The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-21
Executive Department.

The contrast between the executive de-
partment of the State Government under
Russell and under Aycock alone ought
to give the Democratic ticket ffty
thousand majority this year.
Coming into office with malevolent
spirit, bent upon humiliating the bulk
of the white voters who had opposed his
election, Daniel L. Russell from first to-
last brought odium, scandal, and dis
grace upon the State. His lurid profan-
ity in which he abused the negro mem
Der of the House from his own county;
his violent and Incorporate attacks upon
everything he did not like; his appoint
ment of notoriously unfit and unworthy
men; his disgraceful management.
through agents of his own selection, of
the Agricultural Department, the peni-
tentiary and the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad, not to speak of the
lesser scandals; his pretended antago-
nism against the lease of the North
| Carolina Railroad, followed by his abject
| and serVile surrender to the corpora
| tions he had abused; his use of patron
| age to control votes in the Legislature;
| his attempt to make the A and M. Col
| lege a football of petty politics; his part
in negroizing Wilmington and other por-
! tions of Eastern North Carolina: his ap-
pointment of a negro politician as the
virtual head of the directors of the white
institution for the blind; his use of the
| pardoning power to secure good fees to
his favorite attorneys; his assaults upon
the good name and credit of the State IN
an hundred ways-the record of all his
charlatanry and scandals is still fresh in
the memory of the people of North Caro-
| lima. They breathed a sigh of relief
when his term expired, and were horritied
because only strong and indignant pro-
test prevented his making himself Chief
Justice of the State. That act, suggested
and endorsed by certain railroads that
| wished even then to pack the Supreme
Court, would have been in keeping with
the whole tenor of the administration. 1t
was averted only by an indignant protest
of an outraged people.
The management of some of the other
executive departments was less scandal
GUS, but hardly had the Fusion officers
retired when the incoming State Treas
urer found that the Institute Clerk in the
Treasury Department had stolen over
$4,000. He is now in the State prison
serving his sentence.
Contrast the stormy and scandalous ad-
ministration of Russell with the quiet.
useful, honorable administration of Gov
ernor Aycock. There has not been sol
itary criticism of Governor Aycock's
administration from any source except
that he is too earnest in advocacy of re
deeming the Democratic pledge TO edu-
cate all the children before 190S and that
he uses the pardon power too much or
the side of mercy Both are criticisms
that SAVIOR of praise of his character. II
he did not exert himself TO carry out the
educa tional pledge, Governor AycocB
would forfeit the confidence of the peo-
people of North Carolina. The people OF
this State believe that men elected tt
office should keep their promise. They
remember the sacred pledge made in the
1900 platform, to educate the children
pledges repeated and emphasized by
Governor Aycock, every State officer and
other Democratic speakers in that cam
paign. That pledge is binding on the
conscience of every man who voted the
| Democratic ticket in 1900, and, as the
head of the administration, Governor
Aycock leads in the work of carrying
out the pledge.
AS to pardons, this should be said
Governor Aycock has established the best
/ rules Win TeIeEeuCc W IuSLu SNGA II
force in the State. Every application fol
pardon must be advertised iii a newspa'
per in the county where the prisoner was
convicted for two weeks, to the end thai
anw opposition to the pardon might bc
weighed by the Governor before taking
action He has also given out to the
papers every pardon granted-a new ant
commendable departure. If he has made
a mistake in any instance, and been i'm
posed upon, everybody knows it to b'
true that he has been conscientious il
the use of that power.
Under the Aycock clean and progres
sive administration the States credit has
been advanced, its insane and othel
helpless classes better cared for, its ed
ucational institutions enlarged and bet
tered, it's roads improved, and enter
prise of all kinds has been encouraged
and fostered. No class feeling has beer
permitted or engendered, and peace anC
progress along the best lines of th'
States advancement have signalized the
Democratic State administration since j
was inaugurated in January, 1901. =
Republican victory this year would turr
the hands of the clock backward and en-
danger the continued peaceful progress
of the States industrial and educationa
life.