Improving If the legislatures were relieved of the task of electing United States Senators, there would be much ment for the direct election of a Governor which does not apply to the choice of a United the Stute States Senator. The plan of nominating either Governors or Senators in Statewide less reason for drawing national party lines primaries may, indeed, have many objec- in electing State legislatures. It seems at tions urged against it. If the machinery of times a mere play of professional politics to caucuses and conventions had not been so classify members of a State legislature as shamelessly abused by professional political Republicans and Democrats. The careful manipulators in alliance with corrupt inter- management of the affairs of one of our States, ests, it is not likely that there could have or one of our cities, has little more to do with been any prevailing movement for Statewide the differences that divide national parties primaries as a means of selecting party candi- than the management of a university or of dates. But although a Governor may be a savings bank. We shall doubtless continue nominated in one way or in another, he must for a good while to use the machinery of come before the people for his election to parties as a means of offering legislative canoffice. And in like manner it would seem didates to the voters. But our legislatures, in reasonable enough that the people of the their quality and in their work, have not States should vote directly for Senators. If been nearly independent enough. They have the people have a chance to vote, and if in the past been too largely and directly there is reasonable opportunity to file nom- dominated by the professional leaders of the inations by petition, it makes little difference Republican and Democratic parties. The how the regular parties select their candi- States have been badly served by party tools dates. The only offices that the voters of in the legislatures. The State Senators and a State have any real interest in filling by Assemblymen ought to be citizens selected the process of Statewide election, are those for their intelligence and character, and their of Governor and United States Senator. fitness to represent in public matters the Very few people would object to having the counties or legislative districts from which other State offices filled by the Governor's they are sent. A great help towards this better appointment, with legislative concurrence. condition of things will be found in the total removal of the choice of United States Senators from the State lawmaking bodies. Objections to Secondary Among the practical objections to the plan of electing United Present Plans States Senators by the legislature, The framers of the Constitution there are two that outweigh the others. The did their work under difficulties, first is that it interferes with the real work of and it was performed with exa State legislature. In countless instances ceedingly great wisdom. But it was not we have seen legislatures deadlocked during perfect, and parts of it have been shown by many weeks, and utterly demoralized as experience to be susceptible of improvement. regards their proper attention to legislative The statesmen of one hundred and twentyand budgetary duties. A second objection five years ago had not seen much of the pracis that in many cases the Senatorship be- tical workings of democracy. A few of them comes involved in the election of members of thought that secondary election would afford the legislature. A United States Senator is some guaranty of superior wisdom; and so not infrequently carrying on an exciting they invented the electoral college, supposing canvass for reelection, under such conditions that the people would choose a select body that his fortunes are the chief issue in the of men who in turn would find the best man voting for legislative candidates. Thus two for the Presidency. These Constitutiondistinct sets of interests, one of a national makers of 1787 were an amazing group of character and the other of a State character, statesmen and patriots, but they did not are mixed up in a way that is detrimental to foresee the rise of parties and the relegation both. If the people could vote directly for of their Presidential electors to the status of the Senatorial candidate, their attitude dummies. In like manner they thought that would be national and they would be solely the legislatures would form admirable elecconcerned with the candidate's views upon toral colleges for the selection of United national questions and with his ability to represent the State at Washington. Questions of national politics have nothing to do with the wise and prudent management of purely State affairs. States Senators. But already in more than half the States the legislators in their performance of this function have now been relegated to the status of dummies, while in the remaining States the Constitutional method of electing Senators is seldom satisfactory and frequently scandalous in its practical working. Should Terms be The Pledge renomination and reëlection, ought to be regarded as ample grounds for impeachment. When the office is properly filled and its duties rightly conceived, it must absorb every Too much attention has been moment of a man's working time, and every given to the question how popular ounce of his strength and energy. The true Limited? election would affect the person- history of the recent attempt to secure a nel of the Senate itself, and too little at- second term, if written out in a book as it tention to the question how it would affect is told in private by every Republican leader the States and their legislatures. Within in the country who had part in it, would end the States there will be decided benefit. The forever all of the evils that have impelled legislatures will be more free from party Senator Works, in the vexation of his righteous shackles and more devoted to the business soul, to seek a Constitutional amendment. of good State government. As for the Senate, studying carefully its personnel for the past It is true that the following fifty years, it would seem that direct election Democratic plank was contained in the Demwould have given us an average of ability ocratic platform, adopted at Baland character at least fully equal to that timore by the convention that nominated which has been at the country's service. Woodrow Wilson: "We favor a single PresiUnited States Senators are elected for a term dential term, and to that end we urge the of six years. The amendment adopted by adoption of an amendment to the ConstituCongress, and now in process of acceptance tion, making the President of the United by the States, does not change the length of States ineligible for reëlection, and we pledge their terms, nor forbid their reëlection time the candidate of this convention to this after time. It merely makes them subject principle." In the ordinary use of language, to the direct vote of the people of their re- the word reëlection in this plank would mean spective States. It did not seem to occur election again in 1916. When we talk about to the wise gentlemen of the Senate, when the reëlection of a Governor, we invariably they adopted this amendment, that they have reference to consecutive terms. If the ought to make themselves ineligible for any Democratic platform means anything, it further service in the Senate during their means that, regardless of what other parties lifetimes, after having held one term. If such a thing had been proposed the Senators would, with one accord, have taken the very sound view that it could be left to the people to decide for themselves whether they wanted to give a Senator one or more additional periods in office. Only One Yet these very Senators who do not think that the people ought Presidents to be restricted in their right to give a Senator additional terms voted last month in favor of a Constitutional amendment forbidding the people of the United States to elect any man to the office of President if he had at any time previous held that office. In order not to be misunderstood as regards the point of view of this magazine, let it be said at once that we regard the proposal as unstatesmanlike. The discussion has not been frank enough at Washington, or in the newspapers. The thing that Senator Works has desired to accomplish by means of his amendment is highly creditable to his high views of the Presidential office. For a man to use the Presidential office in his own interest, employing its power over the affairs of citizens in the endeavor to secure his own may do, the Democrats are pledged to the country not to nominate a President to succeed himself. Prior to 1912, we had elected only one Democratic President since James Buchanan-namely, Grover Cleveland. When Mr. Cleveland was first nominated for the Presidency, in 1884, he declared most explicitly for the one-term principle. declared that if elected he would fill the office to the best of his ability for one term, but would not seek or accept a renomination. Cleveland's He Mr. Cleveland at that time was forty-seven years of age. His declaration had reference to a second consecutive term, and to the convention and election of 1888. He wished it understood that he would not use his appointing power with reference to a control of the Democratic convention, or allow such an ambition to determine his treatment of any question of legislation or public policy, nor yet to affect his coming and going, or his use of time and strength that belonged to the service of the country. In our opinion, Mr. Cleveland was quite right in that declaration. He ought to have stuck to it. But before the end of his term he was induced to change his mind; and, like most incumbents of the great office, he was persuaded to believe himself indispensable to his party and to the country. He turned the patronage machine over to the managers of the party, regardless of the outcry of the civil-service reformers. Thus Mr. Cleveland secured his renomination in 1888, --but the people defeated him at the polls. He was nominated again, however, in 1892, as a private citizen owing nothing to the use of patronage or public power; and he was elected and gave the country a good administration. He had become, if we mistake not, quite firmly convinced that a President should serve for one term, but be eligible after an interval of years if his party wished to call him back. He was not a candidate, therefore, in 1896, but he was much talked of in 1900; and if he had been nominated he would not have been justly subject to the slur of being a third-term candidate. Every man who uses that phrase with reference to any American President, ought to know that it has no meaning or importance except as applied to consecutive terms. Mr. Bryan on the Question Copyright by Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C. When Mr. Bryan was nominated, in 1896, he declared himself, with extreme emphasis, as favoring a single term, nor did he call upon the country to amend the Constitution in order to restrain (The author of the Senate resolution for a Constitutional him. He was perfectly sure that he could restrain himself. He proposed to be President, if elected, for four years, and then to a second consecutive term should not be retire to private life. Mr. Bryan at that sought by any President. His views have time was only thirty-six years old. He had now been put in a formal way into the platreason to think that he had still ahead of him form of his party. Governor Wilson has had forty years of activity as an American public no occasion to discuss this question, so far as man. It was thoroughly creditable to Mr. we are aware, but no one could regard him as Bryan that he should have adopted the one- opposed to his own party platform on a questerm principle as a part of his plan for rendering the highest possible service to the country in case of his election. But there was no occasion for his attempting to determine in advance his relationship to the country's affairs after one or more intervening terms. When he was nominated again in 1900, he declared again his determination to serve only one term if elected. But this declaration had no pertinence except as to a second consecutive term. There is common consent, among all parties, against giving any man a third consecutive term; and that subject is not now under discussion. tion of that kind. Of one thing we may be certain. Governor Wilson will not actively seek a renomination. He will not spend years or even months of his term in personally fighting, before the primaries, within the ranks of his own party, to secure a renomination. He will not force his own claims. He will at least defer to the wishes and preferences of a majority of his fellow-Democrats.. Politicians and office-seekers have had a great and convincing object-lesson. The people henceforth must find their own candidates. The office must indeed seek the man. But especially is this true as regards a Presidential candidate who already holds the office and is intrusted with its vast responsibility. He, of all men chosen to rule over their fellowmen, is to be loyal to the spirit of noblesse oblige. Some Obvious If a man is not making a good from the rank and file, that he should take President, six years is much too the nomination. Not only did he refuse, but he fairly fought it off. Even at the last moment in the convention that nominated Taft, the lifting of an eyelid would have stampeded the entire body for Roosevelt. Instead of his being a seeker for the office, he has given the most conspicuous example in Reflections long a time to bear with him. Four years is the utmost limit of endurance for a President who does not lay firm hold upon his job, or who shows qualities of indolence or self-seeking. No President, once installed in that great office, should ever talk about delegates or conventions, or intrigue our entire history of a man who has refused with national committeemen. Any President the office. For he could have been elected who plays the game of politics from the White in 1908 by the electoral votes of every State in House demeans the office. It is not for him the Union except a very few in the South. He to say that he ought to have a second term. returned to private life and did not seek to The country is quite intelligent enough to reënter the field of practical politics. His decide that matter for itself. Furthermore, candidacy in 1912 was not of his own seeking. the country will decide it, even though a The Republicans of the country, in primary President may wreck his own party in the elections, by a great majority, gave him their obsessed pursuit of an ambition to be an eight- preference and made him their legitimate year incumbent. Mr. Harrison, who made candidate. The National Republican Conan excellent President, was unfortunate vention pursued a course that was in defiance enough to demand a renomination against of party opinion. As a result, it secured the best judgment of many of the party's only eight electoral votes for the party leaders. He was accordingly defeated at the when the people had their chance at the polls. He would have been happier if he had polls in November. absolutely refused to seek a second term, or to mention the subject of delegates to anybody. If a man's renomination does not come to him spontaneously-by pressure of public opinion even wider than the opinion of his whole party-it is a sure sign that he ought not to be renominated. Generally speaking, one term of four years in the White House is quite enough. Mr. Dangers Mr. Roosevelt has now been a private citizen for four years. Another interval of years must elapse before the people can again express their choice at the polls. There is no evil to be guarded against, except the misuse of official power. The people have shown that they are alive to such misuse. Woodrow Wilson will not abuse power to secure delegates for a The case of Mr. Roosevelt is excep- nominating convention. In the first place, Roosevelt's tional, and history will not fail it would not accord with his principles and Cuse to do it justice. He was selected character, or with his sense of the delicacy for Vice-President against his own wishes in and dignity of his office. In the second place, 1900, when otherwise he would have been re- a Democratic President has much less chance elected Governor of New York, and would than a Republican to circumvent his own quite probably have been the Republican party and force a nomination. A Republican nominee for the Presidency in 1904. Mr. President, if susceptible to temptation at all, McKinley's death obliged Mr. Roosevelt to is quite irresistibly tempted by the opportunserve out the unexpired term; and the nomi- ity to control a great block of delegates, most nation in 1904 came to him without effort of them negroes, from Southern States where on his part in a convention that named no the Republican party has no existence in any other candidate. No part of his time or true sense. The President in office, with a strength as President was devoted to manip- political Postmaster-General at his elbow, ulation in the endeavor to secure a nomina- can, through use of postmasterships and tion that was already conferred upon him by other federal offices in the Southern States, public opinion and universal demand. When buy control of the alleged party conventions this nomination came, followed by overwhelm- and thus secure delegates instructed for himing majorities in the election, Mr. Roosevelt declared that he would not be a candidate for another term. This was in reply to the campaign argument of the Democrats that he would run again in 1908. When that date approached, however, there was a most insistent demand from all the party leaders, and self. Furthermore, he can control the blocks of delegates brought in from Porto Rico, the Philippines, Alaska, and Hawaii. The manner in which the recent Republican convention was controlled needs no recounting, because it is fresh in everybody's memory. The very men who used this system in the Repub lican convention of 1912 were the ones who, as anti-Taft men in the convention of 1908, tried to reform it. Until it is reformed the Republicans can never again come into power. Democrats WHICH? From the Ohio State Journal (Columbus) But the Democrats have a real party organization in every State Trammelled of the Union; and their national convention is free from the scandal of "rotten borough" representation. The Democrats do not admit to their convention any delegates from the Philippines; and a Democratic President would only make himself laughed at if he tried to instruct the small delegations from Porto Rico and Hawaii in his own favor. Furthermore, Democratic conventions still adhere to the two-thirds rule; and no President who tried by patronage or otherwise to force his renomination upon a reluctant party would be very likely to overcome the opposition of a determined minority of onethird. To sum the practical situation up, therefore, the proposed amendment of Senator Works, which has passed the Senate and gone to the House of Representatives, would seem to have no very practical bearing in view of all that has happened. It proposes to restrict the right of the people at the very And he may easily become blinded as to the moment when the people have shown most means by which to prolong his authority conclusively that they can make good use of from four years to eight. Is a pension bill the right which has always been theirs. pending? Representatives of the Grand There are no men living to whom this amend- Army may convey to the President the ment can apply, except Messrs. Roosevelt, unqualified information that if he does not Taft, and Wilson. We are asked to declare sign it he will lose delegates to the nominatthat neither one of these three men shall ever ing convention. Is there a bill to revise the again be elected to the Presidency. wool schedule of the tariff? The Wool-. country has had large experience of Messrs. growers' Association, in a pointed way, may Roosevelt and Taft, and it knows them well. inform the President that he must veto it or Mr. Wilson is about to assume the duties of lose delegates. Is there a chance to get free the Presidency, having been elected to the wood-pulp and print-paper from Canada. office on a platform that pledges him to a sin- under cloak of a reciprocity treaty? Powergle term. The spirit of this platform would ful newspaper interests hold out alluring prevent him from seeking a second consecu- prospects of editorial and news support. In tive term, and its spirit would also probably short, it is extremely hard to be at the same impel his party, in 1916, to nominate Mr. time a disinterested President and a deterBryan or some other man without prejudice mined candidate for a second term. Senator to Mr. Wilson's availability for 1920 or 1924. Works feels that his constitutional amendment is the quick, short-cut way to end the sort of thing that every public man in Washington knows to have been so detrimental to the public welfare at several periods in our recent history. Reasons for the The Senator Works, and the others who voted for his amendment, Amendment are right in their feeling that the active seeking by a President of a second term is one of the most appalling evils that can befall the political and governmental life of the country. The Presidency is by far the most powerful position in the world. And it is much more powerful now than it has ever been before. A selfish man in possession of such power does not wish to lay it down. |