The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-21
"GREAT AND ABSURD"
THAT'S WHAT REV. JOHN {. WHITE SAYS
OF WALTER PAGES SPEECH.
Let Us Cease This Most Unworthy Business
of Sneering at North Carolina
and Her People,"

To the Editor: 1t seems quite the
fashion since Mr.. Walter Page made
that great and absured speech in Green's
boro for newspaper writers to malign
North Carolina.
Such a disposition was the logical IN
fuence of that speech, which, l repeat,
was both great and absured. Great in
rhetoric, and perhaps in delivery, but alb
surd in conception and conclusion.
I for one cannot see what good can
come of this campaign of abuse.
There comes now your Sanford Ex-
press correspondent, whose article you
copy in your issue of Sunday, who de-
clares that North Carolina people are
unappreciative. They cried down the
Pages, Osbornes, the Dixons, the Win
stons, etc, till they left the State, etc.
There is not a word of this true. wal
ter Page left the State because-an OPP
pOrtunity for money making and literary
fame getting opened for him in New
York city. / think the people who read
The Chronicle were sorry he did not
feel it his duty to remain and do his
part toward lifting the old State up and
some of us are sorry he did feel at his
duty to come back to kindle Gre of
abuse for the old State he might have
helped TO develope.
He did not leave because she abused
him or cried him down.
So far as / know only one Osborne has
left the State, and so far as L know
| he showed no decided disposition
| to be great before leaving
lin fact, was a very young man
and had just begun the practice of law.
Has he accomplished more by going than
Hon. Frank Osborne, his brother, did by
remaining in the midst of an unappre-
ciative people who made him Attorney
General of North Carolina!
However this may be. there was no
disposition ON the part of our people to
cry him down.
| The Dixons left North Carolina not
because they were not appreciated or
"cried down" On the contrary, the peo-
| pie of North Carolina were proud of the
| DixOns.
There was no honor in her power. no
pulpit and no encouragement she 0id not
offer them. 1t may have been our mis-
fortune that the Baptist people were not
rich, that we had no larger cities in
which to offer them surge of complex
| life to minister to. We did the best We
could. We offered A. G. Dixon the
presidency of Wake Forest College. We
| did appreciate them and did not cry them
down.
And as to the WinStons, so far as
am informed only one of them left the
State until within the last year There is
no evidence that he did so because his
was "cried down"
The fact is that all this talk is non
sense, and unflial and unpatriotic non
sense at that.
Men move from North Carolina to 9th
er States in the West or North, just as
the natives Of these States move TO other
parts of the country. Most of the notable
men in the West moved from the East
and South.
Not because they were not appreciated
and "cried down." but because the
Western country appeared to offer better
opportunities for fame and wealth.
| There is no evidence to prove that
North Cardinals best and ablest sons
move away.
| And until that evidence is Forthcoming
let us cease this most unworthy business
of sneering at North Carolina and her
people, and go to work, eacu in his APP
pointed way, to develop our resources and
our people, and improve the Stete reli-
giously, educationally and politically.
JOHN e. WHITE.
Raleigh, July 10, 1897.