New-York tribune., 1910-08-29
GRANITE STATE CONTEST
Ex-senator Chandler on PrI-
maries and "OId Guards"
,ho u,;tor of The rrihune


Sir: Allow me to call your attention 10
the pending contest concerning direct pr
maries in New Hampshire. which is Ike
yo,irs in New York. except that we a'e
fighting to retain the system we possess.
while you are fighting to obtain one not
yet enacted.
Our struggle is a most difficult one. oe-
cause our ''old guard" which is equally
unwilling with your 'old guard" to recos-
nize that the old order has changed. is
planning and working to make certaii
the repeal of our law by electing Gov
ernor and legislators through all the an
cient arts of disreputable politics-princi-
paliy by corporation money and tyranny.
1t appears that the great objection of
the "old guard in New York is that the
proposed primary system will abolish state
conventions. Your precise plan is not un-
derstood here, but we believe our law is a
model orr. The primaries nominate the
Governor. Congressman, legislators and
other state and local officers, and also
elect one convention delegate for each
member of the state House of Representa-
tives After the nominations are made all
the candidates and the delegates meet In
convention and declare their principles and
make their state committee. What can be
simpler, what can be fairer. what can
more effectively give the control Of the
nominations and the elections to the peo-
ple-the maryland take 1t away from the
few-the oligarchy?
1t Is difficult to understand the ground
upon which Mr.. Barnes is making his life
and death fight against the plan of Gov
ernor Hughes, President Taft and ex-
President Roosevelt He asserts that the
demand for direct primaries involves ''di-
rect legislation, the initiative and refer
endum and other forms of Populistic pro-
posar': and he says ''individualism has
run riot. 1t is made to appear that the
people have lost their minds In the de-
mand for dictatorship
1t is Mr.. Barnes that has lost his mind
when he makes such utterances. and fur
tier says that Mr.. Roosevelt is making
''an attack upon the representative form
Of government" and that the change from
'the convention system Of making nomina-
tons will be resisted by all who "recoS-
nize in this Populistic departure the be-
ginning of the fall of representative gov
eInrnent''
All this is silly. Primaries do not
mean direct legislation. the initiative and
referendum nor other Populistdc proposal.
They mean that corrupt csucuses and con-
vertions held under no responsibility, either
of the men who vote or those who receive
the votes, shall end, and all these men.
when acting for nomina tions as we'll as
for elections. shall do so under laws which
insure fairness and honest conduct and
punish bribery and corruption. The old
order has begun to change as to such
crimes. whether they are acts of individu-
alism or of corporation tyranny. as the
dicta ators and corruptionists in politics are
to discover.
The dissent of the New York Legislature
from the primary law which was defeated
might Le justified as against Governor
Hughes. even assisted by the appeal of
Mr.. Roosevelt
But 1t is my OF Iilion that nearly every
Republican in the country felt indignant
when the New York Sta lie committee voted
down Mr.. Roosevelt when his name was
proposed for temporary chairman of tho
state convention. He has his faults. but
he had been our President. and had Just
returned from foreign journey. during
which as a private American citizen he
had been ioyfully received and highly hon
ored by the peoples and the rulers of the
whole world He had stood before kings
and princes, and not before mean men.
There was no true American who did not
take pride in the tributes awarded to him;
and there Should be no American, what,
ever his politics his differences with Mr..
Roosevelt. who does not feel Inundated
at the petty affront offered him by the
New York Republican State Committee
1t is stated that Mr.. Griscom asked that
the vote might be postponed, but his re-
quest was denied, and the insult deliber-
ately planned, was boldly persisted in, in