February 25th, 1918.

Mr. L. V. Bassett,
Rocky Mount, N.C.

My dear Bassett:-

Your letter of the 22nd received, and I deeply regret that you construed my letter of the 16th as a censure of the Edgecombe County Board. Every member of this Board is a warm personal friend of mine and for every member of it I entertain sentiments of affectionate esteem. I think it would be a grievous blow to the due administration of the law to accept the resignation of any member of this Board. The Government needs your services.

The letter was written because of the complaint that a great many married people were being placed in Class one by the Edgecombe Board. The day the letter was written there was a man in the office who complained that in some cases men with wives and as many as two children were being placed in Class One. I cannot, to save my life, believe that the law intends to put a single man and a man who has a wife and is supporting her in good faith in the same class. Of course this does not apply to cases of marriage since May last. In those cases I can well understand how the local boards could put a man in Class one and be abundantly justified in so doing. It is not my purpose to substitute my judgment for the judgment of your Board. The final responsibility rests with you, but I think that your Board is entitled to the protection of my opinion and to know that I will stand by you in your refusal to put married men in Class One where they are good husbands and are supporting their families.

I believe as firmly in the correctness of this principle as I believe in the Sermon on the Mount. I want you men to know that I will stand by you in the application of this principle, and I sincerely trust that you will disabuse your mind of any idea that I was intending to censure your Board.

Sincerely your friend,

[unsigned]

B_G

Copy to Mr. George Howard,
Tarboro, N.C.