Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-02-15
eOEBELISM STILL LIVES.
Philadelphia Press.l

Philadelphia Press.
William Goebel, late Democratic candl-
date for the Governorship of Kentucky,
lies dead in the capital of that State, struck
down by the hand of an assassin. There
is no excuse for the crime and there should
be no mercy for the murderer. 1t was
cowardly act and no punishment that the
law allows is too severe for the man who
did it. 1t is iuexcusable, was uncaled for
and has made a situation, already bad,
vastly more complicated and more difficult
to adjust. No one can deplore it more
than the political opponents of the man
who was the victim of the assassin's bullet.
1t was foul, dastardly, cowardly murder.
SO much for the dead But the spirit
which Goebe personifed is as much alive
today rs it was week ago when William
Goebel was in the flush of health. And it
is this spirit with which it is necessary to
deal No respect for the memory OF the
man who gave his name to a phaze OF
American politics should soften in the
least the censure that that system deserves.
Goebelsm personiies all that is vicious
and degrading in the political life of the
day. 1t believes that might makes right,
that any means can be used to gain an
end, that the way to win in politics is to
Iefraud an opponent This is what Goe-
belsm stands for and all of these charac'
teristics marked the campaign William
Goebel made for the Governorship OF Ken
lucky last year and the contest for the
same office before the Legislature. 1t has
been an object lesson Of the depths to
which politics can sink and it has been i'm
pressed upon the American people by one
of the most dastardly of crimes.
But who is responsible for Goebelisln ?
1t is not Goebel alone. He was only a
product of system. The men responsible
for the situation in Kentucky today are
they who have aided or acquiesced in the
Goebelizing of State after State until the
will of the majority has been crushed in at
least nine States i'll the Union. 1t is Goe
belsm that is responsible for the crimes
committed on the ballot box in the South
for thirty years past. These crimes were
boosted of and their authors have been
rewarded by political honors. In 1854
when Governor McEnery and United
States Senator Eustis were canvassing
Louisiana they openly claimed on the
stump that Samuel j. Tilden obtained his
nlrnsy show of a right to the electoral vote
of that State in 1876 through the slaughter
of voters by Fred Cams cannon and Cap
tain Thebold's rifle club.
The same methods have continued to
the present day. When a Republican
succeeded in getting elected to office III
spite of balot-box stufling and intimIda-
ton he could be assassinated, as John NJ.
CLAYTON was in Arkansas. When a Re-
publican insisted upon running for Con-
gress in South Carolina, he could be run
out of the State, as Il. H. Tolbert was in
1898 and his relatives shot and legal voters
massacred. When little olgarchy wanted
to regain power it could create revolu-
ton, as happened in North Carolina in
| 1913, and preachers of that State could
gloat over the murders and crimes in
volved. But the South has not been re.
sponsible alone. A great party i'll the
nation acquiesced III these crimes and
eagerly accepted the fruits. 1t WAS the
blood.stained electoral votes from the
South that carried the Presidential election
of 1876, and L. L. Godkin, Carl Shurz and
other purists had no word of censure for
the criminal methods employed to gain
success.
All this was Goebeism. Farsghted
men warned the nation that there would
come day of reckoning But so long as
Goebeism affected only a weaker race it
was permitted TO 90 on. Now it is up to
the white man. Encouraged by the pusll-
lanimity of the colored voters Goebel and
his followers were persuaded that the bal
lot boxes of Kentucky could be ravshed
and an election stolen under a thin diguise
If law. Their leader was struck down by
an assassin just as he was on the eve of
success and the whole hideOus conspiracy
stands out before the public. GOebesm
is not an ephemeral phase in politics. 1t
is chronic. 1t has been growing from The
day the first shot was fired at a colored
voter in the South, the first ballot box
was stuffed with tissue ballots and the first
oath was taken over forged tally sheet
You cannot touch pitch and not be de-
fled Elections cannot be made mock
cry for years without the public conscience
becoming corrupted and tragedies like
in Kentucky occurring. And GOebelism
still lives.
STARVE THEMSELVES TO RECOVER