Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-03-17
WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTING?'

This cry comes from the Great Re-
former in Salem, like the cry out of
the darkness from dcspairing sailors.
A reformer shouldn't drift at all or
anywhere. His course is supposed to
be determined in the start, and his
port of anchorage definitely fixed
Perhaps eve" are not drifting at all
anywhere. A case is recorded Of a
boatman not accustomcnd to the water
who thought his boat WIS getting
somewhere, when, next morning, he
discovered that his canoe was chain
ed to n tree on the bank, and nc was
still right there. But the presumption
is that our friend is actually "drift-
ing" He is headed down stream.
Don't ask, "whither are we drifting 2"
Who knows where you will fetch up I?
Whether in some placid little sunlit
harbor or against the rocks and cliffs,
or perchance go over the fallc ard be
be lost in the foamy, frothy
whirlpools. We think we could give
pretty good answer to our contem-
porary's wall as to its own ship of
Reform, but we decline to "rush in"
but prefer to wait and say, 1--WE knew
it all the time"
But why drift at all? Out this
way, none of us are Drifting" or
think we are not, anyway, anil have
some evidences. The farmers have a
plenty, the merchants are selling
goods, the carpenters and brick lay
ers and other mechanics are all busy,
the railroads. can't get men to handle
the traffic, nor the coal mines men to
dig the coal as fast as they can sell
it. We are building hundreds of miles
OF good roads. Our schools are filled
with children and our teachers are
the best we can get; our churches are
fairly we'll attended. Our men and
women are the hardest and pretticst,
and even Republican convention in
TINS section recently was forced to
admit that times are good. Oh, no,
dear Reformer, we are not drifting"
we don't belong to that gang. We
are pulling steadily and strongly up
stream all the time. And the same
all over the United States. Virginia
had on March 1st, S4,92O,0OO bushels
OF wheat in the bin, and Uncle Sam
had 242 million bushels, and we had
March 1st, 3 1-2 million bushels of
Old corn in the crib, and Uncle Sam
had one billion, lao million bushels.
We are not going down stream
drifting anywhere. We may be drift
ing" in way, towards war with
Germany, but will never drift into it
unless it is by the instrumentalitv of
lot Of jingoes, made up partly of
Republicans and hyphenated Amer
leans, who will bring on war if by so
doing Wilson can be defeated, and the
hungry pie-hunters given seat mt
the counter. The trouble with this
State and this county is-at least one
trouble-there are found amongst us
newspapers, great and small, who are
destructionists instead of construc-
tionlsts. They always kick and crit
icise. They seem to live to howl, like
hungry wolves seeking to tear up
something or somebody. Nothing
good can come out of Nazareth unless
Nazareth happens to be ruled and
governed by member of their polit-
lcal party, and then, though the Gov
ernor be Herod or Pontius plate
ne is applauded and his deeds, bloody
though they may be, are approved
and all SO clearly, too, for purely "p..-
lltical purposes"
However, our contemporaries re-
marks on the subject of drifting are
worthy of consideration. He ought
to know something about the subject
OF drifting" and his warning sip-
nails should not be ignored. Some wears
ago his party began to drift and drift
ed and drifted, faster as the ever-ac-
celebrating momentum of the cur
rents swept it on, and over the falls
IL went and was cast upon a shore n
broken wreck with but few survivors
VINO are now reduced to the humilint-
ing course of bowling at the feet and
licking the boots of their once scorn-
cd enemies, in an effort to reorgan-
'ze and refine. Oh, yes; our friend
should be an authority on the subject
OF drifting" and pity it is that he
did not come to judgment" years ago.
Now, after this brief dissertation we
expect our contemporary to behave
itself. We don't want to have to take
1T across our knee again.