Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1941-01-16
Morgan County

ton and in SO doing dominate the nominations.
When his candidates were elected then it was
pointed out that he had control of the govern
ment at Columbus, and was in measure in con-
troll of the state government.
While defending his primary SYSTEM in one
of his discourses Mr.. Tannehll spoke as follows:
"It certainly needs no argument to prove that
representative government can never be satisfac-
tory where the representatives of the people in
any branch of government-egisla execu-
tive or judicial-are Inefficient, corrupt con-
trolled by selfish interests So long the man.
ner of their selection is such that party bosses or
self-seeking corporations both the
Democratic and Republican candidates for each
office, there be no hope of improvement in
representative government.
"The chief cause of the frequent failures in rep
resentative government lies in the corrupt, boss
controlled, drunken debauched and often hysteri-
cal nominating convention. The convention must
go.
"The statewide direct primary is no innovation.
1t is the established policy of large number of
the states of the union. Today in this great ma
ton over 40 million of Americas best citizens Sc
lect their governors by direct primaries but, sad
to relate, the great state of Ohio still clngs to
the corrupt. boss-controlled convention plan"
In presenting what he claimed was one of the
benefits of his plan, Mr.. Tannehill held forth that
there would be fewer unworthy candidates." He
went on to explain:
There is good reason why this is true Wher
you put it up to the direct vote of the people nc
unworthy candidates will present themselves be-
cause they afraid of the popular vote They
can't 60 into convention and, by swapping ano
trading around, get nominated They have to &c
before the electors and get so many votes Il
doesn't cost the candidate as much. They dont
have to buy delegation in county convention
1t does not destroy party organization, either
Now, you say you favor representative govern
ment. Is state convention representative, Who
the delegates, A lot of two-by-four editors
like myself, lot of one-horse lawyers and
bunch of county officers. It's the same old bunct
year after year"
The writer recalls hearing Mr. Tannehill tel
of state convention he attended. There was
certain candidate the boss wanted nominated
He was unknown, unworthy and incompetent
The boss rounded up about 1000 college student.
and had them in the convention hall. They were
instructed that as soon as this candidates name
had been presented, that they would let loose Z
wild demonstration. 1t was all well planned ane
successfully carried out by the students Ver,
few, if any of the delegates had ever heard of the
candidate, but when the mention of his name re
ceived such an ovation, they took it for granted
ne was very popular and he was nominated or
the first ballot.
The primary proposal of Mr. Tannehll was
finally adopted by vote of "a to "a and it be
came part of the state constitution, and has
been ever since. During the % years it has beer
law of the state, it has been responsible fol
many political accidents, which would never have
taken place under the old system These "acci
dents" have been in both political parties. Wheth
er better candidates whole have been select
ed through the primary system, is open for de
bate. In principle the primary seems to be tn,
ideal law, but in practice, we know it has at time:
fallen far short of what to have been ex
pected. The old convention system, smacked toe
much of boss rule. Just what change can be
made, that would be improvement over the
present system and still keep away from the evil:
of the old convention plan we have not seen ad
vocated. When the matter comes up in the leg
islature, we may expect an interesting, lively de-
hafa