Arizona republican., 1903-02-11
Secretary Roots Notable Speech.

Hon. Elihu Root, secretary of war, is one of the most forceful men, intel lectually, in the country. What he says is always sharply to the point, and he is never lacking in originality O. thought, or boldness of utterance. on Friday night of last week he made most notable speech before the unioh League Club in New York, and as the dispatches did not make extensive quo tations from his address, the country is just beginning to realize that 1t was Q remarkable deliverance. The occasion was the fortieth anniversa"y of the founding O, the famous club, and Mr. Roots speech dealt largely with the part which the Union League has taken in shaping the policies of the repub- lican party and of the government, and he referred without finching to the leading problems now before the Amer ican people. It was when he took up the. negro question:" however, that MT Root gave another exhibition of that independence of thought which IS peculiar to him. He frankly admitted that negro suffrage had been failure. Upon this subject he said:
 .sMr. Dodge referred just now to the march down Broadway of the negro regiments organized by this cluo. Within two years of the time of the foundation of this club the nation pro- vided that slavery should not exist in these United States or in any of the territories under their jurisdiction. Within five years the nation declared that the black men should be free and equal citizens. Within seven years. by the fifteenth amendment, it declared that no man should be deprived Of the right to vote by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
 '"These, my friends, embodied the scheme of thoughtful men for uplifting the slaves. You remember how difficult this question was. The question was what to do with the black man who had been slave from his infancy. The answer formed in these walls was: Give him citizenship, equal rights, and he will rise. And included was the inn piled opportunity to exercise these rights. I fear that we are compelled to face the conclusion that this expert ment has failed. The suffrage has been taken away from the black man III most of the states where he composea the larger part of the population. The black man of the south, in general, no longer has the privilege of the suf- frage. The right to aspire to office IS disputed, and, in a great measure, de- nied.
 "A curious development has been seen within the past year along this line. President Roosevelt has appointed few CT black men in the south than Presi- dent Mckinley. There are fewer black men holding office in the south than when Mckinley died Yet out cries are to be heard throughout tn, south against what is called President Rcosevelt's policy of appointing ne groes to office. when under Presidents Hayes. Garfield. Harrison and McKin- ley nothing was said and more were ap- pointed.
 "A few nights ago d black man hold ing office attended an official reception at the White House. There hasn't been Q time since the civil war when black men haven't held similar offices In Washington. At receptions black men holding these offices always attended Yet the attendance of this man at Pros ideft Roosevelt's reception was the sig nal for an outcry that the whites were being insulted by the attendance of th;s black man.
 "1 an showing that the same state Of official treatment of the black man meets a changed state of feeling. Tie right to enjoy federal office, form merly unquestioned, is now questioned
 Tt is only a question Of a short time when the blacks will be excluded from all the offices in the southern states. SO inc hoS to faa e of the plan adopted to elevate the blacks when they were freed. by con ferring upon them the suffraea-the failure to teach them the competency n enjoy live can never, never throw eff the responsibility resting OF our people for the welfare of these people. and the new question or what can be done for them, now that the first at tempt has failed, is one that challenges our best thought and patriotism.
 "I have said enough. Let me say but this: You did not labor in vain ir tI,is field The spirit for which you wrought still lives. You have elevated the char acter of American citizenship. an! there lives today. largely through your in- spiration men enough in this lacd, .Ie- voted to this country. competent to meet these problems, to perform the la Dor of good citizenship and carry on the blessings. which you saved from ex- tinction. to the remotest end of exist ence. And to that end, long live the Union League"
 Fer the first time since the suffrage was conferred on the black man. Q leader of the republican party and a high officer of the government has ac- knowledged that the experiment has been failure. As MT. Root points out, there is now in the south even less tol- erance for the negro as political equal