Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-08-18

we hope for deliverance. He has the
courage of the soldier, the philosophy
of the seer and the sympathy of the
patriot. He has come from the
scholars cloister, and by no secret
passage way, to great place and pow
er, where his armor has been invul-
nerable against the poisoned arrows
of the Machine. He has opened wide
every public window in New Jersey,
and has flooded that state with the
light of his confidence and his plans.
The machines throughout the nation
are already blinking in the blaze of
Woodrow Wilson's ascendancy, pom
dering whether they should foully
puncture the tire of his morning
chariot or to leap thereupon in the
dust of it's speed, shouting that he
is their Original choice" for the
machine is a professional victor
whenever it knows how to be.
The Machine in Virginia
1t is said we have no machine in
Virginia. And so said by men who
see mOnstrous machines in New
York and California. They see the
mote in their brothers eye, but not
the beam in their own.
But the proof is at hand. It Is
confessed and seductively urged in
secret, as the one method of securing
place and fame. The head of the
Virginia Machine, Senator Martin, for
he has so declared to be in the late
Suffolk Convention by his chief sup
porters, proudly claimed kinship
with the machine and the boss be-
fore the Association of County
Clerks, held in Norfolk some time
ago. The Senator there lauded the
Boss and the Machine, and was de-
lighted to be friend of the former
and a member of the latter.
But confessions aside, examine the
very nature of the machine. It al
ways strives to confederate all of
the office holders and employees of
government, state. city and county
into a compact union.- No one is al
lowed to hold place unless he open
ly or passively consetns to be men,
Der of this factional union. Is ont
this the fact in Virginia? The num-
ber of officials and employees not
within this Ring are negligible; they
are the exceptions which prove the
rule.
Office Holders Trust
The speaker meant no reflection
upon any official or employee, but
he would warn the people of Vir-
ginia that there was no graver sign
of danger to free government than
an ofice-holders' trust. When the
office-holders combine what should
people do? What must they do? Ap-
proximately there are 700 officials
and employees, state, city, county
and those in and connected with the
national government from Virginia.
This number is an effective cleo
pioneering force for securing about
10000 additional votes. With the
present small electorate is not this
a condition portentousa and menacing?
The Machine indirectly but surely
names many of these officials and
employees. Washington is looked to
more than Richmond for the influ-
ences requisite to secure Office and
place. Occasionally one or two of
the leaders of the Machine personal
ly come to Richmond to see after
the larger places, and to see that the
machines revolves with promised re-
gularity.
Then this factional union must be
steadily increased in pay and in num-
bers. Witness the growing list OF
offices, and an increased pay roll OF
about 100000 in the past five years
and this too despite the unsatisfac-
tory condition of the States treas
ury.
Analyses the Machine
A systematic and malisnan. de-
probation of all who inquire into,
criticize or oppose the action of any
official or department of government
The directors of the machine do not
do this often in direct o rOpen man.
ner, but they are the efficient cause
which sets in motion the forces and
instruments of destruction. The
work is done by few journals, but
mainly in secret and sinister ways
by the fuge-nen of the machine~
Systematic and fulsome praise of
the directors of the machine and the
next in line. Hear the attest direct
testimony. Congressman Flood is re-
ported to have used these words In
his Fourth of July grafton at West
Point:
Mr.. Floods optimism or credulity
may be admired by some, but there
is still historic Washington, Jeffer.
son, Henry Madison, Monroe, Tyler,
Leigh and Hunter Marshall and
others who should not be thus sum-
marily effaced even to help the Vir-
ginia Machine. Besides Mr.. Flood
does not even exclude himself from
his category of present SURPRISING
excellencies, and therefore rather i'm
modestly places himself a sthe full
equal of Thos. S. Bocock and John
Randolph Tucker, who were his pre-
decessors in Congress.
Elections
And as to elections: Does not the
voice of the viva voce ballot still
linger to drown the fraudulent babel
in the primaries in several places in
Virginia? He makes no charge of
fraudulent elections; but he does as
sert that very large number of the
best people in Virginia believe that
rlviv,