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Show PUTTING THE PEOPLE ON TRIAL. Senator Jonathan Bourne of Oregon is a candidate for renomi-nation renomi-nation and re-election this year under the Oregon direct nomination and election system. He must be nominated at the statewide primary pri-mary of his party; then his name, together with that of the opposition oppo-sition party's nominee, will go on the ballot at the November election. elec-tion. The legislature is in effect instructed to choose the senator who carries this election, says the "Washington Times. For four years Senator Bourne has been the foremost senatorial sena-torial advocate of restoring government to the control of the people. That he means what he says; that he wants the people to make their own selections, is proved by the course he is taking. The senator will not go back to Oregon during the campaign. He will spend no money and will make no appeals from the hustings., Here is what he will do: Oregon's law provides for issuance by the slate of a "publicity pamphlet," which must he officiallj sent to every voter. In this pamphlet every candidate may publish his own statement of his record rec-ord and roasons for seeking election. Senator Bourne will take four pages in this pamphlet at $100 a page the extreme space the law allows and state his case. On that he will stand. 'In a letter to a newspaper, the senator describes how he will present his claim to the state. lie says in part: I insist that the people of Oregon are now on trial, not I; that I have kept every pledge I made in my first campaign; that I have taken a leading part in the fight for the retention in Oregon of the ''Oregon system" and.-for the. extension of these laws into other states; that instead of going back to my state as soon as congress adjourns I have remained at the national capital working at my official offi-cial duties in the interest of the nation and my state; that I have secured the best committee assignments ever held by an Oregon senator; that in conjunction with other members of the delegation I have secured for Oregon tin? largest appropriations she has ever had, and this -without sacrificing any of the principles' upon which I was elected; that I originated the presidential primary idea, and secured se-cured its adoption in Oregon, since which time it has been copied in several states and is now the chief issue in the national campaign I believe that inside of ten years every state will adopt this principle and thereby destroy the possibility of any president renominating himself or selecting his successor through patronage. "By reason of the work thus outlined I have more than Tepaid my obligation to the people of Oregon, and they now owe me more than I owe them; in view of my record and my position in the fight for popular government my defeat for renomination would be her-ajded her-ajded through the coun,tryas a victory for the opponents of popular government. I therefore insist that the people of Oregon, rather than myself, arc now on trial, and it is up to them to demonstrate by their votes whether they are intelligent enough to recognize and appreciative enough to commend faithful public service." On the strength of pome observations of the present-day temper of the people of Oregon; buttrqssed by an optimistic notion that the people in general can be trusted to use sense when the case is squarely square-ly presented to them, we guess that Senator Bourne will be renominated renomi-nated and re-elected on that platform "by a majority that will make that sort of politics look desirable in the near future. |