Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1926-11-19
BONE Defends DIRECT
PRIMARY SYSTEM


even try to put q man o4sr With
money alone The use Of huge zInsh
funds becomes Known 70 4ha people
and arouses then resentment against
the man in whose favor such efforts
are made. II has resulted. and Prob
ably viii result in the refusal s. the
! Senate 20 seate the Doodle eandI Ees.
Such il the moral background q the
dirsef primary. Il makes spoilslasn
careful how they spend money TO buy
votes. i makes smell thai rizzz %
high heaven and focuses the attention
Of the whole nation on the eraf1ers.
It Is useless and futile to TAX Of
these things without trying e ind
out WHY 50 much money Is spent n
an effort to elect certain candidate
to the Senate. There is just one rea-
son. The Congress has power 70 en-
act or refuse to enact legislation That
means millions Of dollars to certain
big business interests. One measure.
such as the tariff bill. may mean for
tunes to the wooden trust II i can
write into the measure, the schedule
it wants, the profits will add millions
to its revenues. With this powerful
| financial incentive. the big interests
are determined to put their own men
Into Congress wherever possible The
fact that these excess profits come
out Of the pocketbooks Of tie con
sumers is Of no moment TO these men.
Big business is in politics up 70 is
neck. The power interests are IN poll
tics. They are "regulated" b. state
officials. They want to control the
election of the men who name these
regulators. Only the stupid person
IN politics thinks Of denying this. the
control Of the power trust Of thie
state over the Legislature has Been
disgrace, for years.
Let every student interested il the
matter Of the direct primary keep
this idea firmly in mind. When 4
Ibig business outfits its money into
the campaign to nominate q Senator,
TT EXPECTS TO GET RETURNS
FROM THIS INVESTMENT And
what is more to the point. it does get
these returns" in the form Of special
legislation that enables it to better
skin the people in the form Of high
rates and charges and low taxes. This
is the sordid and practical side Of
/ politics that interests the big man
| ipuIators. The direct primary ma e
them spend enDrmDus SUMS to seei#re
any sort Of results. This expendi-
ture makes people suspicious Of Che
men who are beneficiaries Of such
Doodle campaigns. In turn, this
makes it harder for such public serv-
ants to put over crooked Legislation
without being charged with returning
favors to the big interests that put
up the campaign fund. This makes
the direct primary a stumbling block
to effective handling Of political stu
atoms that could be easily disposed Of
in a small nominating lconvention.l
Here lies the secret Of the attack on
the direct primary.
Enemies Of the direct primary seem
to assume that the mass Of people are
stupid. The explanations they offer
| for the destruction Of this form Of
popular government, are so void Of
| logic as to be funny were they not so
dangerous. For instance, one promin-
ent man fighting the primary system
has this to say: "There would not be
this corruption-this attempt to buy
votes, in convention" "The eonven-
ton has a high type of citizen as =
delegate and he would not stoop to
taking money for his vote"
Imagine the Power Trust Of Illinois
wanting its man Friday in the Senate
badly enough to spend a hugh fortune
4 trying to buy his nomination ira pri-
mary election, but stubbornly refus-
ing to attempt to buy q few votes in ,
convention. If we had the convention
system, the power ring would fade
into the background and permit pro-
gressive with loyalty to the people to
be nominated. Is there q student IN
1 this state 50 stupid as to believe that
! that same forces that were willing to
buy the whole people, would refrain
from attempting to debauch q small
convention Of politicians with money Z
/ Or does any student believe that all Of
the members Of convention would
refuse small fortunes for their votes.
Such deals are put over in back rooms
where no one knows. It is easier and
cheaper to handle the convention =
hence the howl for the return Of the
convention system.
Practically every progressive man
/ in public life is fighting the return Of
this un-American and eorruption-
breeding system They know that It
will spell the end Of all decency in
public life. There are men too high
minded 20 take money and these men
win always be found inpolitieal life
but there too many who are will
ing and anxious to make money BY
any means, to permit them to be the
betrayers Of the people by the easy
means Of the convention system
There are too many big business con.
Germs that know the easy way to tbs
poclethoolls Of the massive i through
control Of the Iaw-makiug body d
Isr1line a. thu nnffnn Tfa4 are u7Itfur