The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-23
MIR. FAIRBANKS'S BOOM
START GIVEN AT GREENSBORO, N.
 C., BANQUET.
Judge Tfmberlake Says He VIII Be Nominated and Elected-Yerkes Gives the Tar Heels Some
 Free Advice.

S., hundred guests. including Republicans and other States, attended the banquet of the Tar Heel Club here tonight at which Vice. President Fairbanks and Revenue Commissioner Yerkes were the principal guests of honor. On calling the meeting to order, the toastmaster, Hon. E. Spencer Blackburn. read telegram of regret from Postmaster General Cortelyou regretting that he could not be present. The toastmaster then delivered a short address in which he congratulated the Republicans of the State upon the elimination of the race issue and the dawning of a better political day in this section.
 Vice-President Fairbanks followed MT. Blackburn. There was a tremend- ous ovation as he arose and after a few preliminary statements said he would not make a partisan speech. He told of the elimination of sectional lines and raised much applause by re- ferring to General Joseph Wheeler's part in the Spanish h-American war. Re- publican government was ordained to promote justice; to secure each and all in the fullest possible enjoyment of equal rights and privileges under the law. Every American must stand be- fore the law upon a plane of perfect equality with his fellow-Americans Our laws must be inspired by a sense of justice at the fireside, in the school room, in the pulpit, in the press, in the counting house. in the factory. Yes, teach it everywhere for without justice abides with us government is a mock cry. Let us safeguard the rights of property; protect that which honest and patient industry has acquired. But first of all and better than all, preserve inviolate the rights of men of low and high degree.
 Political parties are essential in pop ular government. They have existed from the earliest days of the republic and they will continue to the end. It is of vital importance therefore that they should be high minded and pa triotic; that they should stand for those measures which are wholesome and which tend to advance to the utmost degree the public veal. They should support sound and conservative poli- cies which are the only foundation of industrial and social progress and of enduring national greatness.
 The Vice President was followed by Revenue Commissioner John W. Yerkes who delivered the longest address of the night, concluding amid the widest applause. He spoke on Political Pe- onage in the South" After calling att tention to evidences of prosperity in North Carolina and saying that the new structures all bore the sign Built since 1896" he continued:
 Your ancestors, men and women broke away from servitude, religious and political, and sought freedom of action, of heart and conscience here. They flung away family ties, tradi- tions. dominent and rational, demanded the surrender. They obeyed the call of their present and met the demands or that present. Yet many of their children, men of high standing and ad- mtrable traits. today are Democrats not because the present demands 1t, but be- cause phantom,a spectre,a shade a po- litical bugaboo made and used for per- sonal, selfish political interests. and called negro domination, frightens them from the path of known civic duty and honest political action. The result is political peonage-political serfdom, thralldom to a man of straw. That spectre, and because some say 1t Is not respectable to be a Republican in the South, make some of you dishonest politically"
 Further on he said: You demand that the North and East shall keep hands or and allow you to work out certain problems which, though na- tional. affect you primarily. You say, have confidence in us. we know best.' But. gentlemen. do you always do best? Don't you know better than you 10? Do you attract confidence when you openly and boldly vote against ev- cry principle and policy which experi- ence declares helpful to the high in- terests of this nation, yourselves in- cluded?'
 Toasts were responded to by various guests, among them one by e-Superior Court Judge Timberlake who said In closing:
 ''The signs now point to the nomina- ton for President four years hence of a distinguished citizen who has hon. ored us by his presence tonight. His election Is just as certain if these signs be verified, by the next National Convention as was that of President Roosevelt and I can pay him no high CT compliment than to say that Charles w. Fairbanks will be a worthy suc- cessor of Theodore Roosevelt"