The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-16

This man has set himself task TOT Hercules. It Is his purpose to snlite hip and thigh the Martin machine in Vir- ginia, which Is all that Quayism was in Pennsylvania, or Gormanism in Mary land, or more, for report saith that it mobilized in one camp the saloon and the temperance lodge, that Is, those who drink in one and those who attend the other It is notorious that at the last primary both classes I have named sup ported the machine candidate and he was triumphant.
 Like all other machines, the Martin combination is a Pretorian that parcels out among it's servitors the spells of of flee Nobody can get nomination for a state office without it's consent. and it rules Virginia with iron rod in the name and by the authority of the demo- cratic party, which 1t has by the throat. This machine held primary election in the Norfolk congressional district in 1910 at which all the ward heelers of New York Philadelphia and Pittsburg would have stood aghast. That election was the issue in Virginia and the issue it will remain until the machine Is destroyed.
 It is everywhere conceded that Virginia is the most illustrious of the American commonwealths. She contributed to civil liberty the tongue of Henry. the pen of Jefferson, and the sword of Washington. Nay, she illumined the Christian civili- zation and exalted the human race with the lofty character of Robert F. Lee. The constitution fell from the plastic hands of her Madison and her Mason, and to the republic she gave Kentucky erd the opulent empire called the Middle West. Leader of the rebllion of '76 she was the citadel of the rebellion of '6l, and in her generous bosom sleeps more valor than reposes in the soil of all the rest of our hemisphere besides. When the south was at bay against what was practically the l.orld in arms and the Old Dominion was Feeding at every pore, the vulturo tore 1T tortured vitals and the vandal carved from her side what is now West Virginia and made of it. an annex of Pennsylvania.
 And now after so glorious a past seem ingly Virginia is poweress in the grasp of as conscienceless and as remorseless a set of political harpies as ever operated machine In contempt of justice and in defiance of a people. What will the harvest be? Time. will tell.
 Who is this champion that has entered the lists against the Martin machine? It Is William A. Jones. Born near where repose the bones of "the worlds only Washington a citizen of that communi- ty every day of his life, educated at the institution founded by Thomas Jefferson, elected eleven times to Congress by that democratic constituency, William A. Jones is a virginian of Virginians. It would be impossible for the machine to seduce this man and they who know him realize that is unthinkable that he should lend himself to the corruption of the least or the humblest citizen. Preferment the most exalted, honors the most radiant, this man would scorn and put behind him unless they were the free offering of a free people and not the largess appor- toned to him by boss. And be it re- rnembered the American people are face to face with their bosses everywhere, in- cludng old Virginia. God bless her!
 ssv
 William A. Jones was born in Rich mond county in 1s49. and his dwelling Is on the same site of the house in which he was born He was one of the boys of the Virginia Military institute who stacked their arms in the capitol grounds at Richmond at the surrender in 1865. Then he attended the Coleman school at Fredericksburg, so famous as the pre- raratory school for students of the Uni versity of Virginia. Later he entered that university, in both the academic and law departments and from the latter he was graduated.
 He opened an office at Warsaw and was in the active practice of his profession when chosen a member of Congress from the First district In 1S90 and he has been ten times reelected, a record euualed by no other Virginian save John Randolph of Roanoke and Thomas Newton of Nor folk. He is the dean of the democratic side and no man in public life has made a finer character
 Mir Jones won his spurs the first sessor in which he sat. It was in the debate oi the Sibey claim. Before the war Sibey a southerner and a graduate of Wes Point, invented an army tent, and tho government entered into a contract witl him for its use. He assigned one-half tho contract to a Northern man, who collect ed what was due him on it. Sblev wen' with his people in the war. and after tho eurrender he was pardoned and later hs died.
 His heirs presented claim for tho amount due him. and the government | pleaded the statute of limitations: al | least. that was the effect of it. but blood, shirters like Burrows and that gani pI aded treason in bar. While Jones wal