The American people are upon the eve of a Presidential canvass and
election. The issues are vital and most important and are clearly
defined.
Governor of New Jersey, the Honorable Woodrow Wilson, is at this
writing--August, 1912--the chosen standard bearer of the Democracy,
whose platform of nation-wide issues contain the soundest principles
of a _true_ Republican form of government ever devised by mankind. The
cardinal or main feature of it is the revision of the present tariff
downward; in other words a reduction of the same down to a revenue
basis.
The present President, Honorable William H. Taft, is the nominee of
the regular Republican party, which party platform advocates a high
protective tariff, which has resulted in building up trusts in nearly
everything and advancing greatly the costs of living.
On the 5th day of November, 1912, the election will take place, when
the people of the United States of North America will decide whether
the theories of the Democracy or those of the Republican party shall
be the best for their interests and national welfare. The lines are
now clearly drawn and all good Virginians are deeply interested in the
result of the great battle of ballots.
To return in retrospect and compare the present with the past, the
individual then sees the changes made by the passage of time. I well
remember when Mr. Cyrus W. Field, the promoter of the Atlantic Cable,
was considered a regular crank, or semi-lunatic, for such unpractical
ideas as he advanced. Now nearly every part of the globe is connected
by submarine cables. Take up the numerous inventions and discoveries
of "Edison, the great wizard of electricity," and regard the chaining
of lightning by man, making it a motive power, and an illuminator for
dispelling the darkness of the past, as to its many uses for mankind.
Take the railroad engines, which were a few years since small affairs,
and the small and light wooden cars hauled by them, and contrast them
with the palatial trains built of steel and the mammoth locomotives
that now draw them on the heavy 100-pound rails at the rate of sixty
miles per hour. Note the buildings in the great cities called
"skyscrapers," which rise almost to the clouds, and the many other
improvements in architectural steel structures, as the splendid
bridges of that material that span large streams and bridge at dizzy
heights ravines and mountain gorges. Fifty years ago the total
population of Richmond was only about forty thousand souls, while
today--1912--it is nearly one hundred and eighty thousand all told.
Thus we see what tremendous changes are produced by the passage of
"resistless time," which even the most far-sighted human being could
hardly imagine or predict. Now who can safely foretell what may happen
within the next half century? Nearly every day science is bringing to
light marvelous inventions in the industrial world, and the swift
strides in everything pertaining to the everyday life of the human
family is most remarkable. Fearful accidents and awful calamities,
destructive of life and property, follow each other almost equal to
views of the kaleidoscope in suddenness and variety. Truly is this a
wonderful period of the world's existence.
A striking feature of the great commercial advance of the United
States is its vast increase in the railroad connections, which now
penetrate the remotest sections, bringing them into touch with all the
large centres of trade and commerce. That great artery of business,
the Union Pacific Railroad stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the
great ocean on the west coast, the Pacific. And now, as I write, in
but a short time hence the famous canal, the Panama, which will draw
in the tides of the Atlantic and discharge them into the Pacific, for
the first time in history, will be in operation, owing to the
indomitable energy and skill of Americans. And also regard the
wonderful achievements in the aerial world, the art of flying by
men....