The Washington bee., 1909-06-05
Commencement
PRESIDENT TAFT AT

ident Taft delivered the commence
ment address in the Rankin Chapel,
which was inadequate to accOmmo-
date the concourse of people who had
gathered there.
The address to the assembly was
greete with great applause, and the
diplomas were presented to the grad
yates by President Taft, at which
time the walls of the Chapel reechoed
the hearty applause.
At the conclusion of the indoor
exercises President Taft lead the way
across the campus to the place where
the library is being erected. The
rain continued to fall while Mr.. Taft
delivered his second speech and su
perintended the laying of the corner
stone. Secretary Ballinger, of the
Interior Department, assisted.
The music for the days exercises
with which President Taft was con-
nected, was furnished by the United
States Engineer Band.
Among those who assisted Mr..
Taft, were Captain Butt, military aid
at the White House, President Thir-
kield, Rev Charles Wood, Commits
siOner MacFarland, Rev. ]. ]. Him
mel, and H. Paulus Sannon, Minis
ter from Haiti
President Taft said:
"Mr. President and young ladies
and gentlemen of the graduating
class: | have a good many engage
ments, and I am tempted into them
sometimes-before the engagements
are to be met and the work is to be
done by such mellifuous and force
ful gentleman as your president, and
then | am not reminded of the obi
CATION thus assumed until I pick up
the morning paper and find myself
advanced as one of the chief attrac-
tions at some meeting where I don't
feel myself at all as entitled to figure
in that capacity.
when your president came to me
and asked me to come to Howard
University he said that he expected
to celebrate the laying of the corner
stone of a new building here, given
by Mr.. Carnegie, and that, inciden-
tally, there would be commencement
exercises. | am a fairly good hand
at a trowel, and I thought possibly |
might engage in the exercises of lay
ing she corner stone without being
involved in a speech. But l find it to
be otherwise. Nevertheless, | am
glad to seize the opportunity of look
ing into your faces-you young men
and women who are about to go out
into the world and meet the obstacles
which are before you and to over
come them successfully, as / sincere
ly hope you may. l am glad to be
able to be here to testify to you my
profound sympathy in your careers
and my hope that they may all be
successful
"This institution here is the partial
repayment of debt-only partial
to a race to which a government and
the people of the United States are
eternally indebted. They brought
that race into this country against
its will They are planted here ire
trievably. They first put it in bond
age and then they kept it in ignor-
ance that that bondage seemed to
make necessary under the system
then in vogue Then they freed it
and put upon it the responsibility of
citizenship. Now, some sort of obi
cation follows that chain of facts
with reference to the people who are
responsible for what the government
did. The obligation would be clear
er, or rather the method of its dis
charge would be easier, were it not
for our constitutional system which
throws generally upon the States the
burden of education and leaves to
the general government only certain
limited jurisdiction with respect to
the people.
Carrying ont Obligation
However, in so far as the District
of Columbia is concerned, and the es-
tablishment of institutions of learn
ing in this District, we are free from
any embarrassment with respect to
the carrying out of the obligation,
and it is fitting that the government
of the United States should assume
the ohligation of the establishment