The news & observer., 1898-07-31
HIGHER THAN P0LlTICS---MR. BAlley's
LETTER.,

North Carolina weighs so heavily upon
patriotic men that the desire to drive
out of power the men who have dis
sraced the State must transcend any
and all questions that divide political
parties.
Early in his administration, in ap-
pointing the trustees and directors of
the institutions, Governor Russell ap-
pointed few men of character to act
with a majority of incompetents and
office creators. Some of them, being
urged by their friends to lend their help
to keeping them along the right lines,
accepted the commissions and sought to
do the State good service. 1t was not
long before nearly every one Of them
discovered that he was appointed to
give character to a set of incompetents,
who desired to dicker and trade for per-
sonal and partisan ends, and, when criti-
cized, to hide behind the fact that the
board contained honorable men. One
by one these good men have resigned
seeing that their counsel was not wanted
and their recommendations were spit
upon. They were unwilling to be asso-
ciated with men whose only idea of pub
lie service was. to create a place for q
political favorite or to provide a berth
for relative. They were forced out
in order to preserve their self respect.
The letter of Mr.. J. W. Bailey, editor
of the Biblical Recorder, rendering his
resignation as I, member of the Board
of Commissioners of Agriculture for
North Carolina, furnishes proof that will
not be questioned of the corruption of
the present State Administration. Mr.
Bailey is the talented editor of the
Biblical Recorder, II young man who has
not taken part in partisan politics, but
has written freely of all political mea
sures which he conceived touched upon
the domain of public morals. When
he was appointed one of the Commits
sioners of Agriculture he accepted the
trust with no motive except to serve his
State. Experience has rclentlessly inn
pressed upon him that it is ''impossi-
bic on the present Board under the pres
ent \ administration to do any good, and
he therefore resigns, and gives the rea
sons that prompted his resignation.
The recital by Mr.. Bailey of the rea-
sons given him by the Governor for
transferring John II. Smith, should
make every citizen of the State hang
his head in shame that North Carolina
has fallen so low The Governor is
shown to have engineered an exchange
of positions by which an officer, charged
by him with unttness and corruption, is
put at the head of the Department of
Agriculture, a department of government
established by the action of the pro
gressive farmers of the State.
Mr.. Bailey's letter is a plain and
frank avowal of his disgust at such Off
cial wrong doing, and of loss of conf
dence in the Governor. As Il self-re
specting man, after the Governors ac-
ton, Mr.. Bailey was forced to wash his
hands of even the semblance of respon-
sibiity for anything that an administra-
ton so wanting in official proprietX will
do And in retiring. Mr.. Bailey has
done the State great service in con-
demning the degrading and disgraceful
policy that drives from public service
all men who have high aims and a pa
triotic desire to see the State well gov
erned.
The reason that compelled Mr.. Bailey
to resign has no reference to politics,
but refers exclusively to decency. He
is not the first man who has had to
resign in ii public letter that stirred the
people to denunciation of the scandalous
policy of the administration. Shortly
after the Inauguration Of the Governor,
he appointed Prof. Chas. +. Meserve,
President of the Shaw University (for
colored pupils a director of the Deaf,
Dumb and Blind Institution. Prof. Me-
serve is Il life long Republican, and in
sympathy. politically with the ad-
ministration. After serving for a short
time Prof. Meserye saw that the gang"
that composed the majority of the Board
were controlled by low motives, and he
rendered his resignation, saying in his
letter to the Governor:
II cannot conscientiOusly, with
self-respect and a conscientious de-
sire to do my duty, remain in
position where | must share response
biIity, when a majority of the Board
has adopted a line of policy which,
in my judgment, as to how the in
stitutiOn should be managed, Is posi-
lively detrimental to the highest good
Of both the institution and the
State. Individual efficiency
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