The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-10-12

pastor OF Main Street Church. OF this
city, read our editorial which appeared
In tho last issue OF our paper before IL
was published, but he made no COM
mestS upon IL except to say that he did
not think Il would be published in the
Advocate. DR.. J. b. VIM, pastor OF
Mt Vernon Church. also read our edi-
torial. but he declined to say whether
or not he thought II should be pub
Ilshed. saying II was a matter that We
would have to decide for ourselves
Alleged Secret Contract.
CONCERNING the financial methods at
Blackstone Institute the secret cor
tract which the editor OF the Advocate
had with the trustees OF that tRBtitu-
| to have received from Il, has had three
/ answers: First, these questions wore
I raised by the Randolph Macon trus-
| tees; second. that he had worked hard,
/ and tho institution had prospered:
third, the trustees had fully endorsed
his course. Now after four years he
gives up the first answer, and says that
these questions were not first raised by
the RandolDh-Hacon trustees; a. to
his second answer, the public will fail
to see how the hard work OF the editor
and the condition OF the Institute are
sufficient reasons for the existence OF
secret contract or for the refusal of
the trustees to say how they are spend
AAB TIC money TO their care.
The third answer OF the editor to
these questions has been that the
Blackstone trustees endorse and COM
plimeRt him very highly. Yes, the
tr uStees, who are a party to his con-
tract, and who keep his secrets, COM
pliment him very highly, as shown by
his last editorial. They compliment the
editor and the editor compliments
them, and together they refuse to tell
what sort OF a contract exists between
/ themselves. The editor OF the Advo-
cate has come forward and offered TO
pay half the expense Of publishing the
, correspondence between him and the
Blackstone trustees, who tried to find
out these things under discussion, but
what good will the publication of that
correspondence do? We understand
! that it conceals the very point in ques-
tion-the contract with the Blackstone
trustees. and the salary which the edi-
tor-principal receives. We were on
the point of saying that ii would be less
expensive for the editor to publish his
contract, and amount OF his salary in
such plain language that all could un-
derstand it, but that might raise other
and more serious questions.
Concerning the reported political
deal we do not remember that the
editor of the Advocate has ever
denied the report that he took
tentative draft OF the Legislative
report made to the Anti-SalOOn
Convention in 1909, TO Washington
just before the convention met,
and submitsed same to Senator
Martin. We do not remember that
ut Senator Martins suggestion, he
struck from that report one OF its
most important items, viz, the re-
quest for a law preventing the
shipment OF liquor from wet to-
dry territories. Whether these
| things are true or not, we have
seen strange things I'm Virginia
since this conference between the
| head OF the Democratic machine
and the head of the Anti-SalOOn
League. We have seen the saloon
men of the State almost SOlidly
| voting for our most esteemed tenn
perance advocate for Governor.
| We have Reen temperance leaders
| marvelOusly neutral when great moral
questions have been raised since in
politics. We have also seen that since
this conference the temperance cause
has lost out in a very large city in
which the issue has been raised.
Before receiving the editors edi-
torial in manuscript form, we had not
| seen the letter which the editor OF the
Advocate wrote in defense OF his action
at the general conference. and had
circulated privately by his friends.
Since reading the editorial We have
seen copy OF the letter and to US IL is
surprising indeed that 80 damaging a
| letter should be secretly circulated
! about by any man, particularly a min
lister OF the Gospel, thus striking a man
without giving hin any chance TO de-
fend himself. We are surprised at the
letter most of all because IL denies so
emphatically the things concerning the
editors electioneering, OF which we
have evidence satisfactory at least TO
our own minds. that he did do IT. We
also have the same kind of evidence
concerning the editors electioneerinR
| for a place on the Randolph-Macon
Board of Trustees, but he does not
request us to produce these.
With apology to our readers for
/ taking up so nauch space in this dis
cussion, close for this time
Z. G. MOSELEY.