Evening star., 1932-11-06

and extreme Inconvenience of drawing
together men from all States for the
single purpose Of electing the Chief
Executive" He said, also, it seemed i'm
probably to him that capable men would
undertake the service under the penalty
of having to travel far from home, only
to turn around and 60 back to the jour
ney's starting point.
Mr. Houston's talk must have been ex-
tremely impressive. The convention dis
carded the idea Of an electoral assem-
blage as soon as he concluded his pro-
test. Then they argued right and left
and all around the matter until the
following September in the effort to find
a satisfactory substitute.
The evolved solution called for
electors Of each State to travel only to
their State Capital to cast their votes.
Mr. Houston didn't mind that. Devel-
opment Of the plan then progressed,
producing the proposal that each State
appoint q messenger to bring the votes
of its electors to the seat of the National
Government. The delegates, surfeited
with many weeks of tussling, welcomed
the compromise.
i
THE system worked fairly well SO long
as George Washington was avail
able as Chief Executive. After that,
however, trouble poked its head over
the horizon. Political parties and party
spirit, such as Senator Hillhouse saw
with apprehensive eyes, were on the gain
after that. BY 1901 affairs reached the
stage where Thomas Jefferson and Aaron
Burr each received 73 electoral votes,
this rejecting the growth of organiza-
ton control Of the electors.
Then the electors became merely fig-
ure-heads and the journeyings Of mes
sengers to Washington once every four
years were just about all that remained
as relic Of the intentions originally
written into the election provisions.
These periodical trips were continued
during 13 decades. The messengers, usu-
ally relatives Of leading campaign con-
tributors, State House employees, political
newswriters and such, received Is cents
a mile for their travels to Washington.
About four years ago, it was found that
this Quadrennial movement of mesSen-
gers was costing the National Govern
ment in excess of $4,000. Economy STEP
ped in and law was passed providing
that the electoral votes, or certificates"
as they are formally called, be sent by
mail instead of by messenger.
Veteran Senate attaches admit they
miss the messengers. Not SO much the
messengers, perhaps, as the atmosphere
of Importance with which the ennis
saries usually were well surrounded by
the time they arrived with their big
envelopes.
Proposed abolition of the electoral col
lege naturally would prevent election of
the President and Vice President by di-
rect vote of the people as substitute.
This substitution has been urged so
often in Congress that it's advocacy now
is accepted as a routine procedure.
But protests by men who framed the
Constitution come echoing through more
than 140 years. Charles Pinckney
delegate to the constitutional conven-
ton, claimed a direct election by the
people would surrender the choices to
a combination of the populous States
led by "a few designing men," And
Delegate Mason shouted his contention
that ITO refer the choice of proper
character to the people would be as I'M
natural as to refer trial of colors to
a blind man."
State Legislatures now are taking 90
ton which students of national affairs
declare will have the effect of saddling
the existing order even more tightly
upon the Nation. This is being done
by ratification of the proposed lame
duck amendment" which accepts the
present election system as its basis