The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-02
KANSAS CONNENT
THE PRIMARY Law.

The feudalfsts, the bosses of their
day alternately spoiled and protected
these capitalists as best suited their
purposes. exactly as in our day the
modern feudalists, the bosses and
machine politicians alternately black
mail the great corporations or pro-
tect them against the enactment and
enforcement of just laws as best suits
| their modern feudalism.
The end of ancient feudalism was
the invention of gun powder. AND
exactly so the primary ballot will de-
stroy our modern feudalism. The
primary ballot makes the man behind
the plow or the counter, the man at
the forge or the loom, the equal of
the shrewdest boss, the most cunning
the musket leveled military and So
cial ranks in the sixteenth century.
The primary system, the death
blow of modern feudalism has been
bitterly opposed, bitterly fought. Sin
cere and conscientious citizens have
opposed it because it savored too
much Of democracy. 1t has been
the disease of republics But we are
not now dealing with the ignorant
democracy of Athens, of Rome, with
the ignorant peasantry and sans
culottes of the French revolution. We
are placing in power an educated,
Just as gunpowder replaced the ar
mored knight and man at arms with
the trained intelligent so1diery of our
civil war, just SO we are replacing the
boss and his feudatories with an in
telligent, disciplined citizenship, a
reading, thinking, self governing, free
holding. autonomous human being,
able to judge and decide for himself.
1t may be that feudalism in the
middle ages was a necessity against
the anarchy OF ignorance, the JAG
querie of that illiterate age. Most in
situations of human handiwork have
had some excuse for their existence.
1t may be that the convention system
in our country, before the day Of the
newspaper and magazine and univer-
sal intelligence, had its place and par.
In our governmental system, but its
day has passed as effectually, as COM
pletely as the day of lance and armor.
And when this revolution shall
have been effected, when the primary
ballot has conquered modern feuda1-
ism as the bullet did its ancient for
bear, we shall as much wonder at its
existence and iniQuity as we do now
wonder at the crimes Of its ancient
prototype.
One thing more. The newspaper
has supplanted the hustling orator.
Voters read now rather than hear. It
is with increasing difficulty that the
with the growth Of democracy, the
general establishment of the primary
whereby power is returned to the
people, power in the fullest, the peo-
pie will look more and more to the
public prints for authority and in-
formation. Vastly increased will be
the power Of the press and this in
crease Of power should carry with it
increase of responsibility, Of care and
conscience.
Upon the press largely rests the
success or failure of this new expert
ment in democracy. whether this
heritage of ours shall be worth while
or whether it shall fail as all other
democracies have failed before.
Certainly the outlook for the future
is full of hope. Our sun still shines in
undimmed sp1endor not yet declining
from its zenith. There Is no sign
of national senility, no symptom of
racial decay. If there is greed in
Wall street. there Is patriotism in the
White House and the race that can
produce in one generation such men
as Roosevelt and Taft and Hughes
may face the future with hope I'M
dimmed and hearts undismayed.-
F. Dumont Smith, at Lincoln. Lincoln
Dav