Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-10-04
IF IDEA FOR VOLUNTARY ELEC.
TON Is ADOPTED IT Will BE
FIRST STATE TO ACT.
FIVE OTHER STATES
LEGALLY ADOPT SYSTEM
Wisconsin Enacts First Law Providing
For Primary Selection of Delegates
North Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon
and New Jersey Have Similar Laws
Soon to Go Into Effect.

Des Moines. oct. 4.-The develop
ment Of that principle of the American
political system which contemplates di
rect responsibility of the individual
members of any political party for the
party nominees is SO recent that the
literature of the subject is almost
wholly lacking.
Still fresher and more advanced is
the idea of having direct selection by
al. the members of any party of the
delegates TO the national conventions.
Ii Iowa does this in 1912 it viii! be the
pioneer state to resort to a statewide
volunteer primary on a national ques-
tion. Iowa can only Go by q mutual
agreement that which five other states
nave made legal and binding: but by
resort to q voluntary primary Iowa
viii have the advantage that she can
no!O II earlier than any ether state
and thus make It count as setting
pace tor others. The date car be fixed
by agreement as Well AS the details OF
the plan.
Plans of Other States.
In View OF the now practical certain
" that the Iowa republicans will ar
range a presidential primary rather
than revert TO the discarded ard dis
credited machine method Of manipulate
ing caucuses, it is worth while to in
CURE into the plans worked out else
where. The five presidential pri-
naries now certain, are in order Of the
dates:
North Dakota-March 10, 1912.
Wisconsn-Aprii ,, 1912.
Nebraska-ApriI H. 1912.
Oreson-April ls, 1912,
New Jersey-May Is. 1912
All of these dates have been ar
ranged SO that conventions or primaries
may be held looking to a June or July
convention. as usual The call
of the national convention will be SO
that selection by direct vote of the del
egates will be on q footing with caucus
selected delegates, the only restriction
being as TO the time when the selec-
ton is made not too early nor too late.
CALIFORNIA; Advance Step.
While California has not provided a
presidential primary it has done one
thing unusual in this connection. 1t
has declared by law that the delegates
elected to the county conventions in
the September primary of this year,
shall be the delegates to the county
conventions TO be held next May when
the machinery is set in motion looking
TO the national conventions This is
the very thing that Iowa took pains to
avoid-a pTema ture selection of the
delegates having to deal with national
questions. Whether the call of the ma
tional conventions will be broad enough
to admit the California delegates is yet
TO be seen.
Wisconsin First to Act.
Wisconsin enacted the first law that
provided that the voters of each party
to go to the national conventions. The
Wisconsin law briefly provides:
Election in every precinct first Tues
day in April in presidential years
Election to be conducted same as
regular primary and expenses paid by
the state in same manner;
The four candidates for delegates at
large receiving the highest number of
votes shall be the delegates at large:
Each voter casts a ballot for four
candidates for delegate at large:
In like manner two delegates elected
in each congressional district:
State central committee shall meet
fifteen days before the national con-
vention and select the alternate dele
gates:
Candi lates for delegates shall file
papers same as for other
offices;
Certificates of election are furnished
by the secretary Of state; and no con-
vention Of any kind is contemplated
This law was placed in the code of
Wisconsin in 1907 and under it dele
gates were in fact selected three years
ago to go to Chicago
The Oregon Plan.
The Oregon law was adopted by the
vote of the people under the referen-
dun plan on Nov. s, 1910, the vote for
this plan being 1853, to 41.624 against
The date for holding the presidential
primary is the forty fifth day before
the first Monday in June Of presidential
years. The law adopted says:
When candidates for the office of