Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/112



The Primary Election

Wisconsin primary election law, defective as it has been, has perhaps been more examined, criticised and discussed than any other of its kind.

The reason for the primary is obvious. The pressure brought to bear on conventions by the great economic forces which dominated this country aroused public sentiment and made it necessary to have more direct means of nomination.

Whatever may be the defects of the direct nomination of candidates, it must be said that with organized and vigilant monopolistic power in existence, a system, by which a few men gathered together to select others who, in turn, selected others as candidates, was so complicated and presented so many opportunities for influence or corruption that it had to go. As a business device it would go wrong, as there was absolutely no way of fixing responsibility. The uneasiness felt by the people because those who determined its policies did not represent the real sentiment, had to be pacified in some