The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-09
AN END OF STRADDLING--WHAT
W. W. KITCHENS BIG MA
J0RITY MEANS.

Kitchin for Congress in the Fifth district
is one of the most gratifying political
results in the history of North Carolina.
We do not say this by way of comparison
with other members of Congress, be-
cause we have other members as able
and courageous as Mr.. Kitchin. but be-
cause he was confronted by a peculiar
condition that called for the exhibition CT
the highest political courage and he was
found equal to the emergency. 1t is
more of victory for better conditions
in North Carolina than for Mr.. Kitchin
personally 1t means, or ought to mean,
an end of straddling. 1t has been too
often the case that men who ring clear
upon all the issues and make no com
promise have been set aside for the man
who was regarded as available" be-
cause he either had no convictions or
managed to conceal them so that people
of Numerically opposite views each
thought the candidate was in accord with
them. The danger of the big negro vote
has sometimes made it necessary to nomi-
nate clever trimmers and straddlers. If
that day is not over, then the suffrage
amendment has failed of accomplishing
one of the most important results eX-
pected from it's operation.
If there is one district in the State
more than another in which the average
politician would be tempted to look both
ways, it is the Fifth district. A candl-
date without strong convictions and
character who was looking for plain
sailing in that district would ring clear
on white supremacy, the tariff in general
without reference to trusts, and be very
polite to the Southern Railway managers.
Why? Because there the Tobacco trust
has great power, the Southern Railway
has big influence, and there are more
anti Democratic manufacturers than in
any other district in the State. The So
called available" candidate would be
afraid of antagonizing such influences.
Instead of being moved by such consider
ations. Mr.. Kitchin invited their hos
tility by his speech in the Greensboro
State Convention in opposition to the
proposition to repudiate the Kansas City
platform. When the Southern Railway
and Tobacco Trusts began to fight Mr..
Kitchin quietly, did he beg them not to
hurt him or did it cause him to be silent?
Not in the least. He went upon the stump
and openly told the people that he knew
the Tobacco Trust and the Southern
Railway were fighting him and that he
was glad of it because their opposition to
him proved that they could not get him to
vote money out of the treasury TO put
into their pockets. In Congress. when
the subsidy to the Southern Railway
came up Mr.. Kftchin was urged by South
ern Railway officials to vote for it. True
to his convictions that voting subsidies
is wrong, he refused to vote for it. and
he did right He gained thereby the i'm
nlacable hatred of the Southern Rail-
wav crowd Always in Congress and out
of Congress he has voted against trusts.
He not only believes in denying them
the favor OF tariff taxation, but he be-
lfcves that tho Sherman criminal law
ought to be enforced and trust magnates
prosecuted and punished. Believing that
this is the proper method of killing
trusts. Mr. Kitchin advocates it, whether
in Maine where the ice trust is all-pow-
crful or in his own district at Dur
ham. where the sway of the Tobacco trust
is strong and influential
During the recent campaign, promi-
ncnt politician. discussing Mr. Kitchin' $
speeches. said He is putting his
coulter in too deem. ] am afraid he is
going to infuriate the Tobacco trust and
Southern Railway folks so that they will
put up piles of Doodle to defeat him II
is certain that in at least three counties
somebody put up plenty Of money to
fight him. but he appealed to the people
He told them if they sent him back to
Congress ne would continue " OPt'OSS
subsidies to the Southern Railway anG
to every other monopoly, would
always war on the Tobacco trust and
all other trusts. and that if they wanted
trust agent or railroad agent in Con
gress to vote against him. HIS boldncsS
won the admiration of the honest man
hood of the people of the Fifth district
who approved it by an unprecedented
large majority.
There is a lesson in the result in the
Fifth district for all men who aspire to
positions of public trust. The people
arc tired of trimmcrs, of men who are
mutual" on all public questions, OF
men who talk nit the people and
"drinl, nit" the trusts and subsidy
ccttcrs. of men who dodge and shilt ana
straddlc. The nomination OF clark ana
the big majority for Kitchen prove that
the people are ready to stand by men
who stand out in the open and defy the