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

There is no help for it now, but the
taxpayers of North Carolina will
speak in thunder tones at the polls
when there is another election. No
party, no man, has ever been able to
run rough-shod over the people of
the State but a short time"
That was not the worst. A few days
before the adjournment of the Legisla-
ture the Progressive Farmer said:
The Legislature only has about
ten days now to complete the work
and it hasn't begun the work yet.
Let the miserable pie-hunters go to
work or go home"
The Caucasian, edited then as now by
Senator Butler, spoke out quite as plainly
about the disgraceful Legislature. On
the 23rd of February it said:
about ten days remains Of the
legislative session. Unless there
shall be. within this time, an almost
miraculous change, the record of the
Legislature will be nothing, absolute
Iy nothing. All it will have done
when it resigns will be the spending
of 100000 of public funds for which
nothing will be returned"
1t also made a plea to have the sheep
separated from the goats in the follow
| ing article in it's issue of February 27th
"Of course there are some good
| men here, who cannot, in justice, be
held responsible for the record. but
| we are speaking of the record of the
! Legislature as whole. and unless
that record shall be phenomenally
| changed within a week, it will be
the imperative duty, and we think it
| will be the pleasure of the people to
| see that such a crowd is never sent
| up to make laws again. Up
to this date the Legislature is a
damnable disgrace to the State"
| About the same time the Caucasian
said:
''As to the Legislature of 1897,
the one now in session. we have to
say as fact that it has won the
contempt of the people generally of
all parties, and we have to say as
an opinion that we do not believe
that it can overcome that contempt
in two years time, and hence can
not get the approval of the people"
1t spoke with equal truth when, in its
issue of February 9th, it said:
''The various committees to whom
; bills are referred seem to be COM
ly Indifferent or pitiably ignorant. 1t
is almost impossible to get their at
tention to any bill that does not carry
some Job with it,
When the Legislature had finished its
labors, and the Progressive Farmer hat
gone over its work. its opinion of tn,
body was that it was even worse thar
il had declared when it was still in ses
/ .,.,i&.
of the body and its labors:
The good done by the Legislature
could be printed in small pamphlet
, The bad done and the good omitted
, would fill several large volumes"
So outraged was the Progressive
{ Farmer with the suggestion in the pa
pers of an extra session. that on Marcl
I'd it thus delivered itself:
There is some talk of an extra
session of the Legislature. Please
don't, Governor Russell. We can en-
dure famine. pestilence, drought, war,
but don't inflict any prolonged agony
on the State. such as an extra ses-
, sion"
And the Caucasian, looking upon tn
sixty days of broken promises, bribery
corruption and domination by politica
corporations, cried out in its disappoint
meat:
so then, for all practical purposes
, and in all essentials, the co-opera-
tion of the Populists and Republi-
cans in this State has been a dismal
and disastrous failure Only the con-
/ temptible pie-hunters see any good in
it,"
These were the utterances of the tw
, leading Populist papers of the State
! made deliberately while the Legislator
, was in session and Immediately after it
close. They were made nearly two year
before any political campaign, and b.
,, men who had the best opportunities fo
knowing the character of the legislator
and of the legislation. The men VIII
composed the Legislature were the poll
tical friends and associates of the edi
tors of the Progressive Farmer and th
Caucasian. 1t was natural for them t
seek to make their actions appear in tn
most favorable light, and if the Legisla
ture of 1897 had been even passabl
, these papers would have given the Legis
lature credit for all the good it die
The fact that these papers call
!. "damnable, with their naturally friend
ly disposition, is proof positive that
was the most disgraceful body that ha
assembled in North Carolina since tn
drunken orgies of the carpet -baggers an
, negroes of 1862.
Contrast that record with the record O
the 1899 and 1901 Legislatures. The Flu
sion Legislature created nearly 1000 ne,
offices; the Democrats less than dozer
l The Fusion bodies were attended by in
, competency, scandal and jobs; the Demo
| cratic Legislatures by devotion to tn
needs of the State. particularly wit
| reference to education. suffrage, the un
fortunate classes, pensions, the Confed
crate Home. and like matters affectin
, the welfare of the State. No scanda
touched It; no dishonesty; nor lack Q
knowledge; nothing to injure the fai
, name of the State
Judicial Dpoar.f f77ar7f