Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-02-04
SOUTHWEST PARTS
GETS NEW HONORS
NJ. g. w. Section Has Been Honored by
Election Of Or. Hatfield to Presi-
dency of Senate.
BY JOHN c. BOND.
The Evening World Bureau.

4
cans and democrats Of the state sen
ate comes additional recognition Of
that part of West Virginia which has
been strongest in furnishing epubli-
can majorities and that part which
has been 50 unjustly criticised as wild
and woolly, the Norfolk & Western
section. Senator II D. Hatfield, the
compromise president of the senate,
comes from Mcdowell county as does
DELEGATE James A. Strother, whom the
republicans of the house voted for
for Speaker. making him their floor
leader.
| Mcdowell and Mingo counties led
in republican majorities in the last
election. 1t was in those counties that
Rankin Wiley, democratic candidate
olec tion of Congressman Hughes
claims gross frauds in the election
were perpetnated and that Hughes
owes his majority to those frauds.
Hatfield is the political leader OF Nc
Dowell and has been accused If ma
nipulating the elections in favor Of
the republicans. II is a blow to Wiley's
contest that the democrats Of the state
senate chose Hatfield as the republl-
can who would be most fair with them
in presiding over the sessions of that
body Republicans who are interested
in the Wiley4Hughes contest ask how
it is that Hatfield was chosen as prob
a F.t Tho Az In INC
he is such political corruptionist az
hcme. Hatfelds selection is taken as
a. victory for Hughes as we'll as for
the republicans in settling the state
senate muddle
In the last election Strother for
House of Delegates had majority of
: 245 in Mcdowell county. In Mingo
the republican majority was l,200 for
Goodykoontz for the House. Two years
ago the majorities were nearly as
large Notwithstanding the fact that
the republicans in Mcdowell have been
charged with bsing insurgents against
the state administration, they have
stood up on election day and the
honors returned by the selection of
Hatfield as president of the senate and
STROLLER as floor leader Is looked upon
by the republicans as deserved re-
cognton of party services. 1t is true
that Hatfield was designated as presl-
dent by the Democrats and that he
was not the Republican caucus nomi-
nee. But he was not candidate for
) the Office and announced a preference
for desk on the floor
; Further recognition of the southern
tier of counties may come when the
legislature againg votes for United
States senators. 1t is safe to say that
Watson and Chiffon will be elected by
the democrats but the republicans
; will vote the next time. 1t has not yet
been decided whether or not the re-
lpublicans will caucus but it is a fore
gone conclusion that some southern
man, likely Isaac T. Mann, of Bran
well, will get a good complimentary
: vote for one of the terms.
So much for the political side OF the
Norfolk & Western section in general
and Mcdowell county in particular
The intellectual side of that section
las been called to question OF many
| occasions. 1t has been charged that Nc
, Dowell county is the hotbed of crime
and that the stranger who ventures in
to that section takes his life in his
hands. No statement could be farther
from the truth Mcdowell county has
a population of some $4,000 and of
this number perhaps 80, 900 to $4,000
t are negroes and foreigners employed
5 in the mines. The rest are people just
as intelligent, with Just as high a
standing of morals as can be found in
thu country.
True some years ago that was the
] home Of various feuds which We're
] wagsd to the death of the participants
But that has all passed. In Mcdowell
county hardly 700 persons are found
who are Of the native born. The ma
tiyes have either sold out th ir hold
t ings, which proved valuable, and NOV
ed TO western states, or have taken up
tn hum Of industry and are develop
ers. Some of the most valuable coal
and timber lands in the country are
in that country and they are being
! rapidly developed. The large majority
of the white American born residents
Of the county have come in from Penn
sylvauia, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio
or have gone there from the northern
half Of this state. Any aspersion on
Mcdowell county reflects on the peo-
Die of half a dozen states. The coun-
ty contains fnanciers, captains of in
dustry, jurists,-in fact, some cf the
; leading men along all lines in the
state
Among the colored and foreign pop
ulation there is a great deal of crime
but it is principally confined to those
classes "A negro wounds or kills an
other negro, or foreigner uses a sti-
lette on one of his own countrymen.
With all the colored population the
Ipast twenty years does not show a