The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-09


tated for every party which is large enough
10 command a recognition
SECRECY OF THE BALLOT.
1.-The secrecy Of the primary ballot must
be secured by every possible restriction
and penalty. All that has been found ef-
fective in this direction in the Australian
ballot system should be incorporated in the
primary election law
1T would be advisable for the sake OF
economy if for no other reason, that all
parties Nshould hold their primaries under
control of the same board and at the same
time and place. These suggestions apply
not only to the present primary law but to
/ any amendment Of or substitute for it,
and, as the average board does not and
did not understand and generally apply and
| enforce the provisions OF the present law,
| il is hardly 10 be hoped that more COM
/ pick and indirect system would be success
/ full and every revision or amendment
should be made with one fact always in
| view-that Is, that the law must be so
plain and simple that its provisions can be
cOmprehended, applied, and its details sue
| cessfuly carried out by men without any
| special training-day labOrers, mechanics
/ merchants etc. Added details and added
/ complexities will probably result in con-
fusion worse cOnfOunded.'
II shall not undertake any comparison be-
tween the present or sO-called Joss law and
the proposed Minturn bill. My present
/ feeling as to that controversy is "a plague
| on both houses" Both bills were theoretical
/ and academic. barren localities, so to speak.
/ The failure Of one in many respects pre-
/ sages to the observer similar results with
/ the other. My own views to the kind
/ Of law that would be successful are as
follows:
The first step to practical and success
/ full primary law is, in my opinion, the en-
/ actment OF a registration law. A primary
/ law, if good at all, is good for all parts Of
/ the State equally. Indeed, il would be in
/ the smaller communities and counties in
which the workings could be most rapidly
/ tested and the remedies Tor the failures
most clearly and easily worked out. l be-
/ lieye that primary reform should be
] growth and that therefore laws and law
/ bodies should not attempt TO accomplish
/ too much. The primary law covering the
/ selection of delegates, still preserving the
/ convention idea, would probably be more
/ successful than one that attempted to give
| direct vote. 1t could be so prepared as 10
| be inexpensive and be simple and would
| probably be carried out much better than
| more complex law
"In addition to these considerations feel
| that there is a distinct loss to my party
/ when il loses the deliberations OF con-
/ vention, and the announcement OF its prin-
\ ciples in the form of "A platform which
shall be approved by the delegates, and IN
/ so far as it may, shall control the nominees
of the party as an authoritative declara-
ton in the conduct of their campaign and
| if successful, in the conduct OF their or
| fees. l am fully aware OF the TACT that
/ platforms are made by party leaders more
/ for the purpose of catching votes than or
controlling tia action OF those who are sup
/ posed to stanG upon platform, put even
i the necessity of considering carefully the
needs and demands of the people ana OF
forming a document that shall win the
support of the people Is good thing. us
benefits, like that OF prayers, are not SO
much to the power to which they are ad-
/ dressed as to the petitioners making them
| A written declaration of the principles OF
the party at least form basis for intel tel
/ ligent discussion of the positions OF the
party and of the merits and dement's or
/ the opposing parties, and IT Is TO intelll-
| gent discussion as much as to any other
! one thing that reform of any Kind owes
! its success and its hope of success
PROF. WOODBURN'S REMARKS.
Professor WOODBURY. of Indiana Univer-
sity, was invited by the commission to
speak on Party Politics and the Independ-
/ ent Voter" He talked from the stand
\ point of a man who exercises some degree
/ of independence in party affiliation. DR..
| Woodburn said:
| There is nothing more important to a
\ political people to a body polite, than the
/ conduct of its elections. III elections could
/ be free from corruption the great body or
/ the people would rejoice. And il is part
/ of my political faith to believe that what
/ ever tends TO arouse a greater public intel
| Hgence and public interest in electoral con-
/ duct whatever tends to bring the great
/ body of the people, the rank and file. into
/ actual control of parties and elections, Will
/ make Tor better government anu DellcI
| laws. j repeat elections are the concern
| of all, and they should not be left to the
| few The old lady may say in her ignor-
| ance, or selfish bliss, that she cares not
| how elections are conducted so long as she
| has her roast chicken and her little game
| OF whist but IL we all really ceased to care
! how elections are conducted our dearest
| interests OF life and property would be soon
| endangered.
|. ELECTIONS are not mere party affairs not
mere party business; they are public bust
means thew exist
! but to subserve public ends. Every man.
partisan or independent, ought 10 recognize
| that election laws are TO be made, not by
! the party and for the party, but by the
public and for the public, and they ought
to be operated for the same higher interest
| A citizens first allegiance Is 10 the state;
no party service should demand a betrayal
of the State. AS men and partisans we
| must recognize that the public welfare Is
| the highest law AS long as respectable
| gentlemen, who, in other fields OF life, are
| recognized as men of honesty, honor and
probity consent to bring to their political
| and party service the character and con-
! duct Of the boodler and the perJurer, or
| who will in any way consent 10 and con-
/ done perjury and bribery, there can be no
| hope of electoral REFORM lot OF mechan-
ism cannot save US. All the pains and pen
| alties all the laws and machinery that men
| can devise cannot reform us. Honorable
men must bring the standards of honorable
| commerce into their political conduct to
make politics honorable. If il be true that
politics and elections are only matters of
| barter and sale, honorable men will abstain
| and they ought to abstain, and until they
/ do abstain they can do nothing but con-
| tribute to the dishonor. Electoral cOrrup-
! ton brings us face To face not only with
| our personal dishonor, but with a deadly
/ public peril. There can be no more menaC-
/ ing danger to the State or TO political lib
/ erty. Our American democracy can solve
its problems if il can be preserved free
4 from electoral corruption-not otherwise
/ The people may be poor, and that is re-
gret and temptation, but II the people
/ can be their own, IL their manhood can be
/ preserved. they can meet their problems,
! the great democratic mass will wabble
/ right finally But if il be a question of
/ money and cattle in the shambles. who will
/ care for public discussions. public educa-
! ton. public decisions? Why should one
| care? l sat in the National Educational
I Assembly at Detroit last summer and
/ heard a New York economist speak of an
| educational campaign I'm politics and he
mentioned a project of the notable cam
paign of 80 by which an Eastern political
| bureau proposed to instruct and educate
! the people by the distribution of literature
/ Word was received so he said from one of
! the lake States. Keep your literature and
/ save your money, we find IL cheaper and
/ easier to carry our State at 50 "A head and
YOU may depend upon us Well, the wind
/ will bring the whirlwind, and If that is
, patriotism I'm the service of the State l
i confess l do not understand the meaning
/ OF terms
OTHERS HEARD.
John L. Rupe comes from Richmond
Wayne county, and he had few good things
to say of the primary system as conducted