Amendment XVII
581
limit their political influence. Many Senators were millionaires themselves, and many more, it was generally believed, were obligated to special economic interests. The wealthy might bribe State legislators but
they could not bribe the entire electorate. The direct election of Senators,
thought the Populists and Progressives, would cure the evils of Big Business, giant trusts, and corporate monopolies. Buttressed by the Sixteenth
Amendment, the Seventeenth might then prepare the way for breaking
up great concentrations of wealth and, hoped some of the more radical
Populists, lead to a redistribution of wealth. But some argue that no conspicuous improvement in the talents and character of members of the
Senate seems to have been the result of this Amendment.
One prominent public leader of recent decades, Eugene McCarthy—
United States Senator from Minnesota for two terms—remarks in his
book Frontiers of American Democracy that the Seventeenth Amendment
did harm to the quality of the United States Senate. A principal reason
for this is the fact that although a Representative in the House has to
please only his constituents in his district, a United States Senator must
campaign statewide—and wander about his State fairly frequently, if he
wishes to remain in office. Much of his time is wasted in perpetual campaigning. Besides, the campaign expenditures of a senatorial candidate,
both in the primary and in the regular election, usually are gigantic; this
money must be found somewhere; so either a candidate’s family must be
very wealthy, and have wealthy friends, or else the candidate may find it
necessary to make promises t