THE DANBURY REPORTER.
Established 1872. Volume 64.
J Q. What's your name?
A. Doctor McDonald.
Where do you live?
1 • *A.' In Winston-Salem.
' Q. Hi w . :d ai'e you '-'
A. Ihirty-two.
rj ;• Q. .What is your busmen?
A. I have no hu.-'ness. lam a professor.
, Q. Professor of what?
_ A. My specialty is civil government.
Q. Have you always lived in Winston-Salem,
doctor?
IA. Oh, no. lam a native of Illinois.
Q. When you left Illinois, where did you go'.'
A. To Arkansas.
Q. And where did you go from there?
A. To North Carolina.
Q. And so you want to be Governor of North
trolina. You appear to be rather young and
experienced for such a big job as governing
nth Carolina. What put this notion in your
A. I can discern the need of a governor who
able to see the corruption and graft and in -
which permeate your State govern
?nt, and who has the courage and ability to
adicate it.
Q. So you hope to ride into office by an ap
al to ignorance and prejudice, making our
ople believe their government is rotten and
at our State officials are too corrupt and in
mpetent to manage it, and that you are the
jses who has come to lead them out uf this
Iderness of mismanagement, of dishonesty
d inefficiency, and graft.
A. I am able to carry out my programs, and
expect to empty the swivel chairs at Raleigh
len I come in.
Q. Well, doctor, when you turn out all the.
seals at Raleigh and empty the swivel chairs,
you propose to refill the swivel chairs with
eaper men who are your own henchmen?
A. There are t«o many high-salaried 'men*
d women who are eating off the tax-payers. ,
Q. Will you kindly name a few high salaried
?n and women whose places you would fill,
d give us an idea of the prices you would pay?
. A. Oh, I cannot go into those complications
re. But the first thing I will do when elected
1 will be to eliminate the sales tax, which is the
S most abominable curse ever devised by
• devilish ingenuity of an office-holding oligar-'
chy.
Q. Well, supposing you were able to elimi-i
nate the sales tax by your complete domination
t and mastery of the legislature, this would mean
- lopping off about 10 million dollars of the
1 State's present revenue, would it not?
. A. You are correct.
* Q. Then, according .to your program, I
notice you propose to largely increase the
salaries of the school teachers, to lengthen the
schools to nine months, to lower the price of
I automobile tags to $5, to pay old age pensions,
and do other great and noble things, which
will cost at least 10 million dollars more. So
that with your negative program of cutting off
M sales tax and your positive program of giv-'
Bie people their new blessings, the State
63 be confronted with a $20,000,000 hole in
me necessary revenues. Will you please tell '
J , the people how you propose to fill up this hole? i
'A. You evidently did not hear me in my
j Winston-Salem address in which I explained
1 clearly that there is a vast invisible bulk of un
taxed wealth in the State, and this I propose to
J tax. For instance, I will have the State con
st sfcitution repealed so that we can tax incomes
\ as high as 10 p°r cent, in the upper brackets; f
a, will tax the dividends of the corporations, and
J I will increase the franchise tax on the corpora
jt tions, I willNput a tax on merchants and a heavy
McDonald "Cross Examination" Continues—See 2nd Page
Cross = Examination
Q. Well, doctor, I have noticed that the bulk
»f your supporters appear to be metchants
whom you have led to believe :'*.e tax
•which they of course } ass on t ' v.- ■. .n>urr •
i a great.evi 1. an»l t h e.v there* mi •>'»•
session that you arc sme kind «•"' > * «r ■
to rescue them. H v are y.• i ' . -
your savior-quaiita - uirthtr
when they begin to the ;!• ' . ( y-. r iv •
i wjsed privilege tax?
A. Oh, this merchant's tax only wo a
, moderate one, and this they will 1 .0 glad t nay
as a relief from the diabolical sales tax.
Q. Now, doctor, let us agree for the sake oT
argument that the industries of the State, al
ready taxed to constitutional limits on their in -
comes, would receive your higher embargoes
complacently; that the dividends of corpora
tions, firms and individuals, which are already
taxed, could take on your additional load of
double taxation, and that all the other sources
'of the bulk of invisible untaxed wealth which
vou have enumerated in your program could be
tapped according to your specifications, how
much revenue would you raise thereby toward
filling the 20-million dollar hole you had
created 7
A. It is all a matter of calculation and
figures. I reach my conclusions by infallible
methods.
Q. Have you noticed that State tax commiss
ioner A. J. Maxwell has analyzed your program
and makes public the statement that if you
could reach every source of untaxed wealth as
outlined in your program, that you could only
produce 3 million dollars of taxes. Maxwell is
Jong experienced in the intricacies of taxation
and is considered on» of the ablest authorities
on fiscal matters in the United States,
j .A. Maxwell knows very little about taxation.
He is.-ignorant of modern principles as taught
in my philosophy. Besides, Maxwell is biased,
being an occupier of a swivel chair at Raleigh.
He knows if I get in, I will oust him from his
* berth.
Q. But, doctor, I see that this important
question has been referred to a disinterest
ed party in the person of Dr. Heer of the State
University, that Heer checked Maxwell's
figures and reported them substantially correct.
A. I stand by my calculations, and I
guarantee my deductions to be accurate.
Q. Well, doctor, let me ask you to answer
' this question which is very vital to the tax-pay
ers and citizens of the great State which you are
.trying to obtain control of: Suppose that you
should be elected and that you were able to re
peal the sales tax and to cany out your program
of reaching the great sources of untaxed wealth
outlined in your program. Suppose after you
had bled these sources, that the State would
jthen find itself confronted with the tragic situa
tion of a 17-million dollar deficit in its revenues.
What would be your recourse then but to fall
back with heavy ad valorem taxation on land
and real estate to save the State from bankrupt
cy. Would not your impractical theories then
,be charged with the destruction of the farmers
whom you are trying to induce to place you in
the State's highest and most important position?
1 A. Oh, my calculations cannot faiL Max
well and Heer have erred in their figures
i through ignorance and bias toward' me.
i Q. But, doctor, even if these two eminent
tax autiiorities should be ten million dollars out
of line, you would still have a shortage of more
than 7 million dollars facing your administra
tion. Now answer, frankly, if land woubd not
be your, only salvation, but the farmer's des
truction? Answer yes or no.
A. lam opposed to taxation of land. C
would not submit to it
Q. Now, doctor, I believe you were a member
of the late North Carolina legislature that
Danbury, N. C., Thursday, May 21, 1936
(AN EDITORIAL)
A. I was and hi the i..x b'tterly
while in Raleigh.
(J. Did you . .tally
w that it was ; iax
. *! putting tlu- \ : nols
•e to run  n . d't
- d did vuw \. ilcl
■rios you a:-,- .. ro
ring then >. . lid
;r i)lan not ■ * .. t a
l.iion dollars of -.u ?
A. \ou arc : .■ - . > . >\ws,
and I deny it.
Q. \ou abandoned your \ p'.a i" the legis
lature, why not abandon it now as a wild tissue
of impossible theories which would be sure to
get the State into .-erious trouble?
A. The people will back me in my program
Mid I will beat the other candidates who are in
favor of the sales tax.
Q. But, you know, doctor that the other can
didates—all three of them- are opposed to the
sales tax and have repeatedly said so. l ut rea
lize that it can only be eliminated gradually un
less we go back to heavy taxati* n  : y . the t'arm
i r's land and on the real est at-.
A. 1 have told you I am  \ r«> scd t > land laxa --
lion.
Q. Doctor, are you a reader of the Union
Republican?
A. Oh, yes, and most other State papers.
Q. Is that where you get your information
that the Democratic party of North Carolina is
so rotten, and incompetent and crooked?
A. I have not said that the machine is crook
ed.
Q. What is the Democratic machine 7
A. It is the gang of office holders at
Raleigh.
Q. How is it you are so anxious to become l a
member of that gang of crooks, indeed its
chief?
A. There will be a new set if I am elected.
Q. Of crooks?
A. I did not say so. My subordinates will be
honest men and capable.
Q. You are very careful in your statements
to the people in the course of your campaign,
are you not?
A. Certainly.
Q. Then why did you so grossly misrepresent
the dead Bowman Grey in your Winston-Salem
speech, in insinuating that his property was
c vad; ng taxation ?
A. I said that his name did not appear on the
tax lists, and it does not. 1 was right.
Q. But when it was proved that his estate
did appear, and was shown to be paying its just
.-hare of taxes to Forsyth county and the State
of North Carolina, why did you not acknowledge
to the people that by inuendo you were try
ing to create a false impression in the minds of
the people and to prejudice them against res
pectable and honored citizens, in furtherance of
your methods to obtain an office?
A. The tax records are there for the people
to see for themselves. I have no apology to
make.
Q. And in posing as Sir Galahad, or the man
without sin, you are willing for others to be
condemned—Am I right?
A. I think you are stretching it.
Q. You are basing your campaign on the
discredit and the dishonor of the party you want
to put you in, why do you and Talmage and
Co ugh lan and Townsend and other radicals not
start a new party which would conform to your
impractical and impossible theories?
A. lam not a radical. lam a great ft'.'end
and supporter 01 President Roes. vcit .1
New Deal.
Q. Do you feel like you deserve, Arm
Number 3,343