The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1909-02-18
The Senatorial Primary Investigation


The state legislature at Madison af-
ter much preliminary work is investi-
eating the primary election in which
Isaac Stephenson was nominated for
the office Of United States senator and
it is openly given out that Stephenson
will not be elected until some Of the
members Of the Legislature are salts
fed that his campaign expenses,
amounting to nearly $108,000, have
been shown to have been "proper'
expenses. The investigation is to cost
the state $40 a day and while there
seems to be some merit in the com
plant of one Democratic member of
the legislature that the legislature has
no right to expend the state funds to
investigate fight between factions of
political party, it is probable that
the investigation will go on if for no
other reason than to allow the politi-
clans of the state to get some material
for a political fight at a later period.
The primary nomination of Senator
Stephenson is admitted to have been
an advisory one and it is admitted with
just as much weight that not a single
member Of the senate or the assembly
is bound legally to vote for Stephenson.
The primary has just as much weight
as instructed delegates at a, convention,
but it must be admitted that the
greater number Of the people Of Wis
consin have selected Stephenson for
senator and the men at Madison should
be bound by high sense Of honor to
carry out this decision of the people,
Stephenson spent lot of money to
get the nomination, but the man who
has watched political events in Wis
consin knows that it is the rule to
spend a lot of money in campaigns.
Stephenson has been a good spender in
other campaigns from which he re-
ceived no returns whatever and no
one has ever saked for an investiga-
ton of those campaigns. Not even the
bitterest traducer of the old Marinette
lumberman is willing to go into this
part Of the story.
Kenosha county voted in favor Of
the nomination Of Mr.. Stephenson for
senator and it, was given out publicly
before the primary that Senator Bishop
had said that he would abide by the
result of the primary. Just how he is
to justify his action remains to be
SEEN Many good men in the Wiscon-
sin legislature were opposed to the
nomination of Mr. Stephenson and they
were in former years opposed to the
system of primary election, but many
of these men are now found voting for
Stephenson-not because they like
Stephenson any better now than they
did before the primary, but because
the people whom they represent in the
senate or the assembly voted for the
nomination of the Marinette man.
These men are giving their moral sup
port to the law they fought even
against their own better Judgment.
The spectacle Of the other men who
fought for the passage of the primary
and Assemblyman Curtiss was one Of
them-and their attitude in opposing
so bitterly the election of Stephenson,
nominated under their own law, is a
picture of inconsistency rarely seen in
state craft. Before the primary Step
henson, Cook, McGovern and Hatton
had exactly the same chance and all
of them spent money freely to get the
nomination. When the primary vote
was counted Stephenson became the
Republican candidate for United States
senator and as SUCH he is entitled to
the vote of the Republicans of the two
houses.