The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-28
Spirit of the Press
somebody Ought 10 Sell MIR. Ne"kcs a
Cold Brick


Gold Brick.
Wilmington Star.
Commissioner Yerkes is said to be
"a good fellow" but his speech at
Greensboro showed bad taste in sew
eraI particulars The worst WAS IN
criticising North CarolinianS on ac-
count of their race sensibilitieS in poll
ties, the second in displaying presump-
tousness if not bumptiousness IN the
intimation that men in the South are
Democrats because they don't know
any better. This, spoken in the midst
of North Carolinians, was insulting
"Yet many Of their (North Carolin-
iansD children, men of high standing
and admirable traits, today are Dem
ocrats not because the present de-
mands it, but because phantom.
spectre, a shade, q political DugaDop
made and used for personal, selfish
political interests. and called negro
domination, frightens them from the
path of known civic duty and honest
political action. The result is pom /
cal peonagc-polital surfdOm, thral-
dom to q man of straw. That spectre,
and because some say i: is nor respcc-
table to be a Republina in the Sonfn,
make some of yoI dishonest pOliti-
Cally.'
The people of North Carolina got
a terribly gripping dose of Mr.. Yerkes
party in reconstruction days anu IN
the period Of mongreligm from 1892
TO 1898, when the 'pha1tom was
so real and it's practice Of peona@a on
decency and honesty was so dis
gushing and CALLING th;lt the men Of
North Carolina rightly made foot
mat of it. They will do the Demo-
cratic party that way, too, If it were
ever to descend to the menialism OF
RepH blicanism i'm North Carolina and
the Republican party were washed O.
it's nauseating odor. North Carollnlans
are a hard-sensed people and the
appeal TO reason catches them every
time. They have been sufficiently
amused with and got enough of Mr..
Yerkes' party until some process of
fumigation that will really fulaigate
shall have been discovered. For the
present and prospectively the Pepubll-
can party disturbs the, nostrils of n )rth
Carolinians more than the s,hHck,c3 OF
political peonage chafe them
Somebody ought to sell Mr. 9crkes
gold brick Hear him: AS You
came here you saw on every side new
homes. new school houses, academy
and college buildings, new churches
new storehouses, new mills, new fac
tories, the paint not dry on the wood,
the mortar not hard between the
bricks, all bearing the sign built since
1896. Built under Republican leader
ship. Built under Mckinley and
Roosevelt. But you met at your sta
tons, in the depot buildings aboard
the cars, on the streets of Greensboro
perhaps in this room, and | am glad
they are here, men who is 1896, in
1900, and in / 904 voted the Democratic
ticket. but prayed for Republican sue
cess
Every one who prayed to the
Moloch of Republicanism and voted
the other way showed that they didn (
believe their faithless inquiry would be
justified. Yet all of those neg
homes new school houses. academy
and college buildings, new churches
new storehouscs, new mills, new rae
tories etc, would have been built
despite of the Republican ~ the DEM
ocratic party. They are the product
of the intelligence and industry Of the
people of North Carolina and anybody
with enough brains to grease II gimlet
knows that politics doesn't put up any
thing However, had not Mr.. Ierkes'
party fy-blowed the South for So
many years after they cult lighting
and then had their fleece pulled there
is no telling just how many more
homes, and school houses and -ac-
| tories they might have had by this
time.