Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-10-31
rHr VIRGINIA rRrr pREsS--rHE OLD FAMILY JOURNAL.
The Hon. Wiriiam L. Wilson.

There is nothing going on in the politics
of the United States just now more interest
ing than the canvass of the Hon William
l.. Wilson for reelection to the House.
Mr.. Wilson's district is very large one,
covering a territory about as great as the
State of Massachusetts,. 1t lies among the
mountains of West Virginia. The popu-
lation is sparse, and there are no large cities
in the district. There is a good deal of
farming, good deal of mining, and some
manufacturing in the fifteen counties of the
district. The native people are hardy, sim
pie. very we'll educated, and independent
and honest. There is a considerable num-
Der of miners, partly of foreign birth, and
quite number of Northern men who have
gone into the State since the war. From
this district twelve years ago Mr.. Wilson,
then not quite forty years OF age, was elect
ed to the House of Representatives. He
was at that time President of the University
of West Virginia and had been a professor
in Columbian College, in the District Of
Columbia, though by profession he was
lawyer. He had served in the Confederate
Army, which he entered as boy of eighteen.
From his entrance into public life Mr..
Wilson has pursued the aims and done the
work of a statesman. He is a thorough and
careful student of affairs as well as of books.
He is good debater, clear, candid, direct,
the master of unusually simple and vigorous
English, modest and courteous, but a dan
gerous person to attack. Mr. Reed found
in him his most formidable opponent on the
floor of the House. The cause of tariff re-
form found in him its strongest advocate,
not only in Congress, but before the people.
His strength as a popular speaker lies in
the candOr with which he treats his audi
ence. He seeks TO convince them by the
facts and arguments that have brought con-
yiction TO his own mind He is not rhet-
orican nor, in the ordinary sense, polti
clan. He makes no appeals to prejudice
and no unmanly appeals to party feeling
When he organized, in connection with Mr..
Black, the campaign of education through
the Democratic clubs his wish was to bring
the cause of tariff reform directly before the
people in their homes, through small clubs
where discussion would lead to study and re-
Election. He has implicit confidence in the
honesty and common sense of the plain
people.
This year, going home to his constituents,
after the long and hard struggle for tariff
reform in the House, in which he was in
part baflled, be met a combination of the
strongest forces within the control of the
Republican Party. The national organiza-
ton of the protectionists has concentrated
its efforts for the defeat of the one man in
Congress to whom its leaders know that,
more than to any other, they owe their own
check. 1t was in Mr.. Wilson's district, in
the company of Mr.. Elkins, that Mr. Harri
son made the opening speech for campaign
of 1896, and he has been followed by Gov.
Mckinley and by a regiment of orators
They are met by men of greater ability, if
not so conspicuous-Mr Bourke Cochran,
Assistant Secretary McAdoo, and others
But the brunt of the battle falls on Mr..
Wilson, and he bears it nobly. He speaks
to the West Virginia mountaineers with the
same dignity, force, and selfrespect that he
showed in his spirited address to the Lon
don Chamber Of Commerce. He appeals |
to their intelligence. their patriotism, their
confidence in the energy and resources of
the American people. 1t is not an unn-
spring spectacle, that of this accomplished |
scholar, statesman, gentleman, arguing in
his remote mountain district the great cause
of commercial emancipation, the right and
duty of the American Nation to put off the
swaddling clothes of protection and to take
the part in the enterprises of the world
which it is fitted to take. The reports from
Mr.. Wilson's canvass are all encouraging. |
The margin two years ago was narrow-only |
q thousand of some 43,000-and the protec-
tionists are active to desperation, but Mr..
Wilson's cause is better than ever, and we
trust that it will triumph.-Nsic York Times.