Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-01-23
VIRClNIA'S PRIMARY LAW
HIGHLY UNSATISFACTORY
licans or remained away
Vast Expenditure.


polls.
Vast Expenditure.
1t is asserted and can be proved,
that the expenses of dozen candi-
dates aggregated 100000 for the pri-
mary contest. One man spent $4,000
to secure an Office that will hardly pay
that sum during. the entire term. An
others bill was $4,000; another SILL.
600; another $4,000 and MANY $4,000.
1t is declared that the system of pri.
mary nominations will make it impos.
sible for man with limited means to
seek public Office and that the man
with large means will have it all his
own way.
Too Much Scheming.
AS one old Virginian, who was in
the thickest of the fight, said to me:
1T looks nice on paper, but it don't
spell out" He said, further that the
trouble was that the primary system
opened up more opportunities for
manipulation and scheming than the
caucus and convention method. 1t
was also pointed out that experience
had demonstrated that under the pri-
mary system if the favorable candi-
date of voters was beaten perhaps by
the bringing out of candidates in vari-
GUS quarters, resulting in the winner
having only plurality and far short
of a majority Of the votes, that his
friends got sore and went over, many
Of them to the other party, whereas If
the matter could have been fought
out in convention, resulting ulti-
mately in some man getting a major
ity of the delegates, then the voters
would be disposed to take philo-
sophical view Of the matter and pull
themselves together to try 1t again at
the next convention.
Towns Have Advantage.
1t is also declared that under the
primary system 1T is possible for a
large town in a county to practically
gobble up everything in sight. For
example, suppose county has 3d.
600 people and small city of 5000
population. The Virginians say the
natural tendency would be for the city
to bring out candidates for the vari-
Gus county offices. It could easily be
arranged that several other townships
or towns should develop candidates
for the same offices. The candidates
in the large town would naturally get
the votes cast they would get a
tering votes and while they would fall
far short Of receiving a majority OF
the votes cast they owuld get a
plurality and hence the nomination. 1t
is declared that the large town would
disclaim any desire to monopolize the
Offices, yet the fact would remain that
by reason Of It's large population it
would in fact obtain the. lions share
of the offices.
Two Elections.
The statment Is made that under
the primary system in Virginia there
we're practically two elections, and in
the first or primary, to determine who
the candidates should be, the demo
Gratis manufactured campaign material
for the use of the republicans that
was used with tremendous effect, and
which would have defeated the demo
cratic party had the republicans been
in shape to take advantage of the
opening. All the misdeeds of parties
and persons, alleged, suspected OF
proven were made public and Of
course used by the republicans. 1t is
pointed out that in close counties the
dominant party would likely lose many
offices through uisaffection as a re
suit Of the campaign under the
primary. Frank ]. Stillman.