North Carolina Newspapers

%C {*i 1 ■ i’ ‘ i"^ '.J'-^.s T"' „' i*(':--.i‘- /•.•;• ■.-•'..f. - ••. • duce ever ig us und. Items. rhos. J. DixcMi Ison, Simon, at iThomas is visit- Mr-. GrahaKt Wm. llnniji luart and Mrs. jsited relatives Glen CO recent- iian of Ashbor^ Itime at her fa. ’s, on account her mother. IS visiting her W. Johnson We are also she is able has resigned er of the pri- of Sylva* take up other I.e. MisKHome in, hhas take* Ichool, and Folger. lers of Sylva» a farawe-'*- Miss Stanford, at iheir board- le of Miss Eula |er'.ty-iivs young ni. Mawy ii‘- . ere played, af- ilger deiightful- e ero'/?d with Then all join- ‘God Be With Idi.spersed feel-- ,d had a ver?' iher. lelisve in abri- people's iia- Le. ] either must nitted to carry I neuralgia? jg on ner- Ipetite, bad Vor health, pounds in teeth re- remarkable the m(«t of teeth. 'REE. si. .ROLINA. ivenient. . .•. • -7 ^ f. .. ••• : • • •. 13 A REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE UPBUILDING OF AMERICAN HOMES /J(b AMERICAN INDfUSTRIEa VOL. III. BURLINGTON, N. C| FEBRUARY 8,1911. »OBI EUniOK vs. FEIS fQiJ)W WK ON A CRYING imlMOIIS LOVER Charlotte Obtjerver. In the Burlington News, Dem ocratic. we find it objected a- gainst proposed salaries for the Alamance county officers that there is no true analogy between political and business positions. Any man who is elected to a cOunty office," says our contem porary, ' ‘accepts same with the fact facing him that he may be turned out at the end of one term, regardless of his faithful ness as an officer or rega^less of hfe efficiency, and icr this reason any sensible man knows that by reason of the uneertamty, the county officer must be paid more than any man would ask for sim ilar work, where, so long as he gives satisfaction, he is continu ed in office. Again, the bank cashier appointed and it does i not cost him half his year’s sala ry to get elected. ” In view of the bribery which accompanies both primaries and elections in many counties of the State, the last statement possesses particu lar Interest, In The Burlington State Dis patch, Republican, of the same date we find bitter assertions that the present remuneration of Ala mance county officers under the fee system is not only robbing the people of $5,000 a year but operating to debauch the elec torate. ‘ *No man of any political knowledge,’' we read, “will deny that it is being done. It is known to all men who have had any ex perience in politics and yet these same men will continue to wink at this growing e^l for the sake of seeing their side win. We are not chargi ng that this evil is pre valent only among our oppo nents, because it is practiced by all parties but always more so by the Democratic party. The rea son for this is easily accounted for; they are in office and they cannot aftord to be beaten, hence the lavish flow and use of money. Are there not enough honest mep in both or all parties in this good old county of Alamance to get to gether and draft a bill and send it down to the lawmaking boby that will for once and all put a stop to this nefarious practice?” The theory upon which advo cacy of salaries for county offi cers is based has no need to ig nore the fact that tenure of poli tical offices is precarious. It can and does recoginze that fact in fixing renumeration. But re- munei'ation from fees to an ex tent which no one knows except the officer himself may be and often is quite another matter. In many I^orth Carolina counties there is a considerable excess above v/hat every one would re cognize as a fair salary, and nothing could be more inevitable than the use of that excess for more or less legitimate political purposes. The county officers can afford to spend considerable sums for politics, including bri bery; it is good business for them to do so. Since these sums in the aggregate are large, bribery tends to prevail, and in fact does usually prevail, wherever results hang closely in the balance. Known salaries would allow for reasonable and legitimate expen ditures, but the conliption which naturally attends large and un known excess of remuneration would shrink hugely at once. As regards small and poor coun ties we do not think that the sal ary question has any particular importance. Perhaps they, or most of them, are better off un der the old system. But other •counties }>ave Vvaxcd in wealth and increase of the business done through their administrative offi cers until fee payments which were once no more than adequate are now swollen and productive of abuse. For any well-to-do county the fee system is tho roughly bad business, upon what soever basis it may be rearrang ed, Proper fees mean improper compensation. There is an ex cess, and this excess should go to the people of the county, not into the officer’s pocket or a cor- raptionfund. Furthermore, the fee system, with its temptations, causes many helpless people to be unjustly oppressed. The Burlington News does not oppose the salary system except in so far as the exigencies which it mentions arise. We think it see upon further considera- T1 MARIETrA One Man Dead and Nine Others Alward IH—Hnrryisg to Key West, Fla. Washington, February 2.— With nine men aboarot ill, possi bly with yellow fever, and one man dead with that dise^e, the American gunboat Marrietta is nowon her way frMnPuerto^Cor- tez Honduras, Key West, Fla.! She sailediix)m Central Ameriean waters under orders from theJ^a- vy Departm^jnt, which were issu ed as soon as the officials here were advised that the stiicken men were suspected of having yellow fever. The Navy Department was ad vised of the illness among the crew in a wireless dispatch re ceived today from Commander Cooper, of the Marrietta, He stat^ that the outbreak was on ly suspected of being the dread malady. The department was unwilling to take any chances, and for Qiat reason immediately ordered the vessel to an Ameri can port, where the proper mea sures could be taken for the treat ment of the stricken seamen and the protection of the remainder of the crew. The deriarture of the Mpietta from Honduran waters will not materially affect the necessary naval representation of the Unit ed States in Central America in connection with the Bonilla rev olution, as the gun boat Wheeling is now on the way to Puerto Cor tez and is expected to arrive at that port Saturday. Greenfiboro Daily News, | One does not have to goto Ad ams county, Ohio, to fisi4 the corrupt practice of bribei y and debauchery in connectio i with the ballot. We have it 1 ere in North Carolina, and repr lisenta- tivesofboth parties hav 3 been guilty of it. In a recent editor ial discussing fees, or reuf unera- tion to county officers* th j Bur lington News (Democrat)' made the point tiiat they should )e wdl paid for the reason it alwa>'s costs them so much to get eiiiected Emphasizing the point, that pa per said: 7 ‘ 'Again; the bi^nk cashie • iis ap pointed and it does not cos’ t him half his year^^s salary to g€Select ed.’' Discussii^ the same qtiestion the State Dispatch (Repub ican), of the same place, arguii.g for salaries instead of fees foi coun ty officers, says: “If they were paid a salary they would not have fapulous sums of money to spend ea';h and MBS ME Tfc«i Twrns Gon Upon Himfelf— Hhage County’s TerriUe Tragedy Harrisburg, Vau, Feb. 5; — Bltzhugh Comer, ^ years old, shot and killed his sweetheart, Miss Obra Turner, 20 years old, the» killed himself at Naked Creek, Page county, near Rock- inghain in the Blue Ridgesection. The coapfe were engaged and Comer: becanje j lalous of FitiEliiigh Four times he had threatened to kill the girl if Harmer continued his atten tions. Yesterday morning .Corner heard that the couple were ex changing letters,, With a single baii'efed shot^n fee went to the girPs house, the pair strolled to the churchyard nearby. After an hour's talk the girl’s little^sis ter heard a shot. Comer fired shot into the a snot into the girl’s shoul- 1 X L .^1. • t der and when she did not fall he every election to buy their el^- reloaded and fired again below the tion and debauch the electorate, j^eart. Again reloading he emp- CORPSE ME TO LIFE Mourners Thrown Into a Panic When Woman Supposed to be Dead Revives ia Her Coffin. Glasgow Ky., Feb. 1.—Stret ching out her hand toward those who had assembled about her coffin. Mrs. Jane Pitcock, an octogenarian, caused a panic at her funeral at Gawaliet, Monore county, yesterday afternoon, ac cording to reports reaching here today. Tl'ie funeral sermon had been preached and the lid of the coffin was removed to permit friends and relatives to take a last look at what they believed a corpse. It was then that Mrs. Pitcock regained conscious. She remained alive for several hours, her death following last night. Several physicians examined the body and pronounced Mrs. Pit cock dead before the body was placed in the coffin. No man of any political knowl edge will deny that it is being done, it is known to all meli who have had any experience in poli tics and yet these same men will continue to wink at this growing evil for the sake of seeing their side win. We are not charging that this evil is prevalent OBly a- mong our opponents, becaase it is practiced by all parties. ” There we have the e\idence from the papers of opposite? poli tical faith in the same county. And it would not be a very' diffi cult matter to find it in man^’ other counties. We do not '«ngld out Alamance as the worst, for we do not believe it is. W’J only happened to see the two editor ials we have quoted, and ise it for illustration. In these mat- tied the load into his breast and died instntly * The girl lived eight minutes. Mrs. Turner, the girl’s mother, is prostrated and in a serious con dition. Theparents. William Tur ner and Hiram Comer, are both farmers. The tragedy took place on the steps of the country chur ch.. OEMOrMS WANT CAUCUS TO Discuss REOPROCIT! Waahington, Feb. 2.—Some of the Democratic leaders in the hous^ wday' ;exi»essed * themsel- i ves in favo^ of a general cau- ters the Consciences of mer'seem I cus of the house Democracy to seared and calloused. So com-1 determine the party’s attitude pletely is this true that men who I on the Canadian reciprocity ag- imaginethey arehonest, who will i'reement legislation. So far, pray in public—if not in secret—I however no definite step will steal from his political oppo- in this direction has been nents, engage in buying* /otes taken, but 50 signers are all that and otherwise debauching the I is neccessary to bring about such electorate, feeling actually that | a conference#- Hvhich may be call NEGBOES SUHPRISE SHERIFF Shelby, Feb. 2. —Two negroes, who broke jail early Monday mo rning. surprized the deputy Sher iff J. J. Wiikins yesterday v/hen they accosted him on the street and asked to be eiitomed again. They had been to their home near Kings Mountain,' received fresh and cleaner clothes and re turned voluntarily. Their off ence was small and the deputy was making: no attempt to catch them.^ They are wanttnl for breaking into carsatKin^s Mtn., and stealing whiskey. With i them when they broke jail was Andrew Taylor, another negro held on a charge of stealing money. tion that these are really argue- ments in favor of the salary sys tem. The excessive expenditure noted grows out of the fee sys tem itself; no one should urge that an evil be not disturbed be- j cause disturbance would create I difficulties in relation to another I evil, when that second evil is j curable, Ita curability is not a i matter of mere conjecture but j has been demonstrated by every [county adopting the salary sys tem. None of these would dream of going back to the fee system again. The salary system great ly lessens the need of a corrupt- practices act;, which, neverthe less, we should have in North Carolina without longer delay. he is doing his Christian du ;y. The press, political, iiid* pen- i dent, and religious, should cry ! aloud and spare not against this ! fearful evil. Instead of worry- I ing about passing some sort of a ' rank partisan and ironclad pri mary law, by which it is so-ight i to swear men to do things they : may not v/ant to do, and thus in many cases add perjury to firib- ery, the legislature should puss a j stringent antibribery and iinti- i vote selling law. In a land w here popular government exists—gov- ^ernment by chosen repres^'nta- Itives of the people--it cannot be ' maintaiupd that the “end jasti- fies the means” when those I means are corrupt and dishoiiest. I Honest men should not be om- pelled to have their free expres sion at the ballot-box nullifielil by the bribed votes of men vvho have Ho higher conception of the sacredness of the ballot tnaii to sell it for five dollars, one dollar, or a drink of mean whisky. The man who is weak enough tO sell should go to jail or a house of correction where he will be 3e- prived of equal strength at ;:he ballot-box with honest men; j^nd the man who is mean and cor ed within a few days. Some of the state dele^tions are divided in their views. Georgia Democrats, for instance, tried to get together bn the question today, but split, six vot ing for reciprocity and four against, Kentucky and other state dele gations also met, in the mo i n favoring reciprocity. . Daisy Hughes the eleven year old daughter of Robt. and Laura Hughes of Altemahaw died Sun day morning and was buried on the following day at Bethlehem. rapt enough to buy votes and profit by trafficking in the dis honor of others should go to the penitentiary for a term equal to the tenure of office for which he aspires. Let the legislature now in ses sion take some steps to arouse the conscience of the people on this subject, and strike some needed blows at the root of this most gigantic evil. Make vote buying and selling a crime and force the people to recognise it as such. All in favor of puttiug our county officers on Salaries in stead of Fees sign the Coupon below and send to the DIS- PATCH, this means $5000 00 a year in the pockets of the Fax Payers of Alamance C!ounty. Hon. J. Elmer Lo ig, House of Repi'csentatives, Raleigh, N. C I favor putting our C ounty officers on Salaries in stead of Fees, paying,the;;n fair and libeial but not ex travagant salaries and ask you to have a biU passed making this a law. Sifcned NO. 39 The Raleigh Ivvening Tim^ The corruption of voters as re vealed in Adams county, Ohib> and in Vermillion county, Illinois, are suggestive of the thought that tfaeise are not the only two counties in which vote-buying and selling has been practiced. These two counties are probably entitled ti the prize as the most corrupt in the country , but there are bthere following in the same paths. Again we wonder to w?hat extent such practices are followed in North Carolina. In tllie regtd^ electionii there is very little of this kind Of worK, but in thel primiary elec tions, unsafe^arded as they are by legal restrictions, there is un doubtedly too much niphey used, money used in qiiestiohable ways. Yet in soine counties, the close counties, where democrats a,nd republicans are about evenly di vided, it is openly charged that money has bBeh used freely to buy the offices by bribing the vot- ers. In this connection we notice a rather peculiar coincidehce in ^he two Burlington papers of last; week. Alamance county is now d^imocratic, we believe, but the majorities either way are small. There is agitation in. the county for the substitution of the salary for the fee system in paying coun ty officers. The Burlington State- i)ispatch, repuplican, in speaking for the salary system, uses this argument: “Why are the office holders op posed to the salary system in stead of fees? That is easy: If they were paid-a. salary, they would not have fabuloussums of money to spend, e&cli and every election to buy their elec;ti9naiid debauch the electorate. No man of any political knowledge wll deSiy that it is being done; it is known to all men who have had any eitperience in politics and yet these same iiieh will continue to wink at this growing evil for the sake of seeing their side win. We are not charging that this evil is prevalent only among opponents, bemuse it ijs practic ed by all parties, but always more so by the deniiocratic party. The reason for this is easily account: ed for; they are in office and they caimot afford to be beaten, hence the lavish flow and use of money.” There it is plainly charged that money has been used for pur poses of corruption. Perhaps some one will say that this is simply republican partizanship, used for political effect. Then let’s see wljat the democrats of Alamance say. The Burlington News, democratic, arguing a- gainst the salary system, says: “In the second place, it is-hot fair to say that you can get a bank cashier bn $2; GOO per year, and if this is so you ought to be able to get a county officer for this amount. No man who is competent to act as a cashier of a bank would give up his busi ness in order to accept said posi tion with the chance and prospect of being kicked out of office after serving one term, regardless of whether he has given satisfac tion or not. He couldn’t afford to accept the positioh at twice the amount if he had any kind of a business sacrifice. So that a county officer connote be consi dered from the^eneral business steindpoint.” . ' ' _ ' “Any man who fs elected to a county office, accwj^w vvi Ji the fact facing him that he may be turned out at the end of one term, i^gardless of his efficiency, and for this rei^on any ^nsible man knowsi that by reason of the uncertainty the county officer mugit be paid more thah any man would ask for similar work, where, so long as he gives satis faction, he is continued in office. Airain, the bank cashier is ap pointed, and it does hot cost him half his salary to get elected. ” Notethe last Sentehce. It is pkiinly implied therein that the officers are paying large sums for their offices, So both demo- crjitic and republican papers are making the Charge, one using it as an argument against the sala ry system and the' other as an argument in favor of the salary sy sit^bm. Both use the sanie ba- Oiii» luid t&ie Oliier Is Wm of a fiing Waotnl m 1 Wilson* N. C., Feb. 8. tonight is applied at the awfii tragedy temodn wliei^ two pm cers, George sh^ff, ^ sfcot to aiwl Chief of most proli^bly fatally woiihd^ in th^ attempt to at^ta number of > negro Sieves, the one or two The city^^^ zy of exdtement when it was learned t^t these two^ nopulw offidei^ had b^n fat^Uy shot and td that the murderer or murder ers had Reaped. Th^ :fect that two finse and |k)i)ular yoimg were shot do^ in bro^ daylight in thi^e blocks of theoourt houjs* ' and the murdei^rg^^^^ their escape is difficult to comprehend and nmkes. the t/agedy t^ mo«e awfni, and while ^e public Inouma the most awful ti^edy that ever happened in tbehistory 01 the city, me primeval instincts of man is a^n b6rjR; and the public (advisedly) wiK not bo sati&died to l€«u^ tliat the rrinunals are shot dowii, bat Want torturer ^r t^t will give the only rep^tion, possible. This morning Sheriff Sharpe showed thei writer a telegrfb? from Sheriff McGeachey, of Uum- berland county, stating; “Locjk- put for three negroes vs^th gu lis andrjpistolSi one a mulatlo, clmrg^ ed with Mbihg a hard ware stopfi in Dunn. They v^ headed your The police were at once notified of the message .and this after noon about 2 p’olock strange mulatto nei^ was seen on the outskirts of the toWn in pompsin;? with tljree other strange ne groes. , The police got on to this clue and plans were iri^e to corral the gang. 6ffijer Wyan disguis ed himself in hunting clothes and carrying a shotgun, was sent out to watch the parties while the other officers gathered. Officer Wynn’s account of the tragedy in brief is as follows: "Oh being informed of the lo cation of the suspicious charac ters, I put on hunting clothes and took a gun and saw them ap proaching town from Five Points, a Suburb. I told a storekeeper on the edge ot the toi^n to watofe the pities while I was gone. J \ then Went up town to notify Gk^ yer and iVi uniford, and on return ing found tbat one or two of tht parties had gone up town andi entered anegro house near tlie Norfolk-Southern freight depot. According to our agreement Mumford and Glover were to enter the front dpor, while I and Officer Warren ^ere to watch the rear. Mumford and Glover went into the house and firing iiaimediately began, probably twenty shots in ^1 beingr fired. Warren and I did not leave o»ir position, fearing the parties would escape by the rear. Mumford and Glover were shii>t down with automatic pistols, Without having fired a shot. Mumford fell dowh ut:the doo^: but wCQi»i?cj!0Uw, and one ’ of Eiit; iiegj oes tired a bullet into his head as he passei^ out of thedoc»r and escaped. Glover was shot through bbtJi (Qontinui^ on pa^e ^ iQter the ifiring ceased the of ficers stationed at the rear of the house, seeing that one escaped that way, went around to the front and fired at the mulatto ne gro as he made his escape, but without effect. Then the nfeWs spread. The military was called out anda rai^ was made on the hardware storec for guns by those who did rioit live near the center of town. Bloodhounds were sent for and hundreds of citizens formed into posses and seourexi the surround ing country ih vairf for the mur-, derers..' ■ ' Mumford and Glover were sent to a hospital at once, but %im- , ^Cof^^ed;on page A? ■ 1 V - I k