Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-04-15
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL Is. 1892
THE WORKING OF "THOROUGH
ORGANIZATIONS"

THE WORKING OF "THOROUGH
ORGANIZATION"
When the Democratic State Committee
was in session at Richmond, March 24th,
it was telegraphed by newspaper correspon-
dents from there, that:
'sThe most ultra anti-Cleveland men on the
State committee concede thatthe ex-President
is among the farmers the strongest candidate
named The politicians, however. hope to
overcome this by thorough organization. By
this means they hope to get enough delegates
opposed to Cleveland to control the conven-
tion.''
This was rather a pulling announce
ment to the country Democrats; they could
not understand how Democratic ''organlza-
tion'' was to be used to pervert the will OF
Democratic voters. They were familiar
with the little sharp management that takes
place inside the party at conventions now
and again to forward some Individual inter-
est, bat that there was any prospect OF
broadening it to the extent of perverting
the will of q majority of the voters of
county was an entirely new revelation to
them. They have in the last few days been
enlightened. The county Of Henrico envi-
rons the State capital. 1t has Democrat
ic County Committee majority of the
members of which were for Senator Hill.
Whenever there is a special object to be
served, apart from and contrary to the Oh
tanning full expression of the wishes OF
the people, the more rapidly the party ma
chinery can be worked, the less likely there
is of general participation of the voters
and defeat Of the special object. 1t be-
came known only four days before April
4th that the committee had decided among
themselves ''-we quote our facts from the
Richmond Times-to hold the precinct
meetings on April 18th to elect delegates to
a county convention to meet April It'll
three days later-to choose delegates to
the State Convention. These precinct
meetings were held as appointed. At one
of them in Tuckahoe township, the polls
were kept open only ten minutes when ''the
chair announced the vote closed,7 thus
cutting off voters who wished to vote. AT
one or more other precincts the manage
ment was equally unfair-at one precinct
there was no meeting at all, a notice hay
ing been stuck up only on Saturday calling
the meeting for the following Monday and
nobody saw it. Nevertheless, notwithstand
ing all this, a number of Cleveland delegates
had been chosen at the precinct meetings.
This slip up was remedied at the county
convention when it met, by electing the
twenty -one delegates the county is entitled
to, in block, and not giving the precincts
representation. BY this means-and even
that would have failed but for the fact that
one delegate was persuaded to cha nge his
vote-the first Hill delegation to the State
Convention was elected.
This may be taken as a sample, and we
trust, by the Cleveland men all over the
State. as a warning of how the wishes Of
the people can be ''oyercome" by thorough
organization. " We have no comment to
make on the proceedings save this-you
cannot pervert the will Of the voter and
find it an easy matter afterwards to get
him to the polls. The politician, entrenched
in having followed the letter but not the
spirit OF the Democratic plan of organlza-
tion, may in April nonchalantly reply to the
disappointed voter with ''What are you 60
if in Novem. e. the voter does not answer
his question and enforce his remedy. Tire
Richmond Dispatch assures us chat the
men who carried out the programme Ieci-
ted in the Times are ''good Democrats. "
We have no reason doubt it, and we believe
the better Democrats they are the more
they will regret the final effect of their man
agement upon the Democratic vote of Hen
rico county.
THE FARMERS INTEREST IN BEET
SUG1R
In this month American Agriculturist
there is an exhaustive and instructive arti-
Gle by Chas. II. Ruckland, on ''Beet Sugar
as an Investment" The article is too long
for our crowded columns, but we clip from
it the following as especially interesting at
this time to farmers who are considering
the question Of sowing beet seel fer the
EoCdunUOn 1dGt Oily.
For the farmer there is no better paying
crop than raising sugar beets. An average
yield per acre is from fifteen to thirty tons OF
beets, which he sells at five dollars per ton
Taking the lower figure, his returns would
be per acre, and there is no other average
crop that the farmer can grow to such pecuni-
airy advantages. An outside estimate of the
cost Of raising beets, including seed and de-
livery at the factory, is $40 per acre, thus leav
ing net returns of $50 per acre. Beets, more
over, do not impoverish the soil. They must
not be grown year in and year out on the same
land, but as alternate crops, growing wheat,
say, every other year. Beets must not be Of
large size, but should weigh from one to one
and half pounds each. Large beets are use
less, containing as they do a superb bundance
of water and but little sugar In growing
beets, the farmer has an absolute guarantee
of the price he will be paid for them, he is
sure of his money within week of delivery,
and his returns are net cash, without deduct
ing freight, commissions or other disburse-
ments. The farmers, even in the Eastern
States, are waking up to the advantages of
sugar-beet raising as highly remunerative
crop, is shown by the efforts to establish the
industry in Onondaga county in the State of
New York.
RHODE ISLANDS STEADY
MARCH,