The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-03-13
BOGUS PRIMARY
PLAN LAID BARE
THE TENkEssEAN EXPOSES THE
FRAUD AND HYPOCRISY o.
MACHINE IDEA.
UBIQUITOUS RETURNING BOARD
Peoples Paper at Nashville Answers
-. Arguments Made BY Pat
terson Organ.

leading editorial today the Nashville
Tennessean exposes the fraud in the
bogus primary plan. proposed by the
Patterson machine and answers many
OF the arguments of the machine pa
pers. The Tennessean says;
An administration newspaper has
for several days been printing in
black letters a statement as to the
bogus primary which we sub-divide
for convenience of comment:
Remember this:
Democrats in Tennessee who care
to vote for Governor in the primary
of June q, next, will vote for Patter-
son or Carmack, as best suits them.
There will ge no voting for dele
gates"
And after they have thus voted for
Patterson or Carmack, one candidate
or the other will have received a ma
jority of all the votes cast Does the
Committee plan provide that the can
didate who receives this majority
shall be the nominee?
No. After taking the vote and
thereby ascertaining the will of the
people, it sets up an elaborate scheme
to defeat the candidate supported by
majority of the people and opposed
by the machine, and to nominate the
candidate supported by minority OF
the people and favored by the ma
chine.
1t says further:
ION July z the Executive Commit
tee of the various counties will meet
at their respective county seats and
select the county's proportion of dele
gates to attend the State Convention"
Exactly.
For the first time In the history of |
Tennessee the Democratic voters have
been denied the right to vote for and |
instruct the delegates who are to
make the platform Of the Democratic
party. If the Democratic masses are
to have any voice or power in shaping
the policy of the Democratic party
upon the important issues Of the next
they must themselves find
a way to make their influence felt.
The Committee has done its best to
strip them of their rights.
And again says this paper:
These delegates voting as a unit In
hat convention for the candidate for
Governor who has received the great
,st number of votes in the county
rom whence the delegates come"
Voting as unit" /,
What does 1t mean?
1t means that If candidate gets ,
'are majority in any county he will be {
,iven the entire vote of that county !
md his opponent will get nothing. 1t t
means that he will not only be given 4
he benefit of the voters that were cast G
or him, but of the votes that we're t
asst against him. 1t means that If a s
can carry the great county n
I Shelby by one dishonest and faudu- s
emit majority, the Committee has de-
Used a plan to give him a further
and dishonest majority OF :
ZOO votes. 1t has In other words,
evised a plan under which candi-
ate may buy the support Of the hon
st and incorruptible voter against his
ill.
And remember this:
While the effects OF fraud and cor
Iption have thus been magnified
the work OF fraud and
)rruption has been made easy by n
0lding the election under a plan ~
hich provides no punishment for III
lines against the purity of the bal al
T. u
And remember this 90
Mr.. Carmack asked for a primary :
detected by law under which a man 10
as sent to the penitentiary from u
". Patterson's own county for vio- ~
ting its provisions. gu
Remember this also: vi
1.-THE election officersc in each coun- VIC
are to be selected, half and half, 81
I'm lists furnished by the respective f
bernatorial candidates. z
But don't forget this: -
These election officers are to be
osen by partisan committee which
under no restrain or compulsion OF