Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-15

eT@g HE recent primary elections in our
sister states recalls an editorial
in your Sunday issue of the 10Th
ult., on primary elections, in
which you say:
Georgia was the first state to adopt the
white primary system and it has worked
so we'll here that it is recognized as the
permanent policy of the party of this
state other southern states have grad
ually followed Georgia's lead until Lou
isiana is left alone in this section outside
the white primary list"
1t must be pleasant to think that we set
the pace for all our neighbors. 1t must
make the Lords of Creation" as happy
to cherish the delusion that they are the
political leaders of mankind as it does
the fair sex" to believe that they set the
fashions to the admiration of the men
and the envy of all the other women. In
the above abstract you are entertaining
the Georgia democracy at barmecide' 8
feast You have compressed into this par
agraph two radical errors of fact, and /
hope one mistake of prophecy.
Georgia is the first state to adopt the
| white primary system. Other
states have followed Georgia's lead, etc"
This would imply:
LIST. That Georgia invented the primary.
2nd. That Georgia is operating under a
primary.
How stands the facts?
1st. Primaries have been so much part
of the system of other states that they
enacted statues regulating them more
than thirty years ago. While in Georgia
1 believe the first pretense of a state pri-
mary held under the auspices of the Dem
ocratic state executive committee was
four years ago. 1t is true, however, that
prior to this some of the counties in the
state had adopted this method Of nomi-
mating their local officers. In Georgia the
growth has been upward not downward.
While in some of our sister states such
primaries have sprung up full grown and
perfect out of the whirlpool of reconstruc-
tion as a means of preserving harmony
among the whites and emancipating them
from the curse of negro suffrage.
End. Is Georgia now operating under a
white primary system?'
What is q primary? 1t is a political
party of its nominees by q vote of its
| members at an election he'd for the pur-
pose. Such an election would indicate
that the ballot of each voter would count
as much as the ballot of any other voter
an election in which the nominees selected
| receive either a majority, or at least a
plurality of all the votes cast. In this
sense Georgia has never held a state pri-
mary election.
The nomination now and ever since the
war IN Georgia lot Lu6 state JlCkeI mas
been by delegates in convention. Up to
eight years ago these delegates were us
ually selected by county mass meetings.
There being great dissatisfaction with that
method the state executive committee
six years ago advanced a short step by
requiring the delegates to be selected by
primary vote in the counties. The cleo
tor did not vote directly for the candidate,
but voted for delegates to select candi-
dates. There was an advantage in this
method. While the elector and the dele
gates might not agree as to all the can
didates to be sell cted, they did agree as to
the policy and measures to be adopted by
the convention. The elector voted for
measures and left it to the delegate to Sc
lect the candidate to enforce these meas
ures.
Four years ago the state executive COM
mittee took a short backward step and d.
rected in its primaries that the elector
should vote directly for the candidate, and
the candidate in each county receiving
the highest number Of votes should be en-
titled to the county vote which was twice
the number of representatives that the
county had in the general assembly. The
to appoint delegates to the convention
who would cast the vote of the county
in accordance with the wishes of the ma
jority of the electors of the county thus
expressed. Thus, whilst the elector is vot-
ing apparently directly for the candidate,
he is in fact simply instructing the dele
gates to be appointed by the county ex-
ecutive committee for what candidate 10