Honest Primaries The Need Of The Hour

HONEST PRIMARIES THE NEED OF THE HOUR.

Here is an echo from another state as to the rotten nature of the present primary system and the crying need of reform. The editorial is taken from a strong democratic paper, the Columbus Citizen, and goes to show that wherever a party, or any party, is in undisputed control the bosses will resort to corrupt and fraudulent voting to carry their point. The democrats of Michigan have pronounced strongly for primary reform. There has not been in Michigan as much debauchery of this kind in the democratic primaries as In the republican for the reason, no doubt, among others, that there was no occasion to spend money because there were no offices to deliver. Under such circumstances it is much easier to declare for reform and refrain from corrupting the primaries when no advantage is to be derived from such action than when it is possible to deliver the goods. What is needed is a primary election law which will make such corrupt practices more difficult and dangerous.

The following is the testimony of the Columbus Citizen as to recent evidences of fraudulent voting in that city at the recent democratic primaries:

Evidence is accumulating in astonishing and disgraceful volume to show the fraudulent nature of the recent democratic primaries in this city. When, as is the case in precinct H of the Seventh ward, the investigation proves that out of 378 votes cast 200 were the votes of persons not registered and that therefore more than 50 per cent of the total vote was fraudulent. It is time for all citizens to awaken to the peril to which municipal government is exposed in this state by reason of the possibility of such iniquities.

The honest primary law offered at the session of the Seventy-fifth general assembly would instantly have remedied the present conditions that lead to such fraud. This law provided for the voting only of registered persons at primaries, for the holding of the primaries of all parties on the same day and during the same hours and for such safeguards with reference to precinct officers as would make crookedness impossible. The law, although reported upon favorably by the unanimous vote of the committee to which it was referred, and although it was approved by the great majority of legislators, who could not deny that it was wholesome and absolutely necessary legislation, failed to pass- for what reason has never been divulged. It is now possible that good may come out of the evil that was presented by the recent democratic primaries in Columbus by calling the attention of the entire state to the crimes perpetrated on that occasion and thereby suggesting the stern necessity of some legislation on this subject on the lines followed by the law that was rejected at the late session of the general assembly. Good government can only come from the primaries. It cannot come from elections, when candidates are nominated by fraud. The greatest need of the hour in Ohio is an honest primary law. The platforms of both parties this year should contain planks advocating such a law and every candidate for representative or senator should be held strictly to his duty in fulfillment of his party's pledge upon this important subject.