Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-12-11
Major Lacey and His Constituents.
[By D. w. Norris, of Grlnnell.l

S, Of Grinnell.l
number of years. He believes that
Major Lacey is a strong man, an in
tellectual man, an honest man, a
good citizen, and he believes that
he has been a very useful man in con-
gress, at the same time he can not
shut his eyes to the fact that Major
Lacey is in some respects one of the
most intolerant men in public life. His
conduct toward Cummins and toward
the men who hold the same views that
Cummins holds, it, so extremely mar
row, unreasonable, and unfair, that he
is absolutely contemplate. If Cum1nins
should undertake before some Chau-
moon is not made Of green cheese, the
whole stand'pat gang would instantly
fall upon him and swear that it was
green cheese and must confess, that
for one, l am getting just little tired,
and l happen to know a good many
voters in the Sixth district that feel
as l do. ! have no candidate to oppose
Major Lacey, l am not helping to
groom any. but / think the time has
come for Mr.. Lacey to manifest diff
ferent spirit toward great many Of
the men who have been supporting him,
and if he persists in his fool like
course, he will eventually run against
a snag, like Hepburn in the Eighth.
We don't claim to know 1t all, neither
do we think that the congressman from
the Sixth and Fifth and the Eighth
districts know it all. One great man
in Iowa, not long ago, ended mos.
brilliant career, because he was suffer-
ing from this very ailment.
In Washington dispatches we learn
that the major lis greatly concerned
about the country voter losing his po-
litical liberty to the city voter as re-
suit of state primary law. This
scare crow is the same old bundle of
rags and straw that has been used
for years on the country voter in
those counties that have supplanted
the convention with the primary, and
yet this same country fool goes right
on voting year after year to retain the
primary system. The major works
scare head if he is correctly reported,
and have no doubt he is. He predicts
for the members Of the legislature who
usaLC " pass SuCH 1ACdSuiS. AdNO
no doubt that when Senator Crossley
sees this threat he will cease his la
bOrs on state primary bill. The
members Of the legislature are elected
by the same men who vote for con-
gressmen, and If the people choose
men who will pass a primary law.
why should there be severe reckon
Ing" for the poor devils? Who is going
to do the reckoning" the people of
the Iowa delegation?
What possible objection can Major
Lacey, or any other intelligent, hon
est citizen, urge against a primary
law? Many men. in fact most men.
and all the men who are today study
ing how to purify politics and increase
the power Of the individual voter over
that of the wire puller and professional
politician, believe that the primary
system will do more than anything
else to bring back to the citizen the
power that the convention has taken
from him. No man can sit and hear
Governor LaFollette tell the story Of
his eight years of struggle with the
men who dominated conventions in
Wisconsin, without realizing the utter
HOLCllllIy VI tCuS 1llQlSlQudl III pOllIlCS
under that system. We know how it is
here; we know that for years and
years not a single nomination for a
state office was made in Iowa that was
not dictated by Judge Hubbard and j.
w. Blythe; we know how this accused
domination was thrown off in 1900 by
an uprising that was almost a revolu-
ton, and how we have fought every
year for recognition, only to be again
defeated by convention machination in
1904.
Here in Poweshiek where the stand
pat element seems to be in a hopeless
minority and is represented in. our
nominating conventions by less than a
dozen, it is always a fight to secure
and hold our rights. At the last con-
vention of this kind, several men, real
izing that they could not be recognize
ed, because they did not represent the
political sentiment Of the people Of the
country, secured proxies from unsus-
pecting delegates for the sole and only
purpose of destroying unity of action,
and setting aside the will Of the ma
jority. Not only railroad passes, but
railroad attorneyships, were. used to
give recognition to men that the con-
vention had expressly and overwhelm-
ingly refused to recognize.
It is not my purpose now to enter
into an extended discussion of the adj
vantages of state primary law. 1t
ought not to need any discussion. The
superiority of such a system over the
old, rotten, corrupt, ring-ridden con-
vention, ought to be obvious to all
men. /. am only trying to show the
hort-sightedness of the men who are
opposing it. I verify believe that If it
were not for the fact that a primary
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