embraced with all OF
its corruption. with plcasurable assoc
citation. why do we want to elec,
senators by direct vote Of the people
To prevent bribery in election. How
will IL prevent bribery? Are we salts
fed that Mark Hanna has been the
cause of public sentiment in Ohio I'm
favor Of election of senators by pop
ular vote? Does 1t make a difference
how a senator Is elected. II the SEN
ator is honest in the performance Of
his duties? Yes wnen IL comes to
being elected honestly or dishonesty;
but not If he Is honestly elected lie
can be elected as well by the state
Legislature as by the people If 1t is
honestly done. The question Is. which
way will give us the purest election
and hence the purest official? EX-
perience has demonstrated that com
parative small bodies of men like the
state legislatures can be controlled by
corrupt means, when the masses
could not be controlled thereby at all,
not even reached corruptly. although
both bodies might be subjects of cor
rupt influences. The election of a
United States senator might depend
only upon one or possibly a few more
votes. This vote might, as has been
the case, be easily bribed or bought
and the senator elected by the legis-
latures; but if such senator was TO be
elected by the direct vote OF the peo-
| pie Of a state. could II be done as
easily or at all? | would like to see
how il could be done. If there was
money enough I'm the state to bribe the
senator into office, how could II be
used to buy up the people? Bribery
of the masses can't be done, bribery
of small classes has been done and
United states senators elected there
| by. II is said, what has been done
can be again, and II Is easier the
second time. You can brlbe a few
Of the people all the time. but you
can't bribe all the people any of the
time.
If senators can be elected by the
! people directly with scarcely no
chance of corruption, and can be
elected by legislatures of the states
indirectly, with all chances of corrup-
| tion. which way will you, If an hon
| est man, choose? What Is the OBJ
iect of the amendment 10 the United
States constitution? Purer elections
Of senators to congress. The sena-
tors must be elected. Does II make
any difference so they are honestly
elected? Can't YOU elect them just
as honestly by the people as by the
legislatures, and undoubtedly more
so Adn senator ROOT perform MS
duty more honestly. when honestly
elected by the people than he could
If dishonesty elected by the New
York legislature? Purity in senatorial
elections and In the senators them
selves is what we people are after
Senator Root, and that is the root OF
the matter, and you should be SEN
atoral rooter to root corruption. rath-
er than honesty. out of the senate
(and other places as wellD The SEN
ator who has bought his way into Of
flee has the same conscience to sell
his vote that he had to buy others
a business transaction, recovery OF
the purchase price paid, with a profit
added always. If a senator Is honest
and honorable he won't buy and can't
be bought, any way of election don't
affect him. The people want that
way 10 elect their servants TO office
which is the hardest to corrupt and
| the easiest to keen Dure the narrow