Some Veteran Servants
Heing
»
partial list «if so
ни*
«if the men who
have given faithful service to North Caro¬
lina in various departments for ai l«ing
peri«i«l of time.
THE Master awarded the follow¬
ing citation to one of his devot¬
ed followers: “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over
many." Such a citation might well
be applied to some of those who
have served our State with years
of unfailing and unflagging devo¬
tion, and I would that limitation
of space prevents some mention of
them all. but the purview of this
article will not admit reference to
more than a few of the conspicuous
examples:
RUFUS
Л.
DOUC.I1TON, of
Allegheny County, has held prob¬
ably more different positions of
public trust than has any other
man within our borders, and surely
our State never had a servant who
possessed the confidence of the
Kle to a larger extent than he.
’as the Democratic floor leader
in the House of Representative for
many long years, always being
chairman of the Committee on
Finance, and being charged with
the writing of the bi-annual Reve¬
nue and Machinery Acts; and no
man possessed more influence with
the General Assembly than he. He
is one of the few Carolinians who
have served both as Speaker of
the House and who has also served
as Lieutenant Governor. He is one
of the ablest lawyers and finest
executives our State ever pos¬
sessed; and when Frank Page
passed away, Doughton was called
upon to head the Highway Depart¬
ment, one of the few men com¬
petent to succeed Major Page in
such a capacity. When a scandal
in the Revenue Department rocked
the State, and when the Governor
wished to head the Department
with a man who would undoubt¬
edly command the confidence of
every citizen of the State without
regard to political party, Morrison
instinctively named ' Governor
Doughton as Commissioner of
Revenue, a trust which he dis¬
charged with rare ability and
fidelity. Today at the age of al¬
most ninety, he can still be seen
in his law' office; and he serves
as President of the Northwestern
By R. C. LAWRENCE
Bank, the largest chain bank in
Northwestern Carolina. Surely his
is a nomen venerabile in our State.
ALLEN J. MAXWELL has been
in the active and continuous serv¬
ice of the State since the turn of
the century. He was reading clerk
in the Senate when the Democrats
made the abortive attempt to im¬
peach the Republican Supreme
Court Judges during the Aycock
administration, and his ability at¬
tracted the attention of the party
leaders, and he was elected as
Clerk of the Corporation Commis¬
sion. Here he absorbed informa¬
tion concerning common carriers
and public utilities as water is
absorbed by a sponge; his mind
became simply saturated with
freight and passenger tariffs, dif¬
ferentials; ton miles; kilowatt
hours and such data. Such was his
manifest genius on this field that
lie was soon named as a member
of the Commission, and while he
never served as its Chairman, he
was universally recognized as the
one strong figure thereon, and he
received national recognition from
Public Utility Commissions. Such
was his genius in the field of taxa¬
tion. that he was placed at the
head of the Department of Reve¬
nue, and he gave to that Depart¬
ment a new birth of freedom.
When money was needed, Max¬
well could point out the best source
from which to get it; and he was for
many years recognized as the great¬
est authority in the State on the
questions pertaining to taxation
and revenue. He knew to the last
dollar how much a tax of so many
mills per hundred dollars would
produce from intangibles in Gaston
County; and how much revenue
could be realized from a tax of
$10.00 on junk dealers. So author¬
itative was he in his specialty, that
when he was relieved of his duties
as Commissioner of Revenue on
account of advancing years and
declining health, the State was not
to entirely lose the benefit of his
storehouse of tax information, but
he was called upon to head a new
Department of Tax Research, and
he can still find out every now and
then some source of revenue ns
yet undiscovered by either the
State or Federal authorities — be¬
lieve it or not!
WALTER MURPHY of Salisbury
has served the State in but one ca¬
pacity— that of legislator, but he
enjoys the distinction of having
served in more sessions of the
General Assembly than any living
man, and he is the only living
Carolinian who presided over three
sessions of the House of Repre¬
sentatives as its Speaker. He has
been conspicuous in his devotion
to the University, of which he has
been a working trustee for more
than half a century. While not as
an official, he has served the State
in other ways, for he is a walking
encyclopaedia of Carolina history,
and I doubt if any man within
our borders today can produce
such a mass of facts and figures
accurate to the last detail— con¬
cerning our State history as cun
this venerable son of Rowan. Now
in his declining years the last ses¬
sion of the General Assembly saw
him in Raleigh as Liaison Clerk
between the House and Senate,
and wherever Murphy was to be
found, there clustered around him
was a group of legislators hearing
him reminisce of the days of Vance
and Aycock, of Clark and Connor,
and other great characters in the
history of our State. He too has
rendered our people “some serv¬
ice.”
DOCTOR JULIUS I. FOUST,
President emeritus of the Woman's
College at Greensboro, was con¬
nected with that institution from
the time when it was founded
by Charles D. Mclver as the State
Normal and Industrial College,
way back in the 'nineties. He was
for more than forty years the out¬
standing President of the College
and saw it grow and expand from
a tiny normal school into a
great College. On its campus he is
(Continued on page 17)
3
