The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-02-24
Tribute to senator Con.

NA+oAtJ foCSCibCu tllpul6 10 pdIu
Senator Judge Nathan Cor as fol-
lows by the Wheeling Register, the
leading Democratic newspaper N
West Virginia;
If ever there was well authenti-
Gated case Of the office seeking the
man 1t was furnished yesterday in
the West Virginia legislature when
the allies elected Judge Nathan Con
TO succeed C. w. Watson as United
States senator. Judge Goff was
never even a receptive" candidate.
When he was first mentioned in con-
nection with the Office last year, he
stated in terms sufficiently clear 20
remove all doubt as to his sincerity,
that he did not desire the place.
Every suggestion of his candidacy
since that time has been discouraged
by him, and it is probable that II he
had known in time of the movement
toward him in the caucus Saturday
morning, he would have urged his
friends to withdraw his name. The
honor came to him not only I'M
sought, but in disregard OF his per-
sonal wishes. 1t came to him be-
cause the Republican and Progress
siye allies were in desperate plight,
out OF which nobody esse could help
them.
Judge Goff was very active and in
nuential in the Republican party up
TO the time of his appointment to
federal judgeship. He has(been out
OF touch with politics ever since.
Perhaps nobody would undertake TO
say which way he Ieans-toward
standpat Republieaaism or Bull
Mo ose progressiveism. He was once
a valiant champion of high protec-
ton, and it is assumed that his tar
if views have not changed, but
even that much. can not be pos
itively asserted. Where does he
stand on the new issues which have
developed since he donned the ju-
dicial ermine, issues upon which the
parties that united in supporting
him are as far apart as the sun and
the earth? Who knows?
Possibly Judge Goff has concerned
himself SO little with these questions
that he has no positive convictions
upon many of them. His present
employment q congenial. His
work is a labor of love. He was
thoroughly satisfied with his office
and did not want to be disturbed.
He would have prevented his cleo
ton if he could, but the senatorship
came TO him in such a way that he
could not decline it. No other man
in West Virginia had been SO honor
ed before, Republicans and Pro
gressives joined hands in electing
him on faith. They did not know
they did not stop to where
he stands upon questions as to
which Republicans AID Progressives
hold irreconcilable views. They
only knew that he is a man of high
character and conspicuous ability,
whose election offered the best, If
not the only solution of the grave
problem which confronted them on
the eve of adjournment of the leg
islative session.
The end of the long and bitter
fight at Charleston will satisfy ev-
erybody but the Republican and
Progressive politicians. Aside
from politics, Democrats are pleased
with the election of Golf, and the
rank and file of the allied parties
which'elec him will have no COM
plant to make. Judge Goff may not
view public questions as some of us
do, but his long and honorable pub
lie career justifies the belief that he
viii serve the people conscientiously
ana to the best of his ability in the
Senate.
Cor and NTodarD TsSues