The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1908-03-22

Speaking before a representative
Brooklyn audience at Plymouth
church recently. Secretary Taft cx.
pressed an optimistic conviction
concerning the future Of the negro
in the United States. The occasion
Of the Sc retarys speech was a meet
ing under the auspices of the Arm.
strong association and in the inter.
est of Hampton institute Of Virginia.
only few negroes were present, but
the building was crowded with
whites.
Preceding the address Of Secreta
ry Taft. Dr.. Booker T. Washington
head Of the Tuskegcc institute
spoke as did also Dr. H. L. Frs-
sci. principal Of the Hampton insti-
mtc Secretary Taft strongly COM
mcnded the work done by Hampton
and Tuekcgcc and reviewed growth
Of law designed to affect the negro.
Secretary Taft said in part:
The fourteenth amendment secured
4 the negro against any state legsla-
tion or state action which might de !
4 privc him Of his right TO life, liberty |
and property It gave him protection |
against any effort on the part of the |
states TO deprive him Of equality OF |
opportunity in improving his condi !
ton by self help; and it is under !
u this amendment and the fifteenth |
amendment affecting his p61itical
rights, that one should properly con
slider the far reaching influence OF
the education indicated b, General
Armstrong in the experiment OF
Hampton institute. Hampton and
Tuskegee teach the dignity of labor,
the value Of skin, the use Of the
mind and the application Of the hand
u and the lesson that without atten
4 tion and without taking pains, with
, out self restraint. no progress can
! be made by either a man, a race or
a ndtion.
AS to Negro Schools.
The founders of Hampton and Tus-
kegee saw the negro needed training
in the branches of human endeavor
in which there was hope of real
n and immediate success and made
their schools accordingly. They
i would not decry the advantage of
higher education for some of the
race and would not shut the door OF
opportunity to the negro in any vo-
: cation, professional or manual. But
in these schools they determined to
> train the race I'm the work plainly
open, to the whole race and which,
% in the end, must certainly add TO
% the economic power and influence
y Of the negro for his uplifting.
y That the policy has been abund
" antly justified by the event, the sta
. tistics of the negro race bear indis
= putable evidence. The work OF up
J. lifting the race must be slow and
- toilsome, but not hopeless. The
d spread of industrial education has
u done wonders and with the bright
d and shining examples of Hampton
= and Tuskegee we must look to the
81 establishment of such institutions in
II every state and every community
T. and what is more important to the
W inculcating in the present and rising
r generation Of negroes, the sane and
4, profoundly wise gospel preached ev-
e cry day by the masters of those
t. homes of practical instruction.
~ M
n votes Of negroes which, under state
and national laws they are entitled
TO cast were by fraud and violence
made TO count for nothing, and since
:, 1880 the fifteenth amendment in sew
al eral southern states has been treated
~ largely as a dead letter OF recent
years, however, the leaders of the
~ South have felt deeply the domor-
s of the law and the maintenance of a
J. government of fraud and violence.
= They have seen that it was impossi-
l. Bile TO rid themselves of what they
5, called negro domination to the one
r purpose, and they have felt its de-
= grading influence in the whole po-
b. litical atmosphere of the South.
Hence they have attempted to make
the laws OF the South square with
the exclusion OF the negro from the
n. ballot. They have sought TO do this
by acts which were in their incep-
ton an invasion OF the fifteenth
amendment by the use Of so-called
:" "grandfathern clanses. and IN other