Page 2
MCDONALD "CROSS - EXAMINATION" CONTINUES
Q. Doctor, do you admit that a candidate for
Governor of North Carolina should be like
Caesar's wife- above suspicion?
A. I certainly do.
Q. Do you believe the Democratic party
could afford to be put on the defensive in the
fall campaign?
A. I do not.
Q. Then you concede that the Democratic
party should he careful to nominate a man
against whom the breath of scandal or defama
tion has never blown, whose ability and integrity
are unquestioned, and whose public and private
life are above reproach?
A. Why, certainly.
Q. Please define a "political machine?"
A. It is an aggregation of corrupt bosses
exploiting the masses of the people for its own
selfish advantage.
Q. Would you say the political machine is
dishonest, corrupt and debased?
A. Absolutely I do say so.
Q. Then each part of its mechanism
naturally partakes the nature of the whole?
A. Beg your pardon?
Q. I say if the machine is vicious, dishonest
and debased, its members, its candidates are the
same-
A. I see your drift. I claim that my op-!
ponents for Governor are fine gentlemen.
Q. But you would have the people believe j
they are crooks?
A. I have never called them crooks. I re-|
frain from personalities in my campaign.
Q. I ask you, doctor, if you have not your- 1
self started a campaign of personalities in N. C.?
A. Oh, no. My opponents began by charg
ing me with being a citizen of Illinois. It was
only then that I mentioned machine candidates.
Q. Do you consider the charge that you
are from Illinois damaging to your character?
A. Why certainly not, I am very proud of
my Illinois nativity.
Q. Then why, when your opponents said you |
were from Illinois, which you say you are proud!
of, did you come back at them and charge them
with something which you admit yourself is very
damaging to their characters. Does this not
make you the author of the campaign of
personalities now looming?
A. I do not think so.
Q. Are you proud of your sales tax?
A. You should be aware that I consider it an
unmitigated curse.
Q. Then why did you vote for this un
mitigated curse and then try to deceive the
people of North Carolina by telling them if
elected vou would repeal it ?
A. '1 he people of North Carolina know that
I 1( (1 the fight in the legislature against the
sales tax.
Q. But the House Journal of the 1935
General Assembly, page ?>*, shows that Dr.
Ralph McDonald. of Forsyth county, not only
voted for the sales tax but he voted for a tax
en the pool-man's meals and lunches in the
cafes. Do you deny it—answer yes or no. j
A. I repeat that I led the fight in the legis-j
lature against the sales tax and my
of friends will bear me out in this.
Q. Then do you confess to political duplicity!
when you "led" the fight against a bill that the'
record savs you voted for? If you "lead" an
army and then go around and shoot it in the I
back, what kind of a soldier do you claim to be?,
A. I deny it.
Q. Illinois has a large negro vote, does it
not, professor?
» A. Chicago has a large colored voting popu-i
lation. -The colored people in that city are very '.
intelligent 7
Q. Do you believe in white supremacy for
North Carolina?
>• A. Why do you ask me this question?
\ Q. Because it is stated by 0. L. Pulliam,
registrar, and other election officers of Wins
ton-Salem that you tried to induce them to
roister neero teaehprs in South Third ward of
Winston-Salem, and because they refused, you
became very angry at them. Do you deny that!
THE DANBUIT lENBUB
you tried to get these negroes on the registra
tion books?
A. This is the first time I have heard this
charged. It is another hatch-up of the Demo
cratic machine.
Q. If you become Governor will it be your
policy to restore negroes to the ballot in North
Carolina?
A. Ido not believe there is any danger of
negro registration on a large scale.
Q. What is your record on whiskey in North
Carolina doctor'- Are you in favor of letting the
counties have their liquor back?
A. I stand for a referendum.
Q. Your adopted county of Forsyth is 7,220
dry, and the good people and the churches and
the women and the prohibitionists sent you to
the legislature trusting you to shield them from
impending liquor legislation, did they not? I
ask you, doctor, if you did not betray them?
Will you answer yes or no ?
i A. No.
Q. I ask you, doctor, if you did not ask your
colleague Hal Alspaugh when the Pasquotank
| liquor bill was up to "put Forsyth in," and on the
amendment you voted "yes." But when Paul
Ervin demanded a record vote, you ran out on
i Hal. Now tell the people of North Carolina if
| this is not your shadv record on liquor, quite as
j shady as your record on the sales tax. Please
| answer yes or no, doctor.
A. The people of Forsyth county know my
I record in the General Assembly and believe in
| me, and as the straw vote is now indicating,
'will vindicate me at the polls by a large
majority.
Q. Do you believe that the people of Forsyth
| county and the Democratic party of North
i Carolina can afford to assume you as a liability
| when their great traditions and the immortal
deau Vances, Glenns, Aycocks, Kitchens, Craigs
land Bicketts plead for a man above reproach,
i and honest and unsmirched in his public and
; private record? How shall we answer the at
tacks of the Republicans who are already
laughing and shouting over the State at your
charges that the Democratic party is foul and
corrupt and machine-ridden? Tell me where is
the corruption and the dishonesty and the trick
ery?
A. I defy the machine or its candidates to
show that my record is not clear in North
Carolina.
Q. Clear on what—for heaven's sake not on
the sales tax and the poor man's bread and meat, ;
not on whiskey and your promises and repre- j
sentations to the dry citizens of Forsyth I
county, not on white supremacy. I ask you if]
your whole program to ride into the governor's 1
office is not based on deception, I ask you if j
your boasted tax-philosophy is not faked up to
fool uninformed people?
A. I deny your inferences, and I appeal to
the people.
Q. Have you noticed the published state
ment of Gordon Gray that his father Bowman
Gray paid more than 62 per cent, of his income
-n taxes, when you stated in your Winston-1
Salem oration that this respected and honored!
man's name did not even appear on the tax
books of Forsyth county? J
A. I read the Gordon Gray explanation. I
can easily explain my position. I
Q. Then tell the people of North Carolina
that in your campaign of deception to get in the,
Governor's office, you have even invaded the'
sacred precincts of a death-stricken home to
carry your points, and that you dishonored the
name of a splendid and law-abiding citizen. Is'
this Illinois strategy, is this Chicago politics
that you would teach us in our simple and
reverential North Carolina?
A. You are picturing this .unimportant in
cident in a strained light. I have promsed my
friends a full and clear explanation.
Q. Why, doctor, do you know the amount of
the total incomes of North Carolina citizens with
net incomes of over $25,000 after paying* their
federal income taxes;., and if you do know, I ask:
you is such an amount sufficient to pay the in-1
(An Editorial.)
■ creased costs of State government advocated
by you, after repealing the sales tax? I
5 A. Oh, I have various other sources of taxes ;
- in prospect.
Q. Did you or did you not make the state
• ment in your Winston speech that corporations
i pay less taxes in N. C. than any other State, and
jtiid you not make this statement to mislead the I
' people, and is it not a fact that corporations in r j
N. C. pay more taxes than any other State in
i the Union, if not, cite ONE State that has a
; higher corporate tax than N. C.? Answer, if
you please.
A. There is a billion dollars of untaxed
) wealth in N. C. My program proposes to reach
[ it and take the tax off the poor man.
> Q. Like you took it off his bread? Doctor,
! you claim to be a professor and a philosopher,
[ why evade my simple and earnest questions, and
r why side-step the truth to the people of N. C?
A. Your questions seek to involve me in
error. My deductions as published in mv
. speeches are irrefutable.
: I Q. Doctor, I ask you again, if it is not a fact
; that a citizen of N. C. having sufficient income
I \o pay the maximum federal income tax, would
L under the bill passed by the House recently, pay
■ the federal government 79 per cent, of his net
• income, and if your proposals go through, any
j' corporation that he held stock in subject to N.
|C. income taxes would pay 10 per cent, of its
r net income, and such individual pay 10 per cent. I
{ more of his net income? Answer, please.
J A. I have not checked your figures, but I
» consider them inaccurate.
Q. I notice, Professor, you say you are op
-1 v?/?Sr 1? a a tax * Do you not know that
t NOW there is not one cent levied on land by
r the State of N. C., and that the tax on land has
I been taken off by the "Democratic machine?' •
. Do you not mean to leave the impression on the
, ifimorant people that there is NOW a tax on
I land, and that you propose to take it off? Do
■ ow that when your wild program |
p falls down, as down it must fall, that the only If
. recourse to save the schools and the credit of J
[ the State would be to PUT A HEAVY TA Y ;
! BACK ON LAND? VI lAX
l am known to be opposed to a land
I Q; Now, my dear doctor, be fair, and tell the
people if it is not a fact that if yoii divide the I
j total sales tax collections in North Carolina by
the number of citizens, that you have only a pe
:ZthSm4Brannum? Is it not toe !
; also that there are hundreds of corporations in 1
ymg ? Pai t of this sales tax which S
itlx' Tn^fvf 1 * a G -£ 6 a^" al Per Capita sales ?
J a \ In other words if a citizen of North Caro- '^j
una had to pay income tax on SIOO of net income
tax would equal his or her share of the sales j
A. My reply to all this may or will be found I
1 canno ? g0 into here, but in H
Q eneral I deny your implications.
d«iv fW app ? ar t° be ade Pt at denials. Do you I
Jsssss sar"*.
A. Beg your pardon?
vr 01 ' you not pay anv taxes in
(North Carolina until you became a' candidate
Governor, evading listing for several vears
'garnishee waT°th!i 0 t liSt H eVad?d payment un «i
at the coHege?
should KwUf -
beheve it should be conducted on a higher plane
the personalities yourself? no start
camtS et ° be draWn int ° |
! Q- have you been too dignified tn ah™, .
1 (Continued on Page 3) /
iiiiii'iiii 11 ilium i i i / rlmMii
THURSDAY, MAY 21, ltK *