Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1886-06-20
HONEST POLITICS.
A WAY TO AVOID WlREPULl-
ING AND BRIBERY
AT Il Nominating COnyentiOn-M Multi.
pleX NOminatiOns-The Cheek.
mate Of Chance Removing
Temptation - Labor
Conventions.

One of the dangers threatening
the labor movement lies in the pos
sibility that unprincipled political
demagogues may. by their superior
skill in wirepuling, succeed in frus-
trating the work of honest reformers
who have labored hard to accomplish
the first step in the grand movement
Organization. For the time is
nearing when the organized work
men will endeavor to put their or
CARNATIONS to better use than sus-
tanning strikes and boycotts, neces
sary as these are in the progress of
the movement. But strikers and
boycot.crs have been put to needless
trouble by those in authority at the
instlgatlon of the capitalist grab-alls;
and the suggestion must come to the
mind of the workers: Why should
the forces of the State be at the ser
vice of our enemies and directed
against us? Why indeed?
But there have been instances
where the workers have endeavored
to obtain control of government, and,
while they succeeded in electing the
men who We're nominated, they, for
some reason, failed to do what was
expected of them. Might not the
reason of this lie in the fact that
the nominations were bad ones?
And might there not be reason for
bad nominations? We think there
is. Just as soon as it becomes evi-
dent that the people are about to
discard the old, rotten parties and
endeavor to have a new deal, there
are ever so many professional wire
pullers who endeavOr to secure the
nomination for their choice puppets.
In view of the inadequacy of the
present system of making nomlna-
tions for securing to the people some
authority, at least, and us a beg in
ming in the reformation, or rather,
revolution, which may abolish the
term system, and other tricky meas
ures calculated to benefit the few at
the expense of the many, the Trades
Council, some years ago appointed a
committee to devise some plan that
could be put in force under present
conditions. The committee talked
over a number of propositions, and
the following was regarded with most
favor.
The organized workingmen of
New Haven to elect in their various
bodies delegates to Il nominating con-
vention; one delegate being. elected
for every hundred members or ma
jority fraction thereof, except that
recognized organizations having less
than majority fraction of 100 shall
be entitled to a delegate. At the
nominating convention, after organ
izing by the election of chairman,
secretaries, tellers, etc, nominations
shall be made by ballot.
For every public Office for which
a labor candidate is to be presented
to the people for their votes, ten
separate nominations shall be made
by majority vote of the convention.
These ten nominees shall have signi-
fed their willingness to stand in case
either of their names shall be finally
placed before the people on election
day. After the primary nominations
are made as above, the convention
shall adjourn for week, and then
assemble to arrange the final ticket,
choosing a candidate from each ten
previously nominated by lot, as fol-
lows:
Ten tickets with the name of a
primary nominee upon each, are
folded and put into one receptacle;
and into another are placed nine
blank tickets and one ticket with
the name of the Office to be filled. all
similarly folded. The tellers then
select from the audience two indiffer-
ent persons who are blindfolded, and
one of them draws from the recepta-