The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04
The Old MuIIet Out OF
Political Net.
THE ROWLAND LEASE
Some Incidents of the Past and Pre-
dictions For the Future Along the
Line of the Atlantic and
North Carolina
Railroad.
By f.. B. ARENDELL.

ing, September End, in the big ball
room at the Atlantic Hotel, at More
head City, the State of North Caro-
lima, through it's proper officials and
agents, signed and sealed a contract
putting itself out of the railroad bust
ness, the hotel business and the booze
business. for ninety-one years at least,
and perhaps for all time to come.
1t was purely a business proposition
and the occasion was dominated by
cool calculatin~ practical consldera-
tons, but it was all the same an i'm
pressive scene. 1t was methodical at
| the same time mOmentouS, and at
times feeling took the place of figures
On the faces of some there were
traces of subdued emotion, and while
| the whole scene was most suggestive
of practical thought and action, 1t was
more or less pathetic.
The Atlantic and North Carolina
Railroad which had for half CEN
| fury been connecting by it's ninety-SiX
miles of iron rail, the city of Goldsboro
with the Iand-locked port at Morehead,
and which had been for all these years
! under the management and direction
of some one of its genial neighbors,
was about to pass from public control
| to private control from neighbor to
stranger. The State, it's former owner
and operator, had become tired, the
private stockholders, or a large ma
jority of them, had grown. impatient,
! waiting vainly for dividends, and at
| the hour named they by joint action
| turned it over to the Rowland I'm
| provement Company, upon terms and
| conditions. which have already been
| printed. Feeling of sincere rejoicing
on the part of the many, mingled
with feelings of equally sincere regrets
on the part of the few.
Much had been said and written
| about the lease. The road was in
sense a piece Of public property, and
its a mighty docile sort of a man
who has not had something to say
about it during the past few months,
1t has appeared in court more times
perhaps than was good for it, but in
every instance it has been ably and
successfully defended, and every in
terest it embraced, boldly and courag
eously protected by North Carolinas
intrepid chief executive, Charles B.
Aycock. There have been many bub-
bles on the surface of the States po-
litical waters over this old road which
of late have been largely intensified,
but these latter were only bubbles that
arose from the efforts of the "Old
Mullet" to disentangle itself from the
meshes of the political SENS that have
been stretched around and about it
| Finally the Old Mullet has broken
away from these mesheS and has Gid
| ed out into clearer waters, where it
can swim out after new and whole
some business nourishment independ
ent of politics, parties or factions and
without fear of being destroyed by the
other big fish that live and grow fat
in the sea OF commerce and transpor-
| tat1on. But there is at all times q
sadness connected with the breaking
of old and amiabie ties, even tho they
be railroad ties.
The Old Mullet train has been like
an old family horse to the people liv-
ing between Goldsboro and Morehead
city. 1t has, as a rule, been in no big
ger hurry when plying between the
intervening towns and stations than
the old bob-tailed family racker when
| he is going to the mill or to the mar
Ket, but these good people have re
vered the old road. They themselves
have not hitherto been in such a pow
erful hurry that they couldn't wait
Tor the old wood burner to load UP
I every hour or so and shackIe ala
shackle them along to their destina-
ton. The old road has been good to
them, but no better than it should
have been.
If Goldsboro and Lagrange; if Kin
SION, Dover and New Bern; if Havelock
and Morehead and the other towns
ana stations had been content to re-
main within their former confines: il
the good old counties of WAYNE Lee
NOR Jones, Carteret, Craven and
Pamllco, had been content to remain
| Within industrial confines of former
days, the necessity for a change in
the method of controlling and con
Quoting this railroad might not have
arisen, but these cities, counties and
towns would not do It. they have been
getting buster and buster for severaI
years. They have been growing big
ger and more important thew have
J Deen getting in greater hurry. and
hence the necessity for the change that
has been made-the lease of the road
to the Rowland syndicate, which is
now q matter of history
| Nlnety-hVe percent of the MANY peo-
Pie that l nave seen cordially endorse
the action of the Governor and his
counsellors, ana many Of the wise.A
or them term it the crowning GLORY
OF Governor Aycock's splendid admin
istration.
There are those who will
crltlclse him, but what's the
use He did without fear or
FAVOR what he thought was wisest
aho pest Tor all concerned. Nor should
| >'iO''S ''ciICSb ctilU sincere men who D.
posed any lease at this time be cen.
sured. With them it was a question
OF honest conviction, which they had
the right to express A man who
KNOWS Mr.. c. E. Foy knows that with
MIN 1t was matter of honest. unset
ush concern. He made his fight against
the lease, and manly man as he is, he
MADE manly fight, pitched high above
individual interest, unkind feeling or
personal criticism or abuse. His fight
was manly one. gentlemanly one.
and while it was bold and vigorous no
unkind word for either lessee or lessor
escaped him in his public utterances
or in his private talk
j There were others who stood with
Mr. Foy, and who. like him, were sin
cere and honest and earnest in their
opposition.
There were other good and substan-