Norwich bulletin., 1920-02-20
Too Little Sane Direction in EIecting Public Officials, Municipal and State.

MT. Editor: Too many of our Amer ican municipalities are in the political doldrums. The occasions upon which the average American municipality non1inates and elects public officials of what very lenient mind would ad
 init to be first-grade ability, are so rare as to be negligible. Why not say so-sinee it is true and since near ly everybody knows it is true. ''TelI the truth, end shame the family"
 The system is costing the average American municipality lot of mon ey. It is costing great deal more than there is need of it's costing. It is so all along the line. Everywhere city, county and state taxes are piled up beyond need by collective incom- petence-and in lot of cases the bill has become so staggering that it can hardly be paid The fault lies at the door of the general public, and the question is not so much one of too broad democracy as too little sane di- rection. Nobody steers. Every one with bee in his bonnet is free to of fer himself as a candidate for public office. Unfortunately nobody with any considerable amount of brains usually bothers about running for of fice"-and men who are in no particu- lar qualified for any such responsibil- ities but who want to enjoy the novelty of holding office" and getting paid for so doing, make a whirlwind campaign among voters who are unable to muster up en- enthusaisn for any of the lot.
 The theory of the direct primary is perfectly splendid. of course. like most other theories. It works badly only
 because the material with which one has to work falls pathetical1y short of being the ideal material we thought it was going to be. The men who
 got up this system saw the gross im-
 perfections of the old caucus and the old conventions, with their cynical immortality. Out of that old system we naturally got few unscrumpious individuals who bought up'' the dele gates-but we generally got some pretty able men at the same tifne To-
 day, what is the situation? Certainly not so much ability! But the uplift- CT failed to foresee that, and possibly does not see it even today. All he ever could see was that in a nomin-
 ating convention there was 'chance for somebody to buy votes." His sim pie remedy was to abolish the con vention and have the voters choose di-
 rectfy.
 The defect in pretty near all the theories devised by political uplift is that such always presuppose an ideal electorate that is non existent. If everybody were a college president in retirement, these direct primaries initiatives and referendum and all l that sort of thing would work very well. As is the case, not a single one | of them works efficiently. Fact is i they work as whole much worse than. the imperfect machinery they
 st1pplanted.
 | Things have reached the point l where the ablest men absolutely vii | not offer themselves as candidates.
 save in the most exceptional of cir Ilmstances-which is auather tl1ine the uplifter never dreamed wotilu come to pass. The average munich
 pality offers the voter a discouraging
 choice of evils, rather than a choice
 among excelleneies. Everybody has seen instances in which, with an ad-
 mittedly able man seeking election, the unterrif1ed electorate deliberately
 chose an obviously incompetent mar
 and laughed loudly at the work of its
 own hands! Naturally. then. there is no burning zeal on the part of hel
 citizens for the process of seif-im- notation. They have no interest
 whatever in offering themselves as l candidates. The field is left free te l the self-Seekefs who madly scramble | for the places and who fight it out among themselves while discouraged