Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1908-10-29
SELLING THINGS
DIFFERENTLY

The Wheeling Intelligencer one day
last week, contained an editorial
criticism of Louis Bennett because
that gentleman declared he was go
ing 10 be elected Governor of West
Virginia by the votes of white men.
Here" says the Intelligencer, lis
the bold unbushing expression of the
Bourbon democracy" That it is
bold and unblushing That il is
deny, and certainly no friend of Mr.
Benefits would wish to deny, for
they like a candidate who speaks
boldly. and they would not have him
blush over a matter which contains
nothing that should cause any men,
Der Of the Anglo-Saxon race to blush.
Louis Bennett stands squarely and
straight upon the platform builded by
the Charleston convention, not be-
cause il is his duty to do so as a
candidate, but because he believes II
right as a man.
Now mark the difference between
Louis Bennett and the paltry rag that
thus criticises him. A few weeks
ago, when the Intelligencer was OPP
posing the candidate of its party, sim
desire to beat him in convention, II
printed an editorial on the situation
in Mcdowell county, the last para
graph of which is as follows:
"a very large proportion of the vote
in Mcdowell county is colored. Nc
Dowell is the extreme southern coun-
ty of the state. II lies practically
in the lap of Old Virginia, whose ter
ritory surrounds it on three sides.
It's sole industry is coal mining and
its mining interests are dominated
by one concern of which Isaac T.
Mann is the head The question of
Mr.. Swisher'sN majority in Mcdowell,
therefore, becomes the question, how
many colored voters from Old Vir-
ginia aud North Carolina can be
brought into Mcdowell county on
election day, and how often and at
how many different places can they
be voted? Mcdowell county is
unique in West Virginia. It is posi-
bly, the only county in which the col
ored population is in large major
ity and it is certainly the only one
in which white men, more disreputa-
bic by far than the poor and ignoT-
ant men whom they use and mislead,
have organized the negroes into club.
with which they expect TO dictate 10
the Republicans i'm every other coun-
ty in the state. This club held over
the head of Congressman James A.
Hughes, caused him to swing the en-
tire postofice and federal official brig
ade in the Fifth Congressional Dis
trict for c. w Swisher. This cluD
held over the heads of the United
States Senators has done more than
any other one thing to bring them
into line fer c. w. Swisher. The
question is now, will this machine,
controlling many thousand negro
votes. be able to overcome the will
of the decent voters of West Virginia?
If so. then the time has come for
the serious consideration OF these
blanks in the Democratic platform
which make for white sovereignty IN
West Virginia"
The Intelligencer was willing TO go
against the negro, to consider his
Acknowledgement, when he was being
used as a club" with which to force
the dominance of the faction of the
Republican party to which IL did not
happen at the moment to belong. but
when Il is proposed to disfranchise
the negro for the purpose of keeping
him from being used as club TO
dominate the affairs of the state, and
disfranchise thousands of white men
in another party the consideration OF
the matter becomes "Bourbonism,
and is fit only for denunciation.
Louis Rennett and the Democratic
uarty believe the negro should be dis
franchised in West Virginia because
he IS not fitted by character, train
ing and instinct to properly exercise
I the franchise; because. as the Intel
Hgencer said, in one Of its few spasms
J of virtue. he can be voted often
and at many different places" to de-
feat the will Of the legal voters OF
the state Not for factional seu-
cess; not for party dominance, but for
the safety OF the republic and the
perpetuation of its institutions do
Louis Bennett and the Democrats
who stand with him demand that the
electorate Of the state be purified By
the elimination of its degraded, cor
ruption-breeding membership.
These are reasons that the lntelli-
gencer and the half-baked political
creatures that run it can neither ap-
preciate nor understand.
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