The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-09-19
Pleased by Primary.
who make a speciality of

No, Vermonters will never sand for
a direct primary. 1t will be impossible
to got out corpCrals guard in any
town in the state. Such statements
were very common few months ago.
Charles w. Gates two years ago was
elected governor with but 36,972 votes
cast in his behalf. And the vote for
the gubernatorial candidates, Allen NJ.
Fletcher and Fraser Metzger com
bined was but II ,S65 four years ago,
while in the primary ON Tuesday the
Republican vote was 42,2ll, at the
time of this writing, and when the re
turns are all in and the official result
is available the vote will be sWelled
quito bit.
II the opponents of the direct pri-
mary are seeking proof OF the peoples
Indifference they will find little cUnso.
lation in the results o. ermont's first
primary election. The primary is
here to stay and when a politician At
tempts to tell Vermont that the con
vention system Is superior he is slated
for term in quiet, private citizen
ship. The voters of the state feel hat
they have taken a direct part in the
nomination OF their officials and there
is just pride in feeling that ones
vote has had a part in the work OF S.
lccting the candidates In the con
yention days the result depended upon
the few men who were in the places
OF power The primary allows every
man to vote in harmony with his
ideals and decisions without delegat'
ing that representation to another.
The first result OF the primary 10
that convention days are past and for
al! time
The second result is that public Of
flcials will cater to the majority here
after, rather than to those politicians
who control conventions. Having to
go direct to the people for nomina-
ton makes it imperative that man ron
der his account to the mass and II
follows that that account OF his WORK
for the public will be Xrayed. Tbs
public Official and the votes arc
brought into closer relationship
through the direct primary, Carroll
S. Page in the next six years as Unit
ed States Senator, for which he has
been renOminated, will be able to
serve the people better by having had
the searchlight upon his record I'm
der the convention system Carroll S
Page would have been given the nom
ination last May without any Ques
tons as to his record or any com
muncations with the voters.
A third result OF the primary is the
proof that poor man can 30 before
| the people and obtain Office without
large expenditures Of money, This
| is substantiated by Benjamin Gates r.
ceiving the authorship over Thoma'
Cave who resorted to advertising ant
| expended more or less money Will,
Gates merely announced his candl
dacy Under the primary any mai
| can obtain nomination Il he has thI
| patience to 20 to the people and make
their acquaintance and show then
that he stands for worth while pro
gram. The nomination may not com,
the first time but eventually it is as
sureG.
That Carroll s. Page received TIN
nomination does not Indicate that tn
people love him moro but Fletche
less. His denomination gives him n
room for self.congratulation 1t wa
pune rebuke to Allen NJ. Fletcher
i All must admit that the people of thi
state have a very vigorous dislike 70
the man Fletcher Had this contes
been between Gates and Page the re
suit would have been far different
That Gates received nearly 5000 vote
| without making campaign indicate
that It would have been possible TO
him TO defeat Page had 1, not been 10
the three cornered contest. Gates
I the most popular man in the state
III Vermont Advance