Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1907-01-09
Wednesday, January Q, 1907.
ZOE A PRINcIPLE. NoT A NAN.

FOX "A PRINCIPLE, MOI a MAN.
THE fact cannot be denied that the sentiment
4 throughout Delaware is crystallizng very
rapidly around the proposition that, the next
Senator is conceded to belong to Kent or Sussex,
New Castle having now a Senator, that the Re
publican members of the Legislature from those
two counties should be given opportunity to
select, or at least express their choice for sue
cessor to Senator Alice If, after full and fair
opportunity, they cannot agree by an expressive
majority vote in favor of one man, then it would
become not only the privilege but the duty of
New Castle county to take such step as would
bring about prompt settlement OF the matter.
1t has been understood if not expressly agreed,
that Kent and Sussex would get the next Sena-
tor. BY no possible stretch of the imagination
could that promise or assurance be construed to
mean that New Castle was not to allow Kent
and Sussex to name the man of their choice. For
it to be said that all that was intended was for
New Castle to select a Kent or Sussex man would
be little less than an insult to the people of that
part of the State, and such proposition would
have been resented in very forcbe way.
Last June enough of the legislators of the lower
counties respected the majority wish of New Cas-
tie to elect Senator DUPONT and it was then un-
derstood that the next Senator would be select
ed in a similar manner, the honor and privilege
going to Kent and Sussex 1t was not then
known and the matter is still in dispute, who is
likely to be the choice Of the two lower counties
The opponents OF Senator Alice declare that he
will get not more than seven or eight of the
twenty-three Kent and Sussex members, and on
the other hand the friends of Senator Alice claim
A. a..
vidual who may be the choice of the two lower
counties, that matter is in doubt and we are dis
cussing the matter therefore not from the in
terests of any one man, but as right and privi-
lege that belongs to one section OF our State and
should be respected by the other
There is an effort being made by certain sena-
torial aspirants in New Castle county, and the
effort can no longer. be concealed, TO deprive
Kent and Sussex of the next Senator. If the plan
be to not permit an expressive majority of the
Kent and Sussex members to name the Senator
conceded to them, we have no doubt that so far
as they are concerned, New Castle might as we'll
take the Senator as to deny them the right TO
select the man. One plan would create no less
bitterness than the other And it cannot be
wondered at because it has been the almost I'M
broken custom Of the party, when any particular
officer is conceded to district or county, that the
representatives Of that district or county shall be
privileged by majority vote to select the man
TO violate such custom, founded as it is upon
reason and fairness and the Golden Rule of doing
unto others as we would have them do unto us
is indeed a very serious matter.
We make the plea with all earnestness that the
right Of this matter should be respected, and
we urge that individual ambitions and persona
prejudices should not be permitted to interior,
in the rghtful and proper settlement of the sena
torial question. The union OF the factions anc
the reorganization Of the party this year wa
supposed to forebode a condition of peace an,
harmony The political mistakes and crimes o
individuals of both factions were supposed to b.
buried in the past. and the new party, resplenden
with hope and later crowned with success, turne
its face to the future with the prospects of hap
pier and brighter days. Let the past be the pas
The time has come for the big men in the party
the men whose efforts are exerted to build up an
not to tear down, those who construct instead c
destroy, to come to the front and to it that tn
party makes no mistake in dealing with the gray
problem that now confronts it. There is Wit;
principle at stake, and upon its respect and OF
servance the future of the Republican party ma
depend
A1~eadv iaroe number ~ cornoration cola,