The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-28
MUST PADDLE HIS
 OWN CANOE
Chamberlain, Wilson and Arnold Have Kings OK,
 But Morris Is Detested
Is Fighting Openly and Fearlessly for Direct Primaries and Break the Lobby's Grip on the Republican Organ ization.

ization.
 Republicans are waiting anxiously for the. call to battle which will be waged in primaries. for the choice of mayor and other municipal candidates. The mayoralty overshadows and ob- scures everything else Nominations for minor municipal office from town clerk to city sheriff, are being used as pawns to get support for the ma jor job.
 There. are four mayoral candidates in the field. They are John c. Chamb- er1ain. Clifford B. Wilson. Thomas Arnold, Jr., and Harbormaster Chas. H. Morris.
 The storm center will be the EIev- enth district which is Harbormaster Morris own district. There the in trepid champion of Bridgeport's harbor for Bridgeport and not for corpora tions will have the fight of his life time.
 The slogan of the other candidates is '.beat Morris In this, the friends of Chamberlain, of Wilson and of Arn- old are united. tfS
 The reason is not in dislike of Nor ris. Under ordinary scircumstances any of the other candidates would be glad to form an alliance with the har- bormaster. who has practically no personal enemies. The situation was we'll explained by an observer of the situation this morning.
 He said: '.As between Chamberlain, Wilson and Arnold the contest is purely and simply for control of the party machine and to get the offices Whichever of these candidates is suc- rxE Ix ing nominations will continue, and the old order of doing things will go on undisturbed.
 But Norris represents "a radical change. He is backing the direct pri- mary, which would destroy every poli- tical machine in the party, whether it is the machine behind Wilson, com monly called the 'so1d guard" Or the machine behind Arnold, which consists of workers in various districts who are close to him and believe he is a winner, or whetherx is sae King ma chine. populayly called the young mem
 If Morris is nominated he will be strong enough to secure the abolition of the present party rules, under which the nominating power is in a convention of 36 men, dominated by a town chairman.
 'sAll future candidates would be rob- Hged to face the Republican primary electorate, which of course means that inside politics would be practically eliminated.
 ssThe success of Morris means the end of the convention system"
 s'But isn't Morris bluffing, merely to get votes?''
 ssNo.'' If he were the problem would be simple. We could give him what he wants, and he could let di- oyinc ia NlY1f Ina I,a bug. In spite of repeated warnings that it would be his political death to insist upon direct primaries he has hung to his program like a fle0to a dog.
 1.-TWO years ago he was a candidate the convention. with a platform that sounded as if it had been drafted by Theodore Roosevelt and a collection of Western insurgents of the brand that has been grabbing all the Repub- lican seats in the United States Sen ate lately. But direct primaries was .the leading plank. As a warning to delegates were thrown out of the con- vention, figuratively of course. They disposed of Morris in the caucus and they laid his platform on the table.
 Ut was supposed that one lesson would be enough, so the boys put him on as sdelegate to the last state con yention. What did he do but get him. self put on the committee on resolu- tions. and offer there a plank in fa- yor of state wide direct primaries. 1 don't know why they didn't kill him, that time. But they were 1enient. They simply turned the platform over to a b-committee, which forgot all about direct primaries when. it re- ported. Then believe me Morris, stood up before all those delegates as the convention was about to adjourn. of fered his direct primaries plank from the floor of the convention. compelled B. J. Hill to accept it (Oh, the galD and it took Mike Kenealy, Fillmore S. Banks and Stiles Judson, twenty min- utes to get the plank laid on the ta- ble. No. the boys know that the harbormaster is hopeless. He won't ldicker on direct primaries.
 "sThe present situation continued the speaker, is dangerous 1t isn't enough to beat Morris. He must he overwhe I'm ed. /.
 Why overwhelm ed
 "For the reason that his delegates. whether they are one or twenty. will be pledged to change the rules for direct primaries. They will offer the Morris platform and the Morris rules.
 ssIt will be very inconyenient for q Republican convention to serve notice upon the Republican voters that the convention doesn't believe they can be trusted with nominating power. .
 Awhy is it harder for the conven- ton to turn down direct primaries this year, than it was last year, or two years ago?"
 .The reasons are too numerous to mention There has been an agita- ton in the state for direct primaries legislation permitting statewide nomi- nations The fight led by Senator Judson and the Senate, in which the cities are represented passed the bill. It was defeated in the House only by the small town vote. New York is conducting a great agitation for di- rect nominations. Massachusetts Re- publicans have just nominated their candidate for governor by direct vote. The papers are full of it. and people nderstand the question who didn't a little while back"
 '"The greatest opposition to Morris comes from the so called King group. which seized the power of the Re- publican party, last fall. during the Lake-Goodwin contest. They have the same motive in being opposed to direct nominations as the other groups, and the additional motive that Morris and his friends are openly and