Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1922-10-13
TO BE SUBMITTED
AT GENERAL ELECTION
(By Senator F. j. Wilmer)
Referendum No. 10

mitteemen at cost of 81 and have
their names printed on primary bal
E lots. They must be duly register ed
voters.
Party organization may be cen
/ tralized by the delegation of func-
lions of county and state committees
ito officers or special committees.
Candidates for primary nomina-
! lions must declare under oath: that
they have been duly registered: that
they have affiliated with the party
for two years last past; that they be-
leve in its principles as enunciated
in the last state platform and. if
elected, will endeavor to make the
party program effective by legislative
enactment.
The other amendments are not sig
nificant
Supporters of the measure con-
tend that the operation Of the pri-
mary law tends to party disintegra-
ton; that the genius of American
government is control by great ma
tional parties They assert that dis
solution of national parties will re-
suit in government by groups and
"bloCs." each striving selfishly for
its own class interests, and ignoring
the Just demands of groups or classes
whose accessions are not needed to
control legislation; that under such
government. broad national policies
for the benefit of all will be impos-
sible.
They point to Wisconsin as an ex-
ample Of party decay resulting from
its peculiar primary law. There the
democratic party no longer exists. In
the recent primary election. the vic
torious candidate for Z. s. senator
on the republican ticket featured his
canvass by virulent attacks upon the
national administration of the party
of which he posed as a member. Wis
consin during the great war had more
disloyal people, has now more VIC
lent opponents of the 18th amend
ment, and more radical socialists
than any other state. All the ele-
ments Of discomfort combined to eff
feet the travesty of the nomination
Of this candidate for the L. S. SEN
ate on the republican ballot Should
the other states be reduced to the
political chaos now existing in Wis
consin, they assert that our Amer
lean government could not endure
beyond the next national crisis.
Wisconsin's primary law functions
through blanket primary ballot.
Referendum No. Is has aroused
bitter antagonism It is branded as
'reactionary' and a reversion to
'hossism" and machine" politics
II is declared that the delegation of
authority by county and state com
mittees will centralize party domino
ton in small cliques. which will
prove more reprehensible than the
old party bosses"
Particular disapproval is voiced
against the provision wherein candi-
dates are bound by oath to party
loyalty. This, it is claimed. will ef-
feet an oath-bound servility tn tho
machine" that will put to blush the
practices of former convention DAVIS.
They severely condemn the provision
that binds by oath the candidate TO
party rule. after his election, as the
end of all independence in legislative
halls. and claim that such oath takes
precedence over the oath of office of
new incumbents. and therefore places
party above government
When the legislature met in 1921.
there was a strong undercurrent of
opinion for the outright repeal Of the
primary law. In the preceding
gubernational urinary canvass no.