The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1908-02-20
sIHE NEGROES AND SECRETARY

i - TAFT.
3 without comment. which we think
u unnecessary, the following editorial,
!, taken from The Independent Of the
18th inst, is submitted to the care
, full consideration of our brethren,
North and South, who are in danger
OF going off half cooked. Says The
Independent:
* Ne strongly ADVISE our Negro
friends to be a little slow in swear
ing that they will never, never vote
for Secretary Taft if he should be
?. Ipminated for President They had
az big meeting in Brooklyn last
I week, at which they demanded, in
the name of ten thousand Negro Not-
zers of Kings County, that Taft be
not nominated. There was present
taB speaker BriSadier-General An
drew G.. Burt, who commanded fer
ten years the Twenty-tifty Infantry
of colored soldiers, from which regl-
Inent President Roosevelt dismissed
three companies without honor
) for their asserted part in the shoot
I ing up'' Of Brownsville, and he made
b strong defense OF the record and
bravery of the Negro soldiers. II is
I, all right that such meeting should
Nbe held in support Of Governor
/ Hughes, whose nomination would
deserve their heartiest support, but
to demand the nomination of some
!. ether candidate than Secretary Taft
n for President is matter Of quite
different wisdom or justice.
Have our Negro friends forgotten
r. 1I-
. of Secretary Taft in holding up Pres
ident Rooseyelt's initial order dis
banding those soldiers, and could
they not gather from that what his
own views might be? Suppose that
he should be nominated, and should
. then necessarily retire from the Cab
met, and should then be free to let
the whole story Of his position and
action be known, and it should then
appear that he opposed to the end
the dismissal Of those soldiers, and
that, when the President insisted,
as he had the authority to do, Mr..
TAFT had to choose between submit
+ ting in silence or resigning from the
cabinet, where would our OVer-hasty
coIored friends stand then?
1t would have been a flight from
J, duty for Mr.. Taft to resign, for let
our Negro friends remember that he
had a tremendous and Immediately
insistent racial problem on hand, the
dealing of justice to the ten millions
of colored men in the Philippine Is
lands, and lifting them to the posi-
ton and rights IF free men, possess
ing the ballot, which they never had
before, and even yet did not know
how to use, and giving them self
nnCSpSOinn n
islature with the power Of making
laws. In this country ten million
cclored men have not representa-
tive in Congress, and scarce one in
the state legislatures Of fOrty-siX
States while ten millions in the
Philippines fill the lower house and
= almost half of the upper house Of
their legislature with members Of
their own race, and act everywhere
as governors Of provinces, mayors OF
cities and judges Of courts; and the
man who has had the privilege Of
doing this and Of creating the free
school system Of the lslands-was
he to resign and run away from that
task, a task for racial justice and
equality, because he did not, and
could not, agree with the President
OH the matter Of the dismissal Of
two or three hundred men? SO long
as he felt it his duty to remain in
the Cabinet, it was not his privilege
to criticise the action taken, and 1t
was his duty to carry out the orders
OF his superior and hold his peace.
- Now we do not say that all this
was so, that Mr.. Taft was opposed to
the end to the dismissal Of those
sofNiers. He has not told us. and we
have no private source Of informal
ton. We have not thought i: decent
= to ask him. But it looks so. and it
may be so; and if this should prove
. to be the fact, and be SO made known
after MIR. TAFT leaves the Cabinet. ii
will put these Negro critics who de
&. clare they will never vote for TAFT in
a very awkward position as having
49, done a serious injustice 20 one who
@had been their friend and who has
done more for racial justice than any
other man living. We advise them
b simply to hold their peace and wait
for information. If they prefer
Hughes or Cannon or Knox or For
aker as candidate. let them say
so, but let them not make threats il
. advance Of knowledge. They would
H probably far prefer TAFT TO any can
i'YdidateI whom Vardaman and Tillmar
land Hoke Smith and Jeff Davis dnC
81 the states they represent Will vOtt
s for