The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-17
TRAFFICKING AND TRADING
OFF POSTOFFICES.


Judge Timberlake, Superior court judge
of the Fourth district, is furnishing the
thunder and the zeal for the old Union
League of that county, recently reorgan-
lied under the name of ''the Franklin
County Republican League" OF course
Judge Undertake has q right to belong
to any political party he chooses to
join, and he has right while a judicial
officer to become the active politicar
legal right. But it has not been deemed
the correct thing for judicial officer to
run the party machinery and do the ma
nipulating as long as he wore the ermine.
At the recent county convention of the
"Old Line Republicans" of Franklin
county, Mr.. James I. Moore, Republican
chairman, made a speech denouncing the
new Union League. He is thus reported
by the Times:
During the course of his speech he
referred to the way in which the Federal
section and was quite severe on Judge
Undertake. whose conduct, said Moore
was very unbecoming to a man who had
been elevated to the high and honorable
position of judge. Moore charged that
Judge Undertakes active participation
in shaping local politics. by trafficking
and trading off the postoffices was q re-
Election on the judiciary, and that he
(Moore) had the courage to stand up and
say so. He compared his actions to a
fellow with a wheelbarrow full of fish
peddling them along the street.
This isn't the first time that Judge
Timberlake has been guilty of offensive
craftsmanship since his elevation to the
bench, as the following editorial from the
News and Observer Of January It'll, 1897,
shows:
"a JUDGE IN THE ROLE OF LOBBY
IST
Judge Timberlake is a type of the
Republicans at heart who have been
posing with purpose as the truest and
straightest of Populists. Reared as a
Republican and deeply imbued with the
prejudices that he imbibed in his youth,
he has managed to conceal his true senti-
ments and to repeat with an air of sim
cerity the set formula in which the hon
est and Jealous Populist gives expression
to his objection to both of the old par
ties and his desire for reform in prin-
ciples and methods This class of poll
ticians are like the old Grecian who stood
around the streets of Athens when st.
vi cd a
the lookout for something new, and al
ways pretending that they are open to
conviction, but if their hearts could be
seen they are deep-dyed Republicans and
fall in with new movements with no
other end in view but to push them
selves to the front and beat their asso-
ciates back into the old black Republi-
can camp.
In crisis like that which confronts
both the Republican and Populist par
ties today. such men are forced to show
their true colors., Judge Undertake has
come to the parting of the ways. He
has wasted a great deal of wind in pro-
tending to work for the unlimited coin
age of silver as the best means of re-
lief for the oppressed and distressed far
mer. He has INDUCED in the bitterest
vituperation of Cleveland and his wing
of the Democratic party. He has not
hesitated to brand Cleveland as a traitor
to his party and the people, and to give
as an excuse for opposition to the Demo-
Gratis the fact that Cleveland had used
his influence to repeal the Sherman act.
Today he is to be seen hanging around
the Park Hotel, and it is understood that
he is charged with the duty OF influencing
certain Populist legislators to bolt the
caucus and desert the standard of their
party in order to re-elect a United
States Senator who has canvassed tho
State of North Carolina as an advocate
of the single gold standard platform of
his party, over any Populist that might
be named by the caucus OF the Peoples
party, though his very name might be a
guarantee of his fidelity to free coinage
and to every other plank in his own par
ty platform.
Judge Timberlake is not an ignorant
man. He is well advised of the state of
parties, whether we look from a State
or National standpoint He knows that
with Pritchard's aid Mckinley and Han
ma can redeem their promises by pass
ing protective tariff bill and filling the
Golfers of all the trusts and combines
in the country. He is we'll aware that
with a true friend of the people in Pritch-
ards seat, the country will be safe from
the blighting effects of Hannaism for at
least two years to come. Rev. r. A.
Cobb, who has edited a paper called the
Populist, but which has been supported
by and has spoken for Russell, is a
worthy associate and helper of the Judge
in the grand effort ne is making for the
Republican cause. Cobb is to be paid
by election as State Librarian. Is Judge
Undertake to be paid by permitting him
to name the postmaster at Wake Forest?
Ii so, Pritchard is able and is no doubt
willing to deliver the goods
The sequel to that editorial was that
Judge Timberlake left Raleigh the very
next morning after his mission to Raj
egh became known. But it seems from
Mr.. Moore that he is patronage dispenser
for Franklin county. If Mr.. Moore is
right-if Judge Undertake is Shaping
local politics by trafficking and trading
off postoffices, there are many who
will think that he ought to quit it or
hand in his resignation az Superior Court !