North Carolina Newspapers

'FOR COUNTRY, FOR GODAND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, S Cents. VOL. XL PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1900. NO. 13. 1.00 a Year, in Advance. 1 COL. CUNNINGHAM ON THE AMICND ' . ' Why Every WIiUc Man In North Caro lina SHonld Ulre It Ilia Support and IIU Vote. .-LJ Representative government is. organ ized to express the will of the people in the law, and to faithfully interpret the Bame by the judiciary and enforce it by the arm of the executive power." According to the theory, at least, of our government, the expression, inter pretation and execution are all entrusted - J to those whom the will of the people designate. .-.y Everything, therefore, depends upon the intelligence direciing that will: its moral and intellectual forces. The diff erence lies just here, between license and liberty between the tyranny of the mob, which is anarchy enthroned, and the independence and order secured by the just distribution of the greatest eood to the greatest number. The miracle in political history is the survival of -representative institutions in this country of the Southern States, weighed down by an immense mass, a mountainous bulk of ignorance and prejudice, incapable of intelligent thought, or wise decision, a monstrous - weight, to be rolled in any direction that its wily controllers and managers .may see fit to dictate. f 1 1 1 . sxmi flair 1 - n vd(vaf1a nrltll v fc J. L Will IJ O . aj t' O ivtaiuu niku ""S! n.BtnniRhmAr t. that thft nrond indomni- table Aoglo-SaxorTpedple, whose brain had been controlling the civil polity of " the Union for nearly a century, and whose gallantry had led its arms, to victory with Washington at Ybrktdwn, bcott at Lundy's Laue - and Taylor at Buena Vista, to say nothing : of their four years of unparalleled fighting ' against thrice their number, in the war between the States, should have toler ated the impossible burden laid upon them. . ' :; ' - . With 120,000 voters, many of them former slaves, and the mass not only ignorant, but incapable short of many generations, of the intelligent and un biased and incorruptible use i f suffrage, there ha been a. conditio.nr of. unstable . eauilibriunS, ,to'. borrow a term from physics. . Every election becomes a crisis, what eyer may be the point of difference as to policies in any respect, the white man has been obliged to sink all things to prevent the greatest possible calamity .... to his State, his race, his best interests, his verv home and sacred shine of life itself. : The results of domination by nes;ro votes are always the same, they may be read in the bloody tale of San Domingo in the rapine, bloodshed and ruinthat overspread Louisiana for tea roar's the wholesale plunder of "South Carolina, the degradation that fell upon North Carolina, when her judiciary was ex hausted, her educational fund absorbed, her governmental expenses immensely increased, ami the effort made to render - ner iorever-a "newer 01 wooa aiw drawer of water" to the holders of a vast volume of fictitious debts piled moun tains high. Fortunately a supreme effort, and - the relegation of all issues to the rear brought safety W.'the'.' white jcivSlizition, destroyed the fabric of corruption, before time and power had cemented it into the monument of our financial slavery. Almost a generation passed, when a body of citizens, eager to advance cer tain theories , of reform, and forgetful Of the invariable results 'of .cOnnting the vote controlled in the interest of the negro, in the 'delusive belief that .the negro would be content, to vote and shout, and seek no power or profit for himself, were shocked to soe in a brief time over one. thousand negro office holders in E ist'ern North Carolina alone. what might have been foretold from the nature of things, that men who sought the votes of negroes as such, not being able to appeal to higher and noble prin ciples for action, must needs given by pelf and prejudice, by the surrender of trusts and responsibilities to ignorance and brutality, and the result was Bwift degeneracy in the various institutions and legislation. Down the inclined plane to chaos in society w w re swiftly drifting, until tJby a mighty convulsion in 1898, the - people ren-t rted their dominion in the j It will be acknowledged by all that . .-the raoH extraordinary efforts were 'J"4le to rrdeem the land to the control xue white man, whose fathers had de it the birth-place of constitutional dom in America, and they were -useful. . " why should North Carolina un- -s? Why should many cf ber eoun- " like the long suffering people of ( jlen, Edgecombe, Pitt and various X rs where a great mass of negro vote i 4 found, be menaced with the return such conditions as prevailed in New wwlern, Wilmington, Greenville and other towns of out fair State, that were almost uninhabitable by decent and Belf-re-Bpecting white people? With a patience that is wonderful, iu common with othor States of the South, we have for a generation struggled on, bearing this weight cf the black vote, p.nd seen it persistently thrown againsi all our best interests. Blind, unreasonr ing, moved by leaders who drove the mass like sheep, and rejecting the counsel of the befit of their own race, because it did not gratify passion or promise office. This evil blights this aggression of power without knowledge yet remains in our midst, and so long as it exists, nothing, however valued or sacred in our public policy and estab lished customs, can be said to , be per manently safe. We have tried to leaven this great mass. Forced into our popular vote by practical coercion, by combined fraud and military power, we have given privileges of every kind to the negro, and have even paid twenty times his taxation for education, and yet bestowed it upon him per capita with our own children. Nothing remains to ensure the per manency of good government, but to res'ore the keepirig of the suffrage to the guardianship of the Buperior race, by the passage of the amendment pro posed by the General Assembly. Other States, where the negro popa- lation was still greater and the urgency maJifest, have already taken the step The spectacle of the havoc made by blind power, drunken with passion and greed, has even taught the statesman of the North to be slow in granting citizen ship and suffrage to the masses in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippine Inlands, notwithstanding a degree of civilization among these races that the negro alone has never shown in the history of mankind. Let us distinguish between the nn educated and the ignorant. About ore-fifth in 1890 of the white popula tiOn was classed, technically, among the illiterate. But such has been the lm provement of the schools and continu oily increasing interest in education, that the next census will doubtltss show a marked decrease. - V . But the white man, whether be have book knowledge or not, is a fit and proper holder of the right to vote, be cause he has the inherited qualities of his ancestry, a personality of his own, and a training by hid social life among his fellows, in his church, at the courts, in all places of. public resort, lie is as patriotic and devoted to the interests of his State as he who has wealth or learning. With his strong right arm he takes care of his household and is as truly independent and self-reliant, and con scientious as any man who walka the earth. In his hands the ballot is safe, and he casts it for the protection of the Anglo-Saxon civilization. There is no need to split hairs in re gard to technicalities in this discuesionr The best legal talent in our State, and in the Federal Senate has pronounced the passage of the amendment as en tirely compatable with the obligations of North Carolina under the Constitu tion of the United States. In the face of ...this, assertions to ; the con tray by stump-speakers are ridiculous. Any serious challenge of its constitutionality is a matter for the courts. It does not concern us, who have only to perform our duty at the polls. v Disappointed managers of the negro vote may-'make-a desperate effort to clutch at the straw of Federal interfer ence, but the conservative action of the Supreme Court of United States on such question forbids the belief'' thai the tribunal of.. last resort will vary from its decisions , in. favor of restrictions guarding the purity of suffrage in other States. , - .... I might enlarge, not only upon the dangers we Bhall forever escape upon the passage of the amendment, but also upon its inspiring and uplifting effect as a positive force for our future welfare. There is no doubt that with the relief from the incubus that has bean upon us, either directly, or always looming in the political horizon, that immigra tion will increase, manufacturing mul tiply, - trade develop . as never . before under legislation devoted to the promo tion of .the great economical interests. But the farmer will perhaps feel the benefit most of all. The colored hands that have been led off to the caucus, the cross road saloon and the, conven tions, to waste their time in shouting over issues as unintelligible 'to them as foreign tongues, will be at work in the fields, making happy homes for them selves, building prosperity for all the in terests that rest upon agriculture. Moreover, with increasing means, and the requirement , that by 1908 youths reaching twenty-one years of Hge must be able to read and write, the whole school system of the State will re ceive such attention, and stimulation as never before. Steadily increasing valuation of pro perty will enable liberal appropriations for public education to be made, with out adding to the taxation, or burden ing any taxpayer. Indeed, with the decrease of idleness and dissipation c-tuged by steady habits of industry un disturbed by political frenzy, crime, especially in the colored race,( will nat urally diminisn, and its neavy triDuie direct and indirect, upon the honest and well-doing, will grow less as the conditions improve. These are not dreams or vain wishes; they are logical results of good govern ment, and muf-t follow the great initial movement. For the sake then, of the permanent welfare of the State, it be hooves every white man, with whom the general good is more than tempor ary partisan advantage, whateyer his political views hitherto, to cast his vote and his whole influence for the amendment. Indulge me with one more reflection. As an illuetration of the great peril of i great masses moved by unreasoning prejudice, see what the negro vote of Kentucky, controlled by adroit schem ers, has done to tear up the bulwarks of society, set law at defiance, plunge a great State into risk of civil war, and it is belieyed sought to compass a political end by an assassination that recalls the dark ages. Stand up every white man to duty in this hour! The day will come when its bittereet opponent will have reason to be thankful that the true men of North Carolina by the passage of the amend ment, insuring intelligent suffrage, laid the corner-stone of perpetual, progress and liberty. Finally, if asked why the Democratic party of North Carolina has prepared this amendment, and good men in all parties will vote for it upon its merits, I offer these conclusions, every one of which can be proven, to the satisfaction of any candid mind. 1. Because it removes a great peril, by denying any longer the possible control of the superior race by the in ferior, wielded as a compact mass, for selfish ends, by those who surrender patriotism for gain or partisan victory. 2. It disfranchises no white man who now votes. Any fear of its being manipulated to that end by hostile courts can bo dissipated, if judged need ful, at the coming session of the General Assembly. 3. It removes in future political, di versions, the bitter element of social antagonism, and contributes to the settlement of disputed economical ques tions upon their merits. 4. By destroying the possibility of negro domination, it render property more secure, institutions more stable; encourages enterprises,- invites immi gratio. , and fosters manufacturers. 5. It brings about homogeneous leg islative bodies, without the anomaly of diBtaeteful and impossible relations be tween legislators and officers of the State. " 6. It secures general and similar county government without danger to taxpayers. 7. It stimulates education, and prom ises a great advance in the systems of the schools. 8. It is a powerful safeguard of the State treasury,and must tend to the great er strengthening of the public credit. 9. It removes temptation from the laboring element of the colored race, and renders industrial operations more steady, reliable, and serviceable; es pecially would this be true of critical seasons in farming operations. 10. It brings peace to the people, es pecially where the exactions of petty negro officials have lharrassed and an noyed communities with white minor ities; insures tranquillity for trade, decreases idleness, intrigue, corruption and drunkeness, and therefore dimin ishes Crime and the losses and evils it involves, and so it advances the public welfare in a high degree. Jno. S. Cunningham. Decreased Church Membership. Atlanta Journal. The board of bishops of the Metho dist Episcopal church (north), has issued a letter to all chu ches, pastors and members of that denomination appoint ing a week of penitence and prayer be ginning March 25. This f piscopal let ter contains the surprising statement that there is a decline of Methodist membership in the large cities. For this condition the bishops give the following reasons : Labor troubles, and the church standing aloof from a solution of them. Neglect of the submerged tenth; Methodism above its business and per mitting the salvation army to do its work. Speculations and vagaries of Christian Science. No more camp meetings. Light literature. Character of amusements and too many of them. Side-tiackmg of moral and spiritual forces necessary to build a church, and lack of self-denial. No more reviyals; given up because some people make fun of them. Criticisms of preacher and sacred things. Higher criticism of the liible. In their address the bishops say : "Today our Methodism confronts a seripus situation. Our statistics for the last year show a decrease in the number of our "members. Year before last our advance was checked. Last year our advance column has been forced back a little. The lost ground is paved with the dead. We are surrounded by power ful enemies. The attack is on every side." Several of the bishops in speaking of their letter and the view of the Metho dist situation it presents say that while their church has actually suffered a de cline of membership during the past year it is not alone in that particular as other denominations have suffered likewise. " 1 ' The farmers in several sections of the State are holding meetings for the pur pose of fighting the Fertilizer Trust. Resolutions were adopted urging a great curtailment of the use of commercial fertilizer. There are a few fertilizer factories in this State not in the trust, notably one at Winston. Despite the meetings of the farmers there is the best of reasons for the belief chat the sales will be as. large as ever and the cotton acreage larger. Farmers pro duced the present crop of cotton more cheaply than ever before in this State. SA.M JOKES WHITES Of SNOW, SCN S1IIXE AND THE ATLAN TA DEPOT. Since writing from Knoxville last week I have made a tour of southwest Virginia, taking in Tazewell, Poca hontas, lloanoke, etc. I spent last Sabbath on the crest of the Allegha neys in southwest Virginia at Taze well court house, the thermometer four degrees below zero and the wind blowing a gale. It seemed to me the coldest country I have struck in all my rounds. The snow-capped moun tains furnished a surface like the glaciers of the northern ocean for the winds to whirl over. Fire by day and cover by night did not meet the de mands of the occasion, and yet, to my astonishment, I lectured Saturday night to a house fuJl of people and preached Sunday to a great crowd. There is nothing like being used to a thing. Those hardy mountain people care very little for cold weath er. That is a beautiful country, in mountains and valleys. They grow the finest cattle and some of the most splendid horses that are raised on this continent. I was astonished at the culture and the good citizenship of that mountainous country. They are away above the average in Tazewell county. I spent Monday at Pocahontas. Here are the great coal fields of the Norfolk and Western Railway Com pany. With mines inexhaustible and a double tracked railroad, tney are hauling it out, it looks to me like, thousand cars a day. This great coal field, with its veins six and eight and ten feet thick, furnishing the finest coke coal in the world, is above water level in the mountains, and perhaps it is the easiest mined coal m America It is the finest steam coal, and more and more it is coming into requisi tion by the ocean steamers. This is a live settlement. Poca hontas, a new city of five or six thou sand inhabitants, looks like one house upon the top of another as they ascend the mountains which surround it The saloons there are doing a thriving business. I am told that a little min ing camp of three hundred, only j few miles from Pocahontas, has six teen saloons in full blast. These sa loons bring great prosperity, many think; in" fact a fellow on the train, talking the other day, said that the wide-open towns were the prosperous towns, where saloons and gambling and other nameless sins flourished there, said he, is prosperity. I asked him did he drmk much. He said no. I asked him did he gamble. Ho said no. I asked him did he live the life of a libertine. He said he did not. Then I said to him : "You are not prospering; if these things bring prosperity you ought to jump in ankle deep, headforemost." "No," he said, "I did not mean that." I said to him : "We are all made out of the same sort of dirt, and a city was but a mul tiplied individual, and if it helped a town it ought to help an individual, and he was in his own light and work ing against himself if he did not go in and practice what he preached." The average fellow in America is either honestly or dishonestly of the opinion that the wide-open towns are the prosperous towns, but the truth of 'he business is the town, witrr its manufacturing and mining industries, is the prosperous town. Prosperity is the result of toil, of industry, of up rightness, of morality, and these sa loons and gambling hells feast and fatten upon the toil of the thousands of laboring men, in Klondike, in Po cahontas, Va., and in Atlanta, Ga. I stopped for one day at Pulaski, Tenn. The two furnaces in full blast give life and vigor to that town, and they are prospering, but no sa loons are there. Roanoke, Va., is showing the glow and vigor of better days and is growing apace now with other live cities. I think I pulled through the worst weather in the last ten days within my memory snow, sleet, rain, cold, cloudy, awful weather, but'one of the most remarkable runs in all my expe rience was from Lynchburg to Atlanta last Wednesday. I left Lynchburg .i n .i . f i l nr. on tne isoutn western nmiteu. we reached Charlotte on time. The earth was covered witn glassy sieet, tne trees and telegraph wires were cov ered, and the trees were bending un der the weight. The steel rail along the ties was coated with ice, seem ingly a half an inch thick. I thought if we got to Atlanta by midnight Wednesday we would be in big luck, but the great locomotive backed back at Charlotte and coupled on to ten cars six sleepers, a dining car, a a coach and mail and baggage cars. She moved off like a thing of life with the long, heavy train, and it loaded with people. I said to Conductor Stovall : "We won't go into Atlantaon time this afternoon." "Oh, yes," he said, "why not?" "Why." said 1, "this great long, heavy train and the steel rails covered with ice almost an inch thick T don't see how we can make the tirn Oh." said he, "that engine ing us waighs two hundred a thousand pounds, and she w? the time," f I rode along comfort aMf Pullman car. during thc"' out at the dreary sights of trees hang ing with ice, and remarked to a pas senger that our forefathers little dreamed as they rode horseback and in vehicles over these hills that their children or grandchildren would ever ride in such comfort forty miles an hour across this country. As com fortable as sitting by my fireside at home. We made the time and ran into Atlant just on "tick." This was marvelous to me, a much traveled man as I am, and it made me proud of the Southern Railway,its magnificent management, its fast trains, our most splendid engineer and royal conductor. The Southern Railway is now running four fast pas senger trains out of Washington each day; two of them branch off at Char lotte for Florida and Cuba; two of them come on to Atlanta. These trains are loaded down with passen gers. A wonderful business this road is doing. For its size and length and breadth there is no better managed system on this continent. . When we rolled into the car shed in Atlanta, but for the fact that the Kimball house was in view and Henry Durand appeared on the scene, I would not have recognized my where- I abouts. . The improvement on the de pot in Atlanta is immense. Talk about a new depot when they can take an old one and renovate it and reju venate it until those familiar with the structure can scarcely recognize it. While Henry Durand occupies his same old. quarters, the ticket agents are still in their old rooins,the baggage still handled at the same end of the car shed, yet when we come to think about it they -have raised the floor of this great structure six inches and none of your old-fashioned tiling Or marble slabs or concrete floor they used in their improvement and rejuvenation of this building, plain plank. I knew when the board of health got after the gentlemen some thing was going to be done. I sup pose the job of rejuvenating is about done. When the board of health gets after anything it has to move its floors at least six inches higher. Atlanta ought to tie a blue ribbon on the board of health and put a placard on on tne depot, "lhis is the old car shed," so that others coming in, as did the other day, and maybe not so fortunate as myself in seeing Henry Durand standing around, would know that the train had reached its destina tion in Atlanta. The board of health has forced those railroads to spend oh, no telling how much I expect no less than one hundred and fifty dollars in repairs, and perhaps there by postponed the building of a new depot another hundred years; but that s what makes me say what I say, that when the board of health, gets after anything if that thing don't move up it will find it's health im paired. No more fishing smacks can float through the depot; no more peo ple to be drowned there; no more hapless mules can rise this additional six inches and demolish the furniture around. Mark Antony said, "Oh, what a fall -there was, my countrymen," but we may say, "Oh, what a rise, my countrymen." Lifted up from the quagmires and slush until the floor now stands six inches above where it ever stood. But Henry Durand seems to be happy, and he stays there more than any man that has been kicking about the depot. He goes there early and stays late. Henry looks healthy, rosy-cheeked and dimpled chin, and his forehead will soon reach to the back of his head. It does look like if the place demanded the attention of the board Of health that the boys around the depot, who are the ticket agents, policemen, gate-keepers and Henry Durand would wear a worn, wan, unhealthy look, but tney all seem to be fat and well. I don t reckon the swamp in the depot breeds malaria or the low altitude had devel oped much miasma, though the board of health may have found it was very unhealthy, and whenever they find a thing is true, why, it's true, whether it's true or not, because the board of health is a board itself no shingle. Sam Jones. Uev. Daniel Llndley, D. D., of Charlotte, Gave Kroger Early Training. Charlotte, March 9. President Paul Kruger of the South African re public, received hia early training from a missionary from the First Presby terian church in this city. Rev. Daniel Kindley, D. D., went to South Africa as a missionary from Charlotte in 1835 and found there Paul Kruger, whom he trained into the development of a sturdy life. Dr. Lindley labored along the Tugeht river and in Zululand. The editor of a monthly church paper, The Bulletin, printed at Lincolntoo, N. C., recalls the fact' that as late as the seventys, as stated clerk of Mecklenberg Presbytery, he '"'v-fc-rfo Dr. Lindley, written bvr s.ur. Morrison, of cy tiv- TI1HEATS OF FORCE AND ill'KDEK. Mr. Simmon's Believes Negrots Are to be Secretly Organized. Kalelgn Post, 6th. Chairman Simmons said to a repre- sentative of The Post yesterday 'I ' have read the account of the speech, delivered at Newton last week by Assistant United StateB District At torney Blackburn, in which, after re ferring to the recent assassination of Goebel, the Democratic Governor of Kentucky, he said: 'Let the Democrats in North Carolina take warning from the fate of William Goebel.' "Mr. Blackburn is very close to Re publican State ChairmanwHolton. Hol ton is United States District Attorney of, the Western. District, and Blackburn is his assistant in that office, and he is a protege of Senator Pritchard. "Mr. Blackburn's warning to Demo- uiaio vi wuat tucjr uiay e-ape;if it tuey persist in their purpose to disfranchise the negro is but a repetition of the threats of violence recently made in Washington by his chief, Mr. Holton, the only difference being, Blackburn is more specific than was Mr. Holton, and boldly predicts murder and assassina tion of Democrats. "When Butler, at the recent meet ing of the Populist Executive Commit tee, appealed to the fighting qualities of his followers, and asked them to join hands with the Republicans (four-fifths of whom are negroes) and drive the white supremacy gang out of the State, I eaid in an interview to The Charlotte Observer hia purpose seemed to be to stir up and incite the negroes to violent resistance ot the lawful purpose of the white people. Holton's threats, Black burn's warning, Pritcbard's attempt to secure Federal aid, Linneys threat to pass a force bill election law through Congress, the negro White's impudent assault upon white men, the secret and mysterious activity of the revenue dood lers and the recent sudden outbreak of negro indolence and lawlessness not only confirm that opinion, but arouses a strong suspicion that the fusion office holders are engaged in some dangerous scheme, and that, in carrying it out, the negro is being Becretly organized and will be used as a tool. It would seem that the conspirators have dis cussed and pondered over their pro gram of violence so much that their minds have become thoroughly satu rated with it, and, under the heat of excitement, tuey let urop ninia oi us dark purport. Under these circum stances ordinary prudence dictates tEat the white people be on "their guard and watch every movement of the negroes and the white emissaries wh may be engaged in Becretly organizing them. "I hope there may be no trouble during the campaign or at the election between the whites and the black, and we will exercise reasonable forbearance; but if it comes, we will know who baa instigated it, and who is responsible for it. We are trying peaceably and in the way provided by law to amend the Con stitution, ana tne attempt to intimidate and deter us by threats of force and charged concerning the ' character of the Republican party in this State and its leaders, will make the undaunted but law-abiding white people of the State more than ever determined to re move forever the unbearable conditions which have made euch things possible in North Carolina." No more daneerons snaro ia spt bv t j the fiends for human frailty than the belief that our own enemies are also the enemies of God. Tho Coming of Bahy brings joy or pain. It's for the mother to decide. With good health and a strong womanly organism, motherhood but adds to a woman's attractiveness. ESoEUt &9r F '"" mat.' takes away all terror by strengtheiA tne vital or r-, it tits a mother baby's co- nerve ce I crowing I weak tv barren,--and w- " - - ----- -: --- -