The north Mississippi herald., 1919-04-11
CANDIDATES MUST
MUST FILE DECLA-
RATION BY MAY |
Mississippi's Assistant Attor-
ney-General Renders Opin-
ion-Duty of County Execu-
tive Committees to Announce
D e cision to Prospective
Candidate at Once, Gen.
Floyd Writes.

JACKSON, Miss, April 5.-A
most important and significant Off
cial opinion to the Lauderdale Coun-
ty Democratic executive committee,
rendered from the office of the at
torney-g -genral on Saturday, discloses
an apparent conflict in the laws per-
tanning to the time which the names
of candidates to be voted for in party
primary elections are to be in the
hands of the executive committee of
the party to which candidates main
tain allegiance, prior to the date of
primary. This conflict is obvious as
between the Mississippi code of 1906,
which declares that such names shall
be in the hands of the proper execu-
tive committee Is days before the
election in which the names are to be
voted on, and chapter 1S4 of the laws
of 1918, known as the absent sol
diers' voting act.
This later statute, in section 2, p.
204, declares that:
"The chairman of the county
executive committee shall give notice
through some newspaper published
in the county, in some issue publish
ed at least two weeks prior to and
within five weeks prior to the first
Monday in May of the year in which
any primary election is held, that all
prospective candidates to be voted
for by the electors in that county
shall mail or file written notice with
the chairman of said executive com
mittee on or before the first Monday
in May his intention to be candidate
and for what office"
According to the construction of
the two provisions of the law, taken
together after careful study by AS
sistant Attorney-General Floyd, z
sharp conflict is here presented
"The act of 1918 contains no re-
pealing clause.
THAT repeals by implication are
not favored by the courts, but at the
same time it is equally well estab-
lished that statutes must be given
such construction as not to make
them vain, meaningless or inconsist-
ent."
After citing decision of the state
supreme court Mckenzie VS.. Roykyn,
II Southern 282, Ill Miss. 256,
bearing on this point, Gen. Floyd con-
cludes:
81 confess that your inquiry pre-
sents a rather difficult problem and
one that is, perhaps, not free from
doubt, but, viewing the purpose and
express provisions of chapter 1874,
laws of 1918, and especially section
2 thereof as set out above, / am
impressed with the fact that the
Legislature intended to preserve the
uniformity of our primary laws in
respect to the time required of can
didates to get their names on the
ballot and that it is the duty of the
county executive committee to give
notice by publication at once that
all candidates must have their names
filed with your committee on or be-
fore the first Monday of May, as pro-
vided by the said act"
This construction of the laws in
plain terms, is likely to create con-
siderable confusion and cause a gen
eral rush of prospective candidates
to get in the swimming pool while
the water is good. For the next
week or so political advertising space
may have to sustain considerable
rush, and all contests will manifest
themselves clearly and emphatically.