Newspapers / The State’s Voice (Dunn, … / July 1, 1935, edition 1 / Page 6
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Th« P**»*ing Of Ex-Governpr McLeitn. ' ' •Former Governor Wilton McLean is dead. Of course,"^ though, you already know that/ and have been told bow his insistence upon the balancing of the budget during his administration ha<r*bean the re demption of Nortb^Garolina from threatened bankruptcy. Undoubt edly he was North* Carolina’s one real business man as governor in - several decades, and'the benefits ef his service • as governor still con tinue. As pointed ^outr'r by Governor EhringHauS, the sale of a vast sum of state securities at the least inter est rate ever effected.the day the former governor died was a most telling tribute to -tbe effectiveness of Governor McLean's financial policies during tha^penod 1925 .1929. Doubtless, -^bSorth Carolina would have been in^a disastrous financial condition bait for tne wis dom of the former governor in looking to .the preservation of the creoit or tne siau=-/ But I am thinking this Monday morning, after his-burial yesterday, of Wilton McXiCan,sand not Gover nor McLean. I have- known him more than half #4-my life, and, as it happens, more than half of his, • for when I went to Lumberton as principal of the school in 1901 we were both in our 32nd year. I was four months and one day older than he. ' ' *.. - • He was then .engaged in the prac tice of law with hisxpusin, the late N. A. McLean, and John G. Mc Cormick, and was president of the recently established oBank of Lum berton. There were ..three forces at work in Robeson at^that time for the -economic betterment of the people of the county and>for the enrich ment of those in position to invest funds and withdhe Judgment to in vest wisely. First, .every pine‘tree in the county was^an. assetj and one that owners of-many pines had not.;truly estimated...!; ween many a dollar was turnechhy the lawyer banker in speculation in pine trees. Next? the tobacco .industry had come to Robeson on a large scale. (Thirdly, the development of great cut-over areas into cotton farnjs had r«n - the. . Robeson pro* duction oi cotton, up to a bale per capita for the whole population of the county, and just at this time that New Orleans speculator cor nered the cotton market and ran the price up to 18 cents a pound «—a price >“that --“ hadn’t been matched since-Wilton McLean was a baby, or perhaps two or three years before-hia-birth..- - . The result of these three econo mic factors filled the Pank of Lum berton with deposits, which were used by the few fortunate ones able to get them in investments. The first Lumberton cotton factory was put into operation a few months-after my ucvuuuug a l caiuciu vi ton and the impulse given to the growth of the town^by that and the unusual amount of money current in the county opened the way for profitable development of new sub urban sections. I^umberton, unlike most little towns of~4hat day, was compactly built, with a consequence that- growth was dependent upon opening up woods.-areas. That meapt, in view of the rapid develop ment of the town4hat did actually take place,- a real-profit |pr - the de velopers of the new areas. The North Lumber.tpn development be gan within a few hundred yards of ' the court houser ancU embrace3 & large part ^4hes©re8e»t .jjttticuchy, • ijust 4>Qyejlie?de^hwwk large ly in the raw when T left Lunjber-, ton in 1906, iwas Jaid out a ceqae* te.y 'by the same enterprising gen tlemen. - :— * ; Like the city* ofjhe living, that new city ^pf^jtheidead,- in which not one yet Testedf on*my departure 29" years ago, has' grown wonderfully; rnd in its wetl-kept arn was fsh* to rest yesterday one of those WBP. ■yyas concerned in, its development in 1906. ' Quiet, apparently not famag frantically in the law, banking, pr private business, everytJW Wilton McLean turned Jus baud to, then and later, prospered to the extent ef the potentialities. It was 9® who was largely instrumental in giving northern Robeson and en the railyway facilities afforded by the line from Hope MUk-tQ Paul, thence forking tp Luinbcrtpn and to Elizabethtown. ;I hejieve fl# died as titular head of that road, which line, if not ultimately va money-maker, did mean the UP" building of the fine town of *>t. 'Paul and the pew era of the motley village of Elizabethtown. But no railroad’s bankruptcy in recent years need be attributed to mjsmaU" agement,,but survival at all to good management. * Wt this distance, I should think that his association with the North Carolina Bank and Trust company, an ambitious project which was manifestly intended to monopolize' a large share pf the banking business of the state, was his bigg*#* mistake. I have worker; ed whether it wasi his own canrii^ ness or the good Ijorse-sense of the other large stockholders infhe Bank of Jvumbertpn, that caused " that bank to remain independent of the great consolidated interests Whose Crash amsed so pi|ich W°etn North Carolina. Whosever the wisdom that withheld the union of the foe* tunes of the Bank pf Dumberton, pf which-Wilton MfhW was pru dent, from those of the N. P* Bardc and Trust Company,; of which m was also president,. I believe, surety saved the little city on the Lumber .river many trials and tribulationa. It was during my stay in pun$b»r ton that Wilton *ud **i8f Maggie French joined hands ^jp fortunes. Jhe uflm’8 fortune was rapidly developing; the brides was already accumulated during .me long years of her grandfather, Ber ry Godwin, of the very Godwin stock. that i§ so prevalent in the Dunn District. Thus the McLean family became one of the wealthiest of the state. •The future governor hqd been rear* ed out in the pinewoods of what is probably now Moke county. His father was a hard-headed farmer of vn1" *r B5 the strictest integrity. He was coun ty treasurer £ terra during my ac quaintance with him, and I learned him web-His mother was a lister of the late distinguished qnd mo&t able Judge Jfrowp of Washington, N.C., if if recollect aright. My first idea of unfed ability on the part of the future governor arose after I bad become publish er of the Jmmbertpn Argus and when dw former publisher and con tinuing printer remarked that Wii teudfeife always .few just ex actly ,what he wished, ts> incorporate in ajeggl paper and could write it without hesitat$n or bungling; After .eleven years, returning to the ftete, l found that this young lawyer of quick,, definite, and firm mental grasp was reckoned of guber natorial. si?®- Knowing North Caro lina politics as I had, X could but wonder, how even the surpassing ability ; of the man without the giib ness of fe usual .politician could lift him into the guber natorial, cl^ir- Jfe was the man for the time, yet I yery much doubt if his cool and deliberate; personality could hava won without the favor (Continued On Paps JCight) Beaufort Fayetteville Franklinton Kinston Louisburg Morehead City
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
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July 1, 1935, edition 1
6
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