Arizona republican., 1912-07-26
The Election of Postmasters

Insanity is a disease which pro- gresses with frightful rapidity as is evidenced in the platform of the na- tional progressive party of Iowa, pro- viding. among other things for the | election of postmasters by popular vote. We had heard of some such thing before but it was not men toned seriously
 But the Des Moines plan is a wild proposal for the usurpation, not by the states but by every small com munity. of the powers of the federal government. It proposes to divide the postoffice department into as many parts as there are postoffices, all to a certain extent independent of each other
 Our postal system. notwithstanding its imperfections is regarded as the true. are often selected with reference to their political influence or post offices are conferred upon them as rewards for past political services and as inducements to further political endeavor. It is also true that post offices are regarded as a part of the spells that belong to the victors.
 But. while this is a bad feature of the system which may be easily eliminated. the men chosen to fill the offices generally possess proper quail fications and are of standing in their respective communities. They do not become postmasters by accident. That would not always be the case if the postmasters were chosen by the people who generally consider the popularity of the candidate rather than his peculiar fitness for the of flee he seeks.
 But. if we were assured that the elected postmaster would be as well qualified as the appointed official, there would still be this more vital objection to the Iowa proposal: The postmaster would feel a sense of res possibility to his constituents alone and he might not acknowledge the authority of the department of which he would be in sense. independent.
 The Iowa plan is based on the false assumption that the postmaster is the servant of the patrons of his office alone, whereas in the very nature of things. he is the servant of the pat rons of all postoffices. Postoffices cannot be detached from one another; each must be part of a homogeneous system and each postmaster must ac- knowledge a supreme authority with power of instant removal for the good of the service.
 It would be as sensible to propose that the collector of customs at No gales, Ariz., should be elected by the people of Nogales or of Santa Cruz county. or, that the officers of the army from corporal to general should be elected by various constituencies.
 But, of course, the members of the national progressive state convention of Iowa are not supposed to have viewed this matter in all its aspects. Iowa is a great state, a great agri- cultural state, unsurpassed in the fertility of it's soil. where everything grows in boundless profusion, barring climatic restrictions
 But there are no climatic limita- tions on fool ideas which for more than a generation have flourished lux uriantly in Iowa. It has been just one thing after another. It was there that the transplanted greenback idea the rag baby" found its natura habitat, and it was there that popu- lism became more rank than in any other subdivision of the union excep Kansas and Nebraska.
 It is eminently proper that the idle; of the election of postmasters shoul'
 have had it's origin in Iowa and tn
 eminence of propriety is found in tn
 fact that the birth of the idea oc
 cured in the Roosevelt progressiv
 convention.