Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1921-04-20

loan national landslide OF last
November. The Republican
party in Montgomery county will
be strengthened through the help
OF the Republican national Adj
ministration in Washington and
through Republican control OF the
government of the District of Col
umbia. The two Republican Sen
ators from Maryland and the Re
publican Congressman from this
Congressional district are all IN
dustrious party workers and Ca
pable organizers, and they will
leave no effort unmade to
strengthen their party in Mont
gomery county, lying as it does
adjacent to the national capital"
When the home OF Blair Lee,
advocate in many a contest at An
napolis of the direct primary,
thus turns its back upon the one
thing that it once put forth as the
salvation" OF the Democratic
party in the State-but which, in
stead. has proved to be almost the
undoing of the party-it is time
Tor serious thought Both the
Rockville papers point out the in
-1isputable fact that in Montgom-
cry-as in Anne Arundel and
many other sections OF the State
the masses OF the taxpayers and
upholders of law and order in the
community are to be found on
one side. and the masses of the
voters of the community found on
the other side belong to an ele-
ment that pays little taxes and
has not much OF a stake" in the
welfare Of the community. They
say that Montgomery is natural
~ and normally Democratic. but
that under present political condi-
ticns the party that is more rep
resentative OF the county is relc-
gated to the rear.
1t is easy to point out what has
brought about this state of affairs
Fhe truth is that, acting with the
best motives i'll the world, tn,
thick and thin" direct primary
advocates have precipitated :
crisis not only to their party but
for the community. 1t has passed
into a proverb in many counties
Of Maryland that the people who
vote most enthusiastically in q
primary for a nominee vote most
enthusiastically against him ii
the general election; or, as more
frequently happens, those whc
vote for a candidate in the pr.
mary, repudiate their party's
choice and vote against it in the
general election. In other words
they don't stand by the primary
or adopt the principle of majority
rule. Instances are known
where a winning candidate has re-
ceived more votes in the prin~ ~
than in the general election.
The direct primary act itself liz
corporates the provision that vot
ing in a primary does not bind the
voter to support the ticket in the
naming OF which he takes part al
the ensuing election. In endeav.
oring to prevent the Stacking Of
cards" in the primary, the law
specifically says they are not tc
be placed on the table in the gen
eral election.
While Blair Lee himself has or
more than one occasion strenu-
ously maintained that any voter
in 4 primary fairly and honestly
conducted was in honor bound to
support the nominee. many of his
erstwhile ardent followers have
exercised their legal right to 'cut
the ticket" Until it has become in
creasingly difficult everywhere to
get the most substantial and
available man to stand for Office
in primary campaigns.
The Democratic primaries fire.
quently are knock down and
drag out" affairs, in which self
respecting men are loath to en-
gage. The Republicans never
hold primaries, the principal con-
stituency of that party making the
reason self-evident. A Demo
cratic candidate is a shining
mark for all his personal, political
and business enemies, and the de-