Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-05-14
THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
nlREOT PRIMARIES

ton and ring rule is taking root in all
parts of the country. In different states
entirely Independent movements are
gathering strength, all directed to the
same end, that of enabling all the voters
in each party to choose their candi-
dates, instead of delegating the choice to
the men in control of party machinery
and nominating conventions. This dem
oCratic svstem-the crawford County
System" has already been voluntarily es
tablished 10y one party organization or an
other in many rural counties in Pennsyl-
Vania, Ohio, Indiana, California and fully
half of the Southern states. The present
movement is to require its adoption in
the cities, where the evils of the boss
system have become intolerable.
At the beginning of the legislative
season we noticed that Governor Pingree
had urged this reform in Michigan;
three weeks ago we noticed that Wiscon-
sin reformers were urging it before the
legislature of their state; and two weeks
ago we learned from Minnesota that a
similar measure had received most en-
couraging support in one branch of the
Minnesota legislature. The Minnesota
bill, which had been drawn by Judge
Hicks, of Minneapolis, without confer
ence with the Wisconsin retormers, fol-
lows substantially the same lines. 1t
very sensibly CRAFTS the reform of the
primaries upon the Australian ballot
system. Voters at the primaries are to
receive official ballots upon which the
names of all candidates for each office
are to be printed. In this way the can
didates proposed by group of indepen-
dents will be presented to all the voters
in the same way as the candidates named
by the machine. The power of the vot-
ers is not restricted to the election of
delegates to a nominating convention,
but the voters are themselves to have
the responsibility and privilege of nam
ing the candidates for every office.
Around these primary elections are to be
thrown all the safeguards that now
surround the general election.
A primary election thus conducted
would be worth attending, and citizens
with any sense of public duty would no
more think of refusing to exercise their
privilege of choosing candidates than
they now think of refusing to exercise
the often less important privilege of
choosing between candidates. 1t is
needless to say. this measure to transfer
the power of the politicians to the rank
and file of the voters was rejected upon
its first presentation, but Judge Hicks
was able to rally SO out of IS members of
the Minnesota house to its support
More encouraging still were the objec
tons urged by the majority. Like the
Australian ballot system, the measure
was opposed on the ground that it was
impracticaDe" and responsive" 1t
was also opposed on the ground that it
their power The machine, it was said
with Isome force, would unite its vote
upon one candidate, while the vote of
the opposition might be divided among
be assured. Against this danger the
South Carolina system endeavors to pro-
vide by requiring new election liz some
cases where no candidate receives a ma
jority of the whole vote, though, as a
rule, the choice of the plurality is the
choice of the majority.
Direct primaries will undoubtedly
leave some power in the hands of the
machine, just as the Australian ballot
system left some power in the hands of
the vote-buyers; but the restriction of
power will be as great in one case as
in the other. To force the machine to
submit Its choice to the approval of the
voters of the party would insure better
nominations, even where the machine
triumphs. The fact that the opponents
of the Hicks bills were unwilling to
avow their friendship for machine-made
nominations was evidence of the strength
of popular feeling against the evils of
the present system. In Minnesota Judge
Hicks secured for his measure the pow
tll SuPPOlb VI lhC ol' L dAl L lOuCcI
Press, whose continued advocacy of its
fundamental principle promises its
adoption in the near future. The posi-.
ton of the "Ploneer Press" is briefly as
follows;
That the revolt against the present
system is daily gaining force and power
there can be no doubt, nor can there be
any doubt that it is only a question Of
few years at the most before 1t is
swept out of existence. The tendency
Is toward replacing the power in the
hands of the people, and either this
measure or another which also relegates
the convention of delegates to the lum-
Der room will have to be enacted. The
present system is intolerable. No man,
unless he has devoted himself for hours
to the study of the situation, has the
faintest conception of what he is voting
for as primaries are now conducted. He