Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1905-03-16
A LUXURY.
Whose Value Cannot Be Meas
ured In Money Except BY
the Taxpayer.

the Taxpayer. ).
EDITOR ARGUs:-It is with re-
greet that I note a tendency in some
quarters to poke fun at our late la
mented Legislature, and a DISPOSE
ton in other quarters to throw brick
bats at it. /
Fol instance, one correspondent
fippantly refers to ii as "Our Zem-
sky Sobor," while another seriously
remarks that s'its sessions have ex-
pired by limitation of pay"
Why this levity over grave mat
tiers? Why this ~ill-speaking Of the
departed-so we'll and favorably
known all over the country? Cor
respondents and newspapers ought
at least to be fair.
No sober-minded man who has
followed the doings of that states
man-like assemblage for the sixty
days they "sot'' would contend for
a moment that the question of''pay"
ever entered the minds of its MEM
D0ISulp' AOU SOAOAO ouSSOoCAOHo AAhO
this be left to the ignorant. ALI
thoughtful folk are convinced that
our Solons would allow a pal
try 81 a day to influence their COM
ling in or their going out any more
than they would permit a railroad
Ipass to mollify their opposition to
corporations.
Whatever may be said of other leg
islatures, the members of the recent
General Assembly didn't go to Ra-
leigh for 'spay." Perish the sug-
suggestion and wither the thought
olThe s'pay" was a mere incident, a
1t mere bagatelle. They would have
adjourned the very day they did,
3. whether the ''pay'' stopped forty
It days before or continued forty days
thereafter.
IL Now who doubts this?
The North Carolina Legislator Of
the vintage of 1905 carried a larger
quantity of patriotism and a higher
,r~ percentage of wisdom in his make
up than is indicated in the 81 per
day tag. The very able name in
which he undertook to regulate alb.
solutely everything, from huge bond
70 issues to the biting of deas, is ample
proof of his wisdom, and his stay in
Raleigh for nearly two days after the
pay gave out is a high tribute to his
patriotism. He moves in an atmo:'
phere above the everyday business o.
this world, and in our recent legisla.
~ y ture there were higher calls On his
genius. The broad field of morals
claimed is attention.; sociology open.
ed its gates to him. No task too
,ogreat, none too small for his genius.
His first call was to root out the
Morally Stunted, hunt down the
Money Devil and throttle the Octo-
pus; then the post was to be desig.
mated on which a gate may be hung
in anti-stock-law territory, the feas
under churches put to flight and a
drought created throughout the land.
Il AL Uu0SO CAAASo AdNO OCOA uOA0
and many others of like character,
: and the doors thereof have returned
. to the fond bosom of their constitu-
ency. Who, therefore, shall be heard
to so much as suggest that a paltry
] per diem confined their powers or a
pent-up salary limited their eforts9
Wisdom such as theirs cannot be
turned on and off at so much per
day. AS we'll talk of buying by the
inch the fancy that conceived HON
. er's Odessy or by the yard the genius
that penned the plays of Shake
speare!
Luxries such as the last Legisla-
ture cannot be measured in money,
Except by the taxpayer, and we are
mot considering him here,
ONE OF THE MORAL FORCES.