1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
373 
THE NEW YORK DIRECT PRIMARY LAW 
Nomination by Political Committees. 
We give, herewith, a brief synopsis of the lead¬ 
ing features of the direct primary bill, which was 
finally introduced at Albany. The bill is very long 
and some of the details are greatly involved. As 
is well known, the present method of selecting can¬ 
didates is through conventions composed of delegates 
elected at a primary or caucus. The complaint justly 
made against this convention system is that the 
caucus, as at present conducted, rarely, if ever, rep¬ 
resents the real party. It is usually run by a 
few political wire pullers who select delegates who 
will carry out the wishes of the boss. Thus the 
conventions where candidates arc selected rarely 
represent the rank and file of the party, and serious 
evils have arisen from this system. Strange to say, 
the convention system was originally started as a 
form of protection against politicians, and for a 
time gave fair representation. Now the politicians 
have captured the conventions by controlling the 
election of delegates. The argument for direct 
nominations by the people is aimed against the con¬ 
vention system. 
At the present time two-thirds of the States in 
the Union employ the direct method of nominating 
candidates in some form, and over one-half of 
the population of the country is governed by officers 
nominated in this way. In attempting to arrange a 
law for New York there was abundant precedent 
and experience to draw from. Yet the proposed 
law is different from any other, and mainly in the 
manner of suggesting candidates. In Illinois, Wis¬ 
consin and other States candidates are suggested 
by petition and nominated by popular vote. In¬ 
stead of this the proposed New York law would 
place the business of suggesting candidates in the 
hands of various committees. At each election 
district in a county one member of each party is 
to be elected to serve on the various county com¬ 
mittees. These members are elected at a regular 
primary election on the seventh Tuesday before the 
general election. That would mean September 14 
this year. An official ballot is to be used at this 
primary, and it is to be conducted like the gen¬ 
eral elections. In order to avoid any chance for 
large cities and towns to outvote the country towns 
it is arranged so that each member of this com¬ 
mittee shall cast the total party vote counted in his 
district at the previous election. Take Putnam Co. 
for example. The vote of 1900 between Hughes 
and Hearst was as follows: 
Demo- Repub- 
Towns. ('ratio. lican. 
Carmel . 1 109 108 
" 2 1G9 89 
“ 3 100 105 
Kent . 1 54 77 
“ 2 101 49 
Patterson . 252 140 
Putnam Valley . 134 100 
Pbillipstown . 1 189 103 
“ 2 00 59 
“ 3 189 213 
“ 4 235 148 
Southeast . 1 294 80 
. 2 207 91 
As at present organized most political organiza¬ 
tions are arranged so that one town has about 
the same representative strength as another. Under 
the proposed law the Republican county delegates 
from Kent would not have the same voting 
power as those from Southeast. One would cast 
54 and the other 101 votes in the county committee, 
while the others would cast 294 and 207. The 
Democratic delegate from the second Kent district 
would cast 49 votes, and the one from the third 
Phillipstown district 213. This county committee unites 
. with others to elect district and State committees 
—the design being to have them all trace back 
and be responsible to the men elected at the town 
election. The following committees are named in 
the bill: The State Committee, the Congressional 
District Committee, the Senatorial District Commit¬ 
tee, the Judicial District Committee, the Assembly 
District Committee, the County Committee, the City 
Committee, the Borough Committee, the Municipal 
Court District Committee, the Aldermanic District 
Committee, and the School District Committee. 
These political party committees are to suggest 
candidates for all public offices except United States 
Senator and President. For example, when State 
officers are to be elected the Democratic and Republi¬ 
can Slate Committees (and others) will come to¬ 
gether and vote until they select candidates for 
each office. These meetings must be open to the 
public and voting done openly. The names thus 
suggested must be made public eight weeks before 
the State primary. This year would mean July 
20. Then three weeks are given for other can¬ 
didates to come forward. They can be suggested 
or designated by petition. A candidate for a State 
office must have at least 1,000 signatures to his 
petition—not less than 50 from each of 10 counties. 
For other offices the signatures must aggregate at 
least half of one per cent of the vote cast for 
Governor within the district which the office rep¬ 
resents. When all the candidates are suggested 
there will be four weeks before the State primary— 
which will be held in September. All voters, both 
city and county, must be enrolled—that is, per¬ 
sonally registered. An official ballot is prepared 
with the .names of candidates in a column; the prefer¬ 
ence—that is, first place—given to the names selected 
by the committees. Those who are nominated by 
petitions have their names printed on the ballot 
under the names of the “regular” candidates. When 
these tickets are made up in this way they are sub¬ 
mitted to popular vote at a primary in September, 
and those having a majority are nominated and 
will be voted for at the November .election. 
The so-called “platforms,” which political con¬ 
ventions put out are to be framed by what is called 
a “party council,” consisting of the members of 
the State Committee and the various candidates 
nominated for State offices. No doubt the county 
committees would meet with the county candidates 
and get up local “platforms.” 
There are many details, but the foundation of 
the whole plan rests upon these party committees. 
The theory upon which it is supposed to work is 
that voters will, at the primary, elect as members 
of these committees a higher class of men than are 
at present in charge of politics. The theory also 
seems to be that these committees, being directly 
responsible to the people, will select a better class 
of candidates than the present convention does. 
There is nothing in the law that we can see to prevent 
the various parties from having as many other com¬ 
mittees as they wish to. For example, the present 
Republican State Committee could remain just as 
it is, and, while it would have no recognized power 
to designate candidates, everyone knows what its 
influence would be. It seems to us that this bill 
is top-heavy with committees, and that the scheme 
of giving the committee nominations a preferred 
place on . the ballot plays right into the hands of 
the politicians. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Flying under a full head of steam, with¬ 
out engineer or fireman, the Canadian Pacific Railroad 
Boston express crashed into the Windsor Station at 
Montreal, Canada. March 17. As a result four persons 
are dead and 11 are injured. It was one of the most 
extraordinary accidents in the history of Montreal rail¬ 
roading. Probably it will never be satisfactorily ex¬ 
plained, as the engineer of the train is at the point of 
death and the fireman is unable to say exactly what 
happened. * All the man remembers before he rolled out 
of the cab, is that something went off with a bang. It 
is supposed a steam plug blew out. The speed of the 
train never slackened and for half a mile the engineer 
held on. Then he, too, suffering terrible agony, fell 
from the flying engine to the side of the track, where 
he was found later. Nothing out of the way happened 
to the train until it left Westmount. About that time 
the passengers noticed the great speed, but they were 
not alarmed. One of the trainmen finally convinced that 
something was wrong, applied the airbrakes and the 
speed was reduced from 50 to 20 miles an hour before 
it struck the switches of the Windsor Station. The 
engine and cars went on like mad along the siding. They 
smashed into the station wall, carrying masonry and 
granite pillars before them. Many persons were waiting 
at the station for the arrival of friends and it was 
among them that the casualties occurred. They were 
pinned down by the falling beams and crushed to death. 
None of the passengers on the train were injured. The 
powerful 70-ton engine battered everything down before 
it, penetrating the thick stone walls like a cannon shot. 
It was wholly inside the main waiting room before it 
stopped. It pulled the train as far in as space per¬ 
mitted. The damage is from *$80,000 to $100,000. 
. . . . The Nevada Assembly by a vote of 41 to 5 
concurred March 18 in the Senate amendments to the 
anti-gambling bill, prohibiting bridge whist, poker and 
gambling games in general under penalty of six months 
imprisonment or $500 fine.March 19 fire de¬ 
stroyed the Fifth Avenue Apartments; Central Park 
South, New York, 13 tenants and firemen being sent 
to hospitals, and one person killed ; loss on building and 
contents $250,000. The same day a tenement house 
blaze caused one death, and a fire in the skyscraper 
district blocked lower Broadway for two hours. 
. . . . A fire which almost totally destroyed Pier 
2 of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company close to the 
Jersey Central Railroad Station in Jersey City March 19 
was attributed to the carelessness of a tinsmith. The 
fire did $250,000 damage, including the unloaded freight 
lost in the flames. The pier was S00 feet long by 75 feet 
wide and covered. It extended into the mouth of the 
Morris and Essex Canal, which opens into the North 
River. About 100 feet of the west end of the pier was 
saved. At one time 14 tugs and the fireboat New 
Yorker were throwing water on the flames. 
John II. Starin, head of the Starin City, River and Har¬ 
bor Transportation Line, died at his home in this city 
March 22. Mr. Starin was one of the original mem¬ 
bers of the Rapid Transit Commission, and up to the 
abolition of that body, to be succeeded by the Public 
Service Commission, two years ago, held the office of 
vice-president. For 34 years he was a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce, and was at one. time a Represen¬ 
tative from the Twentieth New York District. Mr. 
Starin was born in Sammonsville, N. Y., August 27, 1825, 
where his ancestors were, the pioneers. They had changed 
the Dutch name of Starn, borne by the emigrant ancestor 
Nicholas, who came over in 1090, to Starin. Myndert 
Starin, his father, founded the town of Fultonville. 
. . . Two hundred United States marines fought a 
marsh fire near Fort Mifflin, in the extreme southwestern 
section of Philadelphia, March 21, and, after several hours’ 
hard work, succeeded in extinguishing the flames, which for 
a time threatened the government magazines, in which are 
stored tons of explosives. The marsh is believed to have 
been set on fire by persons maliciously inclined. Fort 
Mifflin is a supply station for ammunition used on most. 
of the warships on the Atlantic coast.March 
22 an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed by the 
J. B. & ,1. M. Cornell Company, of New York, one of the 
oldest and best-known firms in the structural steel busi¬ 
ness. The company is said to have unsecured liabilities 
o $500,000, with uncompleted contracts of more than 
$1,000,000, and outstanding bonds, secured by a mortgage 
on the plant, amounting to $600,000. This failure, as 
viewed in trade circles is one of the most important that 
has occurred in the iron and steel industry since the 
existing period of business depression set in. 
March 18 William Whitla, eight-year-old son of a promi¬ 
nent citizen of Sharon, Pa.,- was kidnapped by an un¬ 
known man. The boy was restored to his parents four 
days later, after payment of $10,000 ransom. March 23 
a man and woman were arrested in Cleveland, O., for 
complicity in the crime, they having $9,000 of the marked 
ransom money in their possession.The Wind¬ 
sor Hotel, Cornwall, Ont., was destroyed by fire March 23, 
causing the death of three men, serious injuries to a num¬ 
ber of others, and a property loss of $25,000. 
Kidnapping in the District of Columbia is made a crime 
punishable by death or life imprisonment in a bill intro¬ 
duced March 23 by Representative Rodenberg of Illinois. 
Where kidnapping is prompted by a desire for gain, the 
bill prescribes the death penalty, but where it is not in¬ 
spired for gain life imprisonment is provided. 
SEED ADULTERATIONS.—According to a report of 
the Secretary of Agriculture made March 18 the Depart¬ 
ment during the last year secured and analyzed 1.471 
samples of seed, and of these 102 samples were found to 
be adulterated or mishranded. Under an act of Congress 
the Secretary is directed each year to obtain in the open 
market samples of seeds of grass, clover or Alfalfa, test 
them and if any of such seeds are found to be adulterated 
or misbranded or any seeds of Canada Blue grass are 
obtained under any other name to publish the result of 
the tests, together with the names of the persons by 
whom the seeds were offered for sale. The Secretary ap¬ 
pends to his report the names of twoscore or more dealers 
who sold the misbranded or adulterated seed. He says 
also that there lias been a distinct falling off in the trade 
in adulterated seeds since the tests were begun by the 
Department. 
Careful experiments show a ton of clover hay, 
when fed along as part of a balanced ration to 
fattening cattle or sheep, to be capable of produc¬ 
ing 160 pounds of flesh. (Fed as a sustenance 
ration it would, of course, produce more). Fig¬ 
uring this at five cents per pound, which seems low 
enough compared with prevailing market prices of 
beef and mutton, we have for the feeding value of 
the ton of hay $8, but this is only a part of its 
value to the farmer, for he should look closely to 
the fertilizer value of his stock feed, more closely 
it is feared than many do. Tests show the part 
of the ton of clover hay left behind by the animal 
to contain the fertilizing elements as follows: Nitro¬ 
gen, 51.7 pounds, at 16.7 cents, $8.60; phosphoric acid. 
11.4 pounds, at 5.7 cents, 65 cents; potash. 33.4 
pounds at 4.4 cents, $1.45; fertilizer value per ton 
of manure, $10.70; add to this the food value per 
ton, $8, and we get $18.70 for the total value of a 
ton of clover hay to the farmer. How he can 
afford to put it in bales and into New York for 
anything like the prices quoted, $10 to $12, is not 
so easy to determine, for at that rate he probably 
g«ts not to exceed $8 for the hay at the farm. 
Feed it; keep it at home. That is one way to 
get a larger share of the consumer’s dollar. 
* 
It seems that wars educate and change the habits 
of nations. U. S. Consul Babbitt, of Yokohama, 
tells how the late war between Japan and Russia 
has changed the life of the Japanese people: 
Bread, meat and potatoes have been added to the former 
diet of the Japanese, which consisted of fish and the 
vegetables indigenous to the country. The men at the 
front during the Russo-Japanese war were often fed on 
beef and bread or biscuits made from American flour, and 
this created a taste or appetito which had to be catered 
to on their return, and other articles followed, so that 
during and after the war there was considerable increase 
in the use of meats and flour, canned goods, fresh and 
condensed milk, butter and foreign foods generally. There 
were a great number of farm hands in the Japanese army 
during the war, and the use of meat and other unusual 
articles of diet led to the increased demand for these 
commodities on the return of these men from the front. 
This change is felt less, however, among the farm hands 
than among any other classes, although more potatoes and 
bread are consumed by this class than was the case with 
them prior to the war with Russia. 
This war also created a demand for new style 
and warmer clothing, and most of this clothing and 
food will be supplied by this country. Our Civil 
War did much to change history besides destroy¬ 
ing slavery. Thousands of soldiers went West after 
the war closed and opened up the Western States. 
This movement would have been delayed for many 
years if those men had not been hardened and made 
bold by their experiences a,s soldiers. 
