Newspapers / The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, … / Oct. 16, 1924, edition 1 / Page 4
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Entered at Pittsboro, N.U., as seconu Class mail matter by act of Congress. SUBSCRIPTION: One Year, $ 15 _ 0 * Six Months, •**> O. J. Peterson, Editor and Owner. Chas. A. Brown, Contributing Editor. Advertising: 25c. 30c. and 35c. net. THURSDAY, OCTOBER, 16, 1924. We have frequently heard people ask why the waters of the lower Cape Fear are always so red. If those in quires could have been in Chatham last month they could answer the question for themselves. Miss Kate Burr Johnson, State wel fare commissioner, wins in Wake and Mrs, Bickett is chosen county super intendent of welfare. This means that welfare work in North Carolina is divorced from politics. Superintenden cies cannot be handed out as political plums so long as Mrs. Johnson has the veto power. The editor of the Record, by grace of a residence of five years in the home town of Mr. A. W. McLean, candidate for governor on the Demo cratic ticket, can personally vouch for him as a gentleman, scholar, and fine business man, and hopes to see Chatham county roll up a big major ity for him in November. LaFollett and Senator Brookhart are not sparing the feeling of their former Republican colleagues. They | declare the Republican party rotten j 1 and they should know what they are » * | « talking about. Brookhart is running as the Republican nominee for the j Senate from lowa, but he is skinning Coolidge, Pawes, and the Republican J leaders in general. /. { i *. —— ' v Despite the willingness to believe in the practicability of the proposed expenditure of $8,000,000 for port developments, we still feel that the State is contemplating almost as haz ardous gambles as purchasers of eas tern North Carolina “oil” lands, and that Stacey Wade might serve the state a good turn if he could put his foot down hard upon this “blue sky” proposition. A note from our ancient friend Col. C. S. Wooten, of Mount Olive, known throughout North Carolina for inter esting contributions to the papers about the good old days, after ex pressing his regrets at not finding his friend in his old haunts on a recent visit to Clinton, concludes: “I am 84 and in perfect health. I haven’t an ach or pain.” Indeed one of the regrets of our change of domicile is that of miss ing the pleasure of an occasional call from this scholarly gentleman of the old school. Judge Frank Daniels before whom was tried Romulus Grady, of Duplin county, on the charge of cutting his son’s throat while drunk, pronounced the killing, “the finished product of the liquor business.” Grady swore that he does not even remember having a quarrel with his son and that the first he knew of the tragedy was when he awoke from his drunken stupor and found himself trying to stop the flow of blood from the gaping wound in his son’s throat. A civilized com munity should not allow such hell broth as bootleg liquor to be made or sold in its bounds. The Durham Herald suggests that the time has come when North Car olina should provide a college for its negro youth. If education is good for white folk, it is good for negroes. Yet if it weie not for Slaw Univ rsit * and other negro schools established and fostered by northern money, our ne gro youth would have to leave the state to secure a college education. North Carolina citizens, white or blacky should not be dependent upon North ern charity for an opportunity to get an education. The negro has paid his way in North Carolina, if anybody has done so, and we agree with'the Herald that the state should give greater con sideration to the educational needs of the race. The death of Dr. R. H. Marsh of Oxford removes one of the State’s landmarks. Dr. Marsh was a great preaeher, but was satisfied to devote his life to the ministry of Granville county country churches for fifty years. He and his colleague, Rev. R. I. Devin, father of Judge Devin, were both big enough not to have to seek prestige by position. Yet honors came to them unsought. Dr. Marsh was president of the Baptist State Conven tion for several years and a member of the board of trustees of Wake For est College for a generation.. He died at the age of 86. Col. J. D, Dorsette, of Siler City, was a relative and a mess mate of Dr. Marsh’s during.the war and attended the funeral at' Ox ford Wednesday. than to the Judges. Juries, no doubt, are frequently swayed by a false sense of mercy and allow offenders to es cape just punishment. But, in Samp son eounty, a case is awaiting Judge Frank Daniels next week that will test his stamina, or that of any other judge who might be confronted with a similar unpleasant duty. Submission on the part of Clerk of Court SessomS to the charge of mis application of pension funds saved a jury of his former friends the dis tasteful duty of convicting him, for it would have been difficult to find a jury in Sampson county that should not have been comprised largely of the Clerk’s friends of former years. There was no more popular man in the coun ty than Fleet Sessoms. He had taken the Scriptual injunction to make friends of, or through, the mammon of unrighteousness literally and had not been at all squeamish as to the source of the mammon necessary to buy booze and the food, to keep a big pack of hounds, to travel hither and thither over the country attending song fests, and to do the many oth er things that made him hail fellow with citizens of every shade of opin on and of all moral standards. Scarcely a judge or solicitor had visited the Sampson court for fifteen years who had not been entertained by the “big hearted” clerk. Yes, Fleet Sessoms was a popular man and for many years highly esteemed as one of the .' “best clerks” in the state. But, for- j tunately, a Sampson county jury did not have to pass upon the case, though the evidence of long and almost con tinuous stealing was so clear and def inite that it is inconceivable that ev en a jury composed of his former adherents would have had the tem erity to acquit him. Submission was made at the Aug- ust term of criminal court, but judg ment was withheld until the October term. That term convenes October 20. Judge Daniels is the man who must determine whether an official who has betrayed the people of a county and continuously robbed the Confederate veterans of the state is to pay the penalty the same as the hundreds of smaller offenders against whom the ex clerk has recorded road and peniten tiary sentences during the period of his own stealings. A wrong impression got abroad in the state at the time of the submis sion. The regular correspondent of the 1 state papers was absent the day of the submission, and a visiting news paper writer wrote the account which j appeared in the public press, and from which the public inferred that the shortage was due to a poor system of < bookkeeping. But that impression is utterly wrong. There were no books to keep with regard to the pension funds. Thqf vouched came to this clerk from the State Auditor and all that the clerk had to do was to deliver them or return them. In case of scores | of dead men kept illegally on the lht i by Sessoms himself, the vouchers were neither delivered to relatives of the deceased nor returned to the State 1 auditor,but were endorsed by Ses- • soms with the dead man’s “mark”, l witnessed by himself, and deposited « in his own bank account. There was : no reason under the sun Why he should , not know that he was misapplying the funds.. * In the the first place, he was al most absolutely bound to know that scores of pensioners kept on the list ; were dead. When the present editor . of the Record got a copy of the list he could mark off many dead ones ' from personal knowledge, and within i a few days, by inquiry, had been en- I abled to discover the names of sixty \ odd dead men and women on , the list, and the editor’s knowledjge of people in Sampson county could not have equalled that of the man con cededly the best acquainted of all men with the people of Sampson coun ty, and especially with tihe pensioners whose vouchers he had handled for many years. Personally, we should hate to see Fleet Sessoms sentenced to a term in the penitentiary, if for nothing else than because of his good wife and fine children. But as a citizen and an , editor who believes not only in pro tecting the public from the inroads ; of dishonest officials but also in the 1 same treatment for all offenders, big 1 or little, and for the same considera p ton for the wife and children of the • poor country bumpkins as for those > of the petted-office-holder, we should ' be bound to condemn as a miscarriage • of justice any penalty non-commensu ; rate with th long seris of crimes com • mitted against the people of the state and especially against the poor Con ■ federate veterans. , - l Sessoms himself deserves no con , sideration at all.. He was utterly t shameless in his guilt. When the edi- J tor of the Sampson Democrat had ■ shown, in his paper and on the stump, two years ago, that the trust funds i ' i ly made no defense, but even wh^ * the time for the nepct report of wit ness fees in his possession was due, * passed right on by the for weeks i and not till after the next pension i funds had become available did he * publish a list of witnesses for the past l four years who had been held out of their fees.* Moreover, since that en : forced requirment with the law, no other publication has been made, i so that the school board is as far fom obtaining what fees were not ■ called for by former witnesses as it fever was, for the law requires that the list of uncalled for fees! shall ! be published three successive years and shall then revert to the schools. Yet nobody till this good day knows how much of the S3OOO witness fees was called for by the former witness es or how much of the S3OOO Sessoms has still diverted to his private use. Again, after it had been shown that he had absolutely failed to report thousands of dollars of trust funds known to have been in his hands, he still disregarded the requirements of ’the law and, though reporting the funds proved to have been received by him, did not state to whom they were loaned or what security he had for them, though the law which re- ' quired these things specifically had been published before his very nose and had been quoted on a dozen stumps in the county. So that till this day, unless representatives of the own ers or recent auditors have discover ed the facts, nobody knows how many thousands of dollars of trust funds of orphans have been squandered by the trusted official. Indeed an audit will almost assuredly reveal shortages in other than pension funds.. There is hardly a parallel case of such gall and such corruption in the state as that of the former Sampson clerk of court, and any impression to the contrary is at variance with the facts. Next week we shall try to take the opportunity to show that Clerk S:s soms is not the only offender in the matter of pensions. Judge Henry Grady is a maker or breaker of precedents. He held a ses sion of the Brunswick court Tuesday of last week in the woods at the scene of the murder of the two officers. George and Lilly, a few months ago The Cotton News, the organ of,, the N.C. Cotton Coop. Marketing Asso ciation, is paying Mr. N. J. Dark the compliment of reprinting his long ar- j tide published in the Record October 2. It is a compliment worthily bestow- | ed as the article was one of the strong est pleas for cooperative marketing w e have recently read. i LEON WILSON" GhTTS DAMAGES. 7" he negro who smashed Mr. Leon Wilson’s car near Carey sometime ago was convicted in Wake county j last week and sentenced to pay Mr. Wilson SIOO for damages to his car arid to pay all costs, which were :ieavy, especially when the negro’s attorney fees were included, as he had three attorneys, who if they charged as the two Raleigh attorneys charged the county commissioners of .Wake for defending the convict camp boss charged with letting prisoneis escape, would break up any ordinary negro. Mr. Daniel L. Bell, of Pitts boro, assisted the solicitor. —^i—^» I Tobacco News § | Tobacco Selling High at Burlington. | 5 j The LEADER Warehouse, of Burlington, invites Chat- g | ham County Farmers to bring their Tobacco to its floor. S * Our prices this week are strong. ’ All the companies 1 1 8 are represented on our floors and are anxious for tobacco. $ 5 Bring us your next load and we will see that you get j | j the Highest Dollar for every pile you sell with us. jg | The Leader Warehouse, § § JAS. WARREN, JESS TINGIN,L n § S JOHN LEATH, WILL LEATH,r roprietors - j | j| j---- ; .-■■■• • ; g real article come to the Pittsboro High school auditorium on Halloween night. Watch next week’s Record for further announcement. Jm i 1— WILL CELEBRATE BIRTHDAY. A birthday dinner will be given to Mr. D. W. Talley at his home near Goldston on Saturday, November the Ist. This has formerly been a family affair, but this year the public is cor dially invited to come and bring bas kets. Be on time and enjoy a good time together. LOOK AT THE*LABEL ON PAPER. Oil in advance * , - ;i MOST anybody can drive a car, but looking after it is really a mechanic’s job- The trouble is that lots of people just drive and drive and drive- As long as the car goes they think everything is O.K. Men with some mechanical training get the most out of their cars. They know that they must oil in advance. It’s usually too late, if you wait till a squeak develops or a bearing heats up. Still, anyone with a mechanical turn of mind can acquire the habit of paying proper attention to lubri cation. There’s just one safe rule. Oil and grease on a definite schedule—a mileage basis. Make it a matter of regular routine- It is not a question of once a week or once a month, but every 500 miles, 1000 miles or 1500 miles, depending on the STANDARD OIL COMPANY (New Jersey) “STANDARD" Three consistencies— “t.e ‘Hoiarine ; chert —always name B M M M oil it recommends. Oilsyou can c Jrustl p| stov es, churches and school houses in both coal and wood IT ||j See our big display of stoves before you buy . m jKfl We have a stove suitable for every need ' w | LEE HARDWARE CO. I M SANFORD, part of the car to be lubricated- It does not really take long to oil a car properly and it pays for itself over and over again in smooth run ning, low repairs and long life. If you are in doubt as to where,whem and how to oil, take your car’round to your service man. Watch him put in the ‘‘Standard” Polarine Motor Oil. Next time you will be able to do most of it yourself. Changing the crank case oil is the main lubrication job- Also the dir tiest. It will usually pay to have it done for you- “Standard” Service Stations and most “Standard” deal ers are equipped to do it for you promptly and well. Save yourself time, trouble and money by starting on a regular oil* ing schedule today-
The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 16, 1924, edition 1
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