The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-23
Fairbanks and YtrkS are Guests
 of Honor
ARE WE POLITICAL PEOyE; Z l;
Mir. Yerkes Says South Is Df o5os s4tlc Only Because of the Neg, .a- boo-Fairbanks 3
 Launched,

l Greensboro. N. C., March 22-Three hun dred guests including republicans of prominence from all parts of the state, attended the banquet of the Tar Heel
 club here tonight, at which Vice Pres ident Fairbanks and Revenue Commis-
 soner Yerkes were the principal guests of honor
 l On calling the meeting to order, the toastmaster, Hon. E. Spencer Blackburn.
 read telegram of regret from Postmas-
 ter General CorteIyou 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 is- sue and the dawning of 8 better po-
 litical day in this section.
 Fairbanks Gets an Ovation. Vice President Fairbanks followed MT.
 Blackburn. There was tremendous ova- tion as he arose and after few prelim- mary statements he said he would not
 make partisan speech. He told of the | elimination of sectional lines and raised much applause by referring to Gen. Joseph Wheelers part in the Spanish
 American war. Republican government
 was ordained to promote justice; to se-
 cure each and all in the fullest possible enjoyment of equal rights and privileges under the law. Every American must stand before the law upon plane of perfect equality with his fellow Amer
 jeans. Our laws must be inspired by a
 sense of justice Let us teach the love l., fIo crhn 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 mockery. 1 Let us safeguard the rights of proper I ty; protect that which honest and pa l tient industry has acquired. But first | of all and better than all, preserve in violate the rights of men of low and high degree. Political parties are essential in pepu- | lar 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 l be high minded and patriotic; 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 conser- vative politics which are the only founda- ton of industrial and social progress and
 of enduring national greatness.
 Yerkes on Political Peonage. The e-President was followed by Revenue Commissioner Yerkes, who made the longest address of the night, con-
 cluding amid the widest applause: Mr. Yerixes spoke on Political Peon- age in the South" After calling atten- tion to evidences of prosperity in North
 Carolina, and saying that the new struc-
 lures all bore the sign built since 1896, '' he continued:
 Your ancestors, men and women broke away from servitude. religious and polti- cal, and sought freedom of action of heart and conscience here. They flung away family ties, traditions, inherited belief, ancestral tendencies when existing conditions, dominant and rational de- manded the surrender They obeyed the cah of their present and met the demands of that present. Yet many of their chill dren. men of high standing and admirable traits, today are democrats not because
 the present demands 1t, but because a phantom, a spectre, a shade, a political Dugaboo made and used for personal
 selfish political interests, and called ne-
 gro domination, frightens them from the
 path of known civic duty and honest political action. The result Is political peonage-politcal serfdom thraldom to
 man of straw. That spectre. and because
 some say it is not respectable to be republican in the south. make some of you dishonest politically"
 Further on he said:
 You demand that the north and east
 shall keep hands off and allow you to
 work out certain problems, which though
 national 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 do? Do you attract confidence when you openly
 and boldly vote against every principle
 and policy which experience declares help full to the high interests of this nation, yourselves included?"
 Several Respond to Toast.