The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-10
SECRETARY TAFT OPENS
 CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN
FIRES THE FIRST GUN BEFORE REPUBLICANS OF GREENS
 BORG, N C.

Et Would be Possible to Carry the
 State for the Republican Party-Be-
 Iieves Nothing Could Happen Better
 for the Country Than the Breaking of
 the "sOlid sOuth."
 Greensboro, N. C., July 9.-secretary of War Taft tonight before meeting of North Carolina republicans on the eve of their state convention, delivered a speech that was generally anticipated as the opening gun of the congressional campaign of 1906. The speech dealt with current political questions, and, opening with advice to the rank and file of the party in North Carolina, and the South particularly, referred to the achievements of the party in the ses- sion of congress just closed. The opera house was packed to overflowing by an assemblage eager to hear the secretary of war, and hundreds of persons were turned away because of the limited size of the hall.
 The secretary was warmly applauded throughout his speech.
 The mention of Bryan's name in the course of Secretary Taft's speech pro- voked a storm of applause.
 Secretary Taft in opening said that when he was invited to address this meeting the committee advised him ''that the political situation was such that if a proper effort was made at the coming election it would be possible to carry the state for the republican party. The secretary added: T believe that nothing that could happen in the politics of this country would work greater advantage to the country at large and to the south in particular, than the breaking up of what has been properly known as the solid south say this In no partisan spirit, for l am not one of those who think that this result would necessarily increase the probability of the continuance In power of the republican party. The solidity of the south has in a. measure furnished its own antidote in restraining many voters in the north who might have left the republican party but for what they regard as the injustice and danger of southern political 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 impossiz ble' return to reconstruction days" said the secretary, ~After a long struggle" he added, "the negros vote was made ito coun for nothing, and then the po- litical leaders of the dominant party came to realize that dreadful demoral- ization of all society that followed in government if law was fouted and fraud was to constitute it's basis. They cast about to make the law square with existing conditions by property and educational qualifications which should exclude the negro. They adopted amendments to the state constitutions with the so-called grandfather clauses intending to apply the new qualitica- tions to the negro and not to apply them to the whites"
 The secretary said it W impossible Sto frame a law establishii g an educa- Sonal qualification for suffrage which wfl stand the test of the fifteenth ameAdment, and which will not operate ultim&ely to exclude impartially the negroesSnd whites from the ballot who lacked educational requirements. The policy in the south, he said, which ex- cludes from yhe ballot impartially black and white, waen ignorant and ire sponsfble, can aot be criticised
 During the past decade, MT. Taft pointed out, period of unprecedented prosperity has cone to the fair south ern states. Under the circumstances, he said, 'it is not to be expected that the sensible business men of the south do not perceive the tremendous disad- vantage under which the southern states labor in having only one party with any voice in their state govern ments, az in being herded together al- ways as the hide-bound support of the democratic party of the country no matter what fallacies it may adopt in its platform nor what candidate it may put before the country.
 ''The effect of the change of industri- al conditions in eliminating the cry of negro domination from the politics of the former slave-holding states has manifested itself first in the border states West Virginia has become per manently republican, and Maryland and Missouri put themselves in the repub- lican column in the last presidential election, while Kentucky nearly brought forth works meet for repent ance in the first Mckinley campaign"
 The question which should address it. self to the great business interests of the south, the secretary stated, is how much longer ''the spectre of things past is to hold them to a political al- legiance that does them no good in na- tional politics, and deprives their com munites of the inestimable benefit of the presence in local politics of two parties, each of which, if it does wrong, has a real chance of being punished for its misconduct.
 Mir. Taft contended that if the south- ern people had kept up with the times; had they at the ballot box expressed their sentiments on the living issues of the day, instead of allowing themselves to be frightened by spectre and a shadow of the past, their political i'm portance as communities, and the sig nifcanee of their views on measures and men would have been vastly en- hanced."
 He said that although much of the wealth of the south is dependent upon a protective tariff, its representatives in 0 national convention vote unhesi-
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