The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-19
A CALL TO YERKES
Deal Case Gives Him a
Chance.
Let Him Come to North Carolina and
Put in Practical Operation His
Blanket Ideas About DeCenCY
Even if the Hole He Makes
in Party 0nIy Leaves the
Rind.


in Wilkesboro by Revenue Deputy
Hasty stood by With a drawn pistol
and dared anyone to interfere, gives
Mr.. Commissioner Yerkes the oppor-
tunity of his life to start an investiga-
tion that might tend to make the Re-
n1hlican party more decent by elimi-
mating a number of the raScalS in the
ranks and putting them into Federal
prisons.
1t will be remembered that Mr. Deal
was assaulted on account OF an edl-
torial which he published in his paper
in which he simply voiced the charges
that have been for long time going
the rounds of common talk in Wilkes
and other counties that the revenue
officers prosecuted only such violatorS
of the law as were Of opposite political
faith and that they had established q
regular scheme of graft with a GER
tain and fixed scale of prices for pro
lection
In the editorial, which was produced
in Yesterday mornings paper, Mr.. Deal
called no names; he simply attacked
the SYSTEM 1t was that which called
forth the brutal assault, which in its
turn will most aSsuredly call forth an
investigation which will turn on the
light. Mr.. Yerkes be brave enough to
make the investigation and start the
necessary prosecution himself, or will
il have to come from other source
1t sometimes takes a thing like the
Deal assault to open a sore; but out
RACES of that description USUALLY have
the good end that they force disclos-
ures of conditions which would other
wise be permitted to smell and be
half-hid.
Gentlemen from Wilkes who are in
the city stated yesterday that the al
fair was a most brutal one. Editor
Deal is a small man and he had been
sick for some days and was very
weak. His opponent. burly man, it
now turns out, was armed with brass
knucks. while as stated, his compan-
ion stood by with pistol threatening
to SCOT anyone who should come to Mr..
Deals aid.
Reports of the revenue practices in
the West indicate a state of affairs
that would be possible only under the
most corrupt political conditions.
Most of the distilleries are in the
Eighth District, the home of Spencer
Blackburn for political purposes. The
deputies are Blackburn henchmen to
man, and from all reports they
are making the most of the advantages
OF his supremacy in the administration
1t is stated that the sysetm of corrup-
ton has been reduced to an exact
SCIENCE that each moonshiner is as
sessed so much for a failure OF the
officers to find his still. the price paid
being graduated according to the ca
pacity of the business Sthat every dis
tiller, government and irregular, is IN
cluded in this assessment and are notl-
fed before the periodical visits Of the
officers so that they may be out of
sight when they come, or have their
distilleries in ship shape for the occa-
sion. Reports of the most ugly char
actert are rife and there are instances
cited in which distilers, on the change
of officers have beenRin a swivel of
fear until they sought wise political
advice as to how to get next" Ia
the district around Salisbury it is OPP
emily staetd, and there are those who
speak with authorize Of information
that is percise, that almost every rev.
enue officer is a regular recipient of
blarkmail largesse from the distillers.
The Deal assault naturally brings
all this scandal and corruption to
head and the perpetrators are said
to be very badly scared, not on ac-
count of impending punishment for
the assault itself, brutal as it was and
severe as the punishment should be,
but because of the revelations it is
expected to bring out and the un-
comfortable testimony that it may in
woke. The two men and their friends
are doing everything in their power
say the gentlemen from Wilkes, to
stop the proceedings, to compromise,
to lie down, or to take any medicine
almost that they might be asked to
take. There is stir in Wilkes which
is but in its first stage.
All this puts it "up to" Mr.. Yerkes.
The scandal calls to him aloud 1t
gives him an opportunity to prove the
sincerity of the glowing platithdes
about honesty and decency in which
he INDUCED at the Greensboro "ban-
ket," which were so loudly applauded
by the Revenue hands who sat apage
under his eloquence, tasting the
strang champagne liquor and wrig-
Cling red wrists under strange cuffs
and squirming in their dress clothes
What is Mr.. Yerkes going to do about
it. If he unearths all the corruption
in the revenue circles in North Car
olina and convicts every rascal in the
service, he will make his party in
the State UNNECESSARILY more "de-
cent" but he will carve a hole in its
midst which will leave little to it ex-
cent the thread of it's RIM
They are calling you, Mr.. Yerkes.
Come and let's be decent.