The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-05-08

/ ing the popular will, and think there
| is no reason to make an exception
/ in the case of candidates for Cover
nor
| Gov. Patterson has now been In
| office long enough to make a record,
| and upon that record he must face
! the people of Tennessee. What has
made him now so bitter an opponent
of the system he once eulogiZed so
highly? | can only answer you in the
very language of Gov. Patterson: No
man can oppose a direct primary I'M
| less he fears an expression of the pop
ular will
THE BOGUS COUNTY UNIT
PLAN EXPOSED.
Gov. Patterson complains of the
gross Misrepresentation of the pres
| ent plan. Let him challenge the cor
rectness of a single statement | now
have to make.
II asked for a primary under which
a majority of the Democratic voters
would choose the nominee OF the
Democratic party.
HE gave me bogus primary under
which a small minority OF the voters
may select a nominee over the record
ed protest of an overwhelming major
lty of the people. | challenge him to
deny the truth of that statement.
81 asked for direct primary in
which every Democrat should cast his
vote for the candidate of his choice
and have it counted in the general re-
suit as it was cast.
"He gave me a bogus primary I'M
der which it is deliberately provided
as a part of the system that thou
sands of Democrats shall vote for one
candidate and have their proportion
of the Democratic strength counted
for the other candidate. | challenge
him to deny the truth of that state
ment.
81 asked for primary under which
the effects of corruption would be at
least limited to the number of voters
actually corrupted.
"He gave me a bogus primary I'M
der which, by the bribery OF few
buns and vagabonds, every honest and
incorruptible Democrat in the county
may be bought, sold and delivered to
the corruptionist. | challenge him to
deny the truth of that statement.
81 asked for a primary that would
have preserved what Gov. Patterson
has called the sacred principle of To-
cal selt-government,' by leaving the
party machinery in the hands of the
local County Committees, where it
has always been.
HE gave me a bogus primary, in
which all the party machinery in
every county and voting precinct in
| the State is lodged in the hands of his
own partisans, one of them an office
holder and the other the father of an
! office-holder by his appointment.
| These two nonresident politicians,
chosen because of their personal in
terest in his reelection, will appoint
every Judge clerk and receiver in
every ward and district of Tennessee.
| | challenge him to deny the truth OF
that statement.
Il asked for a primary under which
every charge of fraud or unfairness
could be fairly tried and adjudicated.
"He gave me bogus primary, I'M
der which there will be in every coun-
| ty in the State returning board, Sc
lected by nonresident partisans OF
his own, which shall make returns OF
the results to a central committee,
likewise composed of his partisans,
and which must accept these returns
as final and conclusive of the vote OF
each county. However false and fraud
ulent they may be, they cannot be
challenged or impeached, and you
cannot go behind the returns
AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK DOWN
THE WHOLE PRIMARY SYSTEM.
"This whole scheme revolves
around what is known as the county
unit, which my competitor parades as
a new discovery of vast benefit to
mankind Now the plain truth is that
it is but new application of sys-
TEN as old as bossism and machine
politics. What was the old delegated
County Convention? 1t simply meant
that the candidate whose delegates
should carry a ward or district by any
majority, great or small, should cast
the entire Democratic vote of such
ward or district as a unit in the con-
yention. 1t meant that IL one can
lidate carried large ward or dis
trict by a small majority, and the
,ther carried small ward or district
ny a large majority, one candidate
would have the advantage in the pop
liar vote, while the other would have
the greatest strength in the conven-
ton. 1t was to get away from this
very system that the people in prac-
tically every county in Tennessee
have adopted the direct primary. In
which every Democrat is his own
INIT. There is not an argument he
now makes against direct primary
for Governor that is not an argument
against all primaries. There is not
m argument he makes in favor OF
the county unit that is not an argu-
ment in favor of the old discarded