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

ceive their nomination from the PEG
pie; they will each of them owe their
nomination to the people directly, and
they will therefore have due regard
for the will Of the people.
Could the duty of writing a plat.
form be put in better hands than with
those whose personality and princi
Piles have been studied and considered
by the people with the mature and de
liberate consideration which the pro-
posed system will enlist and whom
the people have by direct vote, after
such consideration, placed before the
public as the nominees of their re-
spective political parties? 1t seems
not. Better it seems to me that it be
thus than 10 simply allow platform
committee consisting of few dele
gates in a convention, who lack such
an interest and responsibility, to write
a party platform, having it understood
beforehand as a part of the conven-
ton program for some one to make q
motion and send the platform through
with an reclamation vote, without the
deliberate consideration which the
party nominees would give to it were
the responsibility left with them.
City Control Over Rural Districts.
I am a resident of what might be
called a rural district, and l have not
learned that there is complaint made
or fear expressed there that the prim-
airy election system will allow the
cities of the state to control party
policies or nominations.
There can be no fear upon this
point among the people of the rural
districts.
With the possible exception of some
worthy? gentlemen who may be classed
as the little wheels of party machine
locomotive. This fear of city control
eminates from those who have greater
fear of the primary election for per-
sonal reasons, and not for reasons
which appeal to them on account of
their great interest in the public well
fare.
But suppose we give them the credi
of good intentions; can it be so that
such danger exists? 1t is not a fact
that a candidate in order to win sup
port for a nomination under a primary
election system, will have to place
himself before the people, allowing
them to know and understand his
worth. rather than as now, when
person unknown to anyone but the
politicians, and unheard of as a candi-
date, may on the spur of the moment
be nominated as a dark horse.
1t is true that the politicians of the
cities of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and
Madison, or other cities might com
bine, and it is true also that the poll
ticianS all over the state of Wisconsin
might combine, the purpose of the
combination in each instance being to
control party policies, and nomina-
tions. But you must remember that
under the proposed system the politi-
clans cannot control The people will
have it all to say by direct vote.
The combination being an unworthy
and undesirable one, as all such com
binations are, the people would rebel,
not only in the rural districts, but as
we'll Throughout the state, and some
man of merit, whose personality and
principles appealed to the rank and file
of the voters would go in with a whoop
under and by virtue of primary cleo
ton law, refuting and making impos-
sible in that case, as it must in all
cases, all INSCRIPTIONS combinations
and schemes for control in politics.
The rural districts will therefore
not be pitted against the city, nor the
city against them, but the good citi-
zens of each will join hands at the
ballot box and make politics purer and
government better.