The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-03-30
YERKES IS SOLICtTOUS.
peplores "Poiitieai Peonase" In tho
the South, In Speech at Banquet
in Honor Of Vice President.

w GVNIaoC W WV TICSiSSuss
Three hundred guests, including re-
publicans of prominence from all parts
Of North Carolina and other states,
attended the banquet OF the Tar Heel
Club at Greensboro, N. c., Wednesday
night, at which Vice President Fair
banks and Revenue Commissioner
Yerkes were the principal guests c.
honor.
There was a tremendous ovation as
the vice president arose, and, after
a few preliminary statements, said he
would not make 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-American war.
Republican government was ordafh.
ed to. promote justice; to secure each
and all in the fullest possible enjoy
ment Of equal right and privileges un.
der the law. Every American must
stand before the law upon plane OF
perfect equality with bic fellow-Amer-
leans. Our laws must be inspired by
a sense Of justice.
Let rs 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
popular government. They have ex-
listed from the earliest days Of the
republic. and they will continue to the
end. It is of vital Importance, there
fore. that they should be high-minded
and patriotic; that tney: should stand
for those measures which are whole
some and which tend to advance to
tho utmost degree the public veal.
They should support sound and con-
servative policies 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.
Terkes, who delivered the longest ad-
dress Of the night, concluding at 11:45
amid the widest applause.
Commissioner Yerkes spoke on "Po-
Iitical Peonage In the South" He
said in part:
"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, inherited belief, ancestral ten
denotes, when existing conditions,
dominant and rational, demanded the
surrender. They obeyed the call OF
their present, and met the demands
OF that present. Yet many OF thei:
children, men Of high standing and
admirable traits, today are democrats,
not because the present demands It
but because a phantom, a specter, a
shade, a. political bugaboo, made and
used for personal, selfish political in
terests and called negro domination.
frightens them. from the path OF
known civic duty and honest pollti-
cal action. The result is political Pc
onage-political serfdom, thralldom to
a man of straw. That specter, and be-
cause some say it is not respectable
to be a republican in the south, make
some Of you dishonest politically.
"You demand that the north and
east shall keep hands of and allow
you to work out certain problems,
which, though national, affect you pri-
marily. You say, have confidence in
US. We know best. But. gentlemen,
do YOU always do best? Don't we
know better than you do? Do you a.
tract confidence when you openly and
boldly vote against every principle and
policy which experience declares help
full to the high interests OF this ma
tion yourselves included?"
Toasts we're responded to by vari-
GUS guests, among them one by ex-
Superior Court Judge Tmberlake, who
said in closing:
"The signs now point to the nomi-
nation 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.
er compliment than to say that chas.
w. Fairbanks will be a worthy sue
cessor Of Theodore Roosevelt"