The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-08-01
Preserving the Organizatlon.''

oh'S oiey oii ootuiudy LASH Ill ODeuleLC6 W
the order Of Messrs. R. 7. w. Duke, w. A.
Burke and Mann Splitter, Executive Com
mi.tee OF the Conservative party for the
Seventh Congressional District. The pre-
tense consisted in the presumption of about
dozen men daring to speak for and do bu-
siness in the name of all OF those calling
themselves Conservatives the fact was in
the old weather beaten managers, who have
heretofore succeeded in getting up some
show of interest in the organization, being
left to themselves by the people. In the
meeting of Beverly Manor District, held in
the Court House at 2 o'clock, there were eigh-
teen present and participating. In the First
Ward there were twelve and in the Second
Ward sixteen. In each case, men who may
not be classed as managers, were drummed
up and coaxed il. The old managers were
promptly on hand, and went through the
form of preserving the organization, while
the great body of the people had deliber-
ately and purposely kept aloof from sheer
Indifference and disgust.
The gentlemen designated as delegates
will doubtless appear in the Convention that
assemblies to-day and claim that they rep
resent and have authority to speak for the
great mass of the people of their respective
wards and townships, who were not in the
meetings. While we entertain nothing for
each and all of them but the highest re-
spect personally, and will say nothing that
will not harmonize with that sentiment, for
we feel nothing else, yet it would be re-
Election upon their intelligence for them to
assume to commit the people to any other ac-
ton of the body they appear in than to its in
slant adjournment and dissolution. They have
no right or authority to speak for those who
were absent, nor to indicate by their votes
any man for Congress in their representative
capacity. If there was one thing more thor
| oughly implied and understood in the abb
sence of the great mass of the voters, it was
their determined protest against machine
politics and machine candidates, and an ut
ter reputation and condemnation of the
few ring-managers who have heretofore
''ixed up things" for their endorsement,
whether in consonance with their wishes or
not. The People begin to realize that they
have let this business of caucus dictation go
most Too far, and that it is essential for the
good Of. the State, and the vindication of their
own self-respect and manhood, that their
ballots should express their real sentiments
and desires, and not the cut and dried re-
solves of a few professional wire-pullers,
who have heretofore been managing the ma
chine.
1t is strange that the people have so long
patiently and without effective protest, sub
mitted to the dictation of machine politics
and the harsh, tyrannical edicts of the
caucus. 1t is impossible that they should
have remained insensible to the great wrong
that has been inflicted upon the State,
through the methods of the politicians, who
have thought of nothing but the emol-
uments of Office and the influence associa-
ted with Office. This is what sspreservine
the organization" means-the managers to
secure the positions of honor and profit, while
their dupes. the people, are laboring and
toiling to raise the taxes which are thus APP
propriated and too frequently squandered.
The reorganization. has been preserved and
as the price of it the people have had piled
upon them million of additional debt each
year. The Organization had to be pre-
served while the public schools were robbed
OF near four hundred thousand dollars,
Which 1.-THE people paid for their support.
"The organization was preserved while
eight or nine millions of dollars of available
assets were given away to ringsand railroad
corporations. The organization was pre-
served, while the politicians imposed upon
the poor laborers of the State, who could
barely feed the mouths and clothe the bod
les of those dependent upon them, the duty
of keeping up the public roads, and gener-
ously eXempting the landowners and the
property-holders of all levles for that pur-
pose, although the poor man never owned a
horse or wagon, while the rich mans wag-
ons and carriages travelled over these same
roads every day. The Organization was
preserved" while the ballot was taken away
from the poor man because he might not
have the money, after supporting his fam.
lily, to prepay the poll tox. These are some
of the fruits of preserving the organiza-
tion,' keeping the peoples nose down to
the grind-stone. while the ring managers
have been reveling in the glory and the pay
of the offices, which this preserved organi-
ton has secured for them.
1t is a happy omen that the people have
been awakened to the cruel wrongs that
have been inflicted upon them through the
Organization. Those who have been
clamoring for the preservation ofthe organ
ization of the great Conservative party"
have never had thought for the substantial
good of the masses or the genuine honor and
welfare of the State. They have prostituted
every agency of power to selfish and un-
worthy ends. They have robbed the poor
children of the State of their school fund !;
the charitable institutions of their legitimate
support the poor man of his ballot arbi-
trariy appropriated his labor to working the
roads which he never uses, while exempting
the property of the man who does use them );
they have piled up the States Indebtedness
by millions; have driven away emigration
and capital by their partizan malignity and
pressed the people down, down with taxes,
that the Golfers of the treasury might be re-
plenished for them to again squander in
their wicked and reckless legislation.
When we consider what this epreserved
organization has done for the people and
the State, is it any wonder that the honest
toilers and Taxpayers should come to the con-
clusion that its preservation is no longer
to be thought of There was never more
despotic and IRON hoofed tyrant that swayed
rod of destruction over a people, than
this preserved organization" of the Con-
sentative party Of Virginia; and there is no
hope for the State until its machinery is
broken, and the people, emancipated from
its thraldom, shall determine to act like
men, who knowing their rights dare main
tain them, against the selfish ring-managers
who have perverted party to State ruin and
prostituted organization to robbing the peo-