THE STATE’S VOICE
0. J. PETERSON, Editor and Publisher
Published Twice-a-Month at Dunn, N. C.
for state wide circulation
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE; $1 a Year; 3 Years $2.25
Entered at the Postoffice at Dunn, North Carolina,
as Second-Class Matter.___
Friends Saved the Day.
Without the contributions of some of my
friends I could not have got out the paper this
week. As it is, it is nearly a week late. I wish
to thank those friends and particularly Mr.
Snider, whose wife has been sick three months
and in the hospital two weeks. Yet he took a
few minutes to write his pointed article. But let
me say that the editing of these articles and the
proof-reading have been rather poor. A fellow
who is in and out of bed is in no shape to do even
the small amount of work the editor has done on
this issue.
No Paper April 15.
As this issue is nearly a week late because of
the illness of the editor and at! he is not yet
strong enough to do much work, it is deemed bet
ter to skip the April 15 issue of the Voice. The
next issue will appear, if Providence permits,
May 1.
Kindness Appreciated
The editor much appreciates the various kind
nesses shown him during his illness. You can
imagine how I appreciated Dr. Ernest Branch of
the tSate Health Department coming clear by
Dunn in going from Kinston to Raleigh to say
howdy. Ernest is one of my old school boys. But
visits, dainties, flowers, and messages from
friends far and near have been all appreciated.
The Chicago Daily News states editorially that
less than half of the 14,710 liquor dealers licensed
by the federal government to sell liquor in Chi
cago hold license in that city. So it appears that’
the government lends its support to the debauch
ery of the people and the robbing of the city of
its due revenue.—Christian Science Monitor.
A COSTLY INCONSISTENCY
Hands were raised in horror when Representa
tive Kelly introduced a bill to restore the old
time whipping post. Yet that very week was
revealed the tragedy of the Mecklenburg prison
camp, wherein tw'o Negroes imprisoned on minor
charges lost their feet as a result of disciplinary
measures—necessary or unnecessary. And since
that time investigations of the disciplinary needs
of a prison camp have suggested to legislators
and others the “return of the lash” as a discip
linary means. <
For fifty years there have been intermittent
charges of cruelty in the convict camps. Finally,
the privilege of whipping convicts for disciplinary
purposes was denied prison keepers and guards.
Yet anybody with a grain of commonsense knew
that some real disciplinary measures ar,e neces
sary in controlling any bunch of prisoners—and
not mere “standing in the corner,” one of the fu
tile schemes teachers used to adopt in punishing
misbehaving. lads.
Even in schools, times come when real discip
unary measuies are necessary. vvunout -sucn
measures, one or two boys may destroy the morale
of a whole school. It is, in such cases, necessary
to get rid of the boys or to punish them in a
measure adequ'ate to the occasion.
But the bad boys in the convict camp cannot be
expelled! They must be disciplined. And thus
it happens that punishments at which the laws
frowned as cruel and barbarous are applied time
after time as disciplinary measures while the
prisoners are serving the sentences legally im
posed.
Within fifty years the lash has been applied
hundreds of times upon prisoners, too good to re
ceive it as a sentence, while they were serving the
mercifully imposed prison term at the cost of
the law-abiding element of the people. Not only
that—dozens of men who should have been given
a good lashing and set free with the understand
ing that if they returned they would get a more
vigorous one have instead been sent to prison for
a few" months and been shot doWn like dogs when
trying to escape. Scarcely a week goes by
without the report of the death of a prisoner at
tempting to escape. Yet the man may have been
guilty of only a misdemeanor, fife was too good
when before the bar of justice to be sentenced
to the whipping post; but when he has become a
prisoner he is not too good to be shot down! And
even such shootings are sometime necessary, else
the whole bunch of prisoners would deliberately
Walk off.
. Qae in every four hundred of the people of
HOW YOU MAY HELP A HANDICAPPED FELLOW
Don’t I manage to get myself into bad fixes?
—But many of my present subscribers probably
do not know of the series of years of harass
ment through Wjhich I went before launching The
State’s Voice.
I had put what little of cash I had accumu
lated in thirty-two years of teaching and news
paper work in the Chatham Record when it was
actually making money. Immediately, an unpre
cedented series of bad crop years came to Chat
ham, lapping over into the depression years. Fire
swept the platter clean, leaving me still in debt
on the plant. In short, I worked there trying to
get even till January 1, 1933.
I had announced that I would launch The
State’s Voice in Raleigh on January 15, 1933, but
as the time drew near it was evident that the de
pression was getting worse instead of better. The
Dunn Dispatch, as if by providential arrang
ement, when I was in a quandary as to what to
do, offered to print The State’s Voice for my serv
ices as editorial writer for that twice-a-wieek
paper.
A start was made. Two months later the
“bottom feU clear out,” and it seemed I could
hardly turn loose or go on. But there was noth
ing to do but go on—that is, run a new paper in
1933 when a third of the foflc were on relief, and
run it without a cent of capital. Well, it was
done.
I at that time began a course that was prob
ably too much for my strength. Within those
past two years, I have written about six long
columns a Week for The Dunn Dispatch, have
written what would make several large volumes
for the 54 issues of The State’s Voice, have trav
eled in about fifty counties of the state introduc
ing the paper to the leadnig citizens of those
counties and renewing subscriptions.
I had recently reached the point where it
seemed possible to make a fair living, and more.
Not a dollar was owed on the paper and not one
for living expenses I could not immediately pay.
It seemed, with health, that I had at last reached
a point where I could look not only to a fairly
secure old age for myself and family but to a
useful one. It was then the blow fell.
The Blow Falls.
My traveling through the state not only served
to build up the subscription list of The Statens
Voice but also served to furnish me with much
material for use in making the paper. In fact,
with the subscription of the Voice so low, it is
only by combining those two functions that one
can afford to canvass the towns, cities, and rural
sections of the state from a center which means
hundreds of miles of travel to reach some county
seats. But the physician says that I am suffer
ing from angina pectoris and must get down on
low gear. I am ordered not to do the traveling I
have been doing, but am assured, I may - write.
Thus I have plenty of work to do, but a poor
chance- to get pay for it.
How You Can Help.
Here is where my present subscribers can help.
If two-thirds of the present subscribers should
send in their renewals without the cost of a visit
to them—which often turns out to be three or
North Carolina is being maintained at public ex
pense in prison. And the average prisoner is be
coming more a problem every day he is in prison.
Hundreds of citizens are being gradually hard
ened as they guard them, oversee their work, and
discipline them.
What a relief it would be to the state if it
could cut the number of prisoners down by half!
And there is probably no reason why it cannot
be done by adopting the lash as a penalty. The
world is large and if a culprit is so humiliated
by the public whipping that he feels an embar
rassment in, remaining in the community where
he received it,, he can simply move on as soon as
he pleases and begin life anew where he is not
known. His difficulty in making a new start
would not be nearly so difficult as it is for the re
turning prisoner. The latter is a marked man.
Few, and they not desirable employers, want their
services. They must herd with their kind and
too often they are soon back in prison. The
mercy that was so gentle as to wince at applying
the lash has been so cruel as to destroy all pros
pects of a decent life. Else imprisonment be
comes no disgrace and the culprit may serve his
term in comparative ease and comfort and re
turn home as a respected citizen. It has al
ready come to the pass in North Carolina that
ex-convicts may feel quite comfortable in their
home communities—and without any adequate
evidence of reform. When a potential criminal
ceases to dread the ostracism that used to ac
company the serving of a prison sentence half
the fear .of punishment has been lost.
four before an interview is secured—, the income
would, he sufficient to take care of my family in
comfort. But,will one out of ten of you do it
Without a string of notices and the loss of stamps
and stationery and clerk help to get only a dol
lar? I can answer for you—not unless you read
this article and make it a resolve to attend to this
matter every year so. long as you feel that the pa
per is worth the subscription price.
I am not going to ask you to write me as to
that matter. But I am going to ask those readers
who do not desire to be considered permanent
subscribers to drop me cards stating that they
would like to have their names .removed from tire
subscription list when their subscription pay
ments expire.
I know there are some who would not wish to
continue. Some haven’t read it closely enough to
find its value; some couldn’t see anything in it if
they tried; some, like me, are having to slow up.
But there are many in the list who really do
value the paper and think it a big buy at $1.00
a year.
I know most of the men on the list. It is a
picked list, but of course there are some little fel
lows on it. I expect them to fall off, but I want
'■ to have them marked so that the paper will not
continue to go "to them without being appre
ciated and received without any expectation of
paying fori it. If it is only every two or three
years that we collect from one of the really ap
preciative subscribers, it will be all right. Sev
eral subscribers not seen last year on the renewal
trips have paid two years this year.
The Most Important Thing.
The main thing is to get the fellows marked
who would let the paper come for years and not
even take the trouble to notify us that the paper
is not desired^ It will cost no more to send a
representative to a town once in two or three
years to collect renewals than once a year—but
it would be mighty expensive if the subscribers
declined to pay. Let’s avoid that by all who will
not wish to be continued as subscribers simply
sending cards to that effect. And let it be taken
for granted that those who do not send postal
cards to that effect may be counted upon as per
manent usbscribers till. further.zdevelopments.—
And let each of such subscribers-, resolve that he
will send in his dollar with as few notices as his
convenience will allow him.—It has become a
habit with most people not to pay newspaper sub
scriptions till somebody comes after it. And just
that is what-1 am trying to avoid here.
It is easy to help in many ways. The other day
I received a subscription from Bishop Hafey at
the suggestion of my old friend Father Irwin.
Supt. Reid Thompson/whom I missed when in
Pittsboro, sent his dollar by mail. Just the day
before this is written my friend Dr. Ernest
Branch comes by Dunn in going from Kinston to
Raleigh to see me and send his date up two years.
It- will be easy enough if appreciative subscrib
ers will actually remember to renew without hav
ing a big part of his dollar cost in time, station
ery, and postage, and to suggest subscribing to
their friends.
Thousands of men convicted of misdemeanors
in North Carolina have been whipped time
after time after being sent to the prison or the
road gang as a merciful penalty. Why not be
sensible and let the one whipping at the whip
ping post serve as the entire punishment? In
that case, the culprit is more effectually pun
ished; he is free to start life again immediately
wherever he pleases. The expense of the tax
burdened people is ended. If one whipping, nor
two, will not reform him, it will be time then to
try other and more expensive means. Today
the youngster who comes up for his first de
tected crime may be let off without any effectual
penalty and thus be induced to proceed to other
crimes. With the whipping post restored, such
youngsters would think twice* before committing
the crimes which would subject them to the
lash, and thus might many a criminal in the mak
ing be halted in his career before it is really be
gun. • * #
It will probably require a constitutional
amendment to restore the whipping post. Tet it
come. It seems unnecessary, however, for the
constitution to be changed to permit whippings,
loss of feet, and other penalties as disciplinary
means. A funny old world is this.
There is no sound sense in the law-abiding peo
ple of North Carolina maintaining a prison
brigade of over eight thousand in the name of
mercy and permitting perhaps a dozen times as
many penalties as disciplinary measures as the
one that is denied as a penalty for the misde
meanor of which he has been convicted.