The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-26
PROBE THE NORFOLK SCANDAL.

ne sOs DlcioA cast Itoii the AeSoAs Va 'AiG AN~
primary in the Second Congressional District at
fords what ought to prove golden opportunity
for the fsurging of alleged political conditions +
which have for long while been a reproach to +
Democrats The Norfolk District" has, accord !
ing TO popular belief, given an example i'll the !
State of political method which Is as disgrace |
full as it has seemed to be permanently entTench-
ed According TO popular opinion and common
rumor, there has grown up IN aud around Nor
folk sort of machine politics within the party
that has looked TO results while careless OF any
thing except the immediate effect OF office. Now,
after heated primary between Democrats, de-
layed returns, charges and countercharges OF
fraud suspicious revision of votes raise smoke
which presupposes fire.
In this situation which is necessarily humil-
iating to the party, the suggestion of the Norfolk
Nirginian-Pilot that the recent primary be de-
clared null and void and new vote be taken
under strict regulations shows the seriousness of
affairs. 1t signifies that surface indications of
political fraud and chicane are sufficient to make
good Democrats dubious of the way in which
Democratic Office is disposed in that district.
1t shows that the time haseome when the methods
in vogue should be probed Norfolk politics
looks to be sore. 1t needs, at the hands of the
majority of non-pohtical Democrats thorough
lancing to let its vitiated blood
The suggestion of the VirgnianPilot of new
primary is, however, in opinion premature.
1t would be justified only in it be shown
that both sides IN the primary already held have
been guilty of dishonest practice, IT II be
shown that the facts such as to cast unavod-
able doubt and suspicion upon the majority of
Mr.. Dung who upon the face OF the returns
was nominated. In either of these events the
only way in which the honor of the party could
be upheld would be by another primary, strict
" safeguarded against repetition of actions
tending to discredit the first. But before the
cali of primary, there ought to be thorough in
yestigation by the Executive Committee into all
and sundry the charges brought by either party
to the recent contest against the other. No mat
ter what labor it involves, no matter how much
time ii takes the situation should be opened
to the light. If, after such investigation, it
should appear that either party or his partisans
are guilty Of fraud sufficient to entita the other
to the certificate of election the certificate should
be given where it belongs, 10 the person entitled
to receive it. Only unless the charges of both
sides shall appear to be SO wellfounded as to make
it impossible to say anything except that the
primary was so vtiated with fraud as to leave its
to the unusual and expensive expedient of a
second primary.
If however fraud should be established. the
committee ought not to stop with the bestowal
of the certificate of nomination. In that event
il will owe the duty to the people of the District
and 10 the party in the State at large to prosecute
to the extent of the law the persons guilty of the
fraud, whether these persons be guilty in the
interest of the one party or the other. The
honor of the party having been called into ques-
lion, ii Is the duty of the party authority to
prosecute TO the limit of the law all those at
whose hands dishonor may have come
If out of party primary it shall develop
that the suspicion of political methods in the
Second District is substantated by the facts, it
viii be for the good of the party that the facts
be disclosed without mercy Political rotten
ness in any party inevitably spells disaster in
one way or another The salvation of such
situation is dependent upon the decision of the
party itself to cure itself of the cancer of dis
! honestly within It's own body.
II the scandal about to break in the Second
@ District shall result in placing the party above
\ suspicion, it will, for all its uginess, turn out
to have been blessing. The question Of who
y gets the primary certificate is a secondary mat
ter. It ought under no circumstances to be given
TO any one in whose possession it would hold
faint.
re the investigation result in showing that
there are no grounds for the charges of fraud
q which have been brought against it, the party
viii be the better for their refutation; if it dis
close that the charges of corruption are well
founded, 1t will serve to cure q sickness that,
poon or late, must otherwise prove fatal.