The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-03-16
What Does your Candidate Stand
For?

Is this man running for offic
merely t. crafty some per
sonal ambition or because h.
has some definite plans to help
build up the State?
This is the only safe test By =
which to Judge a candidate,
and whenever Il man asks ouI I
readers tn vote for him thu !
year, we hope that they will
put it squarely up to him.
You don't want "a man as leg
islator or Governor merely be
cause he was born in old Gum
Spring Township or is Cousin
Bill Jones wife's sister-in-
laws husband, or can kiss more
babies per day than any Other
man running for the same Office
We have hal too much of this
in the Southland everywhere
else for that matter-and have
paid for our folly a full hun
dred years and more. Now We
are in an era of constructive
work in the South. the re
building of our section has |
| lust begun, and We need men
of bigger mould in public Of
fte. And it is the farmers
more than any other class,
that can bring about this con-
dition. We appeal to them to
set themselves to the task
and let them begin in 1908
Mind you: we are asking you
; to act inside your own party
, nothing else. But the time
to act is in your primaries and
in your conventions and prior
to them: in the chico Of your
nominees, however selected.
First of all, get a man of abil-
ity and of integrity. Neither
Il quality is worth anything with
out the other: man may be
" honest but he is worthless I'M
L less he has sense; a man may
. have sense but he is worse thar
u worthless unless he is honest
! There are plenty of men who
: have both honesty and integrity
+ Do not vote for any othel
: kind.
le And when you have fount
l. your man who has both ability
II and integrity, it doesn't matte
y much what his occupation is
+ No man ought to be nominated
III for a place merely because h
z is a farmer. On-the other han
i no man ought to be nominate,
" for place merely because h
NJ is a lawyer: here is where mos
of the trouble has come. w
''' have packed our Legislature
~ with lawyers merely becaus
Ie they were lawyers-and to
often they have been lawyer
~ retained by railroads or othe
o." corporations who have only illu
'e tratsd afresh the truth as oil
9 as the world itself that ''n
I'll man can serve two masters.
70 Uuquestionably therefore ther
IN is grave need now for a large
III number of frst-class, wide
u awake farmers in our Legis1;
~ lures. The great industri;
!" interest of the South is agFicu
~ ture, and agriculture has su
III fered, and every farmer wi
ZIG reads these words today is poo
oe err and less influential, becaus
NC we have not had in our Legl
ny latures big-brained and big-sot
"e ed men, men with some co
WI ception of the possibilit
AiO of rnral development and wi
$50 some determination TO uude
~" take the task. A prom:nel
'iu Southerner was quoted as sa
'ho ing:
AaS Il will never vote again
1us any candidate for a State off
uiu who does not have some W
anu worked.out programme for &C
"S serving and developing .
vas rural communities, for &C
o''O structing good roads throug
=, :, . out the State, for placing
'n~l spectacle school-house a
Igood school in easy reach
- every child, for placing in eve
vi one of such schools well-trair
De- and amply-paid teachers, a