Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-05-19
CHANCE FOR A NEW INDUSTRY

primary law. Under THIS law, as Is
generally understood, when a can
didat1 aspires to secure the nOmina-
ton for any particular office, the
first step necessary is to start out
with nomination papers and secure
the signatures of a specified per
centage of the voters. This per-
centage varies from one to ten per
cent of the party vote cast for the
presidential electorl receiving the
highest vote at the last preceding
general election. In Offices cover
ing small political divisions. such as
city or county offices, the minimum
is three per cent, while candidates
for congress must secure at least
two per cent, and candidates for
state positions at least one per cent.
of the party vote, estimated on the
basis already explained. And in no
case must the number of signatures
exceed ten per cent, which is the
high limit prescribed.
Thus it is easy to understand, that
considerable labor is attached to the
preliminary steps in endeavOring to
secure a nomination, and this labor
is increased in proportion to the
size Of the political district which
the office represents. A candidate
for alderman or supervisor, for in
stance, might find it acomparative-
~ easy matter to secure the required
number of signatures, while it would
take much more time and labor to
complete nomination papers for leg
islative or county Office, still more
for an aspirant for congress, and the
limit would of course be reached in
securing signatures for state office.
Few men, in fact, would probably
have the time to spare, even if they
were willing to undertake the labor
and necessary expense in travelling
around to secure signatures for the
large offices, and it is therefore to be
expected that much of this work
will be delegated TO others, who in
most instances, of course, will ex-
Dect some remuneration for their
services.
This has brought the idea to some
bright pusher that 1t would be a
good thing to organize a company
to attend to all this work for asp1r-
ants for Office, charging them a
stated price for such services ac-
cording to the amount of labor in
volved. According to Mr.. George
F. Grassie, political writer on the
Milwaukee Wisconsin, this plan is
actually being considered by some
of the men of that city, and in
speaking of the project he says: |
''Plans are being considered for the
of a company to make
life more easy for office seekers. |
For a certain stipulated sum this
company will guarantee to circul-
ate nomination papers, secure the
requisite number of names of free
and independent electors, file them
at the proper time, and attend to all
the annoying details consequent up
on running for office. When a man
decides that he is the proper man to
fill public position, all he will have
to do is to pay the proper fee to this
company and they will do all the
rest"
AS matter of fact there is good |
reason to believe that the carrying
out OF this plan would prove profit
able to the promoters, and at the
same time be hailed with joy Oh the
part of Office seekers. By sys-
tematizing the work it would be
possible for good manager to
greatly reduce the expenses of CIR
culating nominating papers, as the
same lists of voters would serve for
all the different offices in the same
political division, and moreover the
same agents employed would be
able to make the canvass for several
offices at the same time, instead of
being compelled to cover the ground
for each aspirant separately. There
could be no objection to even cir
culating the petitions of candidates
of different political faith at the
same time, and thus vast amount
of labor and expense would be eli
minated. In fact the work would
be entirely non-partisan, excepting