The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-10-05
FIGHTING THE PRIMARY

Inc pest dTllCle OH lile ulTeCt pr
mary that has appeared in any Yer
mont paper is from the Burlington
Free Press and tells the facts plainly
why there is such strong effort be
ing made in Vermont to defeat the
primary which comes before the vot
ers next March under a referendum
The Free Press article is as follows:
The opponents of the direct pri
mary in Vermont have been forced to
fall back upon Misrepresentation
They realize that ever since Charles
e. Hughes won the following of SO
many citizens of Vermont by his
courageous struggle for cleaner poll
tics and better government the direct
nomination system has been gaining
strength in Vermont, and that as the
situation stands today the voters OF
Vermont will give a substantial "yes
majority for the direct primary refer.
endum next March.
Among other things the opponents
of the direct primary are seeking to
make it appear that the adoption OF
that system will increase the number
of times the citizens of Vermont will
have to vote next year. Under our
present caucus system the citizens of
Burlington, for example, would hold
caucus to nominate a city ticket to
be supported in March. They would
hold another caucus to nominate
delegates to State convention in
April or May to send delegates to the
national convention. They would
hold third caucus to choose dele
gates to a county convention follow
ing the national convention. They
would hold a fourth caucus to send
delegates to the State convention to
nominate a State ticket and to the
congressional convention. They
would hold fifth caucus to nominate
a candidate for city representative.
Next year will be fairly busy year
therefore under our present caucus
system, and the direct primary law
merely changes the character of the
caucus, and it makes nominating con-
ventions unnecessary, although a
State convention can be held to
formulate State platform.
Manifestly, it is no more trouble
for the voter to go to a direct pri-
mo ~ tn M No al
type, and in a direct nomination sys-
tenn he ceases to be rubber stamp"
to endorse slate and exercises the
sovereign right of an American citi.
office.
We have already quoted from lead
ing Massachusetts papers showing
that the direct primary has just pro-
duced satisfactory results in the Bay
State. 1t had been predicted that
the direct primary in its own form as
is proposed in Vermont would wipe
out party lines and weaken the or
ganization, that it would not make it
impossible for poor man to run for
office, that it would lessen interest in
stead of bringing out the voters to
the caucuses of primaries, and so on.
The results in Massachusetts show
that the number Of voters taking part
in the primaries has been increased
by the direct nomination system
many thousands; that it has had a
gratifying effect in inducing the
young men to take an active part in
primaries in the knowledgs that "old
FOUNDERS" can no longer snuff them
out by machine methods; that any
body who can secure a sufficient mum
Der of signatures to petition can
have his name as candidate placed
on the primary ballot; that conse.
quently ''the machine" in no party
can jam through SLATE" in con
vention; that the party is left strong.
er than before in every way, the vot.
ers feeling that they have had a real
part in the nomination of their ticket.
The great-oyershadowin and all