The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1911-01-13
A Man order RevoIution.

A Man Order Revolution.
Schemes to vote by mail and to
make suffrage more irresponsible
than ever E to be ali the rage
among some venturesome persons.
In addition to the sheme OF noni-
ngting United States senators by
mail mention Of which is made else
whe hese selamnsy antoFganF4
zatioa styling Aself the Progressivs
Federation today launched a plan
the object OF which rs to o6tain the
Progressive control of the state
ana national conventions Of the two
great parties next year, whatever
That may mean.
heretofore no easily operated
system for doing this has existed, :
declares a circular Just received by
the Telegram from the federation.
The difficulty Is that usually the
candidates for delegates to the coun-
conventions are not pledged for
q national candidate; or that the
pledge is merely for a ..favorite son.
leaving the Anal delegates unpledged
q soon as the first ballot Is over. To
enable the voters of 1912 to over
come these difficulties we propose.
ths immediate use OF 4 tprelimtnary
postal ballot by the Progressive
voters and a pledge by them
EAtter outlining a plan for the
mailing Of ballots to the federation
OF to the newspaper in which the.
feRer8ton's plea IS published, the
circular further states:
The widespread use of this pre-
Iitninary postal ballot, followed 6y
two 81 more additional ones before.
March /, 1912; is expected to result
IN a generaT agreement as to which.
three OF the Progressive presidential
candidates in each party should be
named at the primary election. They
viii be ynapTed by yoting8&or pledged
Progressive candidates Tor Vie oflee
of delegatst to the county conventions.
and to the national conventions.
Only by voting for pledged Progress
stye delegates, naming first choice,
second choice and third choice, can
the people win. Of the delegates are
not pledged, then the voters enc
mics. The monopolists and the other
holders Of special privilege, will con-
troll the delegates. This is a self
evident proposition"
The scheme is backed by George
H. SHIRLEY, president OF the Peoples
Rule League of America and a num-
F5er OF prominent editors aud public
lists. the most of whom are known
as "~muckrakers. and who are en-
gagged in the buainess OF muckrabln g
for private gain. These gentlemen.
propose to carry on a political revo-
luton by mail. The old established
parties, their traditions, achieve
ments and political principles are
thus to he overthrow In order to
quell what is termed a great unrest
among the people," or a crisis
For whom are they to be over
thrown? For what set OF princ!-
pies? For what great political the
DRY? For what purpose? If these
apostles of frenzy are determined to
reorganiSe our political institutions
they surely ought to let the people
know the platform upon which they
stand. They declare they represent,
nay "'possess," nine-tenths OF the
voters in the United States.
These votes, however, are nulGified
through machine rule by the 'spe-
cial interests according to the fed
Grafton. II machine rule exists the
people allow 1t to exist; hence the
Federation proceeds to battle upon
the theory that the people are inca
pable of governing themselves and
that they should quit doing this and
try to, govern themselves by some
new and as yet unsystemstsc, diSor-
ganIzed, haphazard method of which