Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-01

| carolina. For the last n1teen or tWen-
ty years the practice of candidates for
president of the United States and
other candidates for public Office out
side of South Carolina has been to de-
| liver half dozen or a dozen speeches
from the platform of a railroad car In
day. Mr.. Roosevelt or Governor Will
son travels through a state up and
| down and criss-cross in two or three
| days, addressing, in the aggregate, q
hundred thousand persons. Since the
introduction of the motor-car 1t is
common for campaigner to fulfill
| eight or ten engagements In as many
| towns In day.
In South Carolina we stick to the
ancient method-joint debates in for
ty-four counties, one day to each meet
ing, extending through the long period
of midsummer high temperatures. A
candidate for governor spends eight
hours at meeting in order to get a
thirty minute hearing from a crowd
that is often already jaded to the point
Of exhaustion. That same candidate in
a fortnight could make his own tour
Of the state and address an equal num-
Der of people-provided, Of course, that
he was candidate in whom the people
were interested.
Our political meetings in this state
have long ago degenerated into mud
| Singing contests. They were given
that characteristic in 1890 and they
have not lost 1t. A man who has been
held in esteem and looked upon as an
upright, respectable person appears at
joint meeting and in an hour a large
part of the people suddenly discover,
through the accusations Of his oppo-
| nent, that he Is a miserable wretch
| whose whole life has been devoted to
reasonable or disgraceful practices.
The only thing that can be said in
| favor of our South Carolina scheme Is
that 1t furnishes entertainment for
lovers of vulgarity. Two years hence
there will be candidates in South Car
olina, or should be, who have the
| courage and the originality to. make
their campaigns in their own way. &.
There Is now no party law requiring
candidates to appear at the joint de-
bates. The party constitution provides
| tional whether the candidate address
them or meetings of his own.-Colum-
bia State.
That Is a correct appreciation of a
lesson that has been learned thorough
ly, and the only thing remaining is the
coming Of candidates big enough and
broad enough and confident enough to
make practical application.
| In this state, we are all supposed to
be Democrats. The supposition is a
little violent, maybe; but there are
very few voters who are willing to be
called anything else And If all the
people are Democrats there is some
thing out of joint in the idea Of as
sembling in one big crowd at a given
place to be addressed by bitterly op-
posing partisans.
Take the experience of the past sum-
mer for instance. While there was
plenty of effort to deny it then, we do
not think that anybody will deny now
that Governor Blease had a majority
of the crowd at almost every meeting.
In many cases the majority was al
most as much as thirds. And in
nearly every case the partisans Of the
respective candidates were so dead set
in their views that they were un-
changeable.
1t seems to us that it would be best
for all concerned, If it would be agreed
hereafter that every candidate can
hold his own meetings. Where two,
three, four or more candidates for diff
ferent offices prefer to campaign to-
gether let them do it. OF course there
is much that can be said against such
an arrangement; but the eventual re-
| suit will be to eradicate much Of the
confusion that now exists in the poll
| tics of the state.
One thing that appeals to us as the
strongest objection that can be urged
| against the present system is the alb
surdity of asking people to come into
mixed crowd to listen to men to
| whom they are diametrically opposed
politically, and expecting everybody to
| allow their toes trampled on without
| uttering a word Of protest.
OF course, even with this arrange
ment, there need be nothing to pre-
vent so called joint debates as now,
| when the same shall be desired by the
candidates or the people.