The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-15


magnates and railroad bosses, anxious to
control the next General Assembly Of
North Carolina, determined to seek to eff
feet such control by bringing out other is
sues upon which they thought the Demo-
cratic masses could be divided. The
mountain was in labor and brought
forth a mouse
AS a result of the concocted scheme to
effect diversion and open the door for
the railroads and trusts to slip in legis-
lators of their creation, the Morning Post
shortly thereafter came out in an elab-
crate editorial, suggesting a platform for
the Democratic State Convention when it
meets in Greensboro in June. 1t was drawn
by master hand in the art of making
words conceal thought, sounded as smooth
as chat sweet word Mesapotamia,' .
seemed plausible and the soldiers in the
wooden horse were well concealed. AS
soon as good Democrats read the platform
in the crooked organ, they recalled the
old saying: Fear the Greeks bearing
gifts" and began to look the gift horse
in the mouth. They knew that there was
some deviltry somewhere about the plat
form and that in due time it would ap-
pear
The morning after the Tribune-Post
printed the suggested platform, this pa
per, to put honest people on their guard
announced that the platform printed by
the Post-Tribune would be adopted by the
Republican State Convention in Greensboro
on May 18th, with a few changes and adj
ditions. And then the Post ''raved," but
saw that the trusts. Southern Railway
bosses and the whiskey ring had inspired
the platform of the Post. Isn't that a
trinity to write declarations of princi-
piles for the intelligent and virtuous De-
mocracy of North Carolina.
The Post pretends to be desiring not to
disfranchise 1.-The country people" When
did it ever before interest itself for the
country people? 1t has helped the to-
hacco trust to rob them and defended the
trust while it was doing so; it denounced
them as tools of demagogues when they
demanded Just taxation of railroads; 1t
called them anarchists when they refused
to help it make Russell Chief Justice and
worse than agrarians when they insisted
upon the election of Clark; it abused
them because they were solid against the
steal of the A. and N. C Railroad; and
| it has stood against everything the
country folks" wanted because it is the
| tool and mouthpiece of the Southern Rail-
way, Tobacco Trust and Whiskey Saloon
crowd. And now, IN ORDER TO MAKE
4 DIVERSION TO HELP THE TRUST
AND RAILROADS CAPTURE THE LEG
lISLATURE, and to dot the country over
with stills and saloons, it is now greatly
concerned lest they lose their rights.
The last Democratic Legislature passed
the Watts law. The party must either
stand for it and promote temperance, or
it must repudiate it and become the agent
principle upon which that law is founded
is sound one. 1t disfranchises nobody.
It says: NO WHISKEY SHALL BE MADE
OR SOLD IN NORTH CAROLINA AT
ANY PLACE THAT DOES NOT PRO
VIDE POLICE PROTECTION, and in such
places it leaves the matter to the vote
that this principle is nat only sound but
that it meets the approval OF nine-tenths
of the Democracy of North Carolina. We
have never yet seen a man living IN the
country, who is a good citizen whether
temperance man or not, who wishes u
still or saloon in his neighborhood. And
we have never seen one who objected 30
the Watts law because it denied him d
vote upon the question of having stills and
saloons put in operation next door to him.
If the Posts propaganda should succeed,
what would happen? Let us take Wake
county as an example. There has not been
a saloon in Wake outside of Raleigh in
fifteen years. The people ,do not wish
them and would not have them. They
remember Milburnic when whishey flowed
there. But if the Posts scheme is put
in operation, this will happen; the liquor
interests will seek to colonize and dcbauch
enough voters in some small township near
Raleigh to get them to vote ''license" and
"dstilcry'' and then set UP hell-hole near
the capitol. where the scum of the city
and county will collect, and where. free
from police protection, they will inaugu-
rate a reign of terror.
What else will happen? In every pos
sible township in the State, an asi-
tation for stills and dstillcries would
be commenced In most townships the peo-
pie would vote against them, but IN near
y every county the liquor interests would
combine to carry one of the weakest, and
there, free from taxation, police protection