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Show Massachusetts Statesman Fights "Measure Providing for Popular Pop-ular Election of Senators. SELF-PRESERVATION FIRST LAW OF ALL LEGISLATORS Power of Federal Government. He Says, Must Not Be Weakened Weak-ened in Any Way. WASHINGTON. Feb. G. Resistance to the uttermost to tho attempts to transfer from congress to the various state legislatures legisla-tures the control of time and manner of olectlon of United States senators as proposed pro-posed by the resolution providing for their election by direct vote of the people, wa. advised by Senator Lodgo of Massachusetts Massachu-setts In a speech In the senate today. Mr. Lodge was speaking in opposition to the proposed new amendment to the constitution con-stitution as a whole, but ho found an especial mark in the portion placing the direct management of tho detail of senatorial sena-torial elections in the various state legislatures. legis-latures. Declaring that the proposed change in that respect "strikes at the very foundation founda-tion of the national government," Mr. Lodge said that the plan violates tho plans of the framers of tho constitution. At Mercy of States. "It is now proposed," continued Mr. Lodge, "to put the United Slates government, govern-ment, so far as the election of senators Is concerned, at tho mercy of the states. It is proposed to take from the United States any power to protect its own citizens in the exercise of their rlzhts. no mnttnr linw great the need might be for nuch protection. protec-tion. If this amendment should become a law, twenty-three states. Including perhaps per-haps only a minority of the population, could at any moment arrest tho movement move-ment or the government and stop all Its operations. The senator denounced as a "mockery" the "pretense" that the proposed legislation legisla-tion was progression. Not onlv tvns It a .jiockeiy. but It was "retrogressive and reaction re-action of an extreme kind." "If ndoptcd," he went on. "it would carry tho government back to the controversies contro-versies and struggles, out of which the constitution was born and which beset and endangered the infancy of the United States. Enlarging unon the dansrer of the proposed change. Mr. Lodge said: Solf-Prescrvation First Law. "Self preservation is the first law of governments gov-ernments as It Is of nature, and it seems to me that no matter how we may decide the question of methods by which sena-' tors should be elected, tho reservation of the power of the United States to control those elections, If need be. Is essential to the government's safe and continued existence. ex-istence. Any attempt of this sort to break down or weaken tho authority of the United States ought to be resisted to the last. It is amazing that It should be suggested at a lime like this, when the government of tho United States is of necessity ne-cessity taking up now duties and new obligations ob-ligations as demanded by tho conditions of the time; at a moment when tho national na-tional government requires all Its strength." Closing his address with an appeal for the preservation of tho constitution, Mr. Lodge.sald: "We shall do well to hesitate before we niar a constitution crowned bv the triumphs of a century and to which the sad word 'failure' is still a stranger." |