New-York tribune., 1908-05-24
THE UNIT RULE.

The Florida Times Union" Of Jacksonville,
quotes approvingly part Of one Of our recent
articles OF the abuse Of the unit rule III Denlo-
cratic national politics. Hut IL is dlsposeu "
deprecate any reform in Democratic practices
on the ground that attacking any accepted rules
of party procedure would prepare the wa! 1or
ruinous dssensions and divisions. our JACK
sonville contemporary is about the only beho-
cratic newspaper Of consequence which seems TO
think that few more dissensons "lthin the
Democratic party would matter much one way
or the other The normal state of the party Is
one of internal strife. and inevitably so, since
il contains elements and forces which IN opln-
ion. purpose and practice are absolutei! HIec
cncilable There are many signs that Oh III"
question of reintroducing the original Jelerso
nian principles of ma ajorty rule ana lnul'luudi
initiative into party administration Deinocra's
are going to divide they have DIVIDED Oh
every other idea and practice in poiltlcs' MI
BRYAN and Colonel Hemphill-opponents on
every other issue-have come together on Inc
project of abolishng nominating conventions
and political middlemen. SO the proposal 10 90
away with the un-Democratic and oppressive
two-tbirds and unit rules will only give Tie
Democratic leaders and the Democratic rahA
and file an opportunity for a fresh alignment
An obvious return to Jeffersonianism cannot
be sidetracked by urging that all democrats
cannot possible agree on it. The issue VIII nave
TO be fought out. Florida is, in fact, ALREADY
struggling with IT, since Florida has adopteo the
direct primary plan of electing delegates and
has diSpensed with conventions III fnere IS no
state convention to impose the unit rule on
delegation what becomes Of the theory mat
some central body ascertainS and imposes on
the states representation as whole tne VIII
of a majority of the Democratic voters: III
Florida four delegates to Denver were elected
Of largo and six more were chosen from the
three Congress districts. Every delegate elected
stood on his own opinions and record ana WAS
indorsed by majority of his constituents
Why then should six of the ten be allowed 10
geg together and cast not only their OWE votes
but the votes Of the other four: In Alapama
the unit rule was maintained by the device OF
submitting TO the voters of the state as whole
the names of two candidates for the Presidency,
Mr. Brvan and Governor Johnson, with the
condition that whoever had majority IN the
state poll should have the states vote IN us
entiretv This course was open and logical. Ii
gave the voters fair notice and fair cnahce'
But 10 propose that Congress districts snail
elect delegates 10 represent them, and tnen take
that representation away because other districts
elect delegates with different ideas is fraud
on the voters 1t is q violation of the funda-
mental Jeffersonian principle of dispersed au-
thority and local self government.
Our Florida contemporary in defending the
unit rule gives if a curious construction. mus
The Times Union" says:
The Democrats hold that majority of state
delegation may cast the whole vote, but only
when an agreement to this exists among the
delegates The state convention may not plnd
the district delegates, and the delegation may
not bind its members except by consent Usually
the states vote a unit because the Demo-
, cratic party makes the state sovereign and de-
sres to maintain its entity, but if a delegate
refuses to enter a caucus Of the delegation ne
may cast his own vote
The unit rule is certainly not 80 applied in
Democratic national conventions. The con
sent of a minority delegate is A pure fiction
Every convention sees delegates protesting
against the casting of their votes by their asso-
ciates. 4 delegate may stay out of caucus,
but ma iority of the state delegation oper-
ating under the unit rule, will deliver his vote
for him notwithstanding He has no recourse !;
he is tied TO the wheels of the ajority chariot
1t is this Capitalization of power which offends
the sense of justice of the more fair-minded
men in the Democratic ranks, and will, no
doubt. lead to some effort to get back to freer
and more popular method of election.