Carolina Watchman

A CARD FROM MR. VANDERFORD.

He Names a Number of Things to Which He is Opposed. Interesting Reading.

Salisbury, N. C., Feb. 26, 1907.

To the Citizens of Salisbury:

I have told, in part, what I am in favor of, in the management of City affairs.

I now propose to state some things to which I am opposed.

I AM OPPOSED to any Mayor trying to hold office for more than THREE TERMS, and thereby violate the three-term rule of the Democracy of Salisbury and Rowan county, simply because he gets some of his friends to ask him to run.

When I voted for this rule in the convention, neither I nor my friends understood that it was MADE AND INTENDED to GET RID OF SAM WOODSON AND SAM McCUBBINS, but Mr. Boyden says that the rule was made for them alone.

Neither my friends nor myself entered into any such arrangement.

This rule has always been understood as applying to ANY AND ALL democratic office holders, both CITY and COUNTY, until, Mr. Boyden announces to "his People" that he proposes to be a solitary exception to the rule.

I AM OPPOSED to any bill which may fix upon the people of Salisbury the needless expenditure of $1800 a year for a Recorder's or Police Court. Such a court is in advance of the City's needs, and we are suffering now from useless extravagance.

The work of the Mayor's court can be done, on an average, in one hour a day, and any Mayor who cannot devote this much time to his "labor of love," after an experience of three terms, should resign and let the Aldermen fill his place.

I AM OPPOSED to putting CHAIN GANG STRIPES on any one, white or black, without a fair and impartial trial. The Mayor who takes it upon himself to dispose of cases which should be sent to the Superior Court, or who passes sentence without swearing the witnesses, makes his court a farce, fails to treat his people fair, and puts stripes on his helpless and ignorant victims, in the face of justice, and such a Mayor should be removed from office, either by process of law, or at the ballot box.

So far as witnesses are concerned, it will not be denied that they are seldom, if ever, sworn by his Honor the Mayor, and every well-informed man knows that no defendant should be sent to the chain gang and made wear convict stripes, upon the un-sworn statement of his accusers. Such proceedings cannot be even designated as trials. They are nothing but a BURLESQUE UPON JUSTICE, and outrage the dictates of law, usage, and general intelligence.

I AM OPPOSED to the present laxity of discipline to which our worthy and efficient police force is subjected. I have it upon good authority that they have been so threatened and reprimanded by the present Mayor that they hardly know what to do.

I AM OPPOSED TO ANY MAN WHO WILL BREAK A SOLEMN PROMISE TO SUPPORT A LIFE LONG FRIEND.

Very respectfully,

T. H. VANDERFORD