The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-05
VOTE YOUR CONVICTIONS.

Attention was called in these col
umns the other day to the candidacy
for Alderman Of the City of Durham
of Major S. f. New on a platform
advertised by him in the Durham sun
in the following words and figures:
Vote for
Major S. F. New,
For Alderman.
"PLATFORM,
Exercise of good common sense.
Enticing as was the platform on
which Major New embarked upon the
sea of politics, he found few fellow
voyagers. In fact the detailed re-
turns from the election Indicate that
there was but one vote caught by the
advertisement above set forth. Is it
possible that, having prepared so sta
BILE craft, the builder was himself
the only one of Durham's citizenship
intrepid enough to cast his fortunes
thereon? It would seem SO.
Which brings us plump against the
old problem, mixed with the innate
and notorious modesty of man as
species: should a man vote for him
self?
In the words of the oldfashioned
temperance orator who was wont to
paint the blacklist of human degrade
ton on the canvass of his oratory only
TO end his flight, shall we permit this
condition, shall we sink into the
slough of this despond?-I think not.
And who then painted the pictures OF
the saints in contrast and exclaimed
"Hither do we tend?"-
We think so!
Should a man vote for himself? why
not? Surely, no man may 80 well or
SO competently sit in judgment upon
his capacities for the place he seeks
Every candidate knows himself to be
best qualified for the place-else why
does he run? Should he, then, biased
by some false token of prehistoric diff
fidence, endanger not alone his own
chance of preference but likewise the
veal of his own we'll loved community
by aiding to deprive it of the man who
can best of all steer it into placid and
abiding ways of peace and plenty?
Again, we think mott
Running for office is an unsclfish
act. Any philosopher, any student of
human nature or political economy
will tell you that it does not pay.
Washington City, if one may believe
the magazines, is filled with what
might have been future captains of
industry who are dying of the dry rot
of carrying on the government at the
return of an annual stipend scarcely
sufficient to keep them in the purest
| Scotch and the best Turkish. Mind
| once fixed on such negation, should a
| man falsely to himself injure by a
| feathers weight the opportunity of his
material martyrdom for the sake OF a
| pure ideal?
Emphatically, we think nOtt
We sympathize with Major New and
we admire in him the courage of his
convictions firmly expressed in the
| face of a public unmindful of his
worth He builded his hopes upon &
] firm foundation, however treacherou:
the sea on which he sailed. His plat
/ form was old-faShioned but appealing
| What has got into Durham that i
passes such things by? Common
sense" cried Major New-and they
turned him down. Ever was it thus
The world, rushing with the footsteps
of greed after the will-o-the wisps o
theory, wealth and fame, pauses per
force into indulgence in barbarian
epochs for the purpose of reform. The
lack of common sense is the drink tina
makes necessary the Kelley of the Ma
tons. The Major News too often sur