The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-22
RADICAL AND CONSERVATIVE.

For forty years in North Carolina
the terms Radical and "Conserva-
tive have had a distinct r0litacal
meaning in North Carolina, and the
attempt of the trust-defenders =
those who oppose effective railroad
regulation 70 give themselves the good
old name Conservative" and TO ap-
ply the offensive term Radical to
those who stand flat-foOted on the
Democratic platform will not succeed.
just after the war the carQet-bag-
gers and S~calaWaga, controlling the
ignorant negro vote, attempted 70
wipe out every conviction and tradi-
tion of the people OF North Carolina
and make this State all over according
to their ideas. The program vas To
put the bottom rail- on top" in the
vernacuIar Of the day, elevate the
enemy Of Southern ideals and 70 put
the negro In politics over the white
men of the South. Nothing more re-
v~olutionary and destructive TO civil
cation was ever attempted in the his
tory OF the world The men who con-
ceived this scheme Of going down
ward were truly called Radicals
In order to drive them from power and
restore a decent government, all men
in the State, regardless of past poll
teal affiliations, were invited to join
the Conservative party" that TODD
for progress along lines that would
advance civilization and mater,ol
progress through honest and decent
political officials. After a hell OF re-
construction rapine, the Radicals were
and the Conservative Demo-
cratic PARTY administered the affairs
of North Carolina with wisdom until
1894 when the Radicals again came
into power and the State was cursed
with another hell of radical rule. The
only reason the stealing was not as
large in his latest Radical rule was
because some Populists, who had been
Conservative Democrats, We're honest
and would not consent to the pillage
by the hooters. Those
Radicals were again driven out IF
power. the conservatives VINO had
into the Populist party and some
Republicans joining hands with the
determined, unterrifed and aggressive
Democrats who composed then as in
1870 the Conservative party of the
State The term Radical is an hon
ored term in those countries where il
d~esignates those who are fighting
against class rule and e~ntrenched
wrong. 1t is offensive in North Caro-
lima because it was applied to those
were trying to intrench wrong
and destroy civilized government.
The attempt to Governor
Glenn, Governor Aycock, Speaker JUS
tice, Mr.. Manning and like gentlemen
who are leading the fight to compel
corporations to obey the
laws of the State to the Radical gang
that looted the State is SO infamous
and 50 unjust as to have aroused the
indignation of all fair-minded men in
the State. Such ~appellation was APP
piled first by railroad organs to the
of the Legislature in an at
tempt to defeat railroad regulation,
and taken UP by those who belong to
by those interests. To themselves,
these railroad advocates rave the
term CONSERVATIVES whereas their
true appellation should be ''Reaction-
if any name be needed to
designate them. Those who raised the
clamor for selfish interests are the real
descendants of the Scalawags who sold
out to the Littlefields in 1868. Those
were honest wish no term applied
their sense of justice or to be classed
1-,tI 49, ~.;l - 7 ;++laGaII
If, in the present situation, am elG-
ment should be called Radicals it
is those who are trying to defeat the
laws of the sovereign State of North
Carolina, but we would not class under
that name any man who didn't get as
much Doodle as the gang got in 1858
deserved that opprobrious term.
The Wisest ~utterance yet made in a
public speech upon the latest use Of
these words-"RadicaF' and "Conser-
vative"-was by ex-senator Alfred
Moore Scales, POSTMASTER at the
Bryan banquet in Greensboro on We'd
nesday night. Mr.. Scales has a habit
of saying the right thing and the just
thing Wnen he speaks, for his own
high character and judicial qualities
enable him to discern the real facts
and separate the true from the false.
In the opening address at that ban
Mr.. Scales as POSTMASTER, said:
North C~arolinians are conservative
and at the same time d radical peO-
pie. They are conservative of those
things that make for the uplifting of
character and the upbuilding of the
commonwealth INT nation.
They are radical in opposition to
evil and oppression.
There is danger of spelling two eX-
words by allowing the repre-
sentativeS of special interests to APP
the one and the demagogue
appropriate the other.
THE man with an axe to grind, who
oppression and robbery 10 go
claims the grand Old
name of conservative.
The demogogue catches the scent Of
pubic Indignation over some wrong,
and goes in full CRY, hot on the trail,
of evil and wrong, but of an office.
is willing to lash the public into
injustice if thereby he may attain his
selfish ends. and he takes the honored
name of radical.
The great a Of the people are