Evening star., 1921-08-14
BOARD TO CANVASS
virginia PRIMARY
Democratic Committee Likely
to Tender Craftsmanship to
Representative Flood.
patch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
RICHMOND. Va. August 13.-The
state board of cansassers will meet
Tuesday next to go over the returns
of the primary election of August =,
and when that has been done the
certificates of nomination will b.
made. The canvassing of the returns
is purely a perfunctory work. as the
secretary OF the commonwealth re-
ceives the reports filed by the clerks
of the courts and tabulates the same
end the members merei! take st he me
originals ard compare them with the
figures prepared on the sheets ny
the force of clerks in the office. This
will require a comparatively short
time.
For the first time in many years. the
returns have come In from every
county and city in the state AMI
they have been found unusually cor
rect-free from errors in addition
clearly written out and properly GER
titled.
Women Entitled to Seats.
The meeting of the state democratic
committee, August 80. will bring here
far more members of the BODY tnan
have been here at one time in years.
There are fifty women who are en-
titled to seats, and the district COM
mittees are selecting these In sucn
cases as are necessary. A 1e" ois-
tricts did rot have time to get to-
gether last year for that purpose.
This time they will be here in force
and there is good reason for stating
that they will have an important part
in the campaign.
There appears to be no question at
this time that Representative H. d.
l. f~fO
the honor of the state chairmanshlp
handed him. There is little op-
position to him. as would be the case
regardless of who is nominated. the
candidates named in the primary Will
Re here and they are expected TO
make brief addresses.
Ready for Next Year.
Early in the coming year the cam
paign for the United States Senate
will begin. and the friends of Senator
Swanson are perfecting the organiza-
tion to return him to the Senate. 1t
is being said that he did not vote for
equal suffrage, but no one Of the men
mentioned in opposition to him IS
recorded as having turned a hand to
help the women when the fight was
on in the legislature of the state
There are many thousands of men and
women who supported Senator Tr1nkle
in the recent primary who have al
ready committed themselves to the
senior senator, and. it is believed. the
Trinkle so well will. in large measure.
remain intact and stand by Senator
Swanson. 1t is no secret that declara-
tions to this effect have been heard
on many occasions.
LILLY Black" Program.
The lily black republicans de-
clare they are in shape to wage a
relentless war on the lily white divi-
sion of the party. But, since the
ing here. there has been a revision
of the list. John Mitchell of this city,
editor of a colored newspaper, was
given the head of the ticket at the
outset. but he has been set aside, so
far as the committee handling the
matter is concerned. and Matt Lewis
of Newport News has been placed at
the head of the ticket. while Thomas
Newsome. colored barrister of New
port News. is to lead the fight for at
torney general in lieu of State Chair
man Pollard, who was at first sue-
gested. The Golored people are col
lecting the funds with which to con-
duct the campaign. declaring they will
poll more votes than the lily whites.
and, that being done, they will be in
a position to make good their claim
that they constitute the republican
party in Virginia.
Former Members In Control.
While the actual figures on the re-
cent primary are not yet made pub
lie. 1t is known that there will be
more than fifty of the former mem
bers of the house to return. This
means that the old-timers will be in
control. that they will dictate the
organization of the lower branch and
that Col. Richard L. Brewer of Suf-
folk will again be speaker One of
the unusual things is the number of
former members-who served two
sent back to the house for another
term. the men who defeated them
having been rejected by large vote.
Col. John W. Williams. who has been
clerk of the house for many years,
will not have opposition this time.
There will he four members of the
senate chosen this fall to fill vacan-
cies. The first will be that of
successor to Senator E. Lee TrinkIe
OF Wythe. who steps down and out
tire is Col: Junius E. West of Suf-
folk, who has been named for lieu
tenant governor over a field of three
opponents. Then there is Charles
s. Pendleton of Scott, who is in the
federal prohibition service. and Green
Proffitt. who is to become United
States marshal for the western dis
trict.
Bitter Struggle Ahead.
That the approaching session of the
legislature will be a warm one when
it strikes the redistricting bill is
known. There will be many changes,
old lines being broken and new con-
nections made. Many. counties. each
of which has had a member of the
house in the past. will be grouped
and the two will have one. In the
house districts the changes are even
greater. and there will be some
which will not only lose their MEM
Der, but they will be added to coun-
ties that will make it impossible for
the prize to go around oftener than
once in three to five years
One result of the redistricting of
the state will be to give the repub-
1icans several new members of the
legislature in each branch. That is
inevitable. due to the growth in popu-
lation and to the fact that many of
the districts have grown so fast that
they are lopsided in the matter of
population. The republicans have five
members of the senate at this time
and fifteen members of the house.
Under the new districting plan they
Will be able to get possibly eight
members of the senate and twenty or
more members of the house.