North Carolina Newspapers

START WORK IUIITS ISSUES CALL FOR EIGHTEEN MEMBERS OF COMMISSION TO MEET IN RALEIGH. SETS DATE FOR,. APRIL 21 Date Fixed After Governor Corres ' ponded With the Eighteen Members For -Some Time Will Talk Over Uieigh. Governor Craig has is sued a call for the members of the Legislative Commission on Constitu tional Amendments to meet at Ral iKk April 21 for organization. This UUe has been selected after corres pondence with the 18 members, it ap pearing to be the most generally con venient date. The commission is to ttlect a secretary at that time, and gree upon a program for sessions and hearing. II will take over the bills for amending the Constitution that were introduced during the recent session et the Legislature, will hear any citi xca and interests as to these and for nralate recommendations, to be pre vented to the Governor 60 days before Hub issues a call for the Legislature to awect ' in special session. Also the commission will recommend any oth r amendments that it may consider advisable. The Legislature, in turn, will act pea these recommendations and con afdar "any , other amendments that members propose at the extra ses sion, the province the Legislature De tag to provide for the people to vote oa th3 several amendments pro pooed. The commission is composed of 18 members, five named by the Gover nor, live by the Senate and eight by the House. They follow: A. M. Scales, Greensboro; J. W. RaOey, Raleigh; D. Y. Cooper, Hen derson. H. Q. Alexander, Charlotte; W. J. Rouse, Kinston; Lieutenant Governor Daughtridge, Rocky Mount; H. W. Stubb, Williamston; A. T. Grant Mocksville; A. D. Ward, New fcern; A. D. Ivie, Spray; P. M. Wash ington, Wilson; Speaker Connor, Wil son; E. J. Justice, Greensboro; R. A. Dough ton, Sparta; W. A. Devin, Oxford; E. R. Wooten, Kinston; C. S. Wallace, Morehead City; II. A. Page Aberdeen; R. R. Williams, Asheville. Stokely Is Adjudged "Not Guilty." The jury in the Murden Stokely trial announced that it had reached a agreement and was ready to ren der a verdict. The news quickly spread and before the court could be assembled every inch of space avail able in the court room was packed JiT eager spectators. The prisoner otered in custody of an officer and She jury Hied in. Amid intense sil aaee the formalities were gone through with, and the jury rendered a verdict of "not guilty." No trial in Elizabeth City has ever created so keen an interest. Young Stokely and his family quickly left the city for tbeir home in Okisko. Morth Carolina New Enterprises. A charter is issued for the Richard-oon-James Company (Incorporated) f Star, Montgomery county, capital $10,000 authorized, and $2,500 sub scribed. $1,000 by Noah Richardson and $500 each by W. H. James, L. L. Richardson and W. L. James. Anoth w charter is for the Southern Crown .Milling Company, Asheboro, capital $50,000 authorized, and $25,000 sub scribed by W. P. Redding and others. Union County Commencement. The biggest educational rally that ever took place at Monroe was held several days ago in the form of a county commencement. The immense crowd gathered was a striking proof of the interest the people are taking Sa education and the advancement utde. There were 3,000 school chil dren here and the line of march wae more than a mile long. Change County Commencement Date. The date of the Wayne County .School Commencement has been chang cd from April 11th to April 4th. Ad ditional prizes have also been offered A prize of $10 will be given to the school bringing the largest crowd cf students and patrons, and a prize of J3 to the One bringing the second 'largest. The Wayne county club will igire a silver loving cup to the school winning the greatest number of prints in field events. A team must via three years in succession to tlsblish permanent ownership Jprizes For Guilford Farmers. The Greensboro Merchants' Asso ciation has "made anouncement of prize awards to farmers in Guilford county narheting the most tobacco in Greensboro during February. The i,rst prize, $15 coat suit, went to Mr. 'W. ft. Moore; the second prize went I, W. O. Doggett, a $5 razor, and $7.50 -worth of paint; and the third to W. 21. Trexler, $10 worth of drugs. H. C. SUdd won the first prize for making s j erst ;e for all tobacco; second prize wo won by T. C. Smith and third -at to JYed N. Taylor Oil A WOULD RECLAIM MUCH LAND Government Engineers Have Recom mended the 'Organization of a Drainage District in Burke. Raleigh.- A special from Washing ton states that the organization of a drainage district under the state law with the co-operation of all the land owners along the bottom lands of the creek, each to pay his proportionate part of the cost, is recommended in the report of aa examination of Silver Creek, Burke County, by Agricultural Department Engineers Yarnell and Lynde, made at the request of Rep resentative Wbb. , The engineers recommend that the channel be widened to 25 feet and brought to a depth of eight feet, at an estimated cost of $18,084. In the opinion of the engineers, if the work" recommended is done, the land along the banks of Sliver Creek will in rease from 400 to 500 per cent. " There is about 1,000 acres of bot tom land in the proposed drainage district now worth approximately $25 an acre but if properly drained it would be worth at least $100 an acre. Tne report of the engineers says in part: , "The examination was made afoot, in company with W. A. Walton, one of the land owners along the creek. Starting at a point just above Mc Elrath's dam about six miles above its outlet, the creek was traversed to its mouth. The watersheds of Sil ver . Creek are naturally rolling and hilly, and the run-off is very r'apid.' It is estimated that there is about 1,000 acres of bottom lands in the proposed district The soil is rich and needs little if any fertilizer. It pos sesses a mudt greater fertility than do the upland suits, but there is al ways the possibility of the complete loss of the crop by overflow. Almost any rainfall of consequence causes the creek to overflow, not only dam aging the land and crops but also de positing sand. "Almost all the bottom land was once in cultivation, but in recent years owing to the uncertainty of getting a crop, it has been abandoned to a great extent Owing to lack of drainage the uplands are now practically use less. To Improve Lenoir Roads. Property owners on one road run ning out of Kinston, the Hill highway, have subscribed a fund to supplement an appropriation br the County Com missioners for the Improvement of the road. ' This in Lenoir county, and $600 was raised by the farmers living within six miles of the city. The road will be sand-clay top-surfaced for a half dozen miles. Other communities in the county are discussing the ven ture, and private donations to dis trict funds will probably be consid erable when Lenofr "begins the gen eral improvement of its highways shortly, the first money for which was made available by the recent sale by the county of its stock in the Atlan tic & North Carolina Railroad Co. T. P. A. State Convention. National Chairman B. H. Marsh, of the Traveler's Protective Association, at Raleigh for a day or two from Winston-Salem, says there is a gratifyingly good outlook for the T. P. A. State Convention to assemble in Greensboro in May. At the last state convention it was detrained to have 1,200 mem bers by the next annual session and the enrollment now is just 1,120, lack ing just 80 members of the coveted number. Mr. Marsh thinks the goal in membership will be reached before the Greensboro convention. The Ral eigh post now has nearly 100 mem bers and is quite active under the presidency of Jno. W. Cross with Mr. Clem Wilder as secretary. Growth of Rural Libraries. There Is a steady growth in the number of rural libraries jn the public schools of the state, under the state aid system in vogue for several years past whereby the state gives $10 to ward each library in cases where the local people raise at least that amount in addition. Also there are supple mental allowances of $5 each under certain conditions that are. very gen erally taken advantage of. State treasury warrants were Issued recent ly for the appropriations for 34 new libraries and for nine supplemental li braries. New Act Transfers Duty. Through all the years past it has been the duty of the State Auditor to get out and distribute to the coun ties the abstract Wanks for listing taxes throughout the state and the county tax lists, but under the new machinery act this duty is transferr ed to the Corporation Commission as State Tax Commission, a change that It Is not believed the Legislature Intended after the establishment of s separate tax commission was voted down and the conclusion reached to retain largely the ol ' machinery. For Power Development The first steps looking to immense power developments in Henderson county, as well as the construction of an interurban line from Henderson ville through Flat Creek and Saluda to a point on Green River, were taken when petitions were filed in the clerk's office, of the United States District Court by the Blue Ridge In. terurban Railway Company for the condemnation of certain lands and boundaries on the river. The petition were first filed with the clerk of the court of Henderson County. LETTER TO FfllEfl! STATE CHEMIST ADVISES USE OF GROUND LIMESTONE ON FARMING LAND. HARD AT WORK ON MATTER Mr. Kilgore Who is an Expert on Agricultural Chemistry Says That This Lime Can Be Used With Good Results. Raleigh Dr. B. W. Kilgore, state chemist, is issuing a letter to the farmers of the state, calling their at tention to the great concessions in freight rates made by the Southern Railroad to be concurred in by the other railroads of the state, it is said. for shipments of lime for agricultural purposes. The main drawback in the past to the extensive application, of agricultural limes to the soils of the state, he says, has been the high cost to the farmer, due to high transpor tation charges. Effective now in North Carolina a very greatly reduced rate goes into effect cutting the freight . charges practically in. half. Based on 30 tons to, the carload, the new rate is 30 cent a ton for 10 miles, 65 cents for 50 miles, 85 cents for 100 miles, $1.15 for 200 miles, with proportional in crease for longer distances. The Nor folk Southern has announced new rates about the same as the Southern rate, and the other roads are to issue schedules on lime very soon. Doctor Kilgore and the Department of Agriculture have been working on this matter for more than a year, aid ed materially by the president of the Southern Railway, who now takes the initiative in promulgating the reduced rate, it having been shown that there are large numbers of farmers suffi ciently alive to the value of theuse of this ground limestone. The state chemist, who is an expert on agricul taural chemistry, says this lime can be used with good results, in many cases better than the burnt lime. -It should he applied at the rate of some think like one-half ton to the car just after the ground has been broken, so that the lime will be worked into the soil by cultivation. It can be obtained at the mines at from $l to $2 a ton in bulk. : The black soils of eastern Carolina and soils in other sections of the state rich in vegetable matter are especially improved, it is said, by ap plications of the agricultural lime. Error in Judicial District Act. Raleigh. There is an error in the act prescribing the courts for the 20 judicial districts that would prove very serious but for the fact that e companion act includes a feature that cures the matter, it is thought' The act, No. 1512, spcifies the number of each judicial district and the counties composing it and then specifies thr courts for each of the counties. Thr paragraph that should specify the eighth district; composed of New Han over, Brunswick and Pender Counties, is left out, the courts for each of the counties being given without reference to what district they constitute. How ever, act No. 900 specifically namee each of the 20 districts and the ooun ties constituting each district. Governor Makes Appointment Raleigh. Governor Craig appointed John Sprunt Hill, banker and business man of Durham, the North Caroline member of the American commissior for the study of the application of thr co-operative system of agricultural pro duction, distribution, and finances in European countries. Under the direc tion of the Southern Commercial Con gress, thi3 subject was made a nation- question at its last April .meeting, New Officers For State Prison. Raleigh. After a session continued until nearly midnight the new Board of Directors of the state's prison an nounced the election of J. S. Mann of Hyde county as superintendent of the prison; to succeed Capt. J. Jv Laugh inghouse; E. F. MeCulloch of White Oak, Bladen county, as chief clerk tc succeed Thomas Fenner, and Dr. J. R. Hodgers to succeed Dr. McGeachy. Solicitor of Seventh District. Lenoir. A telegram was received here by Mr. Thomas M. Newland from Governor Craig, notifying hint that hr had been appointed by him solicitor of the new seventeenth judicial district, which embraces Caldwell, Burke, Lin coin, Cleveland and Polk counties. This appointment meets with the hearty approbation of the local bar and will no doubt give general satis faction throughout the district. Mr. Newland is a son of Benjamin New land of Tennesee aud a nephew of ex Lieut. Gov. W. C. Newland. Farmers Capture a Robber. - Kin3ton. Farmer? captured a rob ber at Caswell station three miles from here on the Norfolk Southern when he attempted to enter the depot several days ago, and held him until the sheriff and deputies could arrive in an automobile. The prisoner, a ne gro named Walter Faison, alias An drew Williams, is believed to be a much-sought store-breaker who hap operated on an extensive scale re f:ently in Jacksonville, Kinston and Goldsboro. He claimed Newbern tr be hla home. ' IK TO HIT EVEN IF TAKEN UP AT EXTRA SESSION IT PROBABLY WILL , GO OVER TO WINTER. GLASS WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN Recent Developments, However, Indi cate the Opposition to Free Trade Will Prolong the Work of, Form m lating the New Tariff. By GEORGE CLINTON. . Washington. There is some doubv yet as to whether currency reform legislation will be attempted at the extra session in .addition to tariff en actments. If currency is taken up it may be it will not be finished this summer, but will go over until next winter. , V , The Democratic leaders are telling the president they are afraid of the currency, i The odds seem to be about sixteen to one that it will not be tak en up before next December, but it ia of course - possible it may secure a place. Representative Carter Glass of Virginia, who will succeed Mr. Pujo as chairman of the banking and cur rency commission, naturally desires a quick encounter with the currency, but it probably would not hurt his feelings very much to Bay that his mo tives are partly due to a desire to get himself quickly into action. The objections which are being made to the currency are tariff objec tions. Not long ago it was thought and freely predicted that there would be comparatively little trouble over the tariff because of the overwhelm ing Democratic majority in the house and because progressive Democrats of the senate seemed to be able to hold their conservative brethren in subjec tion. Moreover, It was supposed from what Mr. Smoot and Mr. Penrose sug gested that the high tariff Repub licans would allow the Democrats "to go full bent to destruction on the low tariff rocks" and would make no strong resistance to the adoption of any form of schedule which the Dem ocrats might suggest. Lack of Harmony in Committee. In the last day or two a change has come over the fair complexion of things. Mr. Wilson has learned that even among the members of the Dem ocratic ways and means committee there is strong opposition' to anything like an approach to the free, trade mark in a good many commodities. Representative Garner of Texas, for instance, who has just been made a member of the ways and means com mittee, probably will be pained if free wool is made a part of the program. Mr. Shackleford of Missouri, on whose district's hills feed sheep in ' thou sands, perhaps will worry if .. the fleeces of the flocks are to be sacri ficed on the altar. - It is the old, old story; free trade is all right for the other fellow, but all wrong for this fellow. Mr. Under wood has control of his ways and means committee and Mr. Garner and Mr. Shackleford combined with other members who have lqcal industries to protect, it is said, probably can be brought into line, but it is becoming certain that when the bills are re ported to the house there will be in timations at least from many of the Democratic members that their hope lies with the senate and that they give their votes without their whole hearts to rates which they think are too low. The president is being told diplo matically by members of the house that tariff reduction is all right, but that it ought to be sane tariff reduc tion. The word sane is as much over worked by congressmen as it is by correspondents, all of whom probably will plead' guilty to having used it for many months beyond the limit of the ordinary readers' endurance. Senate to the Rescue. The Democratic majority in the senate is one which must be looked for with a magnifying glass; it is there, but it is small. Free sugar, it. ia claimed, will not have any kind of a show in the upper house. Neither will free wool, and neither will radical, cuts in the rates on certain anicic. manufactured in the United States. Texas and the west with their Bheep, Louisiana with its sugar cane, and some other states with their lumber probably will be ready through their representatives to make compromises with the representatives of the' man ufacturing districts of New England. It is said by men close to the ad ministration that President Wilson finally has been convinced that much more time will be consumed in tariff consideration than he had any thought would-.be the -case. This bellefwars against the probability of currency consideration at the next session. Then asain Mr. Wilson's desire, which, was made known some days ago, that the country should watch tariff legis lation in the senate without having its attention turned to other legislation in the house, makes it seem likely that it will be necessary for currency reform to stand waiting at the wicket until a more convenient season.. The Democratic leaders, some mem bers say, are fearful of the effect of currency legislation. They want time to study it, although they have been studying it for a year. Financial sub jects will stand study better than most other things, the Democrats de clare. The house is not full of Alex ander Hamptons. The chieftains of the party say that with proper study the Democracy will give the country a stable financial system. They say this and yet they seemingly are afraid that Democracy cannot do it euieklv.. , 5 One- Bachelor in President Wilson's Cabinet AS1UNGTON. Gatherers, of sta tistics who have been 'compiling facts about the new Wilson- cabinet announced with satisfaction the other day that its members; are simple, home-loving and by example, active anti-race suicide propagandists. " Of all the cabinet families, only that of Secretary of War Garrison is with out children. Mrs. William Jennings Bryan is a lawyer, like her husband, but she has found time amid her professional du ties to rear two children, Mrs. Richard Hargreaves, Jr., and William J. Bryan, Jr., whose wife will make her home in Washington with the family. Three daughters call Mrs, Albert Sidney. Burleson,, wife of the postmas ter general "mother." One of the daughters, Mrs. Richard Van Wick Negley, has a son about six weeks old. v . Brokers Do a Big Business in Stolen Stamps INSPECTORS have learned that stamps of all classes and denomi nations stolen, by burglars from post offices and embezzled by employes from great business houses and manu facturing establishments were pur chased and resold by the brokers at prices far below their face value. The postal laws make it a crime punishable by Imprisonment to sell any stamp issued by the government for less than its face value. Investi gations disclosed the fact that, in ad dition to selling the stamps for less than a price they could have been purchased - for from the government, the brokers in many cases knew that the stamps were stolen when they purchased them. . Stamp frauds against the - govern ment and various business concerns aggregating hundreds of thousands of dollars annually have been unearthed In New York City alone, while illegal trafficking in stamps in many other cities has reached large proportions. One stamp broker in New York City who sells from $300-to $1,000 worth of stamps a day to merchants, it is alleged, has been purchasing some of his supply from an employe Expert Says Icebergs ABBOTT H. THAYER, an artist who has given much study to the question, discusses the invisibility of icebergs at night in the last issue of the bulletin of the hydrographic of fice. He Writes, in part: "The Titanic and the Arizona ran into icebergs because of the universal notion that white shows at night even against a clear sky. Until this im pression can be corrected the world will" continue at the mercy of the chance of more ice accidents. "A steamer may be close to an ice berg on a clear, moonless night, and, as stated above, often on a moonlit night, without the slightest sight of it. Any observing person who ha3 lived in the country knows perfectly well hat snowy roofs on such a night are Beautiful Bronze Sundial NEARLY all strangers who travel to the beautiful close of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, on Mount-Saint Alban, gather 'around the sundial. Most of them mount the three granite steps to stand on the narrow granite platform about the sundial and its rectangular pedestal the better to read the inscription and to study the devices engraved on stone and bronze. The structure is called "the cathedral landmark and sundial." According to the handbook of the Washington Cathedral, "On Ascension Day, A. D. 1906, the land mark given by Mrs. Julian James to J commemorate the freedom of the cathedral land from debt aad the con sequent hallowing of the cathedral close was presented and consecrated.' This landmark is a beautiful bronze sundial, surmounting an open air al tar, on which are inscribed the names of those it commemorates. Beginning at the northwest edge of the altar is this Inscription: "Transit umbra lax premonet From the rising of the sun even to the go- i lng down of. the same, my name shall J INOEON CITY T5 William C. Rtdfleld, secretary of commerce, and Afrs. Redfleld have a married daughter and a Bon, Hum phrey Fuller ReU field, who is a stu dent at Amherst college. Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the interior, has a 16'year-old son, Frank lin,' Jr.. and a .daughter, Nancy, sev eral years younger. Mrs. Lane is a college woman, but thoroughly domes tic. If ever an actual anti-race suicide organization Is established among the families of the cabinet officers. Mrs. William B. Wilson, wife of the new secretary of labor, will be at its head by right of 1 achievement. She has nine children. Mrs. Josephus Daniels, wife of the secretary of the navy, also has sev eral children. There are three children In the fam ily of David Houston, secretary of ag riculture. Miss' Nona McAdoo will preside over the Washington home of her father, William G. McAdoo, the new secretary of the treasury. She made her debut a short time ago. There are two other daughters, one married and three sons. The only ba'chelor in the cabinet, which is why he is mentioned last. Is Attorney General McReynolds. HOrV MUCH STAMPS 9 of the New York state government at Albany. The employe confessed to post office inspectors that he re mitted to the stamp broker from $25 to $50 a week in stamp's stolen from the state. ' The 'department redeems ,postal cards from original purchasers at 75 per cent, of their face value.' A few weeks ago a member of congress and a former deputy commissioner of po lice of New York City requested the' third assistant postmaster-general to redeem more than a million cards for a constituent of the representative. Inquiry by inspectors developed the fact that the cards were the property of a stamp, broker, whose business Is declared by the department officials to be clearly illegitimate. ' Are Invisible by Night apt to be indistinguishable from the sky, and would always be so if they stood alone out on a plain or out at sea. "In order to test this matter, notice first that it is the most nearly hori zontal top surfaces of a berg, snowy roof or other white object that re ceive the most skylight, and conse quently most nearly match it It fol lows that with the average hilltop shape of an iceberg it will be the highest expanses of it Visible from the ship's watch that are surest to be indistinguishable. These highest ex panses of course constitute the con tour that the . watch would see if the berg were visible, and when these be come thus effaced the berg itself is effaced. "Even when. a near berg is not tall enough to stand up against the sky to the eyes of the watch its top will necessarily be looked at against the most distant part of the sea; and this part averages, especially in calm weather, much brighter than the nearer water; and a sky-matching berg top could not often he distin guished from it any better than from the sky itself." Serves as a Landmark be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name." - On the eastern face of the alta" is this inscription: "This landmark is set up in the cathedral close in memory of Ascent sion day, A. D. 1906, in the eleventh year of the episcopate of the first Bishop of Washington." Some of the names carved on the altar sides are Theodoras Bailey Myers. 1821-188S; Catalina Juliana Mason, 1826-1905, and Cassie Mason Myers, Julia James, Frederick James. Edmonia Phelps, Sidney Mason, Ah phono Sidney. Mason and Catheria Kobb. .