The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-11-16
UNLESS C. 0.P.
HEADS GO, WEST
WILL join SOUTH
Old Guard Has Lost Control
IN Coast States and The
Middle West.
(By Francis J. Heney.)

graft prosecution, which is doubtless
in the New York Puplic Library, con-
tains a full and accurate story of the
fight against graft which educated
the people of California to a realiZa-
ton of the fact that political bosses
are the mere agents of special priv
ilege.
Just as long as the nominating ma
chinery of any political party is so
crudely developed as to make it posi-
BILE for few men to manipulate nom
nations contrary to the wishes of a
majority of the voters of such po-
litica1 party it is practically certain
the beneficiaries of special privilege
will control our government.
The voters of this state learned that
political bosses are the product,
rather than the cause, of graft and
corruption in municipal state and ma
tional government. They realize a di
rect primary law which secured to a
majority of the voters of each polit
ical party the power to nominate it's
candidates does not necessarily insure
the nomination of the best men for
office, but that it does make every Of
flee holder who has been SO nominated
responsive to the will and wishes of a
majority of his constituents, instead
of responsive to the political agent Of
the beneficiaries Of special privilege.
They have learned that the business
of the political boss is to unite be-
hind any candidate or political party
the beneficiaries of as many different
kinds of special privilege as possible,
commencing with the gamblers, pros
flutes and saloon keepers at the bot
tom, and ending with national banks
at the top.
Against Old Guard Control.
The progressive voters of Califor-
mia, regardless of party affiliations,
are determined that the power of the
big beneficiaries of special privilege
in the country, who are rapidly mo-
nopolizing our national natural re-
sources such as timber, coal, oil and
water power, in addition to iron, cop
per and phosphates, to control the
nomination of the Republican party
for President, contrary to the wishes
of a large majority of the Republican
voters through the fraudulent canipu-
lation Of the ridiculously crude pelit-
ical machinery under which the Re-.
publican party is now operating, must
be destroyed, and that no man who
accepts a nomination for the press
dency under the present machinery
from the hands of the political bosses
who stole the nomination from Roose-
welt four years ago, can be trusted to
use his position and inf1Aenee to- pro-
teet the people against such raids as
the coal lands of Alaska were to be
Rallinger, of the Interior Department.
during Taft's administration by which
thee oan ands of Alaska were to be
monopolized.
The progressive voters of Califor-
MIA demand a direct presidential
preference primary law which will en-
able the majority Of the Republican
voters of the country to determine
by their votes who the Ibminee of
the Republican party for President
shall be.
They look upon Boise Penrose of
Pennsylvania; Murray Crane of Mas
saehusetts; William Barnes and Elihu
Root of New York, as the mere agents
and representatives of the railroad
transportation trusts, the Wall street
banking interests the iron and steel!
trust, the copper trust and such sub
salaries as the beef trust.
They will not vote for any Repub-
lioan candidate who owes his nomin-
alton to those men and to their pow
er to manipulate the Republican con-
vention under the system of maehin-
cry which gives to Massachusetts,,
New York and Pennsylvania jointly
the absolute power to nominate the
with the aid solely of the delegates
from the solid Democratic South.
Against Southern. Delegates.
No sane reason can be advanced
which will convince the progressive
Republicans of California that South
Carolina with slightly over 5000 Re
publican voters should have Is dele
gates in the Republican convention,
and that Mississippi with slightly over
1000 Republican voters should have
20 delegates, and that Louisiana with
slightly over 1000 Republican voters
should have 20 delegates. thus making
total of So delegates for slightly over
5000 Republican voters, while over
214,000 Republican voters in Califor-
MIA were allowed only 26 delegates in
the Republican convention. Neither
can any sane reason be advanced
which will convince the progressive
Republican voters that Texas with
slightly over $500 Republican voters
should have 40 delegates in the Re-
publican convention, as against the 26
delegates which were allowed to Cali
fornia for her 214, 900 Republican vot-
ers.
These figures have been changed
Slightly in apportioning delegates for
the next national convention, but the
underlying principle on which this
outrage has been conducted for years
is continued in existence
Thus the absolute power of vastly
less than one-half the Republican
voters to dictate the nomination of
| the Republican candidate is prolong-
| ed indefinitely and the control of the
| destiny of that great political party
| is vested in the hands of, three or
| four political bosses Of New York
! PENNSYLVANIA, Massachusetts, or eth
| err Indiana or Illinois, without any
| regard whatever for the wishes OF
| the Republican voters of the other
| northern, middle western and western
states.
The free and Independent spirit OF
the people who have built up the
west by their energy and auth crit,
will not tolerate the continuance OF