The weekly soliphone., 1915-12-10

The primary election for tho nomination of democratic candi- dates for the various county of fees will be held in Greene county on Wednesday, March 29, 1916, thu time fixed by the state central com mittee for the nomination of can didates for state, congressional, sen atorial and judicial offices. motion, made by Geo. o. Light, t' hold the county primary on thi date, was unanimously passed b! the members of the democratic county central committee at thu meeting held in Paragould Satur day afternoon.
 Several months ago a large mum her of candidates held meeting at the court house and passed { resolution asking the central com mittee to postpone the county pri mary until September, 1916, in or der that the rigors of winter campaign might be avoided It was further argued that a primary held in September, to be followed by the general election in November afforded ample time for cam paign in the event there should develop opposition to the demo- cratic ticket, yet the time was not so long as to keep the county i'll a state of political turmoil to the detriment of other and more vital interests.
 However, no action was ever talk en upon this request by the can didates, and in the meantime most of them became convinced the committee would decide upon the March date and consequently busied themselves making arrangements to conduct winter campaign. In view of this fact no objections were raised at the meeting of the com mittee Saturday when the motion was made to hold the county prl- mary on March 29, at which time alt candidates will be voted upon from governor down.
 The committee passed resolu- ton emphasizing the party declara- ton that none but known demo- crats be permitted to participate in the primary and that every candi- date must file pledge with the secretary of the committee affirm ing his allegiance to the democratic party and stating he will support all the nominees.
 This resolution was adopted in lieu of another resolution that went further and declared that all votes cast by persons who are not known democrats shall not be counted. that such votes shall be- ground for contest, and that in such con test the central committee shall throw out such votes.
 When this resolution, known as Resolution No. 1, was presented, 1t provoked a controversy led by Geo. O Light, committeeman from the third ward of Paragould, who championed Resolution No. that contained no reference to throwing out undemocratic votes or making them the basis of contests. MT Light contended Resolution No. l would cause confusion and might result in useless contests and party discord. He did not believe in re- stricting the ballot to known dem ocrats for the reason that there might be voters now affiliated with other parties who had been so fa- vorably impressed with the record recently made by the democratic party and with the constructive policies enunciated and put into effect by President Wilson that they desired to hereafter be democrats and if Resolution No. 1 passed these men would not be permitted to join the party. He favored those sec tions throwing safeguards around the elections, declaring that none but known democrats should run on a democratic ticket, and that every voter and every candidate