The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-08-29
Nominations by Conventions.

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The following extract, taken from
an able editorial in the New Orleans
Daily States, brings to light sever
al points in favor of the convention
plan that have not heretofore been
discussed by the press. The States
says:
1t is perfectly plain to one who
observes that there is as much CON-
bining, swapping, bartering and
juggling with the peoples will
possible under the primary method
as in any other, it is undeniable
that it is more cumbersome, expen-
sive and riotous than the conven-
ton plan; it can not be denied that
it furnishes a better opportunity
for the effective use of money for
purposes of corruption and the
building up of an oligarchy of
wealth and afficialdom, nor can it
truthfully be claimed that it con-
duces more to party harmony than
the convention method. Where,
then, is the advantage of the pri-
mary method? In all the elements
of undesirability complained of in
the convention method it excels,
and in at least one important respect
it possesses a political menace of
which the convention is free.
This menace is found in the
power it places in the hands of the
State Central Committee. In cases
of contests the right of appeal
must be granted, and the power to
hear and to decide the contest must
be vested in some responsible body.
Naturally that body is the State
Central Committee, and as that
committee is q large body its func-
tons in respect of deciding contests
will be delegated to a subcommittee
of discreet members of the parent
organization. We saw how that
operated once in this state, and we
noted the same thing, and the gen.
eral dissatisfaction that resulted
from the decision of the committee
after the first primary held in the
Seventh Congressional district last
year.
1t makes no difference how
strong the grounds upon which the
decision of the committee may rest
in given contest, the candidate
cast by the decision will be dissat-
fed, and the criticism will go up
that the people elected, but the
committee made the nomination.
OF course, it will be urged that
these things may not happen often.
We grant it; but in time they will
happen, and whenever they do hap
pen the cry that the committee
made the nomination will gain cre-
dence to the serious jeopardy and
possible disruption of the party.
These things are not idle dreams
nor trivial conjectures. We know
whereof we speak because the his
tory of the state shows these very
things have come to pass in Louisi-
ana, once SO recently as year ago
under the very laws that are in
force now, and with every safe
guard thrown around the system
to insure honesty and fairness.
To assert that these things are
not likely to occur is to beg the
question. They are made possible.
They have occurred under recent
observation, and their results were
most disturbing and demoralizing.
We should not build our political
structure for fair weather merely,
trusting to luck to escape the storm.
It should DO built four-square to all
the winds that blow, and capable of
resisting storm or stress. To
change the figure, chain is no
stronger than its weakest link, and
the wise man in establishing a sys-
tenn will reject the chain with links
80 weak that they can not stand
the severest strain possible. Re-
dnced, therefore, to its last analy-
sis, the primary method is meth
cd denomination by a sub-commit-
tee of the State Central Committee.
The last issue OF the Winfield Com