New-York tribune., 1909-03-13
TELL OF PRIMARY LAW
EXPERIENCES IN VEST.
Senator La Toilette Wants Majority
Vote-SenatOr Chamberlain's Vie1CS.

Senator Robert NJ La Toilette. of Wisconsin. dis
crssing direct primary nominations. under the aus
pices of the Civic Forum in Carnegie Hall last
night, said that while he believed the law OF his
state was the best in the land. 1t was, with the
Others defective in important particular This
defect. he said. that it permitted nominations
by plurality vote Our law will be amended in
this respect and otherwise perfected In some of its
details he said. but 1t will be repealed"
The Senator said he did not believe New York
could hopo to get perfect law unless It provided
for majority nominations, and that 1t would be q
mighty dangerous experiment TO give party COM
mittee nominations preference the primary bal
lot so long as nominations were made by plural
ty vote
Robert Erskine Ely. secretary Of the Civic Forum,
introduced Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to present Sena-
tor George E. Chamberlain, of oregon. as the pre-
siding officer.
Senator Chamberlain. a Democrat. who re-
Gently reelected by Republican Legislature be-
he had received the votes Of the people at the
polls, explained the system in in Oregon for
an initiative and referendum and direct primaries
1T has given entire satisfaction to the people Of
state" he said, except the machine politicians
whom 1t has driven out Of power"
After outlining a history Of the convention sys-
TEN, which he said worked we'll so long as the
great problems prior to the reconstruction period
after the Civil War demanded of the citizen much
Of his time and thought. Senator La Toilette spoke
Of the period Of commercial and financial pros
perty resulting In a fight between the state and
the corporations for control He added:
The gravest danger menacing republican insti-
state G and national legislation by the wrongful use
trial and financial corporations The danger is not
new one II is not limited to any state to
ment. every state government. every city Govern
ment has this problem to solve. The influence
which rules may be traced to the close association
Of political and corporate power. 1t is complete
system The system defrauds the people. defeats
legislation in the public interest and passes laws to
promote private interests
tions. If bad men control the nonina tions they
control the government. We have thought much
have neglected our part in preparing the ballot.
You'd be shot to pieces before You would submit to
II. Yet you have been delegating your right to
have had no control Voting ticket when T0' man San
has had control Of its preparation virtually de-
prives him Of his franchise
Coming to the question Of having majority rather
than plurality candidates. Senator La Toilette said:
J9,'sT thts plan when when there are more than Two
second choice or preference for each candidate.
choice votes he would. Of course, become @ u the
nominee Of the party. without recourse to the
II no candidate receives majority Of first choice
votes, then recourse is had 10 the second choice
votes to determine the majority sentiment Of the
party, as shown by both first and second choice
tained upon canvassing the vote The method Of
distributing the second choice 10 determine which
candidate Is upon the whole desired by a majority
Of the voters is very simple. With three or more
n a
choice votes. the candidate having the smallest
number Of such first choice votes may fairly be re-
garded as beaten and out Of the He is. there
fore dropped by the Csnvassers. and those who
voted for him for first choice entitled to have
their second choice votes which have been cast for
some other candidate counted and added TO the
first choice votes Of such candidate. and the
vass proceeds on this -Ule until II is determined
which candidate has majority OF first and second
choice votes.
This plan effectively prevents the lowest or weak
est candidate from securing nomination by
plurality of votes. II acCoris the first
choice vote IT'S due Importance over that OF the
second choice. and takes account OF the second
choice votes. when necessary TO determine the
nomination ~ the candidate strongest with most Of
the voters. considering both first and second choice
Senator la Toilette denounced as false a pub
lished statement that he leading a repudia-
ton of the Wisconsin direct primary law because
Of the trouble over the election Of Stephenson TO
the United States Senate by the Legislature OF
that state after he had received a plurality vote
at the general election "It simply" ne
planned, "a question of investigating charges that
the corrupt practices act had been violated He
added You would say that you were
pudiating the popular election of Governors be-
cause the certificate OF election withheld from
man until charges Of fraud against him had
been investigated"
The Wisconsin Senator said he was not only in