Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-03-09
THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1905.
DEMOCRATIC DEl!NOuENClES.

we IOJlCS IiAcO Tic OSUlOCIdllC DCNS-
papers and their correspondents in Vir-
ginia are becoming greatly exercised
about the issues that shall enter into
the coming campaign for State officers.
They declare that they want only prac-
tical, living issues. Our esteemed con-
temporary, the Richmond News Leader,
says:
''They are not discussing the facts of
dead and gone conventions, the mean
ings of old platforms, nor the political
connections of candidates. Nor are
they giving US hot air about the splen-
did history of our grand old Common
wealth, our blood bought rights, the
conquered banner or the roar of bygone
battles. They are talking better public
schools in the country, cheaper school
books, better roads, and, along with
these, improved farming methods and
immigration. This means going ahead.
1t means doing something and making
the election have practical results for
the advancement of the people, the i'm
provement of their conditions and en-
lightenment of the State"
Our Democratic friends realize that
the people have not only grown suspic-
ious, but that they are actually tired of
the unfair menthods and false issues
which have been used in the past by the
Democracy to drag the citizens of Vir-
ginia to its support. The results of the
last Presidential election were distinct
demonstration and emphatic warning.
Democratic supremacy in the State had
for years been obtained and held by a
pretended fear of negro domination and
a constant misrepresentation of the
Republican party and its candidates.
1t was promised that after the adoption
of the new constitution the negro issue
in Virginia should be discarded by the
Democracy; but the people know how
that promise was violated in 1904.
So, our Democratic friends are now
eager to discard old issues. Discretion
ka8 become the better part of valor
with them. The public schools, good
roads, ETC., are to be constituted the
real, live issues; and by Democratic in
sistance and assurance are to be treated
as questions with which neither Demo
Gratis nor Republicans have had any
thing to do in the past Then, the
Democrats are assuming that these are
questions which they are to settle
among themselves, and with which the
Republicans have no part or parcel.
The Democrats will find that they can
not shape these matters to suit them
selves; but that the Republicans will
make these issues more lively in the
general election campaign than they can
possibly be made by the candidates who
will be voted for at the Democratic pri-
mary.
Our friends, the enemy, may affect
to believe that the Democratic party in
Virginia has made no vulnerable record
during the past twenty-five or thirty
years in connection with the public
schools and kindred questions, but the
Republicans and the people know better.
The Republicans are thoroughly famil-
lar with Democratic delinquencies on
these lines and will use them with tell
ing effect in the coming campaign.
The record Of the Democratic party on
the public schools and general progress
is not one that will give the party |
strength with the people.
The Republicans will not only cross
swords with the Democrats on such is
sues as the latter are now striving to
make the leading and only ones of the
coming campaign, but they will force
the Democracy to take the defensive on
other questions that involve the sacred
rights of citizenship. The records of
the candidates who are in the field to be
voted for at the Democratic primary
will also be disclosed on some or most
of the issues that will be conspicuous in
the general campaign. The Democrats
can rest assured that the battle will no,
and shall not be fought on such issues
as they may elect to make conspicuous.
will see that Democratic
delinquencies in connection with the
public schools and that the general de-
Iinquency and insincerity of the Virginia
Democracy shall be made the prominent
issues of the State election of 1905.
a. L..
The Supreme Court of the United
States has sustained the Texas law
which excludes from business in that