North Carolina Newspapers

fa "MY BON, deal with ma who advertise, yon will nercr Iom by It" Benjamin Franklin. WEATHER Cloudy tonight and Friday. Proba bly ral. Modorate to fresh north east to southeast wlnda. VOL. V. ELIZABETH CITY, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1920 NO. 73 FIGHT BETWEEN PUGH AND MEEKINS MAY BE CARRIED INTO THE COURTS Meekins Says Will Demand Apology And Re traction For Attack On Him In Last Week's Herald And Reiterates His Charges Against Pugh. Invites Latter To Give Him Chance To Prove Them In Court A cloud considerably larger than a man's hand, appar ently portending another big libel suit in the courts of Pasquo tank County appeared on the horizon Thursday morning In the letter Mr. Meekins ad- vises Mr. Pugh that relative to the attack made on Meekins in the last issue of Pugh's paper, the Herald, "in accordance with the law as it is laid down . ., . . in sticii matters, nonces under .section 2012 of Pell's revisal are prepared and will be serv - i ,i 1....1. ut.ii. eu on uu unu oacK v ens in due season." But not satislied with that, Meek ins goes further, charge, made in He reiterates the a recent issue of the Independent, that in a speech made by Pugh In the Republican Pas quotank County convention in Eliza beth City Pugh "favored and advo cated voting the more than 40,000 negroes in North Carolina 'eligible under the law to vote,' if it became necessary and suggested that they be 'quietly organized.' "If I have not spoken the truth," Meekins continues, you can here and now either sue or indict me in the courts of the State and Un burden will lie on 111 c to prove the trut h of my charge.'' Kncouragiug l'ugh still further to bring suit. .Meekins points out that when l'ugh made the alleged speech l'ugh was "then campaign manager for the Republican party in North ( ai oiiiia. " " : - and that to publish any thing of an officer or campaign man ager whichholds him up to ridi cule is libelous and therefore action able. Could anything be more calcu lated to curtail a Republican cam paign manager's influence and neu tralize his efforts than for him to pub licly fix on himself his intention to quietly organize the negroes audi vote them in this State?" 'Now be a sport," urges the Colo nel, "and either sue or indict me." This situation has grown out of a fight between Meekins and l'ugh that has been long in the making. Pugh, perhaps seeping what was coming, re cently acquired an interest and more recently became one of the publishers of the "Herald," a weekly newspaper that made its appearance here some thing less than a year ago. Simulta neously with the announcement that Pugh was at its helm the Herald be came an "independent Republican," newspaper and in this paper last week Pugh vigorously defended him self against the charge of saying in his speech In the Republican Pasquo tank County Convention what an af fidavit by Meekins and others pub lished in the Independent had accus ed him of saying. Col. Meekins letter to Mr. Pugh, in full follows: ( Advertisement) Hon. C. R. Pugh, Elizabeth City, N. C. My Dear Pugh: I have read the Herald of March 19th, 1920. I note everything you have to say concerning me, my al leged connection with "The Inde pendent," and my alleged personal ami political hypocrlcy and vlclous-nc-s And with these utterances of your.- P am dealing in accordance with the law as it is laid down and govern slll'b matters Notices, un der Sec. 'Jit 12 of Pell's Revsal, are prepared and wll be Herved on you' and Jack Wells In due season. As a rule newspaper controversies profit but little. In the main they.that r have Bpok(M1 the truth of and I are more or less un.inij aim iareiy establish anything by way of satis factory, concrete adjudication. Ev rythlng incident to a legal proceed ing 1b Involved In a newspaper con troversy, except a final Judgement; therefore there is no way of getting H off the docket satisfactorily. With this In mind I regret that you ww fit to gratuitously attack me In your paper "The Herald." I am sure you would not hare done 10 but for assuming your facte to be true. Careful investigation would have tl is-1 closed to vou no reason to attack me.1 unless, ot course, you wamea 10 do that anyway Just to "ease your craw. In order to give you a fair chance ...... .... 1.,,.,,.," 1 I, .,,.,,), OV..I ,,i ., 1 .n,, i . .... i;v . t o i i n o j i il,,d,Kl "uu u" r""""" ; in our County convention, in a public; j h ina(k, fa()red I advocated "voting the more than 40,00 negroes in North Carolina el igible under the law to vote in the joining campaign If the same became . necessary, and suggested that they , be quietly organized. I further charge that the aflidavit made by me!'11 a" tllis immediate section as a re and seven others, to which you refer in "The Herald" March 19, 1920, is in each and every respect meicu lously accurate, and therefore true. There can be no question about the aflidavit being substantially true, and it is as nearly verbatim as it is pos sible for intelligence and truthful recollection to reproduce. Here. then, is vour opportunity. If i !l have not spoken the truth herein I you can either sue or indict me in !the courts of this State, and here jand now for your convenience, waive service of mil ice required tinder see. :L'o11' of Pell's Revisal. In case you sui' or indict me the burden will be on me to prove the truth of my charge, and not on you to disprove lit. Vou will merely prove the pub j licit ion of t lie f tter and rest, and i then the burden will shift to me to I establish the truth of my charge as to "the negro stuff." In order to facilitate matters 1 here and now Uiromise that, in the event you sue1 or indict me, I will admit the publi cation of this letter, and thus go right to the bat with the burden. lie it remembered that at the timej you made your speech, February 21, litL'l), you were then campaign man-1 ager for the Republican party in North Carolina, having theretofore! been chosen as such by the Republi- can Slate Committee. Indeed you were to open up at headquarters at Greensboro immediately after the State Convention on March iru, ivzu, and continue until after the election. Does not Hon. John M. Moore'.i"ad say so In his letter of Febru&r il:. 1920? He it further remembered that to untruthfully publish any thing of an officer or campaign man ager1' which tends to and does hold him up to public ridicule and vcorn, is libellous and therefor actionable. i"llolank Poultry Association Friday Could anything be more calculated to!'""1 at tlle Countr Agents of"Ce fr curtail a Republican campaign man-!lhp "urp08e of worklng Ut plan't1 ager's influence and neutralize hiseure the 8,8,6 Poultry S,,0W ,n E"Z efforts in North Carolina than for,auet Cil or the coming winter' him to publicly fix on himself his in-j tention directly or indirectly, to j voting negroes in our convention on quietly organize the negroes and February 21,1920. vote them in this state? If you had I Since "The Herald" says It will ac been speaking merely as an indivl-cord me space for constructive criti dual then the question would be cism I am sending this along with a ii iun.,i,i t.o quite a different one. and not im-; personal and private. personal and public. Heing our campaign manager your utterance about voting negroes or any other political matter necessarily more or . .. less commits the llepunncan party, ""'"""' ""l L"c " Washington, March 25 The naval unless, of course, it repudiates whatnot Into Democratic newspapers ""'l , ,.m,r, f hmuiry appointed to investi you say, as in the case at bar, of ' Democratic moui lis, you have only to j Bute n,llmval )y Admiral Sims of course It will. (thank yourself first at Plymouth, , JUaI, A(mirai Fletcher from com- V r nn KVIirnarv 25. 192n. when . , , .1 i . . Now, be a sport, and either sue or indict ma, and thus give me 1116 , chance to prove ny a jury a veraicij .concerning you, or at the name time give yourself a chance to prove me a liar. One or the other must be true; either you said it or you did not, and so far as the truth or un truth of the statement goes, it Is Immaterial who owns which newspa per, who turns up stones for you to fall over, or whether I am a dog or a sow. The question Is finally, did you or did you not tuy It. I dare you to print orer your own signature what you admit you did aay about ANOTHER REASON CHOWANCOLLEGE (By the Publicity Committee) This Is really a plea for the girls of Eastern North Carolina. Bathers and mothers who have not known the benefits and delights of higher education are sometimes uimcuit to awaken. Many a girl has lost the opportunity for a good education, not from lack of means but because her parents were not near enough to any college to feel its intluence, or to have those closely connected with It telling them contin ually of their duty to their girls, or explaining to them how easily they can send them to college. Co to anv collece and von will lie ... .surprised to see what a large percen- , t;.ge of the pupils comes from the I near counties. Co to these counties and ymi will see that a large number f the gil ls are colleir.'-l rained doubt ,.SS t imes t be tin in tier found in the counties not within easy reach of college. 0 PASQUOTANK GROWING MORE COTTON NOW Cotton production has been on the increase in Pasquotank County and sult of the high prices that have pre vailed. The bureau of the census of the United States Department of Com merce has Just made public figures showing the total number of bales ginned in each of the counties of the State for the years of 1918 and 1919. The figures for the counties in this section follow: 1919 4,4X9 2.976 C. ISO 1918 :i,9r2 2.613 5,:i94 Pasquotank ( 'a null u Perquimans This increase is not statewide. In deed, for the whole State there was a tailing off in the crop in 1919 as compared with 191 S. the total num bi r of bales ginned in the state being S ."i a . 4 a a in 1919 as compared with 9l9.::::s in 1918. The increasing tobacco acreage in what have been the cotton producing counties of the State may be one cause for the falling off of the cotton crop in 1919 Wilson County ginned 2o,s2." bales in 1919 against 29,a.)J in 1918. -0- COTTAGE PRAYER MEETING FRIDAY The ladies of the third ward of the First Methodist church will bold their cottage prayer meeting in the home of Mrs. Ben Goodwin on West church street Friday Mrs. J afternoon at N. Winslow, j four o'clock. ! leader. POULTRY ASSOCIATION MEETS FRDAY NIGHT There will be a meeting of the Pas- reauest that it nublish same. I am ulsu sending copy to each of the local ' papers in hlizabeth City. .May i auu .that this is the first time that I have , 'vr. directly or Indirectly, given the - mer publicity, except within our ' I, l,l.l TI...I millnr I v., w --. you arose to the point of PfiMo'i"1 , privilege and demanded to be heard I . ., , 0 word llad b,,en ,d about y(M1 , tne convention ex cept by wuy of highest compliment, j and for an hour washed dirty linen, i I Including this "negro stuff, second i at Elizabeth City March 19th, 1920 1)Usy ln n8 new quarters In the Hln when you gratutiously attacked me !on juiildlng, although the failure of ln "The Herald' without any basis ln fact, and without a successful el fort to clear yourself of the matter In hand. You can not obviate the obvious the more one tries the worse one gets. Sincerely yours, I. it. MEEKINS i INTEREST GROWS mvm IjEiU T ILLO " ;nev. J. m. Urmond bpeaks In- spiringly To Large And Re- sponsive Audience Each Ev- ening Interest in the Evangelistic servi ces at the First Methodist Church is growing by leaps and bounds. Wed nesday night's meeting drew a great congregation that tilled the large an ditorium. Mr. H ii fly a.gaing demonstrated his mastery of the ;u1 o leading a large assembly of worshipers in song. Mr. Orinond, the pastor, was at his 1 A I.. 4 1. . . ... ot'si in i ne sermon, winch was earnest and passionate appeal I C I. .. ... I . . 1 .. .... an for in on M'li-niiun leugo. I lie sermon wa spired by Pelshazzar's experience the occa.sion of the Kn.;l( f,..s, wlc,n an inevitable hand wrote the words on the wall, which, when interpreted, struck terror to his soul, for they told him thai he had been "Tried in the balance and found wanting." The speaker said that God had made it possible for every soul to weigh itself, and that one man's scales could not be used by another. He argued that every person must finally, some when, somewhere, stand accused and condemned before the one Judge who deals eternal justice, his all know ing self, and urged that the hour be not postponed. There were moments when the ticks of the clock hanging on the bal cony of the church were the only sunnd aa.lible. Such i moment was that in which the preacher .said, "What are you and what am 1 h"ii stripped down to our naked souls?" 'lie- thin; of vital importance is not what we think We are, not mir repu tation m the world, but what we really are What are when alone? What arc w win n the world is not 1 1 hi king on',' What a re w e in I he dark less, win n the curiums are drawn a nil I lie lighi, a re out ? That is t he supreme l : What does God see when H i . piercing all our shams and hyporracr's, looks into our very souls? Thai is what should most concern you anil me. Are our hearts clean, our souls, right.? If not we are already on the downward path, and the crash may come when we least expect it. The great king of old. secure as he fancied behintl the mighty walls of Babylon, looked with scorn upon the little army of Cyril.- Hut that army penetrated to the very heart of the citadel be thought invulnerable. So you and I may be thinking that the little world ly habits and ways of living of ours are insignificant. Hut it is just such things that undermine the characters of men. and finally bring them to pain and sorrow." The .success of the evangellstiic ser vices at the First Methodist church speaks well for both minister and people, and is prophetic of a wonder fful future for the church. WANT WILSON TO DECLARE HIMSELF Washington, March 25 Democrats and Republicans today cheered the statement made In the House by Rop resentative Humphreys. Democrat, of Mississippi that President Wilson .should announce that he Is not a can- didati- for the third term. u Admiral Fletcher j jg pjr8t Vltne88 . niaiid oi uie navui lorces ui nrest October, 1!)17, convened today with ... il Fletcher as the first witness. Sims and others will be called for later. 0 hPFNCKK COMPANY lll'HY The Spencer Company Is already goods to arrive has delayed Its for- mal opening. This new firm car ries high grade suits and furnishings for men and already Its claasy ap pearance has attracted much atten tion. The first advertisement of the new firm appears ln this Issue of The Advance. Expect Campaigns Soon To Liven Up Raleigh, March 23 With the Dein ocratic primaries less than ten weeks distant candidates for oinces ure n iiu iu iiven up ineir cam paigns in dead earnest during the coming week or two. There is, of course, very little livening up to be done by candidates for State oflict v.:th the exception of gubernatori aspirants, for the simple reason that no opposition has shown itself and there is little if any probability that the present stale officers will be forced to contest for the nomina tion, i ney win, However, nave their hand fu ligbting off ihe Repub lirun opposition which at tin gves promise or being the strongest the liiajor'y party in North Carolina has ever had to lace in recent years. The gubernatorial race, a triangii- ' oinu'd, the cabinet is to be re lar contest, is to be worth all that it modeled with labor represented costs the average voter to see. lur-.tho mines are to be socialized. ing the past week the contest took on plenty of life. The Page stock is said to have gone considerably above par in the western part of the slati early in the week when Marse Hob spoke in Mecklenburg, Gaston, Lincoln and Iredell counties. So fast did the Rlscoe man's trip react that his state campaign manager, Charlie Ross, who had previously In timated that he would not make any claims whatever, Saturday was per suaded to give in and predict that in Cam Morrison's home county of Mecklenburg Mr. Page will be given a flattering vote. In the two town ships in Mecklenburg, where the Page campaigners have done some straw balloting of their own. Mr Ross al - low's Morrison and Gardner only ten per cent of 1 he Votes t The claim is interesting consider ing .Mr. Ross' disinclination to lav any claims to everything in .sight, He is of the opinion that both of !),.!. I.IHM.IlMlll.. -1 -. . 41 'I 1 111 ii iii.s j i ' ..,.., ing i.:"" majo s in ine niiiiii ins- Irict and .lessr t!a i duel' in that ailly mist district are iken when the While tin- going to ballots i ri ted. Page supporters who are more or le.s in the family are not saying as much, ( ' h .i rl oi t e campaigners for him are j willing to wager that Mr. Morrison will fall short by a forty-live per cent margin of carrying Mecklenburg; i ii ii ii I y Manager Ross of course is j mil ready to make the claim and thej Charlotto candidate's supporters' laugh at such a claim, which they say i is unt hinkable. The appointment of Mr Morrison's campaign manager, which nas neen delayed for many months because of the Charlotte candidates bereave ment. Is daily expected here. Cpon his last visit to this city ten (lays ago Mr. Morrison stated that he expected to return to Raleigh within a very short time, name his campaign man ager and establish headquarters here. So his supporters here are. expecting his return and the an-, I within j he has nouncement of his manager the week. The fact that not made public the name of his manager is not evidence that Mr. Morrison has been resting on his cars. On the contrary he has been hard at work and in addition to man aging his own campaign has been going direct to the voters with his candidacy, having spoken at more places during the past two weeks than either of his opponents. In the esatern section of the State during the past few weeks the Char lotte candidate is gaining ground, ac cording to reports from thai section to the State capital. And even Mr. : Gardner's friends adini' that Mr ; Morrison's strength in "ne east.-rn, counties appa-euPy st reins' he.i.vl it-! self here of late. 'l ilts Is .ntponni-'ll lor bv the Gardner mi n wi'h die I ha-, slat g n ,. vat "CaiiM ' r e I to wori- -O- WOULD ATONE FOR GREAT WRONG DONE Jackon. Miss,.. March 25 Will Purvis, whose sentence of death was cominu'ed to life Imprisonment after Knnnil iiitwm hn rlmntinrl from the gallows, was today handed a warrant for $5,000 voted him by j the legislature for the "great wrong done him." Purvis was exonerated of the mur der charge after two years In p;:aon. . O FIRK AT ASHEVILLK Ashevllle, March 25. Fire today destroyed a wing of the Manor Hotel, causing the loss of $100,000.. WORKMEN'S ARMY WILL BE FORMED Cabinet to be Remodel- ed, Mines to be Social. ized, according to an Agreement Between 'i German Government art A WnrLman Paris, March 25 The Ger man irovernment reached a defi nite agreement today with Ruhr .; Valley workmen where hostiH- ties have been in progress, ac- .cordinjr to news reaching semi- olTicials circles here. A workmen's army is to be counter-revolutionary organiza tions are to be dissolved and 1 1'ood supply system s are to be improved. FIGHTING RESUMED The Hague, March 25 Fight ing in the Ruhr district of Ger many where it was understood that a truce had been effected has been resumed, according to the Telegraaf. Spartacist forces are nearing W esel, the newspaper says, and a Muenster dispatch says that the Red army's strength is flOW ' 120,000 men. 0 Kidnapped Boy I Still Missing j ,,(.xi,IK, , Ky A.n,.n 2r.Altll0 f, R U1(i L(.xillKl(1I ,,,.,.,,, has announced that the S2."i.lMiO M'.p.imii) ransom i demanded will In pa id. his seven year old son. Paul, the kidnapper yesterday. -' ill the ca pt ive of who lured him away Crusade Leads Lawson's Arrest Huston. March 25. Attorney Gen eral Allen's crusade against promo ters who have been exploiting silver stocks has led to the arrest of Thom as W. I,awson who surrendered to the police today in answer to the war rant charging him with violating the state law regarding filing Information about the stock issues. 0 Public Invited To Revival Services Great crowds are turning out to hear the pastor evangelist, G. T. Lumpkin, at Hlackwell Memorial Baptist Church. Dr. Clarke says: "He Is one of the llneBt evangelists ever heard. This Is an opportunity for the city and county to hear some great preaching. Kvery day at three 'and seven thirty o'clock for two weeks. '' -O- DV.NAMITKI) DIPPING VATS Tuscaloosa, Ala., March 25. Au thorities today are searching for what Is believed to be an organized band which dynamited eight cattle dipping vats near here in the last two , weeks. j ACT AH I,ON(;SHOKKMKN ! Charleston, S. C, March 25. Busi ness men today tok off their coats and , acted as longshoremen In unloading the steamship, Lake Clear, tied up here by the longshoremen's strike. . o I 'arm Light and Motor Company Is Name of New Firm Hero The Farm Light and Motor Company is the name of a now firm here with headquarters at the corner of Fearing and Road Streets. The members of the firm are D. R. Scott, L. A. Armstrong and A. J. Arm strong and the rirm handles electric washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons, and so on; Installs tha Lalley Electric Light and Power Plant and sells the Commonwealth five pass enger touring car FOR REGISTF.lt OF DEEDS I hereby announce my candidacy for Register ot Deeds of Pasquotank County, subject to the action ot the Democratic primary In June. Your support will be appreciated. W. F. Prltchard, Sr. J