The Boise citizen. (Boise, Idaho) 1906-1910, 1906-12-14
HEPBURN ON
PRIMARIES
Senator Opposed To
Direct System
EXPRESSES VIEWS AT SOME
LENGTH
Finds MdnU Faults With Proposed
Plan, Which Claims Would
Disrupt Parties


to the Pocatello Tribune says:
United States Senator Hepburn this
afternoon gave out the following state
ment of his position with regard to the
enactment of direct primary law in
the state of idaho, as advocated by the
Democratic state platform:
''The proposal to establish the direct
primary at the coming session of the
legislature of Idaho is a menace to the
Republican party and its organization
should be defeated. 1t originated in
mongrel politics united to oppose and
defeat the Republican party at any cost
or sacrifice of political principles and
is an attempt to substitute individual
ambition and enjoyment of office for
principles of government The Dem
ocratic platform declares for it The
candidates under the direct primary
system are bound by no party and no
party stands sponsor for them. In the
absence of the convention or the COM
ing together of the people of one politi-
cal faith, there is no opportunity to ex-
press the principles by which the can
didates are to be governed, and the can
didate who after the election, adopts
methods or principles utterly inconsistent
with the party that he is presumed to
represent, cannot be called to account
on the grounds that he has violated the
faith of the people or the principles of
the party.
Il have been astonishcd to find good
Republicans advocating the doctrine of
direct primary on the specious
grounds that it was getting nearer to the
people This is a sophistry with which
the Republican party should before this
have grown familiar, as the means by
which its enemies have sought to fool
the people for a long time
''The Republican party stands for well
defined principles of government that
have proven successful and have secured
happiness and prosperity to the people.
Its opponents represent greed for office,
wherein the office and the individual are
one and the same thing, purely selfish in
aim.
1--WE do not want Democrats, Popu-
lists, Socialists and the various political
of expediency to assist in
the selection of those who are to rep
resent the principles OF the Republican
party
'Under the direct primary system it
would be entirely possible and highly
probable, that the opposition to the Re
publican party would unite with small
of that party for the purpose
of defeating the will OF the majority
of the party, and thereby nominating
at the primaries men who would in no
manner represent the principles of the
party; and furthermore, as
has been done in more than one in
stance where the direct primary is in
vogue candidate knowing that he could |
not receive a majority of the votes of |
his party at the direct primary through /
his friends secured a division of the
opposition to himself so that by placing
a number of candidates in the field
against himself, and dividing the oppo-
sition has been elected at direct pri-
mary although receiving less than 25
per cent of the votes. The direct pri-
mary system is an enticing suggestion
On its face; it sounds we'll as an alb
stract proposition, but upon analysis it
IS readily stripped of its seeming fair
ness and alleged patriotism and stands
forth as the frame work upon which
o construct an infinite variety of cor
-upt practices to defeat the will of the