Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-17
LEADERS WAITING TO
SEE WHO GETS THE HOOK
But the Presidential Preference Pri
mary in Minnesota Will Not
Mislead Them

MisIead Them
EVERY man gifted with a little COM
~ mon sense and the ability to see
joke is going to be highly entertained
during the next few months. lie will
be an appreciative spectator of comedy
and farce in actual life. The most di-
verting feature of the whole show will
be the sober seriousness with which the
actors perform.
The show has already begun in Min
nesota, where they had a presidential
preference primary on Monday.
A presidential preference primary. as
every one knows, is intended to lodge in
the hands of the voters the power to de-
eide what candidate is to receive the
support of the delegates from their state
to the national convention. 1t is de-
vice invented to destroy the power OF
the political machines and compel the
conventions to make nominations re-
gardless of the Vaccinations of the
bosses.
High minded citizens sat up nights
| for months perfecting the plan. Their
sensitive souls were shocked at the Spcc
/ tacle Of q convention made up of dele
gates voted by n group of bosses with
out regard to the popular will. boss
10 them on the party's brim was a boss
and nothing more. They saw no anal
ogy between political organization and
an army. They trusted in the sponta
ncous and unorganizcd expression of
opinion from an Uniformed and some =
times Indifferent public. II there were
any high sounding phrases left unused
by them in condemning the old system
Of the election of delegates by the party
organizations nno praising the plan OF a
preferential primarv-it was because they
had been overlooked. The language was
drained of its epithcts and expletives
and of its phrases of laudation and
culogy before the states adopted the
plan
And the party organizations consented
to the passage Of the necessary laws hc'
! cause the party leaders familiar witt
similar spasms Of popular interest in thu
prcliminaries of political conventions
were aware that the laws would mo-
Crously interfere with their plans. The
> baby was crying for n piece of candy
: and they gave it to him for the sake o
1 peace in the home.
All those who are lacking in a sens
of humor and are unable to see tn
Q comedy in the situation will resent thi
dcsCription of what has happened
i But it cannot he helped. The world |
e ruled by men who can see a Joke eve
K when it is on them. The joke in thi
ease, however. is not on the men Calo
n bosses. 1t is on the other fellow.
e Neither Mr.. Wilson nor Mr., Taf
"a was nominated in 1912 because of tn
IL decrccs Of presidential primaries. No
was Mr.. Hughes nominated in 1916 b."
cause the voters in the primaries sal
they wanted him. Mr.. Wilson was re
nominated in that year because h
wanted to be. and whether the prmaric
" had been for him or against him h
d would have been named. Iio cOntrollC
l. his party machinery and the party ma
m chine controlled tho convention and tn
te convention did what it was TOLD to do
ID Mr.. Wilson himself, who has been n
ID advocate of the primary system, was no
under any illusions about tho matter
IF But his party record wa> straight, an
ic he acted his part with that soborncs
10 which sharpcncd the point Of the iok
1r or the benefit of the discerning, who ha
p. not forgotten how h" insisted on th
rg election by tho New jersey Legislator
f. of senator who had been indorsed Il
the primaries in default Of the appear
?. ancc Of any other candidate. The pri
a mary was sacred even when it had bee
l. taken seriously by no ono except him
- -clf and tho man who ran for the Scnat