The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-05
SECRETARY TAFT ON
 WORK OF SCHOOL
Says the Negro Must Make Himself Worthy of the Franchise and It
 Will Not Be Denied Him.

Will Not Be Denied Him.
 Secretary Taft spoke in part as follows;
 Ladies and Gentlemen: Ffhis great seat of useful learning was founded twenty-five years ago to elevate q race. No topic would be appropriate on such an occasion as this which did not relate 10 it's welfare and future. Care should be taken in discussing the issues which the subjects I propose to suggest, lest one may uselessly stir up the embers Of controversy that has seriously af- fected the welfare of the whole south. l shall hope to avoid this as much as possibly. dealing only with the present conditions and by not seeking to place the blame for the evils that have had to be met.
 "The thirteenth amendment. which abolishes slavery. needs but little dis enssion IL gave the negro the boon of freedom, but it left four or five mil- lion of people, but 5 per cent of whom could read or write and all of whom had been dependent upon others for what they ate and wore, stranded as soon as turned loose in the world, Enactment and enforcement of this amendment, was Of course, essential to the progress of the negro. 1t is true that in some parts of the south a system of servitude for debt has been creeping into vogue but the decision of your own able and upright Judge Jones of the federal court, and of the highest tribunal of this country that peonage may be reached and sup pressed by the enforcement of federal penal statutes has made it's continuance an imposslbility.
 Fourteenth Amendment.
 "The fourteenth amendment secured to the negro the equal protection of the laws of the state in which he lived and due process of law in any deprivation Of his life liberty or property under state law. This is the amendment which sec ond to his emancipation has become the most important in his development.
 With the lack of providence and with little understanding of the rights of prop erty we find the negro after his enamel patton in much the condition with re- spect to self support and self eleviaton that the prmeval man was.
 The many movements to confer on the negro the higher academic and liter ary education, which were inaugurated after the war were not we'll adapted to securing 'Ae proper foundation for the upbuildlng of the race. The homelier vir- lures must be instiled in a people before they are ready to receive with advantage, merely literary or scientific education, or can make the best use aof it. The op- portunty of the negro lay first in the skill of his hands as laborer and in his industry as tiller of the soil and second In his capacity to save from his earnings sufficient to enable him to accumulate capital to buy land and establish his eeo- homie independence. In those efforts he would encounter little, if any, opposition from the southern whites.
 Booker Washington Steps Forward.
 When the struggle of the negro decade, following the war was going on, there was grown to manhod a leader of his people, who saw more clearly than the rest of his race that the negro could be one of the greatest factors of the de- velopment of the whole south If only he could be led into habits of industry and saving. If Hampton school had never done anything but graduate Booker T. Washington it would have justified its existence. He saw clearly that the only hope of his race was economic indepen- dence and he projected in his mind the establishment of an institution in which there should be combined in proper pro- portion the mental education and the education of the hand. Booker T. Wash ington with the three thousand gradn- ates of this Institution who are now spreading the lessons which they have learned here among his people in all parts of the south gloriously vindicates his marvellous foresight. He has put himself in position where he may well preach as an eyangel and enforce the truths he utters by the work which he has done.
 ''It now is the habit of many contem- plating the condition of the two races fin the southern states to shake their heads and say that the negro problem Is far, far from solution and the future in this respect is dark. Plans have been sug- gested of a migration of the negro race to some other country where they would live by themselves and grow up by them selves and have a society by themselves, and create a nation by themselves. Such suggestion is most chimercal The negro has no desire to go and the men of the south would seriously object to his going. It makes no difference how the negro came here; 1t makes no difference how impossible and objectionable the amalgamation of the two races may he; 1t makes no difference how impossible it may be for them to come together socially: the negroes are here in this country as a part of our people, and are bound to continue to be q part of our people. They are entltied 10 the unceas= ing effort of our whole people in their slTuBBie lOT DeItef lInnBs, DOtn because It Is our duty and interest. Whenever called upon the negro has never failed to meet death and suffer for this. the only country he has and the only flag he loves. The negro's chief hope of pro- gress Is by making his labor and hus- bandry valuable to the country.
 Great Progress Made.
 With difference to those who have looked more into the question and who differ on thls point from what I am about to say, 1t seems to me that instead of affording ground for disoouragement in the solution of the so-called negro prob- lem, review of the history of this race since the war justifes the statement that great progress has been made Not only has there been a movement by the negro race itself along similar educational, in- dustrial and economic lines, but there Is much encouragement in the attitude now taken by the leading men of the south. who see the difficulties of the problem with great clearness and vel come and sympathize with the efforts of MT. Washington in what he Is doing for hls race.
 The white men, who can do the most good for the negro who can aid him In his toilsome march to better material and intellectual conditions are the south ern white men. who arc his neighbors It is one of the encouraging signs of the time that there is growing up in the