Magna Carta, and Other Addresses

by William D. Guthrie

As has been pointed out by many able writers, the convention system in the past has been of inestimable service to this country. With all its vagaries, it afforded the highest test of a political representative institution in a democratic community and the soundest and purest application of the principle of representation or delegated authority; it operated to bind party elements firmly together; it afforded full opportunity for exchange of views, criticism and debate, for the propagation of principles, for the conciliation of factions; it inspired enthusiastic party life. The convention, if honestly conducted, was a thoroughly representative and deliberative body, and it was the true cause of party success and of the maintenance and perpetuation of party principles and policies, as well as political faith and devotion. In a word, the convention was and still is the best instrument ever devised for securing concert of choice and responsible and intelligent action by large bodies of voters belonging to the same political party and believing in the same political faith, principles and policies.

I am not at all blind to the fact that there have been great abuses in the convention system, and that conventions have been at times corruptly organized or conducted. But I know of no form of abuse or corruption which could not have been remedied by appropriate and intelligent legislation, or which could not have been prevented in New York by action of the voters if the legislation of the past twenty-five years had been generally availed of by the majority in each party. The control of all nominations was in the hands of the majority, if they had only taken the trouble to enroll and vote for competent representatives at primary elections. There is no practical remedy for abuse of power, fraud, or corruption in nominations for office but the participation in politics of all voters as a duty of citizenship. The notion that the direct primary would eliminate the professional politician and the boss has been shown to be false in every state where the scheme has been tried. Indeed, quite the contrary has been the result, and the last condition is worse than the first; for, to repeat myself, manipulators, wire-pullers and political bosses now work in secret and by underground channels without any responsibility or accountability whatever, and are, nevertheless, able cynically to point to the direct primary as the expression of the people's sovereign will—a primary which may be carried by a very small minority of the party.

I assume that all the members of this Constitutional Convention believe that the existence of political parties is essential to the success of free government and to permanence and stability of political policy, and that the perpetuation of party government is desirable for the welfare and best interests of this state. Men cannot secure results and compass their ends in politics, any more than in most other human concerns and matters requiring concerted action, except by organization, cooperation, discipline and responsibility. The value of the service rendered to the American people by the great political parties is incalculable, and if these parties are to be disrupted and their organization and cohesiveness undermined, the result must inevitably be a most serious injury to the body politic. Whether we regard political parties, on the one hand, as organizations of men believing in the same political faith, principles and policies and uniting to introduce or uphold those principles and policies, or, on the other hand, merely as organizations to secure office and administer government—both of which aspects present patriotic motives—it is desirable for the permanent welfare of the people of every free country that parties should be maintained, and particularly that there should be two great responsible parties, each striving for control and ready to assume the responsibility of government and of the adoption of particular measures. A public official who belongs to a great political party and owes his preferment to that party is under a double sense of responsibility for efficiency, honesty and consistency in public office. He has a sense of responsibility and duty to the state as a whole, and he has a sense of responsibility and duty to his party, and both are moral factors of inestimable worth in securing integrity, efficiency and industry in public office.

In its real origin, the movement to abolish the convention system and introduce direct nominating primaries sprang not from any hope of reforming the existing political parties but from a desire to subvert and destroy the American system of government by political parties. The scheme was later taken up by men who sincerely desired to reform party management and correct party abuses, who conscientiously despaired of reform within the parties themselves, and who conceived and finally came to believe that betterment could be brought about only by uprooting and casting aside all the party machinery, organization and discipline which had been built up by the practical experience of over a century. The plea of bringing the government back to the people was catching and plausible, and it found eager response in the deeply rooted dislike of party machinery, party discipline and party constancy on the part of those who habitually neglect all attention to politics and the political duties of citizenship except during periods of popular excitement and upheaval.

Although I am one of those who believe in independence in politics and in the right and duty of every citizen to vote against his party if in his judgment the public interests so require, I profoundly believe that party government and party organization and machinery are absolutely essential under our form of government. Political parties in America have given stability to governmental policies and have created the only effective restraint upon disintegration and individual caprice or demagogism. There must be coherence in political forces; there must be concentration and direction of the political energy of communities; there must be some systematic and practical method of investigating the qualifications of candidates and selecting competent public officials; there must be stability, harmony and cooperation in governmental policies. These can be secured in the long run only by and through permanently organized and disciplined political parties. No other method has yet been discovered by which effectively to express political opinion, to secure stability in governmental administration and policies, and to effectuate the real and permanent judgment of the people and promote their best interests.

President Wilson some years ago, in referring to attacks upon party government in the United States, used the following striking language, which I think should be now recalled:

"I know that it has been proposed by enthusiastic, but not too practical, reformers to do away with parties by some legerdemain of governmental reconstruction, accompanied and supplemented by some rehabilitation, devoutly to be wished, of the virtues least commonly controlling in fallen human nature; but it seems to me that it would be more difficult and less desirable than these amiable persons suppose to conduct a government of the many by means of any other device than party organization, and that the great need is, not to get rid of parties, but to find and use some expedient by which they can be managed and made amenable from day to day to public opinion." "Whatever their faults and abuses, party machines are absolutely necessary under our existing electoral arrangements, and are necessary chiefly for keeping the several segments of parties together.... It is important to keep this in mind. Otherwise, when we analyze party action, we shall fall into the too common error of thinking that we are analyzing disease. As a matter of fact the whole thing is just as normal and natural as any other political development. The part that party has played in this country has been both necessary and beneficial, and if bosses and secret managers are often undesirable persons, playing their parts for their own benefit or glorification rather than for the public good, they are at least the natural fruits of the tree. It has borne fruit good and bad, sweet and bitter, wholesome and corrupt, but it is native to our air and practice and can be uprooted only by an entire change of system."[67]

For these reasons I earnestly urge upon the Constitutional Convention of the state of New York the restoration of nominating state conventions for elective state offices. I do so because I believe that they are the best means of maintaining political parties, of formulating their principles and policies, of purifying and disciplining their management, of stimulating political enthusiasm and disinterestedness, and of selecting and nominating fit and representative individuals as candidates for high public office. I further urge that the nominees of any such convention should not need any further designation than the filing of a certificate by the proper convention officers. If it be concluded, however, that the direct primary system should be continued for the purpose of party nominations, then it should be provided that the name of the nominee of the convention should be placed on the official primary ballot with the designation "nominated by convention." This would enable the enrolled voters to ratify or overrule the action of their convention. I am, however, convinced that this nominating primary would impose an unnecessary burden upon the electorate, and that it would be a mistake to increase the number of elections. We should then have three elections: first, the election of delegates to the nominating convention; second, the official primaries, and third, the general election. It seems to me that it would answer every purpose if adequate provision were retained for independent nominations by petition and if nominating primaries were dispensed with. This would enable voters belonging to any party to place candidates in the field in opposition to the nominees of the convention if they were dissatisfied with those nominees.

Assuming that we are to continue the system of electing judges to our highest judicial offices, that is, judges of the Court of Appeals and justices of the Supreme Court, then I submit that candidates for these very important offices should be nominated by conventions and not by direct primaries. I regard this as even more essential in the case of nomination for judicial office than in the case of nomination for executive office.

The qualities required in a candidate for high judicial office are knowledge of the law, love of justice, high personal character, calmness, impartiality and independence. Mere popularity, or what so often is necessary to popularity, good-fellowship, is the last quality we look for in a judge. The self-seeker and self-advertiser is seldom qualified by temperament or character for judicial office. It requires the most thorough investigation as to the professional learning, career and conduct of a candidate and the most sifting exchange of views before a judicial candidate can be intelligently and wisely selected. For want of adequate means of acquiring information, the public in such large constituencies as the whole state of New York (in the case of judges of the Court of Appeals) and the various judicial districts (in the case of justices of the Supreme Court) cannot intelligently estimate the qualifications of judicial candidates. It seems to me nonsense to argue that in parties composed of hundreds of thousands of enrolled electors dispersed throughout the state, the voters can investigate, or exchange views, or intelligently act in regard to the qualifications of lawyers who are proposed as candidates for judicial office—almost as preposterous as if we were to select judicial candidates by lot from the names placed on the official primary list.