The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-20
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE STAKI'
ED A CAMPAIGN OF BILLINGS
GATE AND FALSEHOOD.

/ son of a conspiracy with another sol
der of fortune, who had lost his rail-
road Jobs. came to North Carolina to
| grab the Atlantic & North Carolina
| Railroad, they secured as their chief
| attorneys men whose hostility to De-
mooracy is so well known that their
retention made nearly everybody say
that it was "a political scheme" 1t
was at first supposed that nothing but
little peanut politics and grab for
property belonging to others was be-
hind the conspiracy. Later it has been
suspected that "HIGHER UP
crowd of bond dealers and railroad
| wreckers inspired the original con-
spiracy. BY an exhibition of courage
and boldness without precedent in
North Carolina, Governor Aycock
made plain that the first scheme was
so paIpably a free lunch conspiracy,
| that the application for receivership
was vacated, the Federal Judge who
granted it saying he was highly IN
dignant" at being imposed upon. Con-
currently with the application, a sluice
| of SANDERS was turned loose upon
the State first published in the organ
that gets it's orders HIGHER
UP'' and copied into other newspa-
pers, rejecting upon the honesty, de-
cency and good sense of the manage
ment of the road, the State admins
ltration. and the whole Democratic par
ty. The charges embraced almost
| everything in the catalogue of crimes
except murder. Thereupon, as soon
as the Finch-McBee receiverShip order
had been vacated, of his own motion,
Governor Aycock appointed a special
committee of honest men to make a
thorough investigation of the condi-
ton of the road and make report to
him. The Radical and assistant Radi-
cal press kept up it's clamor, some of
it inspired from "HIGHER up and
the chief consrirator continued to ut
ter vile and false SANDERS about the
Governor. The volume of slime and
abuse continued .unabated until one
Cuyler, of New York, whose attorney
was in Raleigh comforting with the
original conspirators, filed another APP
plication for a receivership, employ
! ing the same attorneys. In the
meantime the committee appointed to
| investigate the affairs of the A. & n.
c.. r. r., aided by expert accountants
has been hard at work making a
thorough investigation, in the presence
of the leading attorney of the con-
| spirators, a. we'll known Palmer and
Buckner elector. Their report will
appear in a few days.
If that report shows any corruption,
the party guilty of it must go; if it
shows extravaganza or other mis-
management, they must be corrected.
Whatever is necessary to be done, can
be done and will be done without the
necessity of any receivership.
In all the billingsgate that has
| teemed from slanderers and newspa-
pers, this paper and nine-tenths of
| the other decent papers in North Car
DINA have taken this position: If the
road has been mismanaged, that gives
no right to McBee, Finch or Cuyler to
grab the road for personal ends; it
does not warrant the Federal Court to
override the right of the owners of
| the property to control it; it does not
| justify one stakeholder who invested
nothing or another stakeholder hold
| ing $4,000 stock out OF $1.750, 600
stock to dictate what shall be done
with the road; it does not give any
good ground for a Federal Court to
| put the road into the hands of re-
| ceiver, with the inevitable heavy costs
and probable sale of the road, which,
under the peculiar circumstances,
would recognize debt not recognized
by the State, and thereby greatly in
jure the stockholders, and the State
because 1T owns two-thirds Of the
stock They have also declared that
the only right course was to await the
report of the committee and then
and then only-if the directors and
the Governor declined to make any
reforms shown to be necessary, if any,
| would the courts be justified in inter-
l
the decisions of Simonton and other
able judges have been quoted. More
than that: this and other fair-minded
newspapers have declared that the
/ question Of lease was one for the
owners of the property in the regular
way to consider, and not one to be
| forced. by few dissentient stockhold-
ers whose property has steadily appre-
ciated i'm value.
This, in brief, is the history of the
agitation over the A. e. n. G. r. r. af-
fairs up to the meeting of the Repub-
lican State Convention. The speech of
Chairman Rollins lends color to the
belief that the Republican bosses are
/ in league with the "HIGHER UP"
! gang that is trying to steal the A. &
n. c.. r. r.. for he repeated almost
verbatim the ISLANDERS and falsehoods
which have been employed to destroy
the right of the owners of the prop
1 ortys to control it not emitting the