Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-13
Is the Sub Committee Seeing
The Light OF Real Democracy?


" HE subcommittee of the State Demo-
cratic Executive Committee, after
proceeding thus far upon the modest
assumption that whatsoever things it binds
in its own intimate circle shall be bound
upon the Conventions rank and file and that
whatsoever things it 1ooses for it's own good
pleasure shall be adjudged irrevocably I'M
done, has taken at least one sober second
thought. 1t has decided to call the full COM
mittee into session on May Is, two days
before the Convention, presumably to con-
slider certain issues over which the subsection
hitherto has claimed complete and unshak-
able Jurisdiction. Can it be that the authors
of Rule Ten are growing skittish of the task
enforcing, or trying to enforce, arbitrary reg
ulations and minority verdicts upon a sover-
eign body of Georgia Democrats? Let us hope,
for the sake of good humor and good sense,
that this is indeed the case, and that the full
Committee will give it's troubled subsection
that frank and Christening kind of advice of
which the sage of old declared, Faithful are
the wounds of friend"
Certainly this Committee including keen
and distinguished lawyers, not to say veteran
and wary politicians knows that neither in
it's entirety nor through a special group has
it power to control the forthcoming Conven-
ton or right to usurp any of the Conventions
functions. The Committees business at this
Juncture is to make up temporary roll of
the Convention as fairly as it can upon the
face of the primary returns and to file a list
of the contests which have come to it's notice.
There it's authority ends. For it to presume
to make up the Conventions permanent roll,
or to decide pending contests or to prescribe
the rules by which the Convention shall set
tie differences and reach conclusions is alb
surdly audacious.
None can know better than the committee
that as matters now stand it is uncertain
Wheeler Mr.. Palmer or Mr.. Watson has the
plurality of county unit votes; for in the case
of number Of counties, involving in all some
twenty-six unit votes, there are cOntesting del
egations for seats in the Convention, and not
until those issues are adjudicated can the per-
manent Convention roll be written and the
act status of the candidates be determined.
One faction may assume that to Mr.. Palmer
belong the contested counties on which the
outcome depends; another faction may
sumo just confidently that they belong to
Mr.. Watson; and there are few contests rails
ed by friends of Senator Smith, though these
could not decisively affect the situation. But
the crux of the matter is that until these
doubtful points are settled authoritatively
settled, it is sheer speculation to say what the
result of the Convention will be. Partisans
for Mr.. Palmer are claiming, as though it
were foregone conclusion, that the Conven-
tons entire vote is his under the terms of
Rule Ten. But II the pending contests, or
even certain number of them, should be de-
cided against Mr.. Palmer, then he would lose
the Conventions entire vote under the terms
of Rule Ten. The power to make that mo-
mentous decision rests, of course in the Con-
vention not in committee.
However, the contests may be settled and
whoever is finally accredited with the plural
ity of county unit votes, the standing of all
three candidates will be remarkably close
closer, perhaps, than any previous result in
the nips and tucks of Georgia politics. The
Journal believes, therefore, that the most
equitable procedure would be to allow each
candidate such proportion of the delegation
to San Francisco as he has county unit votes
in the State Convention. Thus the candidate
having the largest number of county units
would control the largest number of national
delegates, and so on to the third and last.
This allotment would be fair not only to the
candidates, but also to the counties and to the
electorate, giving to each group of voters in
the recent primary representation which 9TH
erwise they would never have.