Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-07-09
REPUBLICAN TICKET
PAST AND PRESENT"

Inc ABOVE Is the heading under which
the Richmond News Leader undertakes
to respond to our recent editorial The
Chaste and Elegant"
In its editorial, Past and Present. >"
published on the 18th ult.. our Rich
mond contemporary again confesses the
crimes of its party in Virginia. but it
makes those crimes more distinct and
rePrehensible by pleading in justification
a condition that did not exist when
they were committed-that is threaten.
ed negro domination. In desperation
the News Leader resorts to the old cry
of "nigger, to escape from the incon.
sistent position in which we placed it.
We cannot understand why a respect
able newspaper like the News Leader
should continue to use such a plea or
defense to cover up the present delin.
quencles of its party. 1t was evil and
baseless enough when used in the past
to arouse the passions of the white peo-
pie of Virginia and rally them to the
standard of party which our Richmond
contemporary now frankly admits stole
and committed perjury, until fraud be-
came habit and spread all over the
State Now this defense is not only
weak and unfair, but positively nause-
ating.
But the Present is the issue be-
tween the Tazewell Republican and the
Richmond News Leader. Our Richmond
contemporary resented our recent asser-
ton that the Democrats would not gain
control of the Ninth District without
they invented some new scheme for
stealing it,
The News Leader was not contented
with expressing resentment at our
words, but made itself ridiculous by as
sorting that the Virginia Democracy
had become purified, that it no longer
had the disposition to be dishonest. and
that the Republicans were the fellows
who are now committing fraud. Our
Richmond contemporary reasserts this
IN its editorial past and Present" We
quote therefrom as follows:
''Let it be remembered, however.
that the white Democratic people of
Virginia at the first opportunity called
convention and so changed the consti-
tuition as to make fraud and trickerv in
the election unnecessary, and as near as
could be, impossible. They have proved
their earnest longing for honesty and
cleanliness in politics. -" The Vir-
glnia Democrats have labored and spent
money and devoted the best talent and
thought they had for the promotion of
honesty. The Republicans today have
the monopoly of crooked work"
This whole statement of our Rich
mond contemporary is as widely separ-
ated from fact as it is possible for fic-
ton to be. The pretended necessity
for calling a convention and making a
new constitution was to make our State
and county governments less expen-
sive. Under the new constitution these |
expenses have grown enormously and
are still growing. The one possible
truth in the above quoted words of the
News Leader as to the purpose of the
constitution was to make fraud and
trickery unnecessary in elections. The
Democrats had gone about as far as
they possibly could in their now adj
nitted course of perjury and stealing:
and they decided to fasten by constitu-
lonal enactment the hold they had pre-
Tiously gained and used by the fraudu- (
emit methods the News Leader has so [
and repeatedly portrayed. {
How have ''they proved their earnest {
Onging for honesty aud cleanliness in !
They have put in operation 6
uffrage laws that have DESTROYED i
early all the colored and one half the I
Thite electorate of the State. At the f
cry first election held under the new /
the pals of W. F. Rhea, he t
alls them his friends, tried to steal the il
Iinth Congressional District from