The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-01-17


trlc, ana overcome popular msjorities
nom four 10 seven thousand There
can be no apprOximstion 70 rule
Of the people under system which
gives as much value 10 4 majority OF
one as IL does to a majority OF one
thouasnd. and where all minortties.
whether great or small, count LOT
nothing. Under this system the man
who received $500 votes in Davidson,
II not less than a majority. would fare
worse than IL he had received IS votes
Il UnicoI. One vote In Unicoi Woulo
outweigh 100 in Davidson!
The case il even worse than ] have
stated. for the same Inequalities ap-
near when it comes to voting BY wards
and districts in the counties. The can
didate who carries a few populous
wards of the county seat and a few
large districts, by small matorities'
NAV get the delegation from the whole
county with a popular majority againsJ
him. This actually happened in DaV'
idson County in the Patterson7eox
race. where the latter got majority
At the popular vote and the former.
got all the delegates.
But with all this we are just at tne
beginning of the utter viciousness OF
the convention system. If the powers
~ corruption have not succeeded with
all these advantages in gaining ma
iority of the delegates, there still re-
mains the opportunity for manipula-
ton. bargain and intrigue, fraud ana
corruption in the convention every
man knows that attending state con-
ventions ia a costly business, and tnat
large proportion of those elected
never attend, and that man3 gooo
men refuse to serve because they
cannot afford the expense. But the
the railroad corporations never fa'l 10
have their delegates On hand. Every
delegate known to be favorable to the
railroad or its candidates is sure to
be there with free pass, Every rail-
road politician In the state VIII De
there, The immense advantage this
gives them in state conventions VIII
readily explain why it has never been
nussible to get an anti-free pass Dill
through the Legislature.
But If we want picture OF how the
convention system lends itself to
chicanery and fraud we cannot do bet
ter than 60 to the columns OF the
Nashville American. In an editorial
March 1S, 1906, it said; When u
comes to discussion Of the merits OF
contest between factions, 1t is not
impertinent to inquire. what Is the
use? The object of each side Is to
secure enough uncontested delegates
to organize the convention; then to
seat all contested delegations who are
willing to vote for the faction organ
izlng the convention, Merit, fairness,
Justice, will not be considered"
Systems Contrasted.
This was the picture of what was
being done by both factions in the
Cox Patterson fight-a contest, &C
cording to The American which was
in no sense measurement OF pop-
ular strength, but of cunning against
cunning and fraud against fraud In
other editorials 1t charged that the
friends of both candidates were max
ing frivolous contests purely for the
nurnose of excluding counties from
participation in the convention When
we reflect that any sort of false
and frivolous contest may be instituted
and that the effect of 1t Is to bar
the county from the temporary organ
ization of the convention; that enough
of such contests may give a candidate
control of the convention with power
to seat only such delegates as are
favorable to him; and when we know
not only that such things may be
done, but that they have been done
on an immense scale, we cannot be
deceived by the pretense that the con-
vention system Is anything but
ready instrument for defeating the
will of the people.
Under the convention system every
delegate is there to cast the votes OF
hundred Democrats, and for this
reason all the wrongs done In conven-
ton are on large scale. For every
delegate that is false to his trust
hundred Democrats are betrayed. For
every delegate wrongfully seated
hundred Democrats are disfranchised.
1t is notorious fact which no man
will deny that Gov. Patterson OBJ
tanned control of the last convention
by a bargain which involved the de-