The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-10-19
GEN. JULIAN S. CARR
Why he Should be Elected
United States Senator.
HIS LIFE AN OPEN BOOK
The Author of the Law of 1885 Pensioning
Confederate Soldiers Urges The
Selection Of GIN. Carr 10
the Senate.

To the Editor: At this point of time
we must look men and motives squarely
in the face. The careful reader of cur
rent history, the optimistic observer of
passing events cannot close his eyes to
this fact, that the popular ideals of ex
pansion, commercialism and centraliZa-
ton that are Turing the politicians on
like will o the wisp oyershadow the
sovereignty of the States and threaten
to extinguish the Southerners final hope
in this highly favored land. We have
been taught by experience the useful
lesson that the love of power is insepa-
rable from the nature of men; and
whenever the vigilance of the people
shall slumber under the sedative poison
of misplaced confidence, their downfall
may be reasonably ascribed to the tri
umph of ambitious demagogues over
people who put THEIR trust in the frailty
of human virtue.
We have had the evangelzing minis
try of benevolent assimilation in the
Philippines until there is hardly a poor
fugitive to be tortured or massacred. We
have had the brotherhood of man. in
Cuba that destroyed the benefits of re-
ciprocal trade We have had the Sher-
of the government TO throttle capitalistic
combinations that, like the squid of the
deep sea, is crushing to death thousands
of poor laborers in the sweat shops and
mines. There is hardly enough anthra-
cite coal in the country to light bon
fire in Qualification of the late bear hunt
of Theodore Roosevelt. We have a
President asking grant of power that
would have startled the new regime for
its audacity after the return of Napoleon
from Marengo: the power to deal with
out responsibility to the people, with
monopolistS and Wage-earners. VIII the
Constitution warrant this despotic trans
fer of the highest executive power?
Legislation. too, is differentiating from
former years. We have struck an epoch
when a hale dozen monopolsts can say
with Louis the Fourteenth, 1--WE are the
government or with one Vanderbilt
who has happily passed in his checks"
The people be damned" The contrasted
immortality of these human sharks and
their victims is bewildering. 1t requires
no prophetic vision to see how it will
end. When the people cried for bread,
a Queen of Infamous memory asked
upbraidingly: why do you not buy
cakes? and the commune flashed up like
meteor dipped in blood. Stretch over
the situation all the gossamer meshes of
logical and political sublety you please,
it still comes to this, the Senate of the
United States. like a great clearing
house, has gone into commercial trans
actions. We ought to have men there
whose especial education and fitness will
enable them to grapple with industrial
problems. 1t is idle to say that this or
that lawyer, whose life's work has been
under the tutorship of Coke and Black
stone, is disciplined to this sort of work
The politician who deals only in issues
that are transitory cannot measure up
TO this duty Clay, Webster and Cal
houn We're never placed upon the COM
mittee of commerce or finance or manu-
features, and yet, like Burke, Sheridan
and Chatham, they electrified the world
with their eloquence. If treaty is to
be discussed in the Senate it is the in
ternatonal lawyer who is consulted; if
some question IN diplomacy, it is the
man who has experience in that bust
ness: if the currency, it is the financier:
if constitutional precedent. it is the
broad-guaged statesman if trusts and
tariff and commercial problems, it is the
master of industry.
There is no private reason why / am
fsTessing upon the consideration of the
'cople the name of General Carr for the
ate. My inclination as a lawyer
would be the other way. For three
successive terms one of the distinguish
ed candidates was my colleague on the
judiciary COMMITTEES: we We're rival
candidates for the Speakership in 1885.
We were and are friends. | take just
n
superb and his integrity, patriotism and
learning challenge my heartfelt adj
miration. The Old North State, her
honor and interests will be safes guarded
as long as he lives. She can say of
him and the other distinguished gentle |
men as Cornelia said of the immortal
Gracchi: These are my Jewels" / |
have, as a private citizen, observed the |
trend of public opinion-the march OF
events have visited country where |
the people have seemingly forgotten the
primitive teachings of their pilgrim
fathers and stand solidly for centraliza-
ton l have come home with renewed
hope to take up my covenant again. 1t |
is not clear to my mind but that some
day ambition will build upon our ruins
the strong edifice of royal prerogative,
when our people are reposing in fancied
security some ambitious leader will seize
the flag. and assuming the seductive
disguise of disnterested patriotism,
grasp the imperial diadem.
Let us throttle the monster of selfish
commercialism with the means that are
best available and the men who are best
able.
General Carr has grown up in the
school where the skilled craftsmen who
have fashioned tariff legislation were
educated Can this be said of any other
public man in North Carolina? Will he
use this knowledge for the benefit of
the people? His whole life is an open
book There is not page that patriot
would conceal from the public eye; nor
a paragraph that does not show his love
of North Carolina.
When young man, he had but one
ambition: it was kindred TO an aspira-
ton that Nathaniel Macon cherished as
though it were an abbreviated creed 1t
was that in the maturity of his powers,
IL II iY.af11 D6 . nd