The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-12-30

assembly is repeal OF the d1rect primary INV,
that one and only political remedy ever tried
which has come to be generally recognized as
worse than the disease it undertook to cure
Prohibition may be thought to push it hard IN
the matter of increasing the evils it attempted
to end. But on the whole the direct, double
election primary must be considered as fairly
entitled to the palm for having made conditions
concededly worse by far than they were before
The reformers who prescribed the direct pri-
mary as panacea for all our political ills were
whenever he had case he did not understand
was to give the patient medicine which threw
him into fits For he could cure fits, he said
and when he could bring them on he had some
hopes of pulling the patient through. Our po-
itical reformers in hurry did not stop to study
the ailment for which they prescribed or else
they would have soon discovered what the
proper treatment was. They would have seen
that by electing delegates at legal primaries,
proEiding court reviews of proceedings alleged
to be improper, prohibiting ''snap" caucuses
and preventing credentials committees Of con-
ventlons from throwing out delegates they did
not want, the old caucus and convention sys-
TEN could have been made the best and safest
nominating mechanism that human wit ever
devised. Instead Of this, however, they threw
the state into fits, so to speak, and produced a
condition worse than the first, which neither
they nor anyone else can cure except by a CAPT
tai operation.
The coming Iowa general assembly should
repeal the direct primary law and return to
the people the convention system, surrounded
by certain legal safeguards. Sentiment in both
the political parties favors this The present
law has failed conspicuously either to purify
politics or open the field to meritorious candi
dates or to give the people representatives equal
in character and standing to those they had be-
fore. It is costly, complicated system which
the politicians can but nobody else can.
The old system with all its defects was infinitely
better; and legally guarded caucus and con-
vention system, such as the state of Iowa never
had, could be made almost ideal.
The American Federation of Labor proposes
a referendum to it's six hundred thousand mem
bers in railroad employ of the question whether
government ownership of the roads or regula-
ton of them is to be preferred. In view Of the
recent wage advance, it will not be surprising if
the mass of the employees favor national oper-
alton. But what about the six million shippers
of the country Why not have a referendum
to them7 And what about the taxpayers of the
nation who must make up the two hundred mil
lion dollars deficit accruing through govern
ment operation in the last nine monthss If this
question Of incalculable importance to the
country is to be decided by referendums, why
not refer it to all the citizens it vitaly
German marks are quoted below par. In that
case, if mark ism t worth as much as it used
to be, then it follows as mathematical certain
ty that Germany doesn't owe as much to her
self as she thought she did.
Germany is Jared by revolution. y an
nounces newspaper headline. Germany has
the jars, certainly, but does not yet indicate
unanimous desire to preserve the fruits of revo-
luton
The former kaiser calls Ferdinand, of Rr-
mania, traitor to Hohenzollern traditions
That compliment will be Ferdinand passport
to the respectable circle of posterity.
The innocent bystander in this world has
chance to stand up straight and draw long
breath again
We may not have been able to get salute at
Tampico, but we re getting one in Germany
The watch on the Rhine has an American
mn