The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-10

Greensboro, N. C., July 9.-Secreary of War Taft tonight delivered his speech to the North Carolina republicans on the eve of their state convention. The local opera house was packed to overhowing by a throng eager to hear the secretary of war, and hundreds were turned away because of the limited size of the hall
 Secretary Taft, in opening. said that when he was Invited to address this meet Ing, the committee advised him that the political situation was such that if the proper effort was made at the coming election, it would be possible to carry the state for the republican party" The sec- retary added:
 ''I believe that nothing that could hap pen in the politics in this country would work to greater advantage to the country at large and to the south in particular, than the breaking up of what has been propertly known as the solid south l say this in no partisan spirit, for l am not one of those who think that this result would necessarily increase the prob ability of the contlnasaessin power. of the republican party.
 ''The solidity of the south has in a
 
 straining 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.
 sThe south has been kept solid by the spectre of negro domination, and by stir ring up racial prejudices, and arousing unfounded alarm over an impossible rela- ton of reconstruction days"
 After a long struggle" he added, the wa a count nOth- ing, and then the political leaders of the dominant party came to realize that dreadful demoralization of all society that followed in a government if law was fout- ed 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 amend ments to state constitutions with the so- called grandfather clauses intended to apply the new qualifications to the negro, and not to apply them to the whites Cannot Stand Fifteenth Amendment. The secretary said it is impossible to frame a law establishing an educational qualification for suffrage which will stand the test of the fifteenth amendment, and which will not operate ultimately to ex- clude impartially the negroes and whites from the ballot who lack educational &C., qulrement.
 "A policy in the south which excludes from the ballot impartially black and white when ignorant and irresponsible, cannot be criticised"
 During the past decade MT. Taft point ed out period of unprecedented prosper ity has come for the fair southern states. "Under the circumstances" he said 'it is not to be expected that the sensible clearheaded business men of the south do 10 adxyo, Ia under which the southern states labor in having only one party with any voice in their state governments, and in being herded together always as the hidebound supporters of the democratic party of the country, no matter what wild fallaces it may adopt in It's platform, nor what can dldate it may put before the country.
 "The effect of the change of industrial conditions in eliminating the cry of the negro domination from the politics of for mer slave-owning states has manifested itself first in the border states. West Virginia has become permanently repub- lican in the last presidential election, while Kentucky nearly brought forth works meet for repentance in the first Me finley campaign"
 Spectre of Things Past.
 The question which should address itself to the great business interests of the eOutn, the secretary stated, IS now nuCn longer ''the spectre of things past is to hold them to a political allegiance that does them no good in national politics, and deprives their communities of the 'in- estimable benefits of the presence in local politics of two parties, each of which if r does wrong, has 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 live issues of the day, instead Of allowing themselves to be frightened by spectre. and a shadow of the past, their political independence as communities, and the significance of their views on measures and men would have been vastly enhanced"
 He said that although much of the wealth of the south is dependent upon a protective tariff, it's representatives In d national Congress vote unhesitatingly for the proposition that a protective tariff Is arbitrary and for the benefit of a few and injury to others, that although ma- jority of the southern people are strongly in favor of maintining the flag In the Philippines until the sacred trust im- posed by circumstances shall have been highly and fully discharged, they never theless permit the democratic party in the 4 chase after northern votes, to formulate the false cry of "anti-mperalism," Of which they have no sympathy whatever