Evening star., 1935-02-24
ARLINGTON SPLITS
into THREE CAMPS
Democratic Decision for
Primary DeveIopes Third
Party.
BY a stan Correspondent of The Star.

BY Stau CoIIespouQeut Oh ! nc Quar-.
ARLINGTON COURT HOUSE, Va,
February 23.-The decision OF the
Democrats of Arlington County to hold
0 primary election this year-after
ueglecting such method Of choosing
candidates for about 80 years-has di-
vided the county into three political
camps, instead of the customary two.
One favors the primary. It is headed
by the majority of the county Demo-
cratic Executive Committee, which
voted, IA to 2, to hold the primary.
The second camp Is strongly against
the primary, and is made up largely.
OF Government employees, who fear
that the primary will inject PARTISAN
ism into the election to such an ex-
tent that they will lose their jealousy
guarded right to participate in local
government.
Committee Says Nothing.
The third, of course, is the Repub-
lican camp, which has made no OFF,
cial statement concerning the coming
county elections, but which primary
opponents maintain, was happy to
hear of the Democratic decision.
Since making its decision to hold
the primary, which is set by law for
August 6, the Democratic Committee
has said nothing, officially.
Only two candidates have an
nounced, both subject to the pri-
mary" They are Harry w. Fellows,
present board member, who seeks the
nomination for county treasurer, a
post now held by Charles T. Jesse, and
Emory N. Hosmer. who asks the DEM
ocratic nomination for post OF COM
monwealth's attorney.
Most of the public utteranceS made
since the primary decision have been
by those opposed to its being held.
Meetings Are Held.
Meetings have been held by various
groups, chief among which was the
Special Elections Committee OF the
county Civic Federation, which voted
to recommend to the federation that
1t oppose the primary, and that its
representatives meet with Democratic
chieftains in an effort to bring about
a change in policy, as well as to con-
fer with Republican leaders to fore
stall any move by that party to hold
a nominating convention.
Government employees, whose rights
the Federation Committee seeks to
uphold, maintain that they were
granted the right to participate in
local elections only if they were non
partisan in nature. They said the
executive order giving them the right
to run for local government Offices
wes predicated upon the representa-
ton that the county had not held a
convention or primary to nominate
county officers for some 80 years. A
primary, they fear. would take from
them the right to run for county posts
Opinion Divided.
Charles r. FenWick, chairman OF
the Democratic Executive Committee.
told the special Federation group that
the holding of a primary by the
Democrats, or a convention by the
Republicans, would not preclude any
Government employe from running as
an independent, if he so desired.
However, the primary opponents say
that If they do run as independents
against the regular nominee of a
major party, they will be placed in
the position of working for the de-
feat of that nominee in order to
bring about their own election, and
hence will be participating in party
politics.
Another school of thought in the
pro-primary group is represented by
those who maintain that county Offices
are too important to be treated as
"sidehnes" by the Government work.
ers whose regular work is in Wash
ington.
They point out that even the
County Board posts will take SO much
time away from the regular job of a
worker in the Government, should
he be elected to one of them, that
in properly caring for one job he
necessarily would neglect the other.
Meetings Exceed Leave.
During the past two years the
County Board has averaged As meet
ings per year and each meeting has
averaged well over three hours in
length. Thus board meetings alone
consume 1873 hours annually, at a
conservative estimate. This is ex-
elusive of the time spent going and
coming from Washington and extra"
leave.
The annual leave of a Govern
ment employe is Is days, they point
out.
Besides these meetings, several of
which each year require full days
time, the board makes inspections
from time to time, and the chairman's
time is further taken up by signing
the several hundreds of warrants
issued each month.
Democratic leaders say one of their
chief reasons for determining to hold
q primary was to cut down the num-
Der of candidates. At the last county
election there were more than so
candidates for the five-man board.