The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-11

STATE PIT ES !.


- 0D
Grover Clevelnd having. as president.
told Great Britain that he would see thai
the United States tried to trounce her If
she did not arbitrate win Venezuela was
the last person to act as counsel for
enezuela before the arbitration tribunal
and Venezuela ought not to have pro-
posed such a thing.-Asheville Citizen.
A correspondent of the AsheyiIle Citi-
zen urges the farmers Of Buncombe coun-
" TO work for a yield Of wheat of twenty
hVe bushels to the acre. The Citizen
thinks the suggestion not an irrational
one, remarking that the yield in England.
where the climate and soil are not so
favorable, is over thirty bushels. Looked
at from that point Of view, twenty-five
bushels here would not be an extraordi-
nary average. and yet. considering that the
average yield in the state now is seven
bushels, the other figures would seem to
be almost impossible of attainment
Charlotte Observer.
Our idea Of a tariff, if we must have
one, is TO make ii lightest ON that which
nourishes and clothes the body and
thereby promotes longevity andu seful-
fall on things not essential or rather in
furious. In the latter class we rank to-
bacco in all its uses. We are duly mind
full hat tobacco from first to last is an
industry. but we are not aware that it
is the sole industry in any m
and the immense amount spent for the
commodity would 90 far to supporting
those pauperized by it's destruction till
they could find employment at an indus
try that the good of humanity demands.
We have alWys thought, too, that the
consumer pays the tariff; if not so. we
might be a high tariff acknowledgements
Standard.
Perhaps the admiration Of some of our
brethren of the press for Mr.. Pages
literary gifts led them to overlook some
parts of his remarkable speech that are
misleading, and calculated to put North
Carolina in a false light before the world.
From a literary standpoint the printed
speech has impressed us as an admirable
production. We like its style, free, easy.
vigorous, that aims more at sense than
sound. 1t is a style that young writer's
would do we'll to cultivate. But whatever
may be said Of Mr.. Pages address as a
literary production, we cannot accept it
the ridicule he directs at the generations
Of Tarheels who have preceded us. A
young man may be smarter than the old
folks at home, but it is not to his credit
to joke about their stupidity, to c~riticise
their grammar, and apologize for their
unfltncSS to shine in society. 1t is
clear that Mr.. Page classes the university
with the ariStOcratic system, whatever
that was. Really the term is unintelll-
gible to us. The university was establish
ed for the people and not for Il class.
The fact that all did not avail themselves
Of its advantage before the war does not
change the intention of its founders. The
test Mr.. Page applies to our educational
system. viz, hat it has not produced a
body of men famous for scholarship, may
mean much or little, just as outsiders
choose to view it. : For our part,
we are proud of an institution that has
educated presidents, governors, cabinet
minister's, preachers, teachers, etc,
galore, and which before the war attracts
ed pupils from all over the country.
Among it's graduates are men Who at
tanned distinction in states which Mr..
Page tells US nave finer colleges than We
have.-Reidsville Weekly.