The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-01-08
AN HONEST PRIMARY.
How to Get It.-SuggestiOns From a
Legislator of Experience.

The reader of these lines, If he is
one of the thousands who have help
ed manage any of our primary elec-
tions, can write a better set of regu-
lations than we now have.
The great problem has been not
what to do, but to get anything done.
Why Convention Does Not Act.
We have depended on party con-
ventions. Time after time the con-
vention has sidetracked proposed re-
forms. If you have ever been to
State convention you know why. 1t
in an unwieldy crowd of men who
rush through a lot of business in a
few hours. They get to considera-
ton of the report of the committee
on rules late in the program, some
times it is near midnight. There is
no time to deliberate and rather than
adopt changes they do not under
stand the convention does nothing.
Even should the session be extend
ed to two days, and the second given
to the rules, there could be no thor
ough consideration. Delegates twice
as numerous as the whole legislature,
unorganized, split into warning fac
tions, many of the individuals candi-
dates in an impending primary can
not be expected to give the calm,
fair, non-partisan attention and de-
cision without which there could be
no satisfactory change in our primary
system
We are not guessing at possibili-
ties, but facing established condi-
tions in our conventions.
Something Stronger Than Rules.
But suppose for a minute that we
could eliminate factionalism for once
and hold the convention in session
long enough for careful deliberation,
We would then get only party rules
and not State laws. We protect our
hogs by laws, shall we trust the BIRTH
! right of our suffrage to a party rule?
When our people go to the ballot
| box there is set in motion one of the
| mightiest forces that ever move them.
Deep convictions are stirred, strong
prejudices aroused, with passions
lccsed. Along with the many moved
by high motives march the deter
| mined band of avaricious seekers for
personal advantage, and those lust
ing for power. Here if anywhere in
the life of our people the strong arm
| of the law is needed to protect us
from the forces of evil, in the ex-
ercise of the most sacred and funda-
mental act of citizenship.
At the hands of the legislature we
can get redress 1t can build bull
Vark to protect our ballot, bulwark
buttressed by the law and backed by
all the forces of our government.
Even in States where the primary
! nomination is not equivalent to
an election they control every
detail of their primary elec-
tions by laws. How much more
necessary are legal safeguards with
US where the primary is everything.
Our legislature has felt the neces-
sity of primary protecting statutes
and has enacted some. But they are
scattering, and apply only here and
there leaving such wide spaces. un'
protected that they amount to little
or nothing. BY passing them we
have admitted the principles of statu-
tory regulation, but by stopping with
only beginning accomplished our
efforts have been futile.
Now Is the Time to Act.
1t only remains for you, the read
ers of this article, and the rest of
the rank and file of the party, to say
to our representatives now about
to assemble, Give us a simple, plain,
strong law to protect our primary
without taking away the ballot from
any honest Democrat. Now is the
time to strike. All the members OF
the legislature want is the word from
you. They can work out the details
! in their forty day session. But it is
up to you to insist that they act.
Interested men may try to have them
postpone again as they have in the
past. You must look after your
rights or they will be lost by default.
ErTcJ ATOp