Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-06-30

II
dates, from the following statement Al
to the mode of nominating candidates
in the city of New York Says wri
ter upon this subject: ''At a genera
election in the city of New York, the
selection of candidates involves seven
ty-two primary elections by delegate.
in convention. There is a primary
election by each of the three parties il
each of the twenty-four Assembly dis
tricts, to select delegates to twentyfoul
Assembly, to five Aldermanic, sever
Senatorial, and to one general County
Convention, making seventy-two pri.
mary elections, in which the whole
number of votes of each party Cor about
100000 may theoretically participate
subsequently, there is the choice by 72
Assembly, Is aldermanic and county
conventions in each year, and 81 Sena.
torial conventions every second year,
of the candidates of the three parties
for Assemblymen, Aldermen, county
officers and Senator'S In addition there
is the choice by each Assembly district
of delegates to Congressional and State
conventions, and in the Democratic
party the latter involves primaries in
623 election districts for the choice OF
delegates to conventions in each of the
"a Assembly districts, by which the
State convention delegates are finally
chosen"
THE PRIMARY MEETING-ITS IMPORT
The same writer says that these
primaries are controlled by about one
fourth of the voters, that is, about one
fourth are on the rolls of the associa-
tions; and that, ''for all party pur-
poses the excluded four-ffths or seven
eighths are as completely eliminated
and disfranchised in the selection of
candidates as the same number of
Southern negroes are said to be in the
election of officers"
While it is possible that this evil
may prevail to greater extent in
New York than other cities, yet it is
in the main true as to all the great
centres of population, that a compare
lively small class control the politics
of the cities and by their course in
many instances have made them a by
word and have put huge blot upon
our institutions and brought US into
disgrace before the civilized world.
If, then, the point at which each
citizens vote is to be most potent is at
the primary assenrblages of the peo-
pie, and if in point of fact but COM
paratively small number of people
participate in these meetings in our
larger cities, and these meetings are
really controlled by minority, and in
many instances by the worst class of
people, then we have an evil right at
the door of our government, which
needs to be eradicated before it be too
late to save the country from irretriev-
able ruin
How is it to be done? | answer,
by every good citizen attending the
primary meetings and insisting upon
the selection of proper delegates, and
endeavoring to have these delegates
fairly represent the will of the ma
jority. Do / need to say in the pres
ence of this highly respectable and in
telligent audience, that many, very
Iuany Of the best citizens of both par
ties are derelict in duty to their coun-
try in this particular Engrossed in
their own business, unmindful of the
danger that lies at the very founda-
tion of the government, they content
themselves with the idea that political
matters are unworthy of their atten-
ton, perhaps sneer at politics and po-
liticians, and delude themselves with
the thought that it is only scramble
for Office between contending politi-
clans, and therefore do not attend the
elections
A FEARFUL MISTAKE.
What fearful mistake such people
make How completely blinded they
are as to their real duty in the prem
ises they forget that the obligations
and duties of the government and its
citizens are reciprocal; that in turn
for the protection that gorernmnt
gives to the citizen in life, person and
property, there is due from him every
thing that the highest intelligence and
patriotism can give for these inestima-
BILE blessings. This is true with re-
gard to every form of government, but
with how much more force does it ap-
ply in a government where sovereign
power is lodged in the hands of the
people, and where everything that
concerns the welfare, prosperity, honor
and glory of the country depends upon
the people? Some one has said that
universal suffrage must be leavened
with universal education in order to
make our institutions perfect; but l
submit that is not all, for if we do
have general education, along with
universal suffrage, and at the same
time good, worthy and patriotic citi-
zens refuse to attend the primary
meetings of the people and make their
votes effective in the selection of prop
er candidates for Office, whose merit
consists in integrity of character and
fitness for the places for which they
have been selected, what does it come
to 4? for in such a case it will not be
the rule of the wise, the discreet and
patriotic citizens, but the reign of the
selfish, base and sordid, who have no
higher motive than self-aggrandize-
ment and the furtherance of their own
selfish schemes We will have gone q
long way towards correcting the
abuses that now exist in our system
of politics when good men of all par
ties will come out to the primaries and
assert themselves. The town meet
ing is the unit of our political system.
1t is the nursery wherein the great
principles of civil and political liberty
are cherished, but, unfortunately, it is
now rapidly falling under the control
of the selfish, wicked and depraved,
and is becoming a hot bed of political
yenality and crime