The New York herald., 1921-03-27
CHANGE In PRIMARY
LAW, COP. DEMAND
City Leaders for Conventions
10 Name State and Judicial
Candidates.

New ToSk city organization Repuo-
iicsns are a unit IN backing the repsal IF
tGa iiieet primary law ID the exten u
restoring thr convention System FOR aptn-
mating candidates Tor STATE and judicial
a..irsg. tar statements of the tivs tor
D3gu .e1@sra certifying to tai5 have been
transmitted ~ GOV Miller. ana fna, De
Used ov li;n n Z message on th1 ..p1ect
Of amending .hs election lne-
1acon a lV,ngeyon KING ao.aly
e,der mas expressed a!,nsef ~ extreme
y sentative - ary possible 2eDiic Criu-
cism OF going too sar IN changing the
Won't stand any t!alerirg with the iaw
after state anil judiciary conventions
haze cen brought back-aad he isn't
terribly Keen even on thai.
Isa3tesU of sha ether foGr ooroughs
however. believe the Old HinmaR- Green
plan of having s,arty designating com
n'!ttees should be introduced Tor I'll NOM
nations Below state 2nd judicial. The
deSignees of the party would then go on
the primary ballot as 4 matter Of course.
Independent nominees would have to use
lae petition method. The leaders had
tsken no public stand on the question.
but yesterday 10 TIE NEW YORK HERALD
expressed their preference for designat-
ing corrrlttess.
II Is said this fea ture OF the Tolbert-
9teinberg bill may be made a part of
the Walton bill, which now deals al
most exclusively with State and judi
ciary nominees
Mr. Livingston could not be reached
Yesterday but T. J. II. Kracke.' his
first lieutenant, expressed the Brooklyn
attitude, as follows:
1--WE are in favor or a return TO the
49, s,,1s 1sato f<xnu Igf
the State platform advocated it. But
we do not believe in tampering with the
direct primary law any further"
Samuel 6. Koeng. head of the New
York county organization. said:
For all offices below State and
judiciary we favor party designating
committees. all opposing candidates for
nomination TO come in by petition.
However we are open to conviction that
there should be no change in the pres
ent method OF nominating such candi-
dates, that all candidates for nomina-
tion should be named by petition.
THE Bronx is most decidedly for
designating committees below State and
judicial candidates." said Richard w
Lawrence, leader O. that borough. The
present method Is haphazard and en-
tirely bad. The usual method is for the
county lecder with one or two or his
lieutenants to agree upon an unof-
ficar candidate. The candidates name
has to be presented to the public
through petitions with which the or
ganization is supposed to have nothing
to do. IL is both bothersome and cum
bersome. The result is the rank and
file of tho organization has little to say
about the candidate-much less than II
there were party designating commit
tees"
Joseph II. De Gragga, Queens county
leader, sad
Not only are we for fulfilling our
platform pledges TO return to state and
judicial conventions but personally | am
for return TO the convention system of
nominating all candidates from Gov
ernor right down to game warden My
notion is that direct primaries are de-
vice for the wealthy alone.
J. p. Thompson, Republican leader of
Richmond county. said his organization
had given little thought to modification
OF the present primary law beyond a
return TO State and judiciary conven-
tions, but there was no question that
party designating committees were the
right thing.