Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-12-04
TALK ON THE PRIMARY.

TALK ON THE PRIMARY.
Among the most conspicuous Of the
laws passed by the Democratic party In
Virginia In late years are these defining
the method of making party nominations
and purifying elections In the State.
The primary plan Of making nominations
emsnsted from the State Committee in
accordance with the uctions of tho
last Democratic State convention, and
Its operation has been tested only once,
20 wit: in the election held on the 10th
OF this month tNovember). The Banks
Gale Pure Election Law came from the
General Assembly and has been In ex.
listen &C only little more than six months.
Yet there are already noticeable signs of
dies abstraction with both the primary
plan and the Bsrksdale law. Our con-
temporary. the VIReIsIA CITIZEN, a
staunch Democratic organ tina, wields
much influence, would like to see the
primary plan abolished, If we have read
It's meaning Alright, and differs most de-
cidedly with the majority of its Demo-
cratic contemporaries In contending that
the viva voce feature of the plan is the
Only thing which saves it from being a
"howling farce" The reason of the
CITIZENS opposition 10 the primary is
perhaps stated In the following sentence
which appeared in its issue of last week:
"Partisanry does away with all shadow
OF fairness where the primary is in the
control of one side-which must be the
case so long as factions exist" and from
this 1t seems TO US that our contemporary
argues that because factions exist, pri-
maries are impracticable, to which we
would respectfully reply that as between
the primary and the faction, we would
much prefer the former, and IL we would
advocate the abolition of either In order
to stem the tide upon which "the Demo-
cratic party in Virginia Is fast drifting
into state Of innocuous desuetude," we
would say without hesitation, abolish
the faction, then try the primary viva
voce feature and all. Other influential
papers share the CITIZENS aversion to
the primary, sud will create much senti-
ment in agreement with their views The
General Assembly now in adjourned
session had hardly convened before a
bill had been offered to repeal the Barks-
dale law, and that by Democrat who
pronounced the law a Colossal fake"
Now then, In our humble judgment,
DemOcrstic edjioro epd nan.~o-ost~ -
islators make mistake when they
precipitately rush ahead to undo what
their party has done without first watt
ing to see the prsctical operation of these
things. We would also be In favor Of
the abolition Of the primary plan and
The repeal of the Barksdale law, IL after
giving them fair and impartial trial we
were convinced this would be best for
the welfare of our party and our State,
but from the operation of both the pri-
mary and the Barksdale law in our i'm
mediate section, we think both are CON-
mendable. 1t is not q sufficient argu-
ment that because some men will lie and
steal under the Barksdale law, 1t ought
to be repealed In the interest Of those
who will not lie and steal under 1t; rather
let the law stand and seek to punish
those who violate 1t. To repeal the
Barksdale law because some men will
violate 1t would be no more defensible
than to repeal all other penal laws
because some men will violate them.
The right policy for all Democrats to
pursue is harmony and honesty; the pri-
ID airy plan seems TO us designed to pro-
mote the former and the Barksdale law
the latter. So let's try them long enough
to be fully satisfied as 10 their efficiency
or inefficiency, and not beraie our party
for seeking to bring about conditions SO
much to be desired.
We do not vary much from our
influential contemporary that Yields
the party stroke for the Southside.
We, too, would dearly love to see fac
tons dissolved, and have time and
again made overtures to this end in
such as We may be entangled. But
1t seems that they are here to stay, as
some leaders show decided liking
for their existence. There are two
things without which the primary is
a humbug. They are the true viva
voce method and legslizing by the
Legislature. Even then they will
not be conducted altogether fair
~ In some quarters, but with
these a certain amount of fair
ness is guaranteed. We have
from the first favored the Barksdale
Pure Election law, but hope to see
it improved. Like the Sentinel, we
desire to see both plans given fair
trial.