The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-02-06
DOWN Oh Mr.. sIMMoNs.

pressmen and editors are against the
confirmation of Collector Simmons.
He ia lust the kind of man the party
has put forward for Office for several
years. The methods he employed to
carry the last election e more fully
developed than usual, but were not
new bv any means. The leaders" who
got the State election law amended so
as to carry the State, no matter how
many voters the opposition might
muster, evidently intended that it
should not be a dead letter in any
emergency. AS Chairman of the Execu-
tive Committee, Mr.. Simmons simply
carried out the laws, methods and in
s~tructions of his party. Many voters
in the party, privates, may have
conscientious scruples" about such
matters, but the newspaper editors
and leaders" who are putting their
weight in the other end of the scales,
with possibly a few exceptions, ought
to have become virtuous earlier 1t Is
a clear case of He that is without sin
should cast the first stone at Mr.. Sim
mons" or words to that effect. How
ever, it is not our fight, and we merely
started out to reproduce an article that
appeared in the Wilmington Messenger
of the 28th, as follows:
'The Goldsboro Argus has some
structures upon the Messenger because of
it's recent editorial comment upon the
absurd Raleigh report that Senator
Ransom's political existence" depends
upon the confirmation of Mr.. Simmons
as Collector. The Messenger does not
desire to go into the course of Chair
man Simmons in 1892 at the Clinton
Convention, for that has been discussed
in a very able, clear and convincing
manner by Maj, Edward J. Hale, the
ablest living editor in North Carolina,
and with perhaps the exception Of the
late lamented Col. William L Saun-
ders, the very ablest in our State with
in the last thirty years or more. The
Messe niger disapproved of the course of
Mr., Simmons as did some of the ablest
Democratic newspapers, and it has
seen nothing to cause it to change its
opinion. So far from this, after read
ing the very strong and luminous dis
cussions of the Fayetteville Observer,
we feel more assured than ever of the
weakness and unsoundness of Chair
man Simmons as evirced in his con-
duct at Clinton in 1892. AS to his
splendid, grand, magnificent, glorious,
tremendous management of the cam
paign in 1892, the least said the better
for the party, we think. IF splendid
and magnificent in any particular it
was in its failure, that was indeed
colossal, monumental, fateful.
The Argus is so appreciative of the
Messenger it is inclined to class it with
Third party organs. 1t is pleased to
say that the recent editorial headed
Can it be So9" lis in the exact line
with current Third party parlance."
Whoever wrote that is better posted in
the ''parlance" of the Third party PEG
pie than we are. We have not read a
State paper of that party since 1892,
and do not remember to have inter-
changed a word with one of those re
formers" in a year and a half on the
of politics, so we are painfully
ignorant of 1.-The current parlance" of
that particular party.
AS to the Democracy of the Messen-
ger, it will be a good day for the Argus
when it can say with truth that it has
done as much for the Democracy and
been as true and ~unbending in its sup
port of genuine, fundamental Demo
cra5ic principles as the Messenger has
been We began to fight the battles of
the people of North Carolina when the
editor of the Argus and the great Sim
were in swaddling bands ''mul-
and puking in the nurses arms"
The Messenger may not be a Democrat
after the ty pc or standard of the Argus
Or the Collector, upon whom depends
30 much of the veal or woe of this good
Did State, but it stands s~quarely,
unreservedly all the same by
jhe Democratic platform, and that is
more than most Democrats do, nova
lays, especially of the Office holding
sort.
AS to the machine" the Messenger
las no tolerance for it. 1t is an abso-
ute curse to any State or party, and
the end will ruin any party that
,ountenances or uses it.
1t is a new test of loyalty to the
- ~1-Lo-o AloA A. ~