Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-08-04
SOME REASONS Why
LancaSter'S Best Men Should Sup.
port CONGRESSMAN Swanson.

Swanson was our choice four years
ago. He is better man and of ripper
experience today. To desert him now
is inconsistent.
He has befrien ded Lancastriaus
in every way in his power-urged
better mail routes and facilities foI
us, advanced personal ends when ap.
pealed to, aud was a power in bring
ing Legislative friends to cur assist.
ance to save us from the Jordan
bill.
A consistent member of the church
profanity aud intemperauce are un.
known to MIN; model statesman he
grew majestic under his one defeaI
and is not pulled up with dozen
victories, whose heart is ever ready
to respond to calls for assistance aud
is too big to feel harsh even towards
his bitterest foe; admired and honcreC
by school-mates, professors, preachers
and the bar, aud looked up to by both
Democratic and Republican members
of Congress-is Claude A. Swanson
Son of Confederate soldier whose
wounds left his child to care for 3
widowed mother, sisters and brothers
and little, mortgaged farm, ht
wrestled with the plow until dis
cerning and big hearted men saw
what was in him and loaned hin
money to go to college. He quickly
repaid the debt by teaching school
and, hanging out his "shingle" al
lawyer, paid off the mortgage and
made comfortable mother, brothers
and sisters.
Ten years in Congress, he is yet to-
day poor man-the poorest Of any
of the candidates-and through his
sterling honesty and ability he has
risen in the House to an eminence
excelied by few Southerners and sur
passed by no Virginian since the war,
unless it be the career of the famous
John Randolph Tucker.
Once a plow-boy, he sympathizes
with the farmer; once a public school
teacher, he knows the needs of the
public schools particularly for the
single list); as a countryman he rides
bad roads and is eager to get Federal
aid, and also use the convicts, so as
to put Virginia in the van with good
roads; as one who pays as he goes he
would make railroads and steamboats,
observe the "Jim Grow" law and the
railroad rate bill. AS a splendid
debater and orator no Republican
candidate could Withstand him; as
our Governor the big men of the
earth who visit Virginia's great Gen.
tennial at Jamestown will be i'm
pressed with his ability and elo-
quence; as temperance man tenn
perance legislation is safe in his
hands; as one who always stands by
friends the oystermen need not fear
as he has worked for them in the
past and promises his friendship in
the future Chat is why the Eastern
Shore and the oyster people of James
river are solid for him-they know
him as friend of the poor man
who deives in oysters, on the land OF
in the factory; our fishing industries
are safe In his hands because he will
take counsel of those here who are
known friends of the fishermen.
He is no rich mans candidate, the
plain people being his strength. He
bears his share of the States burden
not Sinking poll-tax or income tax
He has been chosen five times to Con.
gress by overwhelming majorities in
District almost on the verge OF
Republicanism and no scandal is at.
tached to his elections; nor has /,
single act of his ten years in Con,
gress been brought into serious crit
cism; his record is clear as the ligh
of day, his habits of life open anG
read approvingly by all men thar
know him.
10 desert Swanson means to prefer
a rich man who never did a stroke oi
work (the son of a Federal officer
and born cut of Virginia) to poor
man (the son of a Confederate soldier
whose blood sprinkled her soiD; tC
prefer one who will give wine sup.
pers and card parties at the mansion
to one who will not; to prefer one
whose guests and companions will be
of the social moneyed set to one
whose friends and companions are
the plain everyday people-the bone
and sinew of the land.
A house divided against itself can
not stand. The issue is between
Swanson and Willard-the one lead