Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-05
p. A. Barrows, Correspond
BY p. A. BARROWS.

Lincoln, May 4.-(Special.) 1.-The
proposition which faces some of the
new laws enacted by the last legis.
lature appears to be serious one,
especially upon the administrative
code law and the new primary law,
the latter appearing to be the main
bone OF contention, even the enc
mics of the law not appearing to be
able to agree on just what action
to take.
When the move first started. for
invoking the referendum on the new
primary law, there appeared to be a
general agreement on the part OF
its enemies that the whole bill
should be recalled, but as its enc
mics began to cool off and read the
law they discovered that after all
there were some pretty good things
about it and even now some OF them
appear to favor what thy first de-
clared was an Onslaught on the
rights of the people.
Nature ofLaw.
Perhaps it might be we'll to tell
just what the ne% primary law does
and perhaps then it may not appear
to be such a(ferrible thing after all.
First it provides that all state Of
ficers below governor, not now
coming Ander, the non-partisan law
shall be nominated at state con-
ventiSh. The delegates to such state
coDFention shall be elected by dele
gates from the several precincts Of
Zach county to a county conven-
ton, such delegates being elected d.
rectly by the voters at the primary
which dominates county officers.
Second, the new law provides that
the county committee of each coun-
ty shall be equally represented by
men and women, each precinct hav-
ing one man and one. woman as
members of the county committee.
These are the only material
changes in the old law and the ones
which are causing the enemies of
the law so much contention. TAX
ing a chance that l may be classed
as a reactionary, l will simply dis
cuss the changes as regards their eff
feet upon the people.
Objection of Old System.
The foundation of our voting sys-
tenn is builded upon the great fun
damental principle of the casting
of an intelligent ballot. 1t is a
welf-known fact that large part of
the voters of the state who enter
the primary booth to mark their bal
lot do not cast an intelligent ballot
so far as selecting the best candi-
date for the different Offices below
governor. The voter may be able
to do so on one or two offices, but
in the majority of cases he is called
upon to put his cross opposite the
name of from two to four men for
many of the offices and he abso-
lute1y has no personal knowledge
which one of themfis best qualified
for the office. He is expected to
cast an intelligent ballot and yet he
knows nothing about any of the can
didates for most of the Offices. Is
he casting an intelligent ballot, the
intelligent ballot that it is expected
man should cast when he selects
the man of his choice1
Under the new law the, people of
each voting precinct will elect a
representative to the county con-
vention and those representatives
will select the county quota of
delegates to the state convention
who will nominate the candidates
for lieutenant governor, secretary of
state, treasurer, auditor. land COM
missioner, attorney general and rail-
way commissioner. These delegates
will have the opportunity to come
in personal contact with all the
candidates for these offices. They
will have a chance to see them and
learn of them and their qualifica-
tons. They can carry back to their
counties and the voters who have
sent them to the convention, first
hand knowledge of the candidates
and their qualifications.
Therefore the percentage of
chance that the best men will be
nominated is greater than where
fully 80 per cent of the voters of
the state 60 into q secret booth and
are compelled to place their mark
opposite the name of some candidate
in a group of three or four and
they know absolutely nothing of
any of them.
Conditions Changed.
One Of the. charges made against
the convention system is that in the
days of the old convention the rail-