Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-28


cabals? The newspapers are read by
nearly all the members of all parties
and, as rule, they have power COM
mensurate to the intellectual force
which they manifest and the integrity
OF their purposes.
No objection to the primary election
| law has been urged more strongly
than the statement that it will give TO
cities preponderating influence over
the rural vote in county and state
| nominations. This statement is merely
an assumption. 1t cannot be replied
that denial of it is nothing more
than that. This is not quite true. The
primary election system has been
/ tried for years in a number of
| southern states. 1t was brought into
| existence in those states through
| necessities of the democratic party,
which was overwhelmingly strong.
The political contests in those states
which were of Importance were wholly
within party lines. The common evils
| of caucuses and conventions, with
| their resultants of dissatisfaction and
party rebellion threatened the demo-
cratic party in those states with dis
ruption. To avoid this result, they
adopted the primary election system
in which every voter could express his
choice and which would be so I'M
questionably fair that no just occasion
| for discomfort could arise. In these
states the rural vote at the pri-
| maries bears as large a proportion to
the total vote as that which is cast in
cities. Any man who says that the
farmers of this state or of the various
counties are going to sit down and let
city politicians run them out of bust
ness in political affairs is poorly in
formed as to the characteristics of
the farming population.
1t will be eighteen months before
the first primary election is held in
this state, and during all of that time
opponents of the proposed law in both
parties will be endeavoring in the
public press and in every possible way
to spread dissatisfaction with it and
use the reason here referred to to &C
complish that result. The farmers of
the state will be thoroughly informed
as to the effect which their absence
from the primaries will produce, and
there is no more danger that they will
permit their city friends to outvote
them in the primaries than there is
that they will stay at home and let the
city people do the voting at a general
| al hn 70 ic.
rather jealous of his political rights
and to quite an extent proud of his
political power. He has about the
same appetite for Office that other
| people have and is far better posted
upon the political questions of the day
| than the average resident of a city.
The assumption that the representa-
tives of a party in any city will get to-
gether and combine against their
country friends is either based upon
| prejudice or absolute ignorance of the
| fierce factional and personal feeling
that permeates the political organ
izations of all parties in nearly every
| city of the state. The truth is that it
will be much easier for representa-
| tives in the rural districts to combine
their forces upon country candidates
| than it will for the warning ward poll
ticians of the city to form a compact
union upon theirs.
Where does this cry come from,
| that the agricultural interest will be
unfavorably affected by the provisions
| of this bill? Does it come from the
farmer? Has any leading farmer in
| this state so expressed himself? Has
any farm organization in Wisconsin
so declared itself? Has any agricult-
! ural organization manifested any fear
upon the subject? Have the farmers
Of Wisconsin expressed themselves in
any definite way except by their vote
at the last election?
1t may be an exhibition of philan-
| thropic instincts and broad public
pitt for politicians and editors to
raise what they deem danger signals
for the farmers of the state when
what they regard as unfair legislation
is proposed. But when gentlemen
enter upon this field of activity, they
should make it certain to the public
mind that their signals are exactly
what they purport to be,-signals Of
/ danger and not signals of distress.
| | do not deny that politicians con-
versant with ms and outs of political
| life, spending their lives, in the main,
in contact with the business men OF
cities may be absolutely sincere in the
| judgment that they and the people
with whom they associate are to 6e
| given a dangerous power in Wisconsin
politics under the operation Of this
bill if it should become a law. But l
do deny most emphatically that they
know what they are talking about
when they say that the primary cleo
ton system, if inaugurated, will line
up in solid column for city candidates
the amiable and harmonious elements
which compose political organizations
in cities, and that it will keep farmers
at home blowing, or divide them into
numerous and powerless factions.
Sixty per cent. of the voters of this
state are practical farmers, and the
remarkable theory is advanced that
this bill affords cheap and easy way
by which forty per cent. Of the voters
of the state can outvote them.
1t would be well to remember that
| following a primary election as well
as convention, regular election IS
to be held, and even if the voting
strength Of cities should consolidate
and ignore in the nomination of can