The Wrangell sentinel., 1940-03-22

times is the fact that the preElQen= tial primary tussles are crashing Page One in mid-winter-and in competition with war news.
 The front-page positions of head lines like Dewey Enters Illinois Race. and Farley Slate in Massa- chusetts. may mean that rank-and- file voters will have a chance to play an active. practical role in sell ecttng nominees for President.
 If the average voters" do. it will be the first time that John O. and Mary Jane Citizen have definitely participated in the presidential pre- liminaries on a nationwide basis in 2S years. For it was in 1912 that the popular voice played hob with Republican primaries and gave Ted dy Rooseyelt's packers the courage to set up their candidate as an inde- pendent.
 Voters Influence Vague
 Before 1912. and since, the in- fluenee of the rank and file in the trial heats has been indirect, vague. inconelusive.
 The reason for their impotence during the candidate-hunting phase of presidential politics lies in the fact that the democratic way of nominating and electing is unsuited to smoking out candidates for office.
 It works smoothly only after the candidates have been picked and the final race is on. For instance. you can't actually draft a man who doesn't want 10 be drafted because, in so doing. you deprive him of the liberty to run or not to run lib- erty guaranteed by the democratic form of government.
 That automatically leaves the sell ection of candidates to political par ties. and. more especially, to the people who make a profession of running parties.
 Caucuses Used First
 Party leaders first adopted the secret caucus system because it was already in practical use as a town council method of picking candid ates. Out of the national party eau cuses tn Washington candidates sud- denly and mysterionsly appeared. Voters had no choice but to pass on the caucus selections of both parties
 About 1895. the caucus died the death Of a political villain and the convention system supplanted it. In the convention. the parties were supposed to select their candidates openly. But soon the evils of the caucus appeared in the form of the "smoke-filled back room" and cliques were charged with manip- ulating conventions like Punch and Judy shows.
 Around the turn of the century the political primary idea evolved, almost spontaneously, as a remedy for the evils in the convention sys- tenn. Under the primary system, the idea was to control political parties under state laws, and make them quasi-public organizations.
 Primary A Progressive Idea
 But from the very start, the pri- mary movement was doomed to fail- ure as a nationwide institution. In the first place, each state has a right to do as it pleases about pol itical parties. and in the second place, professional politicians usual ly distrust gusts of popular opinion. They fought the primary idea from the word go.
 The result: only II states. albeit the more populous ones, have presi- dential primaries. In three others, Arkansas, Georgia. and Alabama, the voters may have Q primary if the powers that be in the parties will let them. Alabama leaders have decided to hold primary this year. The others are making up their minds.
 That means Is states-Alabama California, Florida, Illinois, Massa- New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ore gon. Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, will elect their candidates to the nation al conventions. However. eight of the Illinois and New York delegates are picked by party committees. The District of Columbia Democrats also elect their delegates, but the Repub- licans do not.
 Those 15 states will have total of 492 delegates. at the 1940 Demo- cratic convention out of HOO and 460 delegates to the Republican con- vention out of 1,000-less in each case than a majority.
 All except three of the 15-Ala- bama, Florida. and New York-alsC give their voters a chance to direct. ly express a preference for President in addition to electing delegates oi