Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-10
TAFT ADDRESSES
LARGE AUDIENCE
CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN OF
1906 OPENED
North Carolina Republicans Listen to
Political Speech Delivered by
Secretary OF War at
Greensboro
In Assoclated Prees.

by Associated Press
< GREENSBORO, N. c., July 9.-Secre-
taryr of War Taft tonight, before a
meeting of North Carolina Republicans,
on the eve Of their state convention, de-
livered a speech that was generally re-
garded as the opening gun OF the con-
gressional campaign of 1905.
The speech dealt with current po-
liteal questions, opening with advice
to the rank and file of the party in
North Carolina, and the south particu-
larly, and referred TO the achievements
of the party in the session of congress
just closed.
The opera house was packed to over
flowing by a throng eager to hear the
secretary of war and many were turned
away because of the limited size of the
hall. Secretary Taft said:
Secretary Taft, in opening, said that
when he was invited to attend this
meeting the committee advised him
that "the political situation was sueh
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:
II believe that nothing that could
happen in the politics Of this country
-
country at large, and to the south III
particular, than the breaking up OF
what has been properly known as the
solid south
II say this in no partisan spirit, for
l am not one of those who think this
result would necessarily increase the
probability of the continuance in power
Of the Republican party.
1.-THE solidity of the south has in
fr1, icb n11ffdntn 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 po-
liticai conditions,
Why South Remains Solid
1.-THE south has been kept solid by
the specter of negro domination and
by stirring up fracial prejudices and
arousing unfounded alarm over an i'm
possible return to reconstruction days,
said the secretary.
After a long struggle, he added,
"the negro vote was made 10 count for
nothing and then the political leaders
of the dominant party came to realize
that gradual decentralization of all So
ciety- that followed IN "a government if
a law was Haunted and fraud was to
constitute its basis
They cast about to make the law
square with existing conditions by
property and educational conditions
which should exclude the negro. They
adopted amendments to the state con-
stitutions with the so-called grand
father clauses intended to apply the
new qualihca tions to the negro and
not apply them to the whites"
The secretary said it is impossible to
frame a law establishing an educational
qualification for suffrage which will
stand the tests of the fifteenth amend
ment and which will not operate ulti-
mately to exclude impartially the
negroes and whites from the ballot who
lacked educational requirement.
Suggests Policy
A policy in the south, he said, which.
excludes from the ballot impartially
black and white when ignorant and
Irresponsible, cannot be criticised.
During the past decade, Mr.. Taft
pointed out, a period Of unprecedented
prosperity has come for the fair south
ern states. Under the circumstances"
he said, lit is not to be expected that
the sensible, clear-headed business men
of the south do not perceive the tre-
mendous disadvantage under which the
southern states labor with having only
one party with any voice in their state
governments, and in being herded to-