Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-05-11
A0THIN6 BUT DEFECTS.


Quoting the primary. Such a provision
is prohibitive tax upon the aspirations
of many good men and necessarily lin
its the field to those who can write |
their checks for the amount of assess
ment and can afford to do this. The
State primary is sort of political lot |
terry in which the tickets come high. |
The man who wins can very well afford
the cost but the man who loses will |
have paid dearly for his aspirations. -
Danville Register.
THE greatest defect of the plan is
that 1t Is party plan instead of care
fully drawn law of the State requiring
nominations for all public offices to fol-
low its provisions and placing the ex-
pense in fair proportion on the State
and local treasures. The Registers re-
marks are called forth by report that
the assessment against the Senatorial
candidates will be very high this year,
conJecturally amounting to twenty-five
hundred dollars on each of the four as
pirants. This is heavy tax on an indi-
vidual for the privilege of offering him
self for the endorsement of his party to
an official position but the total cost of
conducting the primary polls throughout
the State would be a mere bagetelle to
the taxpayers, about two-fifths of a
cent apiece to the eligible voters in Vir-
glnla- If the people are sufficiently in
terested in the outcome of regular cleo
tions to be saddled with their cost. phv
should their relation be different to the
primary elections which under existing
conditions, actually determine to whom
the offices shall go?"-Norfolk Virgin
ian-Pilot.
New Jersey has much to its credit in
expressing in its statutory laws the
broader and more intelligent view of
public needs. A quarter of a century
ago New Jersey led the way for the
scientific construction of better roads on
broad and comprehensive basis Today
1t is in advance of the other states in
the matter of direct primaries. 1t has
shown that it has no tolerance of the
view that political party is a volun-
tary organization and private associa-
ton of citizens, whose organization.
methods and purposes are of no concern
to anyone but themselves; but that
political party is a part of the machinery
of government, and under the control of
the whole people. By the passage of
the Geran Bill, extending the applica-
ton of the direct primary, which was
already in practice, in a limited form in
that State, it provides that the men,
bers of the election boards, who have
charge in each district of the register
ing and polling of voters, must be Sc
lected from such party members as have
passed civil service examination; that
their selection shall be under the SUPER
vision of the judges of the courts of
common pleas, and that it shall be by
lot; that in case of vacancies in these
boards, or for noncompliance with the
law, the places shall be filled through
appointment by the judges; that in Pres
identlal elections there shall be an an
proach to the direct primary through a
provision for the election of delegates
committed to specific candidates for the
presidency; that there shall be an ap-
proach to the direct election of United
States senators by requiring each can
didate for the legislature to say whether
he will or will not vote for the man who
is nominated for the United States SEN
atorship at his party's primaries; that
all State officials, including the cover
nor, shall be nominated by direct pri-
maries; that the State committees of |
the parties shall be chosen by the men,
bers of the parties in primaries; that
the party convention shall consist of the
party's principal candidates, and, in a
year when q governor or when senator's
are not to be elected, that the then
incumbents shall be members of the
convention of their own party; that
voters may be enrolled as members of
one party or the other (provision ap-
parently being made only for Republi-
can or Democratic enroIlment); that no
voter can change from one party to an
other without the Intervention of a gen.
eral election; that the ballot in use in
the primaries shall accord with certain
specified provisions, and that in cleo
tons the ballot shall be blanket ballot {
containing the names of the candidates I
a alphabetical order, each name being {
printed but once, but being accompanied 4