Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-05-21
COMMISSION FORM
Advocates Of Same Are Engaged in J
Campaign For simpIihcation Of
Election Methods.
From The World Of Friday:

Election Methods.
From The World OF Friday:
Advocates of the commission form
OF government for cities lay a great
deal of stress upon the fact that uu
der the system there are fewer cleo
tive offices and the attention of the
voter is concentrated upon a handful
OF candidates whereas under the meth.
cd that obtains now the ballot is long
cumbersome and confusing.
The Short Ballot Association. which
is pushing an active campaign for
the s~impliication of election methods,
N its latest bulletin SEN out yester-
day has this to say about the sdyan-
tages of the short ballot:
I'VE shall never get government by
the people until all the people know
the candidates for all the elective Of
fees. How else can the people do
the choosing for themselves? We
must get the short ballot. We must
ask the people to choose no more Of
ficiaIs than experience shows they will
choose. The electoral burden OF the
people must be reduced to practic-
able limits. The platform of The
| Short Ballot Organization which Pres
ident Woodrow Wilson, OF Princeton,
has recently formed expresses it this
way:
Only those offices should be-
elective which are important
enough to attract land deserve)
public examination; and,
Very few offices should be filed
by election at one time so a to
permit adequate and ~unconfused
public examination of the candi-
dates.
"Simple isn't it? Public examina-
ton is the key to it. Elect no more
than you can take a good look at.
Buy no more political goods than you
can inspect.
The Short Ballot Applied.
Lets be definite about it. Sup
pose we make the State government
as simple as the national government,
electing just the Governor and the
Legislature and letting the Governor
appoint the other State officers. Sup
pose for small cities we adopt the Des
Moines commission plan OF govern
ment-iust FIVE to elect and no more.
Suppose the large cities We gave the
Council complete charge so that the
ballot in each ward would look like
the little one from England repro
duced herewith. What chance Is
there for a political expert to worn
his fimlan game then2 The people
are on the job with a searchlight.
There is no obscurity, no public bewii-
derment, no confusion to shelter the
tracks of politicians or railroads. The
short ballot is a ballot that the people
can handle. 1t is the. only kind they
should have. To give them anything
else is to bunco them.
with a short ballot we gan get
better government. Government en-
tireIy in the limelight is bound to be
better than government half in the
dark. Look at the uccess of COM
mission government in Galveston and
Dies Moines. The short ballot is the
gist of it. Look at the English and
Scotch cities-the best governed in
the world. The short ballot is the
secret Of their success"
Real Politics MOI Peanut Politics.
Taking up the question OF peanut
politics" the bulletin says;
The short ballot movement is no
appeal to civic iazlness or dainty
aristocracy. It is not a justification
OF the man who thinks only of his
own affairs and ignores those of the
community. We are getting rather
away from such narrow s~eldshness.
We talk OF conservation Of national
resources, regulation of the labor Of
women and children. the square deal
in railroad rates, the betterment or
tenements. the prevention Of tuber-
culosis-those things are our real
politics. The word ~''civics." which
describes them is a word OF special
American coinage taking the place
that politics hold before it became
degraded in it's significance, The citi-
zen Toes have duties in such dire:-
lions.
But peanut politics. that unique
American institution, is a different
matter. 1t is not our duty to fret
over whether Jones or Smith shall be
made a delegate to a county conven-
ton to nominate a candidate for cor
oner or whether the Brown faction
or the Robinson crowd shall control
the patronage of the county clerks
office. Taking an interest in poll
tics ought TO mean something
bigger than hanging around political
headquarters or learning the names 81
the county committee. The either
owes no duty to peanut politics ex
cept to get it abolished to clear thf
way to the big common welfare kin