Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-02-08


and COMPACT territory containing,
as nearly as practicable. an equal
number of inhabitants"
These are mandatory requirements Of
the law, which the Roanoke Times ha.
assumed to mean. that a shoestring dis.
trict extending two hundred and fifty
miles in an unbroken chain conforms
fully to the requirement of contiguity
but not to that of compactness. These
are the mandatory provisions of the law
about which the Times says:
I'm these days we measure con-
tiguity and compactness not by
miles but by time and convenience.
Who are "We?" Are they the same
fellows who, before the making of the
new constitution, ''took reckless young
country fellows or broken down men
with no character to lose, or coarse
ward and precinct workers eager for
jobs. and let them do the perjury, steal
ing and the smuggling for "Us?" Or are
the present 1--WE" the same fellows who
have been spoken of as:
1--WE taught them how to steal
ballots, to obstruct voters, to forge
poll lists, to alter returns, to play
tricks of low cunning. We laughed
and applauded secretly and Joined
in their lies by lying for them, de-
tending them in the courts, cover
ing up their offenses, accepting the
results of their work?''
Surely the would-be inductive genius
who formulates and Eliminates so manv
startling political theories as well as
these wonderful definitions of the words
contiguous" and compact, is en-
titled to be named the Eighth Wonder of
the World. If his reasoning be true.
he must be the man whom the world
has SO long been looking for, but who
has not previously arrived-the man
who can square the circle. Has this ge-
MUS discovered as a truth that a
shoestring congressional district is a
contiguous and compact" body, and
that "contiguity and compactness" are
to be measured by time and convent
ence" and not by mathematical rules?
Ii so, we may expect him to subvert and
prove untrue all former theories of DO
litieal science and moral philosophy. and
to radically change the definitions given
by learned photographers to all such
common words as contiguous" and
compact" This genius will even be
able to demonstrate, beyond bubble, to
his own satisfaction, if to none others.
that an ellipse is square body, or that
a corkscrew is straight instrument.
The most obnoxious feature of this
last editorial of the Times is its profess
ed admiration and love for Taze-
well county, as expressed in its words:
"All of us hereabouts love TazewelI.
She is great county with fine peo-
pie" The insincerity of this is made
plain by the preceding cruel, if not bru-
tai, expression: 1--WE can make it any
shape we like" when the Times dis
closes its eager desire to have its party
usurp authority to tear Tazewell from
the Ninth and tack it onto the Sixth
district.
This is the kind of love from which
all the good people of Tazewen and
all the right-thinking people of Virginia
should pray for early and complete de-
liverance. 1t is the kind of love that in
these ante-millenial days the lion pro-
fesses for and exhibits to the lamb. as
The lion and the lamb lay down to
sleep,
With the lion all outside the sheep"
Among the persons who hold to the
psychic faith, there are many who claim
that the Soul and Intelligence are one
and the same thing. In the business
and legal world it is known that a cor
poration is a soulless thing or body.
The Roanoke Times is a corporation,
and, therefore, is soulless. This may
possibly account for the extraordinary
soulless and senseless utterances of
the Roanoke Times on this redistrict-
ng question.