Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1906-10-04
A MORAL ISSUE IN THE NINTH ~


Under the above head, except the
interrogation mark which we have plac-
ed there, the Roanoke Times of the
Goth ult. had an editorial which it would
have been we'll for that paper and its
party in the Ninth District if the arti-
Gle had never been written and publish
el The article in question is in the
nature of an appeal to the young men
of this district to not vote for Colonel
Slemp on moral grounds. The editorial
is coarse, untruthful and will excite the
disapproval of every fair minded man
in the Ninth District. The Times quotes
at length from an article which was
ladled from some Democratic cespool in
Pulaski, and supplements the quotation
with the following unfair and untruthful
statement:
''Reports of stalwart Republicans
forsaking Slemp come from every sec
ton. They are men who have been
fighting the battles of the party for
years and are, and always have been,
staunch Republicans, but they are not
Slemp men and cannot and will not lend
their sanction to the misrepresentation
the district is receiving at the hands OF
this political manipulation. They are
not strong enough to overthrow the
machine that Slemp has built by the
lavish disposal of federal Offices to per-
sonal friends, and unless there is a
Democrat elected they realize that
Slemp will continue his autocratic rule
indefinitely. They are turning to Bruce
for relief"
No such condition as the above, por-
trayed in the Roanoke Times, exists in
this district. The reports" of which
it speaks have originated in its own
wildly commercial imagination, or come
from untruthful partisans in the dis
trict. The Republican party is now as
solidly for Slemp as it has ever been,
and his hold upon the party has been
gained not by the use of machine,
as was demonstrated by the majority
of 1000 given him two years ago and
before he had opportunity to lavishly
dispose of Federal Offices; but by his
overthrow of the dishonest Democratic
machine that had committed all manner
of crimes upon the ballot box to elect
Bill Rhea to Congress. No, not to elect
Rhea, but to twice steal seat in Con-
gress to which General Walker was
duly elected. This same Democratic
machine is now operating the campaign
in the Ninth District, and is using the
same disreputahle methods of slander
that they employed against General
Walker in 1898 and in 1900. A true
Republican will be very unwise and In
consistent to help turn this district over
to this same gang" that are now
directing the campaign for R. P. Bruce.
The relief that he would bring to Re
publicans would be such as was fur
nished by Rhea, and under which the
whole people were Inundated and suf-
fered for period of four years.
The Roanoke Times in its eagerness
to win the favor of the Democratic ma
chine in the district not only quotes ap-
provingly from the Pulaski cesspool,
but adds the following shameful contri-
button:
'It lisa momentous question that con-
fronts the people of the district. It is
not question of the triumph of Democ-
racy or Republicanism, but, will the
good people of the Ninth District con-
tinue to have as their representative a
man whose every public act is reprehen-
sible and whose sole aim is the gratifi-
cation of selfshness."
This is not only a mean SANDER upon
Colonel Slemp but an insult to the intel
ligence of the good people of the Ninth
District, who have twice elected him to
Congress and who will elect him again.
1t is an insult to the intelligence and
moral qualities of the good people Of the
great counties of Lee and Wise where
Colonel SIemp was born and where he
has lived all his life-those good people
who have triumphantly and repeatedly
elected him as their representative in
the Legislature of Virginia and in the
Congress of the United States.
But what more or better than SANDER