Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1912-03-28
Challenge Not Accepted.
Governor Wilson Stands for Presiden-
tial Primary, but the Other Candi-
oates are Silent.

Washington, d. G., March Special
Only Woodrow Wilson among the DEM
ocratic aspirants for the Presidency has
endorsed the presidential preference
primary. syetneither Speaker Clark
Gov. Harmon, Chairman Underwood,
or any of the others except Gov. Will
son has suggested that the nomination
be left to the will of the Democratic
voters. The challenge issued by Mr..
w. F. McCombs of the Wilson cam
paign managers for presidential pri-
mary has not been taken up by any of
Wilson'S opponents. Neither Clark
nor Harmon nor Underwood is on rec
ord in favor of the election and instruc-
ton of delegates to the national con-
vention by a vote of the party voters.
+ On the other hand, Gov. Wilson is
plain spoken in advocacy of the presi-
Dental primary. He believes in the d.
rect primary as the cure for the evils
of bossism and machine politics and he
believes that 1T shouldf govern the nom
nation of all candidates for Office from
President down to constable.
That this advocacy of presidential
primary is not new thing engendered
by Gov. Wilson's present nation wide
popularityaands taken up as q sure means
to. get the nomination, is proved by the
| fact that it was feature of the first
legislative fight Gov. Wilson undertook
after he became Governor of New Jer-
sey. Since Gov. Wilson is the only
Democratic candidate WHO'S candidate
in every State of the Union, and since
he is opposed by field that has qiyid-
ed the States in sections and are allied
against him, his friends naturally be-
lieve that a primary would nominate
him. His eneuies believe the same
thing, that is why they are not for the
primary, and thatis why no reply has
been received to the McGombs challenge.
But no such motive ofexpediency can
be assigned as explaining Gov. Wilson'S
attitude. When he was elected Gov
ernor and the legislature convened, his
first fight was. to persuade the legisla-
ture to respect the will Of the party
voters who had nominated James E..
MARITIME for Senator in a direct pri-
mary James Smith, Jr,. the old-time
boss whom President Cleveland had
connected with the perfdy and dishonor
of the emasculation of the Wilson Tar
if Bill, wanted to set aside the primary
and come back to the Senate. Gov.
Wilson stood for the primary and won.
The next thing he did was to get a
bill introduced to change the election
laws and to provide for direct primaries
for every officer from President down
to constable. The machine leaders told
him they wouldn't let it pass, and a
Democratic conference was called to
vote the bill down. The bosses had the
votes to do it, too. That is, they had
them when the conference was called.
i Gov. Wilson got himself invited to the
conference. He made a three hour
speech in favor Of the direct primary
bill. When he had finished, the cou-
ference that had met to vote the bill
down voted it up as party measure
and carried it on to victory. The peo-
pile and not the bosses, therefore. will
i instruct delegates in New Jersey this
Eyear. 1t was an effective speech and
it showed not only the power of Gov.
Wilson'S logical eloquence, but also il
showed how deep is his faith in the peo-
pie. how firm is his conviction that nom
nations ought to be made by the yot.
ers in primaries. and not left to coteries
of bosses and machine leaders working
behind closed doors, even when they
work according to ''the rules of the
i game =