Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-10-10
YERKES WEAK At HOME
Candidate for Supreme Court Not
Strong Among His Neighbors.
A MAN OF VIOLENT PREJuDIcEs

He Is Assured Of Defeat Should He
Aspire to Reelection to the Com.
mon Pleas Bench In Bucks County
at the Coming Election.
Special correspondence from
Doylestown tells of the weakness of
the Democratic candidate for the SUI
preme bench, who at the instance of
the Wanamaker interest in Philadel-
phta has been placed upon the Union
party ticket.
Judge Harman Yerkes, of Doyles-
town. the Democratic and anti-Repub-
lican candidate for Judge of the state
supreme court" says a Doylestown
correspondent, has presided over the
courts of Bucks county for nearly 18
years. He was first elected judge by
more than thousand Democratic ma
jority. At the close of his first term
he was renominated and elected by
the bare majority of about 230 votes.
The prediction has been repeatedly
made in Bucks county lately that he
cannot be reelected to another term
because of the enemies he has made
Ii and out of his party. His second
election as judge of the Bucks county
courts was only made possible by the
votes of Republicans who supported
his candidacy.
During his second term he has de.
veloped the attributes of czar He
has assumed to regulate and manage
ffnfr IN, =,
only despotlc ruler would do He
has commanded grand juries to do his
biddingas no other judge in these days
is known to do. He has gone far out
OF his way to exert his power, and has
lost the esteem of many of the best
people of Bucks county
MAN OF VIOLENT PREJUDICES.
Judge Yerkes is man of strong
and violent prejudices. These preiu-
dices he carries upon the bench and
allows them to control him in certain
instances. Up to the first nomination
OF Bryan he was an intensely bitter
Democrat, but in the first Bryan cam
patgn he sunk his partisanship and
opposed Bryan's election. For this he
has never been forgiven by straight
out Democrats.
During that campaign, as an illus
tration, Judge Yerkes came to dislike
certain Democrat IN Doylestown who
was enthusiastic in support of Bryan
This man headed company which
later applied to court for distillery
license Judge Yerkes, many believed,
declined to issue the license because
of his difference with this man on the
Bryan issue. The case was carried to
the supreme court, which directed
Judge Yerkes to issue the license, all
the conditions of the law having been
complied with.
I'm subsequent case, not at all con-
nected with the one referred to- Judge
Yerkes took occasion to utter a slur
upon the supreme court such as is
without parallel in the judicial his
tory of this commonwealth. That de-
liverance should be upon record in
the Bucks county courts, and might
have been made the basis of impeach-
ment proceedings had it been desired
to proceed in the matter.
The prejudices of Judge Yerkes are
many and deep-Seated. He is extreme
ly sensitive, and dislikes criticism. He
himself criticises freely, but he does
not want his views or his actions COM
mented upon adversely He resents
anything of this sort, and many Of his
opinions are burdened with this re-
sentiment.
During the early years of his pres
ent term the Republicans elected as
district attorney the county chairman
of that party. who directed the fight
against his reelection. That district
attorney had the most trying expert
ence that has ever befallen similar