The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-06-04
THERE MUST BE NO MISTAKES.
4 Few Earnest Words Addressed Co vir-
ginia Democrats.


ginia Democrats.
TIE Democrats of Virginia carried
that State for the Cleveland Electors By
GAL majority in total vote OF 49,
99l, larger by many thousands than
had ever before been cast.
Though the opposition was so divided
as to appear before the Republican Ma
tional Convention with two sets of dele
gates, and though there must have re-
manned some bitterness on account of
the summary rejection of the one and
the nomination of a candidate which
the other did not favor, yet the Ma
honeites came out openly and boldly rs
the Republican party of Nirginia,
polled over fifteen thousand votes more
than they had for the Legislature in
1885 and cut the Democratic majority
from seventeen thousand down to six
thousand in a single year
There is no margin left to allow for
incapacity. partialIty or favoritism
among Democratic leaders. 1t is too
small to play with.
The MahoneiteS will fight harder this
year than they ever have before, be-
cause they are fighting for their lives,
and they will take every advantage of
the slightest errors in policy OF the
Democratic leaders. If they lose their
political power will be forever gone. If
they win they will regain all they have
lost in the last two years, together with
that prestige which results from res
toration to political honors from which
one has been in a MEASURE dispossessed
That there is some discomfort pre-
vailing among Virginia Democrats is
not open to argument, though its eX-
tent and possible effect undoubtedly is.
A part OF it is due to the slow and con-
sentative policy of the Administration,
which allows the Malone office-holders,
whose appointments were wholly polit-
zeal, aid made solely for partisan pur-
poses, to remain for the present undis-
turbed. 1t is more than probable this
state of things will speedily regulate it
self; but whether it does or not, Vir-
ginia Democrats ought not to, however
much they may, be held responsible.
But there has been some criticism of
the acts of Virginia Democratic leaders
and office-holders which is certainly
pertinent, so far as founded ON facts.
The Lynchburg Convention of 1888. in
its platform of principles, has this to
say among other expressions of its
views: I'VE demand such real civil
service reform as will make merit the
test of official fitness and exclude the
system of bargain and sale of Offices :"
Objection is made to the plan by
which the Democratic Congressman
have parceled out the Federal appoint
ments that it initiates against this
resolution. in that it does not make
merit the test, and that it is closely al
lied to the bargain-and-sale principle
because it permits eight congressman
to divide up the Federal offices in the
State by agreement among themselves,
from which their own constituents are
excluded and in which the Democrats
of the two Republican districts have no
representative at all.
1t is much more to the purpose to
note the existence of the objection than
to question its soundness. If the Vir-
ginia Democrats do not like the plan
the best thing to do is to abrogate it
and start over Though it be not very
bad, it is certainly not so obviously eX-
cellent as to warrant adherence to it in
spite of the persistent opposition of
men who have votes and who are not
particular at times how they use them.
Another point made by criticising
Democrats is that the young men of
the party have not received the recog-
milton which has been promised and
to which they are entitled. This is no
new statement. 1t was said four years
ago that one reason for Mahone's
strength was that he brought young
men out and gave them opportunities
for political preferment, which Demo-
cratic leaders had continued to deny
them. Like the other complaint, its
existence is of more Importance than its
soundnesS, and it should be put an end
to at once.
Good management, combined with
unseltish purposes among the party
leaders, ought to carry Virginia for the
Democracy by thirty thousand MAORI
ty.-HaShingt0n Post.