Middletown transcript., 1914-08-29
STATE CONVENTION


nesday of next week, the delegates
being elected today. There are no con-
tests in this county, except the one in
the Eleventh Ward of the City Of Will
mington, and this only affects one del
epate. So the personnel of the New
Castle County delegation is practically
known. The claim or charge has been
made in the Sussex Republican and
taken up by the Democratic organs that
this delegation consists largely OF ofhce-
holders. We are not familiar with the
men composing the City's delegation
but of the % from the Second District
onlv nine are office holders and those
are with the exception of the Sheriff,
clerks and other personal appointees OF
other officers. Therefore, the insinu-
alton intended to be made that delegates
from this county will be controlled by
the so-caIled organization has no basis
of truth.
The only nominations to be made are
for Representative in Congress, State
Treasurer and State Auditor. The
principal business of the convention
will be the adoption of the platform
and declaration of principles. AS to
the national questions there can be no
doubt of the position the party should
and will take. The many things that
the Democrats have done that should
not have been done, and the many things
left undone that should have been done,
open a wide field for planks in the plat
form.
But, as this is largely state election,
it seems to us that there are few
things affecting the state and counties
that should be the basis for planks.
Two of these seem to US of great i'm
portance. First, change in the Prim-
ary Election Law, to save the enormous
expense in time, money and labor in
volved in our present law. We have
seen last Saturday the Democrats hold
ing a Primary to choose delegates for
State Convention to re-nominate the
ticket that won two years ago, as a
result of a divided Republican Party.
In this county, they had one contest,
. and yet many thousands of tickets were
printed and distributed. The Republi-
cans have been little more economical,
their tickets being limited to less than
1900. But at both these Primaries, a
full set of election officers had to sit IN
from 65 to rs districts. and all the form
and paraphernalia of a general election
gone through with. And it must be
remembered that there are two more
primaries yet to be held. The total
expense of these four primaries will
largely exceed $1,000. Our suggestion
is that one primary be held for all par
ties, following the plan in successful
operation in Maryland and other stakls.
A saving of more than $4,000, enough to
build a half mile of good stone road
could be effected, and much labor saved
to everybody interested.
The second thought we have about
the platform is to amend lhe Regis
tration Law, doing away with two OF
the five days on which voters can be
registered and to hold the registration
offices open until at least nine o'clock at
night. There are in this county 149
registration places, each named by
three officers at $5, each per day. Rent
of the places, amounts to another S..
Thus the actual daily expense of each
place is $40. Multiply this by the two
days that could be saved, and then by
the 149 places makes approximately
$4,000 that could be saved every two
years, or another mile of good roads.
And no one familiar with the subject
can doubt that all the voters can be
registered in three days as well as in
five. We have always believed and
have often called attention to the fact,
that it is rather foolish to have gen
eral registration every two years. There
are plenty Of men living in Middletown
today, that have registered this year
from the same house that they regis
tered from the first year we had reg
istration If we could have our way,
we would only have a scrap registration
every two years, with right in the
Board to strike off and add to the list
subject, Of course to an appeal in either
event to the Court as At present But
we have been told this would require a
constitutional amendment Well, the