The Billings Gazette

FOR DIRECT ELECTIONS.

It would seem that those who for years have been advocating an amendment to the constitution providing for the election of United States senators by direct vote are now nearer a point approximating success than they have been at any time since the agitation assumed tangible form. The sentiment in favor of the change has grown wonderfully in recent years, despite the opposition which it has encountered from the senate itself.

The reason for this is not hard to find. So few senatorial elections have taken place within the past decade or so that have not been marked by irregularities and corruption, real or alleged, that the masses of the people have come to the conclusion a change is needed. Scandals of the most nauseating kind have grown out of contests in legislatures when senators were elected, and deadlocks have kept states from having their full representation in the upper house, when all the interests of the people, not to say anything of the justice of the matter demanded that they should have such representation. Bribery and tales of bribery have marked so many of the senatorial elections that the people have become disgusted.

Men have been sent to the senate with no other qualification than the possession of wealth enough to buy the required number of votes to insure their election and the people have been helpless. The number of men who today are occupying seats in the highest lawmaking body of the nation under clouded titles is large and many of them are so well known that allusion to the fact is almost constantly appearing in the public prints. The high esteem which once was accorded the senate and its individual members has passed to a great extent, until now it is not considered as a badge of learning and statesmanship to occupy a seat in that body, but rather as an evidence of wealth or exceptional skill in political chicanery and trickery.

Recent Washington dispatches say that the advocates of the change have discovered a method by which they hope to soon be successful to the extent at least of compelling congress to order the convening of a constitutional convention having for its object the amendment under consideration. One of the provisions of the constitution provides that upon petition of two-thirds of the legislatures of the states congress shall call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments and which amendments shall be valid, provided they are ratified by three-fourths of all the states. Six states have already made such petition and their petitions are on file. One-fifth of the required number have made call for such a convention and it is believed that the remaining number necessary will be obtained soon, as quite a few legislatures are in session or about to convene, and the belief prevails that they will be found favorable to a convention of that kind. It is only reasonable that such belief should prevail.

More than two-thirds of the states, through their legislatures have at some time or other formally declared themselves as in favor of the change, although they have neglected to pass resolutions asking congress to call a constitutional convention.

Of course, the movement is not well received at Washington, particularly in the senate and more particularly by such of its members who know or believe that with such an amendment in effect their chances of ever getting back would speedily reach the vanishing point. They know that it is an altogether different proposition to attempt to handle and juggle with an entire state than merely "fixing" a legislature. Consequently it need not surprise any one to learn that some of the senators are already in the field seeking to overcome sentiment in their respective states and cause defeat of the efforts making to induce the legislatures to adopt the necessary resolutions of petition. They may succeed, but whether they do or not, the time is coming when the people will demand such a change in the mode of electing senators, and do it in such numbers that congress will find itself helpless to refuse.

What augurs well for the present movement is the fact that it is concerted, instead of being confined to spasmodic effort, as was the case in the past. All the notifications sent to congress and filed, are clothed in the same terms, showing that the petitions have one source of emanation. This must be accepted as evidence of organization and real earnest on the part of those who are at the head of the movement. The charge of politics cannot well be made in connection with the present well sustained and well directed crusade to revive a popular agitation. Of the six states that have their petitions on file some are republican and some democratic, showing that the people of both parties are in favor of the amendment.