June 16, 1911
Mr. JOHNSTON of Alabama. I ask unanimous consent that two short editorials from leading newspapers in Alabama, in reference to the election of Senators by the people, be printed in the RECORD.
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The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objecti-On, the request 1s granted.
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The editorials are as follows :
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THE PRICE DEMANDED IS TOO lIIGIL
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{From the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.]
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The 47 States can now have United States Senators elected by popular votes, but to do so they must make to the Federal Government the greatest surrender of power since the formation of government. The chief power of the States in the affairs of the Federal Government has been exercised heretofore by the two United States Senators which each State sends to the highest lawmaking body in the world. If the legislatures of the various States ratify the action of the Senate taken Monday, these powerful officials will not only be selected by a direct vote, but they will be selected in elections over which the Federal Government will have supreme control, and for which it will prescribe rules • and regulations.
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The Southern States wUl stand firm with those southern Senators who declared that the price was too high to pay for the reform.
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If the House of R2presentatives accepts the Bristow amendment to the bill providing for popular elections of United States Senators, and no doubt it will, the adoption of the required constitutional amendment w111 be fairly before the- legislatures of the 47 United States. Three· fourths of the total number of th e se Stat e s will have to act approvingly upon the amendment before it can become eff e ctive. Th e A d ve rtiser believes that the legislature of any Southern Stat e would be foolish and reckless to buy the so-called reform of popular election of United States Senators at the price of Federal supervision. The pr o p o sed reform is prohibitively dear, if we have to buy it with our complai s nnt acceptance of the atrocious force bill, which a small band of devoted and c o courageous Senators defeated in the last generation when it appeared certain of enactment.
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For nearly 50 years the compelling desire of the lead e rs of the Repub· lican Party has been to seize the election machinery of the Southern States. They were successful in this for a short period, when as Senator JOHNSTON of Alabama remind e d the Senate, Federal soldiers stood about the polls in southern cities with drawn bayonets. " I have myself,” said Senator JOHNSTON, "witnessed elections in my State where United States troops were assembled at the polls, and where supervisors and deputy marshals exercised potent influence. I never want to see either again. During the reconstruction period these officials were used for the most partisan pUJ'POSes-to intimidate the voters and to prevent the full, fair, and free expression of the will of the voters."
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Every man now living who passed through the trying and humlll .. ating experience of reconstruction is one with Senator JOHNSTON-he never wants to see those distressing conditions restored ln Alabama. Under the Bristow amendment the Federal Government will have the power to reestablish reconstruction conditions in the Southern States. When the Republican Party is ln power the reestablishment of those conditions will depend entirely upon the will and inclinations of the partisan leaders of that party.
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There is another phase to this , question, which has been ignored by the light thinkers but loud talkers who have promised the coming ot the political millennium with the election of United States Senators Jly a direct vote. The next step in the reform is that by which the United States Senators will be put upon a popular ba.sis of representation. Ii Senators me to be elected by popular vote, the question will be asked, Why should the vote of one man in Nevada be equal to the vote of 50 men in New York? Is there any justice, it will be argued, in the claim that one voter in Arizona should be as powerful in naming a United States Senator as 30 men in Pennsylvania? The sincere advocate of the election of Senators by popular vote must be illogical when he argues that representation in the Senate must not be put upon u voting or population basis.
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When we Jump in the dark we sometimes jump downhill, and we have to keep on jmr.plng. The man who thinks agitation o.ffecting the Senate of the United States wm end when the Senators are elected by a direct vote is foolishly blinding himself.
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Looking at the question in a larger sense, with the light from the lamp of history thrown upon it, the United States Senate since the formation of our Government has been nn abler, a more patriotic, un~ a more efficient body o:f lawmakers than the House of Representatives, the boast of which is that It was selected in a popular election and comes direct from the people. When the records of the two bodies are compared the higher credit does not go to the House of Representatives.
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POPULAR ELECTION OF SENATORS VOTE.
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[From the Mobile (Ala.) Register.]
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Senators BANKHEAD and .ToHNSTO~ of Alabama, BACON and TERRELL of Georgia, WILLIAMS and Percy of 'Mississippi, FOSTER of Louisiana, and FLETCHER of Florida were the eight Democrats who voted against the resolution amending the Constitution to provide for the electi o n of Senators by direct popular vote, their objection being to the Bri tow amendment, giving to the Federal Government supervision of such election. Senator BACON had offered a resolution qualifying the Bristow amendment so as to prohibit Federal supervision unless the State legislators refuse or fail to act, ancl this was defeated by a vote of 46 to 42.
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Sixteen Republicans joined with the eight Democrats in voting against the popular-election amendment-BnANDEGRE, BURNHAM, CRANB, DILLINGHAM, GALLINGER, HEYBURN, LIPPITT, LODGE, Lorimer, OLIVER, PAGE, PENROSE, RICHARDSON, RooT, Smoot, and WETMORE. made the prediction that, with the Bristow amendment attached to it, the popular-election amendment will never receive the requisite indorsement of the States. It is probable that on this very account the majority voted for the Bristow amendment. There has been a very open declaration on the part of the Senators that popular election will not prove to be a good thing. Probably, therefore, these opponents of the theory of popular election insisted upon lncorpo. rating the Bristow amendment in order to keep popular election from becoming effective, even when adopted by the vote of the Senate.
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Senator JOHNSTON'S _prediction will come true, if the recollection ot former days hns not faded from the public mind. He said, when opposing the resolution because of the Bristow amendment:
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"I have myself witnessed elections in my State where United States troops were assembled at the polls and where supervisors and deputy marshals were potential in the result. I never want to see either again. During the reconstruction period these officials were used for the most partisan purposes afill to intimidate the voters and prevent the full and free and fair expression of the will of the voters. Such meth· ods as that gave the party in power swarms of unscrupulous partisans, paid by the Government to carry out the will of the bosses, and they did not hesitate to abuse their power. These men were not chosen from the voters of the counties in which they acted, but imported from other cities and counties and States. Pretending to represent the authority of the United States, they really represented the bosses of the party in power."
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The legislatures of the South are not likely to accept the amendment under the terms that It is offered. Fortunately, there l.s available the State primary, which meets the needs of the people in expressing their choice for Senators; so that no loss will be suffered if the amendment fails o:f confirmation.
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