The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-10-17
THE DOODLE" MEETING AT
LOUISBURG.

LOUISBURG.
What had been intended as a Repub-
lican rally was at the last converted into
a Democratic love feast wires Mr.. w. NJ.
Rogers, of the widely advertised Repub-
day. Senator Pritchard made regulation
Republican speech. There wasn't SEN
tence in it that had life or power or up
lift 1t was an appeal to ignore
everything but money. 1t was a
special plea for doing whatever
would put money in the purse of the
tories enjoying protection, and those who
are ready to exploit the Filipinos. 1t was
also a roast Of the Democratic Legislature
for adding $50, 900 to the tax assess.
ment of property of North Carolina.
There wasn't word to give hope or
cheer to the farmer, the mechanic, the
manufacturers who wishes only a fair
chance and no favors, the professional
man. or the consumer 1t created no en-
thusiasm and made no converts The
fairy tales that three thousand people
were drawn to Louisburg to hear Senator
Pritchard and that there are 100 former
Democrats who have joined the Republi-
The truth is that there are not a dozen
and most of them are Democratic on State
issues, and in 1902 they will vote the
Democratic State and county tickets.
They cannot and will not affiliate with the
gang that composes the Republican party
in Franklin county. If the nine vote that
way once, they will be so disguised that
they will come back into the party Of
Democracy and Decency-one and insep-
arabic now aud forever in North Carolina
Mr. Spruills short impromptu speech in
reply to Mr. Pritchard, from all accounts,
was eloquent and great, evoking the first
genuine enthusiasm of the day. From the
report published in these columns yes
terday We make one extract that we de-
sire to emphasize.
mir. Spruill denounced the ingratitude
of any white man whose interest the
Democratic party had guaranteed for thir-
ty years in North Carolina, and to save
whom from negro domination, had gone
through the terrible fire of the two last
campaigns. who would now desert that
tot nit
fostered negro rule and fought so des-
perately the passage of the constitutional
amendment.
That is a striking truth strikingly put.
Mr. Spruill might have added also that
the Republican leaders, who are now
begging for white votes because the Dem
ocrats have eliminated part Of the negro
votes, will repeal the amendment and
restore full negro suffrage as soon as they
have the power. Therefore the man who
favored the amendment who now con-
tributes to Republican success is seeking
to defeat the purpose of the amendment
and return to the conditions that pre-
vailed in North Carolina under the
Pritchard- Russell Jim Young Marion But
Ter government that governed most of
the time from 1895 till Governor Aycock
was inaugurated
Must there be political stagnation in
North Carolina? Ask those who plead for
a division of the white vote. There has
never been such stagnation and never will
be. There will always be divisions among
white men which inside the Democratic
party will prevent stagnation. These dif-
ferences that produce divisions can be
fought out and settled in Democratic pri-
mares and in Democratic conventions.
Any other course is to invite return to
the conditions that produced the revolu-
ton of 1898. And it is to restore such
conditions that Pritchard and his party
are now working.