Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1911 — FAVORS THE PROPOSED LAW [ARTICLE]

FAVORS THE PROPOSED LAW

Kansas City Btar Seos Much Value In a National Presidential Primary. The bill to be presented to congress for a federal presidential primary law will afford a test of true progresslve- ' isiri. Those who believe In popular government and who trust the people will vote for the enactment of such a law. Those who depend on secret machine methods will oppose Its enactment. Of course the bill as It Is projected by progressives of both parties will encounter the objection; that it Is “unconstitutional." Every good thing Is said to be against the constitution. But the constitution Is not half as bad as it la represented to be by -those who say they are Its closest friends. A national presidential primary certainly could not be as evasive of the constitution as is the entire system of national party conventions. The constitution provides an electoral college for choosing a president. We stjll have an electoral college; but It simply records what the conventions initiate and the people determine at the polls. The electoral college will prevail under the new proposed arrangement. The change will be simply that the people will initiate — that the people, and not the machines, will control the nominations. The direct senatorial primaries within the several states are another instance of a change in the method of selecting high federal officials from that method contemplated in the constitution. -- The inove for a national presidential primary embodies the right principle in the right and practical form. It is right for both parties. It is nonpartisan. Progressives of both parties in every state should insist that their senators and representatives, vote for it— vote for it in time to control the nominations of 1912.—Kansas City Star.