Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1915-10-29
PRESIDENTIAL. PRIMARIES.

When President Wilson in one of his earlier
messages to Congress urged the passage of pres
idental primary law, he put before that body
forward step it has not yet felt obliged to take,
the giving to all the people of the United States
the right to express their choice directly for presi
dent Yet nearly half of the states now have
granted their voters this right, in one form or
another; and the result will doubtless be seen in
the next national party conventions to greater
extent than ever before.
The presidential campaign of 1912 was the first
one to feel perceptbly the effects of the "more
power to the people, propaganda as reflected in
the verdicts of the presidential primaries That
the coming of the new method of "direct action
into the conduct of party business at its highest
range Of operation substantially changed either
the conduct or the outcome of the 1912 conven-
lions at Chicago and Baltimore may not be true
to any appreciate extent, for the new system was
just pushing wedge into the old; but that the
proceedings at Chicago when Taft renomi-
mated over Roosevelt through the power of the
machine" did increase the demand for
democratic system of selecting delegates, less re-
sponsible to party managers than if named under
the old system and also, in theory at least, less
amenable to dictatiOn or manipulation in the
national convention, can hardly be gainsaid.
At any rate the fact is that the trend away
from the indirect system of election of delegates
to the direct primary system has continued and it
now seems probable that at least twenty states
will soon have laws operative under which dele
gates chosen by voters and not by state commit
tees or state conventions may sit to name candi-
dates next year. If SO, then delegates SO chosen
would hold the balance Of power in at least one
Of the conventions assuming that, in the states
where resort to the new method is optional, this
party decides to use it. Given national conven-
ton constituted its action will be closely scru-
tinixed, not only for its choice of candidates but
also for its ways Of doing its business, visible
invisible free or controlled. The assumption back
Of the new method is that not only will more pro-
gressive and more able men be nominated but also
that their nomination will be compassed by finer
tactics and prompted by higher motives.
Working in this relatively new field the direct
primary method Of nomination also must undergo
the same sort Of scrutiny that it is now getting
when used for local and state purposes, or in nomi-
mating national Legislators Does it enlist the
interest Of partisan adherents sufficiently to make
the primary poll really representative of the will
Of the rank and flei Are the men thus nominated
equal in character and ability to those selected by
the indirect method of nomination. Do primary
named delegates show more power to resist pres
sure from above and without, when on the floor
Of the national convention during times of mass
enthusiasm or seductive, laudatory oratoryi
Such questions are being asked about the direct
nomination method. Its success of course, de-
ponds on satisfactory answer to these questions
and such an answer only be given in the full
est expression at the polls of the opinions of the
people; in other words, in the most general use of
the primary.