The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-10
TAFT TALKS STRAIGHT OUT Speaks to North Carolina
 Republicans. THE HANKERING FOR OFFICE Strongly Condemned by the Seere-
 tary of War. Has No Fault To Find With State Ccnstitution that Debars the Ig- aerant and Criminal From
 Suffrage.
THE HANKERlNG FOR OFFICE

Greensboro, N. C., July s--secretary of War Taft tonight delivered ms speech to the North Carolina Repub- licans on the eve of their State con- vention. The local opera house was packed to overfiowing by throng eager to hear she Secretary of War, and hundreds were turned away be- cause of the limited size of the hall.
 Secretary Taft in opening said that meeting the committee advised him that 'sfhe political situation was sucn that If the proper effort was made at the coming election 1t would pc pos publican party" The secretary added: T believe that nothing that could hap pen in the politics in this country country at large. and to the South in particular than the breaking up of what has been popularly known as the Solid South I say this in no partisasn issn think that this result would necessa- rily increase the probability of the continuance In power of the Republt-
 'The soiidity of the South has in a measure furnished its own antidote in restraining many voters in the North who might have left the RePunlc,ahn ,ha injustice and danger of Southern po- litical conditions.
 The south has been kept solid by the spectre of negro domination and by stirring up racial prejudices and arous- Ing unfounded alarm over an fmpossi- ble return of reconstruction days.
 After a long struggle,r he added, s'the negroes vote was made to count for nothing and then the political lead CTS of the dominant party, came to reai1 society that followed in a government If law was fiouted- and fraud was to constitute it's basis. They cast about to make the law square with existing qualifications which should exclude the negro. They adopted amendments to State constitutions with the so-called the new qualifications to the negro and
 Cannot Be Criticized.
 to hs frsms sseIs'i law aia essabiishins sn eda- cationai qualification for suffrage which wifi stand the test of the fif. teenth arnendment and which will not operate ultimately to exclude impar- tfaliy the negroes and whites from the ballot who lack educational acquire ment, A policy in the South. he said tiaIiy blacks and whites. when ignor- ant and irresponsible. cannot be criti- cized.
 pointed out a period of unprecedented prosperity has come for the fair South
 under the circumstances" he said. '1t Is not to be expected that the sen- sible, clear headed business Inen of the South do not perceive the tre- mendous disadvantage under which the one party with any voice in their State governments and in being herded to-. gether always as the hidebound sup country no matter what wild faliacies 1t may adopt in it's platform nor what candidate 1t may put before the coun- try:
 trial conditions in eliminating the cry of the negro domination from the poll tiles of former slave owning States has States. West Virginia has become per manently Republican and Maryland and Missouri put themselves in the Repub- lican column in the last PresidentiaI election while Kentucky nearly brought forth works meet for repentenance in the first Mckinley campaign"
 The question which should address the South. the secretary said, is how much longer The spectre of things past" is to hold them to political communities of the sinestfmabie bens- Of two parties. each of which. if it does wrong. has real chance of be- ing punished for it's misconduct"
 Mr. Taft contended that if the South ern people had kept up with the times, their sentiments on the diving isAues Of the day instead of allowing themselves to be frightened by a spectre and d Saaao% or Sne pas thsir political n nifcance of their views on measures and men would have been vastly enhanced"
 The south And Protection.
 He said that although much of the protective tarlff. It's representatfves in a national Con2ress vote unhcsitat- ingly for the proposition that a pro- for the beneft of the few. that T ai- though a great majority of the South ern people are strongly su favor of n" pines untii thS sacred @ n trust e tmna.sd pn6ip by circumstances shall have been high ly and fully. discharged. they never theless permit the Democratic party in ulate the false cry of anti-imperfai- ism of which they have no synipathy hatever and on which they were feat.'' ''"i ue
 Again" continued the secretary. no part of this country is so vitaiiy in- waterway to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the Isthmus of Panama as the South. It was indIs- pensable to this enterprise that the ETGHI04n1 Roosevelt and Secretary Hay should be promptly confirmed and yet the ma joritv of the representatives of the Senate from the South attempted to de- feat the treaty" He added that there twas enough of independence even among the representatives to give the vote which made. the canal possible. but the very fact that merely to ae- complIsh some supposed advantage to the Democratic party a majority of the senators from the South were willing to sacrifice her material interests and delay the great project of such capital importance to her disadvantage that she labors under in having 1t that she Is tied irretrievably to the Demo- cratic party.
 nrosneritv of the islands of the Carrf- bean sea and of the countries of South and Central America are of the ut most importance to the South. yet merely for the purpose of making a partisan point. merely for the purpose of embarrassing the administration" a nartv caucus of the Democratic sena- tors of the United States was called to bind every member of the party to vote against the ratification of the treaty.
 MT. Taft advised the North Carolina that they must show by their nominees that they fully recoK-