Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1902-05-31

nized the custom Of villages as good
enough to be let alone. There the bill
left the voter as it found him, free to ex-
ercise his sovereign right of choice by
direct vote in making nominations for
village offices, without necessarily be-
coming a partisan in order to do so.
Township Officers.
1.-The township officers were three SUI
pervisors, one of whom was chairman
and member of the county board; the
clerk, the treasurer and at least one as
SCISSOR, one Justice of the peace and one
constable. These, eight in all, as in the
case OF village officers, as a matter of
course, had been nominated by direct
vote and often as nonpartisan candi-
dates. This plan in towns had not been
fostered by any statute. The voter in
the town was left by the bill on an
equality with the voter in the village,
and was not bound to partisanship in
order to share by direct vote in the
choice of candidates for the officers of
his town.
I'm the school district there were the
director, the treasurer and the clerk,
three officers. directly nominated, usu-
ally in nonpartisan meeting of the
voters Of the district. These, happily
for educational interests, were excepted
from the bill and from party strife. With
reference to these exceptions the bill
was all that could be desired, and re-
ceived universal approval.
Il need not 90 info tho variouc DroY,;
sions of the statute with reference to
vacancies in office, nominations relating
to which are not provided for under the
Stevens bill. They relate in general to
congressman, members of the state
Legislature and county officers. If there
were vacancy the nomination of a
candidate would have had to be made
by such methods as the parties might
choose. A return to the caucus and
convention in any such case might have
been expected.
THE primary election system of the
Stevens bin was made to apply to the
nomination Of candidates for general
officers of cities. The aldermen and the
city members of the county board are
ward officers and have usually been
nominated by a direct vote in the ward
caucus, which has not necessarily been
partisan. The Stevens bill did not leave
the city voter as free as it found him,
nor as free as it left the town or village
voter with respect to the exercise of
his sovereign right Of choice in making
ward nominations by direct vote. The
bill placed all city officers under the ban
of partisanship. To be sure, party NOM
nations have been more common In the
city than In the town or village, but as
there had been no arbitrary rule making
them such, it would seem unprogressive
irrevocably to have fastened partisan
ship upon the city voter.
Had Been Tried.
"In this state, in the way Of legislative
bodies, we have, first, the state Legisla-
ture, with full legislative power, and vari-
Gus local bodies with limited legislative
powers; the county board, the city coun-
ell, the village board, the town board and
the school district board. All the mem
bers Of all the legislative bodies in the
state, except the major part of the state
Legislature, have been made up right
along of members who were nominated
by direct vote Legislative nominees
in the largest city in the state have been
so nominated for a number Of years.
There are hundreds of towns, villages
and city wards in Wisconsin where the
voters knew how to nominate their Off
GERS by direct vote long before the agi-
tation for primary election bill arose,
and where, when they voted for one
candidate who was nominated by con-
vention, they voted for four or Eve 9TH
ers who had been nominated by direct
vote So that, when I said in the Sen
ate, in the course of my remarks on the
Stevens bill, that I did not wish to be
understood as taking position against
the principle of primary elections
against nominations by direct vote-that
/ believed in that proposition, in so far
as it was practicable and in SO far as
machinery could be devised to put it in
successful OPERATION 1 simply declared
my position to be that of the average
citizen of this state who had cast his
eyes about him and seen for himself the
way in which candidates for offices, in
the majority of cases, had been brought
out.
at had not been a mater of chance
ehfe SAiOoC OhASCAoy WIZ WCIc tAC6pl6u
from the Stevens bill, had been nomi-
mated by direct vote nor had it merely
happened that the offices included with
in the terms Of the bill had usually been
filled by candidates nominated in con-
ventions. Our citizens, acting as individ-
uals, had often nominated their local Off
GERS without regard to parties, and, act
ing i'll and through parties by means of
caucuses and conventions, had looked
after the larger concerns of politics; in
either case they were the same citizens,
and their custom in either case had been
gradually developed out Of the conditions
under which their communities existed
or their parties had been organized. If,
on the one hand, there had been demand
ed better way OF managing town or
village nominations. or, on the other
Of adapting satisfactorily the town and
village practice to the party operations
in a larger political field with reference
to larger number Of officers, experience
would doubtless have suggested the way,
and it would long since have been adapt
ed by parties to their nominating ma
chinery.
The fact that such a way had not
been found and that the bill which was
introduced in the last Legislature was so
cumbersome, SO intricate, so arbitrary in
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