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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1907)
3 FEBRUARY 14, 1907 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT him for his vote before lie had told his colleagues about it, and as soon as he could get to the public prosecutor ho turned the money over to him as the 'necessary proofs for successful prosecution. Nothing could be more despicable in the conduct of a Colorado publicist. This man was a traitor to his craft, bent on revealing its secret work, and therefore must bo disciplined. And disciplines ne was in the pitiable weak way of a legislature that notoriously sold itself out in the selection of a millionaire senator whose chief quali fication for the place was his possession of the price and his readiness as a pro ducer. He fore such a body no man with an honest purpose such as Morgan at least may have had, could hope to get a fair hen ring., and if half that is open ly proclaimed of the deception and cunning practiced to compass his humiliation is true, nothing in the odoriferous record of Colorado politics approaches in vicious, shameless politi cal depravity the expulsion of Senator Mergan. Not even the injection of the odious bull pen into ' politics nor the theft of the governorship compares Villi this dastardly degradation of a man whose offense was, an effort 'to expose" biibery. To be expelled from such a body as the Colorado legislature must, to those who have kept in casual touch with the tempestuous trend of politics in that state commend itself a.s something of an honor to be coveted. Perhaps Morgan may not have been entirely blameless, or perhaps his work .was crude and spectacular, but in view of the deceptions practiced upon him to prevent him from appearing in his own behalf, Ills expulsion in the man ner and for the cause for which it was effected, will wipe his record clean in the -minds of honest men. PATHS OF VIZACK. A riot on an Oregon railroad is caused by a discharge of white labor ers to make room for Japanese. This timely incident should add piquancy to the negotiations now going on in Wash inton with the San Francisco school board. Hourly telegrams from home urging the deputation to stand firm for hearth and home and Japanless schools add' further to the picturesque ness of the parley. Fortunately there does not seem to :be a trace of dynamite--in' the case. It is only necessary so to adjust matters that both San Francisco and Japan shall have their own way, and this is easy. San Fran cisco must treat all foreigners alike, including Japanese. So she must not segregate the Japanese. This saves Japanese pride. But there is no objec tion to establishing special schools for the accommodation of pupils who can not speak English. The non-English speaking child does not get a fair show in a school whose language he knows nothing of, anyway. If this policy should happen to segregate the Japanese it is only a hap, and yet it saves the San Francisco pride. Then it remains to attack the source of the whole trouble, the Pacific coast dread of labor competition from the orient, the latest evidence of which is Sun day's Oregon incident. What could be more fair than that Japan should ex clude American labor and America in turn exclude Japanese labor' A3 luck has it, the present treaty with Japan expires ty limitation in about a month and Japan is said to be ready to make that bargain in a new treaty. Japan wants her emigrants to go to Man churia anyway, and no American laborer his a wish to hire out In Japan. How is It possible to quarrel where there is so perfect a union of mir.d and interest? TWO MUKS, I l-'Sl'Ati. "When it is remembered that some of the best liierature lias mad? use if crime and trials for crime to serve not only dramatic but moral and intellect ual ends, the assumption that all in terest in su h trials as the one now in progress in New York is of the morbid onler appears altogether i i nm. otis. If it is ever worth while to know human life at Its worst, and It Is always dangerous o argue in f -Ivor of sup pressing cotd f.et. then th- Thaw trial affords a means of education divested of the doubtful reality of the story look. There are few lawyers, and probahlv few dot-tor., with a keen In-t.-n-t in their pnf. ssioii who have not follow. -d the ile with close attention. Th- examination of exjaat witness, M'MulrhiK a th.'iotuh knowledge on the I art -f the l ') r ,,t Pha-teji of medical m'I. re-. ha particularly ln t,refe, the lawyer, on lawyer, pot know i:. ' but h. may b' la n -! of mnh t', .il k.iouS.-.k'e r ,mv the . writr i'iN pater for .upl in at lop ..f term i'. l-v Mf Jerome In r i t stntnlnv ' ' W)Uc. if coure nor th! inlnd an- p cnNarly Ittbl to drt l! upon r ' i I I'.MniMv .-vin. nitch tnln.l are .t knot. !, .!. ..f tbU filnt. mM KOs'.tttt H 'fl'.ltl ! ilMli e.t p '-iril' i i!'iv of tiie r , u' 1 ' "i ,m Thi invoUe . , ill' f the muter, .ml a A HALT rOR COINTY OPTIOW The defeat of county option in the senate by the vote of twenty to eleven seems on the surface to be decisive, but it will probably be found to be the beginning and not the end of the agi tation against the saloon in Nebraska. The apparent ease with which the bill was defeated was due more to the absence of this issue from the cam paign last fall than to opposition lo the measure among the people. Other is sues are just now felt to be more im portant, not because they are so, per haps, but because recent events have brought them more sharply to public attention. After the matters dealt with in the republican platform of 1906 are disposed of it will be possible to make the saloon an issue in this state, and when that time comes an advance on the Sloeumb law can be brought about in one campaign. While the present failure will prove a serious disappointment to many good citizens, they have no reason to be dis couraged or to resolve that in the fu ture they will fight for state wide pto hibition or nothing. The policy of squeezing out the saloon by. the slower but mora' certain policy of iocal option and 'a steadily advancing license' fee need not be given up because of iha action of the senate yesterday. CHINESE EXCLUSION. Power of Hiinlsliiiient Poeied by Ionnii-ntioii Oflieerx. The highest court of our country, says ex-Secretary of State John W. Foster in the Independenthas decided that due process of law is granted by the hearing before the immigration official; that trial by jury may be in the same way superseded; that a cit izen may safiar ihe infamous ounish ment of perpetual banishment from the iand of his birth by the same pro cedure, and that the writ of nabeas corpus, so dearly prized as "the rem edy which the law gives for the en forcement of the civil right cf per sonal liberty," is ineffective against the decirk-n of an obscure immigra tion officer. Under the authority of the laws passed by congress for the exclusion of Chinese laborers a series of rules have been adopted by the immigration bureau. These rules provide that when a Chinese person arrives at a port or on the frontier of the United States the immigration officer shall prevent the Chinese person from hav ing, communication with any one but the-officer; that the officer ' shall ex amine him irt private .touching, his right to admission, without any op portunity to secure the assistance of an attorney or friend, and that oniy such witnesses shall be heard as the examining officer slv-tll designare, and they examined in private. In this way the right of the Chinese applicant to admissk n is determined. If admission is dmied, the applicant is advised of. bin right of appeal to the secretary of commerce and labor, when he can em ploy counsel, who is permitted, upon riling notice cf appeal, t examine, but not to copy, the ex parte evidence taken by the immigration officer. N.tic.- of u?.p. i-1 must be filed with in two days, and within three days a record of the case, including new affi davits (for there is no open or public hearing), must be fonva'ded to "Wash ington. The I union of proof is placed on the Chinese person, and in everv doubtful case the benefit of the doubt is given to the government. No pro vision is made for summoning wit nesss from a distance (for instance, from the stale in the applicant was born) or taking depositions. "Well might Mr. Justice Brewer aKr," ' If this be not a star chamber pro ceeding of the most stringent sort, what more is necessary to make it one? 1 do not see how any one can read those rule" and hold that they cons' Utile due process of law for the arrest rnd deportf.tion of a citizen of the United States." And this in a case where the appli cant had been judicially determined to be an American itizen. Under such circutnstanei s tin justice qu ted and the two colleagues who unite with hint in disM-nt (Justices IVok lt.ini and Hay! ale Jtisliiied in the declaration, "Stub a d cisl n la ap palling." T1e Hi-fi tiiitmr Mnl. t I'.oSoiil Tt allf el Ipt. ) la hi repot t lo the re.l'lit. the M'-re-tary of IH' tWull til e i-t anttd the lie.-t 1,1,1,1 iii I i.ii. nf the i unit! i- f-.r l'w, jilt ; t,..'l long to., valued :t ffl nn.tt (I I This, lie e nl t cleil with tli er.iti rv"i rtn ;i? ' ulli'l, amounted lo ir.i.fri. , a i.iaiKT "f f.n I. on id l-N uf f. l- i.r.- tto- titan le It"' eaxoit'it crop !viti mii" ahum ;." Pan at ' .! ! -t "1 e. .iixi.b r iMv over ttvnM. I OIL CURE FOR CANCER. ; itr, 1 1 M !! s Contbltt ttloit fill ! t'uro U a recotcnled Cure for t'atuf-r i an.l Tumor l.ewaiv of Imitator. Vr1t todtv t. the orkiuator . hU jlr tx.kM lr. !. V N lUt I r i f l . Indian ijMK lil. ADVANTAGES OF PRIMARY The advantages of "direct primary" were recently set forth In an Interest ing way in the Arena, by Ira Cross of Madison, Wis. From Mr. Cross's ar ticle these extracts are taken: All attempts at reforming the caucus and the convention have resulted in dismal failures. New York, California, and Cook county, Illinois, which have the most highly legalized caucus-systems,, are still boss-ridden and machine-controlled. There can be but one remedy the government must be brought back to the people. They must be given the power to directly nominate their party candidates. If they are sufficiently intelligent to directly elect them by means of the Australian ballot they are sufficiently intelligent to directly nomi nate them. Experience with the direct primary in thirty-two states, where it is now being used in one form or other shows that every good- direct primary law, whether applied to city, county or state, must have the following five essentials: (1) It miist be compulsory upon all parties; (2) the Australian ballot must be used; (3) all primaries must be held under state regulations; (4) the state must bear the expense; (5) all parties must hold their pri maries at the same place and time. Under a system of direct nominations one of the registration days is set aside for the primary. The voter goes to the polls, registers receives-a ballot-containing a list of the candidates, and votes directly for the men of his choice. Nothing could be more simple in opera tion than this. It places in the hands of the voters the power to nominate their party candidates, and in all sane governments that is where it should bo placed. The real tests of any nominating sys tem, however, are (1) the number of voters that take part in the- primaries, and (2) the kind of candidates nomi nated. Under the caucus system, no matter how highly legalized, the voters will not take part in making the nomina tions. They are not even interested, for in the caucuses they do not nom inate candidates, they only elect dele gates, and a delegate, no matter how honest he may be, cannot correctly represent th wishes of his constitu ents upon a,l, and quite often not even upon a small portion, of the candidates to be nominated in the convention. Do the ficts uphold the 'argument?' Take the caucus system at its best and what do we find? In Sah. Francisco, New York' city, and Cook county, Illinois, which places since 1901, 1900 and 1899 respectively, have had the most highly I legalized and reformed caucus systems in the United States, an average of , but 39 per cent of the voters of San Francioco, 41 per cent of those in New York ,and 38 per cent of those in Cook county, Illinois, take part in making nominations. If but this small number of people attend the caucuses when such great care is taken to pro tect the voice and will of the people, what a handful must turn out in those states in which fiw if any, legal reg ulations are thrown around the nomi nating machinery? Under the caucus system the resulting government can not represent the will of the major ity. It can only represent the will of the minority, and it is to this small minority (composed though it usually is of men who are in politics for what there is in it) that our officials are directly responsible, nit oniy for their nomination but also for their subse quent election. On the other hand, .t cannot be de nied that the direct primary greatly increases the attendance at the pri maries. The reason for this is that it gives the voters a real voice in mak ing party nominations. They can ex press their choice upon all candidates Horn governor dov n to justice of the peace, and by this means are able to xert a direct influence upon the tmal results. In Cleveland, O., under the old cau cus system, only 5,000 voters Utok part in nominating the republican candi dates tor city ofliee.s in 1X92, but in lsy,'!, when they used one of the most poorly framed and extra legal primary fystems Imaginable, over II.immi trptib lieatis turned out. This number in creased to 21.000 In 1K!, to 2s.tMMi In lv;i:t, and to U.iHM) in IWI, the vote it the primaries during thto yeurs aver aging more than U' per cent of the voin esutt by fh republican it t the Mjlm-quent election. In Crawford county. Pennsylvania, where the di re t primary ha Imch u.-d since 1h;o, the average attendance tit the primaries I.im been inor" that 73 per u nt hi the Twenty-fifth congression al thotliet, wbi-re the nyMem hit been iet hUk'm IVJii, 77 i T cent of i h o(er have made the nominal Ion, riven where Ibeie wu no ii.nuvo:, a wa (be tfitie III lVJl und IJOrt, more than 62 ihi lit of Ibe voter nttend.il thu pttmarl. . What other portion of th I'nited Kt ate ettn nhow uch a record thU? "In Mltmaidi." write Mr. lav of thai city, "itn.br bight) edtlU'd lilJOUa i'v'Mi but eight per cent of the voters attended the caucuses."- Under the direct prim ary, however. 91 per cent -of the voters atended in 1900, 85 per cent in 1902, an off-year, and 93 per cent in 1904. In Hennepin county, Minnesota, in 1901, over 97 per cent of the voters took part in making" ' congressional nominations. In the same year the returns from eighteen counties, scattered indiscriminately throughout Minnesota, (all the relurna that could be obtained), showed that over 72 per cent of the voters took part in the primaries. These figures show most conclusively that the ditficulty is not the apathy of the people. Their civic patriotism is as strong as it has ever been in years past. They are inter ested in the government and will at tend the primaries,, if they are but given the opportunity to directly nom inate their party candidates. The difficulty lies witti the caucus system. It is indirect and inefficient. . Now let us see if there are any rea sons why better men should be nom inated under the direct primary than under the caucus and convention sys tem. ' ' . ; In the first place it must be conceded that the majority of the people are hon est and that they want good government and honest officials. Under the direct pri mary they can make this desire felt more effectively. They can exercise two vetoes upon any attempt to foist bad candidates upon the public, once at the primary, and again at the election. But under the caucus system they have no choice at the caucuses, while upon election It is usually a choice between two evils, be tween two machine made candidates, and this is one reason why there is such an appallingly large stay at home 'vote upon election day ' ' ";i Ifi the second place, who is -it that stf bitterly antagonizes-the direct primary? Most assuredly it is not the people! It is the same class of men that twenty years ago fought the Introduction of tho Australian ballot! The St. Paul Pioneer Press of March 17, 1904, said: "The ma chine men have never liked the primary. They fought it from the start and they continue to sneer at It." The Arena of August, 1904, also said: "It is needless to say that the grafters and the corruption Islp, all indeed who have been engaged In debauching the people's servants, are bitterly hostile to' the primary." Why is it that the politicians have, suddenly be come so solicitous about the welfare of the public, claiming, as they do, that the introduction of the direct primary would be detrimental to the best Interests of the people? Why is It that they fight It so strenuously? It is because they real ize that they cannot Control the 70 or 80 per cent of the voters who turn out to the primaries as they dictate to the 20 per cent who attend the caucuses. They real ize that under it their power to dominate ! the political arena would be gone, that t they could not prevent the candidacy of , good men. The direct primary introduces "tho principle of free, ,pen competition, where before air was secrecy, 'scheming , and log rolling. Jt enables any man to i become a candidate1' without currying favor with the boss and the ring by methods which trench upon his self re spect." The natural result is that better men come out for the nomination under the direct primary than under the caucus system. Speaking of the last primary held in St. Paul, the lloneer Press of that city said: "Instead of a horde of office seekers, bound to this or that faction, and foisted upon the public to feed at the public i rib antj to play Into the hands of a small coterie of republicans, the primary law stimulated a search for good candidates all over the city, and the re sult was a primary ticket competed large ly of men whom the office had caught, unpledged and indebted to no one. The result is the strongest ticket that the republican party has had for years, a ticket of strong campaigners, and of men who are entitled to the confidence of the ever did so well have it. No convention ever did so well except when stimulated by popular Impatience, and that was once in a decade." Hundreds of other local ities, where the direct primary has been tried, could testify to the same effect The mere fact that those .a.ies and states which have adopted this system have never thought of abandoning it, and that its popularity is ever on the increase, is sufficient evidence th;tt it does result in better men being nominated for publio office. The caucus system presents no remedy for the eviis of today. No matter how highly legalized. It will still remain "com plex, indirect and uncertain. In actual practice it represents but a srnal portion of the people. It places the power of nomination in th bands of th fw, th Iiofs and the rinjr. It Is subvernive of the prlnelpls of representative govern ment. From all over the country comes the cry of the American people for de liverance. They demand that the control Of tho government he placed In . their hands, and that they ! given the power to direetly nominate :dl party candidate. Arrayed sigalnwt I hem in t hl struggle for Iwtter government and purity In poll- , tie are tj. corrupting el. -merit of our foelal and industrial world. What greater tribute -nn be paid to the efficiency of the direct primary to destroy machine domination and eorruj.tlon than thl bit ter antagonism of the I torn mid the ring? The dlret primary ha unlvernaily proven ta!i.f At tory. Kven where tried under the in it unfavorable elrcum Mniice. placed entirely ntitMide the pale of th law, run by pnrtv organisation It I In nunv pltee. ItitrodiM'H Into fac tional, turbulent politic. Into tnnehln rt.l.bn Mlliftealmh, it ha proven fitti innllv pueeeful. It h isUen Uf iwmv. pi tt.e jiw. r in nominal their official. It ha brought out more voter to th prima rie. it h made the official rt ' ponlbl to lite pfoi.le, an. ti,m f n I them from th illrtatloc rf the mai hln. And finally, a a rule. It ha resulted In the nomination f better enndldate nn.t In the Inauguration of Iwtter govrrnnielnt. When then reult r comimre.l with t!i. of the rHtir't tliere fi tteewM'Htr fr pU,i,lr further th unl. iini i t fr ;h a.frtpMnn ef th 41-rt-t prfmry.