Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-12

BY wealth, unaved by the mob, forgetful
of faction, fmgetful OF party, above poll
tics, serving only and ever our common
devotion to our common patriotism. On
these principles, fellow citizens, irrespec-
tive of criticism, stand"
COME Of these sentiments you strength
en- and some you weaken, according
to your record and your personality. The
only obligatory one is: "above politics"
You then devote yourself to study of
the laws for the selection of delegates.
These laws exhibit the States as being
some of them convention" States and
some of them primary" States. In the
former the delegates are chosen in con-
ventions by elected representatives Of the
party voters. In the latter they are
chosen directly by the party voters them
selves At one time all States were con-
vention States, and the laws governing
the proceedings were few and feeble.
Citizens then had to be active, and they
had to be bold. BY wards or by town
ships or by counties they assembled in
party mass meetings called "caucuseS.
These caucuses might be marked by
braWS You sometimes had to fight IL
you wanted to vote. 1t was not enough
to be righteous. You might also have to
be rough Additionally, the thing took
time 1t might last all day and all night.
At the end of it you had delegates out
of localities to a central caucus, or con-
ventien,, of the whole State.
There, also, the proceedings might be
manly as well as civic. To secure order
there might be preliminaries of disorder.
To secure a fair count of the ballots in
the hat there might be an ugly fight for
that hat. Moreover and again, the thing
took time. A State convention can de-
bate for quite a while. 1t can also in
the end, after looking everything over,
come to conclusions quite different from
the ones that were entertained by the
members of it when they were elected by
their neighborS.
The neighbors thereupon began to be
FESTIVE. They wanted three reforms.
They wanted laws that would make eau
cuSing physically safer. They wanted
laws that would make it easier and
quicker. And they wanted laws that
would control their elected representa-
tives and prevent those representatives
from changing their minds
These reforms came to the perfected
pink of their final flower in the 'preSi-
Dental primary and presidential pref
erence primary legislation of the first
and second decades of this century. 1t
81
States. 1t then began to shrivel. Today
it persists in one form or in another,
bindingIy, in Is States only.
In the ideal presidential primary" and
"presidential preference primary State,
conpositeIy pictured, the party voter
walks to a policed polling booth and
wholly eliminates the need of State
convention by giving from one to five
minutes of his time to the following acts:
He votes for two delegates to go to his
party'S national presidential nomination
convention to represent his congressional
district. He votes for at least four dele
gates to go to that convention to represent
his State eat large" And he ''inStructS"
and binds" all these delegates by voting
for the presidential aspirant upon whom
he wishes his partys presidential nomi-
nation to be conferred.
It would seem to be an ideal system.
The party voter, the sovereign citizen,
without any notable risk to life or limb,
and with hardly any expenditure of time,
names the presidential nominee!
VET even this system, so economical
of effort for the sovereign citizen, has
not made him really lin the intended
sense) sovereign. There are two reasons.
In the first place, he is still operating