Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-06-14
ISSUE NOT PERSONAL.
Question Whether State is to be Sur.
r.nderad "a Cornoration ControI

rendered TO Corporation Control.
The frogs once upon q time. so the
story runs, clamored for a king, and
the stork possessing a loud voice and
lordly mein announced himself as a
candidate. He was elected and imme-
diately turned all the storks loose on
the frogs, who were speedily devour-
ed. This may not be exactly ala
Aesop. but It illustrates fairly well the
condition in South Carolina.
The great, living, vital issue today
before the American people is wheth-
er this country shall be q trust gov
erned oligarchy or a republic where
all shall be equal. The trusts were so
badly stirred up during Roosevelts g
second term, that they are making a
determined effort to capture the ma
|chinery Of both parties. It does not
matter to them whether state be Re-
publican or Democrat, so the. trusts
control. They are represented In each
state by the sharpest, shrewdest law
yers money can buy, and every time
there Is a vacancy they slip one or
these corporation lawyers on the
bench, so that today they absolutely
control the Federal courts.
Recently they saw what they re.
garded a chance. Blease endeavored
to get the general assembly to inquire
into one of these great trusts-the
mill merger, and they set about to nnd
some way to punish him for having
such insolence as TO question their
methods, so they went down to the
supreme court room Of this state and
whispered softly into the ear OF the
chief Justice, that II Blease was re-
elected and got a Blease legislature
with him II would mean that his own
head would fall into the basket at the
next session of the general assembly.
They showed him the governors man.
sion, and then down long vista the
United States Capitol, wealth, ease and
honor. The gray beard and hoary
head of the chief justice was no pro-
lection against their insidious wiies.
With one hand In the attorney for the
Seaboard railroad and the other In the
hand of the president Of the mill mer-
ger he Is led into dark
closet where unseen hands strip the
robe from his shoulders, and he comes
forth to wallow in the mire and dirt
of politics.
Is q governor, courts and legislature
subservient to trust influence the price
the state Is to pay to get rid OF
"Bleaseism?" His opponents must re-
gard him bigger man than even his
friends do. They magnify his faults,
and by this means they seek to cap
ture the state. Their first step was to
get control Of the party machinery,
and to adopt rule which gives them
the power to deprive many from vot-
ing in the primary. We refer to the
challenging rule which makes the
county executive committee the deter
miner of the challenges. This Is the
- kh~ h,,a
as II each hired trust attorney was
assigned his part in the conspiracy.
The mill merger, and railroads In
control of the legislature and the gov
ernor, with the party machinery in the
hands Of the attorney for the Western
Union and Bell Telephone company,
we predict the rules will be further
changed 80 that there will be enough
ignorant whites disfranchised to keep
this trust employed crew In control
for the next twenty years.
II Blease Is reelected and he does
not give satisfaction he can be gotten
rid of In two years The most he can
do Is to make appointments and to ex-
ercise his pardoning power, but the
great moneyed interests which are ap-
parently at this time backing Jones,
cannot be throttled except by revolu-
tlOll, OHCc lcl luCil 6ct I'D Wy thS
throat This element does not care
particularly for Judge Jones PERSONAL
ly, but at this time he is the only In
strument they can use to pry from the
peoples grasp the control OF the gov
ernment. Had Blease permitted them
to have their way unmolested, they
would not have taken the deep inter-
est they have manifested, but his agi-
tating the matter Of their efforts to
combine the Industrial interests 30 as
to control the price Of cotton and la
Dor, aroused them to squelch him now
that his successor will fear to follow
his example. .. .-..
We differ with many. 1t is not a
question of Blease or Jones, but the
most serious crisis since 1875. Judge
Jones Is perhaps unaware Of how he
Is being used, did they tell him, he
would resent 1t and turn upon them
with indignation. He has been retired
for fifteen years or more In judicial
cyclone cellar, but IL he had studied
the methods Of those who are behind
him in this movement, and watched
the developments at the state conven-
tion he must have seen vision Of
what is to be.-Manning Times.