The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-04-20

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sure as Christmas is coming.
| Any one who will take the trouble
to study the appointments from this
State may see it, plainly.
Who has dictated all the appoint
ments of any Importance? Who has
ladled out the cream and half the
milk of the federal pap, thus far?
1t has not been General Nathan
Gof, the most prominent figure in
the Republican end Of our State pol
itics.
There is fine Italian hand be-
hind the throne, a strong, secret,
cunning hand, more powerful than
the throne itself.
Who has persistently and steadily
broken every slate that Golf has put
up? Who quietly took the plum out
Of COTS mouth and appointed John
w. Mason Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, and thus secured to him
self the dictation Of the appointment
Of Internal Revenue Collector, car
rying with it its army Of Jealous and
able henchmen, at the last moment,
breaking another slate of COTS
making2 Who has smashed COTS
carefully prepared slate, likewise, in
the appointment Of George c. Stur-
giss, District Attorney? II. S.
White, too, on COTS slate for United
States Marshal, has all but received
his commission. That he has not
yet received. And there are serious
whisperings that he is another of
COTS men who is to be quietly turn
down, with the goal within his
reach, by this resistless hand behind
the scenes.
Whose hand is it that is thus
gathering the golden harvest that
Golf has so laboriously sown, leay-
ing to Golf, the tiller Of the soil,
nothing save the dry husks? Who
has stepped in before Golf at the fin
ish, taken the Federal pap-ladle from
his hand and dispensed the best of
the good things where they will give
him the greatest advantage in his
Senatorial race against Golf?
With half an eye anyone can see
the hand of the foxy and ambitious
Stephen B. Elkins.
He is more than a match for the
General. He has outgeneraled Golf
in COTS own camp, stolen his lieu
tenants and all his best field pieces.
How has Elkins been able to do
this, being but a nominal resident of
the State and taking heretofore no
part in the details of her politics?
The answer is an easy one. Elkins
is national figure and united by
the closest bonds to the two prime
heads of this administration, Harri-
son and Blaine, from whom he can
get almost anything he asks for
Besides holding the closest business
and political relations with Blaine,
having managed Blaine's campaign
four years ago, he is most intimate
with the President, being, though
distantly, related to him by mar
rage Thus, through his powerful
"pulr' on the very fountain heads of
the administration, Elkins is enabled
to turn Golf down as though he were
a puppet, and, though having done
little or none Of the drudgery of the
last campaign, establish himself in
COTS place as dictator of the Re-
publican party in this State, as
though West Virginia were his
pocket borough.
Is Golf, to whom, if anybody, the
credit of the Republican gains in
this State is due, to be put aside for
an ambitious politician who cares
for West Virginia only as for rich
coal mine and stepping stone to
the United States Senate? He will
not be without bitter and desper-
ate struggle, it can be depended up
on. The struggle for supremacy be-
tween the native political wheel
horse, Golf, who deserves it, and the
alien intriguer, Elkins, who seems
likely to get it through his powerful
outside affiliations, is as sure to come
when the time arrives as fate. The
bulk Of the party is with Goff, but
Elkins, with the powerful lever of
Federal patronage which he has
stolen from Golf, to whom it right
fully belongs, can beat him.
1t is political drama, the devel-
opment Of whose plot will be watch
ed with the most absorbing interest
when the time for the election of the
Legislature that shall choose Sena-
tor Faulkner's successor draws near.
1t will be a pretty fight, q great
fght-another War of the Roses.