The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-03-23
(Biblical RecOrder.)

biblical Recorder)
General Assemblies never fail of
being judged by the people, and their
judgment goes inevitably upon
record. BY no particular act will the
work of the recent session be weighed
at large, but by the effect upon the
State of the sum total of its acts.
What that effect will be may not be
indicated until the people are called
upon to speak again. Meanwhile,
however, one may reflect upon the
course of the Legislature, putting
aside the standing of it's members,
disregarding their political affilia-
tions, having an eye to no particular
act, and search out the spirit whence
the new laws now governing us
sprang; and by this spirit the lawmak-
ing body justly be judged.
The men who came to the Capitol
and took their seats at the first of
the new year had come through one
of the most remarkable revolutions
prove memorable beyond any in our
history as the beginning OF the end or
the end itself of the era of political
hate and passion and violence and
fear and horrors in North Carolina,
and the Inauguration of the era of
principles and reason in their stead
as the ground of polite Il differences.
North Carolinians have determined
to break the bonds that b We enslaved
them to fear, and they will march on
until their citizenship has been 50
improved and purged that no man
can be shamed out of his principles
the subversion of the very essence
of selfgovernment. This will be good
for all political parties, for all prin-
ciples, for all patriots, for North
Carolina.
First and saddcst of scenes in the
Legislature was the struggle for
office. 1t would wiring any heart to
see the miscellaneous crowd, pushing,
pleading, bargaining, whispering,
working desperately every one, old
and young, the veteran of the war,
the party worker, the chronic office
seeker-to see them and to know
that most must return home hope
less. How do they live? Here was
a man with one leg, the other on the
field of battle, business gone, home
gone, no means; but he failed. He
struggled desperately as though all
depended upon it. How he and such
as he continue to live is beyond our
knowledge; but they do, at least for
while. There is not to be found a
more pathetic or NOSE profoundly
suggestive spectacle in this free
country than the struggle for office.
But we have here only to remark that
out of the struggle came good set
of officers for the General Assembly
of 1899.
The passion of what they had come
through was fresh upon many of those
law makers as they took their seats;
they were unfit to coolly consider
the responsible business of making
laws. And by good fortune never
did a General Assembly approach its
graver with more deliberation. Had
all been hot-heads, one breads to
fancy the end. But there were saner
spirits, many lawyers and some of
them able ones, many farmers, and
some OF them rich with common
sense, and knowledge of the people,
and even skilled in public business;
of teachers, of preachers, of men in
general few, in all a good repre-.
sentation of our Commonwealth.
Not few of them took delight in
unhorseing lobbyists.
The first opportunity was accepted
by the members to put the General
Assembly on record as in sympathy
with the moral element in North
Carolina; when the Cumberland Dis
pensary was protected in the face
of persistent and influential OPP
position; we score one for the Legis-
lature. The saloons are allied
against many of these men for their
work, and it behooves us to stand by
them as zealously as the saloons op-
pose them. The General Assembly
of 1899 was clearly out of sympathy
with the saloons, and no cracking of
the whip, no threatenings could alter
its position. Let the moral element
stand to their guns these two years
coming. and we will be able to
handle the whiskey to our liking.
King Alcohol came, but found his
friends all too few.
Between those who really desired
protection against over-powerful
capital, and those who havegot them
selves into the habit of prosecuting
the railroads and the corporations,
the General Assembly pursued a
steady and commendable course.
The passage of the bill to render
foreign corporations subject to the
State courts, and that to provide
separate cars for the races, clearly
| indicated the Assembly's independ-
ence. The quick response to appeal
for more equitable adjustment of
the Merchants Purchase tax showed
a fine disposition to treat capital
Justly. The failure of the effort to
intlict upon the railroads gross in
come tax, at the same time providing
for such taxation if it shall come to
be expedient, indicated the desire of
an independent Assembly not to go
to extremes in obedience to any
clamor. The passage of an anti
trust law may indicate either the op-
position Of the members to the trusts
or it may indicate the Indifference OF
trusts to laws; for it is not to be
hoped that the law passed or any
other State law will make an end OF
trusts.
Every recent Legislature has ad-
dressed itself to three laws that
apply to all the State-the school
law. the Revenuelaw, the election
law. 1t is testimony to the fair