The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-03-20
ANOTHER BOSTON TRANSCRIPT De.
TENSE OF BASSETTISM.

ioI scoring everybody who dISsentS from
lBassett's prediction that 'the negro will
win equality" and his sensational mis-
the South. The latest writer signs him
lself stanton" and the letter is dated
Pinehurst and his article is nearly three
columns long.
He calls Trinity "reiuvenated college"
Ipraises Bassett and endorses his equality
views, denounces 1.-The principal Demo
Cratic organ published at the capital
pl aises the Charlotte Observer and Bib
lical Recorder. We make the following
extract:
For two reasons the situation was par
tlcularly difficult. Trinity had several
! times before been called on to fight Tor
tho principle of academic freedom. 1t
vas already obnoxious to various men
| high in Office or in party authority be-
| cause it had refused to be the tool of
politicians. 1t had already separated
itself from other colleges in the State by
enforcing higher requirements for admis
sion and by its stand on college athletics
1 1t was therefore generally regarded as an
/ innovator and the ultra conservative
forces in the State were ready to array
themselves against it..
All of which will b, news to well in
formed North Carolina folks. The only
| academic freedom Trinity Colleges
I head has stood for has been notorious
sulservience to the Cigarette trust and
the political designs of that Illegal cor
| Iofation which has within the past five
! months robbed tobacco farmers OF North
Carolina alone of several million dollars
| by arbitrarily running down the Price of
tobacco below the cost of production.
When was it asked 10 be the tool OF
politicians" Who made the request? Let
the writer give the facts or withdraw the
statement. ~
| The statement that it has separated
Itself from other colleges in the State by
enforcing higher requirements for adrnis-
sion is a reflection upon every other
college in the State and cannot be sup
ported by the records of all the colleges.
LAS an innovator" it is a success, but its
chief innovation by its erratic president
has been to put premium on Money
over Manhood.
After reciting, in one-sided way, the
meeting of the trustees, the corresponds
ent goes on to say
1.-THE students, awake at that hour,
rang the chapel BELL lighted bonfire,
and some of them hanged in efhgy the
editor who had started the attack. After
some weeks more of decidedly angry edl-
torials, this particular editor rather
suddenly ceased firing. 1t is commonly
! supposed that he was losing subscribers,
There can be little doubt that the two
churches in the State which had defend
ed the college profted by their course.
/ Not a word of criticism of the spirit OF
the mob. 1t is true that these disciples OF
( academic freedom did seek to destroy
| the liberty of the press by trying to get It's
henchmen and the tools of the Cigarette
| trust to stop taking the News and Oh
server. A vicious partisan editor OF
Baptist paper joined hands with DR.. Kill
! go and the editor of a Methodist paper
I ito destroy" the paper whose editor had
been hung in effigy There was warm can
nonading for time, with the net result
that the News and Observer lost nine sub
scribers by the boycotters and gained
over three hundred!
No two churches defended Bassett and
the trustees Nine-tenths of the Metho-
| dist laymen were outraged by the whole
! proceeding, and in the Baptist church no
voice was heard in support, except that
of the editor of the Biblical Recorder.
who has a confirmed habit of opposing
everything the News and Observer and
the Democratic party advocate.
The author goes on to say that when
due allowance is made for the conditions.
there is in fact a considerable amount OF
independence in the State But he con-
fines it to Piedmont North Carolina, leav
ing the whole East as benighted, with
Wilmington, where hostility to innova-
tions of all sorts is as strong as | have
found it anywhere in the South as the
darkest town. Wilmington and the East
will survive!
Seeing the mistake of the other Trinity
defender in the Boston Transcript, who be-
rated and slandered the preachers of
North Carolina, the writer apologies for
their unprogressiveness because they re-
ceive such small salaries, intimating that
if they had bigger salaries they would be
as big and as latitudinarian as Kilgo On
Bassett! His patronizing air is shown to
these paragraphs;j
"As to the pulpit, it is by some students
! of Southern life upbraided and ridiculed
for an entirely unprogressive and even re-
| dictionary influence. Such, in fact, it may
Tor the most part be, but 1 am unab BILE 10
Isympathize with either the bitterness or
the 'rldicule which has been displayed to-
ward the Southern clergy.
1T is true no doubt, that all the
churches are conservative in comparison
with those of the North; that pulpit ora