The Raleigh Republican.
A PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO THE INTEREST OF THE TAX-PAYERS OF RALEIGH.
Vol. 1.
RALEIGH, N. C., SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1909.
No, 5.
Workingmen, Attention!
When a man becomes desperate
and beside himself with rage at his
impotence, he is apt to become indis
creet, and. if he is crooked, to tell the
real truth. An evidence of this is
seen in the organ of the Democratic
party, the Raleigh News and Obser
ver, in their issue of April 30th.
In this, the charge, while implied,
is in no less manner direct, that
“workingmen,” men who earn pheir
bread by the sweat of their brow, are
unfit for public office, and if elected,
will bring the city into disgrace, to
use its language, make Raleigh a
“Lu-Lu” of a place, whatever that
may mean.
It is true, that the Republicans
have nominated workingmen for of
fice. In that catagory is a machin
ist, a painter, a plumber, a carpen
ter, a storekeeper, a printer, and so
on. They are men of good character,
of good education, of clean lives,
most of them owners of property,
men who would not suspend from
office one official for a dereliction of
duty of which they were themselves
guilty. They have each pledged them
selves to-be faithful in the perform
ance of their duties, and if their past
lives are any criterion, they will be.
Because a man’s hands may be cal
lous from toil does not make him un
fit for office any more than being a
bank president does. Because a man’s
clothes, his every-day clothes, may
show evidences of his daily employ
ment, does not make him an “unde
sirable” man who, if elected to office,
will cause his city to be shamed.
Cities have elected workingmen to
the office of mayor, and they have
“made good.”
In their anxiety to elect their
slate, composed mainly of men who
have formerly taken little part in
public affairs, and many who until
there was the spending of a large
bond issue to handle, several sites to
buy, etc., etc., the News and Observer
has become indiscreet and in its des
peration says more than it intended
to let out.
It is to be hoped that a rebuke, if
not a defeat, will be given such on
Monday next. The only way it can be
given, is by your individual vote.
You, and you alone, can do it Will
you?
If you are opposed to the $125,000
bond issue, forced on you without
your opinion being asked, then vote
against the sale of the Market House.
One thing is certain: Since The
Raleigh Republican has been making
its afternoon calls, the Democrats
have had an epidemic of the “dry
grins.”
Mr. Stanhope Wynne, Candi
date for Mayor.
Sir:—You have been chosen, after
many years of fruitless effort, as a
candidate of the dominant party, or
rather of the dominant faction of that
party, as a candidate for Mayor. The
Republican wishes to ask you a few
questions, which it feels is in the in
terests of the tax-payers whose votes
you solicit. Being the head of your
ticket, it is natural to presume that
the other candidates meet with your
approval and that you will, of course,
support them for re-election.
1st. .Do you think it right and
proper that an officer, whose sworn
duty it was to see that proper bonds
for officers were filed for the protec
tion of the people’s money, failed in
that duty, should be retained in office
not to mention to stand again for re-
election as your candidate for City
Clerk has done? Are you going to
approve this dereliction in duty by
voting for him?
2nd. Is it right and proper for a
Police Commissioner who has violat
ed his oath of office by failing to see
that proper reports were made by the
Chief of Police is a fit candidate foi-
re-election and is he entitled to your
support?
3rd. Do you think it right and
proper that a candidate for an office
who has the entire handling of the
tax-payers’ money and who failed in
his sworn duty to furnish a bond,
should be elected?
We are asking you these ques
tions because one officer, who simi
larly failed has been suspended from
office and disgraced. Your colleagues
on the ticket are equally guilty, and
yet you, presumably, are supporting
them.
You are a man of large business in
terests, with a reputation for care and
shrewdness in the management of
those interests. Would you allow
such careless (which is a mild term)
men in your private employ? Then
why, as your silence implies, support
for office, to take care of the people’s
money and affairs, such men.
We have appealed in vain to the
organ which is, above everything else,
responsible for your nomination. As
a candidate it is your duty to answer.
Do we call in vain on you also?
The publication of The Raleigh
Republican has demonstrated that
there is a field for an afternoon
paper here. The little “me-too” Ral
eigh Times is not even an excuse. The
people of Raleigh are anxious for a
fair, independent newspaper which
will treat both sides right and give
the facts. They do not care for a
little afternoon echo of the morning
blast.
To the Voters of Raleigh.
You are asked, on Monday next, to
endorse by voting the Democratic
ticket, the following things:
You are asked to endorse a bond
issue of $125,000 -which was forced
on you without your consent; with
out previous agitation among the peo
ple. It was passed by gumshoe meth
ods, BY THE LEGISLATURE, NOT
THE PEOPLE, because they knew
you would never approve it.
2nd. You are asked to endorse the
administration of a party that has in
creased the expenses of the city by
65 per cent, without apparent im
provement to any local conditions; as
admitted by their own speakers and
their organ.
3rd. You are asked to vote for a
City Clerk, a Tax Collector and a
Police Commissioner who are shown
to have been derelict in their duty,
careless (to put it mildly) in the con
duct of the people’s affairs, a dere
liction for which one official is now
under suspension and disgrace.
4th. You are asked to approve the
selection of a partizan commission
who are empowered to select sites for
a new municipal building, the loca
tion of a new market house and au
ditorium, the handling of hundreds
of thousands of your dollars, which
commission you were not asked to
select or even approve of, and who
have not yet selected these locations
nor will they until after the election,
when you will have two long years to
forget it in.
5th. You are asked to endorse a
party that is responsible for your in
creased taxation, of all descriptions,
and to approve of actions that can
have only one result, and that will
be increased taxation and more bonds
either with or—if not given—with
out your consent.
6th. You, Mr. Voter, in the newly
incorporated district, are asked to en
dorse your forcible annexation to an
increased taxation, a rate of taxation
that is paid by the rich and well-pro
tected properties on the sleek and
well-fed gentlemen who have seized
control of your dominant Democratic
party, for which you have no return
in water, sidewalks, lights, police and
fire protection and the other things
that they have in abundance. YOU
PAY THE SAME RATE AS THEY.
7th. Workingman, you are asked
to endorse a party whose organ says
the city will stand disgraced if work
ingmen are elected aldermen, instead
of bank presidents and rich mer
chants. If you don’t believe that,
read the News and Observer of Fri
day’s issue.
The Republican could mention nu
merous other things, but space for
bids. A change is needed and that
imperatively; quick, sharp and im
perative. For the first time the op
position to the clique have had an
opportunity to talk to the people by
means of the newspaper. The Demo
crats confidently expect you to trail
along as you have before.
Will you? It is up to YOU., and
by you. we do not mean your next
door neighbor, but you, your individ
ual self. Come out Monday and vote
your convictions THIS ONE TIME.
The City Clerk.
In the expose of carelessness, neg
ligence and even worse of the city
officials, the office of City Clerk
shows up worse than any of the oth
ers. Absolute carelessness, neglect,,
inattention to even the rudimentary
elements of ordinary business care-
are only too apparent. Cases could
be cited galore, but as a sample, it
was his duty to see that the bonds:
of officials were filed. THE TAX
COLLECTOR HANDLING THOU
SANDS OF DOLLARS OF TAX
MONEY went for SIXTEEN MONTHS
without a bond. A monthly report
of the Chief-of-Police should have
been made, and it was the EXPRESS
DUTY OF THE CITY CLERK TO IM
MEDIATELY REPORT SUCH FAIL
URE under the City Charter, and he
failed to do so FOR MONTHS. Who
should be suspended from office, Mul
lins or Willson, or both?
He is paid a salary of $100 per
month, a fair wage, certainly enough
to cause him to spend some little
time at his office. Yet the inability
of the citizen who has business at
the office of the city’s clerk, the city’s
office man, as it were, has passed into
a joke. Ridiculous as it may sound,
it is said in good faith, that a tax
payer, anxious to pay his dog tax,
called so often that he finally became
disgusted and tied his dog to the
Clerk’s chair, where the poor animal
remained for three days.
The Republican party has nomi
nated for that office a clean, bright,
alert young man of worth and busi
ness ability. He is making a finan
cial sacrifice in accepting the office,
if elected, but he has pledged him
self to faithfully perform his duties
as laid down by the charter and the
ordinances. He has been successful
in the conduct of his own affairs, and
will, without doubt, give the same
care to his official duties as he has
to his private affairs.
He is, it is true, a workingman, a
mechanic and a good one. Raised by
careful parents, he possesses a good
education, making him perfectly ca
pable of performing the clerical du
ties of that office. He is popular, an
evidence of this being the fact that
he lead his legislative ticket in this:
county last fall.
If there was ever a case of the
office seeking a man, it was this case
with “Powie” Matthews. If elected,
it involves a financial sacrifice, a mat
ter of consideration to a working-
man. He accepted only on being urged
by his friends that the office needed
a purging, that he was one man who
could fill the office more acceptably
than its present occupant, whose rec
ord for six years his own party dare
not even attempt to defend.
For once, let the people of Raleigh
lay aside party prejudice, consider
the best interests of the community
and the city’s best interests and vote
to SUSPEND William Willson “for
i dereliction of duty.”
AFTER READING, PLEASE PASS ALONG TO SOME ONE ELSE.