Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1906-09-20
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1906.
MYTHICAL VOTE.

We nave seen nothing laIely III tne
Democratic newspapers that indicated
so forcibly the ignorance of those jour
nails as to political conditions in the
Ninth District as was contained in an
editorial of the Roanoke Times of the
18th inst. The editorial in question was
headed 1.-THE Prohibition Vote" and
undertook to give the strength of that
vote in this district. The Times said;
"The reports from the Ninth District
say that the solid vote of the Prohibi-
tionists will be cast for Senator Bruce
against Col. Slemp. There are about
thirteen hundred registered voters in
the Ninth District who vote the Prohib-
ition ticket when they have candidate
and are always ready to help out the
man who is in favor of prohibition when
they have none"
The Times seems to have gained its
information from one Mr.. Shelborn Bow
man, with whom it had an interview.
We do not know who Mr. Bowman is;
but if any such person lives in this dis
trict and is qualified to speak of its po-
htical conditions, we have never before
heard of him.
The paragraph quoted above from the
Roanoke Times clearly shows that it and
all others who think with it are basing
their hopes for Mr.. Bruce's election on
false assumptions. The Times says that
."there are about thirteen hundred reg
istered voters in the Ninth District who
vote the Prohibition ticket when they
have candidate and are always ready
to help out the man who is in favor of
prohibition when they have none. To
show that the Times was drawing on its
imagination, or that Mr.. Bowman i'm
posed upon its ignorance, we will call
attention to the vote Of this district at
the election of 1900, when the Prohibi-
tionists had a candidate to vote for.
That candidate received just 149 votes
in the district. Where was the balance
of the thirteen hundred votes that the
Times says the Prohibitionists have in
the Ninth District? Of course there
was and is no such vote. The voters of
this district are arrayed solidly either in
the Republican or Democratic column.
There are many thousands of voters who
have strong temperance views, but they
are opposed to carrying the temperance
movement into politics or the church.
They are either Republicans or Demo-
Gratis from conviction. Mr.. Bruce him
self pretends to be a Democrat from
conviction, and he did not vote for the
Prohibition candidate in 1900, nor will he
vote for such candidate in the future,
if he remains a Democrat and he has a
Democratic candidate to vote for. The
Times further said
every report from the Ninth Dis
trict is encouraging, and with the Pro-
hibition vote, the solid Democratic vote
and perhaps sprinkling of Republicans
who are dissatisfied with the way the
Slemps have been running the party, it
looks very much like Senator Bruce will
go in with several thousand votes to
spare.
So, the Democrats are expecting to
overcome the four thousand Republican
majority in the Ninth by consolidation
of the Democratic vote with 14S Prohib-
itionists and a small sprinkling of dissat-
isfied Republicans. This shows how ut
terly absurd are the claims and expec-
tations of the Democrats as to the re-
suits of the coming election.