Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-08-18
A WARNING TO PARTIES.

100 'ttto 10 WIZ oNNtA'On va 1
ing conventions review of all nm.
popular record and the causes that
assist in setting aside the wishes
aud better sense of the voters may
not be without some good. Mems
own interests urge them more and
more to independence in political
and the candidates OF any
party who do not represent the will
of the people and have not the
hearty support OF their party, are
being left far behind. Party
strength supplants public sentiment
in some instances, but persistent dis.
regard of the popular will breaks
up any party. There can be no
more fragrant disregard of the
will of the people than the manipula.
ton of conventions. The tactics Of
the politicians are too well known to
need description here. They build
upon corruption to destroy the force
of representation that they may con.
tinue themselves in power. Ii all
other means fail to secure their ends,
some servile tool called in politics a
"dark horsen is forced into the
breach, relying not upon fitness or
choice to carry him through, but up.
on party majority. If his election
is hard work, if he loses his own
county, and is asked to resign By
those who voted for him,-all this IS
OF little account to the party lead.
ers.
If we may be allowed to take
even an "old stager's" record in
the Senate, it will serve our purpose
to show that while such men may
serve leaders and party with scrupu.
lous devotion, the direct interests
of the masses of the voters are ig.
nored or forgotten. Favor OF those
of his kind and their success con.
nected with his own absorbed
all his time and attention. Ii
we take the senatorial fight we have
all the expenditure of his energy, to
the sacrifice of everything else.
Time was not sufficient and an
amendment of his is to be tack
ed to the constitution extending the
sessions of Legislature. 1t should
be defeated if for no other reason
than that it was conceived in politi
cal deadlock and brought forth in
anticipation of future emergency. II
such men as he had thousand
years. session, the state would fare
no better and an extra session
would be an extra necessity.
Just as reprehensive and unpopu
lar was the license resolution that
would give to three men the whisky
monopoly of town like Martins
burg, and not raise the revenue to
what twenty now pay.
Entirely uncalled for and a threat
and thrust at labor was the move
ment to give railroads the power
to appoint or have special guards
" to protect their property !" To
protect it from NATURALIZATION
cut-throats to shoot down honest and
innocent men for spite or corpora
ton purpose. Have not railroads
all the protection wealth, politics.
state, and national governments can
give them? Such movements may
represent Gould or Vanderbilt but
they do not represent West Virgin
ia citizenship.
But the height Of Misrepresentation
was reached in the introduction OF
Senate Joint resolution No. 3, relat-
ing to the socalled West Virginia
debt certificates. Who asked him
to settle the debt question The
Courts didn't. Old Virginia didn't.
West Virginia didn't. But he did,
He placed himself not with the peo
pie of his own State, but rather with
the efforts of men like Lawyer Ma.
son and his Wall Street syndicate,
Where are the petitions from the
taxpayers of West Virginia to set,
tie debt manifested and unauthor.
lied? The stockholding (rich men
like himself) capitalists have long
wanted a favorable scheme of settle.
ment, but West Virginia never en-.
trusted such a vital question to
hands creased with wealth, and we
pray in the interest of the poor peo-
pie she never will. In his resolution
he talks about millions" as if they
were the playthings of West Vir.
ginia wage-earners. The prospects
and prosperity of the State are in.
;ured by the debt question. he ex-
claims. The passage of one resolution
like his would injure the State more
than all the debt questions that
stare the Old Dominion in the face.
Virginia will sue us, is the alarm
raised by the victim on the altar of
public sacrifice! Sue us? She
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