Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-06-29
THURSDAY, JUNE 90, 1905.
HE 0uICROPPINGS.

Hell q HllilCl diOSio SOCo OUS W AAuAAS
for valuable deposits of minerals. he
first satisfies himself as to the geologi-
cal formation where he is making his
Investigations. He then gives particu-
lar attention to the outcroppings of the
coal, iron or other mineral substance he
is trying to find in paying quantities.
This is the way he locates the veins or
heavy deposits.
The Democratic party in Virginia has
been arrogantly claiming that it is en-
titled to the confidence of the people
and a continued lease of power, be-
cause it has managed the affairs of the
State in a clean and capable manner.
Is this claim based upon solid fact, or
not? Will it bear the same careful
scrutiny that the intelligent mineralo-
gist has given the ground wherein or
wherein are located the rich coal, iron
and other mines that have been found
and are now being operated in this sec
ton of the State?
What about the formation or quality
of the Democracy? Is it composed of
such material and is the leadership of
such character as to essentially secure
from its hands honest and efficient man.
agement of the State Government? By
it's own confessions it stands convicted
of an intense degree of corruption that
stands unmatched and unrivaled in the
history of the political organizations of
this country. For more than twenty
years it held control Of Virginia by the
use of systemasic, progressive scheme
= of corruption. The registration books
were padded and mutilated; the ballot
boxes were stuffed and robbed; the re-
turns were falsifed; elections officers
were encouraged to commit theft and
perjury; and the men elected to office,
executive, legislative and ministerial,
were trained to accept certificates that
were tainted and stained withal kinds
of fraud, without any shock to their con-
sciences or sense of honor. This was
all done by the Democracy upon the
false representation that Republican
rule meant negro supremacy. By ex-
citing the apprehensions of the people
with an impossible threatened eondj-
ton they obtained the acquiescence of
the voting masses to the adoption of the
nefarious methods that destroyed the
moral tone of the Democratic body
polite. The natural sequence of these
false teachings and corrupt practices
was that when the Democrats found
that it was no longer necessary to cheat
the Republicans they began to cheat
each other. Then, and not till then,
did they begin to express such great
horror for the cankering sore they had
fixed upon the politics of Virginia. The
Montague men and so-called reformers
declared that Martin machine had been
constructed and an office-holder's trust
created by and through the immoral
methods of the party, And Montague
and others, who had knowingly and will
ingly profted by the practices they
decried, insisted upon the making of
new constitution and the creation of a
new machine, now known as the Monta-
que machine. With leadership fash
toned and trained in school Of fraud,
was it possible for the Democratic party
to give the people a thoroughly honest
and clean government? And with all
the departments of the State Govern,
ment occupied by officials who owed
their elevation to corrupt and debasing
election methods would it be unnatural
for corruption to make its impress on
some, if not all, of these departments?
Though we find that the Virginia De-
mOcraey has made new constitution
with the proclaimed intention of re-
forming and purifying State politics;
and though the Democrats have enacted
a so-calIed pure elections law, the party |
is now under the influence of two ma
chimes instead of one, as formerly. |
These machines are dominated by men
who were the leaders and directors of
the party at the time the corrupt prac-
tees heretofore referred to obtained;
anG the candidates who are offering for
the coming primary have nearly Ill &C.
cepted ofsee and emoluments that came
to them through fraudulent ballots and
false returns. In other words, the lead
ership of the party and the candidates
for Office and honors are about the same
as those who lead and received rewards
at the time the disgraceful methods