The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, May 01, 1901, Image 9

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    State's Intercollegiate Debates.
macy in a state by gerrymandering, and that, as now elected,
United States Senators are not in touch with the wishes and
will of the people.
Tuholski showed that by failing to elect, the present
system has proved itself inadequate to the needs of even the
smallest states, that by the present system State and Nat
ional interests are injured by the strife which results from a
Senatorial contest in the State legislature, that the people
are better fitted to elect Senators because they are less likely
to be influenced in their choice by political or financial pros
pects and by the fact that the people can perform this duty
without serious conflict with other duties, while attempts on
the part of the State legislature to elect a senator often ren
ders the performance of other duties impossible, that popu
lar election is simpler and less expensive than the present
system, that popular election would lessen bribery, because,
whereas there is a chance, under the present system, to
bribe both the people and the State legislature to secure the
election of a certain senator, under the proposed system
there would be but one chance for bribery, the chance of brib
ing the whole people, and in conclusion that the efficiency
of the Senate would be increased because such men as Quay,
Hanna, Murphy, Clark, etc. would fail to be re-elected and
would be replaced by men morally and intellectually better.
For F. and M., Hartz argued that a measure of conserv
atism was necessary, that by gradual and well defined
steps Conservatism, Democracy, Communism and Anarchy
appear in governments. That other nations have copied our
method of electing Senators, that the present method of
electing senators is a corner stone of our national greatness,
that states were intended to be represented in the national
government as states and that this would not be if
senators were elected by popular vote, that the present
system was wisely conceived and well discussed before it
was adopted, and that the State legislature, being a body of