The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-07-21
DOfRLE EDGED WEAPONS.

DOUBLE EDGED WEAPONS.
The convention called to nominate a Repub
lcan candidate for Congress in the Ninth Dis
trict has duly met We are informed, as
we have all along been informed would be the
case that the Hon. C. Bascom Slemp was noml
mated "amid great enthusiasm In other words
the tirccrackcr was set off, the powder train was
ignitcd. all the cans Of cheers were opened. The
Hon. c. Bascon is now that which he was, Is
and has been The uncertainty is dispeled. He
swept al opposition before him. The question
is, What will he be
We have no quarrel with the hysterical en-
thusiasm which marked the acceptance by MIR.
Sfemp of that which he already had. Enthusiasm
is of the stage properties of politics. With
ont it political conventions could no more pro-
coed TO a curtain than melodrama could 60 -four
acts to a weeping finale without stage setting OF
the Silly night, or cast iron thunder behind the
wings. The convention has the advantage of the
theatre III the fact that its enthusiasm is ready
prepared and that it is based on the hope of re-
ward. The claque has something more in sight
nebuous the vision may be--than a free seat
II applauds its own hunger gives three cheers for
its own hope,
The desideratum of putting Mr. Slemp out OF
the role of leading man and into the audience ls,
however, advanced by one turn which the en-
thusiasm took:
I'm accepting the Craftsmanship Mr..
Dickinson, III the course of a brief
speech, compiimented Henry @. Stuart,
the Democratic nominee, as too good
man to be sacrificed But he add
ed, if I were as wealthy as Henry
Stuart l would cheerfully pay $4,000
in tariff gold rather than register my
wife and daughter as foreigners.
would rather any day sacrifice that
much money and have them register
as from Russell county or Virginia. q
am surprised that man like Stuart
\ would register his wife and daughter
as foreigners
What does this mastery bit of political fnesss
implya Simply that the Republicans OF the
Ninth are undertaking the dangerous expedleni
of waging political campaign upon the issue
of an opponents domestic polity. They are
seeking to deliver a blow over the heads of women
and children They attempt to bring the home
life of public man into the public arena. The
manly rebuke. When the search is for a
WeApOIl-HIN weapon dAoSofoAy Az AAA~->
than apt to result in premature explosion.
The Custom House incident has been so fully
aired that it Is idle to repeat it's details. Suffice
it to say that Mr.. Stuart acted as any other
man would have acted in the attempt to come
within the law. His only mistake was in not
seeing law which the negligence of the Custom
House officials had made it impossible for him
to see. The reflection upon his attitude toward
his family is not only in poor taste, but it il
essentially cowardly. 1t will react or there Is
no justification in the assumption that the peo-
ple of the Ninth District are of the same fai1
breed as the people of the other Districts of this
State.
If the Abingdon convention had considered
this question of declaration of foreign residence
it mi ht have recalled that the political career
of the distinguished citizen who has promised tt
speak in Mr.. slesnp's behalf began when on the
eve of his nomination for the Governorship OF
New York he WAS faced with his declaration
under oath-made for the purpose OF escaping
taxation-that he was not a citizen of the State
to the chief magistracy Of which he aspired!
The tissue" of the trunk in the Ninth Is
apt before the end to bump into some strange and
thrilling parallels which do not parallel it.