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Show ET.KCTION OF SENATORS, O'he present congress isJikely to give 1 a good deal of attention to the subject of amending the constitution so as to provido for tho election of United States (senators, by popular vote. This is an old question, and has been more or loss agitated at times with but indifferent success. Tho main argument in support of tho proposition is, that the legislatures legisla-tures are largely under tho control el politieians, aro Influenced in various ways to support unlit and even corrupt candidates, and that if the peoplo had the choice directly in their own hands they would select better men and, of course, obtain better service. This reasoning is not so convincing as somo might .suppose. All elective ollices aro now reached through tho machinery of party, and it may well bo doubted whether tho people would succeed suc-ceed any bettor in improving tho character char-acter of their senatorial representatives iii congress through a popular voto thau by tho exercise of proper care and vigilance in tho choieo of members of tho legislature. There is not so much difference, after all, as regards politieal influence, machine management, and even corrupt methods, meth-ods, between trusting to a state convention conven-tion of district delegates and to a regularly regu-larly olectod legislature. It is true, the mode of nominating might be changed, but at present tho common experience , inclines to the delegate plan and it will not be hastily abandoned. ' It is a common belief that our sena-i sena-i tors in congress havo been retrograding ; both in personal character and in the qualities of statesmanship as compared with their predecessors of a generation or two past. This is a popular fallacy. ' The further wo aro removed from the earlier sonators tho less we know of their bad qualities, but they were all . human and moro or less faulty. The chronicles of tho tirao wore not so full j and searching half a century ago as j they aro today, aud yet there is enough i on record to show that the people were little, if any better satisfied with their public servants then than thoy are now. Taken as a whole, there has been as much ability, integrity aud patriotism manifested in the senate during tho past thirty years as during any preceding preced-ing generation, and while tho choice of senators bv state legislatures has sometimes some-times been faulty and even scandalous, there is no reason to hope that their election by a popular voto would bo at all times cither satisfactory or creditable. |