Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-09-22
Same Old Tune

AS might have be en- expected, Vir-
ginia Republicans, especially in the
Southwest, are trying to take advan-
tage of the recent utterances of
Messrs Jones and Glass and few
newspapers TO make it hard for the
gallant Democrats of this section who
are battling to recover or retain con-
troll of their local affairs. Fortunately,
the chief republican mouth piece in
this section, the Tazewell Republi-
can, is of intelligence so limited and
vocabulary so scanty that it is inca
pable of doing much harm. Like an
over-used and worn out disk of pho
nograph it can but mutter and sp eak
the same old stock phrases and ex-
pressions with which it has been
affecting it's readers these many
years.
1t tells us of corruption - of the
"officer-holders trust" of "looting
and raiding" the State treasury and
of bankrupting the State" 1t is
on line with that other example of
extreme intelligence, The Richmond
Times Dispatch-or was it The News
Leader which told us the other day
of 10, 900 Office holders in Virginia
every one working for the machine.
To keep the record straight we call
on the TazeweIl Republican as we
have called on MIR. Jones and the late
Hon. w. A. Jones and our Richmond
contemporaries to come to bills of
particulars.
We challenge them all to name one
instance of corruption" in the leg
islation or the administration of Vir-
ginia affairs by the Democrats. Also
to specify one instance of "looting. &"
Also to state clearly what Offices they
think are unnecessary, what depart
ments of the State government they
would abolish. what salaries they
would reduce, what appropriations
they would refuse. Also by what
process of reasoning they find that
State, paying her obligations dollar
for dollar and on the days due, an
ticipating her bonded debt and meet
ing the interest on it promtly from
her income, is bankrupt. Fmt her, we
want to know about those 10000
offices holders. Counting all the coun-
ty and city executive officials, all the
judicial system, all the State officers
and their forces, all the departments
and all the members of the legis-
lature, we find less than 1000 all
told, many more than half elected by
the people or the Legislature, which is
chosen by vote of the people. The on
ly way we can imagine to make up
the 10, 900 is by counting in all the
school teachers, three fourths women
and chosen on certicfiate of proficien-
cy, and all the police of the cities
and town, selected by local authori-
ties elected by the people. Some i'm
passioned anti-machine orator in
the recent campaign undertook to fill
in the army of 10000 by including
all the federal office holders, with the
selection of whom the State govern
ment has no more to do than with the
choice of the cabinet of the emperor
OF China and for whom, we rejoice to
say, no Democrat has the slightest
responsibility.
We think the records will show that
every new office created and everv
considerable appropriation provided in
the last six or eight years has had the
support of the republican members
of the Legislature.
Democrats can meet all these stale
and senilemumbings by pinning down
those who gave them forth to facts
and figures. Make them specify and
come to definite suggestions and show
where the corruption" is and where
they would save. When they talk of
10, 600 office holders make them en-
umerate and tell where and who the
10, 600 are. When they talk of the
Jones-Glass charges point them to
the overwhelming majority by which
the Democrats of Virginia repudiated
and rebuke those charges. When they
talk of machine" rule make them
point out how many of the free white
men who voted in the recent primary
voted in favor of the "machine" or
with the hope of getting anything out
of it.
The Republicans are trying to carry
on the Jones-Glass, Times-Dispatch
plan of talk and accusation. They will
be answered at the polls the same
way those other accusers were an
swered. The republican party now is
the party of impotence, senility and
the sore-head. 1t can do nothing. 1t
could not even adopt Mr.. Taft's Can
adam reciprocity measure without the
help of the strong, vital, progressive,
modern democratic party. All it can
do is to humble and humble it's old.
old, worn song of "loot' and
damnable outraged. corruption
and the like, without fact to sus-
tain it or make its utterances respc-
table. 1t is back number; thing