The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-31
A REPLY TO NORRIS
Bart M. Calling Wants
All to Keep Cool.
Claims That an Unjust and Uufair
Attack Has Been Made on Board
of Commissioners OF
Wake.

Wdkes
Mr.. Norris resents very much that
the attorney for the Board of Coun-
ty Commissioners should aid Mr..
Green in preparing reply to the I'M
signed article appearing recently in
the Apex News. Now l Will say in
Justice of Mr.. Armistead Jones that
his connection with the matter is
wholly Il figment of Mr.. Norris mag
ination or spite. Being familiar with
the dealings of the Board of Com
misSioners, Mr.. Green and / thought
fair statements should be made con-
corning the charges, because Mr.. Nor
ris, or the writer of the article, had
withheld information that was known
to be i'll his possession. For example,
what wrong was there in Mr.. Gree's
receiving pay for his horse injured
while leaned to the county free of
any charge for several months?
Surely no one can say the price,
$500, was unfair. The Apex News
charges the board with buying this
horse from Mr.. Green and implied
that there was something wrong in
the transaction. The real facts were
in possession of Mr.. Norris but were
not given to the public.
If this is not an unjust and unfair
attack both upon the integrity and
what is And why should any one
be surprised if the record of the
writer of such an attack should be
opened UP a little? Now as for Mr..
Norris honor L have nothing to say.
That is not the subject, but his po-
litical record-his Democracy as he
calls it. is a matter that every Demo-
crat has the right to attack if he can
it is a fair target for all to shoot at
1t is charged that Mr.. Green ig-
nored the 18th question of the Apex
News, in effect, if the Board had
not invested the money in the sinking
fund of the Raleigh township schools
in bonds issued in aid of the Raleigh
and Pamlico Sound Railroad. They
did ana the Investment has proven
good one. The bonds were taken at
par and have since sold at considera-
bly, above par, the exact price can be
furnished, if required.
| find. too. that a very important
question of Mr.. Green has not been
answered by Mr.. Norris. / hope he
can answer it as satisfactorily and
easily as the one he put. The QueS-
ton that j refer to is. il Mr.. Norris
did not say in the presence of some
very good Democrats that he was out
of politics in 1900, the year when the
constitutional amendment was at
stake. That utterance is a very sig
nificant one to make for Democrat
with as long a pedigree as Mr.. Norris
gives himself in his recent reply to
Mr.. Green. If he is the true blue
Democrat that he says he is let him
deny il categoricailS. and say IL is
not the truth.
But even a horse with a good pedi-
gree may turn out worthless. and a
life long Democrat may turn his coat.
Calling a man a Democrat does not
make him one. And the calling OF
the gentlemen put forward by Mr..
Norris Democrats doesn't prove them
such. Some of them are about as good
Democrats as Palmer and Buckner
were, and if this is the sort of Dem
ocrat he means, when he calls him
self and these gentlemen good DEM
ocratS, of course, l have nothing more
to say. / am speaking only of Dem
ocrats that abide by the decision of
the party in primary or convention,
and who would not become an indie
pendent candidate. Can this be said
of the gentlemen mentioned by Mr..
Norris? Have any of them ever split
their ticket2 Or run as independ-
entS? Or been associated with such
a movement? And will Mr.. Norris
tell the public how many of the reg
ular nominees OF the Democratic
party good old Joe Broughton voted
for in the last election? Good man?
Yes. Good Democrat? No, Sir.
Nor is Mr.. Broughton the only one
In this class, and when a man. good
Democrat though he is and has been,
votes for Palmer and Buckner or
Mr.. Norris Board of Commissioners,
mustn't we put black mark afte!
his name? Can Mr.. Norris get all
these gentlemen he mentions to say
they will support the ticket in case
they do not get the nomination in the
primary? II so, it is more than some
have yet said, and is more than they
did il. the last election. Hasn't the
Democratic party the right to COM
pie who put them forward?
Mr. Norris. the Apex News and
some of their friends have formed a
ring, strange to say. But they don't
call it the Court House Ring, that is
to come later when they get hold of
the offices, they must be modest at
first. They have put forward a ticket
and built a platform. What is it?
Reform. Reform. Reform us into
Office, others out. Well. DR.. Whitak-
er, a good old man who has seen
much OF life. had something to say
about political reformers in the News
and Observer of last Sunday / quote
it out of Difference TO his long ex-
perience and solid wisdom.
And / would like to say to the
voters, beware of reformers-those
slick-tongued gentlemen who have
spent the last two years. or longer
in concocting and Matching out some
catch-penny tricks to beguile the I'M
wary. AS a general rule the social
ed reformer is q fraud for how plauS-
ible SOever may be his scheme of re-
form, if you will dissect it you will
be apt to find that it is intended to