The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-27
THE FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC
HONESTY.


under indictment. In what is tanta.
mount to almost universal indictment
| of the public for criminal Indifference
and lack of conscience prior to the
| movement to clean the stables of cor
ruption, the statistician shows that in
| dictments are now pending in twenty
| five States that Investigations are pro-
| ceeding in others which promise start
ling disclosures and that open scandals
are ripening in still other States. 1t
is an appalling showing that is made,
one that justifies and demands the
continuance of what ex-senator Thur
ston has rather disparagingly termed
'wave of REFORM
In fact, of all the States there are
only eight which are put down as free
from graft or public scandal. OF these
eight, North Carolina heads the list.
The others are Maine, Michigan Mass
achusetts, Mississippi, Georgia,
Iowa Kentucky. OF course, even
in these States there are in
stances in which minor officers
are derelict to duty and even
guilty of corruption, as is freely charg
ringsters in this State, but the inves-
tigation intended was aimed at the
graft which sits in the higher places,
in the elective offices. in positions OF
honor, as well as trust and profit.
Why is it that North Carolina is
fraa of graft happ free Of
practically during the term of her ex-
istence as a State except when the
exigencies of war and, later, the ne
cromancy of Butler put into being
alien regimes of greed which gorged
themselves while their brief lease per-
mitted?
We believe that the spirit which has
made possible the exemption from the
curse that is largely affecting the bal
ance of the country can be found in
one section of the Code of North Caro-
lima, section that has come down
with the sanction of the years, to take
place in the permanent and approx
ed law of the State.
That is Section 1O11 of the Code. 1t
reads:
mo person appointed or elected a
commissioner or director to discharge
any trust wherein the State or any
county. city or town may be in any
manner intrusted. shall become an IN
dertaker. or make any contract for his
own benefit. under such authority. or
be in any manner concerned or in-
trusted in making such contract, or i'll
the profits thereof. either privately or
openly. singly or Jointly with another:
and any person so offending shall be
guilty of = misdemeanOr."
In that chapter is voiced the deter
mination of the people that their Off
Gals must be clean. 1t demands that
the States business shall be done for
the State. 1t strikes at jobbery and
it opens the door to competition of an
honest sort and gives it weapon with
which to fight corruption. Like other
laws it has been violated, but for the
most part through ignorance in the
petty pickings of small-fry office hold
ers. In the places which are of suffi-
cient importance to carry opportunity
of larger corruption, the warning and
the inhibition have been needed.
1t is a striking indication of the
craftsmanship and wisdom which
actuated the legislators of the old
years that this statute-the import
ance of which in time that marks
a crisis is now -evident-should
have been thought out and enacted as
long ago as 1925. Yet it was in that
year that the. statute was passed, its
subsequent amendment having lessen
ed the punishment prescribed, which
at that time was fine and impriSon-
ment, in the discretion of the judge.
When the men who passed the statute
were alive. graft" as it is now known
was unheard of. The country was poor,
the people of simple tastes and eco
nomical lives. There was neither the
chance nor the temptation to crooked
ness, fraud and pillage of the State
that now exist. Yet, with prophetic
eyes, without the spur of abuse to
make them see, the legislators of 1925
had mental wilson of conditions
which would come in the future and
in apt time prepared the remedy. A
hundred and eighty years af-
forwards, it is cause for pride and
congratulation to their State that,
largely through their foresight, she is
in a position in a time of general dis
honesty and betrayal of trust, to stand
forth as a clean example! Could there
be any finer vindication, any more last
ing monument than this?
Let the people of the State through
their grand juries, through the courts,
through public spirit, see that Section
1011 of the Code is enforced. If needs
be, make examples. See that the spirit
of 1925 is held inviolate in the first
lustrum of the twentieth century.
Graft is never direct. 1t needs a
confederate, a breastworks of legal
forms and contracts, ramification of
interests to spin web to hide the fat
tening spider behind. The law that
the old fathers passed aims at just
this f1ummery and indirection. 1t pro-
vides way, simple and to the point
dependinp alone on the evidence of in