Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Rocky Mount Can Trust Nashville, Says Editor, April 20, 1922

An Injustice to Nashville

The citizens of Nashville are justly indignant at an editorial appearing in Monday’s edition of the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram, which has possibly been led into error in making the charge that the citizens of this place are responsible for the action taken in the Nash County Convention last Saturday, when the matter of providing some means for putting the road working system of Nash County on a unit basis was considered; that is, doing away with the many road districts and the present unsatisfactory system and making it possible to work Nash County convicts on any of the roads of the county, regardless of section.

While such a charge as above suggested has been discussed by leaders in practically every township in the county and there is a general sentiment favoring such a change, the fact that member of the grand jury have come to the conclusion that such a change was necessary tog et any relief from present conditions, and the further fact that the Board of County Commissioners have discussed the matter, especially at a recent meeting held at the County Home, the imputation of The Telegram is that “Nashville is trying to break faith with Rocky Mount,” and that citizens of this place are desirous of making a fight against the Road District as at present constituted for Rocky Mount.

When the question came up for discussion in the County Convention held in Nashville on Saturday last, it was intimated by some of the eastern border representatives that “it was a Nashville move,” and this charge was clearly disproven when it was shown that every township on the “South Side” and practically all the townships on the North side of Tar River, including some of the townships now within the Rocky Mount District, heartily favored a change from present conditions and representative men from these townships were present to establish this fact. No one in the convention desired to do the Rocky Mount Road District any injustice, and in the event the county was put on a unit system it is believed this can be done without retarding the progress the eastern section is making in its road work.

Continuing its discussion of the county unit system of working the roads, The Telegram says:

“There was a truce struck and Rocky Mount agreed to abandon the new county fight and to approve in unmistakable terms the new court house for Nashville, provided the concessions of the City Recorder’s Court, the Road District, the stationing of a Deputy Sheriff here with an office, etc., were permitted to remain status quo, and a hard surfaced road was built between Rocky Mount and Nashville.”

In this declaration The Telegram “Springs a surprise” since no such agreement was entered into by any citizen or set of citizens of Nashville or any other section of Nash County, and in making this declaration our esteemed contemporary has again been led into error. The “new county” proposition has been fought out by the voters of Nash County, and The Telegram can recall the nature of the “truce” entered into when the result of the contest was declared, and the “sacrifice” of the contest and those who sought to dismember the old county decided to bury the hatchet which had so repeatedly been drawn by our friends of the Eastern border.

No, brother Horne, Nashville has no selfish interest in this matter and her citizens can be relied upon to do what they consider to be for best interests of the county as a whole and the improvement of roads regardless of section, and in doing so, without injury to any section.

Editorial from The Graphic, Nashville, N.C., Thursday, April 20, 1922, M.W. Lincke, publisher.

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