Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-03-05
Common Rights and Common
Sense TN the 14bril P1Imary.

~ ENG practical minded people and
tradltonally watchful of their rights
Georgia Democrats are bordering two
matters of especial concern as the day of
their Presidential primary draws near. They
are considering who is best qualified to lead
the party to victory and to power for nation
al service. And they are asking ever more in
sistently, as an issue that comes home to the
very vitals of their citizenship, what the
| State Executive Committee is going to to
ABOUT the rule, promulgated by seven of it's
| members, which denies the voter his right
ful freedom OF choice and makes him a pup
pet IN the hands of political manipulators
These questions are closely related If the
people are to choose for the best interests of
the party and the country, they must be per-
m1tted, first of all, to choose without dicta-
ton or restraint. To say that they shall be
restricted to such candidates as the Seven
Censors may approve is to make the forth
coming primary a travesty upon all that is
truly Democratic. For whose service was
this primary called, the Committees or the
peoples? To whom does it belong, to the
politicians the voters? If the Democrats
of Georgia, charged with declaring their
preference for a Presidential nominee, are
not entitled to vote for whomsoever they
will, regardless of a committees prejudices
and designs, then are they entitled to moth
ing, and the party of their old allegiance
basic principle is here at stake. q finn
damental right which, as we prize liberty and
are loyal to democracy, we dare not leave
unvindicated. That distinguished BAPTIST
minister and ever faithful champion of civic
righteousness, DR.. NJ Ashby Jones' stated
the issue unanswerably when he said in
communication to The Journal 81 never was
very much interested in the discussion of
the question, is Hoover a Democrat. But
am intensely interested in the question which
anY1 frOy 1fc
democratic?" Writing from this wholly i'm
partial viewpoint, DR.. Jones added these,
among many other searching observations:
eff any group of men is given the DOW
er to say whom they will allow the peo-
pie of the party to vote for dem ocracy
is once again delivered into the hands
of oligarchy. The very wellspring of
freedom itself is the right of the indi-
vidual to choose and initiate his own
political impulses. To limit or coerce
this individual right is to poison democ-
racy at it's fountain source. The right
of Mr.. Hoover to be candidate is not
and never has been the issue Neither
Mr.. Hoover nor the people of Georgia
have ever raised that question The is
sue is not the right of any candidate, but
far more sacred and fundamental right
is in controversy, and that is, the right
Of the individual Democrat to vote for
whom he pleases."
Can it be that our friends the Committee
men appalled, at the rising tide of Geor-
gia sentiment for Herbert Hoover, and there
fore are unwilling to trust the people with
a ballot bearing his among other names? If
so, they will do well to take note that the
stanchest and ablest Democrats of the State
are insisting that the people be given this
right, and that some go as far as to contend
that Hoover is the one possibility of the
Democrats carrying the next Presidential
election. Thus the Waycross Journal-Herald
as Loyalty Democratic a paper as ever fought
the good fight, declares its conviction that
Democracy must win with Hoover, if it is
to win at all. If we wish merely to reaffrm
the partys principles and poll the unfailing
vote of the solid South but lose the East and
West and go down in costly albeit honorable
defeat, then, argues our Waycross contempor-
airy, it makes no great difference whom we
nominate; there are any number of deserving
and highly admirable Democrats for whom
the party's own household can vote with
hearty good will. But if we wish to win,
realizing that win we must IN order tnaC we
may duly serve; if we are to carry not only
the solid South, and the traditional Demo-
cratic strongholds of other regions, but the
doubtful States as well and the decisive vote
of the Independents, then, the Journal-Her-
aid reasons, the party must have such a
nominee as Hoover. The same paper (and II
should he noted that it's views are typical OF
those of an ever increasing number) de-
clares that ''the country is tired OF pollt1c1ans
and their Methods" that Hoover represents
inst the combination of great business abll-
ity and great human sympathies that appeal
most keenly to the thoughtful rank and ME-
It recalls the historic fact that as admins
traitor of Belgian relief he handed Iunu
of two hundred and fifty million dollars at
an overhead expense of only one-sixteenth Oh
one per cent, and infers that such genius US
and integrity cannot fail to win the FAVOR Oh
American taxpayers at this critical time
Whether or not one considers hoover tne
NV nractica1 choice or the best one the party
can make. none of open mind will deny that
democratic rules are the only kind when
Democratic committee should employ anu 10
which Democratic Georgians Will submit