The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-31
Turner for Governor.

To the Editor: The press of North
Carolina is the most potent vehicle OF
public government without its aid the
people would be unacquanted with pub
lie questions, and would be unable TO
settle them in a manner conducive TO
the public good. Advocacy OF the claims
of men for public office, through the
press, is therefore not only legitimate ana
right, but it is necessary. In using the
press for this necessary ana proper pur-
pose, one should be careful not to over
step the bounds of propriety, and to con-
fine himself within the limits of truth.
The people have more intelligence than
the average politician credits them with,
and any article advocating the claims OF
a candidate, which claims more for him
than he is justly entitled to, is sure to
do him more harm than good. In every
contest, both in actual war and N the
mimic wars of politics, we hear much Of
the great deeds of the great leaders, and
but little of the deeds of the men that do
the work-without those efforts the lead
ers would be unknown. Who won the
battle of Waterloo? Was it Wellington,
whose plans went all awry, or was 1T the
10000 stubborn Englishmen IN the ranks
Who carried the starry cross of the Con
federacy to victory on more than 100 bat
tlefields? Was it Lee and Jackson, Hill
and Longstreet, great and glorious as
they were, or was it the ragged, dirty
and starved private soldiers? Who has
won the battle of Democracy in North
Carolina? We have had and now have
many great leaders, but the victories
~
ers, whose audience perhaps filled a coun-
try school-house, and whose territory
was township, or, at most, a county,
and whose names have been seldom seen,
either at the pie counter or in the pub
lie press.
Having these aXioms of truth in mind,
it is my purpose to propose the name of
a man for Governor, who, though he has
developed into a safe and brave soldier,
yet he served his apprenticeship as a
private in the ranks. He has shown by
his lifes work that those who would
learn to lead must know how to serve.
He has been conspicuous for his absence
when the honors and emoluments of his
party-both State and Federal-were to
be divided, but he was always at the
front when work was to be done, or blows
to be struck against the common enemy.
His name is Wilfred Dent Turner, and he
lives in Iredell.
What kind of man do we need for
Governor? He is the chief executive Of
ficer of a great commonwealth. He is
directly responsible for the management
of all the State institutions, the peniten-
tiary, the hospital for the insane, the uni
versity, the common schools of the State,
the States property interests and two
great railroads, and to care for the well
fare of two million people engaged in ag-
riculture, manufacturing and all the va,
rous trades and professions. He ought
to be a wise man, an honest firm and
just man He ought to be able to treat
all classes of our citizens with fairness
and with justice. He ought not to be the
representative of any particular class or
special interest, but should have the in
terests of the whole people at heart. This
would be the ideal Governor Lieutenant
Governor Turner has demonstrated his
fitness for this high office He has dis
charged the duties of Lieutenant Cover
nor for three years with wisdom, modera-
ton and with absolute and transparent
honesty. Jobbery has not, and can not,
flourish under his admnistra ton. He is
a wise counselor; is vigorous and aggres-
sive in the defense of right, vigilant and
conscientious in the discharge of duty,
and would give the State exactly what it
wants and needs-a clean business admin
istration, conservative, but at the SAINT
time, aggressive on all right lines.
l do not claim that he has done all for
the past thirty years. do not claim that
he has Saved the State or secured "the
adoption of the Constitutional Amend
ment," but I do claim that for twenty
years he has fought at the front the bat
tie for good government in North Caro-
lima at the expense of his own pocket,
and has done as effective work for his
State and party as any other man.
Aside from this he is one of the peo-
pie. He knows their wants and needs.
with their every aspiration and hope he
is acquainted. and for everything that en-
tiers into their moral, intellectual and fl
nancial development he would be wise,
alert and aggressive champion. There
might not be so many frills about the
Governors Mansion as some of the very
few" might wish for but sturdy strength.
honest effort and patriotic devotion to
duty would be there. So here's to Gov
ernor Turner the man who never turned
his back on friend or foe, whose word is
as good as his bond, and who, as Cover
nor, would fill the chair made glorious by
such men as Vance and Jarvis, Scales and
Holt, and others of his lllustrious pre-
decessors.
c. H. ARMFIELD.
Statesvile, n. c., Jan. 80, 1904