Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-01-04
axe g eheeriul a view Of the situation,


Accounts and of the Auditing Commit
tee OF the General Assembly contain
some facts not calculated to impress on
the people of Virginia that the admins
tration of State affairs during recent
years has been so fiawless as was claim
ed by some of the leading participants
In last summers campaign Indeed,
several of the statements officially set
forth In these documents abundantly
confirm assertions which were then
secuted at as political libels. This.
however, is merely q passing reflection.
Inc real Importance of these reports is
that they proceed from sources not to
be charged with prejudice against the
powers that be, and that in showing
where and how the public business has
been loosely and extrsvagsntly admin
lstered, they also point out the direction
In which correctives should be applied
TO promote efficiency and economy Of
govero ment. Roseate affirmations that
everything is lovely and the goose
hangs high" are no longer in order
The Governor and the General Assem-
bly, are brought face to face with a situ-
alton which can not be blinked. and it is
up to them to meet it squarely and ap-
ply the remedies, even though that
course should constitute a confession
that in the immediate past the party in
power has done things which it ought
not to have done. The actual deficit in
the treasury is mere bagatelle consid-
cred merely as such; the resources and
revenues of the Commonwealth are
ample to take care of casual shortage
OF hundred or so thousand dollars. if
Drought about by casual contingency,
Justifying extraordinary expenditures.
The shortage only becomes accusatory
when caused by failure of the State au-
thorities to utilize those resources to
the full extent or by wasteful devotion
OF the revenues to objects not essential
nor promotive of the public interests.
within the past decade the revenues of
the State have more than doubled.
while the population has increased
about % per cent. This income should
have sufficed for all legitimate public
needs. That it has not done so proves
the necessity for reform in the meth
DDS of government which the coming
Democratic Legislature can not be too
prompt to insugurate.
Has the conduct of the Democratic
Legislatures for the past quarter of a
century given single reader the slight
est ground for hope that Democratic
Legislature will ever give them the
least relief?
Now comes the most serious charge
OF all. The squandering of State funds
is bad enough, for we do not agree with
the Virginian-Pilot that 1.-THE actual de-
felt in the treasury is a mere baga-
telle, ;" but, Of course it can be over
come, and little more toll from the la
borer, little more sweat from the
brow of the farmer will enable them to
raise the additional tax necessary to
maintain in idleness and dissipation the
gang that today infests the States in
situations; but what is to be said of
those who take advantage of the neces-
sites of those so unfortunate as to
come, by illness, under the care of the
State. 1t would be thought that those
having in charge the States charities
would, by professional training. ethics
and inclination, be entirely above the
grating and grabbing that, unfortu-
nstely, characterizes too many of the
States employees, but the reading of
the serious charges against the admin
istration of the Catawba Sanitarium. in
this issue, will disabuse the minds of
any who might have thought the States
charities we'll managed
These charges are made by Mr.. ]. M.
Elliott, of Roanoke, who has been an
inmate of Catawba, and knows whereof
ne speaks, apd3e story he tells of the t
of that institution calls n
for rigid investigation by an impartial t
committee of the Legislature, if it can y
possibly be had. il
AS we said in the beginning, we would r
quote only from Democratic sources. t
DIR. Elliott is not only Democrat him C
elf, but his father and brothers are also r
# that political faith; but fortunately, c
Mr.. Elliott is not like some members of n
lis party in the State, who think the n
lame of the party a fetch that should C
protect all its members from punish +
nent for misdeeds. So, unafraid, he o
ellis of the conditions at Catawba that s
iced immediate reform. @
What are you going to do about it, e
N, people of Virginia? The conditions t