West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1905-09-28

ruin, the Dawson machine right or
the Dawson machine wrong, reminds
a man OF the buzzard slowly circling
around the decayed carcass of a
mule. We have no particular use
for Mr.. J. Slidell Brown, believing
absolutely in the principles of the
Republican party and holding firm
and abiding faith in her ability to
do justice to all and injustice to no
mass or class and willing to trust
the party in the future as in the
past, but any one that has followed
the course of the Editor of The
Argus from the incipiency of the
tax reform contest that was suggest
ed by Senator Elkins and taken up
by White and Dawson can scarcely
help admitting that the course of
The Argus has been straightforward
and sincere.
First, tax reform was promulgat-
ed for the express purpose as enun-
clated by its champions for the pur-
pose of increasing revenue of the
State, later in the hight the revenue
increasing feature was dropped or
retired TO the back-fence and sand.
bagged or strangled because every
one knew that we had all the money
necessary to run the State on high
plain and tidy balance left for a
wet spell. Another idea was forced
to the front of the fight, in fact it
soon covered the entire field of con-
fiict, this was that the corporations,
that is the railroads, coal, oil and
gas companies, express, telegraph,
telephone and banking companies
were ruthlesslY sandbagging and
and robbing the poor farmer, the
coal miner, the small merchant and
the laboring man and that the owner
of the small home was paying the
bulk of the taxes. Gov. VIM. M.
o. Dawson aud Ex-Gov. White put
forward and fathered this idea and
so viciously was it worked by these
men and their political machine that
every man that was opposed to Mr..
DAWSON being nominated for Gov.
ernor was numerically bounded
down as a corporation fiend and a
tax dodgerj not only this, every can
didate for Office, whether legislative,
judicial or county that was not
branded by the Dawson crowd, was
scathingly denounced in the papers
such as the Journal, that one way
or another owed soul and all to the
machine, caricatured as corporation
hIrelings, as dishonest men, as vile
and filthy things to be Stunned by
all clean citizens. Such a campaign
as this was not only waged against
the Hon. Samuel B. Montgomery,
our brilliant State Senator and
champion of the people, but against
James T. Daley who was seeking
the Office of Prosecuting Attorney,
Hon. Leroy Shaw, l.. V. Reed and
even against men who were seeking
small district Offices. United States
Judge Dayton was not excepted and
that great giant Of brain and muscle
and force and character that stands
today clear cut and aggressive, an
honor to the State the States pride
and the States prestige in the Ma
ton, was pilloried by the avengers
OF the Dawson White combination.
Governor Dawson then stood for a
tax on the production Al zeal, eli ana
gas and a tax on kfe Pr05S earHiHPs
9 yaifyoaaS. The Argus heartily
supported Governor Dawson on all
these propositions and bitterly
fought Senator Montgomery and all
the other men who we're supposed
TO be against the Dawson platform.
IL, in other words, Spbb0ylrd lanes
w. Flynn and the caHdiaafr5 a The
STATE amt c0uHJ macHiHe because il
favored tax on coal, oil and gas
and Mr. Dawson was making his
campaign for the nomination Of
Governor on this platform. Men
in this county that had always been
against Mr.. Dawson stood by him
and helped give the solid delegation
20 him for Governor, men who did
not trust him, but who did trust
VIM. P. Hubbard, Geo. &. Sturgiss
and A. b. White, stood by him and
opposed other candidates Of high
standing and splendid records simp-
ly because such men opposed Mr..
Dawson. VIM NJ. o. Dawson was
nominated for Governor at Wheel
ing. Time dnfted along and as the
November election was fast ap-
preaching another change IN the
tax reform war Of Mr.. Dawson was
noticed, the howl against corpora
tons, especially the oil companies
weakened pereeptiblY. there were