Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-09-20
THE LESSON OF THE. CONVENTION


Republicans of Honolulu will 90 into the fal
campaign with ticket that has elements o
much strength and elements of some weakness
that is on the whole a strong ticket and that il
just the kind Of ticket that was to he expected
under the present system of nomination by con
yentiCn -
The superpisOrial ticket, to which most at
tenticn was paid during the last few weeks Of
the pre-conrention work, should be fairly strong
Its yote-getting ability is going to depend
a good deal Gu the character of the cam
paign that will be conducted and the kind Of
meli the Democrats put up The ticket is bet
ter average ticket than that of the party two
years ago and the board ought to be a better
board than the one Honolulu is just getting rio
Of ...,:E.+..s,. p,
The Legislative ticket is a very strong one and
ought to win hands down The candidates fol
the upper house are men of known ability and
experience and the same is true of practically all
OF the candidates for the lower house The leg
islatiye ticket has both efficiency and .yote-get
ting ability. 0
Col. Sam Parker's strength at the head of the
county ticket is a matter of doubt in certain
quarters and of much confidence I'M others. Not
"a few wise politicians believe that he can beat
Joe Fern, but this opinion is by no means uni
versal and Col Parker and his friends will have
to put whole lot of energy, persstency and
personal work into his campaign. The county
clerk, county auditor and county attorney ought
to win with ease and help pull the ticket up be.
sides The candidate for treasurer will receive
very strong support from the business commu-
nifty as we'll as in the rank and file Of the voters
but Robert Parker will have his hands full try
ing to down Sheriff Jarrett, and Costa is facing
nearly as hard job in the deputy sheriffship.
To offset the general strength of the ticket,
there is considerable hard feeling engendered
because of the powerful combination that swept
certain candidates into nomination and crushed
certain others. Several good men were showed
aside ruthlessly by the inter precinct combine
that controlled 200 votes. Such is the case in
any convention under Honolulu's present sys-
tom and such will always be the case-under this
system A number of precincts feel that they
were flattened out simply because they stuck to
their guns and their own candidates and refused
to trade them off.
Yesterdays convention was pertinent Illus
traitor of both the benefits and the evils of the
convention system The combination absolutely
dominated the 326 delegates present, and any
connter-program was doomed from the outset.
The combination was made possible by trades in
which some good men were sacrificed for some
men not so good. And that is the evil OF the
convention system under the best of manage
ment. - ..... 49,. 49,. Il.
The combination of yesterday secured gen
orally good ticket because it was a combination
i'm which were a number of men of personal in
tegrity and sincerity of purpose In less serupu-
lolls hands such combination could hardly fail
to be as dangerous as it would be yindictive and
corrupt And corrupt combinations are always
likely to be made under the convention system.
The Republican party of the territory has
again pledged itself to pass direct primary law.
That pledge has been violated in the past, but
the shame of the party will be complete if it is
violated again. The direct primary law will epd
the combinations that crush down good men and
elevate poor men, and will give every citizen a
chance to go before the electorate on his merits
and without fear that his own party may knife
himzin the back.
THF clMMTNITT SCH0lI H0USE FIR HAWAII