Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1926-10-14

The abolition OF the direct pri-
mary is SO indefensible that the
sponsors OF the present amendment
are attempting TO deceive the voters
/ into believing that 1t is a. nodifica-
tion of the direct primary and not
! It's repeal. AS author of the exist
! Ing constitutional amendment re-
quiring that primaries be held,
wish to warn all citizens that IL the
present amendment be adopted, the
primary, as an effective protection
of the rights of the people, will be
/ as dead as some of the illustrious
heroes OF the past whose names ap-
pear on the Davis-Knight petitions.
The amendment submitted is de-
\ fective in its form, unrestricted in
| its provisions and vicious in it's pur-
poses. It's abolition will inevitably
result in again disfranchising wom-
en-, for If they have no voice in the
nomination of candidates and their
rights are restricted to a choice in
| November between two lists of can
! didates selected by party bosses,
women suffrage amounts to nothing.
! With the primary eliminated, the
laboring classes on farms, In mines,
mills and factories will be powerless
TO prevent the nomination of boss
picked candidates by both parties.
An attempt is being made to gain
support for the amendment by
claiming that it will save the taxpay-
ers the present cost Of holding pri-
maries. These statements are false
in every particular. If we revert to
the convention plan of nominating
candidates it will still be necessary
to hold a primary. None but fools
and knaves would favor the selec-
tion of delegates to such conventions
in back rooms of disreputable
"hangouts" as was permitted a gen.
Grafton ago.
Such delegates to all conventions
would necessarily be selected at reg
ular polling places under state su-
pervision and at state expense in
regular primary. The only difference
would be that at such primary the
voters would vote for delegates in
stead of candidates. The expense to
the taxpayers would be the same.
The supporters of the proposed
amendment assert that the primary,
as conducted in Ohio and other
states, is unsatisfactory. Who made
it so? The men in this and every 9TH
er state who are attempting to abol-
ish the primary are the ones who by
lavish use of money have brought
odium on that plan of nominating
candidates. They say that the poor
man has no chance in a primary.
Senator'S Willis and Fess, Governor
Donahey and Hon. Atlee Pomerene
are poor men, yet with scarcely an
effort and at an expenditure of about
rs cents each, they are nominated
and re-nominated year after year
while candidates spending from
$4,000 to 100000 barely secure
nominations or utterly fail in the at
tempt. Even when nominated these
politicians who corrupt primaries
are seldom successful at the election.
In the constitutional convention
of 1912 I suggested holding the pri-
mary about the middle of Septem-
ber, and I still favor that change.
Primary day should also be registra-
ton day. This would compel a gen.
eral attendance Of voters at the pri-
mary and save the present enormous
expense for registrations Only re-
movals and new voters should be re-
quired to register and the election |
judges and clerks can easily perform
this small additional labor on pri-
mary day. Those who do not attend
the primary should be compelled to
go to the county board of elections
to be reinstated on the registration
lists before the November election
or be deprived of the right to vote
until reinstated. This will eff
fectively cure the evil of a light pri-
mary vote.