Dist Ex Board [handwritten at top]

January 7th, 1918.

Mr. J. A. Hartness,
Statesville, N.C.

My dear Mr. Hartness:-

I thank you for your letter of the 5th, and I assume that by this time you have read my letter to Mr. Gibson written on the same day that you wrote me. I am deeply grateful to you and to the people of Iredell county for your loyal support in the Primary. I stand ready at all times to evidence that gratitude in every possible way. I think that the best way to show that gratitude is to make the kind of Governor that your best thought will approve. This has been my constant effort since taking my oath of office. Therefore in discharging the grave and responsible duties thrust upon me by this world tragedy I have had to be blind to every consideration save the public service. You know probably better than anybody else the vast amount of trouble there has been with the work the Western District Board. It has been intensely difficult to find men who are willing to give to the work of the Board the time necessary to efficiently carry on the work. I tried Mr. Cansler as the lawyer, and after awhile Mr. Cansler wrote me that he simply could not stay on the board without practically giving up his law practice, and this he did not feel able to do. I tried Mr. Kluttz and his health broke down. Mr. Scales is the only man in Western North Carolina who has volunartily said to me that he was willing to give all of his time, all of his thought and all of his energy to this job. I would rather have a man of this kind on the job and have the Board meet in a cave in the Brushy mountains than to have one less able or less willing to do the work under any circumstances. I have never attempted to dictate to the boards, district or local, where they should meet, or whom they should elect chairman. I want the work done, and if a majority of the members of the Board as at present constituted believe that the work can be done more intelligently and more expeditiously at Greensboro than at Statesville, then their decision to remove their headquarters will meet with my most emphatic approval. I do not think the question of geography is one that has anything whatever to do with the kind of work that the board will do. It is a question of whether the men on the board believe that they can give to this work the most attention. My experience both with the Eastern and Western district leads me to believe that it would have been better if in the first instance I had appointed all five members of the district board from one county, then the board could have been practically in continuous session and the lamentable mistakes that have been made could not have occurred. When the members of the district board come to consider a case not one of them in my opinion, considers for a second whether the registrant hails from Cherokee or from Currituck. They simply analyze the facts that appear in the record. I am profoundly convinced that the other members of the Board and the public will soon see that the appointment of Mr. Scales on the Board is the very best appointment that could possibly have been made. The people are interested in the character of the work done, and are not concerned about where the Board meets. The people are not allowed under the regulations to go before the Board in person. Their cases can be heard only upon certified records.

Wishing you the largest measure of success and happiness, and assuring you and the people of Iredell of my grateful appreciation of all that you have done for me, I beg to remain,

Sincerely your friend,

[unsigned]

B_G