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«‘i*iinieiit. to which Mr. Watson is so ardent a de
voter. Itliode Island is the home oi* the unit sys
tem par excellence, within her borders is tin* home
of I 'nite I States Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, boss of
the Senate and boss of the Cnited States, whose ten
ure of office is directly due to tlm unit system, or un
iform power of the counties in Rhode Island elec
tions.
In the election of legislators in that diminutive
rommonwealth. tin* tiny coast county, with a popula
tion consisting of a few clam dickers and their fam
ilies, has a representation in the State Legislature
about equal to that of the county containing the city
of Providence, which embraces about half the total
populat ion of t In.* St ate.
In Rhode Island the county unit system has pro
duced a condition precisely the reverse of what Mr.
Watson fears will be brought about in Georgia by
tlu- majority system. There the wings of the cities
have been clipped, and the rural brother is in com
plete cent rob
In Rhode Island, according to Lincoln Steffins
article in McClure's Magazine a year or two ago,
tlm purchasing agents of the two political parties
operate, not upon the dwellers in the city slums,
but in the sparsely settled counties, where it is nec
essary to buy only a few votes to obtain the same
result as would attend the purchase of a multitude
in the city. This is another benefaction of the unit
syst cm.
The county unit system does not control, how
ever. in t lie selection of Rhode Island (lovernors.
Hence the spectacle has been witnessed of the Rhode
Islanders electing a Bryan Democrat (Garvan) to
tin 1 governorship and returning at the same* time an
absolutely overwhelming majority of Republicans to
both branches of the State Legislature, pledged to
the re-election of John 1). Rockefeller’s son-in-law to
i
Ihe I’nited States Senate.
TJie character of rural Georgians is such as to
preclude the possibility of their ever falling into the
purchasable class, politically or otherwise, but it is
a forceful rebuttal of Mr. Watson's conntention in
favor of the county unit system that that principle
controls the (‘lections in three of the most corrupt
States of the I’nion. namely, Rhode Island. New Jer
sey and ('onnect icut.
Concisely summed up, it is shown in Rhode Is
land that the unit system enables the majority to
elect a governor who finds himself quite powerless,
thanks to his being “checked and balanced" by a
minority-elected Legislature, which in turn, elects
a Lnited States Senator who could never sit one hour
in the highest legislative body in the Nation if his
election depended upon the majority vote of his
State.
To return to Georgia, it is unquestionably true
that fraud and corruption in primaries exist to an
alarming degree in some of her cities. But the coun
ty unit system has not produced a remedy. Neither
is it supposable that the majority system will aggra
vate the existent evil.
The deplorable fact is that corruption in Georgia
primaries (and in elections when necessary) has
flourished in the past and still endures because the
most potent powers in politics have desired and still
desire its presence as a factor in determining results.
In this city, it would be foolish to attempt to sup
press the fact that votes are bought and sold in large
numbers, when neither the buyers nor the sellers
THE REASON
make any particular effort to conceal it. Further
jj ore, it is undeniable that the traffic flourishes, if
mu by the advocacy, at least by the sufferance of a
majority of the citizens of Savannah and Chatham
County, and there is no evidence of a wide-spread
desire for its suppression. If any considerable pro
portion of citizens favored fair primaries, it would
.ea simple matter to bring pressure to bear upon the
local Democratic Executive Committee to provide
lor the strict Australian ballot form of primary.
While this would, perhaps, fail to entirely abolish
the evils complained of. it would go a long way in
that direction. Voters might still be paid to cast
their ballots a certain way. but if the purchaser and
his friends were kept eighty or a hundred feet away
hmi the polls while the voter, in seclusion, prepared
and handed in his ticket t<> judges who were re
straint* 1 from placing any identification marks
thereon, who would be qualified to say that the goods
bought had been delivered !
The political worker who has enough confidence
in the personal pulchritude of a purchased voter to
believe hi* will "deliver the goods' without being
meanwhile subjected to surveillance, is about as
sc iret* an article as the purchased voter who consid
ers himself under any sort of moral obligation to
keep faith with a man in whose interest a vote is
bought. And in this analysis of each other, both are
quite correct.
If tln* Executive Committee fails in its duty, no
body doubts the practicability of securing action at
tin* hands of any Georgia Legislature making the
Australian ballot system compulsory in Chatham
county elections or primaries, if not in all the coun
ties of the State. Tin* only prerequisite would be tin*
favorable disposition of the delegation from this
county toward the project. Yet. so far as the writer
is informed, no one has made any such suggesstion
at any time within the past four or live years.
No matter how strong the-character or unim
peachable the integrity of a successful candidate for
office in Chatham County, the public has no right to
impose upon him conditions precedent to his elec
tion susceptible of carrying a seeming justification
of some improper act in office, by which he might
reimburse himself for campaign expenditures equal
ling. perhaps, the salary or fees attached to the of
fice he has won.
The man of ability with a worthy ambition to
honor himself by serving flu* people, is most fre
uuently one of moderate means. The rich man of
ability is usually too much engaged in other pursuits
to take up public duties.
If he is able and honest, how unjust it is to make
him buy tin* office: if able and dishonest, how dan
gerous to the public interest!
J. J. Horrigan for Sheriff.
A political announcement of great interest to many
voters of Savannah and Chatham County is that of
Mr. J. J. Horrigan for Sheriff of the City Court,
appearing for the first time in this issue. Mr. Ilorri
gan. for three terms prior to 1906, filled the office
he now seeks to the eminent satisfaction of tin* peo
ple, and many there are who wish him well and
would be glad to see him succeed in the election to
be held next Thursday,