Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-05-17
Editors Letter Box
Favoring the Direct Primary
Wilton. Maine, May ~. 1922.
To the Editor Of the Kennebec Jour

Is Wilton. Maine. May IL. 1922.
To the Editor of the Kennebec Jour
/ nal, Augusta, Maine:
My Dear Sir:-Relying upon your
| desire for fair presentation of both
| sides. take the liberty to ask If you
| will kindly publish in your paper the
following quotations from a speech on
| the direct nominating primary, by Al
bert j. Beveridge, who recently won
the Republican nomination over pres
| ent Senator New, for the Indiana
United States senatorship by a sweep
ing majority.
| THE direct nominating primary
| must be saved. because through the
primary. and only through the pri-
mary, women can make practical use
of their votes. Under the direct nom
mating primary women can go to the
polls and help nominate party candi-
dates exactly as they afterwards go
| to the polls on election days, and help
| elect public officials. Under the con-
vention system this is practically inn
| possible. Women are, in effect, dis
fTanchised there because, under the
convention system. they have no part
in nominating candidates. Under the
| convention system, party candidates
were, for the most part, named by
! professional party manipulators. meet
| ing in secret, and operating through
| their convention agents.
This is one rcason-perhaps the
main reason-that professional men,
| politicians, and certain interests that
work through such politicians, and
can work only through such politi-
clans, are striving to overthrow the
direct nominating primary wherever it
exists. Such men and interests care
| little who vote at elections, provided
! they can name the candidates for
whom citizens must either vote or re-
frain from voting at all.
mo concerted effort was made to
demolish it until all women were
given the ballot by constitutional!
amendment. Almost Immediately
after that epochal advance i'll human
rights, the plot was framed against the
direct nominating primary-a general
plot covering the whole nation; and
bills were introduced in various state
| legislatures to abolish the direct nom;
| mating primary and restore the old
convention system.
The direct nominating primary
! must be saved because it is the best
method yet devised by which citizens
| can prevent party corruption. Under
the direct nominating primary the
party voter holds the whip hand over
the party organization; without the
| direct nominating primary the organi-
cation holds the whip hand over the
party voter
| THE direct nominating primary
must be saved because it strengthens
and unfies political parties, and. in the
present stage of the development of
free institutions political parties arc
necessary to the conduct of popular
representative government.
The direct nominating primary pro-
duces public officials who are more re-
sponsive to the people who nominate
and elect them, than are produced by
conventions run BY profession al poll
ticians.
The primary must be saved because
! it Is more honest and less expensive
than the convention system. The cor
ruption that developed under the con-
vention system was one of the prin-
cipal reasons for overthrowing it and
! adopting the primary in place of it..
| Much clamor is raised about the eX-
/ pense of the primary; yet while no.
body knows the exact amount spent
! under the convention system, every
| body does know that vast sums We're
| expended annually.
THE direct nominating primary
must be saved because it is natural
evolution of popular representative
| governmental logical step forward in
| the development of free institutions"
| MARY f. BASS,
State w. c. T. L. Superintendent
of Citizenship.