The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-08-12
Friday August II, O
OF ALL THE

of ALL If1C vi NSIL
OF all the impotence. Here The
Messenger and all its confreres have
been bowling for a lease as il the
very salvation of the state depended
upon it. in this very article The Mes
senger is rebuking The governor o
not having made the lease long g
and submitted it to Judge PurnelI
and all three and their little me Toos'
have been running down the road as
If they were buyers instead OF sellers.
decrying the states property. laughing
at the very idea of its earning a divi-
dend, embarrassing the action Of dhe
governor in trying to sell the road by
every open to meddling jour-
nalism, and now The Messenger claims
the credit, with its agitation, for The
forcing a better price for the road
than it would have gotten. And We
doubt exceedingly h reliability" OF
The Messengers Information as to the
acceptance of a lease at n and a
half per cent
The above Is an extract from the
Charlotte News of the 6th-what We
might call the starboard u of that
double-barreled concern run by Rev.
Mr.. McKelway. of Charlotte. We can
not understand why this who in
the past has been using n pastoral
staff with one hand and welding
with vigorous strokes h sword in
the other, should all of a sudden drop
the staff and with all the strength OF
his physical and mental nergy begin
to hew and hack ait The people of Will
mington with his two-handed sword.
For some days now it has been the
pleasure of this man of letters te decry
and despitefuIly denounce the people Of
our good city, and at last he a
singled out the poor unpresuming edi-
torial writer of this paper on whom to
visit his d~ispleasure.
But to get back to That piece of
'impudence'' on The Messengers part.
Does the Starboard battery of the
Charlotte concern maintain n a h
governor should have leased the At
lantic and North Carolina road to one
Of the officials of the latter at a rental
of one and a half per cent? Does it
claim that it is impudence in my
paper to say that such should not have
been done?
The Messenger wants to see the
road leased or sold, but it wants to
see this done in a way 20 bring some
return to the state. We are not like
The News and some other papers il
the state-we do not believe in ap-
plauding every thing the state admin
~istration does. No state official should
feel that his conduct is above 1egiti-
mate criticism. When it comes to
pass that a newspaper cannot criticise
The onduc of members of its party
in office, then we have a despoUism
not surpassed by that of the Russian
oligarchy.
The editor of The News has wasted
d whole column and a half Of the val
uabla space of his paper in a sense
less attack on The Messenger. because
of the latteris position or h Atlantic
and North Carolina railroads. posi-
ton which is accepted by a large ma
jority of the people of the state as
the correct one.
The News talks about the Me
Toos running down the road" We
would respectfully request 1t to
turn to the last annua report Of the
president of that company and read
what he then said about it's condition.
That report was made before there
was any prospect of there being out
side bidding for a lease of The proper
ty.
We repeat, without the fear of being
called impudent by N one but the
double-barreA editor of Charlotte that
the stir over the ~receivership matter
has been instrumental in bringing
this properly to public notice i such
a waN that it can now be eased ait a
fair rate-a better one than it other
wise would have brought.