The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-11-01
submits the Coal Tarin to the wager Of

4uC AlUAWuA 6UEetLe 6QDmllS
the Governors case to the wager of
battle; and to constitute fair tri-
bunal, he sets up that old dummy,
straw man, manufactured by Nc
KinIey in his tin-plate machine for
his Ohio campaign, called aFree
Trade. and pits the Governor
againstit. The Governor, of course,
knocks it out in the first round in
effigy, and this, in the estimation Of
the Gazette, fairly and fully acquits
him of heresy against his party.
This trick may have deceived the
Democracy of Ohio, but it is a little
too thin for the nnterrified of the
West Virginia hills. They know by
heartthe platform that the Governor
accepted and stepped on to; and on
the tablet of their memories it is the
same one that he has rejected and
stepped off OF, and he can't palm off
a counterfeit. We don't know what
our platform would look like to a
man up a tree. Up buckeye, it
might read Stree trader" but up a
jackson hickory, it looks like what
it was intended to mean, ssTariff for
revenue only"-it is very legible.
The Governor pledged himself for
millions, if necessary, for the eco
nomieal administration of the gov
eminent, but not one cent for class
protection. We had Just levied
100000 on our overtaxed people to
boom this class of business at Chi
cago, and invite and persuade honest
capital to invest in it as an industry
that would pay. Then we think it
was, at least, in doubtful taste for
the Governor of the State, while the
exhibition at the Worlds Fair was
going on, and before the premiums
were awarded, to appear before the
Ways and Means Committee and
beg a protective tariff retained on
the consumers of West Virginia
coal, in order to keep the business
on its feet, thus saying, as it were,
to the capital of the world, that
$4,000 advertisement of ours is all
hypocrisy, humbug and poppycock.
Now, we have long felt a more
kindly regard for the Gazette than.
it has given us credit for. We have
said to our friends again and again
that its editorials on base ball, lawn
tennis, progressive euehre, mumbIo-
the-peg, puss-in-the-corner, or prize
fights were eminently happy and
able; but as these things did not
in the least concern the business
world, we didn't think it worth
while putting our favorable opinion
in print. In turf lingo, we have
said that the Governor was a splen-
did colt, and promised to develop
into something magnificent; but we
think we run him little over his
age and distance. Now the Gov
ernOr in his appointments has, in
some instances, fallen into the same
error that we did with him, that is,
he has not always put the right
man in the right place. Then, we
hardly think it would be safe for an
editor to rely on his appointments
as an evidence of his qualifications;
it might throw him entirely out of
his elements; nor would it be
proper for him to take his own bril-
liant editorials on subjects that do
not concern the business or bread
of the people, for his fitness for
handling those that do. So we
think it would be well for all of us
editors, whe belong to the majority,
to read their platform before writ
ing anything that affects their well
fare.
Now, we were never fortunate
enough to be a protected corpora
ton; and when we use the pronoun
Eve" it don't mean that we are
tax-fayored syndicate or a whisky
ring, but just a little "one-hoss"
editor.
Birds of a feather flock together,
and if they be hawks their plat
form is for war; but if they be doves,
it is for peace.
Hancock said tariff was local.
This was true, as to the interest felt
for and against it; but it killed
Hancock, because it was not true
as to the principles ofjustice relating
to it, which apply to all sections
and all our widespread and adverse
industries-these are national. Sam
Cox said it was geological. This is
also true. The iron and coal meas
ures of the upper crust would impose
on the blue limestone of the under
crust, the tax to get their clean
coal in market, and then dump