Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-03-07

state convention. he goes there TO
nominate some man for the high Office
Of governor, and when he gets there
looks around and sees what he can do
best for himself in giving his vote to
the person who may be nominated at
that convention--is he representing
your interest, is he thinking of your in
terest, is he competent agent to
transact your business? Most GER
tainly not, and the only way, the only
way that you can rid yourself Of such
an agent is to vote. directly for the
candidate himself.
Another thing: in business, in any
thing else that we know about, you
appoint agents to transact your bust
ness where it is necessary, where, by
reason of some other employment of
your own, it is impossible for you to
transact that business yourself. You
never, any of you, appointed an agent
to transact your own business at your
own home and send him off into some
other quarter Of the state to transact
it there. You never, where you could
do the business at home by one
thought, by one act which would not
be so much as the appointment of the
agent itself, would dream of such a
thing as selecting an agent to transact
that very business and send HIM out,
away from your home, into distant
part of the state, to transact it. There
is no reason for it.; there is no sense
in it, and the American people and the
people of the state of Wisconsin have
been sleeping upon their rights in
this respect.
Now. need not depict what the
caucus and the convention is any
further, but do want to give you an
opinion written by man who
knows more about it, I think, than any
man who has ever studied the subject,
because he has studied it more; a man
who came to this country from Great
Britain; man, who, when he came
here, was student; man who came
here for the express purpose of look
ing into our political system; a man
who believed in the American people
and who believed in their institutions;
a man who has said as much lauda-
tory to the American people as any
man who ever wrote in this country
or any other; a man who, as I say, be-
lieves in the fundamental principles
of our government and has the highest
admiration for American people. That
man is Mr. Bryce. You have all heard
of him in his work on "The American
Commonwealth" and at pages SO,
99-101, vol. 2, he says, after he has
treated this subject somewhat at
length:
Caucus and Convention System De-
scribed in Bryce's American Com
monWeath.
THE next thing is to get the dele
gates chosen whom you wish for The
committee when it summons the pri-
mary settles in secret conclave the
names of the delegates to be proposed,
particularly the office-holders bound
to the party which has put them in,
and workers whom the prospect of
office will keep faithful When the
meeting assemblies a chairman is sug-
gested by the committee and usually
accepted. Then the list of delegates,
which the committee has brought down
cut and dry, is put forward. If the
meeting is entirely composed of pro-
fessionals, office-holders, and their
friends, it is accepted without debate.
If opponents are present, they may
propose other names, but the official
majority is almost always sufficient to
carry the official list, and the chair
man is prepared to exert, in favor of
his friends, his power of ruling points
Of order. In extreme cases a distur-
bance will be got up, in the midst of
which the chairman may plausibly de-
clare the official list carried, or the
meeting is adjourned in the hope that
the opposition will not be at the
trouble Of coming next time, a hope
likely to be realized, if the opposition
consists of respectable citizens who
dislike spending an evening in such
company" j. Zone
way or another the official or COM
mittee's list of delegates is almost in
variably carried. The
above may be thought as it thought by
many Americans a travesty of popular
choice. Observing the forms of con-
sulting the voters, it substantially ig-
nores them, and forces on them per-
sons whom they do not know, and
would dislike if they knew them. 1t
substitutes for the party voters gener-
ally a small number of professionals
and their creatures, extracts pre-ar-
ranged nominations from packed meet.
ings and calls this consulting the
pleasure of the sovereign people,"
Now, that is his picture of the nomi.
mating caucus,-not any particular
one, but gathered from his experience
and study of the whole subject-matter
over this whole country. 1t is true
Nobody can gainsay it. Nobody can
say that this caucus and convention
of candidates; gives to them the right
to vote as they please, with an under
standing that their vote shall be
counted on the merit 1t is fixed I'D,
it is prearranged, and the people of
the state of Wisconsin have learned it
and they do not go to either the one
or the other.
Remedy Found in Primary Election
Bill.
Now, it has been said, that this bill
is faulty in very many different re-
spects. 1t may be in some. i do not
stand here to say that it is not 1
simply say that the principles of it