The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-05-16
The Governors Veto.

| Q1C1OnS IN Mdu1SOu dt GAL PAGoA1bSo III
| It when the discussion first opened in
| the Legislature. From the beginning
the attitude of the friends of the Ste
vens Primary Election sbill has been
uncompromising 1t did not require
any great discernment to see that no
primary legislation that did not COM
prise the features of the Stevens bill
would ever become law. The Gov
ernor's veto is no surprise, nor is the
tone of his veto inconsistent with the
| spirit that has characterized the sup
port of the Stevens bill throughout its
checkered and mu1tiform career.
Gov. La Toilette devotes two-thirds
of his veto to a peroration consisting
chiefly of abuse and innuendo for the
opposition, and about third to his
reasons for disappearing the Hage-
meister bill. It is unfortunate for the
effectiveness of his reasons that they
are preceded by sosmuch that is calcu-
lated to arouse antagonism and bitter
feeling rather than to put the mind
in receptive condition sfor persuasive
argument. The average mans mind
is so constituted that, if he had been
disposed to favor the Hagemeister bill,
such a scurri1ous, arraignment of the
bill and it's friends as the Governor
INDUCES in would have set his opinion
beyond the reach of reason, while the
man who had.,been undecided would
very likely feel disposed to look favor
ably upon the abused party. If the
Governor had withheld his attack un-
til after presenting his reasons for
disapprova1, his veto would have had
greater weight, if it was with any idea
of influencing opinion at the present
time that the peroration was written.
In the meanwhile the Governor will
have to pass as sort of political
Titan. He has destroyed his own off
spring. If he was the father of the
primary election bill in this State, he
is also it's executioner. And all be-
cause the child off his fancy, in the
course of its development, met with
| inevitable influences that SO changed
as to lose it the fathers affections.
And on its tombstone, as it we're, the
grieved parent has inscribed an cpl
taph that, it is hoped, will make the
future understand that it died a mon
ster, the distorted result of vile and
vicious influences, and that it's father,
though he strove heroica11y to save it,
finally took fate in his hands and
killed it that that it might not dis
honor it's parentage.
Despite ali that Gov. sLa Toilette
says, however, hiss primary election
bill met natural death. While the
principle of primary election is no
doubt popular, there was decided and
general opposition to that particular
brand to which the Governor has given
his influence, or at least to the ma
chinery by which he meant to set it III
operation. What has been proposed
as substitute for the Governor par
ticu1ar article has .been absolutely re-
fused by him and his coterie, and the
result is void. If the spirit of distrust
that has characterized the whole dis
cussion and is now so obtrusive in the
Governors message had not been,
primary law might have been enacted
that would have left the party without
any obligations and paved the way for
perfected system in the very near
future. If the Governor had been will
ing to acknowledge a little honesty
and we'll meaning elsewhere than in
his company, if he had been content to
present facts in the true sequence and
relation, if he had been a little more
| liberal and a little less egotistica1, the
present session might have accom-
p1ished real good, his veto might
have been more statesmanlike, the
party might have been more harmoni-
Gus, and the Governors future might
have been considerably more at
| tractive.