The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-06-21
SOME POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS
Correspondent Discusses Abolition
OF County to County Campaign,
PrOspOsed Senatorial Primary and
Bryan.
To the Editor OF The Item:


Inc suggestion made at the recent
meeting of the State Press associa-
ton by President Kohn that the news
papers work in favor of abolishing
the present county-to- county cam
paign OF candidates for State Offices
is a timely one. The newspapers of
the state can exert their influence to
bring about this change and if the
old form Of campaign is abolished,
they will have done good service
to the State. Every two years. the
people of South Carolina are subject
ed to the lengthy campaign of nu-
/ merous candidates who travel over
every county in the State and hold
| tresome meetings at every county
seat. Occasionally, the meetings are
| made interesting by the injection of
not language and sometimes even
hSticuffs occur, but these exceptions
are to the discredit of the State and
not TO be condoned by the citizenry.
or should not be. In nearly every
| case, the candidates have set speech
| es which they deliver from day to
day. These speeches could be great
| iy reduced in length and the plat
| forms published in the leading daily
! papers of the State, or if a candidate
desires in each leading county pa
per. In this way the voters would
| be reached and the views Of the can
| didates received and considered in a
much more satisfactory and beneficial
! manner Some years ago, the lead
| ing dailies undertook to publish de-
| tailed accounts Of each campaign
| meeting. but today only brief mention
is made Of these meetings after the
views Of the candidates are given for
| the first day or so Of the meetings
| The attendance at these meetings has
| decreased each year and today we
find only mere handful Of people at
! the majority Of the places, and many
| of these are not voters often. 1t is
very evident that interest is declin-
ing In this caunty-to-county campaign
| system. The campaign as 1t is now
| conducted Is expensive and wearying
to the candidates, for it is naturally
most arduous campaign coming as
| it does in mid summer. There can
| ,1n hltt hot
candidates would be glad to escape
! the long campaign. Few, | believe.
| will undertake it if it was understood
that their opponents were not to ap-
pear at every meeting. 1t might be
suggested for the benefit Of those who
! do attend these campaign meetings
that few Of the most central points
| of each section of the State could be
selected for campaign meetings. Then
the voters who are anxious to see and
hear the candidates might go to these
| places and have their wishes fulfilled.
would suggest the following points
for campaign meetings that would be
centrally located in the different sec
tions of the State Anderson. Spar
tanburg, Columbia. Florence, Orange
burg. Charleston. and Aiken. These
| places may not be we'll selected but
1t serves to show how the different
| parts OF the State could be given
| campaign meetings. These eight
meetings would be much better than
forty-three and could be over within
almost one week. The daily papers
would probably publish full accounts
OF these few meetings and the voters
generally would get the views of the
respective candidates. while the can
didates might be satisfied with these
accounts and not go to the expense
| OF publishing so many platforms.
Many objections would no doubt be
! brought forward as to changing the
present campaign system, but it
should be readily seen that a change
would hc greatly beneficial TO all con-
cerned.
The Columbia Daily Record has
stirred mp the press quite consider
ably by its suggestion of a primary
for the selection of candidates for
president ard Nice-prcsident. The
idea is a good one in many ways. 1t
is certainly democratic in giving the
|