552 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



Industries and Products. The corn yield 

 of the year was unusually large 32,959,485-54 

 bushels while in 1893 it was 29.954,513 bushels. 



The number of acres devoted to the trucking 

 interest, exclusive of market gardens, in 1890 

 was 22,000 ; the value of fertilizers used was 

 $372,000 ; the amount paid for labor. $308,000 ; 

 the average net receipts were $1,760,000. 



The Experiment Station has closed its eight- 

 eenth year. During the past two years the sta- 

 tion has published and distributed 152 separate 

 and distinct publications. 



Experiments have been made by the State Ge- 

 ological Survey on the French method of gath- 

 ering turpentine, and it is shown that by the 

 use of this method the value of the product in 

 North Carolina' may be increased nearly $200,- 

 000 a year. The survey has also been largely 

 instrumental in reviving the monazite industry 

 in the Piedmont counties. Elaborate topograph- 

 ic maps have been prepared of all the mountain 

 counties and the more western Piedmont coun- 

 ties, and the geological maps of several of these 

 counties are being prepared. The iron ores of 

 the State have been examined, and also the co- 

 rundum deposits in Clay, Macon, Jackson, and 

 Buncombe Counties and the gold and monazite 

 deposits of Burke, McDowell, Rutherford, and 

 Cleveland Counties. 



An article in the " Manufacturers' Record " on 

 cotton mills in the South shows that through- 

 out that section there are 406 mills with 2,763,- 

 879 spindles and 62,052 looms. North Carolina 

 leads in the number of spindles, with 655,000 in 

 operation in 1894, while South Carolina leads in 

 looms with 16,200. North Carolina has the larg- 

 est number of mills, but as the majority of them 

 are small, the aggregate number of their spindles 

 exceeds South Carolina's by only 34,000. 



Monuments. The corner stone of a monu- 

 ment to William Hooper, one of the signers of 

 the Declaration of Independence, and, it is 

 claimed, the man who made the first prophecy 

 on record of the independence of the States, was 

 laid July 4 on the battle ground of Guilford 

 Courthouse, with appropriate ceremonies. 



On May 22 the corner stone of a monument to 

 the memory of Confederate soldiers was laid at 

 Raleigh. The funds for the monument were 

 raised by the women of the State. 



Political. A Chief Justice and 3 Associate 

 Justices, 6 judges of the Superior Court, a Gen- 

 eral Assembly, a State Treasurer, 12 solicitors, 

 and 9 members of Congress were elected Nov. 6, 

 and all the counties elected officers. 



The People's party met in convention at Ra- 

 leigh July 31 and nominated W. H. Worth for 

 State Treasurer, W. T. Faircloth for Chief Jus- 

 tice, and Walter Clark, D. M. Furches, and H. 

 G. Connor for Associate Justices. Faircloth and 

 Furches are Republicans, and Clark and Connor 

 are Democrats. The nominations were in ac- 

 cordance with a resolution declaring that the 

 party held it as a principle that the office of 

 judge should be filled irrespective of party affili- 

 ations. 



The platform reaffirmed the principles of the 

 party ; declared in favor of free and unlimited 

 coinage of gold and silver in the ratio of 16 to 

 1 ; denounced the Democratic and Republican 

 parties for their 'action on silver ; denounced 



both the McKinley tariff and the Wilson bill ; 

 favored a graduated tax on incomes, prohibition 

 of the practice of dealing in futures, restricted 

 immigration, and election of United States Sen- 

 ators by popular vote ; and said further : We 

 demand 



The abolition of national banks and the substitution 

 of legal tender Treasury notes to supplement the use 

 of gold and silver money issued in sufficient volume 

 to do the business of the country on a cash system. 



We denounce both the Republican and De'mocratic 

 parties for contracting the currency of the country 

 while population and business increases, and also for 

 the further crime of issuing interest-bearing bonds in 

 times of peace. 



It declared opposition to strikes as wrong in 

 principle and tending to infraction of law, and 

 urged the use of the ballot as the best way to 

 improve the condition of labor ; it condemned 

 the extravagance prevailing at Washington, in 

 reference to which it was said : 



The present Administration, the present Senate and 

 Congress, seems to be composed largely of men who 

 are outstripping their predecessors. Some of them 

 are old-timers, and their new associates have caught 

 the infection. The money power, whisky, sugar, 

 and other monopolies are represented in the Cabinet 

 and in both Houses of Congress. At present we have 

 a Government of, for, and by trusts and monopolies. 

 In striking contrast to the above we point with pride 

 to the clean records made by our little band of Peo- 

 ple's party, Senators, and Congressmen. Always at. 

 the post of duty, never arrested to make a quorum, un- 

 selfish, fearless, incorruptible, like true Spartans, they 

 have stood by tlieir pledges to a rnan. 



On State matters the platform favored four 

 months of school in the year as the minimum for 

 each race ; condemned the Democratic party for 

 its failure to execute the antitrust laws on the 

 statute books, and for the failure to prosecute 

 the officers of broken banks : favored establish- 

 ment of a reformatory for young criminals ; con- 

 demned the General Assembly for extravagance 

 and failure to collect back taxes from certain 

 railroad corporations; and charged frauds in the 

 election of 1892 by the Democratic party, "by 

 which thousands of citizens who had voted for 

 years under the same registration were deprived 

 of their suffrage, by which ballots of the Peo- 

 ple's party, after being delivered to poll holders 

 to be properly deposited were destroyed in ' bull 

 pens ' and other dark-hole voting places, and bal- 

 lots for the Democratic party were substituted ;. 

 by which false returns were made ; by which 

 county canvassing boards, with autocratic pow- 

 er, threw out many townships which gave ma- 

 jorities for the People's party, to such an extent 

 as to put in power a minority party." 



The Republican convention met Sept. 5 at 

 Raleigh. On a vote that was virtually a test of 

 the question of uniting with the People's party 

 in the election the yeas were 154 to 30 nays. The 

 nominees of that party were made the nominees 

 of the Republicans. The resolutions favored a 

 protective tariff and the Blaine system of reci- 

 procity ; free coinage of the entire product of 

 American mines at the ratio of 16 to 1, and even- 

 tually international bimetallism and repeal of the 

 internal-revenue taxes on whisky, brandy, and 

 tobacco, calling attention to the increase of such 

 taxes under Democratic administration ; favored 

 also repeal of the present system of county gov- 



