New-York tribune., 1906-07-11
MR.. TAFT AND THE SOUTH
SIGNIFICANT WORDS.
Bearing or Presidential Election
Secretary to Speak IN Ohio.
TFrOm The tribune Bureau. ]


Washington, July 1O-Republicans in Wash
ingtOn regard Secretary Taft's speech of last
night in North Carolina as a mastery exposi-
tiOn of the so-caIIed Southern situation and be-
leve that ii will be quoted throughout the cam
paign, perhaps through more than one campaign
The courage with which Mr.. Taft dealt with the
abnormal fear which the average Southerner en-
tertains of Negro domination, with the tendency
of the Southern Republicans to lose sight of the
party good in the scramble for federal offices.
and with the question Of limiting the suffrage
commands admiration on all sides. and those
who know the South declare it will inspire re-
spect and prove influential there.
Mr.. Taft's statements are accepted as the frui-
ton of the Roosevelt policy toward the Negro
which the President has from time to time enun-
ciated with great force, but which appears TO
be clarifying with age. The Secretary's state
ment that constitutions and statutes which Eek
clude from the ballot impartially both the black
and the white. when ignorant and irrespOnsi-
BILE, cannot be criticised is regarded especially
significant and as likely to command a greater
and more respectful hearing among the more
progressive Southern Democrats than any polit-
icaI utterance of the year.
There Is belief and strong hope that Mr.. Taft
mas pointed the way. and that Southerners will
follow in the path indicated. that the next
national election may witness only remnant
at most of the Solid South" It is pointed out
that the advice Of the Secretary to the Southern
Republicans is particularly appropriate. coming
as it does on the eve of Congressional election
as the Republican leaders may now show a de-
termination to heed his advice by selecting men
of unimpeachable character as the nominees of
the Republican party. and 1t is believed that if
this policy is carried out this year the next
Presidential election will show the results, and
al %
being the lone stranger in the ranks"
Some who are disposed to take less sanguine
view of political conditions in the South, main
tain that more time must elapse before Secre-
tary Taft's speech can bear fruit, time in which
the Negro will be practically eliminated from
the party leadership in the Southern States
and from Republican national conventions.
Those who hold this view are the men who
pinned their faith to the old Lilly White move
ment, and who deplOred without measure the
action of the last Republican National Conven-
ton in turning down this progressive element IN
the South.
They say that under existing conditions the
progressive Democrat in the Southern States
who might strongly desire to join the Republi-
can party, and who may admire it's leaders and
espouse it's politics, must inevitably be re-
strained from declaring his principles because
TO declare ones self Republican in the South
means to accept the oVertures and sit on the
platform with the Negro an end more obnoxious
than treason to the Southerner Those who hold
these views are, however. in the minority.
Secretary Taft returned TO Washington early
this morning from Greensboro, N @, where he
delivered an address last night and started at
noon for Put-in-Bay. Ohio, where he will speak
to the Ohio State Bar Association tomorrow.
His address there will be i'm the nature of a
lecture on the Panama Canal project The
Secretary will address himself particularly to
the question of type OF canal, and will endeavOr
to make clear the wisdom Of the administra-
tion's choice of the lock canal.