The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-04-08
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
EDITOR LATHAM WOULD
MANACLE .'THs CLANS" "

see any good argument against
the abolishing of the county to|
county canvas he is perslstently
urging, except that which he
himself puts forward, or which
is endorsed by some newspapers
that would create a sensation
did they advance an idea of their
own. Of course, according to
The News and Courier it is an
s'ofence to decency" to continue
the county to county method of
candidates making known their
views on public questions, ex-
cept through the newspapers,
but more especially IS it an
s:offence to decency" when indi-
viduals advocated by The News
and Courier, and its allies fail to
impress themselves upon the
masses sufficiently to win their
confidence and votes.
The News and Courier has not
been able to see in any of the
editorials in opposition to it's
suggestion, where the merits of
the question has been touched
upon, but on the contrary it
seems to have found in the ar
gument an attempt "to raise the
class cry and make the impress
sion that in some unexplained
way the county. .to-county meet
ings help the poor man." We
do not recall making such a
suggestion, and must think our
friend has been eating soft shell
crabs at night which brought on
a nightmare, however, the sug-
gestion is not so bad especially,
when it is considered it comes
from the presiding genius of
Charleston's morning daily,
more often wrong than right.
The county-to county meetings
do help the poor man; it is from
them he gets his information on
questions of public moment. it IS
from them he is given an oppor-
tunity to see the candidates,
form his own opinion of the
character of the candidate, just
as the editor would prefer to see
and form an opinion of an appli,
can't for a position on his news
paper.
The average poor man is not
able nor is he inclined to go to
some central point in a congress
s:onal district to hear candidates
speak, nor has he the time to
read all Of the speeches as they
have been presented by certain
newspapers in the pastfew years
in the first place, the reports
of the speeches are so biased
by partisanship. he has very
little confidence in their accura-
cy therefore he prefers tosee and
hear for himself, and the only
practical way for him to do so,
is to continue the custom which
was good enough the past two,
four, six, ten or twenty years,
good enough to elect an Ansel
or a Hayward; if the system was
not an "ofence todecency" then,
it certainly is not now.
Too much stress cannot be
laid on the Importance of the
people turning out to their re-
spective club meetings on the
25th Of this month, every citizen
of voting age should feel it his
duty to be present, and to see to
it, the delegates chosen to the
county convention are only such
as represent the sentiment of
the majority membership of the
club. It will not do at this time
to permit any gumshoepractices,
as was the case two years ago,
there is much at stake, the vi
tai issue being whether or not
the party control shall go into
the hands of those who favor
abolishing the custom Of giving
the masses an opportunity to see
and hear the candidates for
State and congressional Offices.
It is our opinion, If these people
who favor The News and Cour-
ier's scheme secure control. ad-
vantage will be taken Of such
control to adopt regulations
which will deprive thousands of
the privileges they now enjoy.
An effort was made at the last
session of the Legislature to re-
strict the primary but it failed,