The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1896-10-28
w&p DRAGGED FROM ITS CRAVE.

1t is a pity that the state democratic
committee did not act as wisely on the
question of nomination of candidates for
the supreme court as it did in the dis
charge of the fusion scheme.
On the latter subject the committees
action was all right; on the former it was
decidedly Objectionable.
By a majority of two votes the com
mittee rejected proposition for direct
vote fer the supreme court candidates at
a general primary, This plan would
have been in exact accord with the spirit
of the law under which these judges are
to be chosen and it's adoption would have
given general satisfaction.
The committee not only rejected this
excellent plan of nomination but even
refused to require that delegates to the
convention for the nomination of judges
should be elected at a general primary
The resolution which was adopted dc
elares that delegates to the convention
may be elected "by a primary or mass
meeting" AS result of this decision
delegates from many counties will prOba-
bly, be chooses by s)-called "mass meet
ings'' at which handful of politicians
will presume to speak for the people.
The mass meeting system has been
condemned and repudiated by the demo-
Gratis of Georgia. Til" people have no
respect for it. 1t was hoped and believed
that the state convention of 1894 gave
that bad system its death-blow when it
recommended that delegates to state
conventions should be chosen at prima-
ries to be held all over the state on the
same day And when the state commit
tee ordered the election of delegates to
the last state convention in accordance
with this recommendation the average
Georgia democrat was credulous enough
to believe that the mass meeting system
had been finally abolished. Now the
state committee invites that cast off sYs
tenn to return to muddy Georgia politics
again. We fear that the committees IN
vitation will be accepted in many coun-
ties and that the masses Of the people
will have less to do with the election of
supreme court jugges than they suppos-
ed they would when they voted so large
ly for the recent constitutional amend
ment. The only thing that carried that
amendment through was the provision
that the judges should De elected by the
people. Twice before the people had
been asked to enlarge the supreme court
and had rejected the proffered amend
ment, under which the additional judges
would have been elected by the legisla-
ture. At the first opportunity they
adopted an amendment which added
three judges to the supreme court but
gave the election of all judges of that
court to the people.
tits possible that under the plan which
the committee has adopted we shall see
repeated in the convention the swapping
and trading of votes which has been
practiced on so many occasions in the
election of judges and solicitors by the
legislature. If this perniciuus plan is
to be applied to the nomination of SUI
preme court judges the reform which was
supposed to be embodied in the consti-
tutional amendment Yanishes. We hope
that the action of the convention will
after all represent fairly the popular will
and result in the nomination of the can
didates who would probably have been
been chosen by popular vote, but the
committee has revived plan of electing
delegates to state conventions which
ought to have been left in the grave
where it was placed two years ago. The
way has been opened for sharp politi-
clans to make the nomination of SUI
preme court judges the result of shrewd
combinations instead of an expression of
the will of the democratic masses.-At-
lanta Journal.
SENATOR BLACKBURN is inclined g
make light of his misunderstanding