Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-05-18

He gave over trying TO persuade me.
n hope. said he you've got card
up your sleeve that the oldsman don't
know about"
made some vague reply, and he
soon went away ! felt that had con.
firmed s1is belief In my fearlessness.
Yet, II he could have locked into nv
! mind, how he would have laughed at
his credulity. Probably he would
have pitied me, too, for it is one of
the curious facts of human nature
that men are amazed and even dis
gusted whenever they see-in others
the weaknesses Nthat are universal
/ doubt not, many @Ao read these
memoirs will be quite honestly Fasri-
saical thanking heaven that they are
not touched with any of nv infrrni.
ties.
1t may have been coincident. though
] think not, that, few DAYS after Fes-
senden's call, q reform movement
against Domiuick appeared upon the
surface OF Jackson county politics.
thought at the time that IL was the
first streak of the dawn ! had been
watching for-the awakening OF the
sluggish moral sentiment OF the rank
and file of the voters | know now
that II was merely the result of n
quarrel among the corporations that
employed Dominick He had been
giving the largest OF them. Roe.
bucks Universal Gas and Electric
company, called the Power trust,
more than its proportional share of
the privileges and spoils. The others
had protested in vain, and as a last
resort had ordered their lawyers to
organize a movement to purify"
Jackson county, Dominick's strong.
hold
! did not then know it, but got
the nomination for county prosecutor
chiefly because none of the other law
yers, not even those secretly directing
the reform campaign. was brave
enough publicly to provoke the Pow.
or trust. ] made a house to house
farm to farm, man to man. canvass
We had the secret ballot, and | was
elected. The people rarely fail to re.
spond to that kind of appeal IL they
are convinced that response cannot
possibly hurt, and may help their
pockets. And, by the way, those oc.
casional responses, significant Meth
er of morality nor of intelligence lead
political theorists far astray. AS II
honor or honesty could win other
than sporadic and more or less bypo-
critical homage-practical homage. |
mean-among people whose perma-
nent ideal is wealth, no matter how
great or how used That is another
way OF saying that the chief charac.
teristic of Americans is that we are
human, and, whatever we may nro-
fess, cherish the human ideal uni
versal in world where want is mans
wickedest enemy and wealth his most
winning friend. But as | was relat
ing, ! was elected and my majority.
on the face of the returns, was be
tween 1000 and LOO 1t must act.
ually have been many thousands, for
never before had Dominick doctor.
ed the tally sheets so recklessly.
Financially | was now on my way
to the surface. / supposed that had
become a political parsonage also.
Was l not in possession of the most
powerful Office in the county? I was
astonished that neither Dominick nor
any other member of his gang made
The slightest effort to conciliate me
between election day and the date OF
my taking office. ! did succeed
in forcing from reluctant grand juries
indictments against a few of the
most notorious, but least important
members of the gang; and / got one
conviction-which was reversed on
triaLerrors by the higher court.
The truth was that my power had
no existence. Dominick still ruled,
through the judges and the newspa-
pers. The press was silent when it
could not venture to deprecate or to
condemn me.
But | fought on almost alone. did
not fail to make it clear to the people
why | was not succeeding, and what
a sweep there must be before Jackson
county could have an real reform. !
pade an even more vigorous cam
paign for reelection than l had made
four years before. The farmers
stood by me fairly well, but the
town went overwhelmingly against
me. Why? Because / was bad for
business" and, if reelected, would be
still worse. The corporations with
whose law-bfeaking l interfered were
threatening to remove their plants
from Pulaski-that would have meant
the departure Of thousands of the
merchants best customers and the de
struction of the towns prosperity |
think the election was fairly honest.
Dominick's man beat me by about the
same majority, by which l had been
elected.
Bad for business H-the most po-