The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-19
AS USUAL, DIR. KILGO CLAIMS
NOT TO BE FAIRLY REPORTED

ing his exact words upon the point con-
trovertcd. And then, if there is error,
our correspondent would be glad to cor
rect it without suggestion from anybody.
DR.. Peacock does himself and an honest
correspondent an injustice which his sense
Of fairness will cause him to correct upon
reflection.
We will not controvert the closing SEN
tences in DR.. Peacock's letter, because we
do not wish controversy upon point upon
which there cannot be agreement We
dc not admire Or. Kilgo and do not ap-
prove his methods, and do not hesitate
to say So 1t is not part of cur educa-
tion received from Methodist preachers
and in a Methodist home to believe that
it becomes the president of a Christian
college to send an insulting message to
the oldest and most learned Methodist
iayman in North Carolina, threatening to
destroy him and drive him out of the
State; to use the language of coarse abuse
of a fellow Christian minister; TO play
the toady to money and to approve un-
lawful methods of obtaining that money
through the robbery of the tobacco farm
ers of the State; to scoff at men OF hon
est convictions who believe shat prayer
in prayer meetings as elsewhere is to-
day as of old more powerful with God
than all the factories and commerce OF
men: to glory in the enmity of any men
toward a church institution; to foment
trouble and strife by a domineering and
proscriptive policy of rule or ruin--these
things which characterize DR.. Kilgo's pol
icy and methods are not approved by
thousands of Methodists in North Caro-
lima who have been panied and mortified
to see Craven'8 successor guilty of speech
that, to say the least, is unchalit&ble
and unjust While we have been unable
to follow the brilliant and erratic icono-
clast who seeks to make obeisance to his
personality loyalty to Methodisin, 1t is
not true that a any time this paper has
done him injustice or incorrectly reported
him. Dr Peacock lets his quickness here
betray him into doing this paper an in
Justice. unintentionally we are sure, for
the life-l long friendship between us woJId
make it impossible for him to do tn,
writer an intentional injustice as it would
be for us to do him a wrong. 1t is true,
however, that DR.. Kilgo rarely opens his
mouth without saying something wild. and
when he reads it in cold type denies that
he was correctly reported. II would be
more creditahle in him to say that in
the heat of the moment in public speech he
went too far, or did not qualify his re-
marks so as to express his true meaning,
for public men often say a thing upon
the spur of the moment they do nor in
tend to say. In an experience of twenty
years in journalism DR.. Kilgo is the only
man who has almost always claimed to
have been incorrectly reported, when
hardly any two reports have been made by
the same news correspondent or reporter
The character of this paper for truth
and reliability in what it prints is as
dear to us as life itself, and we defy any
man, politician or preacher, to prove that
at any time he was incorrectly reported in
these columns.
The suggestion that this paper has been
unfair to Trinity College will be with
drawn by Dr. Peacock if he will read
the files of the News and Observer On
the contrary this paper has sought in
every way in its power, except by en-
dOrsing the cigarette trust and defending
DR. Kilgo's wrong positions, to advance
the interests of that institution. DR.
Kilgo tries TO make it appear that every
body who critczes his South Carolina
extremism is an enemy of Trinity Col
lege and we are surprised that DR.. Pea
cock should give currency to this absurd
position. But the real friends of Trinity
College know that DR.. Kilgo is not the
college. He is fallible man and not
above just criticism. The people are
rather tired Of his attacking everybody and
everything he does not agree with and
then saying when a reply is made-saying
by acts always and sometime by words
''YCu gre an enemy of Trinity College.
He shall not put this paper in that posi-
tion. Long after he has served his time
and gone back to South Carolina. the
News and Observer will be mere at the
old stand leading the fight for education
in the public school, in the University, in
Trinity College and all other educationaS
institutions in the State
This much the letter Of Dr. Peacock has
compelled us to say.