The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1915-05-08
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BY Charles Brooks Smith
WASHINGTON. D. G.. May s--A
good part of the nextyear's campaign
in West Virginia is going to be tougns
out this year. The reason for this is
the new White state primary law.
Those who have. when gazing contem'
patlvely upon the activities OF certain
ambitious citizens, the more or less
successful attempts to launch stirring
issues and the signs of excitement In
the camps OF the various clans. tnquir'
of whats the hurry" will find the
answer in a perusal of the law afore'
said.
Every individual who has 1t in mind
to try for a certain official goal that
he holds most dear to his future hap
piness and that OF his friends, and who
may be is doing a hesitation over 1t, 10
urged to make q decision when he read
the new primary law. That instru'
ment call for the first general primary
the first Tuesday in June 1916. and 1t
also call for a filing with the secretary
of state, in the case Of a state officers,
announcement OF candidates. sixty
days before the day on which the prl'
mary is to be held. 1t also calls for,
and makes necessary, a good many
other red-tape details to be complied
with quite a while before the historic
date. The whole of which has a ten
dency to shove the preliminaries back
into the mid-winter or, considering all
the organizing (and agonfzing) to be
done by each aspirant, and consider
ing further that bad road, to say moth
mig Of bad weatheS. makes satisfae'
tory campaigning practically impossi
.ible, to start the ball rolling in the
summer preceding a presidential cam
paign. This explains, We think, the
political activity in West Virginia,
most of which is Republican because
within that party most of the contests
are hrooding. However, the apparent
rq%uietude within the Democratic or
g%anization will mislead no cautious
observer. There Is considerable pipe
line laying going on there.
A wouid.bc senator, a would-be gov
ernor, or a would.be anything else has
of course, until the sixtieth day before
the first Tuesday in June, 1916 to say
whether he is a candidate or not. But
the logic of the situation does not
Justify him taking all OF that time for
"due deliberation." 1t warrants him
under all the circumstances. in doing
quite the contrary. Should he wal,
until sixty days before the primary "a
"get in" he Is more than likely to find
that others have beat him to It, that
the army OF willing party workers
have been lined up for some other can
didate and that the other fellows have
directed the currents of public sentl
ment in the party in their direction
He would find too that he couldn't
do much in the way OF effecttng a
statewide organization in a month
that party newspapers had "cllosen
Sides, and that a healthy public sen
timent for him would be a hard thing
to create. 1t might happen. OF course,
once in a decade or over, that out Of
the peculiar events and developments
which go to make up a striktngly
unique situation, a strong magnetic
personality, the symbol of an issue
that stirred the voting public to en-
Iiyening celebration and militant &C
ton, would step forth sixty days be
fore q primary and put 1t over" all
others. 1t might SO happen, but It
isn't very likely to-not often. Such
a ina law as the White law rem
ders dark horses" a drug on the
equine market of politics in West Vtr'
giinia and pretty much everywhere
else where they have a similar law in
operation.
That accounts for the lively scene
shifting and plot.making that Is going
on behind the curtain that separates
an ~expectant public from a view o.
what is happening the other side ol
the footlights. 1t accounts. too. for
the very proper expectation of the au'
dience that the curtain is soon to be
rung up and they will see who Is tc
be cast in the stellar roles OF Roman
senators, governors, scribers. tax col
lectors, c%enturions, shield-bearers.
cha%rioteers, the angry mob" and all
that goes to make up a suffrage festi
val and pageant of this Kind. Before
Iune roses blow some Of the star per
formers will be !" on their turn.
II IL nrettv we'll settled as to Gov