Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-10-11
'SIOP THEE !"

OtVT
The old ruse of "stop thief,' has been
adopted by w. F. Rhea, the man who
now holds a seat in Congress to which he
was not elected; and who is trying to get
the seat again, no doubt, by the same
methods that be employed two years ago.
On the 3rd inst. he visited the Postoffice
Department, at Washington, and filed
charges against a number of the post
masters in the Ninth Congressional Dis
trict. A press telegram published iu the
Richmond News and other papers says;
'sMr. Rhea stated to the First Assistant
Postmaster General that so bitter is the
fight against HIM that he is no longer able
to send even private letters through the
mails with any degree Of certainty that
they will be delivered. AS consequence
of the partisanship Of many of the post
masters, it is claimed that no Democratic
literature has been distributed in the
Ninth Congressional District"
As a result OF these serious, and as we
believe untruthful charges, it is said that
three postoffice inspectors have been sent
to this district to investigate the charges.
The reporter of the Richmond News says
Rhea is very indignant, and said to him
81 intend to push the case against every
gnilty official in my district. If the gov
eminent does not proceed TO punish the
guilty parties, shall have them indicted
and tried myself. 1t is the most outrage
Gus case | ever heard of. have been abb
solutely unable to send any kind of polit-
ical matter through the mails for over a
month"
Rhea has made most sweeping charge
against the honesty of the postmasters in
the Ninth Congressional District. What
is his purpose? II We are to judge him by
bis past record, the charge is made to di'
vert attention from an organized move
ment ON his part to perpetrate all manner
of frauds upon the ballot box as was done
by his machine in this district two years
ago. He says at is the most outrage
GUS case he ever heard Of" We might
properly say, it is not the most outrageous
case he ever knew of. He knows what
outrages were committed by false registra-
ton, by improperly marking ballots, and
by all manner of tricks that his managers
could devise to cheat the people of this
district and have him misrepresent them
in Congress. ,,e
While tie postofiice inspectors are in our
district we wish they could be given au.
thority to investigate the conduct Of Rhea
and his followers in the election of 1898,
and bring to view the crimes by which the
returns were secured for the man who is
now pretending to be shocked by official
misconduct on the part of the postmasters
of this district. With full investigation
of both charges it would be found that for
every wrong done by postmaster there
has been thousand committed by Rhea's
organization. They have padded reg
istration pooks; they have cheated illit-
crate voters in the booths by mismarking
their ballots; they have purposely multi
ated ballots to have them thrown out when
the count was made; they have conspired
TO take the life of the man they cheated
out of seat in Congress; and now, to con.
ceal their movements for a repetition of
the outrages in this election, Rhea is max
ing an outrageous assault upon the integ-
rity of the Republican postmasters Of the
district.
The Republicans of the Ninth District
are bitter against Rhea, but they are not
dishonest. They are bitter against him
because they believe him to be dishonest.