The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-03
Chief Features of the
Proposed Bill.
MATTERS
Continue TO Engross Public Attention
Mr. Day Disapproves of the Proposed
Action of the Legislature-A Strong
Fight Against h Plan for a Corpora.
ton Taxa Negro In Jail for Murder.
Witnesses the Execution Of His Cell.
Mate for Like Crime.
Messenger Bureau,
Raleigh, n. c., January g

The legislature has repealed all
election laws. Tomorrow night the
democratic caucus will take up the
new law, prepared with great care by
Senator Glenn and Representatives
Stubs and Winston and Democratic
State Chairman Simmons. Today
each committeeman was given a draft
of the new law. 1t is very different
from any former laws. AS expected,
it restores the old date Of elections,
the first Thursday in August. This
is done to prevent federal interference
at election Understanding the latter
from the Congressional elections. 1t
also N August 1900 as the date
for the first election. The state board
of elections is not composed as former
ly. Then it was of state officers and
was merely a canvassing board. Now
it has greater power. 1t is to meet in
April on each election year, and it is
to be composed of five discreet per-
sons. The county election boards are
also a new creation. The bill is well
drawn. 1t is very comprehensive.
The p~enitentiary continues to en-
gross quite a large share Of public at
tention. Your correspondent endeav-
ored to ascertain whether w. H. Day,
Governor Russell's latest appointee as
superintendent, intends to step down
and out February 10th, when the dem
ocrats take charge. Captain Day said:
Il have told no one what l will do. l
have not said I would resist the action
of the legislature. No man knows
what I will do. The p~enitentiary
managed by anybody under theLnew
law will be a failure. The legislative
committee of inquiry has done its
work we'll, but it has failed to look
into the treatment of the convicts. 1t
is we'll recognized that the new law
is not satisfactory and impracticable
and that if when the new board of di-
rectors meets I step down and out and
surrender, the legislature will make a
decent law"
There are two negroes charged with
murder in Jail here, for safe keeping.
One is from CASTOR, the other from
Johnston. The latter was in the cell
with Booker, the negro who was
hanged, and, looking out of a window,
saw Booker hanged. He did not in
tend to see the hanging. It has to-
tally unnerved him. He has always
feared lynching and sleeps only a
short while each night. He says his
dreams are all of lynchers.
A hill ic ipfrodnood in tho 1ooic1a-
ture to charter the Oriental insurance
company, of Asheville, capital $780,
900.
There is a strong fight against the
proposition to levy a corporation tax.
1t is an extension of the idea of taxa
ton of gross earnings Of insurance
companies and it's main purpose is to
reach the railways. The tax on mer-
chants purchases now yields about
$50, 900 a year, and that on corporations
would yield over four times that sum,
and permit the dropping of the pur-
chase tax, which is entirely OdiOus to
the merchants.
The report of the attorney general is
out. It says in part:
Eighteen thousand five hundred
and forty-one criminal cases have
been disposed of in the entire state
during the two years covered by the
report; of this number there were
II, O51 convictions, 1923 acquittals,
3,345 nolle prosequis, and 222 other
wise disposed of. 1t will be proper,
however, to say just here, that hun
dreds of misdemeanors are disposed of
annually in the various counties of the
state by hearings before inferior judi
cial officers, no account of which
reaches this office at all, because such
trials are not required to be reported
in this Office.
From the general consolidated
statement and from former reports of
this office it appears that criminal ac-
tons have been disposed of in the
state during several biennial periods
of the last ten years, as follows: Jan
uary 1, 1889, to July /, 1890, a period
of Is months, 10,437 cases; from July
l, 1890, to July l, 1892, 1921 cases;
from July 1, 1892, to July 1, 1894,
| s 537 caSpS. from J1lv | 1914 IN In