North Carolina Democratic Hand-Book 1906.
Prepared by the State Democratic Executive Committee of North Carolina:
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Democratic Party (N.C.) State Executive Committee
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(title page) North Carolina Democratic Hand-Book 1906. Prepared by the State Democratic Executive Committee of North Carolina
State Democratic Executive Committee of North Carolina
182 p.
RALEIGH, N. C.
E. M. UZZELL & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS,
1906
Call number C329 N87d 1906 c. 3 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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- North Carolina -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950.
- Campaign literature -- North Carolina.
- Elections -- North Carolina.
- Democratic Party (N.C.)
- Republican Party (N.C.)
- Democratic Party (N.C.) -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
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[Title Page Image]
THE
NORTH CAROLINA
DEMOCRATIC HAND-BOOK
1906
PREPARED BY THE
STATE DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF NORTH CAROLINA
E. M. UZZELL & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS,
RALEIGH, N. C.
Page 3
DEMOCRATIC HAND-BOOK,
1906.
DEMOCRATIC STATE PLATFORM.
(Adopted at Greensboro, July 3, 1906.)
The Democracy of North Carolina in convention assembled, renews its allegiance to the principles of constitutional government, through laws enacted and executed in the interest of the whole people, without favor to individual or class; and it pledges itself to continue the just, wise and economical administration of public affairs which have obtained in State and county since its return to power in 1899.
We congratulate the people of the State that, under Democratic auspices, there has been established throughout the borders of the State a reign of law and liberty, peace and progress. That our people are no longer employed in guarding their homes and protecting their lives, liberty and property, as they were under Republican rule; but safe in the protection of law, and enjoying the freedom which comes from security, are directing their energies to peaceful pursuits of honest industry.
We endorse the wise, patriotic and able administration of our State's affairs by Governor Robert B. Glenn and the other State officials, and we point with pride to the record of our Senators and Democratic Representatives in Congress, and endorse the same.
We again congratulate the people of North Carolina upon the successful operation of the Constitutional Amendment regulating the elective franchise. The adoption of this measure has permanently solved the race problem which had so long agitated the public mind, and was a menace to peace and good government.
In its operation the assurances made by the Democratic party to the people, that no white man would be disfranchised thereby have been fully verified, and the prediction of the Republican party, to the contrary, proven false.
After a test of five years the wisdom of the Amendment is recognized and acquiesced in by all political parties, and is accepted as a solution of a vexed question.
We congratulate the people upon the beneficent effect of the temperance legislation enacted by the Democratic party, and approve and endorse the principles enunciated in the Watts bill and the Ward bill regulating the manufacture and sale of liquor.
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We reaffirm our constitutional declarations that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and means of education shall be forever encouraged," and that the people have the right to the privilege of education, and that it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that right, and we express hearty approval of the great results accomplished through educational work during the past six years of Democratic rule--at the great improvement made during that time in our educational conditions, and we promise a continuance of a four months' school term for all the children of the State.
The Democratic party established the system of pensioning Confederate soldiers and opened the Soldiers' Home for the care of the veterans who responded to the call of the State in the War Between the States. Every dollar given them was appropriated or forced by the Democratic legislation or Democratic public sentiment. We pledge the party to a fuller discharge of a debt that can never be fully paid to these aging heroes who offered their lives as a sacrifice upon the altar of their country.
We point with pride to the record of the Democratic party in its care of the unfortunate classes of our State and promise to continue to enlarge our charitable institutions until all the indigent insane are cared for at the expense of the State.
REGULATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS.
The powers of the Corporation Commission should be so enlarged as to give it full and adequate power to regulate all public service corporations within the State and subject to its jurisdiction. Passenger and freight rates in North Carolina are too high and should be materially and substantially reduced, as should also telephone rates and rentals, and we demand such action by the Legislature and Corporation Commission as will accomplish such reduction.
We are opposed to granting charters to corporations in perpetuity.
The discrimination of railroads against North Carolina cities and towns, and in favor of other points having no greater natural advantages, is a grave injustice to the people of this State, and should be corrected by such means as are available within the limitations set by the Constitution of the United States. The interference by public service corporations in political matters should be called so sharply to the attention of the people that it will be odious, and the efficiency of such corporations as political agencies should thus be destroyed.
The law against issuing free passes should be so amended as to make the party who illegally receives them equally guilty with the corporation issuing them.
The failure of connecting lines of railways to make connection as scheduled is a source of much inconvenience, expense and annoyance
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to the traveling public, and we demand such additional legislation as may be necessary to enforce that provision of our statute which requires connecting lines to make as close connection as is practicable for the convenience of the traveling public.
FOREST RESERVE AND INLAND WATER-WAY.
We favor the Appalachian Forest Reserve, and the construction of the inland water-way from Norfolk, Virginia, to Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. While both of these projects involve great benefits to the State, they are also of national importance. The one preserves our mountain forests and conserves our water supply, promotes the public health, maintains our water-power and aids agriculture. The latter will open up a free outlet north and south for the water-borne trade of Eastern North Carolina, equalize traffic rates, and promote the prosperity of our people. Its construction will also greatly increase the coastwise trade between the South Atlantic and North Atlantic ports.
We urge our Senators and Representatives to continue their efforts to secure legislation for the establishment of the one and the construction of the other.
We reaffirm our adherence to the time-honored principle of Democracy of "equal rights to all and special privileges to none," and we condemn subsidies, gratuities, bonuses, trusts and monopolies.
For nearly ten years the Republican party has been in absolute control of all departments of national government, with power to change unjust conditions and to rectify evils. Yet, during that time colossal combinations of capital have dominated the people, and illegal perversions of corporate law have stifled competition and unfairly limited the opportunity of the individual citizen. Wealth thereby illegally obtained has been unsparingly used to control legislation and corrupt elections. No honest effort has been made, or is being made, by Republican legislation to cure or eradicate these evils.
We denounce the hypocrisy of the Republican party, which, while pretending to legislate against these conditions, deals only with the symptoms and not with the disease. The unfair, tyrannical features of the so-called "protective tariff" have made these things possible, and no permanent relief can be secured until its obnoxious features are removed. To remedy this evil we demand a thorough revision of present tariff laws.
The growth of the trusts and other inordinate and dangerous combinations of capital, the tremendous and rapidly increasing absorption and centralization of the wealth of the country in the hands of a chosen few, all due to premeditated and systematic legislation in behalf of special interests by the Republican party, demand a change in the policies imposed upon the country by that party and make the passage of restrictive laws an imperative necessity.
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We denounce the appalling system of corruption heretofore practiced by the great insurance companies, whereby money intrusted to them for the benefit of widows and orphans has been diverted to the enrichment of favored individuals and to the campaign fund of the Republican party.
We denounce the present iniquitous, unjust and trust-creating protective tariff imposed upon the people by the Republican party and demand its immediate revision, to the end that all unjust burdens shall be removed, and especially those upon the necessaries of life and those that enable the trusts to extort from the people unreasonable profits and to sell their products to consumers at home at greater prices than are charged for the same goods to the foreign consumer.
RESOLUTIONS.
At the Democratic State Convention held in Greensboro on July 3, 1906, the following resolutions were adopted:
ENDORSEMENT OF BRYAN AND AYCOCK.
The Democracy of North Carolina, the first in America to support William J. Bryan for the Presidency of the United States, is gratified to see the Democracy of every section of the Republic turning to him as the logical candidate for President in 1908.
The spontaneous call for his leadership is the result of a universal desire to correct the giant evils in our country which he long ago foresaw, and which has heretofore defeated the will of the American people. Honored the world over as America's first citizen, he will be hailed upon his return as the one man to restore the government to the foundation of equality and justice upon which it was established by our fathers. The Democrats of North Carolina in convention assembled endorse the candidacy of William J. Bryan for President in 1908, and recognizing that in choosing his running-mate the Democracy of this country should select one of her wisest and broadest statesmen, the North Carolina Democracy presents to the Democracy of the Republic as a fit candidate for Vice-President Hon. Charles B. Aycock, ex-Governor of this State.
ELECTION OF UNITED STATES SENATORS AND JUDGES BY THE PEOPLE--INCOME TAX.
We favor such amendments to the Constitution of the United States as will provide for the election of district and circuit judges of the United States and United States Senators by a direct vote of the people, and a graduated income tax.
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REPUBLICAN STATE PLATFORM.
(Adopted at Greensboro, July 10, 1906.)
The Republican party of North Carolina in convention assembled at Greensboro, N. C., July 10, 1906, congratulates all the people of the State upon prevailing conditions, as the unquestioned off-shoots of Republican policies enforced since 1897, resolve and declare the following to be a summary of their beliefs upon the more vital questions of present interest and of the action they will take if given power in the State:
1. We claim for the administration of President Roosevelt that it has satisfied every reasonable demand of the patriot, the reformer and the worker in every field of human endeavor; that it has established the currency upon a basis not to be shaken; that it has vastly extended our foreign commerce, and so added largely to the nation's wealth; that it has kept the peace at home and promoted it abroad; that it has expended the national revenue wisely and with absolute honesty; that it has laid bare and punished with iron hand every species of official or corporate corruption brought to light by vigilant agents of its own choosing; that it has hearkened to the voice of the oppressed in all lands and given sympathy when forbidden by law to give more; that it has aimed with true and constant purpose to reflect in its every act the highest and finest aspirations of the American people, northern and southern, eastern and western.
2. We state with regret the acknowledged fact that the laws of our own State have not been enforced by the Democratic administrators in State and county affairs; the legislation upon the subject of temperance, so dear to a large part of our best people, is confessedly a dead letter as relates to its enforcement by State officials--Republican officials of internal revenue bearing the whole burden of commanding for it popular obedience.
Yet the amazing spectacle is presented of a party which has kept the promise to the ear and broken it to the hope now masquerading as prohibitionists in such sections of the State as they deem ripe for that experiment in law-making.
The Republican party insists that every county and every town should be allowed to determine for itself by vote the question of whether, and if so, how whiskey shall be sold in its limits, as well as who shall hold its offices, and that they shall, none of them, be appointed by the Legislature or justices of the peace or any other authority except the people.
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3. We refute in the proper spirit of just indignation the frequent threat of danger to the State from our coming into power, made by Democratic speakers and newspapers. The merest novice in political conditions must know that victory for us can come from the addition of one constituency alone--the men of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's party--to whom alone or in conjunction with Republicans the State owes the great upward movement in railroad regulation, in female education, in common school education, in the preserving, care and encouragement of the University, A. and M. College and other State institutions, threatened then as now with ghost stories of their destruction ; and we pledge ourselves to continue and perfect the common school system, begun by the Republicans, until a good English education is in the reach of every child.
We shall advocate one or more reformatories for youthful criminals, and pledge the people that, given power, no insane man or woman, white or black, shall lack the State's care, be the cost what it may.
4. We congratulate the people of the State upon the removal of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad from the sphere of active politics, but denounce the refusal of State Democratic officials to let the light of publicity shine upon the evidence taken behind closed doors which led to the lease of that piece of State property.
Graft was admitted, but never suffered punishment, thus showing in marked contrast a national Republican, as against a State Democratic administration; and we further denounce the method of the Democratic party in appointing an investigating committee of strictly partisan Democrats.
5. If Democratic testimony is to be taken, the present Corporation Commission exists chiefly for the purpose of drawing salaries. We pledge ourselves to make it efficient. At present it is a laughing-stock of well-informed people, but no less a burden upon the tax-payer.
6. The Democratic party for years has vaunted its friendship for the Confederate soldier, while leaving him, in many cases, an object of charity. The Republicans by their votes in the General Assembly have ever shown their friendship for this most honored class of our countrymen, now daily lessening in number.
We advocate doubling the pittance now received by these veterans, and if we secure a legislative majority shall vote as we promise.
7. We favor rigid restriction of the servile immigration now coming to this country from Europe, and shall aid by every means in our power to uphold the dignity and manhood of native American citizenship.
We rejoice that sectionalism is a thing of the past.
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8. We favor the establishment of the Appalachian Park, and pledge any Republican Congressman elected from this State to be its friend; but its establishment must be the work of Republican statesmanship and those its friends miscount who look to see it come from discredited Democratic bunglers in administration.
9. We charge that the Democratic State administration has been costly beyond precedent without being efficient; that the dockets of the courts in very many counties remain clogged, though judges and solicitors have been increased in number and in pay.
We are unalterably opposed to frauds upon the suffrage, and we believe that the great amount of crime and lawlessness that prevail and seem on the increase in our State, including lynchings, are due to the licentious tongues of Democratic orators and others who teach and advise that it is right to commit crime and fraud for the Democratic party. Honest men can see no difference between stealing a ballot and a horse--between a false return of the result of an election and a false oath in the court-house and a false verdict in the jury-box.
That it is the sense of this convention that town and city poll-tax in North Carolina should not exceed one dollar.
And, whereas, some dissensions have arisen among Republicans on account of contests over appointments to Federal offices, which, with charges and counter-charges, have been given undue prominence by the Democratic press; and whereas, the Democratic party has been enabled to retain its hold upon the State government by appeals to race prejudice, references to the disorders and confusion resulting from the war and "the days of '68," as well as the manifold repetition of the statement that all Republicans are office-seekers:
It is therefore now Resolved: That the State Executive Committee of the Republican party be and it is hereby instructed to assemble, and each and every member thereof, in Greensboro, N. C., on the first day of September, 1906, and on the first days of March and September in each and every year hereafter, and shall then and there before adjournment consider applications for appointment to all Federal offices in North Carolina the terms of which shall expire in the next six months, and to recommend to the appointing power in each instance a suitable person for each position, except in such districts as are represented by a Republican Congressman. That no application shall be considered unless the applicant shall state in his application that he will submit to the action and recommendation of the committee without further contest.
Resolved, That the executive committee in making recommendations for appointment to Federal positions shall observe well that the applicant has the support of his local party friends, in addition to being well qualified for the position.
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THE RECORD OF THE TWO PARTIES FROM CLOSE OF WAR TO
PRESENT TIME RECITED AND CONTRASTED.
REPUBLICAN RECONSTRUCTION RECORD.
On the first day of July, 1868, the Republican party took complete control of North Carolina. It had the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the government, and nearly all the counties and towns were likewise under its control. No party ever had a better opportunity to serve a people and win their gratitude, but no party ever treated a people worse. It found a people poor and struggling amid the ruins of a desolating war. They needed good laws, the party gave them bad. They needed peace and rest, the party gave them violence and disorder. They needed low taxes, the party made them high. They needed a reduction of the State debt, the party increased it three-fold. They needed encouragement, the party gave them the bitter dregs of disappointment. They needed protection, the party gave them a reign of lawlessness. They needed economy, the party gave them reckless extravagance. They needed honesty in government, the party gave them an era of corruption. They needed patriots for legislators, the party gave them knaves. They needed additional school-houses for their children, the party closed most of those in existence. They needed teachers for their children, the party misused the school fund. Under the guise of building railroads, the party issued millions of State bonds and then stole the bonds. Under the guise of suppressing disorder, the party declared war and undertook, in a time of peace, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and try men by military court-martial. The credit of the State had hitherto been good; this party destroyed it. The bonds of the State, once at par, were hawked about in the markets at a few cents on the dollar. County scrip issued for county purposes were, like the State bonds, almost worthless. The Legislature became a stench in the nostrils of decent men.
THE SCHOOLS.
The University of North Carolina was one of the honored and renowned institutions of learning in this great country of ours. At it presidents and cabinet officers, foreign ministers, statesmen, judges, generals, preachers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, mechanics, farmers and business men of every vocation had been educated. The Republicans closed this time-honored institution and converted the halls of learning into homes for bats and owls, and the campus, upon which the youth of the State had been wont to gather, into pastures for cattle.
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THE COMMON SCHOOLS.
As wicked and injurious as it was to close up the University, it was not to be compared to the wrong done the poor children of the State in closing up the public schools; for the parents of the young men could send their sons elsewhere, but the only hope of the poor children was in the common schools; and when these were closed, the children were left to grow up in ignorance. The record of the Republican party, during its two years of power in North Carolina, was the most shameful ever made by any party in any civilized country. Here is its record in reference to education: During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1869, there was spent out of the educational fund $167,158. Not a dollar of this was spent in teaching the poor children of the State, white or black. What, then, was done with it? The Republican Legislature took $158,000 of this amount and divided it up among themselves to pay their per diem at seven dollars per day. Three thousand dollars was used to pay the "University professors," so-called, who had no boys to teach and who did nothing but draw their salaries. The balance of the $167,000 was charged up to expense account.
For the fiscal year ending September 30, 1870, this is the record:
| Amount invested in special tax bonds | $150,000.00 |
| Expense account | 2,014.00 |
| Poll tax returned | 415.15 |
| Paid to teachers of schools | 38,981.86 |
| Loaned to University | 10,000.00 |
| Loaned to Deaf and Dumb Asylum | 2,000.00 |
| Total used during year ending Sept. 30, 1870 | $203,411.01 |
| Add to this amount used year ending Sept. 30, 1869 | 167,158.18 |
| And we have total amount of school fund used during the two years of Republican rule | $370,559.19 |
Of this amount, $370,559.19, only the sum of $38,981.86 was used for school purposes; the balance was misapplied, wasted, purloined, lost.
STATE DEBT.
The Republican party, when it was in power between 1868 and 1870, ran up the debt of the State from less than fifteen million dollars to a sum that amounted to over forty million. Under the plea of building railroads for the convenience of the people, it issued millions upon millions of dollars of State bonds, but did not build the roads. They printed the bonds, sold them, pocketed the money, divided the plunder, and did not build a mile of road anywhere in the
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State. When the Democrats came into power in 1877 they found the State but little better provided with railroads and transportation facilities than it was at the close of the war.
MANNER OF HOLDING ELECTIONS.
When the Republicans were in power during the reconstruction period they held an election in North Carolina, and after several days' balloting, with the ballot-box surrounded by soldiers, they sent the boxes containing the votes of the free men of North Carolina to Charleston, S. C., where they were counted by a Federal General named Canby, and such of these ballots were counted and such were rejected as that military officer saw fit to count or reject, and from the arbitrary decision of that military satrap there was no appeal.
WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENDED.
The Governor which that party selected suspended the writ of habeas corpus, declared certain counties of the State in a state of insurrection, without warrant or process of law, seized and incarcerated some of their leading citizens, was tried for corruption and malfeasance in office, convicted, removed from office, forever disfranchised and made incapable of holding any office of trust and confidence in the State.
NEGRO SUFFRAGE FORCED ON PEOPLE.
When the negro was given the right to vote, the very men who put the ballot in his hands felt that they were doing an unwise thing; that they were doing an unnatural thing; that they were trying a new experiment in intrusting the ballot to an ignorant race, untrained in government. But whether right or wrong, the Republican party wanted the negroes' votes at the South; and so they forced negro suffrage on the unwilling white people of the Southern States. The intelligence of the South protested, but without avail. The Republican leaders, who wielded the power of the Federal government, were heedless of our protests, and put the ballot in the hands of a race that was entirely unfit and unprepared to deal with public matters.
PANDEMONIUM REIGNED.
In those parts of the South where the negroes were in the majority pandemonium reigned. In our own State the eastern counties were afflicted with a corrupt, offensive and disgusting administration of affairs. Many of these counties were represented in the Legislature by ignorant and depraved negroes. In some there were negroes in responsible county offices--such as Register of Deeds, Deputy Sheriffs and County Commissioners. In the cities of this section of the State
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negroes were elected city councilmen and appointed policemen. The white associates in office and power of these negroes were in many instances as ignorant, depraved and irresponsible as they were. They robbed and plundered the people. Counties and cities were plunged into bankruptcy. Government became a travesty, lawlessness took the place of order and security and a reign of terror was established. In some of the districts negroes were sent to Congress while in others they were elected Solicitors and prosecuted before mixed juries white men and women as well as negro men and women.
The condition which then existed in North Carolina is fittingly described in the following extract from an address issued to the people of North Carolina on March 26, 1870, by the Democratic members of the Legislature of that year: "Let the bickerings of the past be hushed; let us rise above the dwarfed idea that would lead us to inquire what a man's politics were in the past; let us but ask, is he an opponent of radicalism, is he honest, is he competent? Upon this broad and elevated platform you can invite the good of all parties and races to join you against that party which has levied and collected taxes without stint with one hand, and scattered them with wild extravagance with the other; that has introduced into our hall of legislation corruption hitherto unheard of there; that has elevated to positions of trust and profit, men wholly unworthy of confidence; that has altered and confused our laws until the administration of justice has become costly, and its attainment uncertain; that has sought to subordinate the civil administration to military power by proclamation of martial law and petitions to Congress for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; that has more than doubled the current expenses of the State government; that has enormously increased the State debt; that has cast a foul blot upon her hitherto fair escutcheon, and, that for want of statesmanship and for utter disregard of the necessities of the people, is without a parallel in the history of this or any other State. With such a cause as ours against such a party, the united ranks of conservatism must prevail."
OVERTHROW OF CARPET-BAG AND NEGRO GOVERNMENT.
At length when Republican government in the State became intolerable, self-preservation and decency, as well as patriotism, brought the white people of the State together. Carpet-bag and negro government was overthrown, the government was placed in the hands of the Democratic party, and soon an end was put to the lawlessness and plunder which had terrorized the people and bankrupted the State and many of its counties, cities and towns.
The twenty-three years of Democratic administration which followed were years of peace and prosperity, of law and order--of clean
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and competent and economical and honest government--without suspicion of scandal or wrong-doing.
Schools were opened up for the education of the children of the State; asylums were built for the unfortunate insane and the defective; peace between the races was restored; taxes were reduced, and the mountain of State, county and municipal indebtedness, created by Republican extravagance and dishonesty, was rapidly reduced and liquidated.
SYSTEM OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT EAST.
In order to protect the eastern counties from overwhelming negro majorities and to make impossible the corrupt and disgusting administration of local affairs which had resulted from negro control in these counties, in 1876 the people adopted an amendment to the Constitution allowing the Legislature to establish a new system of county government, and a system was adopted which gave the administration of county matters to the best men in the county.
After that the Republicans at every election attacked that new system of county government; and although it worked very well and established good order and secured an honest administration of county affairs, yet the Republicans denounced it and maintained a continual agitation against it. The chief benefit this county government system brought to the eastern counties was found in its placing county affairs out of the reach of the negro majorities. The wisest and the best men were selected for that business. Notwithstanding the continual agitation of the Republicans against it, for sixteen years this system was maintained, much to the advantage of the State, and particularly to the benefit of the eastern counties.
Who that passed through the horrid experience of 1868 and 1870 does not recall that time as a frightful nightmare? Who does not remember with satisfaction the peaceful, quiet, happy prosperity that pervaded the State after the county government system was inaugurated in 1877, and what a contrast it presented to the turbulent period of crimes, oppression, outrage and disorder when the negro was in control of the eastern counties?
There is not space here to recount all the achievements and reforms of the Democratic party in the interest of good government and the public welfare during the period of its ascendency between the reconstruction era and the advent of the fusion era, but the following are some of the things accomplished by it in the interest of good, honest, and economical government:
ADJUSTMENT AND LIQUIDATION OF STATE DEBT.
As has been stated before, the Republicans, during the period of their control, had increased the State debt from fifteen millions of dollars to forty-two millions.
Page 15
This immense debt hung like a mighty incubus upon the energies of the State, blocking the way to progress and always threatening the people with increased and burdensome taxation. The Democratic party set itself to the work of adjusting this debt. It first separated the honest debt of the State for which the State had received some value, from the fraudulent debt, created by the Republican party, and for which the State had received no value. This fraudulent Republican debt the Democratic Legislature repudiated, and to make sure that no subsequent Republican Legislature should ever have it in its power to recognize its fraudulent offspring or attempt to levy a tax for its payment, the Legislature proposed and the people ratified an amendment to the State Constitution by which all future General Assemblies were forbidden to assume or pay or authorize the collection of any tax to pay, either directly or indirectly, expressed or implied, any debt or bond incurred or issued under authority of the Convention of 1868, or the Legislature of 1868-'69-'70, unless the proposition be first submitted to the people.
Having thus disposed of the fraudulent Republican debt, the Democratic Legislature then proposed to the holders of the evidences of the State's honest debt such terms as seemed just to the creditors and to the people; and in 1879 laws were passed to carry out this compromise. There were two of these acts--one to compromise, commute and settle the State debt other than that part created in aid of the North Carolina Railroad; and the other to compromise and adjust what was known as the construction bonds, issued in aid of this road. In the settlement of the bonds included in the terms of the first of these acts, the State agreed to issue new four per cent. bonds at the rates named in the act; and State Treasurer Worth, on page 7 of his report, dated December 20, 1896, tells us: "It would require $255,070 more of four per cent. bonds to take up the remainder of the bonds outstanding, making the whole possible debt $3,615,770, bearing four per cent. interest." So when the last of these old bonds are surrendered, the whole debt for which the people are to be taxed can only be $3,615,770 at four per cent. interest.
THE SIX PER CENT. BONDS.
Now as to the other of these acts, to-wit, the one to compromise and adjust the debt created in aid of the construction of the North Carolina Railroad, known as the construction bonds: To fully understand the difficulties that stood in the way of, and the importance of the work done by the Democrats to save the State's interest in the North Carolina Railroad, it is necessary to know something of its history. The acts under which these construction bonds were issued provided that the earnings of the road should be pledged for the payment of
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the interest on these bonds, and the stock of the State itself was pledged for the payment of the principal of the bonds.
Near the close of the Republican Legislature of 1868-'69, after an era of pillage and plunder, a bill was introduced in the House by a Republican from Person County to provide for the exchange of this stock for any indebtedness of the State. "Any indebtedness" included the then worthless special tax bonds, so that "there were millions in it"; but owing to the watchfulness of the few Democrats and honest Republicans in the House, this bill failed to pass, and this effort to gobble up the North Carolina Railroad came to naught.
THE SWASEY SUIT.
Under the provisions of the acts pledging the dividends of the North Carolina Railroad and the State's stock therein for the payment of the interest and principal of the State bonds, Swasey, one of the holders of those bonds, had instituted a suit in the Federal Court to subject the dividends coming to the State to the payment of the interest and to sell the State's stock to pay the principal of these bonds. This suit was pending in 1877, when the Democrats came into power; and in 1879, when the act was passed looking to saving this stock, the time was near at hand when its sale was to be pressed in the Swasey suit. The stock at that time was away below par, so that a sale of it would have been a great sacrifice and would have left a large unpaid debt against the State. The Democrats, however, had faith in the future value of this stock, and determined to save it to the State if possible. Notwithstanding the difficulties that stood in the way, they succeeded in adjusting and in renewing this debt upon advantageous terms to the State, and in having the Swasey suit dismissed. Under this adjustment a sufficiency of the dividends coming to the State on her stock is to be applied to the payment of the interest on this part of the State debt.
On page 7 of the report of Treasurer Worth, of date December 20, 1896, he says: "The six per cent. construction bonds, upon which interest is paid out of the dividends from the 30,000 shares of stock owned by the State in the North Carolina Railroad Company, amount to $2,720,000." So we have the State under Democratic management receiving seven per cent. net dividends on $3,000,000 of stock and paying six per cent. on $2,720,000 of bonds, thus saving to the State annually from that source $46,800.
This stock is worth $1,500,000 more than it was in 1877, when the Democrats came into power and took charge of this property.
RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION.
Railroads and lines of transportation are not only a great public convenience, but in this age they are a public necessity. They are
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great developers of a State's resources, and when properly managed, they are promoters of the progress and growth and wealth of communities and individuals. The Republicans, under the plea of building railroads for the convenience of the people, issued, as we have already seen, millions upon millions of dollars of State bonds. But did they build the roads? No. They printed the bonds, sold them, pocketed the money, divided the plunder and did not build a mile of road anywhere in the State! When the Democrats came into power in 1877 they found the State but little better provided with railroad and transportation facilities than it was at the close of the war. The Democratic party addressed itself to this great need of many sections of the State, and by open, honest, straightforward work, and by dealing honestly and fairly with investors and capitalists, they started anew railway building, and railway construction went forward at a rapid rate. In some instances the State, as in the case of the Western North Carolina Railroad and the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad, had a direct hand in the work; while in other instances it was the work of individual enterprise alone; but it was all attributable to the just laws and good government of the Democratic party, without which these new roads would never have been built in North Carolina. Branch lines of railroad and turnpikes were also constructed at places where they were much needed. Encouragement and protection were held out and given to all engaged or wishing to engage in this work. And let it be borne in mind, that whatever the State put into any of these works of internal improvements, after they had passed under the control of the Democratic party, was in the end returned to the State, with probably the exception of the costs of the convict labor on a few neighborhood turnpike and branch lines of railroads, amounting in the aggregate to only a few thousand dollars. So that all this railroad development during the eighteen years of Democratic government cost the taxpayer practically nothing. What did this railroad construction amount to in the eighteen years, from January 1, 1877, to January 1, 1895?
On January 1, 1877, there were 1,341 miles of railroad in the State.
On the 1st day of January, 1895, there were 3,400 miles of railroad.
There were then constructed in the State during these eighteen years of Democratic administration 2,059 miles of railroad, about six hundred miles more than was built in the balance of the history of the State.
But little railroad property was returned for State taxation on the 1st of January, 1877. The value of all the franchises, as we get it from the office of the Railroad Commission, was then $859,021, and the tax thereon paid into the State Treasury was only $1,179.
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The value of the railroad property as returned for taxation January 1, 1895, was $24,501,899, and the tax thereon paid into the State Treasury was $61,254. The State, county and municipal tax on this railroad property amounted in 1895 to about $240,000. Observe the large increase!
In January, 1877, when the Democrats came into power, there were forty-two counties in the State without railroad facilities. In January, 1895, when the Democrats went out of power, there were but thirteen counties without these facilities. These facts need no comment. They tell their own tale and speak in thunder tones of the glorious era of Democratic rule.
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.
Simultaneously with this great railroad development there was also an era of general material development without its parallel in the history of the State. Factories and mills and shops sprung up and multiplied as never before. Capital by the hundreds, thousands and millions came into the State seeking employment and ready to enter into and contribute its part to this general growth and development. But one may ask, what had the Democratic party to do with all this? We answer, much. It was the guarantee of good government which the Democratic party was furnishing that induced this development and investment of capital. Money will not go and capital will not seek a permanent home where good government does not exist. When the candid, impartial historian comes to write the history of this State, he will be obliged to say that no State ever had a better government than did North Carolina during these eighteen years of Democratic rule, and that no long settled section of this Union ever made greater progress and growth and development in the same length of time.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
The Constitution, as amended by the Convention of 1875, commanded "The General Assembly to establish a Department of Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics." The Democratic Legislature of 1877 proceeded to establish and organize such a department. Men of scientific attainments and practical wisdom were called to lay out its work and administer its affairs. The farmers needed just the kind of information and help that this department was able to give. It soon became one of the important factors in the development of the resources of the State. Besides its special work to promote agriculture and protect the farmers, it collected and published information about the State that created a feeling of surprise and pride among our own people, and attracted the attention of the outside world. The
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collections and exhibits made by it at Atlanta, Boston and elsewhere were revelations to people at home and abroad. It found the geologist and the State Museum in the loft of a store on Fayetteville street. It purchased for the State a valuable piece of property adjacent to the capitol square and erected thereon the finest museum, and placed therein the finest collection to be found anywhere in the South. It led to the establishment of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. It has given our people a better knowledge, a higher idea of their own State, and has given them a greater faith in her future greatness. It has done much to make our people understand and realize the superior advantages of our own State, and to make others acquainted with our resources and to bringing desirable people into the State.
THE ASYLUMS FOR THE UNFORTUNATE.
Christianity and civilization demand that the unfortunate men, women and children shall be provided for at the expense of the State or the communities in which they live. North Carolina was one of the first of the States to respond to this appeal in the erection of an asylum for her insane and a school for the education of her deaf, dumb and blind children. The wrecked fortunes and desolated homes caused by the war multiplied the number of white insane persons who were obliged to rely upon State institutions for treatment. The insane, deaf, dumb and blind of the colored race had hitherto been provided for by their owners. After the freedom of the slaves these also became a charge upon the State. The asylums for the treatment and care of the insane, the deaf, the dumb and the blind were therefore wholly inadequate for the demands upon them. During the years of Republican rule that party had splendid opportunity to do something for these unfortunate people. The rate of taxation was high, bonds were issued by the millions, the unfortunates were incarcerated in jails or confined at home. The afflicted appealed for help, but no help came. The insane were left to their fate, and the deaf, dumb and blind children, white and black, were left to get on in the world as best they could.
When the Democratic party came into power it addressed itself to this work of humanity, and by rigid economy in all public matters it provided asylums for the insane of both races, and schools for the deaf, dumb and blind of both races, without increasing taxation. Go to Raleigh; see the large and improved insane asylum for the whites; go to Goldsboro and see the insane asylum for the blacks; go to Morganton and see that splendid asylum there for the whites; and at Morganton and Raleigh, see the asylums provided for the deaf, dumb and blind of both races, and learn something of Democratic humanity and Democratic management. These fine institutions stand as monuments to Democratic wisdom, humanity and integrity; and the
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Auditor's reports show that the expenses of the State government under Democratic rule during the years these great improvements were being made, and these grand buildings were being erected, were much less than they were under Republican rule when there was nothing of the kind going on.
EDUCATION.
The Democratic party believes in education. Jefferson, its great founder, taught that for a people to be strong and powerful and truly sovereign, they must be intelligent; and to be intelligent, they must have schools. Hence he set himself to work to establish universities, colleges, high schools and common schools. No service he ever rendered his country has been worth more to the generations that have come after him than the example he set his countrymen in the cause of education.
The Democratic party, upon its advent to power in 1870, addressed itself to the great work of providing schools for the training, preparation and education of the children. It re-opened, re-established, and supported the University. The career of the institution under Democratic rule became again useful, progressive and noble. It was brought in touch with the people and its field of usefulness enlarged. It was brought in full accord and sympathy with all other educational institutions, and became a co-worker in an enlarged life and usefulness of the common schools. Instead of being, as it was under Radical regime, "a closed incident," it again became the pride of our State.
Appreciating the importance of having trained teachers for the common schools, the Democratic party established normal schools at various points in the State for the training of these teachers. It began, as we now remember, with the normal school at the University for the white teachers, and the State Normal School at Fayetteville for the colored teachers. These were followed by others at different points in the State for each race, and these, in turn, were followed by teachers' institutes in most or all the counties of the State. These efforts at training men and women to teach and to work resulted in establishing the State Normal and Industrial School for young ladies at Greensboro, the Agricultural and Mechanical College for young men, and the colored Normal and Industrial School at Greensboro for the colored race.
The fund for the support of the common schools was increased as rapidly as the condition of the people and their ability to pay taxes would allow, and every dollar collected for schools was expended for schools. Steadily the system of common schools was improved, better teachers provided for them, longer terms taught, and attendance of children increased. In most of the larger cities and towns graded schools were established as part of the common school system.
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In brief, an impetus was given to the cause of education under Democratic rule that made itself felt in every section, in every school, and among all classes in the State, and every college in the State has felt the good of our efforts to promote the cause of education. As a result, the liberality of generous friends was stirred by the zealous activity of our efforts to advance education, and increasing numbers of students were attracted to the colleges to profit by the splendid endowments that have aided in making these colleges so useful to the people of the State.
The record of the party in reference to education during this period, like its record in other things, is a noble one, and stands out in bold contrast to that made by the Republican party, and should satisfy all reasonable men that the vital interest of the people is safest in Democratic hands.
THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION AND SUPREME COURT BUILDING.
During this Democratic period a convenient and commodious residence for the Governor was built and the Supreme Court and State Libraries were taken out of the cramped-up rooms in the capitol and placed in the new Supreme Court building on the same square with the agricultural building, where the Court is now held and the libraries are open to the public in a splendid building that is a credit to the State.
THE PENITENTIARY.
When the Republicans undertook the location of the penitentiary they set agoing a public scandal that forced a change of the location from Locksville to Raleigh. Those familiar with those times will recall the scandals attending the attempted purchase of a site at Locksville, and how the contracts were repudiated. Those scandals were still fresh in the public mind when the Democrats gained control of the Legislature and became responsible for the legislation affecting the management of the penitentiary. It was during the Democratic administration of the penitentiary that the great buildings of that institution were constructed, and finally completed, and it was also under this Democratic administration that the expenditures for the support of the penitentiary gradually grew less and less every year till the institution finally became self-supporting in 1896, the last year before fusion control in which it was under the control of Democratic officials.
THE CORPORATION COMMISSION AND TAXATION OF RAILROADS.
Government has its burdens as well as its blessings. Its burdens are the necessary taxes for its support. Its blessings are good laws, properly administered; peace, good order and protection. The Demcratic party ever seeks to make the burdens of government as light and the blessings as great as possible, and to call upon all species of
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property and upon all classes of people to share in both without discrimination as to any. When in power it imposed the same burdens upon all according to their ability to bear them, and required a strict compliance with the law on the part of all. Hence, when it appeared that there were certain railroad properties in the State which bore no part of these burdens, and that some corporations were in some instances not obeying the law, and were misusing the powers given them by the State, the Democratic Legislature established a railroad commission, to take charge of these matters, to place all railroad property on the tax list, and to compel all corporations to do justice to their patrons and the public generally.
The Republican party, under the ledership of Jeter C. Pritchard, voted almost solidly in the Legislature against the establishment of the Commission, which has been of such benefit to the State, and tried their utmost to cripple the bill by numerous amendments.
Some of the roads resisted the efforts of the board to put their property on the tax list for taxation like other property, claiming they were exempt by their original charters: but the Democratic board, in pursuance of the policy that all property should be taxed alike, pressed these corporations in court and out of it till they succeeded in placing all property on the tax list, thus adding millions of dollars to the taxable property of the State. The board also fixed a passenger and freight rate, which was considered at the time fair and equitable to both the corporations and the people. Complaints were speedily adjusted; and during the periods when the Commission has been under the control of the Democratic party, it has been absolutely free from scandal or suspicion.
PENSIONS TO CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.
It was during these years of Democratic administration that the Soldiers' Home was established and provision made for the poor and needy Confederate soldiers. The State also made liberal appropriations to the Oxford Orphan Asylum for the white children and likewise to the one for the colored children.
THE COST OF ALL THIS WORK.
All these things which we have enumerated, as well as other excellent things we have omitted to mention, were done by the Democrats in addition to the ordinary administration of the State government. As such work usually costs considerable, the question naturally arises, what did it cost the people? Was their government during those years of activity and improvement costly? Let us turn to the record for the information. State Auditor Ayer, in his report for 1897, prints a statement showing the receipts and disbursements of the government, each year, from 1868 to 1897, both inclusive. That statement is as follows:
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| Year. | Public funds. Receipts. |
Public funds. Disbursements. |
Educational Fund. Receipts. |
Educational Fund. Disbursements. | Total Receipts. | Total Disbursements. |
| 1868 | $1,925,564.89 | $2,019,989.41 | $21,564.64 | $35,866.01 | $1,947,129.62 | $2,055,755.42 |
| *1869 | 8,550,877.62 | 8,687,428.97 | 169,870.42 | 167,158.18 | 8,720,848.04 | 8,854,587.15 |
| 1870 | 3,557,867.48 | 3,454,214.10 | 333,973.76 | 203,411.01 | 3,891,741.24 | 3,657,625.11 |
| 1871 | 558,147.38 | 645,579.79 | 229,990.79 | 177,494.94 | 788,138.17 | 823,077.91 |
| 1872 | 654,476.21 | 628,532.70 | 46,000.81 | 173,275.92 | 700,777.02 | 801,808.62 |
| 1873 | 481,224.91 | 524,168.47 | 41,705.01 | 83,007.18 | 522,999.92 | 607,175.65 |
| 1874 | 667,114.49 | 448,839.68 | 44,383.21 | 56,260.94 | 711,498.70 | 504,869.62 |
| 1875 | 508,317.67 | 551,816.78 | 43,677.08 | 37,959.97 | 551,994.75 | 589,776.75 |
| 1876 | 524,039.17 | 528,065.22 | 42,235.59 | 54,702.93 | 566,274.76 | 582,758.15 |
| 1877 | 533,635.55 | 613,264.59 | 33,783.57 | 24,433.10 | 567,419.12 | 637,697.69 |
| 1878 | 534,322.04 | 534,187.07 | 12,592.39 | 4,915.03 | 545,914.43 | 539,102.10 |
| 1879 | 553,339.96 | 577,658.41 | 5,269.65 | 4,074.90 | 558,609.60 | 581,733.31 |
| 1880 | 546,796.04 | 492,720.39 | 6,233.47 | 4,000.00 | 553,029.51 | 496,720.33 |
| 1881 | 645,743.05 | 625,616.59 | 114,501.31 | 50,651.25 | 760,244.36 | 676,067.84 |
| 1882 | 755,881.44 | 629,112.37 | 12,712.05 | 66,125.00 | 768,593.49 | 695,337.37 |
| 1883 | 965,107.08 | 944,343.76 | 29,879.30 | 135.00 | 994,986.38 | 944,478.76 |
| 1884 | 1,436,775.66 | 785,641.78 | 35,200.33 | 76,228.65 | 1,471,975.99 | 861,870.43 |
| 1885 | 378,957.62 | 795,486.26 | 7,176.54 | 5,195.24 | 386,134.16 | 800,681.40 |
| 1886 | 835,421.03 | 1,112,652.31 | 7,626.25 | 7,365.85 | 843,047.28 | 1,180,017.16 |
| 1887 | 847,864.36 | 886,334.02 | 6,920.48 | 5,525.21 | 854,784.84 | 891,858.23 |
| 1888 | 710,384.39 | 820,025.39 | 11,403.01 | 5,582.86 | 721,787.40 | 825,608.25 |
| 1889 | 967,887.77 | 1,012,938.43 | 12,265.56 | 34,183.43 | 989,153.33 | 1,047,121.86 |
| 1890 | 1,180,369.64 | 1,056,572.54 | 23,757.92 | 5,945.58 | 1,204,127.56 | 1,062,518.00 |
| 1891 | 1,182,093.95 | 1,147,604.12 | 21,589.63 | 32,190.66 | 1,203,683.58 | 1,179,794.78 |
| 1892 | 1,209,662.86 | 1,054,798.61 | 15,500.24 | 3,134.99 | 1,225,163.10 | 1,057,933.60 |
| 1893 | 1,212,161.53 | 1,293,214.99 | 31,087.19 | 26,433.11 | 1,243,248.72 | 1,319,648.10 |
| 1894 | 1,214,285.08 | 1,148,873.34 | 19,076.00 | 46,746.91 | 1,233,361.08 | 1,195,620.25 |
| 1895 | 1,125,518.58 | 1,337,752.32 | 41,659.65 | 11,583.33 | 1,167,178.23 | 1,349,335.65 |
| 1896 | 1,259,468.40 | 1,244,917.57 | 1,555.35 | 1,648.70 | 1,261,013.75 | 1,246,566.27 |
| 1897 | 1,292,547.67 | 1,303,904.11 | 23,043.89 | 60,144.18 | 1,315,491.56 | 1,364,048.29 |
* Much the larger proportion of the receipts and disbursements for 1869 are on account of subscriptions to railroad companies, etc., where no money actually passed.
This table is brought up to date in a subsequent table, under heading "Receipts and Disbursements of the State from 1868 to 1905."
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An examination of this official statement will show that the years in which this great development, growth and improvement was going on were among the years that made the smallest drafts upon the State Treasury. This fact will still further appear by the following statement, showing the rate of taxation each year on each one hundred dollars worth of property from 1874 to 1894:
- For 1874, 31 2-3 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1875, 29 2-3 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1876, 29 2-3 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1877, 29 2-3 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1878, 20 2-3 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1879, 24 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1880, 24 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1881, 28 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1882, 28 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1883, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1884, 00 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1885, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1886, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1887, 20 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1888, 20 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1889, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1890, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1891, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1892, 25 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1893, 22 cents on every $100 worth of property.
- For 1894, 22 cents on every $100 worth of property.
STATEMENT SHOWING RATE OF TAXATION FROM 1874 TO 1894.
This statement is brought up to date in a subsequent table, under heading "Statement Showing Rate of Taxation from 1874 to 1906."
No matter whether we look to the statement of the expenses of the State government year by year, or to rate of tax levied and collected, the fact appears beyond all controversy that by rigid economy at every point the Democrats were able to make all the improvements and do all the things herein before enumerated without adding a dollar to the burdens of the people.
A stranger might well ask the question, why was it that the Republican party, with its millions at its command, did not build a single mile of railroad or do anything else in the way of improvement, while the Democrats with a low rate of taxation and small expenditures could do so much? The facts are herein given. The reader may make his own answer.
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DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION IN COUNTY, CITY AND TOWN.
It is a well-known fact that the taxes levied on the people for the support of the county, city and town governments far exceed those levied for the support of the State government. It is also a fact that the administration of these governments come in close touch with the people. Hence it is just as much the duty of the party in power to provide good government for the people in county, city and town as it is in the State; and any party which by positive enactments or by neglect subjects the people of a county, city or town to misrule, to plunder and humiliation, is unworthy of the confidence and support of honest men.
When the Democratic party came into power after reconstruction it found that in many of the counties and towns of the east heavy taxes had been levied and collected, and the money had been stolen or squandered. The Republican party was weighed down by the negro, and to appease him, counties and towns were turned over to him to pillage and plunder. In many counties and towns in the east the county scrip was hawked about, and was really worth but little more than the worthless Republican State bonds. The credit of the counties and towns, like the credit of the State, was destroyed. Negro magistrates and negro officials then went through the farce of administering the law.
The Democratic party addressed itself to the work of bringing order out of chaos in those communities. Ignorant, vicious, worthless officials were replaced by competent white men; the levying and collecting of the taxes were closely scrutinized; rigid economy was practiced; honesty prevailed in every department; expenses were decreased, and all laws were faithfully and impartially administered. They found many counties and towns heavily involved in debt and without any credit, notwithstanding the rate of taxation was very high. The Democratic Boards of Commissioners commenced paying off this indebtedness and at the same time reducing taxation, and long before the change of parties, in 1895, the indebtedness had been paid off and taxation reduced to the lowest possible limit. As great and marked as was the change in public affairs in the State administration, it was not so marked and visible as was the change in the counties and towns of the east. In place of the dangers to life and the oppression to property which prevailed under Republican rule, people and property of all classes were absolutely secure under Democratic rule. The reasons for this were very plain and simple. Under Republican rule many of these counties and towns were under the dominion of ignorant negroes and vicious white men, who were dependent upon the negroes for the places they held. Under Democratic rule these same counties and towns were under the control of honest, capable white men. The lawless element among the negroes and the
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whites also knew that honest, faithful, capable men were in charge of the local offices and there was a marked difference in their behavior. With this honest, faithful execution of the law came a feeling of security to life and to property, which did not and cannot exist under Republican rule.
THE ERA OF FUSION, OR THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY.
In 1894, the Republicans, always agitating to undo what the Democrats had done, found a faction under Populist leaders willing to help them in return for a few Federal and State offices.
In that year, and again in 1896, fusion between the Republican and Populist parties was successful, and the government in the State, in the counties, and in the cities, passed out of the hands of the Democratic party; and again the negro became the dominant factor in the east, and in the control of the party in power.
They constituted two-thirds of the voters who had made fusion successful, and upon which it had to rely for continuance in power. Conscious of their power, the negro demanded a division of the offices, and equal participation in government.
It is needless to say this demand was heeded. As a result again, as in the days of Reconstruction, the local affairs of many towns, cities and counties of the east were practically turned over to the negro politicians of that section. They were sent to the Legislature, they were made magistrates, constables, policemen, deputy sheriffs, registers of deeds, school committeemen. They were not contented with filling municipal and county positions, but demanded State and Federal places as well. In some localities they were placed on committees to select teachers for white schools, and to visit and supervise white schools. They were made directors of State institutions, one of them being made director of the white deaf, dumb and blind hospital at Raleigh.
At one time during fusion about one thousand negroes were holding offices in North Carolina. Under these circumstances there was, of course, a repetition in the east of the conditions which existed under Republican rule during the Reconstruction period.
In the cities, towns, and counties thus controlled there was the same irresponsible, incompetent, and corrupt government which brought disgrace upon the State when the Republican party was in power during the 60's. Life was not safe, property was not safe, womanhood was not safe. It was a period of disorder and lawlessness, of wild
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excitement, and universal terror. The worst of feeling existed between the races. Race collisions were common everywhere and race war was a constant menace.
GERRYMANDER CITIES TO GIVE NEGRO MINORITIES CONTROL.
The people doubtless remember the cities of Greenville, New Bern and Wilmington, and the counties of Craven, New Hanover, Bertie, Halifax, Granville, Warren, and other eastern counties. It might be well to recall briefly how vicious enactments of the fusion Legislature threw overboard the competent white government of the town of Greenville, and by a cruel gerrymander divided the town into four wards, two of them made in odd shapes in order that they might be controlled by negro majorities, leaving the other two with large white majorities. The negro wards were given two aldermen each and the white wards one alderman each. Under this fusion charter, at the town election, May, 1897, the two negro wards elected four negro aldermen and the white people elected two white aldermen. To be sure the four negroes on the board outvoted the two whites; and they elected as officers of Greenville a white Radical mayor, a white Radical chief of police, a negro clerk, a negro day policeman and a negro night policeman. The first mayor and chief of police elected by this regime were during their first term indicted for gambling. They came into court and admitted their guilt, but notwithstanding these facts they were each re-elected to their respective positions in the ensuing election, May, 1898.
The charters of the cities of Wilmington and New Bern were so changed by the Legislature as to take the control and management of the affairs of these cities out of the hands of the responsible people and turn them over to the tender mercies of the fusion Governor, Daniel L. Russell, by placing in the hands of the Governor the power to appoint one alderman in each ward, while the voters elected only one in each ward. This was a direct blow at the theory of self-government. And it was done by the fusion Legislature in the interest of the negro, while loudly proclaiming themselves in favor of government by the people; and boasting of their purpose to maintain self-government in North Carolina. The result was absolute negro domination and its attendant evils, lawlessness, arrogance, corruption, insult, robbery, burglary, incendiarism and unbearable municipal disorder, leading to conditions of race strife and riot, such as it is to be hoped may never be seen again in any part of our grand old State.
A SAMPLE OF REPUBLICAN RULE IN AN EASTERN CITY.
It is only necessary to give the result of fusion government in one city. That will show what fusion government meant in the east. Wilmington is selected because it was the home of Governor Russell.
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It is well known that in that city Governor Russell absolutely controlled the Republican party. The conditions in New Bern, Greenville and other towns and cities in the east were but little better than in Wilmington. An extract from the sworn statement of Hon. John D. Bellamy, a resident of Wilmington, and then a representative of the Sixth Congressional District, will show the kind of government fusion gave in that city. This testimony was given in the Fowler-Bellamy contested election case:
"I stated that as a result of fusion legislation the city had been put under negro control, substantially; that although the white people owned about 97 per cent. of the property and paid that much of the taxes of the city, that we had a board of aldermen, with a white man for mayor, who didn't own a foot of land in the county, and paid comparatively little or no taxes; that three or four of the board of aldermen were negroes; that forty of the magistrates were negroes; that from fourteen to seventeen of the thirty on the police force were negroes; nearly all of the deputy sheriffs in the county were negroes; that the register of deeds of the county was a negro; that every health office of the city, a very important position, was held by negroes; that one of the three county commissioners was a negro; and the result of it was that a horrible state of misgovernment had been brought about; that night after night burglaries and robberies took place in town without any detection; that within about eight hundred feet of the city hall six burglaries had been committed within ten days without a detection; that one burglar had been arrested in a lady's residence, a negro burglar, was captured and held by the ladies until a police officer arrived, and that, although the offense was punishable by death and not bailable, he was let off on his own recognizance, or a straw bond, I have forgotten now which, and the negro escaped; that murders and crimes of all characters were of constant occurrence; that within about a year six murders had taken place in the county; that the negroes showed an utter disrespect for and defiance of the law; that the city authorities, in the exercise of their discretion upon sanitary matters, had located a hospital for infectious diseases on the outskirts of the town, and the negroes, several hundred in number, a complete mob, armed with guns, pistols and other weapons, went out, attacked, shot into and burned it down, and the mayor and policemen, although remonstrating, were powerless to resist it, and none of said negroes were ever arrested or tried for the offense; that in the trial of the causes in the court-house it was impossible to convict a negro of crime where a question of credibility arose between white witnesses and negro witnesses; that the juries, composed partly of whites and partly of blacks, would retire, and a hung jury was the result, the negroes always voting solidly in the jury box in favor of the acquittal of the negro, if a negro was on trial."
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SOME RESULTS OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT IN A FEW EASTERN
COUNTIES.
In New Hanover County forty negro magistrates were appointed.
Bertie County got sixteen of these dusky dispensers of justice, law and "equity." Edgecombe got nearly twice as many, or thirty-one.
Craven County was blessed with twenty-seven of the ever faithful.
Halifax County was particularly obnoxious, having produced "Buck" Kitchin, who did not believe in negro magistrates, got twenty-nine of them.
Granville County got seventeen, while you wait.
Caswell County, which had not done quite so much for "our cause," received seven.
In all, there were named by the Legislature of 1895 three hundred negro magistrates in North Carolina.
So much for the dispensers of justice at the homes of the people.
But the negroes were not content with that. Years ago the negro did not aspire to the county offices. In that year, however, Craven County was given a negro register of deeds and negro deputy registers and three negro deputy sheriffs, a negro coroner and a negro commissioner.
A negro was elected register of deeds in New Hanover, negro constables and deputy sheriffs were appointed.
In Halifax, Edgecombe, Bertie, Warren, and, indeed, in all the black counties of the east, negroes were elected or appointed to public offices.
And if there was one office the negro was particularly unfit for, it was school committeeman over white children; and yet throughout the eastern counties there were a great many negroes appointed school committeemen over white children.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF REPUBLICAN MANAGEMENT OF A STATE
INSTITUTION.
John R. Smith had been appointed superintendent of the penitentiary, but there were so many scandals in the administration that Governor Russell transferred him to the head of the agricultural department; and it was rumored abroad that the Governor gave as the reason for making the transfer that there was so much peculation and thieving at the penitentiary that he wanted to get Smith away and into a place where he would not make way with any more of the public property.
The administration of the penitentiary under Governor Russell was a disgrace to the State. It shows the character of the men who were in charge of the State during the fusion era. For scandal, indecency, and downright corruption and dishonesty it is unique.
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When the Republican party took charge of the penitentiary, it was self-sustaining. During the time it had control of it, it cost the State $225,000.
The story of the scandals which took place in connection with the Republican management of this institution is too long to be recited here. One or two instances, however, are given by way of illustration.
SCANDAL NO. 1.
The Republican administration transferred the criminal insane of the State to the penitentiary and put them in charge of Dr. Kirby Smith. On September 17, 1897, Dr. Smith suddenly left Raleigh for New York city. Rumors were published that he had debauched some of those demented women under his charge, and on the 22d of September, five days after the publication of the charges, the directors of the penitentiary held a session. On the night of the 21st of September the chairman of the board said: "If Dr. Smith's resignation is in this morning it will be accepted and there will be no investigation of the charges against him. If it is not in, the charges will be publicly investigated. I have been assured it would be before the board to-day." It is thus seen that it was the purpose of the board to let the matter pass without an investigation. But the attendant in charge, Mr. Benton Williams, tendered his resignation and requested a full investigation. The investigation had to be made. After an examination the board declared that Dr. Smith had been guilty of indiscretion and gross immorality in his relations with the insane female patients under his care. Smith never returned to the State. He was indicted, but having fled the State, no requisition was issued for him.
SCANDAL NO. 2
Shortly after the adjournment of the fusion Legislature of 1895 the Rev. Thomas W. Babb was selected by Superintendent Smith as chaplain of the penitentiary at a salary of $60 a month, and he went to Halifax farm to begin his duties as spiritual guide to the convicts.
A protest was filed against the Rev. Babb, charging him with immoral and dishonest conduct. Upon investigation, it was found the Rev. Babb had been tried by the ministers of the Chowan Association in Edenton, N. C., upon certain charges, and unanimously convicted. One of the charges was habitual drunkenness. Another of the charges was collecting money to build a belfry for Plymouth church and refusal to pay over the money so collected; also for collecting money for Sunday-school supplies for Trawick Church Sunday-school and failure to account for the same. Another of the charges for which he was convicted was repeated falsehoods.
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Babb was removed from his office as chaplain, but not in disgrace. He was simply transferred to the position of steward of the Halifax farm, and continued upon the fusion pay-roll.
This is a sad chapter from the fusion rule in North Carolina. Do you call it clean?
JUST A LITTLE FUSION EPISODE.
The fusion Legislature offered to let the public printing to the lowest bidder. Edwards & Broughton made a bid. Stewart Bros., of Winston, also made a bid. A committee of printers composed of J. C. Birdsong, who was examiner of State printing on the part of the State; J. H. Alford, who was foreman of the Biblical Recorder; and John Nichols, the former Republican member of Congress, after a careful examination, reported that the bid of Edwards & Broughton was $581.88 lower than that made by the Stewarts; and yet the contract was given to the Stewarts.
To be sure there was a job in that against the interest of the people, and the job, as usual, ended in a scandal. The Stewarts had much of the State work done at Richmond, out of the State, thus depriving our printers of their work. And more than that, when the contract for two years work had expired, the State Treasurer claimed that the Stewart Bros. had drawn out $10,000 more than they were entitled to, and the State has brought suit to recover $10,000 from them as having been improperly paid to the public printers.
SHAME AND A HORROR.
During the days of fusion control Col. Jim Young, a big negro politician, flourished like a green bay-tree--and even now he has his place at the Republican pie-counter. Jim was not only chief fertilizer inspector under Russell, having white men under him, and grand mogul of the white deaf, dumb and blind institution, having three white men to do his bidding, but a clerk in the office of Revenue Collector Duncan, which latter place he still holds despite the fact that the Republican party now claims it is a white man's party in the State.
NOT A SCANDAL, BUT A CASE OF DOWNRIGHT STEALING IN TREASURER'S
OFFICE.
W. H. Worth was the fusion Treasurer, and one of his trusted clerks was W. H. Martin, an old '68 Republican of the carpet-bag order. Several months after Treasurer Worth had gone out of office Mr. Lacy, our State Treasurer, discovered that there had been stealing during the Worth administration in the office to the extent of about $16,000. Investigation showed that this amount of money had been stolen from the treasury by Major Martin. Subsequently Major Martin
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was indicted, confessed his guilt, was convicted and is now in the penitentiary.
FAILED MISERABLY.
When we recollect that this fusion Legislature was elected to "reform" things in the State, and to reduce salaries, we will be surprised to learn:
1. That it did not decrease any salary.
2. That it did not decrease any fees.
3. That it did not decrease appropriations.
4. That it did nothing in the way of relief, but much to make distress.
THE RECORD OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SINCE THE
OVERTHROW OF FUSION.
Such were the fruits of Republicanism during the fusion era, or its second reign in North Carolina.
It brought the people of North Carolina again face to face with the conditions and questions of the reconstruction period. The great mistake and crime of 1868 had been softened by the amendment of 1877. The fusion action of 1896 opened the flood-gates anew to disgusting and degrading conditions. And once again the self-respecting whites put their shoulders to the wheel and triumphed over negroism, corruption and incompetency in office and administration.
In 1898 the Democratic party regained control of the Legislature, and in 1900 of the executive branch of the government.
Under the Democratic party since the overthrow of fusion we have enjoyed all the blessings of clean, honest and competent government. The good effects upon the people and the State are everywhere apparent and well-nigh universally confessed.
The public mind has been relieved of many disturbing apprehensions. Confidence in the future has been restored and established. Tranquility prevails. The people, white and black, have turned their attention more closely to their industries. Good order is everywhere observed, and the unrest which formerly prevailed has given place to cheerfulness and contentment.
The conditions thus brought about by Democratic rule, and by the settlement of the race question, in a way assuring permanent white ascendency and control, has invited the establishment of new industries, and has led to the inauguration of new enterprises.
These changed conditions have inspired our people with hope and confidence, and imparted to them a new energy, which is being everywhere
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manifested in the betterment of our social and political conditions, and the development of our material resources.
The work of the Democratic party in rehabilitating the State, in reforming abuses, in providing adequate remedies against a recurrence of the intolerable evils of fusion and negro government, of establishing honesty and decency in the administration of the affairs of the State, in restoring competent town, city and county government, in providing enlarged opportunities for the education of the children of the State, and giving to every school district at least a four months' term; in enlarging and extending the University, the normal and industrial, and the agricultural and mechanical colleges, and better providing for the insane, the deaf, the dumb, and the blind ; in making more liberal provision for the old soldiers, and regulating the liquor traffic and reducing that great evil to a minimum--will be elsewhere recounted and elaborated more in detail.
THE MATERIAL PROGRESS IN NORTH CAROLINA UNDER
DEMOCRATIC RULE.
"In the assessed value of property in the South the increase was from $5,260,000,000 in 1900, to $6,191,000,000 in 1905. In this increase Texas leads with $168,000,000, North Carolina comes next with $130,000,000, Georgia is third with $88,000,000, with other States much less."
"The percentage of increase of the whole South was seventeen per cent., while in North Carolina the percentage was forty-one per cent., and in Texas only eighteen per cent., giving us a percentage over all."
In 1904 there were raised in North Carolina about 600,000 bales of cotton and our manufacturers consumed more than was made.
In 1890 the gross value of our farm products in round numbers was $50,000,000, while in 1905 it was nearly $95,000,000.
Our manufactured products were, in 1890, $40,000,000, and more than $100,000,000 in 1905.
In 1890 we had only 3,354 looms, in 1904 we had over 46,000 looms, making us, according to the report of the President of the Manufacturers' Association, the third State in the Union in the number of looms and spindles.
In the report of Secretary of State Grimes we find that there were chartered in North Carolina for the year ending December, 1905, 695 corporations.
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The report of Commissioner of Labor Varner shows that the capital invested in mills in this State in 1904 was in round numbers $32,000,000, as against $18,000,000 in 1900.
In November, 1904, there were in the State 183 State banks with resources amounting to, in round numbers, $31,000,000, while in November, 1905, we had 238 State banks with resources of $41,000,000, an increase of over 53 State banks and over $9,000,000 in resources in one year.
Since 1899 over 500 miles of railroad have been constructed and put in operation in the State, and 300 miles of railroad is now in process of construction.
In 1904 and 1905 797 new school-houses were built in North Carolina.
RAILROAD BUILDING AND TAXATION UNDER DEMOCRATIC
AND REPUBLICAN RULE CONTRASTED.
The Republicans, under the plea of building railroads for the convenience of the people, issued, as we have already seen, millions upon millions of dollars of State bonds. But did they build the roads? No. They printed the bonds, sold them, pocketed the money, divided the plunder and did not build a mile of road anywhere in the State! When the Democrats came into power in 1877 they found the State but little better provided with railroad and transportation facilities than it was at the close of the war. The Democratic party addressed itself to this great need of many sections of the State, and by open, honest, straightforward work, and by dealing honestly and fairly with investors and capitalists, they started anew railway building, and railway construction went forward at a rapid rate.
On January 1, 1877, when the Democrats came into full power in the State after the war, there were only 1,341 miles of railroad in the State.
On the 1st day of January, 1895, when the Republicans again came into power in the State, there were 3,400 miles of railroad.
There were then constructed in the State during these eighteen years of Democratic administration 2,059 miles of railroad--about six hundred miles more than was built in the balance of the history of the State.
As stated, the Republican party came into power the second time in this State in 1895, and they held the State until 1899. During these four years of Republican rule railroad building practically ceased--less than eighty miles of railroad having been built in the State.
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The Democrats came back into power in 1899, and since then 513.42 miles of railroad have been built and put in operation, and more than 300 miles are now in process of construction.
But little railroad property was returned for State taxation on the 1st of January, 1877. The value of all the franchises, as we get it from the office of the Railroad Commission, was then $859,021, and the tax thereon paid into the State Treasury was only $1,179.
The value of the railroad property as returned for taxation January 1, 1895, was $24,501,899, and the tax thereon paid into the State Treasury was $61,254. The State, county and municipal tax on this railroad property amounted in 1895 to about $240,000. Observe the large increase!
The assessed value of railroad property in the State at the end of Republican rule in 1899 was $32,522,921.19. It was at the last regular assessment in 1903, under Democratic rule, $69,598,129. Under the Republicans the largest amount of taxes, State, county and municipal, paid on railroad property was about $325,000 ; while under Democratic assessment they have been paying $695,000 yearly.
In January, 1877, when the Democrats came into power, there were forty-two counties in the State without railroad facilities. In January, 1895, when the Democrats went out of power, there were but thirteen counties without these facilities; and since they have returned to power that number has been reduced to seven. These facts need no comment. They tell their own tale and speak in thunder tones of the glorious era of Democratic rule.
EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING AND PROGRESS.
Its record warrants the Democratic party in making modest but unquestioned claim to earnest advocacy, and active and continuous advancement of the cause of education for all the people. Under Democratic administration the public school system in North Carolina was brought to such effectiveness that it could be truthfully claimed that at the beginning of the Civil War North Carolina led all the Southern States in its system of public schools. So earnest and so sincere was the Democratic party in its desire for the advancement of the public schools that it held and kept in office for thirteen years Calvin H. Wiley, the first superintendent of these schools, notwithstanding he was an avowed Whig, because of his recognized superior fitness for the office. During all the vicissitudes of the Civil War, with all its pressing demands for all available funds for its prosecution,
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the public school fund of North Carolina was kept intact, the rights of the children to those funds held inviolate and the public schools kept open.
In 1865, when Sherman's army entered the city of Raleigh, Calvin H. Wiley, the superintendent of common schools, was in his office receiving reports from these schools. Then followed, under Republican administration, a period of revolution, robbery and ruin. The public school fund was squandered, the taxes levied for public school purposes were collected, but only a small part of them was used for the public schools. All over the State the schools were closed, or, if open at all, open but a few weeks, the public school houses tumbled into decay, the public school system fell into chaos. It was no wonder that the public schools, under such management, lost the confidence, the respect and the patronage of the people.
In 1876, when the Democratic party came fully into power again, the public schools were one of the first objects of its solicitous attention. Under the mismanagement of the Republican administration the University, the oldest, the most honored and most useful of our public institutions of learning, had forfeited the confidence and support of our people and had been compelled to close its doors for lack of patronage in 1874. It was reorganized and reopened in 1876, and, under Democratic administration, has had, from that time, a continuous career of success, usefulness and growth.
COLLEGES AND TRAINING SCHOOLS.
Under Democratic administration, the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts has been established for the training of our young men in agriculture and all industrial and mechanical arts, and fostered in its growth and usefulness until it takes rank to-day as one of the leading institutions of the kind in the entire South. A similar institution for the training of the negroes in these practical arts of agriculture and industry has also been established and maintained. Under Democratic administration the State Normal and Industrial College for the higher education of young women and for the preparation of them for practical life in home, on the farm, or in the business world, and for their training as professional teachers, has been established and fostered, until it stands pre-eminent among institutions for women in the Southern States. Other successful institutions for the training of teachers have been established at Cullowhee and Boone.
For the training of colored teachers, the Democratic party, with characteristic justice and liberality, has maintained several colored normal schools in different sections of the State. These colored normal schools have recently been consolidated into three, and placed under the superintendence of a trained, efficient North Carolina white
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man, and it will be sought through these schools to instill into the negro teachers wise and sane ideals of education for their race, that these teachers may, in turn, give to the children of their race, through the public schools, such training and such ideals as will better fit them for the work that they must do in the world, and for usefulness in their recognized sphere of action. The salary of the superintendent of these colored normal schools will, of course, be paid out of the annual appropriation heretofore made to these schools.
The brightest page in the educational record of the Democratic party, however, is that which records its successful efforts and wisely increased expenditures for the improvement of the lower public schools, and especially of those in the rural districts. This honorable record will appear in part from the following facts and figures taken from the records in the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
INCREASE IN SCHOOL FUND AND IMPROVEMENT OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS.
In 1871, under Republican administration, the amount collected for the public schools was $115,042.57. In 1872, under laws passed by a Democratic General Assembly, the school fund was increased to $211,239.22. Under Democratic administration, the fund gradually increased until, in 1894, it amounted to $777,079.29.
Then followed the four years of fusion rule, during which the fusionists continued to collect the taxes for schools as levied by the Democrats. The largest amount collected by the fusionists was that of 1898--$988,409.11. In 1899 a Democratic General Assembly made a special appropriation of $100,000 for a four months' term in the public schools. In 1900, the first year of the complete restoration of the Democrats to power, the total school fund was $1,031,327.94. In 1901 an additional special appropriation of $100,000 was made by the Democrats to aid all public schools to have a four months' term. Without increasing the rate of general taxation for schools, the public school fund, under the present Democratic administration, has gradually increased, as will be seen from the following figures: 1901, $1,119,746.47; 1902, $1,323,557.72; 1903, $1,353,108.48; 1904, $1,777,624.66; 1905, $1,970,314.65. These amounts do not include local taxes levied by special districts.
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INCREASE IN LENGTH OF SCHOOL TERM.
The following tables show the comparative length of the annual public school terms during four years of fusion rule and four years of Democratic rule:
| 1895 | 12.45 weeks. |
| 1896 | 12.42 weeks. |
| 1897 | 11.73 weeks. |
| 1898 | 14.06 weeks. |
| Total | 50.66 weeks. |
| 1900 | 14.66 weeks. |
| 1901 | 15.56 weeks. |
| 1902 | 16.48 weeks. |
| 1903 | 16.7 weeks. |
| Total | 63.40 weeks. |
| 1904 | 17 weeks. |
| 1905 | 17.4 weeks. |
From these figures it will be seen that during the four years of Democratic administration, as compared with the four years of fusion administration immediately preceding, the public school term was increased 12¾ weeks, and the average length of the annual public school term has been increased 4.69 weeks since 1895.
During the four years of Democratic administration immediately preceding the fusion rule, $3,019,103.30 were expended for the public schools, which were taught 50.46 weeks during the four years, or an average of 12.61 weeks per year. During the four years of fusion administration--1895, 1896, 1897, 1898--$3,461,393.12 were expended for the public schools, and the public school term was lengthened only one day in the four years. A little calculation will show that under fusion rule one day of school in North Carolina cost the State $442,289.82.
THE DEMOCRATIC PLEDGE OF A FOUR MONTHS' SCHOOL HAS
BEEN KEPT.
For the year ending June 30, 1905, the average length of the public school term for the State was 17.4 weeks. All the reports have not yet been received for 1906, but they will probably show an additional increase in the length of the public school term.
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FUSION RULE CHECKED EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.
While the fusionists, when they came into power, did not dare to cut off the appropriations for public schools, as established for many years by the Democrats, yet, by their law under which negro committeemen could control white schools, they effectually checked educational progress and lessened educational interest. On account of this law, and the general lack of confidence in the fusion administration and of respect for it, there was, in spite of the active efforts of an honest and efficient State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a very decided decrease in the enrollment and attendance of the white schools. In 1894, the last year of Democratic administration preceding fusion rule, 235,486 children were enrolled in the white schools. In 1897, in the midst of fusion rule, notwithstanding the increase in the population, only 222,252 children were enrolled in the white schools, a decrease of 13,234.
INCREASE IN ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE UNDER DEMOCRATIC
ADMINISTRATION.
The surest evidence of renewed confidence and increased interest in the public schools, under the present administration, is to be found in the marked and significant increase in the enrollment and attendance of these schools. There has been an increase in both enrollment and average daily attendance during each of the past six years of Democratic administration.
In 1905, there were enrolled in the schools 325,290 white children. This was 2,108 more white children than were ever before enrolled in the public schools of North Carolina, and, as will be seen from a comparison of figures, 103,038 more white children than were enrolled in the public schools in 1897 under fusion rule. In 1905, the average daily attendance of the white schools was 196,898. This was 2,505 more white children than had been in average daily attendance during the year 1904, and was 86,221 more white children than had been in average daily attendance under fusion rule in 1897.
Think of it: 86,221 more white children in average daily attendance on the public schools in 1905 under Democratic administration than in 1897 under fusion administration!
IMPROVEMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSES.
In nothing has educational progress, under the present administration, been more marked, permanent and wise than in the improvement of public school houses and their equipment. Recognizing a decent, comfortable school-house as an absolute necessity for a successful school that shall merit and command the respect and patronage of
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the people, the present administration set to work earnestly to help the people secure such a house in every school district. To prevent the waste of money in inferior and improperly constructed houses, the law was amended so as to place the building of houses under the general supervision of the County Board of Education, and to require all houses to be constructed in accordance with plans approved by the County Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. A pamphlet containing cuts and plans for public school houses, from one to eight rooms in size, together with full specifications and complete bills of material, was prepared by competent architects in accordance with the best modern principles of school architecture and distributed from the office of the State Superintendent. Most of the new school-houses have been built in accordance with these plans, or plans slightly modified to meet different conditions. The result has been a marked improvement in the character, comfort and sanitary conditions of public school houses.
STATE LOAN FUND FOR BUILDING AND IMPROVING PUBLIC
SCHOOL HOUSES.
The General Assembly of 1903 very wisely authorized the use of the public school fund that had gradually accumulated in the State Treasury from the sale of swamp lands belonging to the State Board of Education, until it amounted to about $200,000, and of further accumulations from this source, as a permanent loan fund for building public school houses, placing the fund under the control and direction of the State Board of Education. These loans are payable in ten annual instalments and draw interest at 4 per cent. Under the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education preference is given to rural and special tax districts, and only one-half the cost of school-houses and grounds can be lent to any one district. This fund was not available until August, 1903. Since that time from it $224,053 have been lent to 83 counties, and 592 school districts have been aided in securing 488 school-houses valued at $569,570. In other words, by lending $224,053 public school property has been secured, valued at nearly three times that amount. The law secures absolutely the repayment of these loans by a lien on the entire school fund of the county and district. Every cent of every instalment of every loan has been promptly paid when due and lent to other needy districts.
Through the stimulus and aid of this fund and through the agitation and cultivation of public sentiment for improvement of school-houses, there has been a wonderful increase in the number of public school houses built during the present administration, and a wonderful improvement in the comfort and character of those houses. The following table shows the number of
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| 1902, number of new school-houses built | 329 |
| 1903, number of new school-houses built | 347 |
| 1904, number of new school-houses built | 346 |
| 1905, number of new school-houses built | 440 |
| Total number of new school-houses built in 4 years | 1,462 |
Under Democratic administration, during the past four years more than one new comfortable school-house for every day in the year has been built. At this rate, we may reasonably expect the children of every school district in the State to have a decent, comfortable school-house in the near future.
LOCAL TAXATION.
As another result of awakened interest and increased confidence under Democratic administration, the number of school districts levying, by a vote of the people, a special local tax to supplement the State and county fund for a better public school, has increased from thirty in 1900 to four hundred and fifteen in 1906, an increase of three hundred and eighty-five local tax districts in four years. At least three hundred and forty-eight of these districts are distinctly rural. In territory they are scattered from Dare to Cherokee. The idea of improving public schools by local taxation is rapidly spreading.
Total amount raised in 1905 by local taxation, $338,414.23.
RURAL LIBRARIES.
The Democratic General Assembly of 1901 passed an act appropriating $5,000 to the establishment of rural libraries, the number being limited to six in the county, and the conditions being that the district applying for libraries should raise $10 by private subscription, and that $10 should be taken from the school fund and $10 from the State appropriation, making $30 in all for each library. The General Assembly of 1903 appropriated the same amount for the establishment of new libraries upon the same terms, and $2,500 in addition for supplementing libraries already established, not more than $15 to be allowed for the supplementary libraries, $5 from the State appropriation, $5 from private subscription and $5 from the district fund. These biennial appropriations were made permanent by the General Assembly of 1905. Under these acts of the Democratic General Assembly, one thousand two hundred and fifty-nine rural libraries, containing about one hundred and ten thousand volumes of well-selected books, have been established. In addition a number of supplementary libraries have, also, been established. No
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one can measure the benefits of these well-selected rural libraries, quietly and constantly at work among the people of the rural districts in the dissemination of general information, the formation of literary taste, the cultivation of the habit of reading, and the shaping of higher ideals of character, life and action.
SUMMARY.
Voter, friend of education, the record of the two parties on public education is before you. In its earnest advocacy of the people's schools, throughout all its history, the Democratic party has been true to the teachings of its great founder, Thomas Jefferson, who was the most eloquent and effective advocate of public education in the early days of the republic; true to its traditions and history as the bravest and boldest champion of the rights of the many, true to its cardinal doctrine of equality of opportunity to all, true to the declaration of the Constitution that "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means for education shall forever be encouraged"; true to the declaration of the Bill of Rights that "The people have a right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that right."
Under Democratic administration, the public school system was first brought to efficiency before the war. After the Civil War, under Republican administration, the system fell into chaos, the funds were squandered, the schools were either closed or became so inefficient as to be unworthy of the confidence, respect and patronage of the people. Under Democratic administration, from 1876 to 1895, the school system was reorganized, the schools were re-opened, new institutions of learning were established, there was a gradual but continual improvement in the system and in the schools, a rapid increase in the school fund and in the expenditures for school purposes in proportion to the increase in the wealth of the State and in the requirements of the schools, and a corresponding increase in the efficiency of the schools and in the confidence and respect and patronage of the people. Under fusion rule, from 1895 to 1899, educational progress was checked, and, notwithstanding there was no decrease in the rate of taxation for schools and no material decrease in the school fund, there was a marked decrease in the enrollment and attendance of the public schools, showing a deplorable loss of the confidence and the respect of the people. With the return of the Democrats to power in 1900, there was a restoration of public confidence and a wonderful awakening of public interest in public education. The present Democratic administration has been an era of wonderful progress in education, marked by a commendable increase in the public school fund and in the length of the public school term without any increase in the rate of taxation for public school purposes, a remarkable increase in enrollment
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and attendance, a wonderful improvement in public school houses, a marvelous increase in the number of new school-houses built, a rapid growth of the idea of self-help finding expression in local taxation, and a contagious enthusiasm for education such as was never known before in the State, resulting in filling to overflowing all the schools in the State, high and low, public, private and denominational