Everett Trades Council Demands Presidential Primary Reform
Everett’s organized labor body petitioned Governor Hay to call a special session of the legislature, arguing that citizens, not political machines, should choose presidential candidates.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the Labor Temple, on November 24, 1911, the Everett Trades Council, representing twenty-seven unions with a total membership of 2,000, adopted a communication to Governor M. E. Hay. The council stated: 'We are strongly in favor of a special session of the legislature this winter for the purpose of passing a direct presidential primary law. We believe that the people should vote direct for their choice for president and that delegates to national conventions as at present chosen are not the choice of the voters. Delegates to national conventions ought by all means be elected directly by the people.'
“It is in our opinion as much our right to express our choice by direct vote for president as it is for United States senator.”
This 1911 push for democratic control over candidate selection preceded the rise of the modern primary system. It serves as a reminder that the methods by which parties select candidates were once the front line of grassroots populist movements.
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