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LiacoL?ft Nebraska, April 6, 1894.
"It is to be hoped that the Civic Federation will last long enough
to at least reform the methods of bringing party candidates before
the people. By the present plan only a very few of the individual
members of any party have or can have any influence, much less
choice, in the selection of candidates for which the party is held
responsible. To say it is their own fault in not attending the pri
maries is to add insult to injury. They are more helpless at the
primaries than at the polls, for at the latter they can scratch and
substitute, but at the primaries it is the dose or nothing,'
says a correspondent: "Take for example the last republican city
convention in its organization and working. What had the mem
bers of the republican party, 6ay of the Fifth ward, to do with it?
It so happened that a candidate for treasurer, Mr. A itken, and a
candidate for mayor, Mr. Parker, both lived in the Fifth ward. Now
if Mr. Aitken was the best man for treasurer and Mr. Parker the
best man for mayor why shouldn't they both hava been elected?
But no; whether it is ward etiquette or party etiquette the unwritten
law is 'only one candidate for city office from one ward'; and so at
tho primaries the voters of the republican party in the Fifth ward
came out at noon, gathered in groups, looked wise, buttonholed,
drove carriages, smoked and wore badges till seven o'clock, for the
sole and only purpose of saying whether Mr. Aitken should run for
treasurer or Mr. Parker for mayor.
"Whit right has the Fifth ward to say that Mr. Parker, or the
Sixth ward to say that Mr. Woods or Mr. Harpham shall or shall
not run for mayor? What right have they to decide more than any
or all of the ether wards? Ward lines are not so rigid nor the city
so immense that a resident of the Sixth ward may not be as well and
as favorably known in the Third as in his own. In the same way
for treasurer or other city officers, why shouldn't a ward having no
candidate of its own have the right to express its preference among
otherc; or even if the ward had a candidate, and some individual
voter preferred the candidate of some other ward, why shouldn't
ho have the right to say so by his vote at the primaries?
"Next comes the convention. It is supposed to be a delegate or
representative convention, but that's old style. The new way is for
the successful candidate of each ward to be allowed so many chips
for his own use, and the wards having no candidates put in their
proportion of chips known as commercial or marketable chips. The
game is for each candidate to secure as many of these chips as pos
sible. Each chip counts a vote. Whenever he can buy or borrow
enough others to mako his own nomination sure the combination is
turned off and the rest must take their chances, though as a rule he
will help those that have helped him. Sometimes the diversity of
interests is so great that it is hard to make the desired combination.
In this last republican convention one would suppose that after 100
unsuccessful ballots for mayor it would have occurred to somo of
tho delegates that the republican voters of Lincoln were not enam
ored of either of tho threo candidates boforo the convention and
that some othor citizen of Lincoln would do just as well. It prob
ably did occur to a great majority of them, but they were not dele
gates -for the time they wero chips. After voting more than 100
times without result not even "Raymond tho Regardless' would
have dared to get up in convention and uominate Mr. Harpham.
.
"The object of this is not to criticise the candidates of the con
vention, but only to show that the voters of the republican party
had nothing to do with their selection. Thero are 400 voters in the
Fifth ward and in the other wards that had as little to do with the
naming of a candidate for mayor undor present methods as any 400
men in Texas. There is nothing at all new about this, neither is it
peculiar to tho republican party, and it has been peculiarly fatal to
the latter eimply because that party is in the majority. The result
of the elections show that the city convention for the last six years
at least has been regarded as a farce and of no binding authority
whatever, and it is this well-known fact that gives the only shadow
of justification to the position of Mr. Raymond, though perhaps few
would have been bold enough to have flung the added sneer and
contempt of first taking part in the convention.
"The only strange thing about it all is tho general feeling that
there is no remedy that it must always bo so. Why not abolish
the convention? We have, to start with, the ward committeo and
the central committee. As election approaches the candidates for
ward alderman and other ward offices are talked over and Anally
the ward committee makes up tho ward ticket by placing on it all
tho candidates for each office that have been certified to it by the
proper number of voters. In the meantime candidates for the city
offices, mayor, treasurer, city clerk, etc., have been talked over and
in the same way the central committee has placed upon a ticket ail
the candidates for each city office. This ticket is certified to each
ward, the ward committee adds its ward ticket, thereby completing
the ticket to be voted at the primaries. It is easily seen that at
such a primary election every voter could make his choice from
every candidate for every office in the city. The result of the election
would be certified by each ward committee to the central committee.
The latter would canvass the returns anJ announce the chosen
candidates of the party and send a certified copy of the party ticket
back to each ward committee to be voted at the election. We don't
know how much or if any of this plan is new, but thero are certain
ly many advantages in it. The cost and disgrace of the convention,
together with all its belongings of bargaining and bribery would be
avoided and this would of itself bring out more and better candi
dates who are now hindered by disgust of the process. Abolish the
convention and reorganize the primaries."
MY SOLID GIRL.
Thou knowest not, oh, maiden dear,
How much I do admire
Thy beauty; how each passing year
But deepens my desire
To call thee mine. Oh, let me hear
From those dear lips of thine
One word of love! I almost fear
To worship at thy shrine,
So many years thy praise I've sung
In vain. Speak, then! And make -,
Immortal one an old man young
Again. My heart doth ache.
Why so hard-hearted? Why so cold?
Is it because thy clothes
Are thin? Ah pardon me I'm bold,
But then the dear Lord knows
I meant no harm at all. On thee,
O love, O angel fair,
I'm all broke up! If thou on vie
Wert all broke up, I swear
I'd happy be! But would I? No;
To pieces thou wouldst whirl!
Whilst now, sweet Venus of Milo,
Thou art my solid girl.
James Courtney Cballiss.
