Raleigh, Sept. 16—From the extreme east this week there has come word that those who have sought to make the line-up for Governor in 1924 a matter of A.W. McLean and J.W. Bailey have spoken without permission of Judge John H. Kerr of Warren, who hasn’t withdrawn his name from consideration. He has made at least one recruit in Pasquotank county, Will Saunders of The Independent, whose habits of thought and speech are in consonance with the name of his newspaper, declaring in favor of the jurist.
It might be interesting to give some of the up-staters a chance to once-over the reaction of the Pasquotank editor.
“Judge Kerr,” says Saunders, “doesn’t happen to have been picked by that oligarchy of textile manufacturers, tobacco barons and musty lawyers who control the Democratic nominations in this state thru the primary as effectively as a Republican oligarchy controls the nomination thru the convention. It is notorious that the bosses of the state have already made up their gubernatorial slate for the next 12 years, already having decided who young boys not yet in their teens shall vote for when they reach their majority. Augus W. McLean of Lumberton has been promised the executive mansion for the next four years succeeding Morrison; O. Max Gardner is to lay low at this season and help elect McLean, for which Max is to get the Governorship in 1928. And after Max has had his four years, then back to Lumberton goes the machine with a promise to give the governorship to Mr. McLean’s law partner, L.R. Varser, in 1932.
“To date there has been only one man who has dared to brave the bosses and groom himself. That man is Josiah William Bailey, one of the most brilliant birds in the state. But Mr. Bailey hasn’t the record to inspire the confidence of the people. Judge Kerr is the logical man to defeat the machine and eclipse Bailey.”
That’s talking right out in meeting, and occasionally Saunders, for all his contrariness, backs a winner.
Beasley Loses Appeal
Phil Beasley, a local plasterer, referred to in his trial in city court as the “King of the local bootleggers,” lost his appeal this morning when Judge Lyon in Wake superior court affirmed the sentence of City Judge Harris. This was 60 days on the roads and $200 fine.
The pleas before Judge Lyon was guilty, with a prayer for leniency towards a first offender. This was contested strenuously, the solicitor stating that “first offense” was a misnomer and declaring that it was useless to ask the officers to break up whiskey sales here if the big bootleggers, hard to catch at all times, were let off with fines when caught.
The case has aroused interest here all out of proportion to the enormity of the offense. Beasley at most could have been no more than a skilled evader of the liquor law. He has since his conviction in the city court, however, been able to secure the aid of a number of leading citizens—some because they always want to see the father of small children escape the roads and others for that they have fancied they had made progress with his reclamation.
His return to Sunday school and church has been used for and against him.
Entertainment This Fall and Winter
Raleigh, though short on New York road shows this fall and winter, will be long in minstrels. Though the community will not see “The Bat,” which had been signed up when the Cotton Co-ops took over the Academy of Music, it will see the drummer bat his drum to an extent hitherto unprecedented.
Sherwood Upchurch, who has been managing the Academy from time well-nigh immemorial, has been forced to cancel his bookings for plays; but he has engaged the City Auditorium for Lasses White, Al Fields, Neill O’Brien and perhaps Coburn’s minstrels. If possible, a musical comedy or so will be staged.
Old Quarry Bothersome
The breezes that blow in from the eastern fringe of the city still bring to the inhabitants of Raleigh the sleep-destroying smells of the ancient and disreputable rock quarry which last year became so prominent as an automobile graveyard that the State of North Carolina, which owns it, pumped it dry. It hasn’t been dry since, and the smells disturbed by a fire in the refuse which has been cast into it by a none-too-considerate sanitary department, are of the humid sort that choke and strangle.
Mosquitoes are unusually promiscuous with their probiscis here this season, too, screens serving merely to keep out the stolid, self-satisfied big fellows and to let in all of those in search of a reputation to be written in blood.
From the front page of The Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, Sept. 17, 1922. How accurate was Saunders in predicting future governors? Cameron Morrison was succeeded by Angus Wilton McLean, and O. Max Gardner came next. But the following governors were John Ehringhaus, Clude Hoey and Melville Broughton. All these governors were democrats.
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