The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-03-03
POLITICIANS AND THE PRIMARY


The kind hearted gentlemen, who
for many years have managed the
politics of Vermont most OF the time,
and thus taken away the worries and
annoyances of the plain voters, are
greatly worried because some of the
voters are in favor of the direct prl-
mary bill which gives the voters n
chance to manage their own affairs.
Not satisfied with their progress thus
far these political managers corpora
tion lawyers and gentlemen who get
rich off other peoples earnings have
brought into Vermont a yarn that has
been disproved in all of the 80 states
that have primary nominations:
This great argument put forward
by the enemies of the primary, is that
it gives the larger towns an advantage
over the smaller communities. This
claim is absolutely untrue. After the
failure of the primary bill in the legis-
lature of 1910 the editor of The Ban
ner wrote to public men in dozen
or more primary states, selecting
states where it seemed the primary
laws were the best and asked these
men whether the primary gave any
advantage to the cities and large
towns. In every instance the reply
was in the negative, and these men
were speaking from actual exper-
fences. On the other hand several of
the replies stated that the primary
gives increased benefit to the small
towns and country districts because it
takes the choice of candidates away
from conventions held in cities and
large towns, where the influence OF
machine politicians and selfish inter-
ests is greater than in the country
sections
1t ought to be plain to any voter that
when a state convention is held in
Burlington or Montpelier the effective
working politicians of the state, large
ly not delegates, gather in and around
the convention to solicit and persuade
the delegates and thereby have
greater influence than they could pos
sibly exert on the voters of the 2i6
towns should the voters be permitted
under the primary law to go to their
regular polling places and vote their
own personal choice.
When a county convention is held
in one of the larger towns of the
county, as for instance the Rutland
Conpty onpvaptio,, ~ D,,,,ord ~ t,,o
Windham County convention at Brat
tleboro, all the lawyers, editors. poll
ticians and political workers flock to
the place where the convention is
held. Most of these elements come
from the cities and large towns and
are more experienced in wire-pulling
that the average voter or average
delegate. With the choice of nomi-
nees to be made they exert to the
fullest extent their influence in max
ing up the ticket The rank and file
Of the voters of the smaller towns do
not and cannot attend the convention
to see that their delegates carry out
their wishes. The result plainly is
that the larger towns often get an I'M
reasonable preponderance of the
places on the ticket and have more to
say than they ought in it's selection
Look at your own county tickets OF
the past few years and see If this
statement is not proved by the facts.
The best and only way to meet
this situation is to adopt the primary
and give all the voters the opportunity
to go to their regular voting places
and select their own candidates. as
proposed by this direct primary bill.