Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-12-24
THE PENITENTIARY.

A11UCU IIHUAACAy - OAA UAC
Shoulders of the Taxpayers
of the State What DemOc-
racy Has Done for the PeO-
pie.
With the passing of Governor
Carr from and the advent of Gov
ernor Russell to the Executive
chair of North Carolina it is to be
reasonably anticipated that radical
changes will be made in all the
public institutions of the State,
regardless of hitherto economical
management and unapproachably
peerless administration, in order
to make berths for party adher-
ents who are athirst and long hun
gering for the pap of public place.
The greatest good to the great
est number is an old cardinal
principle of Democracy, and De-
mocracy means the people, and
therefore that party which in its
administration of power most
lightens upon the shoulders of the
people the burden-the cost-of
government is the party for the
people. Has Democracy done
this for the people of North Caro-
lima Let the forthcoming re-
ports of our public institutions to
the coming Legislature answer
this question: and their answer
will surely set the people to
thinking, each as to his individual
responsibility for the consequences
of the recent political upheaval
that are now impending our Com
monwealth.
During the twenty-five years
that Democracy has reigned in
North Carolina it has not only
established the dignity of citizen
ship, regard for.law, and immunity
from oppressive legislation and
racial indignities, but it has also
shaken awake and into vigorous
activity the sleeping limbs of her
giant possibilities and led her up
and away from her "Rip-Van-
Winkle'' epitaph of yore into the
proudest prominence among all
the sisterhood of States.
But we started out in this arti-
Gle to write particularly of the
Penitentiary, the splendid admins
istration of which will sustain the
reflections that we have lndulged
in above. Our townsman Mr..
W, III. Smith returned last Friday
evening from a meeting of the
Board of Directors of that
institution, of which he is a
member, and in conversation
with him this morning he in
formed us that Notwithstanding a
loss of $3.50, ,o0o) sixty thousand
dollars to the penitentiary this
year by reason of the great floods
(overfows) on the State farms,
worked by convicts,) the Board
will still have on hand, after pay
ing all the running expenses of the
institution, (S4O, 0O0) forty thous-
and dollars of CREATED surplus,
without having touched dollar
of the $25. 900 per annum appro-
priated by the last Legislature for
its running expenses, which sum
can be covered back into the State
treasury, and to the taxpayers, to
the credit of Democracy, to the
credit of the penitentiary Board
of Directors, to the credit of the
competent and honest admin
istration of Superintendent
Leazer, and to the credit of the
sagacity of his Excellency Coy
| Carr in the selection of so suit
able man for the head of this
mammoth State institution.
| In the four years of his now
closing administration Gov. Carr
has at all times had an eye single
and sagacious to the best interests
of the people, and to permanent
/ lifting from their shoulders of al
much as possible of the expenses
of government. To this end b.
has done more than any othel
/ Governor the State has had. f,
has demonstrated that the peniten
) tiary can be so managed as to sus
: tain phenomenal loss by flood ant
ldronoht and still be self sustainin.