Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-09-10
Entered at the Postoffice at Staunton
Va, as second class mail matter.
Friday. Sept. 10, 1909.
A CHANGE INEVITABLE.

There are to be speakers in album
dance. we are told, TO carry the good
tidings of militant Democracy to the
people during the present campaign.
Let them come, they are needed here;
they may be needed in other parts of
the State. There is a great deal to ex-
plain, and it will take silver-tongues
and persuasive oratory to put things
right, to interpret all of the riddles.
There is no objection to the seeming
vastness of the vote cast in the prlma-
mary. Seventy-five thousand or there
about of good, loyal Democrats going
to the polls and exercising their right
Of suffrage, that almost divine right,
is very comforting. But just how the
newspapers got the figures so mislead-
ing and so small when they were real
ly SO large, ought to be explained OF
course 73, 484 votes is correct, because
those figures were verified and laid
before the country by the State Dem
ocratic Committee on Tuesday, the 51st
day of August, nearly four weeks after
the election. Four weeks was certain
ly long enough to work on them. The
figures crept in slowly, we ought not
to say stealthily, because that might
reflect on the organization. But they
came like cripples from the field of
battle, like the halt, and the lame, and
the blind, when summoned. In one
instance candidate had large ma
jority so far as heard from. But soon
from the highways and byways came
budgets of ballots that changed the
mpleXiOn of affairs. The candidate
who at first seemed to be elected by a
large majority, was making merry.
He was sounding hosannas here, there
and everywhere; when 10 change
came DER the spirit of his dreams, his
trumpets were silenced, and the horns
on 'tother hill were heard. Then in
rode the other knight, the real victor.
1t is needless to say that had the re-
suit been promptly announced there
would have been no complaint. But
when those in charge permitted such
delays, the delays told on those at the
head of the affair, those whose enter
tainment it was. The friends of the
defeated candidate in this case are dis
pleased, they may sulk in their tents
they have some reason to. But whilst
this individual case has given umbragt
to many, it is not the real cause Of
trouble, but only tends to accentuate the
troubles of the head of the ticket. As
the drops make the ocean, so do the
sands of discord make the mountain Of
difficulties now facing the organiza
ton. Four more years may the pres
ent oligrachy pull the wool over the
eyes of the people of Virginia. -Four
more years may they hold the throttle
and drive the steam roller. At the END
of that time, if not before, there will
be change. The change will not be
of principles, but of leaders. No State
can become the private property of a
few politicians and long remain so.
Pennsylvania was held in the hands
of the Camerons for while. Rhode
Island is now the individual possession
of Aldrich. But Pennsylvania was
shaken from the Cameron grasp.
Rhode Island will be knocked out of
Aldrich's hand, just as Virginia will
be freed from the junta who draw their
substance from the loins of her people