Omaha daily bee., 1908-08-19
THE JUNKIN DECIS IONS.

A number of interior state papers
are discussing the Junkin decisions
overruling the protests against demo-
POP fusion on presidential electors
without knowing what they are talk
ing about. These protests involve
two questions of fact which, under the
Nebraska primary law, it devolved
upon the secretary OF state to deter
mine.
The first was whether a candidate
for presidential e%lector, openly pledged
to the democratic nominee, could
rightfully claim to be afiliated at n
and the same time with the democratic
party and also with the peoples indie
pendent party. The objection was
that the test OF party afhliation lies
not in any mans assertion for himself
or for someone else, but in his accept
ance of party principles enunciated by
his party's national convention and his
support of his party's national ticket,
The democrats had promulgated the
Denver platform and nominated Will
liam j. Bryan for president, while the
%populists had promulgated the st.
Louis platform and nominated Thomas
E. Watson for president. The mi
way the Bryanites found to reconcile
this contradictory situation was by
submitting sworn testimony that the
peoples independent party in Ne
braska was separate and distinct from
the national party organization ana
was not bound by the action of the
party's national convention. Secre-
tary of State Junkin decided that a
democrat pledged to Bryan could
legally label himself a populist In Ne
braska Notwithstanding the refusal OF
the populist national convention to
fuse with the democrats on their ma
tional ticket.
The second Junkin decision turned
on the question whether the popullsts
had polled / per cent of the total vote
cast at the last election in the Second
congressional district. If they a
not polled l per cent of the vote they
were not entitled to place any candi-
date on the ticket under the party
name in that district. Here the law
nuts the burden Of proof upon the
candidate seeking to get on the popu-
list ticket. yet no evidence whatever
was offered to prove that the peoples
independent party had cast the requls-
lite l per cent OF the vote. On the
contrary. the Bryanites rested their
case ON the assertion that there was no
way of telling whether those who
voted for the fusion candidates last
year were democrats or popuiists' and
that, therefore, both parties had a
right to claim all the votes cast
Mr.. Junkin seems to have gone out
of his way for evidence to sustain the
Bryanites by assuming that voters re-
turned as populists in the republican
poll of Washington county really voted
as popullsts and applying the same
ratio to the other counties In the dis
trict. He had sworn evidence before
him that in the cities of Omaha and
South Omaha, embracing four-ffths of
the vote of the district, only eight
voters had registered themselves as
populists. If he had applied this ratio
to the whole district he would have
given the populists not over a dozen
votes, and he had just as much right
TO apply the ratio disclosed by the
oath-declared registration to the whole
district as he had to apply the guess
work poll of Washington county to
Douglas county and to Sarpy county.
The Junkin decisions are simply ex-
amples frequently found where OH