The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-11-27
DID NOT KNOW IT WAS LOADED.
Greensboro Telegram.l

Daniel L. Russell. by some unkind
turn of the wheel of fortune and by fu-
sion between PopuliSts and Republicans.
Governor OF North Carolina, received
the following telegram from Governor
Atkinson, of Georgia:
what is total value of real estate and
equipment owned by State for peniten-
tiary purposes, and what total amount for
this purchase? Please wire mt once"
Now that is a dispatch that goes to
the point without official wind and YER
biage; n plain. common sense. common
place question that could have been an
severed almost as briefly as it was asked.
Here is the way that His EXcelency,
the Governor of North Carolina, answer
ed it:
The value of real estate. including
the central prison actually owned, is APP
proximately one million dollars. The
real estate and other property owned
was paid for by special tax and appro-
priations covering a period of twenty
years. In addition to this, the peniten-
tary leases six farms at total annual
rental of $1,000, which is for the most
part piece of iobbery. Until the last
Legislature an annual appropriation has
been made for its support: and for the
past four years the penitentiary has cost
the State over and above 100000. Our
last Legislature made no contingent APP
preparation; but our present management
seems likely to pay the debts of the pre-
ceding administration. all expenses and a
neat sum in the State treasury. The
aggregate expenditure from 1876 to
1897 were S2.G57 900; the aggregate
earnings for the same time S1,140000;
net expenditures S1,517 900"
That is what the Governor of North
Carolina said TO the Governor of Georgia
Governor Atkinson, it is to be presum-
ed, was paying the charges both ways on
| the message. 1t would be interesting to
know whether he did not feel that he
was paying pretty highly for some Of
the above He could have gotten a
basket full of the same kind of tommy
rot, with no charges attached, from any
| crossroads politician who happened to
go to Atlanta to see what the city ''wuz
like" He could have heard it in any
bar-room discussion of politics or from
the hair-brained solons who throng hotel
Hobbies while the present legislature is
in session. In fact he is probably walk
ing in the slops of just such stuff all
the NHilt. Lie lllISil DuAE Dttu SjdlCu
by telegraph.
Governor Atkinson asked no questions
about the cost of running the peniten-
tiary or whether it was self-supporting;
he wished to know the cost Of real
estate and equipment. Yet Governor
Russell must need branch off for a
para graph on the current contention as
| to whether it is self-supporting. He
| must talk about Jobs" and the ''previ'
GUS administration" at Governor Atkin.
sons expense all the while, and yelew an
act of official courtesy with the spleen
Of narrow and disappointed politi
clan.
The pity of the business is that all
this wretched demagogiIry and boorish
disregard of the ordinary proprieties
| brings the State into disrepute. Whai
has befallen us any way? North Caro-
| lima used to be noted as one of the
Fmost sober, sensible and reliable of al
| the States. Latterly she has become
a hot-bed of fools in economics, blatan
howlars in politics, incompetent and i'll
hammered officials and sanctifcationist
in religion. The question is, are w
running to seed and is his esteemed Elk
cellency only in an advanced stage 0
that Development