The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1906-07-20
THE OPENING Gun
Secretary of War Taft Starts Con-
gressional Campaign in Speech
In North Carolina.
ADVICE TO S0UTHERMERS.
Negro OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of ROose-
welt and Congress-HOw the
South Stands in It's
own Light.

Greensboro, N. c., July 11.-Secreta-
ry of War Taft Monday night, before
a meeting of North Carolina republic
cans on the eve of their state conven-
ton delivered speech that was
generally regarded as the opening gun
of the congressional campaign OF 1906.
The speech dealt with current politi-
cal questions and opening with ad-
vice to the rank and file of the party
in North Carolina and the south par
ticularly referred to the achievements
of the party in the session of congress
just closed. The opera house was
packed to overlooking by throng
eager to hear the secretary of war
and hundreds of persons were turned
away because of the limited size OF
the hail. Secretary Taft said in part:
Il 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 III
particular than the breaking up Of
what has been properly known as the
solid south l say this in no parti-
san spirit, for l am not one of those
who think that this result would nee
eessarily increase the probability of
the continuance in power of the repub-
1ican 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 re-
gard as the injustice and danger Of
southern political conditions.
The secretary said it is impossible
to frame law establishing education
al qualifications for suffrage which
will stand the test of the 18th amend
ment, and which will not operate Ill
timately to exclude impartially the
negroes and whites from the ballot
who lacked educational requirement
A policy in the south, he said
(which excludes from the ballot impair
I TALLY black and white, when ignorant
and irresponsible, cannot be criticised.
Again." continued the secretary,
mo part of this country is so vitality
interested in the construction of a
great waterway to connect the Allan
tic and Pacific oceans across the 18TH
mus of Panama as the south. 1t was
indispensable to this enterprise that
the treaty made with Panama by
President Roosevelt and Secretary
Hay Should be promptly confirmed,
and yet the majority of the represen-
tatives in the south in the senate |
attempted to defeat the treaty"
He added that there was enough
of independence even among those
representatives to give the vote which |
made the canal possible, but the very |
fact that merely to accomplish some |
supposed advantage to the democratic |
party, majority of the senator's from |
The south were willing to sacrifice her |
material interests and delay the great |
project of such capital Importance
TO her indicates the disadvantage that |
she labors under in having it thought |
that she is tied irretrievably to the
democratic party"
The Investigations by the depart
ment of commerce and labor" said
Mr.. Taft, "have shown the method
by which the Standard Oil company
has maintained its monopoly of the
oil business and prosecutions have
been ordered in many of the federal
courts of the country in order not
only to vindicate' the law for past VIC
lations, but to bring about a condition
of things in which the managers Of
prosperous and successful corporations
of the country shall pay heed to in
functions of the statutes and not al
low temptations of immense profits
to blind them to the necessity for
obedience to law"