GET THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRIMARIES
GET THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRIMARIES ACOMMITTEE of the New York legislature has just completed an investigation into the working of primary election laws in the Middle West. It held open sessions in...
...Governor Hughes, not at all discouraged by his failure to secure its enactment by the last legislature, has carried the fight to the people...
...Heretofore we have paid too much attention to mere utility...
...Special Numbers of "Charities" on "Parks," "Play" and "City Planning...
...that there is doubt is the belief of many competent scientists...
...We need to make many improvements which are for the benefit and enjoyment of everybody, for the common good...
...C. W. Eliot...
...He was referring to the dispute over the use of benzoate of soda as a preservative for food products...
...The secretary of the National Carbon Company testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means, when he appeared to ask for an increase of the duty on electric lighting carbons, that his concern has a complete monopoly of the production of high-grade electric lighting carbons in the United States...
...ad valorem...
...The House Committee, after considering all the testimony submitted on both sides, reduced the rate to 35 per cent...
...Manifestly he cannot tell...
...In what do we lead...
...Serious discussion in these states is concerned not so much with the principle of direct nominations as with ways and means of perfecting and strengthening the laws now in force...
...Something of the contents may be gathered from the titles...
...They were given wide publicity...
...With a popular realization of the large and growing importance of city life in the life of the nation, has come a better understanding of the necessity for care and foresight in making our cities worthy of our civilization and fit habitations for human beings...
...Charles Mulford Robinson...
...That is why the Interests and their political allies are fighting it so desperately...
...The company has issued four and a half millions of preferred and five and a half millions of common stock...
...Fine city streets, orderly railroad approaches and surroundings, truly beautiful public buildings, open green squares and plazas, refreshing water-fronts, ennobling statuary, convenient and ample playgrounds, numerous parks, parkways, and boulevards, art museums, theaters, opera houses, and concert halls—all these in Europe are free, or so nearly free that they are easily available for all the people...
...These are not only worthy pleasures in themselves, to relieve from the grind and fatigue of yesterday's and today's toil, but they make a definite and indispensable contribution toward tomorrow's efficiency...
...Then you would doubtless like to know what the people of other cities have done In the following list of books will be found many suggestions of a practical nature...
...ad valorem...
...Report of the Philadelphia Allied Organizations...
...Health, utility, beauty,—all related so intimately that they cannot be considered apart...
...They must refuse to accept as evidence adverse to the principle of direct nominations any undesirable or evil results brought about under imperfect or incomplete primary laws...
...European cities lead us in wholesome opportunities for recreation, for the promotion of health, for enjoyment of art...
...But if the question in dispute involves the health and well-being of the layman, then it is his right and his duty to insist that he is given the benefit of every doubt until such time as the question may be settled beyond controversy...
...but in the meantime be sure that the consumer is protected...
...Mainly, in a larger death rate and a larger tax rate...
...Public Parks...
...This question was recently put to a distinguished landscape architect, a man who has achieved a national reputation in city planning and city making...
...And we are fast learning...
...Cities and Ports—Robert Swain Peabody...
...Primary elections are securely established in the Middle West...
...The Awakening of Harrisburg...
...They can't be taken separately...
...With few exceptions, our cities are lacking in almost all the essentials of comfort, orderliness, and appropriate beauty that characterize the cities of other nations...
...They were uttered by J. Q. Emery in Denver last week at the convention of the Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments...
...A very important factor in National Carbon profits and dividends is the tariff rate on carbons...
...on its common stock, the company, according to the testimony of its secretary, has accumulated $400,000 of surplus and made betterments and improvements in its plants out of profits...
...on its preferred and 4 per cent...
...Charles F. Weller...
...It is almost an exact counterpart of the contests waged in every state where direct nominations have already been secured by the people...
...But the "Carbon Trust," as it is called, did not give up...
...How are we to know which is the greater scientist...
...American Park System...
...It has been followed with intense interest by the people...
...The arguments brought forward against primary elections by these adherents of the boss-controlled system of politics were often absurd...
...The carbon monopoly sent its secretary to Washington to ask for a change in the tariff to double the duty...
...Improvement of Dwellings: the Example of Germany...
...In this respect how striking the contrast is between Europe and America...
...He was pleading with the Association not to endorse the decision of the referee board appointed to settle the disputed points in the pure food law...
...Where eminent scientists disagree, it is not for the layman to decide...
...Opposed to him in an almost unbroken line are the old-line bosses, the machine politicians and the political hangers-on of both parties...
...Do you want to know how it may be made more healthful, more comfortable, and more beautiful...
...But in those states where movements are now under way to secure direct nominations every effort should be made to give the people the facts as to the experience of the states where they are in use...
...In New York state a contest is now on for a primary election law...
...Frederick Law Olmsted...
...Whose opinion are we to accept...
...Camillo Sitte...
...Behind thtse men are the great Interests who find it vastly profitable to control the government...
...Competitors testified that the common stock of the company was all "water...
...Principles of City Land Values...
...T. C. Horsfall...
...Those who believe in bringing the government as near as possible to the people should not be misled into accepting as evidence against the impracticability or undesirability of the primary election law the opinions of a class of men whose political power may have been curtailed by the operation of the law...
...Clearly, the dividend on National Carbon common can be increased...
...M. R. Maltbie...
...Some "insurgent" Senator may show in the Senate how increasing the duty simply increases the taxes in every city and village using electric lights, and he may show from your own testimony that there is no justification whatever for the increase, but, if you can get Aldrich to bring in the amendment and to vote "Aye" when the roll is called, enough "me-too" Senators will vote "Aye" to put through your little tariff "graft" and then you can increase your dividends and the stock market will respond and you will be hailed as a "shrewd financier" and a "captain of industry...
...Der Staedte Bau...
...Joseph Lee...
...And ever since this ruling was made the controversy has gone on...
...Above all, they should remember that the nearer to the people the nomination of public officials is brought, the more truly representative will our government become...
...Reports on the improvement of various American cities, by Olmsted Bros., D. H. Burnham, G. M. Robinson, John Nolen, G. E. Kessler, Warren Manning, H. P. Kelsey, and other landscape architects...
...Protect the Consumer "IF there is any doubt as to the harmfulness of chemi-cals in food, the public should have the benefit of the doubt...
...Undoubtedly the report of the legislative committee that has visited the Middle Western states for first-hand information will be an important factor in determining the outcome...
...In each of the states visited, the committee found men eager to discredit any system of direct nominations...
...Charles Eliot: Landscape Architect...
...Emery is the wise one to take in this exigency...
...Besides paying 7 per cent...
...Chittenden...
...The evidence presented in the public hearings of the House committee forced a reduction...
...The Tariff and Increased Dividends STOCK market reports say: "Activity in National Carbon common has led to the belief that the dividend rate will be increased...
...In this answer is found the spirit of modern city-making...
...In almost every city are found individuals, public officials and associations of citizens spreading the agitation for city improvement and carrying out in practical ways the new doctrine of making cities better places to live in—giving them over to health, utility and beauty...
...Happily, we are beginning to look upon this matter of city-making in a new light...
...above the duty collected under the Dingley law...
...The fight is a bitter one...
...To whom is the consumer to turn for guidance...
...In Aldrich's Committee the duty was "fixed" just as the trust wanted it...
...Improvement of Towns and Cities...
...It is being followed with intense interest throughout the country...
...Whatever scientists may think, the masses who must eat preserved foods will regret that the members of the dairy and food Association, even by the narrow margin of 57 to 42 votes, should have seen fit to sanction the use of this preservative while experts are still quarreling as to whether or not its use in food products is injurious to the human body...
...The poorest workingman in Europe has some avantages and opportunities which here the wealthiest can seldom command...
...They lead in the developed individuality of their cities...
...The secretary of the company was unable to tell the House Committee what investment the stock represented...
...The dividend doubtless can be increased and probably will be...
...What evidence or considerations presented behind the closed doors of the Finance Committee led Aldrich to make this increase we do not know...
...Charles Zueblin...
...This board ruled that benzoate of soda in foods is not injurious to the health, thereby arousing a storm of protest from chemists, including Dr...
...Professor Charles H. Lowell, in charge of the Dairy and Food Division of Pennsylvania, and a chemist of large experience, said shortly after the benzoate of soda decision was made public: "The use of sodium benzoate is bad in principle...
...Modern Civic Art...
...You will probably be able to find all or most of them in your public library...
...Health and beauty have been neglected...
...The positions taken in this controversy by two eminent chemists will illustrate how far apart the experts now are: Dr...
...Its "pull" was good in the Senate...
...And Governor Hughes and the people of New York should make sure that the committee, either unwittingly or otherwise, does not carry back to them a false impression—an impression gathered too largely from the mere statements of men who long for a return to the "safe and sane" caucus and convention system...
...And what has been the result...
...Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy...
...We find our cities—the collective homes of millions of us—characterized by unsightly buildings, congested, dirty and ill-paved streets, inefficient sewage disposal, contaminated water supplies, disease-breeding garbage and rubbish heaps, and a lack of parks and driveways, where work-driven people may find breathing spots—fresh air, sunshine, and a touch of Nature...
...Forbid the use of chemicals as food preservatives until there can be no further grounds for the suspicion that they are harmful to the health...
...Herein lies the strength and the merit of the primary election law...
...They are for the consumer...
...Public sentiment will not permit a return to the cut-and-dried convention system...
...Neglected Neighbors in the National Capital...
...Civic Art in Northern Europe...
...for you and me, and the millions of other people whose diet includes, in one form or another, manufactured food products...
...Other chemists of recognized standing feel just as strongly as does Professor Lowell that benzoate of soda is injurious...
...Let the experts fight the matter out to their hearts' content...
...It held open sessions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana and Michigan...
...Richard M. Hurd...
...For this reason it is imperative that the committee should keep ever in mind the necessity of discriminating carefully between facts and statements, between evidence and mere opinions...
...Still others, of the same calibre, side with Dr...
...Wiley, chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture...
...It is unfair to the consumer...
...J. Horace McFarland...
...The experiments conducted by the referee board were made upon healthy persons and did not clear away the doubts as to the danger of using the preservative...
...He answered: "You might ask me which is the more important or the more essential blade of a pair of scissors...
...Forty years ago Germany planned to provide in its cities, and for all the people in them, facilities for wholesome physical exercise, large and convenient opportunity to enjoy the beauty and wonder of the nature world, and a more intimate knowledge of noble kinds of human life and beautiful products of human work...
...These are refreshing words...
...Charles Mulford Robinson...
...Given a monopoly of an article of general and necessary use, backed by "System" connections or political "pull" and you have, if we may judge by the history of the carbon duty, an argument satisfactory to Aldrich and his "associates" for an increase of your tariff benefits...
...From them, it secured a mass of "testimony" to the effect that primary elections have proved not only unsatisfactory, but actually pernicious...
...Education is the only means of bringing this about...
...At these sessions appeared both advocates and opponents of direct nominations, with arguments, facts and opinions to submit to the committee...
...The City of Tomorrow "WHAT is the most important thing to be consid-ered in planning and improving our cities— health, utility or beauty...
...They should not be misled by claims against the primary law that are in reality violations of the corrupt practices act...
...A Foot or Two of Books ARE YOU interested in making your city a better place to live in...
...Having an absolute monopoly of the production in this country, its prices and profits are limited only by foreign competition...
...Russell H. Chittenden, a member of the referee board, told the members of the Association about the experiments made upon healthy young men with benzoate of soda, and said: "From our experiments, only one logical conclusion seems possible, viz., that benzoate, in small and large doses up to four grams per day, is without deleterious effect upon the human system...
...When the Aldrich carbon amendment was held up in the Senate by an "insurgent" Senator, Aldrich withdrew it and modified it a bit, but the provision as finally passed in the new tariff Jaw increases the duty on electric light carbons about 45 per cent...
...Municipal Engineering and Sanitation...
...usually specious, and sometimes subtle...
...American Municipal Progress...
...They can't be taken separately...
...Plainly the position taken by Mr...
...They must not lose sight of the fact that evil may come out of any system of nominations, whether direct or indirect, if the penal laws governing campaigns and elections are ignored...
...Give the people the benefit of the doubt...
...Under the Dingley law, the duty collected on electric light carbons amounted to about 50 per cent...
...The process of using benzoic acid in preparing meat is an indication that we are going back 5,000 years, for benzoin or its products has not been used in the preservation of flesh since the Egyptians stopped embalming their dead...
...M. N. Baker...
Vol. 1 • September 1909 • No. 35
