The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-07

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 low intrigue and thick skinned indiffer- ence to the contempt of honest men, Corrupt management of the primaries , links on to corrupt machination at the
 polls. It gives incentive to such instruc- tions as were furnished country com
 mittees in Indiana: 'Divide the voters
 into blocks of five, and put q man with
 necessary funds in charge of these five,
 and make him responsible that none gets away, and that all vote our tick et."
 Men elected by such methods are apt
 to be either cats paws to pull out chest
 nuts for others, or fellows after the
 chestnuts themselves. Inefficient or cor
 rupt government, waste or peculation Of
 public funds, loss of national, state and local honor, loss of individual self-re-
 spect, worth more to the American citl-
 zen than gold are the result. First a Tweed juggling the primaries, finally q
 Tweed stealing from the public strong
 box, coupled with the shame of a people | Tweed ridden. As a standard writer,
 F. w. Dallinger, has put the relation of the primaries to the government which follows:
 "The importance of these primary meetings cannot be overestimated If the voters who attend them choose un- fit men to act as their representatives in the various conventions, the nominees
 of those conventions are likely to prove unworthy standard bearers of the party,
 and, as result, the government will be l badly conducted"
 THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IS | csTJET E,D l The great principle upon which our | political system was foundedis that ex-
 pressed by Henry Ward Beecher in
 these words, The people are to be
 trusted" Not that the fathers believed
 that the people could never make mis- takes But they believed that thare is | an underlying common-sense which comes to the aid of the people ere it has swung irretrievably in the direction of | disaster. As Linsoln said, You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time,
 but you cannot fcol all of the people a of the time" But the people" means the whole people freely expressing itself not a small minority of professional pol- iticians. Once stihe the voice of the people by whatever device, and there is the presage of evil
 Thomas Jefferson foresaw it when he said: Cherish therefore the spirit of our people and keep alive their atten- tion. If once they become mat tentive to public affairs you and I and congress and assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves"
 This great seer of the early republic believed in the common sense of the people, and so long as it's vigilant eye should be upon its servants he trusted that all would be well. But he dis | trusted the day when the voice of the people should be hushed and instead be | heard only the whispers of politicians, | conspiring in the dark.
 Shade of Jeffersonl The total repub- lican vote of New York city in 1898 was | 54, S00 The number present and voting ! at the primaries was about 4300, or less than 1 in 12. The total democratic vote | of the Sixteenth assembly district was over 40Co with primary vote of 23s, or less than 1 in 16 In the Sixth as- district less than per cent. of the voters participated in the prima- ries, and about one-cuarter of those were officers of the elec- tion.
 Connecticut is full of material for like 1 statistics if any one would gather them In many a caucus where 200 are entitled to vote all the business is transacted by from ten to twenty persons. Many a worthless local Abimelech as the re- suit of 'communing" represents, not the public, but his tribe or faction And of h0 i- | hushed. Archbishop Ireland energeti- cally deplores the evil;
 Among the misfortunes of America I must mention the caucus and the pri- mary By these few men are enabled to impose upon a whole party their own candidates 'Wire-pullers and slate makers take the place of the people and frustrate popular suffrage"
 And D. l.. Godkin the veteran pub icst, shows how the history of the eau rus repeats itself:
 ''Objections made originally to nomi- nations by congress or by the legisla- , ures that the nominators are self-con- f 3tituted and that the bulk of the party l , s not consulted are fully applicable to he present mode of nomination.
 Who is to blame that the intent of the ! , athers is blighted, that the caucus is so z 'ften a farce? Is some tyrant from I without stifling the popular voice? No, aziness, indifference and tmidity keep q he most of the voters away from the 2 primaries. As Samuel B. Capen prop $ rly declares;
 "Multitudes of our citizens are so en- rossed with their own business or their | b wn pleasures that they give no time F r thought to any public interest. They y, t roan sometimes over their taxes, they Ihine about inefficient or criminal off u ials, but it never seems to dawn upon f heir benighted souls that they have any ersonal responsibility for the public u 'eal. They neglect the cau- tl us and the ballot-boX; they will never W ttend public hearing and show at 'l ,ast their interest by their presence. O Is it any wonder that the apa- is