Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1914-02-18
For Primary.

tation DESTROYS responsibility. The
management of caucuses and conven
lions has become so complicated that
they are practically removed from
popular control and fall into the
hands of professional politicians.
The delegates elected to attend up
on the nominating convention are
confronted with the expenditure Of
a considerable sum of money and a
still further contribution OF time to
make a journey to the place OF mold
ing the convention. They must un-
dertake this expense either from a
pure loyalty to party, devotion to the
interest of some candidate or because
they personally aspire to receive
some political preferment, and re-
gard the time and money spent IN
the light of a political investment.
Under the convention system it is
a matter of common report that large
sums of money have been expended.
A primary law properly guarded by
requiring publicity and limitation OF
campaign expenses would make clear
to everyone just how the money was
spent, and that in itself would cure
the extensive and improper use OF
money.
It is quite proper that the state
should bear the expense of candidacy
in measure and one of the prlnc1-
pal evils of the convention system
lies in the fact that the candidate
must pay his own expenses or allow
them to be paid by some interests un-
der obligation to whom he will there
by be placed. .
A convention composed of all of
partys candidates would make
platform which would be more
binding upon them than a platform
made by a convention of which they
were not members.
Granted that the party managers
do submit a complete slate; under
the primary system the people have
the chance to reject it, while under
the convention they do not.
The one test we should apply to
candidates for office is, can he do
the work required honestly and eff
ficiently? Whether he lives in one
end of the state or the other is not
a common sense, business like re-
Quirement. What the state needs is
genuine service not a lesson in geog-
raphy, social standing or commercial
interests.
In Vermont the minor officers are
town, village and city officials, and
in these cases we have a fairly good
primary system now. In this state
the direct primary should apply to
state, congressional and county Of
ficials only and every voter should
have the right to pass on every one
The talk of the 'calm and delib-
crate Judgment Of the convention is
pure farce. What more disorderly
more turbulent. and generally up
roariOus assembly can one imagine
than the average political conVen-
ton?
To say that the people OF Yer
mont would elect a man merely be
cause he had some notoriety strong
ly questions their good sense, to sa!
the least. And it is a fact that the
men who are well known are thOs'
who in turn know the state We'll it
conditions and needs.
The newspapers are one of tn
greatest powers in modern life ant
they will exercise their power re
gardless of what nominating system
we have
It can be well argued that unless
a man has interest enough in a gov
ernmental office to work to get it
he isn't the man we want for tina
office. We want men in office VIII,
are interested in their work. Their
is no difference between the tw,
systems in the length Of campaign O.
in the expense. There was probab1.
never a primary campaign in tn
country so expensive in proportion
to the area and population of tn
state as was the convention campaign
Under the convention system
often happens that candidates ar
nominated who receive no vote
whatever in the caucuses, but ar
put in through manipulation an,
trading, regardless of any expression
at all on the part of the voters
The primary system gives the major
ity a much better chance of forcin
their will than any other syster
ever introduced
The direct primary does not weak
en- the power of the small town.
strengthens the power of the ind
vidual voter, and aids the rank an
file both in the small towns and i
the large ones. The only powe
weakened is that Of the bosses, tn
political worker and the selfish inter
est. Under the present conventio
system small town sends one, tw
or three delegates to a convention
held in city or large town. O
these delegates is massed all tn
pressure that the big town, the bi
interests and the big politicians ca
produce. Under a direct primar
the voters go to their regular pol
Ing place and vote their preferenc
without outside pressure and manil
ulation
Our political life is largely dom
mated by parties and so man mu
as practical means of making h
will felt, ally himself with one pa
ty or another. Any man who refus
such a simple requirement as tn
should not complain if he is +
better off under the present nomi1
ating system.
The argument that the primal
destroys the party power is base
on theory and not on experience. Fo
it is a fact that in the states whe
direct primaries are in force parti
are as strongly entrenched as ever.
The primary system substitutes f
the elaborate system of unregulat
caucuses and conventions a simp
method Of nominating all officers
on election.
Primaries enlarge the field
public service by increasing the ran
of men who can have hone of ore