The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-08-27

ASTute arG conclI3aLoFg GApi
that he r., Secretary II War Tart IN
his recent speech IN Lexington. ken
lucky, permitted himself 70 disclose
the sentiment which seems - undeF1e
the entire scheme OF his partys pFln-
ciples. to-pft, mat the d~esirability OF
office ts me load stone Of political
afiliation. Declaring that he hoped
to see the. time come when the south
should be received again in the coun-
ellis Of the nation" he held out tnat
promise as sometime 10 be purchased
by the change OF the South's poLtlcal
faith. Discussing the negro question,
In some Of it's aspects with 4dmirable
fairness and restraint. he again used
what he had said 10 bait the hook
with which he angled for Republican
votes In a Democratic State with the
hope Of Office. When SO big a man
az Mr.. Taft, speaking in the Eght OF
his own ayowed candidacy for presl-
dent, cannot realize any standard OF
political action that is not p~redicated
upon the holding OF Office, it is not TO
be wondered at that in the Southern
States his Republican followers forget
their decency in the greed for shat
which their next most representative
man bangles in the air as the price
for the abandonment OF a century Of
principle.
1t Is TO what Mr.. Taft implied
concerning the relationship of the
negro to Southern political sentiment,
however, that we would call particular
attention. In his assumption that
the negro question" is the basis Of
the South's political conviction, he is
either grossly mstak q n or s~peciously
false. Yet he makes the charge with
insulting directness when, discussing
the South's lack of representation in
the councils of the nation. he declares
that it was because one single issue
has made it the tail Of the Democratic
party. SO that. however small the
northern head, it wags that tail The
South has permitted the shadow of an
issue that circumstances ought long
ago to have removed to bind it to the
Democratic party no matter what prin-
ciples or candidates h a party
adopts"
And again, he declared:
las an American citizen and lover
of my country / long for the time
when the South shall be received
again In the councils of the nation,
and when h people of that section
shall resume the influence to which
they are entitled, and which they
deny themselves by being frightened
at a mere ghost Of the past"
In other words, under the present
Republican administration the South
has few. il any offices; it has no place
in the councils of the nation" it has
no influence. Why? Because its
presumably, the administration real
ICES that it's Republican allies in the
South are without either the ability
or the character to represent anything
except a crew clamorous for crumbs.
Whereupon, Mr.. Taft makes appeal to
der that they may take their place
at the dinner table,. Tells them, also,
that what they believe and what their
fathers and grandfathers before them
not only believed, but fought for is
comprised in a vicious and ignorant
prejudice exerted against a weak and
harmless race. Mr.. Taft speaks with
an oily tongue. but his u~tterances will
not bear reasonable construction and
escape, except as indicating the tend
err Of a hribe.
1t would be better if Mr.. Taft should
apply in his estimate of Southern in
telligence the same broad spirit of
concession of honesty and faith that
he assumes to concede to the South
in the settlement of the negro prob
lem. He expressed himself as be-
lieving that it is settled. or working
towards a settlement. The South it
was that brought about that settlement
50 far as it is possible to encompass it
under present conditions. When
the new conditions that its p~erplexing
character promises to max acute
shall have arisen, the South will find
a way to settle them, also. The
is, at present, out Of Southern
and the South intends hat he
shall stay out. 1t was, not forty years
but less than ten that he was an
acute issue in North Carolina. But to
say that it is, or ever was, the negro
proved the Democracy of the ele-
of the South that now controls
it's expressed political conviction is to
the South's intelligence and to
disregard the ruth If there were not
a negro South of Mason and Dixon's
line the South would still be Demo-
cratic. 1t is it's honorable tradition to
so, since the principles of Thomas
Jefferson found their expression from
the desire of the people to control the
government. 1t is the heritage of the
of political honour and faith
in principle that will not be relin-
ouished in Mr.. Taft's time. nor by the
method he suggests. The
South has had the great lesson of pow
erty. BY it has been taught an in
that is as unshakable as
the traces of blood and ancestry. If
it never has an office again, if never
again it shall take its place in the
councils of the nation it is compe-
tent to vote its convictions, to contend
ifs ripht 10 Govern itself and 10