The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-11-10

The Sioux City Journal leads of in
. demand for short election campaigns.
Including xll the preliminaries to tho
National dominating conventions We
have six months in every fourth year
OF party politics. The Journal says:
There was = time when there was
some excuse for long campaigns. That
was before the general use of railroads
and the telegraph and the modern
daily newspaper. In tho old time,
when travel was by stage or horseback,
or at best by steamboat, and when the
stump orator was \ more modern We
hicle Of news and information, q ma
ttonal campaign properly extended
over a period of many months, and
sometimes over half a year. So much
time was then generally needed to dis
seminate information among the peo-
pie and~properly to discuss the issues.
Mammoth rallies, public gatherings,
and joint debates had significance then
because OF their fitness to the condi.
tions. But all those conditions have
passed away In the time required by
the hostler to hitch the horses to the
stage coach that carried Henry Clay on
his. tours of political speech import
ant information is now dashed from
Washington to San Francisco. The
modern daily newspaper has utterly
revolutionized the transmission of
news. There is hardly any corner Of
the continent now 80 remote that the
inhabitants next day do not read in
the papers complete accounts of the
actions of congress, the operations of
the government aud of all the political
news. There is not an item OF inf0r-
nation of value to the citizen which is
not promptly, accurately and fully re-
ported to the voter, aud, in addition,
thoroughly discussed in all its bearings
by the newspapers. Indeed, the news
paper is sort Of forum perpetually
open to free discussion. Ii it is con-
Quoted Il perpetual political campaign,
under circumstances which favor un-
prejudicrt judgment.
| There is only one class that
reaps u profit, the professional poll
ticians aud strikers who bleed candi-
dates and fatten out of the excitement
;A,d the anxieties of political struggle.
The habit Of holding long campaigns,
too, tends to promote the tyranny Of
committees. which is becoming AL evil
of no small magnitude. The INA.
chine" is Indispensable in govern
lnent hy parties, rs parties are indis-
pensible in flee constitutional govern.
ment, but when national conventions
undertake: AS they have Lately shown
y disposition to do, to dictate t.
parties and to coerce their action j,
matters Of the highest moment, it i:
time to begin to cnrtail their preroga
tives. The b~st method Of curbins
c .mmitt e tyranny is to shorten TIN
period .f their authority. IF \ lationa
committee has u reign OF only Il few
weeks it is not 80 likrl. to contract
the offensive c"hceit tina i is monarch
Of all it surveys in the party organiza.
tion. In Great Britain \ nationa
campaign. which is far more decisive
y in it's result than i campaign in thi
country usually is, lasts only few
weeks, not so manv weeks as an Ameri
can campaign lasts months. and vi
there is no complaint that the time j
not ample for discussion or that tn
decision is not satisfactory. It
:, sincerely to he hoped that we slal
!. never again have so long campaig
as that decided Tuesday. Let cam
paigns hereafter be shortened. For
" beginning of the reform let them b
9 cut in the middle, and then let Il,
y good work be carried mucl, further
= The state campaigns should u
r shortened. ALI campaigns should b
"a shortened.