Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-08-28
SIMEON BALDWIN
 ON ELECTIONS Connecticut Executive Dis cusses Primary System at Conference.
FAIR PARTY ACTION
Can Be Secured, He Says, Through the
 Regulation of Holding Party Conventions.

GOvernOr Simeon E. Baldwin o1 Con- necticut, in addressing the National Wonference of Governors here today, urged the assumption by the state of Some of the expenses incident to an election of state officers.
 "The worth of any such scheme of political organization is largely deter mined by the character and aims of those who direct it's operations" said GOvernor Baldwin. They must be men who understand, and mean to further the true interests of the people over whom they may be placed in authority. To see that they are so placed only after a reasonable opportunity to as- certain what manner of men they are, and then only by the free choice of their fellow citizens. is therefore. one of the first objects of evry constitu- tional scheme.
 ITO secure fair party action. the state may regulate the holding of par ty conventions. so far as their end may justify such interference. 1t may require returns by party officials of the nominations made. It may require returns by party officials of the nom- nations made. It may require the ap- pointment of such officials for that purpose, and prescribe the form of their returns. It may exercise it's pO- lice power to preserve order in nomi- hating assemblies. These things cost money; but thus far there will be lit- tie dispute that the state may go. and should go."
 But now we enter on debatable ground. May the state properly as- sumc the expenses of such individuals us are attempting to secure nomina- tfon for office?
 They are the expenses which bear most heavily on the particular per sons specially interested. A cam paign for nomination to be.made by 8. party convention is a personal af | party itself It is contest within tho party. The cost of the struggle falls upon the man seeking the nomination and his special friends. It is ofen SC gteat that he abandons the struggle The obvious tendency of this this is tt shut out the poor man, unless he puts T. hn to consider implied obligations tt those who supply him with the neces sary funs. regard this. however. as an inevitable incident of party govern ment, whether in respect to party con ventions or direct primaries within ; party.
 "A direct primary not restricted tt part choice, but where the wholt body of the voters may participate without limitations. by reason of theil party affiliations. stands on differ ent ground. Here in theory, tht whole people give two days ever. year or two, to the election of theil rulers, one to selct names for con sideration, and another to chose be tween those thus put forward.
 "The state can hardly be expected to assume the cost of circulating pa pers for the nomination of any par ticular person. He may have no sor' of fitness for the office. Notoriously these papers are often signed by those who never seriously intended to vOts for the candidate whom they thus en. dorse. Often, it is to be feared, tht signatures are bought
 a"At congressional primary in Ros- ton a few years ago, a certain can didate got in all not one-eighth as many votes as there were signatures to his nominating papers.
 r'But on the other hand. primary open to the whole people, and called tt present names for the approval of the whole people, seems just subject ol governmental aid, as respects to what ever makes for the end that it was es- tablished to secure.
 We may agree in theory with Aris- totle's saying that no man should ask for an office, but he who is fit for 1t ought to have it, whether he wishes the position or not. This was the aim our father had in view when they devised the electoral college for the selection of the president and vice president of the United States. Their scheme worked fairly we'll in respect to the first choice, Washington; but it broke completely down in the con test which finally resulted in the cleo ton of Jefferson. It ignored the prac- tical necessity of party government wherever there are representatives in-