The Washington herald., 1912-07-14
THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Internationally the most unique and
interesting situation in American po-
Iitical history has arisen in this CAM
paign. 1t concerns the Presidential
electors.
Briefly stated, the proposition is for
Republican electors chosen in States
where the Roosevelt organization is in
control and where the Roosevelt senti-
ment preponderates to cast their votes
for Roosevelt In the electoral college
without regard for the fact that Mr..
Taft is the regular nominee of the Re-
publican party. Unfortunately, condi-
tons favor this dishonest scheme. In
Pennsylvania, a State carried by Roose-
welt in the Presidential preference pri
maries, the electors have already been
named California presents a parallel
case. The electors in South Dakota
have already declared their intention
to vote for Roosevelt if they win at the
polls next November In Kansas, where
the electors are to be chosen by the
primary method in August, it seems
certain that if Roosevelt electors are
chosen they will also vote for the ex-
President 1t is easy to see how COM
plications of a most serious character
may arise If the regular Republicans
put a Taft electoral ticket in the field
a., ,I,a tbay will
only divide the Republican vote. but
they will be at the disadvantage of ap-
pearing as outsiders One proposed
solution OF the difficulty is to have the
State courts pass upon the question Of
regularity. in the hope that the Taft
ticket will be given legal recognition
as representing the Republican party,
and thus compel the Roosevelt organi-
zation to run on an independent ticket.
Neither the law nor the Constitution
provides for the contingency which pre-
sents itself. The Constitution, after
directing that each State shall appoint
in such manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct a number of electors
equal to the whole number of Senators
and Representatives to which the State
NAV be entitled in Congress, merely
says:
The electors shall meet in their re-
spectIve States and vote by ballot for
two persons, of whom one at least shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State
y = he
ing the greatest number OF votes shall
be the President if such number shall
be a majority of the whole number of
electors appointed. After the choice
of the President the person having the
greatest number of votes of the electors
shall be Vice President"
1t will be seen that there is no lirni-
tation placed upon the electors as to
their course of action after they have |
been chosen. As matter of fact, the
men who framed the Constitution de-
lberately intended that the electors
should have the widest latitude They |
were not men who, in broad sense,
trusted the people Their main idea was
to remove the election OF President as
far as possible from popular choice. In
drafting the Constitution they had prece-
dents and tradition for nearly every
phase OF government except the man
ner in which a President should be
chosen, and it is no wonder, as James
Wilson afterward remarked. that this
detail proved most perplexing. They
suggested all manner of methods, from
an election by Congress to concurrent /
action by State Governors, but only
few of them, like Madison, believed
that the people were fitted to determine
for themselves who should be their
Chief Executive. Most of them agreed
with Gerry and Mason that a popular
vote would be radically vicious" I
In the very beginning, therefore, and
until more than third of a century
had passed, the Presidential electors
were generally named by State Leg
islatures, and when they met they were
BY no means controlled by popular
elamor. This was especially the case
when Andrew Jackson was defeated for
he Presidency As time went on, how
EVER, and the nation drifted toward
pure democracy, the electors became
more and more the servants of the
people, and the purposes which the Con-
stitution makers had in view became
radically changed
1t would be both interesting and in
structive to review at length the his !
tory of the electoral college, so called.
1t could be shown that the ambiguity ,
Of language in the Constitution has re-
suited in many serious crises, that the {
electoral system has long outgrown its /
usefulness, and that the problems which (
have been presented in the past are i