Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1910-12-23
SOCIALIST VOTE
IN NORTHWEST
Will Make the Two Old Par
ties Sit Up and Observe.
Letter From W.G.YOung


in Tazewell will read it with pleas
ure.
ROseburg, Ore, Nov. &c, 1910.
j. A. Leslie, esq.,,
Tazewell, Va.
My Dear Sir: | sent you under
separate cover by yesterdays mail
two pamphlets or books, containing
the various bills and measures before
the people and the arguments, for
and against them, also, a duplicate
or educational ballot with the names
of all the candidates and the numbers
of each bill and amendment to be vot-
ed on. | had intended to do this be-
fore the election but as the supply
was short, had to write to Portland
for them, and in the meantime had
in bed and housed up, until | did not
get out until election day. went
early, and was the ninth man TO
vote. There were 10 booths, and it
took me just ten minutes to X my
ticket, fold and hand it to the Judge,
who tore off the second coupon with
the number on it, put it in the box.
and announced that w. G.. Young had
voted. The clerk who gave me the
ticket, tore off the first coupon with
corresponding number and called out
my name. This is the way they do it
in Oregon. | had read up and was
posted on how | would vote, and they
said il took, generally speaking, from
Is to 30 minutes for some men 10
vote. i cannot say that l am in love
with their method, under the Iniatia-
tive and Referendum, as they have too
many doggoned old things to vote on,
but everything is sent out so the peo-
pie can in a measure post themselves,
but too much can be kept back that
does not show up in bill until after
it has carried, and then it is too late
! send you these as a matter of curl
Osity, as we'll as information, rs to
how other States dO-from what we
are used to. Whilst there was no end
to the speaking, both i'm the halls and
on the street corners at night, espec-
| tally on prohibition, the campaign,
and election, was utterly devoid of
the excitement there would have been
over it in Virginia and no candidate,
or friend, can be around the polls. nor
give even cigar, or send an old man
to the polls in buggy, or do any
thing whatever to influence Il voter.
You will see the Socialists had cut
their candidates, and whilst perhaps
none were elected to even the lowst
offices, mark my prediction that the
time is not far distant when they will
make both the Democrat and Republi-
can parties sit up and take notice
The trouble with them now is that
they are premature, ahead of their
time. They are not sufficiently under
stood, and are now trying to do too
much at one time for them to do, in
their present condition. | want to
predict to you now, to remember, -
for | may not live TO see it--that in a
very few years they will control the
whole vote of the working men in the
u. S., both organized and morgan
lied, and you can we'll imagine what
a power they will be to reckon with,
and think they will soon carry all
the Western States. Well, l guess
you had the hottest campaign in the
Ninth since the Walker Rhea race in
1900, and in my mind, l could see
both sides in Tazewell, and almost
tell what they were saying, and do
ing, or going to do, and | felt great
interest in the result and after the
Oregonian said Virginia would send a
solid delegation to Congress, the
morning after the election, | told
Estill Steele and Rev. Mr.. Mears,
from Norfolk-and he takes the Rich
mond paper, that / would not give
it up until | had my grapevine tele-
gram. l must say that | am disap-
pointed in Henry Stuart squealing
over the result. | thought that with
everything from start to finish in the
hands of his party, and friends, and
they picked ones, with his own wealth
and the State to back him, that he
would take his medicine like a man,
and say the Ninth is too solid Repub-
lican, l couldn't carry it, and l think
it would have raised him in his de-
feat, in the estimation of even his
own party, and l know it would in
the eyes of those outside the State,
for its no disgrace to meet defeat af-
ter hard fought battle, when the
enemy is too strongly entrenched in
their stronghold for them. If he does
contest, l would like to bet $40, 600
if l had it, that he will loose before
any kind of a committee that is
named to decide it. Well, enough of
this, for / did not intend to get into
politics, but have little else to write
about.