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Show v? v? ! REFORMS THAT DO NOT REFORM. That tho direct primary Is n reform that does not reform Is evident from Its practical operations. Judging from recent events In Massachusetts and other states the peoplo arc not so universally represented as they would have been hnd they assembled In their various districts under the old fashioned convention system. And tho result Is not nearly so reliable, from tho fact that under the old system sys-tem ilemocratB do not think of going to a republican prlranry, at least to take part, nor republicans to n democratic demo-cratic primary, while under the new system men and women pf all pollt col shades and complexion apparently tjkc the primary as a preliminary force for the purpCBo of balling the thing up ns much as possible. Tbg Salt Lake Tribune comments on the situation very reasonably ns follows: "Returns from Massachusetts show that the Republican volo-caBt at the l.r'iwrlra there laBt TueBday was in rojud numbers, 170,000; the total DcniDcraUc vote was but 48,000. This compares with a Republican vote for Governor last year of 200,705, and a Democratic vote of 214,897, and with a Republican vote In 1S08 of 2C5.06C, and n Democratic vote the same year of 105,543. That is,' tho Republican oto reached a fairly proportionate ilgtire compared with tho total Republican Repub-lican vote of tho State; but the Deino-ctrtlc Deino-ctrtlc vote fell to a fraction, being much less than one-fourth of the Dcm-ciinllc Dcm-ciinllc vote of last year, and consM eiubl) leas than one-third of the Democratic Dem-ocratic voto of 1911. What !u tho tutwer? 1'lalnly tho same as In n'hT cniiio where the Democratic vote puic-tit'Uly puic-tit'Uly disappears to swell tho Republican Repub-lican vote. Tho lloston Traveler on I lie uny of tho primary election men t. filed editorially n report that many Mnhsrchusctts Democrats wore tsiuip 'o voto for RooBovelt, " Just for ihe fun of it." They evidently did so. It is astonishing, with all tho excitement ex-citement and canvassing tha was done In Massachusetts' by President Taft and Col. Roosevelt, that sd small nn aggregate vote was cast. The total vctc of Massachusetts la'at jcar was 421,692'. In 1608 the total vote was 421,509. And yet, with 71I1 the oxcltcmcnt attending the pri-mnry pri-mnry campalgn'in Mnssachuset)st tho total vote was only a little inoro than fifty per cent' of the total vote of the State. This Is astonishing Indeed, In-deed, In view of tho extremo oxclte-ment oxclte-ment of that campaign. President Taft canvassed tho Stato; Col. 'Roosevelt 'Roose-velt did tho same, and tho throngs that turned out to hear them Ifwcre counted by U10 tens of thousands; nnd yet tho contest succeeded in drawing out only about half of 'the vote of tho State. Surely, .but. ltltle advance in popular ' interest 'ak to nominations is shown by the primary system over tho caucus nnd 'contention 'conten-tion system ns this latter has usually prevailed. Ono would have supposed suppos-ed from the fierce accounts' thnt-'nmc of tho excitement In Massa'bh'tfsets that n full voto would have been polled, poll-ed, but tho ridiculously small total or only half a vote appears. And tho Democrats generally seem to have voted for Roosevelt, while Taft lost 10,000 votes becauso of the general circulation of a ballot carrying nine names, whereas but eight were t,o be voted for, nnd nil of them were Tuft's, and all were thrown out. Another feature of the primary system sys-tem wns shown In tho recent pi (mar- les In tho Stato of Oregon, as we find In samo tables In tho Oregonlnn. A great fight wns made In tho Second Representative district, whero A. W. I.offerty, tho present Congressman, was opposed becauso of his breaks made hi too amorous letter-writing 'o girls In Washington. Rut Lnfferty U nominated to succeed lilnibclf, although al-though ha received but 9SS0 votes out of 11 total of 27.CSS. He received, that Is to say, JiiBt about one-third of tho votes, nnd yet ho Is the party nominee. nom-inee. In the matter of a circuit Judge, tho ense was even worse. There were soen candidates, and the winner, win-ner, who Is tho nominee, got but COD I votes out of a total of 20,207 cast, tho successful man gettlug Just nbout one-third of the total vote. In Multnomah county there were nlno candidates for sheriff, with 27,940 votes cast. Tho successful candidate received only 5082 votes, being but llttlo moro than one-fifth of the total vote cast. It appears, therefore, that tho primaries pri-maries do not bring out the voto; nlso, that on National questions cmocrats vote by tho tens of thousands for Republican Re-publican candidates, tho democratic voto practically disappearing: and further that tho primaries give for nominees men who receive only from one-fifth to one-third of tho totul vote cast by their party. Thost) aro such serious arraignments of tho primary system, that it would seem Impossible for reasonable party men to give their adherence to that system, for parties cannot live under It." |