Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-08-12

foreign to its powers. 1t would be
merely a clerical body with no au
thority to correct mistakes or adj
Just differences. If 900 platforms
favored closing saloons on primary
election days and the other 1000
preferred having them open, the
committee would have to register
the will of the majority, as IAN af-
Grmation of principles stralghtfrom
the popular heart" Where would
the party be after it's corpse had
been strapped to such an unbroken
team of wild horses pulling in OPP
posite directions? This proposition
alone, if made seriously, is one of
the strongest of arguments against
a primary election plan that would
make such a thing necessary. II
would be better, a thousand times
better, to let the nominees get to-
gether and write their own plat
form. The committee could not
write it without subjecting itself to
renewed charges of ring rule, which
was one of the FIVE objections we
have mentioned heretofore. With
committee of thirteen members to
nominate the candidates having no
opposition, by reason of their finan-
cial ability to enter the race, and
then to write the platform, it would
be ring rule reduced to a fine art
and the party would take up a
funereal march "from slaughter
house to an open grave.
The Times again reiterates the
opinion that a state primary cleo
ton can be held for So, 800, or about
$40 to the county. This paltrY sum
would not be sufficient to meet the
Office expenses of the county COM
mittees in sending out supplies and
notifying officers of election. The
utter folly of this contention has
been exposed again and again by
those who have had actual expert
ence. For instance, the congress
sional primary in the First district
was on the very cheapest possible
SS,asis, with officers serving free and
no costly official ballots, and yet il
cost, if we are correctly informed
about SIS to the county. After 1t
was over it was found that it was
/ of no legal effect and the nominee
had to be nominated over again.
/ If the Times really wants to be IN
formed on this subject we can show
5y an itemized schedule of supplies
that a legalized state primary cleo
ton cannot be held for less than
/ s.. 500 to each congressional dis
trict. We defy the editor to go to
The records of his own county and
prove that a regular election can
be held for FIVE times the estimate
he makes for holding a primary
under the same requirements, but
with a larger and more expensive
official ballot.
The fourth objection-that the
= committee has no legal authority tc
| assess candidates-is passed by
: with a wave of the hand, as "toC
. trivial for argument. And yet WI
( assert as a fact that there is no au
e thority for this in the statutes or II
q the party law. The unlawful tax
= alton of candidates to raise $500
c or any other amount, may seem .
S trivial matter, but the statement
h as a legal proposition, has not bee
?, and cannot be successfully contrC
a verted.
J. To the 6fth obstacle, the entir
e absence of authority of the stat
a committee to call State prlmar.
y the Times attaches more impo
? lance. It quotes from the primar
lie election law this paragraph;
y "The provisions of this artic
- shall apply to all primary election
held for the purpose OF nominatin
is candidates for State, county, di
err trict or municipal offices hereatt
ne held in this Commonwealth, exec
be those held in the year one thousar
RS eight hundred and ninety two. "
IS This incid entail reference to Sta
-, elections is the only straw at Viii
il our drowning friend can gras
en- That this is without any force
IS shown by the fact that for ten yea
N "old fashioned primaries were he
q in hundreds Of instances and
he attention paid to the provision
he the statutes, because the law its