Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-04
WOOD ATTACKS PRIMARY
AS NOT REPRESENTATIVE
Radio Forum Speaker Declares Best
Advertiser Rather Than Most Capa-
bic Man Often Wins Race.

is evinced by our being thus assembled
in their behalf"
So we find the most distinguished
precedent of the convention system OF
handling public affairs in that great
constitutional convention which wrote
the charter of our Government, pro-
nounced "the greatest work ever struck
of at q given time by the hand and
brain of man." giving us Government
where freedom and order go hand in
hand and liberty is safeguarded by law.
There have been number OF ehorts
since that day to improve the ma
chinery of government, both in this
country and in other countries. How
ever we'll intentioned some of these ef-
forts have been, all of them have failed
in that the methods they substituted
and the new forms they put into effect
did not bring about either a more
democratic government, on the one
hand, or a more stable government on
the other. They have ranged all the
way from the rule of the mob and the
decree of the guillotine in the bloody
French Revolution to the absolutism of
the Cars Of Russia, the military despot-
ism of the Turks and the benevolent
monarchy of England. Today the Gov
eminent of the United States of Amer
lea is the Oldest in existence. BY that
I mean no other government. with the
possible exception of some of the family
dynasties of India and the Orient
which existed at the time of the adop-
ton of the American Constitution, Is in
existence today in the same form and
substance, and, with one or two eX-
ceptions, none of the governments
which were in existence then are in
existence today at all. What tribute
to the representative system Of han
ding public affairs!
Experimenting Has Resulted.
We have had political experimenting
in the United States, but happily to
date our experiments have not been
violent, as were those Of European ma
tons With the single exception OF the
Civil War, which was successfully con-
Quoted to a close, there has been no
attempt in this country to overthrow
our Federal Government and tear up
the American Constitution. Our expert
ments have been more or less sugar.
coated They have been wrapped in
the pleasing habilimentS of so-called
ideaIism. They have been urged in the
name of the common people. Most of
them purported to make government by
the people more direct. Most of them
have proved failures.
The popular primGry was adopted, ac-
cording to its partisans, for the purpose
Of putting control of political parties,
and particularly party nominations, lin
the hands Of the people" The main
arguments used when the agitation for
the direct primary was at its height,
some twenty years ago, were that under
the old convention system of selecting
party nominees the people had no voice;
the conventions were boss controlled;
the ncminees were hand picked and not
rci,i sentative of the people; the con-
vent.on system was corrupt. These
pretty we'll cover the charges that were
maze against the old convention sys-
tem and were the base upon which
there was q popular demand for the
adoption Of the primary system of
making party nominations.
What has happened? Primary cleo
ton returns show that winners of party
primaries are frequently nominated by
from to per cent of the total eligible
party vote Of their constituency. Clearly
there Is no rule Of the people" In such
q system
There have been explanations. offered
Of this condition that are worthy of
consideration. The experience of party
primaries, by and large, justifies the
ctetement that they too frequently turn
into campaigns of personalities charac-
terized by all sorts of mud-slinging and
quasi-libelous speech, instead of intelIi-
gent, temperate discussion Of issues and
principles. There has been a growing
tendency to make demagogic appeals to
prejudice and ignorance, to certain
classes and factions, all of which tends
70 bring the entire primary to a low
level. AS natural result, men of stand
ing IN the professional or business world
hesitate to enter party primaries and
face a campaign of billingsgate by some
shyster opponent or be made the target
OF unfair attack by some organization.
From that angle the primary system in
manv sections of our country has almost
e lb1l'2tsd the very Gloss of men which
the American people should have in
public Office
Wealth Is Nec3cd Cement.
This IS another angle. It is common
knowledge that the primary system is
making 1t impossible for any except the
very rich man, or man who has the
backing Of organized wealth In one
form or another, to make a campaign
Tor nomination in Statewide primaries.
Nor Is the immense expenditure of
money necessary to conduct a primary
campaign necessarily a corrupt expendi-
party primary, unless he is very widely
known, has to bring his name before
the voters of his party. He cannot sim
ply announce his candidacy and then
go about his private business in the ex-
pectation that there will be a general
outpouring Of the public on nomination
day to support him. He has to adyer-
tise himself, the same as a motor car.
breakfast food. a radio or a toilet
soap. That costs money. It requires
the organizing of headquarters. the
rental OF rooms, the employment of
stenoeraphers. the purchase of supplies,
the writing Of letters, the buying of
stamps.
Under this system. in many instances.
individuals spend more money in their
primary campaigns than do party COM
mittees working for a whole ticket in
the general elections. Charges of cor
ruption are bound to arise in the bitter
rivalry Of such individual campaigns
and have flown right and left through.
out the land. So it has been deemed
necessary. under this primary system.
which was to purify politics, to appoint
legislative inquisitorial committees to
RESORTS.
~