The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1904-09-23
The Law in Minnesota.

liberal measure Of primary reform lit is
the ol..y one to which he could so refer,
aud says the people there are moving
for its extension to all offices. This is
true as to some of the people, but it
would be more fair to say also that
there is deepseated opposition to that,
especially among the people of the rural
districts, who in Minnesota constitute
a great majority. Under the Mime
sofa law, congressman, legislators, and
county and local officers, are so nomina-
ted; and while in the smaller civil divi-
sions it has to large extent produced
good results, there have been striking
exceptions, as in the promotion of the
notorious debaucher, DR.. Ames, to the
mayoralty of Minneapolis; and in the
larger divisions, like congressional and
senatorial districts and some counties,
the results have been especially unsat-
isfactory to the country people who
are inevitably outvoted by the more
populous precincts. The Minneapolis
Tribune, leading paper of the state
and one of the prominent journals of
the country, says of their experience so
far:
"Its practice is the reverse of its
theory. 1t does not put power in the
hands of the majority of the people.
By multiplying candidates and confus-
ing the public mind. it gives office to
the most industrious advertiser and
campaigner by plurality that may be
only ten per cent of the whole vote. 1t
does not raise the standard of public
service in electoral districts larger than
those in which every candidate is per-
sonally known to his neighbors. 1t
has distinctly lowered the average
quality of new members of congress in
this state. 1t does not Danish corrup-
ton from elections. 1t has tempted
nearly every newspaper in this state to
encourage an army of candidates, in
order to camp on the trail of every one
to extort money for keeping him before
the people. On the other side, it has
distinctly raised the standard of mem
bers of the Minneapolis city council,
and. tends to keep in Office cdonty
officials who have made good records ]"
This testimony from the experience
of the state to which Mr.. Ferris appeals
affords strong support of the wisdom of
the republicans of Michigan in their
position upon this question. and no
support whatever for Mr.. Ferris and
his party in their position. Neither
does it at all support his assumption
that Minnesota is about to enlarge the
scope of her direct nomination law to
that urged by the Michigan democrats
1t testifies to good result in the smaller
jurisdictions, and is plainly favorable
to its retention there. That is what
the republicans of Michigan propose to
inaugurate. 1t testifies with equal
emphasis to bad results in the larger
jurisdictions, and that is field in
which our party has thought it wise to
move with caution as experience and
educated Judgment shall dictate. The
Minnesota testimony also shows, that in
some counties the working of the system
is satisfactory to the constituencies in
terested, while in other counties it is
not so. This, again, is strikingly con-
firmatory of the wisdom of the proposal
here to make the system available to
every county, but applicable only to
such as shall choose ito make its
adoption optional with the people them
selves, instead Of Obligatory upon all as
was done in Minnesota.
The Minneapolis article say, "The
state of Minnesota rushed blindly into
the direct nomination law under the
guidance of political Missionaries. de-
signing demagogues and greedy graft
ers." The terms accurately describe
Mr.. Ferris and his party. He, and no
doubt many honest members of his
party, are the political Missionaries. 1t
had not been known that he had pro-
nounced convictions upon the issue
which on his nomination suddenly be-
came his engrossing theme; but under
the tutelage of the democratic mana
gers, who are designing demagogues,
and who in this case have taken their
cue from the greedy grafters known as
the Scripps league, he has become as
enthused as though he had been making
life study of the theory of nominations
instead of theorems of mathematics.
eve think it highly desirable" the