The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-03-17

of the big patronage the former system of manu-
facture carried with it. The Watts Bill will cut
the business in about half and the Senator knew
ful well that meant a decapitation of the off,
cia1 heads of several thousand store-keepers and
gaugers upon which. the Republicans have relied
strongly in past elections" The chief purpose
of the Watts Bill, we believe, was to abolish
these Republican recruiting stations" as the
News and Observer called them. As we have
said before,-it passage will enable the temper
ance forces to work with freer hands, but this
gain for temperance was a minor consideration.
The Alexander Bill to require all saloons to close
at eight o'clock would doubtless have accom-
plished more for good morals, but it was speedily
done to death in the Senate. The a%ntijug law
to prevent the express companies from multiplying
prohibition laws died stillborn.
Of other legislation desired by the moral forces
of the State, that for the saving Of child life
through the reformatOry and the restriction of
factory child labor, stand out most prominent.
The reformatory idea failed completely in spite
of its seeming triumph early in the session. But
it is just as we'll, perhaps better, that nothing
should have been done, than that the institution
should have started out fettered by such made
quate equipment and ill-advised regulations as the
more popular bill proposed. The child labor law
is weak, but it establishes the principle of legal
supervision in such matters; it is the first step III
the right direction.
Little legislation especially affecting the States
agricultural interests was proposed. We have al
ready chronicled the fate of the bill for an agri-
cultural building at the A. & M. College. Its
history shows the need for a larger number of
farmers in the Legislature. We shall never advo-
cate putting a man into office just because he is
a farmer, but we know there are many well-equip-
ped farmers in the State, and their small repre-
s~entation in the Legislature, especially in the
Senate, is hard to explain. While we sould not
elect a man merely because he is a farmer, we
should not elect a man merely because he is a
lawyer-though that policy seems to be in favor
now Let the farmers look to this in the nominal
ing conventions next year. The letter of Secre-
tary Parker on the A. & M. College appropriation
expresses the feelings of the States agricultural
classes.
Economical, this Legislature certainly was.
Appropriations we're ruthlessly scaled, and the
members submitted to a bond issue only when CON
WINGED that there was no other way out of the
bankrupt condition into which the Treasury had
fallen-the minimum sum at the minimum inter
est rate being agreed on.
Less political bitterness was manifested, we
believe, than in any preceding Legislature since
that of 1891, both in legislation and in the treat
ment of the minority.
The morale of the body was probably up in the
average, but there we're a few conspicuous excep-
tions to this rule. The Western Senator men
toned last week, whose, young daughter was sent
here to keep him from his disgraceful drunken
exhibitions, has a counterpart in the Senate from
theeXtreme east whose wife came up two or three
TINS to keep him straight. A community that
knowingly selects legislators who have to be look
ed after like babies, to that extent proves itself
unfit for self-government.