The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-12-04
Most Able Political Observers
Toast the Law.
BEGINNING OF BIG fight
Morton AIbaugh Led Battle Be-
fore Organization.
McNeal, Mason. West and
Evans Come to Rescue.

the session of the Saturday Night club |
and came from the toaster singed ana +
smoking. Some of Kansas most aple
and prominent political observers took
free running kicks at the reform cleo
ton system. while friends of the law |
rushed to its rescue and sought to
beat back the bombardment. The de-
bate was an occasion for one OF the
liveliest sessions staged by the famous
club in months.
The Saturday Night club lives under
a rule which provides for discussion
of real live issues. One session may
consider the war in Europe. another
the Mexican situation, the labor
question the high cost of living, short
skirts or safety zones for politicians.
Always the meeting is worth Whlie.
The membership of the club is re-
stricted. Always, the men VINO talk
say things that count and go to the
limited membership are state and fed |
eral officials, supreme court and dis
trict judges, lawyers, doctors, news
paper men, bankers, merchandising
men who meet big questions with big
ideas.
But the Saturday night gathering
was something unusual-even for the
spectacular Saturday Night club. Mem
bers combed the primary system with
bitter indictments. Then the defense
the lawyers in the Mcdaniel case
they told the anti-primary crowd that
the primary had come to stay and
asked them how they felt about it.
A Live Issue.
In the next legislative session the
primary election law will probably fur
nish the one big, sensational fight.
Just at this time the primary is a real,
live issue. Both sides admitted it
And it is most probable that the ora
tory which flowed Saturday night will.
be repeated in the legislative halls
this winter.
Morton Albaugh led the fight on
the primary in paper that seemingly
carried every Indictment ever returned
against the election system. That pa
per was one of the prize documents
! before the club, in many moons. Right
at the start Albaugh declared he was
not leading a propaganda, that the
argument of expense was not matter
for consideration if the system had
reformed politics, elevated better men
to office, established greater public
efficiency or provided better govern
ment.
Then for twenty minutes Albaugh
| simply laid the primary system out
cold. He scoffed at many sugges-
| tions of amendments and reforms in
the primary law. He declared they
were mere admissions of the weakness
of the system.
Having first given US smallpox,
now they would make us forget it by
| inoculating us with typhoid" was
Albaugh's sarcastic reference to pri-
mary promoters. Then he told club
members that bossism in politics never
| disturbed Kansas; that conditions such
as faced large cities which often die
| tated state politics, were not found
| here and that for Kansas the conyen-
| ton system was the ideal system. He
| declared men just as able, honorable
and efficient were chosen by conven-
lions as by primaries, while five Kan
sas primaries have cost the state $780,
| 600 without improving conditions
Party Principles Lost.
| Added to these facts, Albaugh
| charged that the primary has destroy
ed party organization in Kansas. that
| party principles are lost and forgotten
| in personal campaigns and that the
| voter knows nothing of most state
candidates except their own personal
| endorsements. He suggested such ad-
vertisements be submitted to the blue
sky department with literature of
| mining and oil companies. He urged
also. that the system is bunglesome
| and complicated, that voters of one
| party enter primaries of another party
to control nominations, that the sys-
tenn IS a rich mans game and con-
trolled by men with money and pub
| Hcity. He pointed to the fact that the
men most prominently mentioned for
| United States senator and governor
| two years hence are newspaper men
He criticised the system which permits
candidates to write party principles
after they have been nominated and
are looking for votes. Under our
present system" he said, cit is not
| what party shall stand for nor it's
ideals, but who shall draw the SAL
| aries
Charles H. Sessions was listed to di-
rect the defense for the primary
Sessions arrived after Albaugh had
concluded his talk. But Sessions drove
home the arguments of the men who
are supporting the primary plan.
THE law probably needs some
| amendments, said Session. Il think
a primary in May would give more time
for healing the wounds that are ap-
parent after the nominations are made
and would remove many of the pres
ent complaints. A law compelling
statewide registration of party affilia-
tions should be provided. Probably a
shorter ballot would help. But you
put this down in your book-the pri-
mary has come to stay and you can
make the most of it. Any change in
the law will be to strengthen it, not to
destroy it,
McNeaI to the Rescue,
T. A. McNeal came to Sessions's
rescue in the defense of the primary,
as did Justice Henry Mason, Justice ].
S. West and c. ]. Evans. McNeal COM
bined wit and sarcasm in his reference
| to the men who opposed the primary.
He mentioned the old convention plan
and recalled the time when Frank
Ryan went to bed thinking he was a
candidate for secretary of state and
awoke to find he was a candidate for
railroad commissioner. He said the
men against the primary were related
to or were servants of corporations
for which statement he later had cause
to repent
T. F. Doran, l. S. Ferry, Judge A. w
Dana. Judge S. NJ. Hawks, William E.
Connelley, J. S. Dean and other mem