Show DIRECT ELECTION OF The Bristow Amendment and Vice President Sherman's Decisive Vote Mean a Step On the night of June 12 the senate by a vote of 64 to the resolution proposing a amendment to provide for the election of States senators by direct vote of the There was a tie voe 44 to 44 on the adoption of the Bris- tow substitute for the original Borah Vice President Sherman cast the deciding vote in favor of the Bristow This amendment puts the resolution in the same form in which it was voted upon and defeated by a narrow margin at the last The which is repugnant to Democratic members and may not be accepted by the has the effect of retaining in the constitution the existing provision giving the federal government power to regulate the manner and place of holding for senators in the several Only one senate Clarke of voted for the Bristow Five Republicans voted with the Democrats against this La What This I The house resolution for the direct election of United States senators provided not only for direct elections but for state thus- changing the constitution in two As amended by the deciding vote of Vice President Sherman and passed by the senate it provides for direct elections and continues national At the where direct elections already obtain in most states under primary the opportunity was seized upon to remove the possibility of federal opposed to popular elections have insisted upon the elimination of this feature of the believing that the result would be so distasteful to the Democrats that the whole enterprise would be It remains to be seen whether the house will accept direct elections pure and with the possibility of national control un- or by disagreement with the senate throw the whole matter over to another As there is no pronounced demand for national control of elections in the Sherman's vote will not increase the popularity of the old of which he has long been a It will not allay the discontent which senatorial conditions have It will not help the Republican which is responsible alike for defiant and weak-kneed But by perpetuating an unnecessary constitutional complication on the subject of national control of senatorial elections it may postpone indefinitely a reform which the people seem to have very much at A Power Not Section 4 of Article I of the Constitution of the United States provides places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature but at any time by law make or alter such except as to the places of choosing So far as representatives are congress has never exercised this Every attempt to pass a force bill has been In 1866 congress undertook to regulate the election of but the statute merely prescribed a uniform rule of without interfering in any way with the powers of the The Bristow amendment to the house resolution for the election of United States senators by vote of the people leaves section 4 So far as the letter of the constitution is the powers of gress might not be increased by the ratification of the amendment in the form drafted by Senator yet the feeling is general throughout the south that such an amendment would be perverted into a referendum in favor of federal control of the and would revive the latent powers that have never been It is easy enough to say that these fears are but they have to be dealt and it is doubtful if a single southern legislature would ratify the senatorial amendment in the form in which it is presented by the Without assistance from the south the constitution cannot be changed and there can be no popular election of The Bristow amendment is unnecessary and The powers that it emphasizes are fully reserved to congress in other sections of the It merely arouses sectional animosities and imperils the movement for the election of senators bv direct The fact that due and Stephenson voted for it explains its real meaning far more clearly than the text The People's United States Senator Crawford of South shows that the passage of the point resolution amendment of the posing an so shall be elected by the people of the states instead is a. significant state of by It tow in the processes of the years we have been an preaching nearer and nearer to a direct exercise of power by the people m choosing public servants It is a proposal to give express constitutional sanction to exercise of a power which the the people in of the states have been employing through primary dec and by means of statutory provisions such a the Oregon law lor several It is a recognition of the fact that it is better to make a constitutional change by which the people may do directly what they are determined to do in any and if they can not accomplish they will accomplish For many years they have made a mere form of the constitutional provision providing for an electorate college to choose the chief magistrate of the No presidential elector could face the public execration which would follow a failure on his part to vote for the candidate for the presidency nominated by his party and giving him its suffrages as its candidate for the office of presidential And under the primary system of choosing party candidates for the office i of United States no member of the legislature will refuse to support the candidate of his party who has received the endorsement of its at a primary The voice of the when expressed in clear and uncertain tones is the highest It has in the manner above indicated already circumvented the constitution by The proposed amendment seeks to present in a regular and orderly for ratification by the legislatures of the several a change in that provision of the constitution which provides that shall be elected by the legislatures of the so as to permit the people of the states to do under the express sanction of the con- l what they are now doing indirectly elect senators by a direct The Old The fact that 64 senators voted in favor of the proposed while 24 voted against it more than the necessary two-thirds voting for it shows how Potent the influence of public opinion is even upon so conservative a body as the Senate of the The original purpose when the constitution was drafted adopted was that a senator represent not so much the people of the state which elected as the state itself the body politic or political For that reason it was provided that senators uld be elected by the legislatures of the Hilton said this method of election had the advance of giving to the state governments an agency m te formation of the federal which could be i link Ellsworth ob- between the And Oliver 11 9 9 inT S losing senators Volubly ted to t r'S Stand r Z aLt S r the senator was to be t rather than a reP- BUt COnCePtion no lon Th nW demand that senator be their direct that he be directly re- Z TT S demand the him by direct vote rather than to leas his selection to members of a state They have been demanding this for years and at last their demand has been heard and recognized by both branches of national The Bristow In favor of the Bristow it is conceded that the demand for the popular election of has at no time been coupled with a further demand that the federal government relinquish to the people of the several states its under the to supervise the election of senators bv the people by regulating the place and manner of holding such It has never been that in the event the change is the federal government should not have the same power over the election of senators which it has always had over the election of members of the The Bristow adopted by the confines the proposed change to the simple transfer of the election from the state legislatures to the The as it passed the house and as it was reported by the majority of the senate committee on proposed to also amend Section 4 of Article I of the constitution so that the federal government shall relinquish to the states all power to supervise and control the election of senators by the while retaining such power over the election of members of the Southern is something which the people have not demanded and was probably grafted upon the measure as a concession to the unreasonable demands of some of the representatives and senators of the who are unduly sensitive upon the subject of federal control over That question is not involved in the adoption of the proposed amendment as it passed the because in the form in which the as changed by the Bristow passed the it leaves the federal power over Says Senator resolution before the adoption of the Bristow amendment not only proposed to change the constitution so that senators should be elected by a direct vote of the but to further change the constitution so that the power to provide when and in what manner the elections of senators should occur should be no longer vested in the federal government but should be relinquished to the of existing by the Such an abandonment power government has not been It is not properly a part of the proposal to elect senators by a direct vote of the It would have forced another and quite different issue into the discussion and would greatly lessen the chance of the amendment to be ratified by the necessary number of It is to be hoped that house will concur in the Bristow It will do so if it is sincerely favor of the election of senators by a direct vote of the and willing to give the states an opportunity to ratify such proposed change without loading it with a demand that at the same time and as an inseparable part of the same the federal government also relinquish its power to supervise the election of while retaining that power over the of members of the lower Those who are demanding that this additional change be coupled with the proposal to elect senators by the people are not its sincere They are seeking to destroy an amendment overwhelmingly by tacking on to it an amendment that is not demanded at but to public sentiment throughout the north is sternly Let this new proposal stand separate and apart upon its own merits and let us have the direct election of senators by the people considered alone without embarrassment of this If this be the necessary number of states will ratify it and we shall have the end of legislative deadlocks and of wholesale legislative corruption in the election of United States which have in recent years so frequently scandalized the we is the best statement of the view of those like Senators Smoot and desire the federal government to make more use of a power bestowed upon it by the constitution but not |