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

your city government 0S 0IOAA '41o''
bane and that curse, the caucus and
the nominating conventions that IS
responsible for all the ills to which
our city governments have fallen heir.
This bill emasculates those two
elements from your city politics and
at the same time it gives to you who
desire not to follow the party precept
or the party doctrine in your vote on
municipal elections the right to follow
the dictates of an Independent con-
science outside Of party lines, and 10
put up your candidates in mass con-
ventions or city convenuonss as you
see fit, and vote for them as you see
fit. A meeting is held by the citizens
of a municipality. There may be cry
ing evils in the government. They
may all be presented at that meeting,
a candidate may be agreed to and all
swear to support him. He can be
put on the ticket as an Independent
nomination, and he can be advertised
from one end to the other Of the
municipality, and everybody who has
attended that meeting or that cOnven-
ton which is called may vote for him
and advocate his election. 1t is not
So that politics are injected into
municipalities by reason Of this bill.
Bad politics are emasculated from
them by reason of it, and that Of it.
self is almost reason sufficient to pass
it.
Reply 10 Some Objections to Stevens
Bill.
Now, we have heard from two very
eloquent gentlemen this afternoon
and two before this afternoon about
the wickedness and RIGHTEOUSNESS of
this bin because under it men are re-
quired to seek the Office and the Office
does not seek the man. The last
gentleman who spoke upon this sub
ject is one of our abIest lawyers in
this state. and has the power to al
most make people believe as he does.
lie has been engaged in the business
Of arguing very hard cases before
tribunals that went on the merits and
were strong against him. He has
been very ingenious and very power
ful in eliciting from courts and juries,
decisions in his own favor. There is
no more versatile man in the state,
and when he comes before you AMI
presents to you the two arguments
which he did against this bill, it is
the very best conclusion that he can
reach. There can be not very much
against it. He says, first, as l told
you, that under it the officer must
seek the people and not the people the
officer. Let us see. Under your
caucus and convention system, this is
true, it is not: That men are not
forced upon tickets? That nobody
dragS them out from the quiet of their
own hOmesides and places them up
before the public as the candidate for
an office? You have not heard Of an,
instance of that kind in this state
since you went into politics. l know
1t was said on the floor of this as
sembIy that on one occasion that was
done. but that statement is not borne
out by the facts. That statement was
made in reference to the convention
ol 1897. | will call no names, but you
and all Of us who were here in 1892
know the fact that from one end to
the other of this state there was one
candidate before that convention.
The people had talked about him and
the people were for him The day of
that convention came and somebody
said to that man, You get off of this
ticket and let somebody else get on
lt, and he got, and the man that
was nominated was defeated at the
polls. In just two years from that
time the man that was told to get off
. was a candidate again, and by a MIN
faHty of over 10000 votes swept this
state. There was nothing sDontane-
Gus, there was nothing free and omen
about the proceedings of that CON
Fehtlon, and | would point to that con.
Fehtlon Itself as the one before all
others that calls for the abolition of
the abominable system that made that
possible. In every convention the
man who gets the nomination is a
candidate for the Office. His friends
so out into the caucuses. They go
out into the conventions. They 90
over the state and work up sentiment
III his behalf. You never knew of a
case where it was not so. A candi-
date has always sought the Office in
TINS state.-at all events in so far as
10 say that he was a candidate. And
II IS no detraction from a mans honor.
II Is no scar upon his manhood to he a
n
SVEN right. 1t is privilege which
belongs to him, and he does not de-
grade himself in his own mind or in
the mind of anybody else by the mere
TACT that he is a candidate for office
Inc gentleman who addressed Won
upon that subject this afternoon al
though he knew the fact yerv well
ald not tell it to you,-for the high
ana exalted office of Judge of the S..
pFeme court of this state, for years
PACK, no man has gone upon thst
nehch without having circulated from
one end to the other of this state y
petltlon asking for signers naming
nm as candidate for the office
lass the Stevens bill. and no candi-
date for a state Office or any other
once within your gift will be reouired
TO h2Ilttle his manhood any more than
every one OF the men who fill those
responsible positions on your SUI.
preme bench and who are the final
afolters OF every question of law that
IS presented in this state, have done
ana are required to do. The whole
argument, all of his grief and his
sorroWlng, are wiped out by that one
SlnGLo nrNnASitinn Il L. n -------,-L