The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-08-29
A Progressive Reform.


and the medium of their emancipation from machine
rule was the primary election system. The can
be said of Oregon and the primary system will give
the anti-corporatonists in Iowa a victory that
Allison, of respected memory, is out of the way He
a pacihcator and acceptable to the corpor-
alton machine, while long service had endeared him
to the ant-corporaton faction of his party.
In the states of the middle west the primary cleo
ton system is loosenng the hold of the bosses and
the tyranny of corporation government is departing
along with their downfall.
A summary of disasters to the machine system in
the states of Kansas South Dakota and North Da-
kota given in recent Washington letter to the
Boise Statesman, in which Senators Long, Kittredge
and Hansbrough were placed in the lineup
amples of what is pretty certain to happen to power
full railroad bosses when the machinery of party is
wrested from their control
AS the republicans of Idaho are about to hold
convention under the auspices of machine that rep
resens alliance of corporate and ecclesiastical in
terests the story of the from bondage of three
important states possesses interest. From Kansas
and South Dakota two pronounced reformers, both
republican, will take the place of two subservient
members of the senate who placed in office and
kept in office VIGOROUSLY through railroad influence.
The result of the uprising in North Dakota cannot
yet be told accurately for its primary election system
has not been perfected the machine having tempered
with the bill while it was its way through the
legislature and extracted some of its most effective
commands So the issue is yet to be fought out be-
tween the several candidates who voted for on
primary election day.
Senator Hansbrough is out of the contest on ac
count of light vote for him, and is important
fact that although he has been the creature of the
corporation machine since the dawn of North Dakota
Ill ,,4l h. ffO-+ o,Of
the railroad boss of the state He weakened at the
last moment and joined the reformers though he
was reeking with the accumulated corporation sins
of a score of years. and the reformers joined hands
with the disappearing machine and tumbed him into
oblivion
Mr. Hansbrough has had no opinions of his own
since he donned the robes of public service yielding
subservient allegiance to the interests under compact
with the A1drich senatorial oigarchy. He has never
in any sense represented the constituency of a great
northwestern agricultural state always taking his in
structions from the corporation boss Alex. McKen-
zie the central figure in the celebrated Nome gold
mines receivershp case who went for time into
the retirement of a SanFrancisco jail and has been
handed down to posterity the hero of wel-known
bit of fiction entitled "The Spoilers"
Such has been the inspiration that has guided Mr.
Hansbrough's senatorial course and it is not at all
surprising that the hard wheat growers of his home
state have risen against the methods he has exemph
fed
The rescue of North Dakota from the demoralizing
control of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific
corporations is not quite complete The job will be
finished during the coming fall and winter.
In the state of South Dakota, Senator Kttredge
began his public as a legislative lobbyist
for the Milwaukee railroad company and was adj
vanced to the position of attorney for that corpora
ton In collaboration with the political representa-