The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1908-02-27
The County Unit Nothing New.
10 the Editor of me American:

The people, the friends of good gov
eminent, will find nothing in the plan
adopted by the state democratic execu-
tive committee, except what is remedi.
al aud reformatory.
Our fathers adopted aud lived by the
county-unit plan. The cautious and
conservative committee, acting under
their plain instructions, indicated by
the convention that delegated to them
their authority, have wisely preserved
the method adopted by our fathers and
lived by in their political history,
They have corrected the evils which
had grown up under the old plan. They
have eliminated the district politics
and ward politics. Better than all,
they provided that all the counties shall
act upon the same day, and thus pre-
vented the old system of political
schemers and their henchmen wander
ing over the state, wrangling for first
this and then for that county.
Under the old method the county was
the unit, whether it sent delegates to
the state convention by a mass county
convention, by convention composed
of delegates sent by the districts and
wards, to the county seat to select del
egates to the state convention, and
whether the ward and district delegates
were chosen by ward and district mass
conventions, or by ward and district
primaries, or by mass conventions in
the wards and districts.
In whatever way the county chose
and sent its delegates to the state con-
vention, the county was the unit.
Such was the method Of the wing and
democratic parties before the civil war,
and such has been the method Of Che
democratic party since that war.
The demagogue, the ward heller, and
the district hummer will preach in vain
when he tells the people Of Tennessee
that their fathers have been all this
time engaging in fraud and chicanery.
Under the county-unit plan all the old
governors of the whig and democratic
parties before the war, and of the dem
ocratic party since the war, won theil
way to power. Among these were
Aaron V. Brown, Trousdale, Neil s.
Brown, Gov. Campbell, Andrew John.
son, Isham G. Harris, John 9. Brown
James d. Porter, Gov. Marks, r. L.
Taylor, Gov. McMillin and Gov. Pat
terson, all nominated and elected under
the county.unit plan.
The latter.day objections of the PEG
pie was to the old convention plan, al
it had become corrupted, and yielded
to the schemes of corrupt politicians
not in the county unit feature at all
but IN the manner in which delegates
were chosen by wards and districts
and especially in the habit of counties
acting in the selection Of delegates up
on different days, so that cabals or pc
litical schemes at some central point
sent their runners from county t
county to warp or obstruct the will O.
the people.
The plan adopted leaves the county
unit system just where it was as oul
fathers framed it and acted under it
and wisely, the committee only sough
to correct abuses. Now, all the coun
ties act upon the same day. Thus ev
cry man will have to be at home tC
vote. No hired gang of schemers will
be running from time to time, from
county to county, over the state seek
ing to thwart the will of the people OF
to get up contrasting delegations to bt
admitted or not admitted by a corrupt
state committee, according to their biat
or inclinations. This is a great reform
of itself.
Perhaps, however, the chief reform
is that the committee, while wisely and
conservatively preserving the county
unit rule, have provided by a direct
vote of the people all over the county
upon the same day, to free the party
entirely from the old evils of ward and
district politics. That evil, under the
new plan, will disappear entirely. The
only part now left for the ward hummer
and the district heeler to appeal to the
people for their votes. That is the
freeman's right, and always must bt
under any system.
None but shallow politician, seek,
ing an issue where he had none, will be
found criticising this wise and timely
reform. Fl. Nj, DoAK.