The Washington bee., 1908-04-25
WHAT THEY Think
THE IMPRESSION THAT SEC
RETARY TAFT MADE.

ton says
A prominent colored representative
says this of Secretary Taft:
An impression, studiously created
in the East, that Secretary Taft IS op-
posed to the interests of the colored
people of the country, and that the
colored people as a whole are opposed
% him has been largely dispelled as
a result of his trip, during the first
two weeks in April, through the Mid
die West, where he was acclaimed as
''our next President"
On that trip he met and conferred
with many of the leading colored cit
liens of the section of the country
through which he travelled. They
were not loath to ask him questions
concerning his attitude toward them,
and he was quick to respond in a way
that appeared to be entirely satisfac-
tory to them. He assured them that
he was not in favor of their disfran-
chisement in the South, that he had
been interested in their problems
from his youth and that he sympa-
thized with the highest ideals of their
race.
At Louisville several hundred of
them joined in the welcome extended
to him by thousands of citizens of
that city April 10. They filled the
galleries at the theater in which he
delivered an address They applaud
ed him again and again when he ar
gued that the grandfather" clausees
in the franchise laws of the Southern
States were unconstitutional. and
that such laws. if enforced at all,
should be enforced as strictly against
the whites as against the blacks He
made no reference to the race ques-
tion in his addresses in the North,
where that question is less vital, but
to the representative Southern audi
ence at Louisville he dilated ct length
upon the wonderful progress in the
requirement Of education and prop
erty by the great mass of colored peo-
pie in the United States since the
Civil War. Not the least of the ova-
ton given him at the conclusion of
his speech was the thousand or more
colored voters who were present.
why should we be opposed to the
nomination and election of Mr.Taft?"
said one of the more prominent of
the colored citizens in that audience.
"No one who listens to him could
believe that he would be opposed to
one class of citizens in this country
as against another. He believes that
all citizens should be treated alike
under the law, whether they be rich
or poor, white or black. Shall we
forget that all that has been done for
US during the past forty-hve years
was made possible by the Republican
party? Would any colored man be
so ungrateful as to bolt Mr.. Taft,wh
will undoubtedly be nominated at
Chicago, and vote for the candidate
of a party that openly declares it is
a white mans party and would see
that we got nothing if it were placed
in power? Secretary Taft IS a fair
man and will see that the colored
man gets what he deserves. We are
not fooled by misrepresentation of his
attitude toward us, which is only cal
culated to prevent his nomination
He will be nominated and when nom
mated will, feel certain, receive our
votes"
At Chicago a large party of lead
ing colored citizens called upon Sec
retary Taft in his apartments at the
Auditorium Annex and were accord
ed a welcome by him. Though he
was almost constantly busy with ban
quests, receptions and conferences
there, he told them he was glad to
give them some of his time. He was
frank with them.
The truth is, he told them, 'the
race question has occupied my time
ever since I was little boy My fa-
ther felt very deeply on the subject,
and | Was brought up with views
which in the South would be consid-
cred radical. When I went to the
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