The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1908-09-17
is THE PLATFORM
Binding Upon Demo-
Gratis is theQuestion
NOW TO BE DECIDED.
The Commercial-Appeal
Thinks it is and Gives
Reasons for 1t.

Is the democratic platform of Ten
nessee binding upon the democrats Of
the state?
This seems a queer question to ask,
yet there are some democrats who take
the position that it is not. The main
reason urged for repudiating the plat.
form is that the delegates were not
chosen by the people. But this is not
valid objection, for the simple reason
that in no other gubernatorial contest
have the people voted directly for dele.
gates to the state convention. Hither-
to there has been no uniformity in the
manner of selecting delegates in the
various counties. One county would
hold q convention, another would hold
mass meeting, and still another would
hold a primary to select delegates to n
convention. Whichever side controlled
the organization of the convention or
mass meeting would appoint the dele
gates to the state convention, Perhaps
in an occasional case the people OF
county may have voted directly for
delegates to the state convention, but
we can recall no instance in which this
was done. Hence the objection we
have mentioned falls to the ground.
Messrs. Patterson and Carmack
stumped the state for the gubernatorial
nomination. The latter came out fat
footed for compulsory statewide pro-
hibition, and declared that he would
not accept the nomination unless he
received a majority OF the popular vote.
Patterson favored the idea Of letting
each community decide in the future,
as has been the custom in the past,
whether it would abolish the saloons.
Patterson not only had a majority of
over 15O in the convention, but ma
lority Of 5000 of the popular vote. The
convention that assembled in Nashville
represented the opinion and obeyed the
verdict of majority of the democrats
Of Tennessee.
Two platforms were submitted for
the consideration OF the convention
one by the majority, the Patterson del
egates, and one by the minority, the
Carmack delegates. The former was
adopted by a majority of nearly 2OO
Now, what we would like to ask is
this; If the minority did not regard
any platform adopted by the conven-
ton as binding upon the democrats of
Tennessee, why did it submit plat
form to q body whose authority is
questioned? By submitting minority
platform it subjected itself to the arbi-
trament of the state convention.
There can be 70 doubt that had the
minority platform been adopted by the
state convention the minority would
have held that it was binding on every
democrat in Tennessee, from governor
down, until it was changed by subse-
quent state convention. Can it be se-
riously claimed by any Carmack fol-
lower that the majority platform is not
binding because the minority platform
was rejected?
This is certainly a very dangerous
doctrine. 1t is subversive of all demo-
cratic organization. 1t is q deadly
blow at the democratic party. For if
it is valid, then the Denver platform is
a mere rope of sand. The delegates to
the Denver convention were not select
ed by the people. In Tennessee the
delegates to the state convention were
selected by the county executive COM
mittees, and the people had no chance
whatever to vote for delegates to Den
YER or to indicate their preference for
president. In most states the delegates
were selected by state conventions.
Now If the state platform is not bind
ing on Tennessee democrats, the ma.
tional platform is not binding on any
: democrat in the country.
We observe that several candidates
for the legislature have declared them.
selves in favor of state-w wide compulso-
ry prohibition. This is directly in OPP
position to the state platform. These
} men are actually candidates for dem
ocratic nomination on the republican
platform.
4 This sort of thing is bound to lead to
democratic confusion. The statewide
issue has been settled for the next two
} years by the democracy of the state,
and we do not see how any democrat
can take it upon himself to run counter
to the platform of bis party.
Loyalty to the dem ocratic platform is
the best and final test of mans de-
mocracy. -Commercial-Appeal.