, 1907-08-28
TAFT AND THE RACE QUESTION


them seriously to task for their strict
adherence to a single party. He charg-
ed that they many times voted against
what they believed to be the very best
governmental policy because of their
attitude upon the ace question anG
their firm belief that ii was necessary
for them to preserve u solid front In
this matter.
1t is hardly probable that the secre-
tary's arguments will make inroads in
the ranks of southern voters. They
have been brought up in the demo
cratic school of politics. From THEN
very birth it has been considered ai-
most saarilege to depart from the
teachings of their fore-fathers. They
not only consider adherence to the
J~effersonian principles essential to
their w%ell-being, but they feel sure that
q division of their ranks would in many
sections mean negro domination, and
that is poison to their souls. They
w nv way hpI wv NhNJ N"AN " bAt'NN
a change from one party to another
as n whole, and they will therefore con
tinue to hold to the democratic party,
In his discussion of the matter Sec
Rotary Taft has not advanced any ar
guments that were not presented as
far back as 1883. when Henry w. Ora
Iy y,nc thA .hiaf nxnnnAnt Of tho nl.
vanced thought of the south. Mr.. Ora
dy held 10 the belief that the south
must not-could not divide in a pc.
litical n In union there was at all
times the probability that the white
people could dominate the negro and
hold control OF all the machinery OF
the peace and good order of the PEG
pie of that section, just as 1t would In
the north under like conditions. The
races canno ~amalgamate either politi-
cally or socially. One must dominate
the other. and ii appears to have been
the will of the Almighty that the white
man should be uppermost-at least
thai is the way it has worked out. Mr.,
Grady fully believed that the real trou-
BILE was in the Acknowledgement of the
negro and he considered that a grave
error on the part of the nation. This
great southerner, it will be recalled,
was the editor of the Atlanta Constitu'
ton, which, under his editorial a
agement, was the leading paper of the
south. He had exceptional opportuni.
ties to judge of the causes which ANAL
gamated his people and the remedies
that ought to be applied. The way was
clouded to him, but he believed that
the southern states would finally solve
the problem and stand forth in their
full glory, reaping a full measure of the
prosperity and reward that to a
questions. In discussing this same
phase of the question referred to by
Secretary Taft, Mr.. Grady, in his ia,
nous address before the Boston Home
Ma. ket club, said:
Il regret, sir, that my section, him
dered with this problem, cannot align
itself with the north, n stands in
seeming e~Strangement from it. II,
sir, any man will point out to me a
path down which the white people of
the south, divided, may walk in peace
and honor, | Will TAKE that path, though
l took it alone, for at its end, and no.
where else, | fear, is to be found the
full prosperity of my section and the
full restoration of his union. But,
sir, If he negro had not been enfran-
chised, the south would have been di,
vided n the republic united. His en-.
Observation-Disclosures which l enter
no protest-holds the south united and
compact. What solution can we offer
for the problem? Time alone can dis,
close 1t TO us. We simply report pro.
gress and ask your patience. If the
problem be solved at all-and l firmly
believe it will be, though nowhere else
has it been-iI will be solved by the
people o firmly bound in interest,
most deeply pledged in honor to its
solution. | would rather see my PEG
pie render back this question rightly
solved than to see them gather all the
spoils over which faction has con.
tended since Catiline conspired and
>N>NA SuS We d
the negro fairly, measuring to him jus
tce in the fullness the strong should
give the weak, and leading him in the
steadfast ways of citizenship, that he
may no longer be the prey of the III.
scrupulous and the sport of the
~thoughtless. We open to him every
pursuit in which he can prosper, and
seek to broaden his training and ca
pacity. We seek to hold his confidence
and friendship and to pin him to the
soil with ownership, that he may catch
in the fire of his own ~hearthstone that
sense of responsibility the shiftless
a never know"
Perhaps the question is a little near,
er solution today thar it was when Mr..
Grady addressed the north at Boston,
but if it is, it is through the laws of the
south taking away the ballot from the
negro and through ownership of prop.
erty by the negro. Such men as Book.
er Washington have aided much in
teaching the negro to find his place in
society through industry, through the
tilling of the soil, and in leaving Sc
verely alone the management of the po-
litical affairs of the states in which
they live.
View 1t how we will, this is the man
ner in which it is working out. The