Newspapers / The Scottish Chief (Maxton, … / March 7, 1919, edition 1 / Page 1
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Uiii *en>t * He w» S8 rW», THE>SCOT ADVEJ2TI5ING REASONABLE 2 COPEJiYE:Aa,N ADVANCE. VOL XXXV MAXTON, N. C., FRIDAY. MARCH 7,1919 NO 10 Liberty and LaFayette Counties Not Granted by Present General Assembly Of the Seventeen or Eighteen Members of the House Committee Present Eight Voted for Division Thus the New Counties Failed by Only One Vote Large Delegation of Leading Men of Proposed N e w Counties Present at the Hearing The Opposition was Almost Entirely From Lumberton. No Senator or Representa tive can be Elected in the Future who will not Favor Ik Divir^-i, if tb* Propo nents Hold Together—and They Will Stick in Spite of Lawyers and Politicians. ' Any thoughtful person present last Friday afternoon in Wake Coun ty Court House, Raleigh, when the1 Conference of advocates of creating the proposed Counties of Liberty and LaFayette, was held, and saw. }bat delegation which filled the court room and listened to the state-' ments of those representative men. from every part of the territory ask- j ed to be taken from Robeson, would j have concluded that their case had j been won and only the necessity of time could delay the creation of j these counties The matter of con-' venience of the people, the necessity of better roads and the evident fact that these cannot be made and main tained in so large a county, filled with so many streams as is Robeson, without great extravagance. The fault does not lay with the officers; -at the head of road work. This was j made plain by intelligent and well: informed men. That the size of the | county and the nature of the land,; renders the work giganti, was made; plain. I The fact of a lack of homogeneity j of the people living in the lower part, of Roboson from those of West and North Robeson is overlooked by the opponents of division. The Scotch and the Saxon are different ins thought and character and separate; as oil and water. As was said in j that Conference by a former resentative of the county: line already exists and it is necessary to have it legalized.’ Thus it is that nature has made the division and the history of the j effort of the west side of Robeson to get away from the East side dates i back to the middle of the nineteenth j century, when the late Esquire Mur-, phy C. MacNair, father of our neigh bors Messrs. H. C. and A. M. Mac Nair, went to Raleigh in obedience | to the call for separation (in 1851, or 1853) and through the aid of. Judge Bynum, then a prominent leg islator, came home with an enact ment forming the county of Hooper. Covering the territory now practi cally embraced in the proposed coun ty of Liberty and that now of Scot land County. But a provision sub mitting the question to both Robeson and Richmond counties defeated its Rep-j “The | only | consumation. In 1874, Judge T. A. McNeill, then of Shoe Heel (Maxton) now of Lum berton introduced a bill for creating the county of “Jura” out of the same territory in Robeson and Rich mond counties. This movement fail ed because of political conditions of the day. In 1879 the editor of The Scottish Chief—together with the late Dan iel S. Morrison, chairman of the Board of Robeson county commis sioners, which made it possible to amend the state Constitution and unshackle the white people of East ern North Carolina, in 1875—drew the first bill providing for the crea tion county .of Scotland, with in the tines above named for the county of Hooper and Jura. • We took the bill to the General Assembly and through the wise gui dance of the late Senator D. P. Mc Eachern it was passed by the Senate at a time when a, large number of the leading citizens of what are now Durham and Vance counties, work ing like beavers, could not get a favorable report from committees of either branch of the General Assem-j bly. This, of course, shows that the j necessity for division was greatest in Robeson and Richmond over the: Durham and Vance propositions | which were later pushed to success i and have made good—thereby show- i ing the wisdom of establishing small-1 er counties. ine condition ot roaas in noDe-< son, which has become proverbial;! the lack of homogenetic population, j the history of the desire of the west to separate reaching back nearly three-fourth of a century, as ex pressed by the people at the above times; the success,financially, and in other lines of development, especi ally the good roads resulting and the convenience to the people in at tending to the public as well as pri vate business within the county, shown by the counties of Scotland, Durham, Hoke, Leet and other small counties, was discussed by the con ference held in Wake Court house and it was clear that those gathered there were determined that even if the present General Assembly refus to grant division, the movement w’ould not cease but the people of the territory asking for these coun ties of Liberty and LaFayette, will continue knocking at the door of the General Assembly until this matter of justice is granted. And too, The Scottish Chief feels justified by the feeling that fund expression in that splendid body of Robesonians, to give notice that no man who is not favorable to this division need as pire to represent Robeson county in either branch of the General Assem bly until these counties are created. Having fully determined to have the right of self-determination, now to j be granted every competent self j governing people of the world -1 warning is here given that these folks will stick; and that royal bunch of court House politicians—of whom we are all fond—shall not in the fu ture pick and pledge in advance of election members and Senators to defeat this proposition. So much for the proponents of the bill. The opposition was largely repre sented by the lawyers and politicians of the county seat. Court was ad journed by taking a mistrial and that bunch of friends and foes, to gether with their client hurried to the Capitol to oppose this wise meas ure of relief proposed for the people of the two counties proposed and also for those left in the old county of Robeson. This they did by discrediting their own land and resources with the swampiest map ever drawn—one could almost see the clouds of mos quitoes rising as he gazed upon the miasmatic map produced by Mr. LawTenee as a support to his eloquent plea that the West and North be not permitted to leave the old mother county, which in fact is a childless old maid fit to nurse wild cats ih Mr. Lawrence's swamps. By the way; -what do the people of mont, Proctorville, Marrietta and, surrounding territory who have, grown rich farming and are drawing, toward the multi-millionaire class in, mind as they peer into the future resources of Lawrence’s discredited swamps, thing of what the Lumber ton crowd think of their splendid; section? Those swampy crocodile tears shed by the county seat folks no doubt had their effect upon prospec tive investors in lowers Robeson— but if one of these should chance to see. this statement of fact and fancy, we urge them not to abandon their intention without a personal inspec tion of that discredited part of our really splendid county. These tears were shed for another purpose as was the argument made that if the new counties were created, the old county would be given over to the Republican party. This in spite of the facts that the Republican vote last Fall was only 1,190 out of a total county vote of 4,364; and the majority in Lumber ton township was about if not quite enough to cover the entire Republi can vote of the territory proposed j to be left in Robeson. There is error in the report that only three members of the House committee voted for a favorable re port—we have been assured that nine out of the members present voted for a favorable report and we were given their names, lacking only one of a tie, in which case our in formation is that the Chairman would have cast a favorable vote, rherefore in spite of the limited j time given to present the case, and the fact that Representative Oliver was placed upon the committee—and tiis vote probably turned the tide | against the new counties—the de feat was almost a victory. If Mr. Patterson could have had even a iialf hour to close, the end would doubtless have been different. There really was no comparison between the presentation of the proponents and the special pleading af the opponents. The above by way of preface to the following report of the proceed ings before the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns, sent bis paper by Editor J. A. Sharpe, of me Robesonian, which is probably as fair as a denizen of the county seat could under the circumstances, looking through the selfish Pharaoh —like glasses, who “will not let my people go” could have evolve!, therefore to save labor, we adopt it for the further in formation of Scottish Chief readers. Raleigh, Feb. 28.—No Liberty and LaFayette counties to be carved out of Robeson this trip, thank you. That was the verdict rendered by the House committee on counties, cities and towns after a 2-hours’ hearing held here this afternoon in the hall of the House of Representa tives. Nobody knows for certain, just how the vote stood. Some say only three members of the commit tee voted in favor of the proposed major operation upon this dear Rob eson; some say five; but all are agreed that the committee voted by a majority sufficient to be decisive against reporting favorably the pro position to create two new counties out of Robeson. An aye and no vote decided, which is why there are different versions as to the size of the verdict against. The News and .Observer report says that only 3 of fthe 20 members of the committee voted for favorable report, y Robe*onians There in Force Robeson county was very much in evidence here today. Hyperbol ically and superlatively speaking, al | most would it be easier to attempt to call the roll of those who remain ed home than to mention those who ^ journeyed here to show the commi tee that they were interested in this proposition to make of the grand old “oiate of Robeson” three coun ties. Really, though, taking the es timate of an honorable and fair mihded advocate of division, there tvere 150 to 200 advocates of divis ion here. Bedecked they were, too, With badges bearing the legend “Li berty and Lafayette Counties,” while the quarter of a hundred, say, opponents of division who trekked to this capital city to see the thing through were no outward sign of the hope that was in them. In Which connection it is fair to say that opponents of the proposed carv ing operation upon Robeson had very little time in wffiicb to gather their crowd, so suddenly and unexpected ly did this proposition for division fall. Orderly to begin at the beginning, , the committee hearing to decide this momentous question began at 3 p. I m., this afternoon. The S. R. O. | sign appropriately might have been! hung nout before that hour, for eve ry se/it in the hall was taken. Forj the ' nonce, the battle front of; the fight upon the result of which; the fate of Robeson hung was in this city of Raleigh. Each side was giv en one hour in. which to present its case. Before the argument began it was announced that Representa tive J. S. Oliver had been added to the committee, of which Major G. B. Sellers already was a member, | thus sweeping away any advantage to one side in case Major Sellars might decide to enter a plea for di vision ; for it was known that Mr. ; Oliver stood like a stone wall against any and all propositions to take from the glory and the grandeur that is Robeson. Map Showing Proposed Divisions Hon. G. B. Patterson of Maxton,’ ex-Congressman and shrewd leader of clans, was floor leader for advo cates of two new counties. A large map of Robeson, showing the boun daries of the proposed new counties, adorned the wall back of the speak-: er’s stand. This map Mr. Patterson explained to the committee, tracing the proposed boundaries. Then he presented Recorder J. S. Butler of St. Pauls. Claim Smaller Counties Most Pro Mr. Butler spoke for. No county so son, he said, could laws successfully. the committee large as Robe administer its He cited the road law as an example. Hoke and Scotland, small counties, he said, have good roads, while Robeson county not only has not good roads but the road commissioners are in debt. He claimed that the proposed division would be best for all con cerned. They were advocating new counties for no selfish purpose, he said. Next spoke Mr. W. H. Weather spoon of Scotland county, a former member of the House of the Legis lature. Mr. Weatherspoon said that Scotland and Hoke counties are ex amples of the wisdom of creating small counties out of large counties. He aroused the first applause of the hearing when he declared that there is not on record a single instance of a small county carved out of a large 1 one being a failure. He pulled sta tistics. Robeson county has he said, 5.53.000 acres. The proposed new! counties would have, approximately,! Liberty, 110,000 acres, LaFayette, 114.000 leaving in old Robeson 249, 000 acres. Counties containing around the same number of acres, he said, as the proposed new counties are the most progressive. He com pered Bladen and Scotland. Bladen, he said, has 404,000 acres, with a valuation of around $5,000,000, while Scotland has 2,600 polls, 191, 000 acres, and a valuation of some j $9,000,000. Richmond county, from | which Scotland was created some 1 20 years ago, has grown from a pro . party valuation of a million and a 1 quarter to more than $10,000,(100, ! and Richmond says that Scotland ! going away has improved the mother j county. He marshalled other fig i ures to the same purpose taking Lee ! and Hoke counties to prove his con tention that small counties have grown and flourished as the green bay tree. , Mr. Weatherspoon admitted that Robesor, is a great county, and many opponents of the division he was ad vocating are inclined to return thanks to Mr. Weatherspoon for what he had to admit when he struck this giant. Since 1911, he said, when a portion of Robeson was taken to form the now much-lauded county of Hoke, Robeson has increased its pro perty valuation from around $11,-' 000,000 to $21,000,000—which seem | ed to have a tendency to prove that this bis county had done pretty well. [ There are 37 counties, he said, with, ! not more than 232,000 acres; 23 counties that have smaller acreage | than the proposed county of Liberty;: 20 counties that have smaller acre age than proposed LaFayette; 28 j counties smaller than Robeson would be with Liberty and LaFayette : cut off, more polls would the old j county have than 58 other counties, while its tax valuation would be1 greater than that of 73 other coun- j ties. In calling for Rev. C. L. Byrd to say a piece, Mr. Patterson said that: Mr. Byrd from the western portion of proposed LaFayette, broke two autos on Robeson county roads in his! zeal to get to Raleigh for this great} great occasion. | Mr. Byrd came forward with his head bound up, bearing visible evi-j dence of the truth of his statement; that through great tribulation he had come. He said he believed in small counties and, as Gen. Pershing ex claimed at the tomb of LaFayette, “we are here.” With 16 minutes of their time in reserve, Mr. Patterson stated that proponents of division would rest a while, whereupon Mr. R. C. Law- j rence, floor leader for the antis,came ] to the bat, so to speak. Another Map Mr. Lawrence did not like the map | displayed by the diyisionists. It was! a good map, as far as it went, he} said, but it failed to show the char-! acter of the territory that would be ! left in Robeson. Over the portion of the first map showing Robeson as j it would be left if violently bereft, as proposed, of so much garden-spot territory, he pinned a map which he represented as being painfully truth ful and frank. This map, he pointed out, showed that old Robeson, as they were plesaed to designate the part of the county that would be left was the most swampy section of the county. This was a revelation to the committee. Swamps, rivers, marsh es and ponds dotted that map so numerously that one could but won der if the inhabitants all lived on little islands and visited in canoes. But no questions was raised as to the accuracy of the map: it was drawn true to a United States soil survey. Both maps were made by Mr. W. Lennon of Lumberton, bW the swamps were not shown in the tricolored map exhibited by advo cates of Liberty and LaFayette counties. Mr. Lawrence pointed out too, that old Robeson would be strip ped of nearly all railroad mileage. 5 Propositions to Divide. Mr. Lawrence decalred that there were now five propositions to take territory from Robeson—to form Liberty, to form LaFayette, to take Red Springs and tack it on to Hoke (Senator Johnson of Hoke introduc ed a bill to that effect Wednesday), to give Parkton to Cumberland, and Fairmont was there with a proposi tion to make Fairmont a county seat taking in part of the proposed terri tory of LaFayette, if the committee should report favorably this bill. Mr. George McNeill of Cumberland interrupted Mr. Lawrence to deny any move on his part to ififnex Patk ton to Cumbertland. *>•: i ... Unexpected Move In 4911, Mr. Lawrence recalled, Mr. Patterson, then fighting against a proposition to divide Robeson, said in that very hall that he went to be<f in Robeson but never knew what county he would wake in. Mr. Law rence reviewed some history. Since 1911, he said, a portion of Robesoi^ was cut off to form Hoke, division has been dead. In no campaign has it been urged, not a word was said about it in the last campaign, and yet suddenly and unexpectedly this proposition was sprung some two weeks ago. He and others thought that nothing would be attempted in the Legislature at this late day, but the first of the week, while nearly every lawyer in Lumberton was tied up in an important case, the bill was introduced, and Judge Stacy ordered a mistrial Thursday in order that they might present their side of the case. There was no time, he said, to have badges printed, to get up a. large delegation, but he had in his pocket signed petitions containing about a thousand names, and others were on the way. Mr. Lawrence read some tele grams. One was from Hon. A. W. McLean, a member of the War Fi nance board and a member of the Democratic national committee, who was expected to come to Raleigh for the hearing but was detained in Washington. Mr. McLean urged that the proposed division was objection able from every standpoint and that it might have serious political con sequences. A telegrarpl,,'signed by Messrs. J. B. Humphrey, A. C. Mc Leod, and other stated i;hat Burnt Swamp was solid to remain in Robe son. j Touching upon the i convention about loads, Mr. I.awr$)fce pointed out that 4 of the IS members of the road board live in the territory of the proposed new coifq£ies, also the road superintendent; and he said he understood the road superintendent had been promised the office of sher iff of LaFayette. He said the road law was all right, that .thttitaouble is the plain mandates of the law have not been carried out; and he strong ly suspected that the members of the board would have to answer for this (Continued on last page.)
The Scottish Chief (Maxton, N.C.)
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March 7, 1919, edition 1
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