The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-10-25
What Honest
AN OPEN LETTER TO HON. W. R.. MLEN AND OTHERS.

l see You are q candidate for elao-
ton to the next House in the eonntv
of Wayne. | am also a can5i5ota
for election to that House from tbe
county of Bladen. In this ono -
speet you and I happen to be- alike
suppose you hope to be a member
or the next legislature. I am verv
certain that l shall be a member of
that body, If | live so long. I fulIv
and confidently expect to be electId
have been hOnOred many times bv
election to Office by the people of
my co 2nty. You have held Office in
your county, it is true; bat you were
never elected thereto; you simply
stole q seal in the legislature; YOU
stole 1t by swlndling the voters in
the good old county of WAYNE. |
am a plain sort of a man myself, and
/ deal in aplain way. T am opposed
to stealing, because I know as we'll
as l. know anything, that a man
who will steal q vote and so get him
self into the legislature, is not q fit
man to be in the legislature. Now,
Notwithstanding your shameless
theft of a seat In the legislature
from Wayne county, you have the
Impudence TO come before the Popu-
lists and Republicans of that county
and ask them to elect you to the leg
lslature. You, the man who robbed
them of Their rights, and sat in the
Legislature by a shameless throwing
out of their lawful votes. IF you
were at all sensitive to circumstances
of shame, you could never have the
hardlhoOd to ask the voters of
Wayne county to elect you to any
thing.
I see by the slandering machine
newspapers that you have started a
new raid upon Governor Russell. OF
course Governor Russell does not
need me for his defense-he is abund-
antly able to defend himself, but
then, the Governor is my friend, and
Ihave concludedto show you up to the
people of Wayne county since your
recent and vile attack upon the Gov
ernor furnishes me q suitable Occa-
sion. While / am at it, l will take
in your confederates in inIquity;
Simmons, of the Democrat machine,
of Secret Circular infamy; one Joe
Daniels the chameleon editor of the
News and Observer, and his brother
the other Daniels, that you have put
up for the Senate from the counties
of Wayne, Duplin and Fender. |
not only I'VE you this exposure In
defense of the Governor and in the
interest Of deeency, but / owe your
associate and leader, Simmons, an
evening up of an old score. When |
was sheriff of Bladen, Simmons tried
to pull me for his own pocket. He
brought suits against me in the name
of others upon charges that we're
wholly false. 1t is true he busted on
that Job, and did not realize any
thing from it. / have been informed
that the people whose names he
used as plaintiffs to bring the suits
had no interest whatever in the mat
ters. knew nothing about the bring
ing of the suits. If he had succeeded
in robbing me, he would have gotten
the plumber for his own pocket. l
think it well, therefore, to class you
and Simmons and the Daniels to-
Oetber in what shall have to say.
Your last attack upon the GoYer-
nor is about a pardon granted to q
negro by the name of Freeman Davis
in Duplin county. I will leave that
aside for @ moment and take 1t up q
little later.
You have many counts in your ar
tieles of impeachment against the
Governor. The first n is based
mon your failure to loot the Treas
urv of the State in leasing the Attain
rio and North Carolina Railroad to q
combine of which you were the at
tornev. So soOn as the election OF
1906 was over and you and your
crowd knew that you had lost con-
troll of the State, you set about the
work of putting up q job to leased the
Atlantic g North Carolina Railroad
for less than it's value; for less than
II was earning at the time; for less
than il has paid to the stockholders;
and for verv much less than was af-
forwards offered by the Southern
Railroad; and for very much less
than it would bring to day. The
Governor broke in upon your little
arrangement; you could not get your
iob through, and so lost a fee of one
Thousand dollars, that you confident
lv expected to make while assist
ing a lot of sharks to rob the peo-
ple of the State. This is the first
count in your articles of impeach-
ment against the Governor. You
can never bring yourself to the mag
nanimity of forgiving a man who
has stood between you and the peo-
pie, when you were planning for
public plumber. The Governor has
done this, and now he is to be i'm
peached. In this little scheme to
lease the Atlantic & North Carolina
Railroad you would have robbed the
State of hundreds of thousands OF
dollars, and all the tax payers in
Wayne would have been compelled
to help to pay for it. Now You
think that the intelligent, enllght-
ened and v~irtuous voters of Wayne
comfy will send you to the legisla-
lure. in order that you may have an
opportunity to successfully scneme
TM that hnnVW