The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-06-18
THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE.

1.-THE Tin1es-Den1ocrat favors the rule OF
the people and is aligned in favor of prl-
mary elections for the nomination OF
candidates instead of the effete system
of conventions, cut and dried affairs,
where the few manipulate and pull the
strings" for the select. The people, the
Democrats who vote and carry elections
in Louisiana have been insisting on the
rule Democratic
In an editorial in an issue of recent
date the Times-Den1ocrat under the
head of louisiana Supreme Political
Need says:
In theory our government is the
servant of the people; in practice the
people are serfS of the Governor
These problems are not to be solved
through academic debate. A simple and
efficient remedy for the evils must be
found. 1t is the cause, not the effects,
that we must take in hand. Twas said
of old that all roads led to Rome. In
our case, all the paths of the spokesman
lead to the device by which elections are
made to defeat the popular will. Candi-
dates are named behind the closed doors
Of the caucus, instead of being chosen
at the polls. The convention is a slaugh-
ter house for every aspirant who dares
to call his soul his own. Delegates are
chosen, but nobody knows what they
will do when the master intriguers pull
the wires. In reading the ticket, one sees
but too clearly that the survival of the
unhttest is the law of our political be-
ing.
I'VE are firmly convinced that this
evil order must change, giving place to
saner methods. A reformed suffrage has
begotetn an electorate which is thor
oughly competent to rule, without the
intervention of n1iddIemen of high or
low degree. We need thorough-going
system of primaries, SO that every hon
orable politician may find fair field.
The Democratic party must be truly
democratic once more. Platforms. must
no longer be written in back room, but
must be traced by referendum. There
must be no more Of this swapping of
nobody against nobody, no more pooling
of patronage issues. The average Demo-
crat must have a chance to speak his
own mind in his own way.
with this central reform accom-
plished, all other reforms will become
easy. Consider for a moment what such
a revolution would mean for New Or
leans. The props having been removed,
the detestable superstructure of ward
politics would come down Of its own
weight. The boss would be relegated to
innocuous desuetude at ence, since
every ballot cast in the primaries would
tell The electors must vote in the open,
and candidates would have to declare
themselves in advance. Great measures
would be discussed in rational manner.
The community would thus be enabled
to realize its highest ideals and would
have no difficulty in rising to the full
stature of its nobler self.
We should therefore fix our attention
on the placeman's citadel and resolve to
carry it by storm; from thence we may
dominate all. the outWerks Of population
and peH. A failure of the siege will
leave the beIeagaring army helpless and
disorganized. Capitalization and att
toeracy may serve to bridge over a
crisis but will not avail an ordinar;
means Of administration, We want tbs
substance, not the shadow, of freedom
We must choose the heads of the State
instead OF delegating the function te
pign1y Caesars who. in the anNiety t.
grind axes, forget the commonwealth:
dearest concerns The old farce-traged,
has held the boards leng enough: thu
Icuftain should be rung up on more
pleasing and more profitable stuff.