Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-09-02
hon. GEORGE N. mccoy
SIASTIC MEETING OF BENWO0D
DEMOCRATS LAST NIGHT.
"A MOST ELOQUENT ADDRESS
Which Was Admirably Received by
All Present-The Speaker Was In
terrupted From Time to Time by
the Applause and Cheers of His
Hearers.

Last night at the city hall in Ben
wood the Hon. George M. Mccoy, OF
Tyler county, Democratic candidate for
Attorney General, addressed a large
and enthusiastic meeting of Marshall
county Democrats. His effort was
masterpiece, and its delivery was at
tended with such eloquence that the
speaker from time to time was inter
rupted with applause and cheers from
his hearers.
Mr.. Joseph McNfahon was chosen sec
Rotary and Mr.. Michael.Dolan chairman
of the meeting. Unfortunately space
does not permit of the reproduction OF
MIR. McCoy's speech in its entirety.
After being introduced by the chair,
he extended the usual greeting to the
auditors. Imperialism, he stated, was
the one and main issue in the cam
paign He depicted the Jeffersonian
Democracy as the issue that carried
the Democratic banner to victory one
hundred years ago against the imper-
ialistic policies of the Republican
party under the leadership of John
Adams. So will it result in 1900. The
Democratic party has been accused OF
favoring expansion. Democracy did
advocate expansion. But how? On
what were once waste lands of our
country, citizens were given grants of
1ax, t4L,ah no ,,n xrynfI nj
be beneficial to citizen and country.
Compare with this Republican expan-
sion and you have before you picture
OF war and it's attendant ruin and men
fleeing for their lives because they
dared to obtain their liberty as did our
forefathers. The speaker then reveiw-
ed the present administration treat
ment of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Phil
dppines.
Taking up State politics, he asid:
when the Republicans were handed
the keys of the various institutions of
this State they expected to find record
OF woeful mismanagement, extrava-
gance and evidences OF theft. They ex-
amined every department and every in
stitution and they were forced to con-
silence, that the stewardship of the
Democratic party for twenty-five years
merited that encomlum OF praise, We'll
done, thou good and faithful servant"
The housekeeping was soon ended.
George Wesley Atkinson was about to
expand. The first thing he did was to
appoint his staff, and when they were
enrolled they were said to have been
the most splendid creatures on the face
of the earth. The birds of Paradise
and the peacocks of India could not
touch these magnificent app0intees of
our Governor. AS was said of the lily,
with all its beauty was not arrayed
like one OF these You could worship
1t without violating the Fourth Com
mandment, for there was nothing like
tn the heaven above nor the earth be-
meath, nor the waters under the earth
The Governor and his staff took
charge of what is known as the con-
tingent fund, ten thousand dollars for
each year, out of which he was expect
ed to pay the eXtradition of criminals
from other States. That fund was
raised from time to time, and when the
Spanish war broke out, when he sought
to use 1t to arm and equip our National
Guard for the war with Spain, it was
found that he expended it all in jun
keting tours visiting the tomb of
Grant and other side issues in the city
of New York and various other places
The hard earnings of the people of
West Virginia, wrung from them by
taxation, was, in common parlance,
blown in" in military jaunts and the
carousal of the staff of the first Repub-
Hcan Governor of West Virginia.
But this is not all. So extravagant i
did they become in the nature of their
appropriations that the fiscal years end
ing September 30th 1899 and Septem-
her Both, 1900, respectively, as COM
pared with the Democratic appropria-
tons for the fiscal years ending Sep
temiber Both, 1898, and September 30th.
1894, increased $500, 900, an increase of
more than forty per cent in six years.
The legitimate increase on account OF
population could not have been more
than ten per cent, or $150,000, leaving
$450,000 that can be charged to no ac-
count, other than the extravaganza of
the Republican administration. The
tax payers of West Virginia are pay
ing quarter of a million dollars
more each year for the luxury of a Re
publican administration than they did
for a Democratic government
Take the penitentiary, which is sit
uate in your own county, and compare
under Republican rule for three years
as against three years of Democratic
administration. 1t costs $50, 449.9S for
three years under Democracy and the
same institution cost $50, 1913. 40 in three
years of Republican rule. In addition
to that they secure a contract with the
Federal government through the office
of Senator Elkins, and bring the con-
victs from all over the United States
ITO put them in your p9nitentiary. there
to run shops that manufacture various
articles, and compete with the honest
labor of your State. This is a sort of
Republican expansion that is so popu-
lar. The Republican party don't care
for the honest toiler or the laborer,
but they have only regard for those who
have already ample competency of this
worlds goods.
Look at your University. When the
Republicans took charge of that insti-
tuition, they found it a place of learning
of high character, increasing in stu
dents and rising in reputation. In