The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-08-26
THE PRIMARY is A FAILURE.

is the right one.
THE PRIMARY is A FAILURE. e.
Is the direct primary nomination
system a success or is it failure
The voters of northern Nebraska. both
republicans and democrats, are ready
to condemn it as a failure They
would prefer that the law be repealed
and that the old convention system be
restored. They are ready to prove
that the primary is not in practice
the representative instrument that it
is in theory; they are prepared by
actual figures to demonstrate that the
old convention system actually got
out more votes and was, therefore.
more thoroughly representative of
the wishes of the masses than this
new plan.
Theoretically it might be said that
If voter wouldn't go to the primary.
he wouldn't attend caucus. But in
practice this is disproved. AS a mat
ter of fact there is sociability about
political caucus or convention which
will draw men to it when the primary.
lonely, bloodless thing, fails to at.
tract In the old caucus, there was
the crowd of human beings to meet
and to rub elbows with there was
opportunity for handshaking and in
terchange of ideas through the haze
of sociable tobacco smoke. There was
a sort of community reunion that
brought men together into fraternal
intermingling which the primary, ma.
chine-like and lonely, utterly fails to
do.
There were not as many votes cast
in Norfolk at Tuesdays primary as
there would have been voters at the
combined ward caucuses under the
old system.
And an instance in Pierce illus.
trates the point: Just fifty.two voters
nominated Boil for republican candi-
date as county commissioner in that
county. That represents the entire
county vote. More republicans than
that, many times over, would have at
tended the combined precinct eau.
cuses under the old plan.
A few months ago an old citizen
of Madison county died and was car.
ried to his grave. A handful of neigh
bors attended the funeral. If he had
died four years ago, when the old
convention system was in vogue, sew.
eral hundred representative citizens
OF Madison county, from all its corn.
ers, would have attended that funeral
TO pay last tribute. For that man
used to attend the county conven.
lions as regularly as they came. And
that death of the brotherhood that
was formed among the masses of com.
mon people by the old caucus system
that drew men together, has been
caused by the primary and is the
cause, in turn, of the failure of the
primary to bring out as representa-.
tive ballot as the old caucus sys.
TEN used to bring forth. A dispatch
from Bassett says not one farmer in
SIX drove into the voting places and
marked a primary ballot. It's too
lonesome a procedure. Under the old
| caucus plan, nearly half the farmers
would turn out to help name the
ticket.
The open primary, allowing a voter
to stray out of his own party stall at
the primary and help nominate a ri
val party's ticket, neglecting his duty
to his own party, is fundamentals
wrong, as was proclaimed by The
News at the time such a law was in
contemplation and as has been dem,
onstrated by this weeks primary.
The primary is made into a farce
by this open system. In the last analy,
sis, the primary law was adopted SO
that voters might have a share in
naming the candidates of their own
parties-to give the control of the
party to every citizen. But that kind
of system which tempts a voter over
into another partys pasture, inducing
him to neglect his duty to his own
party, is wrong both to his own party
and to the rival party.
II is ridiculous that republicans
should be able to edge their way into
a democratic primary and name the
democratic ticket, or that democrats
should be allowed to nominate the