The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-01-08
INTERESTING AND AMUSING
Is the Situation Developed by the Will
son Post Office Affair.

Ieebee 1eataDle 1attle In haieieh os'-
This affair OF Wick and the Wilson
post-office has developed one OF the
most amusing situations ever known
in North Carolina politics. If it
were not for the fact that my bones
are too old and my joints too stiff |
would roll over on the floor and
laugh whenever | think about it. AS
it is, there is nothing to do but give
vent to my hilarity without the &C
compartment of violent exercise.
Just think of it.
There is President Roosevelt, who
wants to appoint Il few negroes to
Federal offices in the South to keep
the colored vote in the North solid
for the Republican ticket in 1904, but
does not want to commit an act that
will cost him the vote of North Caro-
lima in the National convention. He
is between the devil and the deep
blue sea, with powerful influences
pulling him both ways at the same
time.
Then there is Senator Pritchard,
who is trying to build up q lily white
party in North Carolina by turning
all the negroes out of office and
bouncing them bodaciously from
party conventions. AT the same
time as we have his word for it, he
is not discriminating against the
negroes on account of their color
Didn he make the discovery that
all the negro delegates at the State
convention, including the EXON
gressmen, were pestiferlOus fellows
sent there to break up the meeting?
And hasn't he said that Wick voted
the Democratic ticket at the last
election? The Senator occupies a
delicate position. His efforts to tote
water on both shoulders would
arouse my sympathy if it did not ex-
cite my risables.
In the next place, there are the Will
son Democrats, who have given their
endorsement to Wick i'll writing, say
ing everything nice about him, that
the most fertile imagination could
think of, and Onl y stopping short of
a request for his reappointment. 1t
is said that Mr.. Roosevelt was most
favorably impressed with these en-
dorsements, and it is freely predicted
that in the event of giving Wick
another term as post master he will
justify his action by the kind things
the negro post masters white Demo-
cratic friends have said of him. If
the President can fly in the face of
the determined opposition of the
white people of Charleston by APP
pointing Dr. Crum collector of Gus
| toms, there is no reason to doubt
that he will let the Wilson people
keep their negro post master when
| satisfied that the arrangement
would be mutually agreeable. He
will probably take the ground that
| the protest of the Democratic delega-
ton in Congress was only a play to
the galleries.
One does not need to be told that
the Wilson Democrats are playing
politics; but it is a dangerous game
and the consequences are frequently
| disastrous to the loser There is no
body who understands this better
than Senator Pritchard, and which
ever way the contest ends, it seems
that he stands to win. Suppose
Wick is turned down; then PritcharC
will claim that his lily white policy
is indicated. On the other hand
suppose Wick is re-appointed; the1
Pritchard will say that it was done
over his protest and upon the recon-
mendatiOn of white Democrats. AND
then what will become of all the
Democratic thunder on the negro
question for the next twenty years
1t will be rubbed into Democrat.
from every Republican stump an(
every Republican newspaper, tina
the only negro holding office il
North Carolina was appointed upol
the recommendation of white Demo
Gratis. And that will be the funniest
situation at all-for the Republicans