New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-08
A SUBSTITUTE FOE The MACHINE"

The holding Of State Conventions Is at
tended always with labor, trouble and expense
1t very often happens. too, that they create
| disaffection, develop inharmonious conditions
within the party, and sometimes even provoke
a bolt and create an irrecOncilable split. why
| not get along without State Conventions Is
the proposition revolutionary Not at all
The political convention for nominating can
ddates has no legal authority, no official ex-
istence or recognition. 1t is just conyen-
ience formality that means but little and
binds nobody. II simply selects the party can
didatcs that is all. Does anybody say, then,
that a necessity exists for them that so long
as we have parties. and so long as parties have
candidates, we must have conventions TO
represent the parties and nominate the tickets
Not at all. Conventions may be dispensed
with And so may parties, for that matter
Our agile and versatile contemporary, The
Herald, can easily supply the place and dis
charge the functions OF both. Indeed, 1t offers
10 do this in its last issue. We might go
further and say it actually does it. Prem sing
that the two parties by their conventions, are
| likely to nominate "machineD candidates-a
machine candidate being one nominated by
a convention in distinction from one nOni-
mated by an Independent or an impartial
| newspaper editor-our contemporary points out
that the destruction of both would be effected
if an Independent Convention should meet
and nominate either James w. WadswOrth or
Abram S. Hewitt for Governor. In this state
of things it says: Let the Republicans
nominate James w. Wadsworth for Governor.
al. let the Democrats nominate Abram S. Hewitt
] ,vilI ha for fba
avoidance of total destruction, will give each
an opportunity to appeal to the voters with a
good conscience, and will give the State, which
ever way the election turns, an honest and
| fearless Governor"
The conventions might do much worse things
| than The Herald suggests very likely one of
them will, possibly both may. Bat what we
| chiefly admire in the proposition is the calm
and cheerful compacency with which our
| neighbor dominates candidates for both par
ties, and the fine manner in which it dis
| penscs with conventions for both. 1t saves a
| considerable expense, and does away with a
| great lot of bother and vcXatiOn. 1t Is not I'M
usual for the "independent" newspapers, so
called, to nominate i'll an authoritative and
sometimes threatening manner candidates for
the great political parties. That is one part of
their mission. Another is to sit up in judg-
ment on candidates who are nominated, and
threaten to hold them for contempt of
court if they do not give categorical
answers to foolish questions. But it
is not often that they assume in one article
the functions of the nominating conventions
of both parties, and cut out both tickets at
one dash. The easy grace with which our
versatile contemporary does this leads us to
remark that there need be no State Conven-
tons this year at least. Conventions arc never
WISE Newspaper editors always are. Espe-
cially the editors of independent" news
| papers.
The most alarming thing about our politics
is the tendency to resort to the machinery"
of conventions in the selection of candidates
when so many competent persons in news
paper Offices are ready and anxious to elevate
and purify politics by picking out the candi-
dates themselves for both parties without any
machinery" whatever. Let us escape ina
chine politics. by delegating to the independ-
ent editors the functions of the nominating
convention.