The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-03-23
The Primary Law.
A Further Digest ofthe Provisions of
That Law.

ton, have been discussed in previous ar
ticles. There are two other sections in
the bill passed by the legislature which
| desire briefly to consider. First, the
one eliminating candidates for the judi
ciary from it's provisions.
Michigan has reason to feel proud of
its judiciary. Our judges, with hardly
an exception, have been men of unusual
ability and integrity. 1t is doubtful If
the most enthusiastic advocate of direct
nominations would claim that a better
class of judges could be chosen under a
primary system than we have now, and
have had in the past. Why then should
candidates for judicial nominations be
subjected to the expense and be COM
methods necessary to success in pri
mary?
Governor Johnson of Minnesota, in his
message to the legislature, recommended
that the primary law of that state "be
so amended as to eliminate judicial can
didates from it's provisions" For six
years the circuit judges of Minnesota
have been nominated in a primary. AT
ter we have tried the system few years
in Michigan, if we find that we disagree
with Minnesota's governor and feel it
will be wise to nominate our judges that
way, it will be very easy to amend the
law so as to "include" instead of "elimi-
nate judicial candidates from the pro-
Visions"
The Michigan law provides that can
didates for governor aud lieutenant gov
ernor "shall receive plurality and at
least 40 per cent" of the party vote cast
at the primary to obtain a nomination.
If no candidate for either of these places
secures the necessary plurality, then the
convention following shall select can
didate. 1t has been said that this pro-
vision was put in to ''cripple" the bill.
One of the great objections to the pri-
mary laws that have been tried in this
state and elsewhere, is that ignorant,
misled nr corrupt minorities not infre-
quently nominate incompetent, corrupt
or otherwise Objectionable candidates.
ln Wayne county criminal now in the
penitentiary was nominated for the office
of sheriff 10 precisely the manner refer
red to. In northern county, where by
common consent the dominant party Sc
lected its ticket by direct vote, a saloon
keeper was nominated for sheriff. A
Grand Rapids paper said, in referring to
the primary law in force there, that it
could not be denied that candidates
were nominated at the primary whom no
convention would have dared to place on
ticket.
/ The notorious Mayor Ames of Mime
/ apols, already referred to in a previous
article, was nominated in primary by a
corrupt minority" while the decent ma :
! jority scattered its votes among a num-
Der of candidates, none of whom received
votes equal in number to those polled
/ for Ames.
Governor LaFolette, in his message
to the legislature of Wisconsin at the
beginning of the special session held this
year, referred to this evil of unchecked
minority nominations and urged that
the primary law of that state be SO
amended as to remedy it. Governor
| 80 hrN ico hap .rtn nf
direct nominations, says he believes that
candidates at the primaries should re-
ceive majority of the votes cast in or
der to be nominated and that conven.
tions should follow where candidates
should be selected to fill such vacancies
as were left by the primaries.
Do those who criticse the Michigan
law say that LaFollette and Cummins
desire to ''cripple" primary reformY
The mistake made by the Michigan
legislature in dealing with this feature
of the law, was 10 not applying the AZ
per cent provision to all nominations. II
is my opinion that iE the near future
this will be done.
We may find that the per cent requir
ed may with safety be lowered some
what, or it may be necessary to raise il
to majority as Governor Cummins sug
gests; but believe the principle will re
main in the law and will be extended
sooner or later to cover all important
offices for which candidates may be nom
mated by direct vote.
We are told that the law is "blind,
complicated, "full of unnecessary rec
. tape" "designed to mislead the people,
, etc Let those who utter such vagu
criticism be specific instead of indefinit
in their structures, then there is a basi
for that discussion which leads to clear
er ideas and more complete harmony O
D opinion.
We are also told that the law is no
/. what the people wanted" What is th
foundation for this statementY 1t mus
} be remembered that the methods of al