Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-02-06
Why Georgia Democrats Want
4 Presidential Primary.

TH HE request that the State Democratic
Executive Committee provide for a
primary through which the party
voters in Georgia can declare their preference
of candidates for the Presidential nominal
ton. has evoked so substantial and wide
reaching an Endorsement that none can doubt
where the majority of thinking citizens stand
on this vital question.
President Mills, of the Georgia division of
the Farmers Union, expresses a deep-rooted
and fast growing sentiment when he says,
"The choice of a candidate to carry the stand
ard of the Democratic party is too important
to be decided by a caucus; the Democrats of
Georgia are entirely capable of making their
own choice among candidates. and they have
not authorized anybody else to make it for
them To the same purport are the remarks
of Chairman Flynt of the State Executive
Committee who as a leading party counsellor
realizes that it would be both unwise and I'M
fair to deny the rank and file voice in the
selection of their national leader.
This, we trust, will be the judgment of the
Committee as a whole. v 1t is possible, of
course, to conjure up divers objections to a
Presidential primary on grounds of incon-
venience or impracticability. But such con-
siderations will not prevail with men who
are truly solicitous of popular rights and
truly devoted to Democratic principle. 1t Will
be no more impracticable and no more in
convenient to hold a Presidential primary in
1920 than it was to hold a Presidential pri-
mary in 1912. If the people were entitled to
it then, they are entitled to it now; and as
suredIy the gentlemen of the present Execu-
tive Committee are not less resourceful in
providing for such matters than were their
predecessors OF eight years ago.
The Forthcoming campaign is If anything
more momentous than that OF 1917, as is
also the Individual citizens stake in its out
come Whether Democracy is to win or lose
in the national contest wild depend chiefly up
on the character of it's candidate; and wheth-
er America is to go prosperously or DOUBT
fulIv forward will depend largely upon the
character of her next President. Realizing
this the majority of voters grow more ana
more concerned as the months move on TO-
ward the date of the nominating convention.
They grow more and more interested IN the
several candidates who if not yet actually IN
the field are conspicuously on the horizon
The whole situation will continue to wax IN
interest and in responsibility until the aIerC
citizen would more consent TO give up HIS
right to vote for his choice among pre-con-
vention candidates than his right TO vote Ior
the Presidential electors themselves. ana III
truth he could no more afford to lose the one
than the other.
II is not to be wondered, then, that as the
season advances the observant Democrats or
Georgia are anxious that their well estap-
Iished nrerogative in the matter OF a Presl-
DENTAL urinary be definitely YouchsaIed III
this peculiarly important year Ihey looh u
the State Executive Committee to. MAKE tlllie-
lv nroyision to that end; and the Cohlllllt-
fee. if it has the will, can ind the way