The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-04-11
ELECTION OF SENATORS
by Cne PEOPLE Instead of Legislatures
Sixty Years of Struggle For
This Change.

This Change.
Washington, April 1.-THE new
amendment to the Constitution fol
the popular election of United States
Senators, is the seventeenth to be
adopted. 1t reads:
! The Senate of the United States
shall be composed of two senators
from each state, elected by the peo-
pie thereof, for six years; and each
senator shall have one vote. The
electors in each state shall have the
| qualifications requisite for electors OF
| the most numerous branch of the
state legislatures.
/ when vacancies happen in the rep
resentation of any state in the Sen
! ate, the executive authority OF such
| state shall issue writs of election to
| fill such vacancies, provided that the
| legislature of any state may empower
! the executive thereof to make tenn
porary appointments until the people
| fill the vacancies by election as the
| legislature may direct
| The amendment primarily transfers
the power Of e1ecting senators from
| the state legisla lures to the people
| at the polls. To effect this change
it was necessary to alter the machin-
cry for the filling of vacancies in the
| Senate.
For more than sixty years proposals
| have been made to change the Con-
stituHon SO as to provide for the d.
| rect election of senators. It was not.
however, until June "a, 1911, that the
Senate was induced for the first time
in it's history to give it's consent to
the change. On that day it voted to
submit to the states the proposed
amendment The resolution to sub
NIT had already passed the House in
a somewhat different form. Before
adjournment of the session, both
houses agreed to the language to be
employed, and the resolution was de-
posted with the Secretary of State
May 49, 1912, for distribution among
the states.
The original theory in establishing
the choice of senators was that they
represented the states, whereas the
members of the House represented the
people of their districts. 1T was be-
cause Of this theory OF the state as
a unit that all states. large and small,
were given equal representation In
the Senate, Rhode Island having the
same number as New York or Penn
sylvanta. In the theory of the Con
stitutfon trainers this entity OF the
state was thus made more distinct
under the federal system, and the
state legislature was regarded as the
suitable medium for expressing this
state entity. Later it was contended
that state entity would still be pre-
served If the people of the entire
state, instead Of the legislature, chose
the senators, and this view has now
been accepted as the basis of the new
system.
In 1926 the first action was taken in
Congress looking to a change In
that year Representative Storrs, OF
New York. introduced a resolution
making senators elective by the peo-
ple Another resolution Of similar i'm
port was introduced by Representa-
tive Wright of Ohio, in 1929 In 1850
If !.
duced the first senatorial direct cleo
ton resolution in the Senate. Moth
ing resulted from these movements
1t was Andrew johnson who rev1v-
ed congressional agitation for the ,d1-
rect election of senators. As MEM
Der of the House of Represent t1ves,
he introduced two resolutions for the
change, and in 1860 renewed the agi-
tation as a member of the Senate. In
1868, as President, he sent a special
message to Congress advocating the
measure, and then repeated his recon-
mendations in his annual message
The subject was revived in 1873,
1876, 1886 and 1888. but without sue
cess In 1893 the House agreed to
the proposition, as it did in the sue
1885, 1900 and 1902. The proposed
change on none of these occasions
won a favorable report from commit
tees in the Senate.
With the House ChuS dTTaySo year
after year in favor of the change, the
Senate became the battle-ground. Sem
ator Bristow, of Kansas, took the lead
in advocacy of amending the Const-
tuition along this line. In December,
1899, he introduced his first resolu-
ton. A year later he obtained a re-
port from the committee, but a feat
ure had been tackled onto his propo-
sal which brought on a fight in the
Senate, threatened to kill the entire
proposition This interposed feature
was to amend other provisions of the
Constitution SO as to deprive the fed
eraI government of power to supervise
the state regulations to the time
and manner of election. The votes |
of Southern senators threatened to
defeat the main proposition if the fed |
eraI government was given this pow
err Senator Root made a, speech IN
which he criticized the method en-
ployed by Southern states in depu1v- |
ing negroes of the right of suffrag e. |
Senator Bacon replied that the fed |
eral government was being given the |