, 1870-10-25
NOMINATING CONVENTIONS,


NOMINATING CONVENTIONS.
H." ss>:.sn of nominating candidates by
parry s'';' v.nsi''hs has lnng heea regarded
tytu: S.n:s...eSt s'a.e=tnen ns the weak, and
even r.':en. priut in our republican in
Siisutio,:s. As ro chain is stronger thau
its u.::l:t~: link, and t,o Eteam-boiler will
stand l,ressure that bur.ts its weakest
s1A't, :" 10 republic whose officers are
s'tt:@~! i'll nomiuntirg conventions will
arr'r'' ri rny more competent or honest
Legislators than the mass Of the voters and
strikers in the primaries would themselves
MAKE. The difficulties of maintaining auy
fsir oF respectable system Of nominations
i'll fsr:e cities by party conventions
are :n>ns era's'e. Politics in tie
rural .':st'icts is the means where
l'y tie people influence the government
l'y tie termination Of their candidates and
the ~y:'rs~si"n Of their ~icva- Politics in
larE" cities is usually trade whereby M
rrrss n'ous men make money. In the
cmsntry. the mare responsible and we'll
l:own Residents attend the primaries, and
NJ combination ceald exclude them from
Tho dominating conventions. In New
York Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago,
very fe~ give their time to politics from
l"sflic motives, or 80 into It all, except to
nlskr money out Of it They either make
it An occupation or they let it alone. As
thty canr"t mike it an occupation for the
sak- Of itslegitimate profits, the fact that
ttey aahl'le with it at all proves,
in niue instances in ten. that
th-y are after ilegitimate profits.
Wien convention of ward pol
s'iciars has the disposal OF nomination 80
inlA'rtnnt as that Of member of Congress,
VIC fully believe that less money would be
spent at the average, aud more honest
division OF It would be made, and quite as
good candidate would he selected, if it
~e1e put up for sale at auction and the
'r"cesds were divided equally among al
the lumnern~
1t is supposed by the uuinitiated that
the corruption and cost of politics consist
in the expenditure Of money for the pur-
chase OF voters, or upon those Who
are supposed to be able to influence voters.
This is largely true at English elections,
because there the vote IL riea roce, and the
purchaser can know whether his voter full
tils his contract or not. But, unle7 our
ballot system, the most corrupt will refuse
t"pay for votes except through some agent
who can see that the voter does not de-
ceive him. Again, in most counties, a. in
Cook, it is pretty well known that the
nomination is the only thing worth paying
fur. Here wa have, therefore, all tho es~
sentinls that tend to make politics corrupt
- political class who hare no stxke in
politics, except to make money out of il H.:
leg1ti1aRtely. 10 make the nominations
nomination. when made. is assumed to be
equivalent to an election-the class who
lo the voting are, two-thirds of
them, negotiable-the NOMINEES is
generally proficient in the use OF
negotiable Instruments in short, we have,
us the law-writsrs say, all the conditions
OF sale. v1z-> vendor, vendee. and
son'ething to sell. II bargain is not
ssruck under these circumstances, II must
t'e because humAn nature has been abo]-
ished.
Plain AS is the difficulty, it is not easy ia
give an nd-hand solution Of the problem
how to avoid it Undoubtedly, one Of the
modes of aToIding its repetition is 10 de-
feat 1t whenever it occur8- The votes at
the primaries are paid for on tho cool
assumption that that body of blackguasils
are able to deliver to tho candidate ma-
fttY Yfz- Of f1A z,F Fxt1n