The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1894-07-12
SENATORIAL PRIMARY.


SENATORIAL PRIM AIRY.
The idea of holding primaries at
the time of the approaching election,
in order to ascertain the preferences
of the Democratic voters for United
States Senators, is attracting wide.
spread attention and arguments
both pro and con are being advanced
with much earnestness and enthus-
iasm.
The SENTINEL is in favor of the
election of Senators by direct vote of
the people, believing that this should
be "a government of the people, by
the people and for the people," and
that the people, and not cliques,
clans or bosses, are the true sover-
eigns. AS q direct vote upon the
matter is an impossibility, and will
be so until change of the cons6itu-
ton is effected, we favor the primary
as the nearest practicable approach
to this direct vote.
Among the arguments offered in
opposition to the primary are two
in a recent issue of the Statesville
Landmark, which we propose to
notice briefly. That paper says:
$50 far as getting an expression OF
public opinion is concerned nothing
could be more unfair than a senator
ial primary. Thus: Iredell might
give Ransom a majority of /, and
roman might give Jarvis maj ority
of 900. Let us say that each OF
these counties has two representa-.
tiyes in the Legislature, and Iredell
with it's insignificant majority of l
would weigh DIS heavily for Ransom
as Rowan with it's majority OF ] 900
would weigh for Jarvis. Would that
be just expression of the wishes, as
to the senatorship, of the Democrats
Of these two counties? But suppose
the votes of the whole State were
aggregated at Raleigh and Ransom
should have a majority of L in the
count. Shall Rowan's representa-
tives, whose people voted 900 ma
jority for Jarvis, be compelled to
vote for Ransom when an expression
of the county at the ballot box had
shown that Rowan is against him 20
Under the present system of elect
ing Senators the above grounds
would be well taken, but our con
temporary seems to lose sight of the
fact that the main idea in the pri-
mary is to secure the wishes of a
majority of the Democrats of the
entire State, without reference speci-
ally to majorities in this county or
that. Take any State election for
example. One county might give
a majority of 1000 for one candi-
date and another county give a
majority of only for another can
didate, and yet if the county with a
majority of 1 happens to be on the
winning side, with reference to the
total vote of the State, that l ma
jority is sin the swim" while the
1000 majority on the losing side
has been ''snowed under" Such
would be the case, too, if that ma
jority should happen to represent
the entire majority in the State OF
the successful candidates. State ma
jority and not county majorities
obtain in State elections and the
same should be the case in the selec-
ton of our United States Senators.
The second objection raised by the
Landmark is this:
GAS the case stands if primaries
we've held they would indicate Gen.
Ransom and Governor Jarvis as the
leading men. These might have ma
jorities or pluralities upon an aggre-
gate vote or they might have a ma
jority or plurality of the counties, if
counties were taken into account.
In either event they would be certain
to be the two leading men and this
would shut the West out entirely.
We are frank to say that we do not
want to soc this done. In the absence
of some overwhelming reason to the
contrary, it were better to observe
the precedent of twenty years and let
one Senator come from the East and
the other from the West. We have
no right to question Gov. Jarvis
good faith but it looks as if he might
be calculating upon himself and Gen.
Ransom both going back to the Sem
ate."
We agree with the Landmark in
what is said in regard to one Sena-
Tor being taken from the East and
the other from the West. We do not
,oncede that Jarvis and Ransom
ire certain to be the two leading
men. The rivalry between these two