Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1906-01-12

single county could be induced to re-
caucauses and conventions IL not only
full of opportunities for the exercise OF
pernicious influences, which may and
often do neutralize and destroy the will
and wish of the voters, but, however
fairly carried on results, ordinarily, in
nominations by skilled leaders and expect
manipulators, rather than by the people.
The caucus gives proxies for all the
voters Of the party It represents. for
convention gives proxies for all the voters
of the county for the district or state
convention. And thus, when the end
is finally attained, the outcome may not
be what the voters want, but what
twice removed delegates may want.
have no doubt that oftentimes the dele.
gate plan does register the desire of the
voters, but it fails so often that 1t ought
not to be preserved.
How many of you would favor the
election of state and county officers and
representatives in caucauses and con.
ventions? l venture to say, not one OF
you; and yet the election of candidates
to office is not more important than the
selection of candidates for the general
election. Some most excellent men
who are opposed to primary elections
seem to think that the only purpose OF
such system is to prevent Cheating and
that sordid form of bribery commonly
observed in crowded populations. Such
men fail to discern the still greater evils
against which the proposed enactment is
directed. The chief object of pri-
mary election law is to make 1t certain
that the voice of the plain common man
will be heard and needed. 1t is pos
sible for him to be heard under the pre-.
system, but it requires an effort that
he will not always make. and when ne
never ought to be compelled to make.
All men will agree that the voters o.
any political party should determine
who it's candidates should be. This, !
assume, is fundamental truth, heid
as firmly by those who are against the
primary as by those who are for it.
Those who are against it, however. seem
to believe that the voters can work OUT
their desires as effectually through eau
causes and conventions as through pri-
joined. In caucuses and conventions
the leader. the alert and successful or
ganizer, the man ready with speeches
and motions, the INSCRIPTIONS manipu-
lator, finds his completest opportunity
for influence. Some of the things done
may be innocent and some of the things
done may be wrong and vicious; out
whether innocent or vicious, the ordi-
nary voter who gives no further atten-
ton to politics than to become familiar
with public questions and. to vote when
the time comes, has no fair chance IN
the mysteries of the caucus and the
convention. If there was no other
reason for primary election law, it
would be needed to edualize the capaci-
ties of men for management, and to
make it more difficult, at least, for the
man who promises to bring in town
ship or county. to fulfill his promise.
There is, however, another view
which appeals to me still more strongly.
Our country has changed nightly in
the last quarter of century. Bust
ness and commerce have passed, in
large measure, from the individual to
the corporation. The corporation has
well nigh captured the industry of the
United States. There is close associ-
alton and sympathy among the great
combinations of capital which enable
them to move as though directed by a
single will: They are vitality concern
time, adopted, and therefore one part
Of their gigantic purpose is to control.
to degree, the government-national,
state and municipal. He who does not
see and feel this effect is both blind and
insensible. These corporations and
combinations have at their command
untold wealth, the strongest intellect
ual force ever organized, and an infinite
variety of channels through which to
work; and they intend to prevent any
government from enacting or enforcing
any law which they think ought not to
be enacted or enforced. They will do
this thing if they can, and the most
casual student OF human nature must
perceive that the attempt springs from
the commonest characteristic of the hui
man race. There is just one way in
which they can do it etfectually, and
that is to determine who shall be nomi-
mated and elected to Office.
Their arts cover the whole range of
influence. At one time they bride, at
another they browbeat. Now they de-
ceive and now they seduce. They
take one man to the top of the noun
tain and show him the world that may
be his, and with another they take from
his shoulders a burden that is too heavy
tor him to pear. They run the
whole gamut of human affections, and
sound every note in the chords of both
virtue and vice. In short, they are
requires. Their chief officers are usu-
ally men of standing ana morals, but
their operations are so vast that when
they issue an order to accomplish a
certain result, they do not feel respon-
sible for the manner in which it is at
tanned.
In this state the railway companies
are the political corporations, and while
they have not introduced here all the
methods which have been observed else
where, it is manifest that they have in.
and that they still intend to direct it
if it be within their power. The rail.
ways and their allied forces want to
preserve the caucus and the convention
simply because they know that they
will have a better chance through this
system Of dominating the affairs of the
state than they would have through a
primary election system. They cam
not so easily spread their nets about
the voters as they can about delegates.
Their leaders cannot be SO intimate
with the body of the people as they are
with the managers of caucuses and
conventions. A primary election law
will minimize, If it will not destroy, the
power of railways In politics; and if
there were no other reason for enacting
such statute, this would be sufficient.
look upon the abolition of passes and
the adoption of a primary as parts OF
the same remedial legislation. They
are both needed to secure the desired
end, and neither will be entirely eifec-
tive without the other.
must not be understood as even
hoping that primary election law will
bring about the millennium in politics.
There will still be fraud, selfishness, de-
ceit; but I am sure that when the law
is passed we will have taken one step
toward purer and better government.
am quite aware that there are some
counties in the state. whose representa-
tives will not feel the necessity Of a
change as far as their own counties
are concerned; but trust that they
will not measure their responsibility
by the condition of their own communi-
f;n, t,,f m ho othap hopd will X,;o,,,