The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-02-04
USHER POINTS OUT DANGERS
Political Writer Declares
Adjustment of Election Machinery
Must Be Handled With Care in Or
der to Get Best Features of the Law.

Bills are being talked about in Madi-
son to amend the primary election law,
and Milwaukee officials are urging i'm
portant changes, says Ellis B. Usher
of Milwaukee. 1t is likely to be one of
the important questions of the winter.
1t is natural that men who have been
advocates Of this law should be slow to
admit it's failure. 1t is so essential to
remember that a large majority of the
voters know no other system. They
have grown up under this one. 1t will
be O. the utmost Importance for the
advocates of radical changes in the law
to ground their objections to it In facts
that are incontrovertible. There is no
need of going back to ancient history
for such facts. Perhaps one of the
most striking is in the figures of the
last election. While in the country at
large the total vote of 1914 is larger
than that of the presidential election
of 1912 by $4,000, very unusual con-
dition, in this state it fell off $4,000 or
179o. This falling off was in the face
of sum total vote in 1913 and of
field Of candidates in 1914, both in the
unexamDled in Wisconsin politics.
There were about $500 candidates in
the primary, and nearly as many on
election day, reckoning all parties and
independent candidates from coroner to
United States senator. The reasonable
expectation would be that so many Of
fee seekers and their friends, each
ought to have had at least five friends
and relatives, would have increased the
vote, but energy evaporated somewhere
before the polling place was reached.
influence of Urban Centers.
f'There is another significant fact
that is worthy of candid attention and
analysis. From the close of William E.
Smith s term as governor, in 1879, to
the election Of Governor McGovern, the
state has had but one governor from
Milwaukee, George w. Peck, and the
candidates of all parties were generally
from the smaller cities of the state.
Rusk, Upham, Hoard and Scofeld are
names that illustrate the point. Since
1900 Madison and Milwaukee have had
the governorship all the time, and La
Toilette and Stephenson combination,
once harmonious, has held both United
States senatorships since 1906. The new
senator, Mr.. Husting, comes from
small city, but any careful study of
Wisconsin election results since 1906,
when the primary went into action, will
show the preponderant influence of ur-
ban population in state government. 1t
was notable, too, in last years. cam
paign that success was made easy for
Mr.. Philip and Mr.. Husting by many
divisions among their opponents. 1t
was pointed out long ago that success
would be possible, under this system,
for the candidate who could skillfully
divide the strength opposed to him. No
body has charged Mr.. Phillip or Mr..
Husting with doing this, or promoting
it, but the results of last year IS election
demonstrate that it was one of the pos
sibilities of the primary system. These
are points that have not been empha-
sized, but careful review of the re-
turns may prove very Illuminating to
the Legislature.
No Argument in Epithets
cit is still fashionable for certain
papers, like that edited by Victor Ber-
ger, from which quotation was made
last week, to refer to Governor Philip
and to those who support him, as "To-
ries." That is not word to be lightly
used. Except when applied in loathing
or with deliberate malice it could fit no
American citizen. All Americans are
supposed to know what the term really
means, in this country. ran across a
contemporary view of the proposition
the other day, which / venture to ref
produce. A writer in the Worcester,
Massachusetts,, Spy, in 1775, thus de-
| fines Tory and Toryism:
The word means one who is a
maintainer of the internal doctrine of
arbitrary power, the indefeasible right
on the part of the sovereign, and of
| passive obedience and nonresistancef on
| the part of the subject. The Tory main
tains the king holds his crown by none
but God, while the people were made
| entirely for him and that he has right
to dispose of their fortunes, lives and
| liberties in defiance of his coronation
oath and the eternal laws of reason,
without the subject having any right
to demand redress of grievances or
their being denied to seek it for them
selves.
ttIt is not really intended, I fancy,
even by Victor Berger to thus stig-
Matte Governor Philip and his
friends as traitors to American ideals,
but that s what the word Tory means.
Epithets are not good arguments.