Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-04-05

ties in the state"
The preservation of the county unit
system means more the people of
Georgia than Woodrow Wilson or
Roosevelt or Taft.
These may pass and come again,
but this principle is constitutional,
fundamental and essential to the
rights of the people.
No greater usurpation of popular
rights has been made in this genera
ton than the act of the state execu-
tive committee by which the real in
tegrity of the Georgia counties is de-
stroyed and the aristocratic rule of a
plurality is substituted for the Demo
cratic rule of the majority.
The protest against the usurpation
has not died away" and it will not
die away until the last voice of pub
lie opinion has been Numbered into
the ballot box. The more you think
of it, the worse it grows.
This is still a Democracy, and no
oligarchy has yet arisen upon Its
ruins.
IN dozen states of the Union such
a rule as our state committee has or
dered would have been promptly halt
ed by an injunction under the law.
We have no law governing the pri-
| maries in Georgia, and we must there
| fore suffer until we can establish laws
4 hn YNVs;x,, a-in 0r oil fha in do
or the personal composition of the
! committee.
/ Under the long established and
safely working county unit system,
the majority of each county is emit
i tied to cast the vote of that county
] in the general convention of the par
ty. Under this new hybrid expedi-
) ent of the committee, small plural
ity of the general voters may cast the
vote of every county in the state
Under the unit system, Echols coun-
| ty, for IL stance, had its individual
| right and it's individual voice in ev-
/ cry convention.
! Under the committee usurpation.
/ factory district in Fulton may abso-
luteiy shut the mouths CT the ma
jortty of the people of Echols or Mon
roe or Walton or Clarke in the con-
vention.
Under the wholesome rule of the
| unit system the minority always had
its constitutional rights
Under the daring and revolutionary
rule of the committee, the plurality
strangles and buries and obiterates
the minority, in spite of its constitu
tional rights.
We are too old and too great and
] too free in Georgia to permit this
! challenge to liberty to go unanswered
This state executive committee, in
the absence of laws for the presiden
| tial primaries, has provided a ticket
| which is to contain the names of all
those whom the committee chooses to
! regard as candidates for the Demo
| cratic nomination at Baltimore.
! Whichever name on this ticket re-
| ceives the votes-not necessarily of
the majority, but of the plurality Of
| those voting--is ruled by the. COM
| mittee to be the choice of the state.
The friends of this candidate will then
rise up in the arrogant mind of this
mere plurality and dictate to every
county in Georgia not only HOW they
| shall cast that county's vote, but
| WHO shall cast that county's vote in
the general conventioni
If every man in Bibb county saving
| 4A-oz cbo,,fJ ,.oto against aacapdidofo
one-fourth of the people voting in
| Georgia may, under the committee
rule, trampIe upon Bibb's enormous
majority sentiment, and these three
men may meet and elect themselves
| delegates to cast vote in defiance OF
all the other votes in the county !
| And so with any county in the state.
Will the free and independent vot-
, ers of Georgia spend few moments
in silent contemplation OF. this SD
| preme civic audacity
| OF course the state committee is
said.'to be a Wilson committee. That
is not of consequence. OF course.
this Wilson committee hopes by this
ballot to divide up the vote of the
state by tempting the citizen 10 vote
for many names and so divide the
vote cast that Wilson will have a
plurality. OF course this committees
idea is that if there are 100000 votes,
and Wilson can get 2G.o00 votes, or
abou1 one four h, and the other IA
900 votes can be scattered among
Clark and Underwood and harmon
and Bryan, their plurality man. even
if he has only orefourth of the
votes, will win the state!
That is merely trick of politics.
! We could forgive the trick if it af-
fected only the campaign. The per
sonal result does not matter in the
long run. The partisan advantage
can be ignored
But the great fundamental princi-
pie of the RIGHTS OF THE COUN-
TIES. the RIGHTS OF THE MINOR
ITY and the RIGHTS or THE MA
JORITY are absolutely RUN OVER
roughshod and reckless--ald that by
Andrew Jackson's memory. DOES
| MATTER. and it WILL NATTER so
long as there is voice OF protest and
vote to fall for the sancti'y Of the
constitution and the rights of the
people.
So let's get together on this ques-
ton, Citizens of Georgia.
| We may not be able TO hee or to
nersuade the partisan committee to