The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1912-04-11

obNh LIS HcNAbc ~ $50 F-~-d-t''s
the people Of any Of the smaller coun.
ties in the state"
The preservation of the county unit
system means more the people OF
Georgia than Woodrow Wilson or
Champ Clark or Oscar Underwood OF
Roosevelt or Taft.
These may pass and come again,
but this principle is constitutional
fundamental and essential to the
rights Of the people.
Mo 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 aristocratie 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 Democracy, and no
oligarchy has yet arisen upon It's
ruins.
In dozen states of the Union such
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
for the primaries or alter the minds
or the personal composition Of the
committee.
Under the long established and
safely working county unit system,
the majority Of each county is entt-
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 cou1.
ty, for instance, had its individual
right and its individual voice in ev.
cry convention.
Under the committee usurpation, q
factory district in Fulton may abso-
luteIy shut the mouths Of the ma
iority Of the people Of Echols or Mon
roe or Walton or Clarke In the con.
ventlon.
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 obliterates
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 ticket
which is to contain the names Of all
those whom the committee chooses II
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 o.
those voting-is ruled by the com
mittee to be the choice OF the state
The friends Of this candidate will ther
rise up in the arrogant mind Of thiG
mere plurality and dictate to ever
county in Georgia not only HOW theJ
shall cast that county's vote bu
WHO shall cast that county's vote Il
the general convention!
If every man in Bibb county saving
three should vote against candidate
one-fourth Of the people voting II
Georgia may, under the COMMITTEES
rule, trample upon Bibb's enormous
majority sentiment, and these three
men may meet and elect themselves
delegates to cast a vote In defiance o
all the other votes in the county
And so with any county in the state
VIII the free and independent vot
ers OF Georgia spend few moments
in silent contemplation Of this 81
preme civic audacity!
Of course the state committee il
said to be a Wilson committee. Tha
is not of consequence. OF course
this Wilson committee hopes by thi
ballot to divide up the vote Of tn,
state by tempting the citizen to yoti
for many names and so divide TIL
vote cast that Wilson will have |
plurality. Of course this committee
idea Is that If there are 100000 votes
and Wilson can get $4,000 votes. O.
about one-fourth, and the other "a
600 votes can be scattered among
Clark and Underwood and Harmon
and Bryan, their plurality man, eveI
If he has only one-fourth Of thu
votes, will win the state!
That is merely a trick Of politics
We could forgive the trick II 1t al
fected only the campaign. The per
sonal result does not matter in th'
long run. The partisan sdvantag,
can be ignored.
But the great fundamental prinei
pie Of the RIGHTS OF THE C0UN
TIES. the RIGHTS OF THE MINOR
TT,Y and the RIGHTS OF THE MA
JORITY are absolutely RUN 0VEF
roughshod and reekless-and that, b!
Andrew Jackson's memory, DOES
MATTER, and it WILL MATTER 81
long as there is a voice Of protest ant
,gota fo fall for the sanetitv of Ii,