The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1910-10-20

Hon. Locke Craig Pays Respects
To Builder IN Seating Terms
And Wins Applause

D10obu1UG
County resently opened their
campaign at Black Mountain,
when q crowd OF several hundr-
ed people greeted the candidates
and speakers.
Locke Craig made the keynote
speech of the campaign.
He predicted that the Republi-
cans were already beaten, their
candidates would not run. so
they went out into the highways
and hedges and roped them ii.
Craig portrayal OF Marion
Butler and the Republican rule
in North Carolina was superb.
He said, Your party loyalty
may bind you to the national
Republican party, but you can
contend that the State Republican
party today is worthy of trust.
1t has beentin power twice in.
North Carolina, and then the evil
days were upon us, days Of dis
For long years after the war
the people remembered with
fear and condemnation the era
Of the reconstruction. As time
passed ON memories grew dim, the
Republican party pleaded the
statute of limitation to the crime
of the sixties.
The plea was admitted. We
got tired of the monotony of
peace and good government.
The Republican came back.
The era of fusion was like unto
the era of reconstruction. /
would not mention the recon
%struction, nor perhaps the time
Of fusionisTa, had not the Re-
publicans in this campaign put
champion a man who is the in
caIynationa OF the evil Of fusionism
and who stands today for the con
summation of the greatest rob-
berry Of reconstruction. When the
bonds that he would force North
Carolina to pay were issued the
poverty of the State was not her
deepest distress.
, For years she had been robed
In consuming fire and ravaged by
aVenging armies. She had ex-
hausted her resources In support
ingthe Confederacy. One hundr-
ed and twenty five thousand of
her sons had gone to the front
and $4,000 of her children had
had been slain. There. was
naeHsRing in every home. Her
property was gone, the recon
structioo Legislature, or, by the
orgies that yea call q Legislature,
plundered her treasury, LEVIED el-
orbtant taxes and stole the public
Iae4ey. Whennothing was left
they issued bonds the extent Of
forty millions OF dollars. When
the State vas bankrupt they at
tempted to mortgage he future.
these bonds We're not the obhga-
ton of North Carolina, FOR they
were not issued By 4 General As
sembly that had been elected by
the people. When the Democrats
were restored to power all honor
able eB4igaaAeas that had been in
all of her debts were honorably
CURED by the state were paid, and
She repudiated these
bonds,l for0gthe people Of North
rspudiated them by "a
overwhelming majority. Marion
was In the senate of the
United States as the representative
IF North Carolina. He conspired
with the holders of these bonds to
force North Carolina to pay them.
fe eonspired In secret and refused,
upon his his privilege as a lawyer
O tell what transpired. While he
was the servant, the q gent, the
Senator of North Carolina he at
5empted to foreclosure this mort
gage that had been put upon
Carolina In reconstruction
Tine and to conSummate the vii
Amy of the men of that era. For
than fortv years we have
been taught to despise the men
who attempted to perpetrate that
great wrono upon North Carolina
the sixties. But Marion But
er today is attempting to con
Iummate the kaud and the rob-
oery.
The bonds were issued IN time
# excitement when the greed OF )
nen was stimulated by the pas
ions of civil war. She men who :
we're the leaders of that crime
we're not native North Caroln-
ans, but q man born In North
Carolina honored beyond his de-
ert by her people when the pas