Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-04-09
A COMING AN

The proposed amendment Of the
constitution for the direct election Of
senators has been sweeping over the
land like a storm. Both houses of the
Pennsylvania assembly have ap-
proved it, with practical unanimity.
There may be many excellent reasons
why Pennsylvania should not be con.
sidered out of place in a list Of states
demanding such a change. Pennsyl-
vania, like many other states, has had
It's observation-disclosures scandals.
Men have been sent to the upper
house of congress from that state on
whose persons no other credentials
could be found than a certificate OF
election and a heavy purse. To set
against such elections, however, there
Is an ingrained conservatism in Penn.
sylyania, which, until within very re-
cent years, made it slow to accept
inE ovations upon the old ways of do
ing things. After this acceptance by
Pennsylvania CT a radical amendment
placing both houses of congress on the
same basis of popular election, it may
we'll be asked if there is any state
which will reject it. ... s-.. i
After Pennsylvania, the thirty.fifth
in the list of states voting Aye" but
one state Is needed to complete
the ratification. That the amendment
will be ratified there is no longer a
doubt, and non that the ratification
will be completed this year in time for
congress to enact the necessary legis'
lation during the approaching special
session, If thought necessary. While
the agitation for this amendment has
continued during more than a score of
years, or ever since the Illinois demo-
Gratis, in 1890, nominated John NJ.
Palmer in their state convention as
their senatorial candidate, and were
able to elect him on the force of that
appeal, it was not until late last year
that both houses of congress could be
brought to the point of submitting 1t
to the states. 1t has passed the, house
repeatedly, but always, until last
year, to be checked in the senate. Of
ten during this long series of defeats
in the senate, impatience has cried
out that the senate could continue to-
defy and thwart public opinion. The
result now in sight is the best answer
to that cry. ""f f..' .
Before a rising tide which has swept
away so many strong and logical ar
guments, a pamphlet coming just now
out Of Salt Lake City, written by one
Samuel Russell, can be but a straw.
The main argument is that the senate.
being organized to represent the
states as contradistinguished from the
people. will lose its distinctive char
acter when the people of a state elect
their senators directly, instead of by
legislative proxies. The pith of such
an argument is that the legislature OF
a state, and not its citizens, consti.
tutes the state itself, that the sover.
eighty Of a state is not inherent in its
people who elect the legislators, but is
vested in the legislators by the fact
of their election; that the people of a
state, who can elect all other state
officials, should not elect senators,
who, although accredited as the repre-
sentatives of states, are not to be un-
derstood as representing the people OF
their states, but only the states them
selves. There is nothing in the
thought Of Samuel Russell of Salt Lake
to weaken the conviction that this
amendment will be a part of the fed
eral constitution within a year.-St.
Louis Globe-Democrat.