The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-01-13

\ \ X Stringent provisions should be made to
prevent the operation of blockade stills. The
State should no longer depend upon the Federal
Government to suppress this evil business"
Lynching is vigorously condemned. We shall
refer later to this part of the message.
Good-roads legislation is urged.
The need of a new code is emphasized.
A $4,000 appropriation for<an exhibit at the
st. Louis Worlds Fair is suggested.
Of the R~eformatory the Governor says: "There
are not, as a matter of fact, many youthful
criminals in the iails or the penitentiary, but this
is due to the disinclination of the judges to con-
fine them with older criminals. These boys are,
therefore, turned loose upon the community to
renew their depredations and to grow up crimi-
mails. The work of reformatories in other States
has produced excellent results, and I hope you
may see your way clear to make a beginning
in the discharge of our duty to the young crimi-
mails, who, by your action, may be saved and made
useful men,"
The message concludes with a reference to the
deficit in the State Treasury, which on Deem
Der LIST, 1902, amounted to $319,419.41, and an
explanation of the 100000 loan secured by
Treasurer Lacy, which falls due March LIST. As
to the rather startling recommendation of a
bond issue, we quote the exact words of the Gov
ernor:
"It is impossible to meet the floating debt of
the State, together with current expenses, and
the absolutely necessary permanent improve
ments out of our current revenues. It is, there
fore, apparent to me that it is necessary to issue
bonds with which to pay off the present indebted
ness, and if thought wise to complete the i'm
provements which have already been begun and
those which are found by your honorable body
to be absolutely necessary in the immediate fu-
ture, I recommend that authority be given to
the Governor and Council of State to issue non
taxable bonds in an amount not to exceed five
hundred thousand dollars ($5OO,OOO), the bonds
to run for fifty years, to bear a rate of interest
to be named in the act, to be sold for not less
than par. I believe that a three-per-cent bond
can be sold at par. < 4 X | have been all my
life much opposed to issuing bonds, but to do so
now is not an unmixed evil. It is probably better
to care for the necessary permanent improve
ments in our present condition by a bond issue
than to burden our reViving industrial and agri-
cultural interests with high taxation with which
to supply the needs of the great works which the
people have projected. IF we can accomplish the
education of all our children, care for the af-
ficted, build good roads, develop our industries,
and increase our agricultural productions as we
are now doing, we will in a short time have a
State rich enough to meet every obligation with
out excessive taxation on anybody. However, if
your honorable body can find a better way in
which to provide for the absolutely necessary
appropriations I shall be much gratifed"
X
There is no more striking sentence in all the
message than the one with which it ends. It
ought to become a proverD:
."There is but one way only to Serve the people
well, and that is to do the right thing, trusting
them as they may ever be trusted, to approve the
things which count for the betterment of the