The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1913-12-19
Presidential Primary.


President Wilson's message to Con
gress recommending primary elections
throughout the country for the selec
ton Of party nominees for President o
the United States without the interven
ton Of nominating conventions.
The Houston Post produces statistics
and the Commercial Appeal makes
much ado about nothing over the mat
ter.
Both Of these papers have knowingly
or unwittingly brought this question
into confusion with the electoral col.
lege and undertook TO show that il is 40
effort to. dismantle the South Of much
OF her power and prestige. The Com
mercial Appeal says:
The Constitutions OF the United States
provides how Presidents shall be elected.
IL provides for the electoral college. and
that method cannot be changed unless
the Constitution Is altered /"
President Wilson is simply following
the declaration made in the Democratic
platform by the Baltimore convention.
Neither he nor the platform committee
have ever suggested that there should
be change ID the electoral college.
Primaries are recommended only to
secure a direct vote upon the selection
OF party nominees for President with
out the interye ntion OF nominating CON
yentions.
This in nowise interieres with the
electoral college. 1t neither withholds
the right nor makes suggestion that
parties should abandon the practice Of
selecting their electors either by con-
yention or primary. II we are allowed
to suggest the President might have
added that the various Congressional
Districts also select their electors by
primary election. But the President
does not refer to this matter at all.
Moreover he does not connect it with
party primaries. The electoral college
has only to do with the general cleo
y tons. and the primary he recommends
does not affect them at all.
The Commercial Appeal evidently
does not intend b reflect upon the COM
mon sense OF the platform committee
at the Baltimore convention. Certainly
that paper is not in earnest in trying to
make President Wilson appear as
clown.
The Commercial Appeal. we fear, is
not 50 much concerned about the cleo
toral college as il is about the conven-
vention system. That paper is inter-
ested in the perpetuity Of practice so
corrupt and disreputable in Tennessee
that every decent voter avoids it like
pestilence.
SAYS the c. A.: Instead OF having
two parties in the South we have two
factions. Aye, there's the rub, and
thereby hangs tale" II is the ex-
istence OF these very factions which
has made the convention system so dis
reputable. The factions have simply
resorted TO every conceivable subterfuge
to control Intrigue aud bribery are
the common tools OF these factions.
We have certainly had fair sample
of il in Tennessee. President Wilson
knows what this is aud he is not, as the
Commercial Appeal thinks, making q
blind effort to overcome il.
To make the assertion that every
Democratic voter in the South is en-
titled to ten votes to one for the voter
in the New England States is absurd.
There is no Democracy in this. Il Is
not even Americanism. There IS moth
ing whatever in President Wilson s plan
to weaken the solid South. After the
primary election the party win go to
the polls in the general election as sol
idly as ever and little more 80 Il a
chance Is given the voter 70 get an un-
trananae,ea voice ii tho selection Of a
candidates
The Commercial Appeal. like some
others we know. wants an organization,
but halts at real Democracy. Il wants
platform simply for convention puF-
poses, to be laid aside when il comes to
practice or to business.
The Commercial Appeal wants to see
the same old county Or State conyen-
ion where the leader arises with al the
nnction and dignity q . prelase and
with much virtue and great deliberation
Voice little lowered with suppressed
tension) offer the resolution be sends