The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-10-23
PENNSYLVANIA AND THE SOUTH.

From the Philadelphia Press of October Is, 1890.
The country papers in several of the Southern
States, conspicuously, Virginia and North Caro-
lima, have been and are still copying one from
the other, an article which they characterize as
malignant - 'fendish," and Infamous" and
attribute it to the Philadelphia Press. The arti-
Gle in question processes to bewail the advance
that the South is making, at the expense of the
North, especially Pennsylvania, and to claim
that the surest way to put stop to this compe-
tition is to carry through and enforce measures
like the Lodge election bill.
As far as we have seen, no flrst-class daily
Journal has been guilty Of publishing this idotic
invention, but the country weeklies continue to
give it circulation under the head, IA Plot to
Destroy the South" In a speech delivered at
Petersburg, Va, last week, Harry St George
Tucker, who represents the Tenth Virginia Dis
trict in the present House of Representatives
and is a candidate for reelection, gives the
sanction of his authority to the libel against this
PAPER by telling his audience that ALREADY the
Philadelphia Press is out in an editorial declar
ing that the force bill should be put in effect so
that capital can be kept in Philadelphia and not
sent to the South"
The article in question never appeard in The
Press In any form and does not in single line
embody the views of this journal. 1t first came
to this paper in the form of communication
from an alleged Republican, but as it was on
its face the work of either Democrat or fool,
it was promptly dropped into the waste basket.
The author, however, had kept copy, and it
soon appeared in North Carrlina paper desig-
mated as IA letter which was sent to the Phila-
delphia Press Another North Carolina paper
copied it, calling it "a letter in the Philadelphia
Press" Other Southern papers at once repro
&c A it'll taf tatQ Of ha de-
sign of the force bill from one of the leading Re-
publican organs" and credited to tho Philadel-
phia Press. 1t is now masquerading Press
editorial, and was quoted by Mr.. Tucker in
his Petersburg speech.
If the Press desired to keep the South crippled
and gndeyeloped it would not be anxious to see
honest and peaceful elections substituted for
fraud and intimidation which now make South
ern elections a farce, and which keep up a feel
ing of unrest in the South and irritation in the
North. Honest and free elections in the South
are the one thing needed to attract capital and
immigration from the North in increasing vol
ume and promote the rapid development of its
immense material resources Pennsylvania is
not only willing to stand the Industrial compe-
titiOn of the South, bnt it is ready through its
capitalists to welcome and promote it,. But it
cannot submit with paJlence to the systematic
crime upon the ballot, by which the Republican
vote Of the country is denied its due weight in
Congressional and Presidential elections.
AS number of Virginia democratic
papers have published the extract given
above as coming from the Press. it would
be nothing more than fair that they
should insert the REPUTATION of the sland
err, and thus give their readers the truth
Mr.. Tucker and other speakers who
have used the offensive extract in pub
lie discussions, ought to give the correc-
ton in as public a manner as they have
used the falsehood. The people want
the truth, and we have furnished it to
them, in the hope that democratic pa
pers and speakers will be fair enough to
use it.