The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-04-26

both house and senate.
Trust the People.
More and more state legislators arc
realizing that the most certain method
Of securing pure and capable public
officials is to see to it that nominations
are made in the fairest manner possible
consistent with the ineradicable imper-
fections of human nature. Experience
hath shown that the primary election
Is the best plan and reduces evil influ-
ences and INSCRIPTIONS manipulation
to the minimum, while mass meetings
and conventions furnish the greatest
opportunity for crooked work. The
primary brings the great duty Of max
ing good nominations home to every cit
izen and gives each a chance to exer-
else is best influence in a perfectly
legitimate way. Consequently for sew
eral years the primary has more and
more come into vogue for the nomina-
ton of district, county, township and
municipal positions. South Carolina
has law compelling all nominations,
including that for United States sena-i
tor, to be made by primary on a day
fixed by statute and under the general
election law. If no one receives ma
jority of the votes cast, then two weeksl
later a secondary primary is held to Sc
lect nominee from the two candidates
who received the highest vote at the
first primary. Nothing could be fairer,
and it works like charm in the Pal
nett0 State. Arkansas has a law much,
the same, and it works well in that
state. Now comes Wisconsin and joins
the procession by what will be known
as the La Toilette primary election
law, because it was championed and
forced through the legislature by the
governor of that name. Minnesota has
just enacted law providing that con-
gressional, district, county, township
and municipal nominations shall be
made by primaries in fact, all officers
except state officers and senators Of the
United States. These undoubtedly will
follow later. The primary idea will
spread until 1t becomes universal, for it
narrowly concerns the people that the
best nominations possible shall be made
for all public positions by all political
parties, because, blink 1t as we may,
this is essentially and necessarily q
government by party. The ultra con-
sentative oppose primaries honestly,
but not wisely, simply because they are
innovations. Corruptionists oppose
them because when primaries rigidly
guarded by law are the rule they will
be like Othello, for their occupation
will be gone.
Sweets Revenge.
Colonel John A. Joyce, poet laureate
Of Washington, d. G., is incubating a
biography Of that rare genius, Edgar
Allan Poe, in which he proposes inter.
ALA to prove that Poe was a plagiarist
and stole 1.-THE Raven" from an Ital-.
ian whose name is not divulged. This
Italian wrote, SO it is said, poem
entitled 'The Parrot which much re-
sembles '.The Raven" Poe may have
filched from him, for all know, al
though Colonel Joyce must permit the
suggestion that he is rather late in pre-
ferring the charge. His evidence will
have to be Overwhelming to convict
Poe, for he has been universally con-
sidered as the one American poet
blessed with unquestioned originality;
but If Colonel Joyce does fasten the
charge upon him, and if the spirits Of
dead poets take any interest in the
happenings on this mundane sphere,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow will be
In ecstasy, for Poe worried him greatly
In this life by attempting to prove that
he was q plagiarist. In passing it may
not be inapropos to remark that
Colonel Joyce and Ella Wheeler Will
cox have for years been hurting at
each other the charge of plagiarism,
each claiming the authorship of
Laugh and the World Laughs With
YOU"
Cheap Advertising.
Some time ago I stated in these let
tiers that the signs indicated that Mr..
Babcock of Wisconsin was posing as
tariff reformer for some other reason
than a sincere desire to cut down the
rates Of the Dingley bill. further
stated that Bah knew he could not
induce Republican congress to choke
the pap suckers loose from the public
teat. It looks very much as IL Bah Is
simply trying to secure for himself q
lot of cheap advertising, or he is seri-
ously considering change of political
base. for IL he has half the sense he
has been credited with he knows that
the tariff barons and trusts own the
Republican party body, soul and
breeches, and consequently it has no
more idea of cutting down the tariff