Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-17
ENDS ATLANTA VISIT
Taft Attends Dinner of the
Capital City Club.
SPENDS A BUSY DAY
Speaks at School of Technology and
State University.
TALKS TO MEETING OF NEGROES
Tells Them He Is in Sympathy With
Their Efforts to Better Condi-
tion of Their Race.
TALKS TO MEETING OF NEGROES

ATLANTA, Ga, January 16.-Having
proclaimed last night what Is to be his
southern appointing policy. which is re-
garded here as constituting the next
Presidents important message to the
south, Mr.. Taft today manifested his
great interest in technical education, in
the development Of the negro race, in the
benefits of university life on the forming
character of the youth. on the future of
woman teachers and tonight entered
with zest into the most brilliant social
function the city of Atlanta has wit
messed in years.
Mr.. Taft spoke to the students of the
Georgia School of Technology, then to
mass meeting of negroes in Big Bethel
Church. This afternoon he journeyed TO
Athens. Ga, where he spoke to the stu
dent body of the State University and to
the prospective teachers of the Normal
School. met the people of the city at a
reception. and reached Atlanta again in
time to attend the reception and dinner
in his honor given by the Capital City
Club, where he met the men of promi-
nence and the women OF the social cir
cles of the city. At midnight Mr.. Taft
left for Augusta, where he will arrive
carly Sunday morning.
Students Exhorted to Honesty.
Interesting among the things Mr. Taft
said in the days speeches was his exhor-
tation to the young men Of the techno-
logical schools not to let their desires for
big jobs overbalance their absolute hon.
esty. ''The greatest liars that I have
ever met were unprincipled experts was
his comment. In his four years as Sec
retary Of War Mr.. Taft said he had come
in direct contact with the best engineers
of the world. He gave high praise to the
United States Army Corps Of Engineers.
Having undoubtedly in mind the Panama
canal he added:
1T is of the greatest aid to men re-
sponsible for work, although 1t involves
the expenditure of millions and millions
of dollars, to be able to turn 1t over with
entire confidence to corps like that with
absolute confidence that everything will
be managed with absolute honesty and
on the highest sHle Of engineering skill. !"
Students Prevent a Panic.
After a pleasant speech at the State
University. which is the oldest state uni
versity in the country, Mr.. Taft said with
the greatest feeling:
Il love Yale as 1 loved my mother"
He believed that the student who even
stands first in his class and at the same
time goes away without a profound love
for the institution, its surroundings ana
atmosphere, QdO missed one Oh the llOSt
beneficial elements of university life.
College yells of the students of the uni
versity, given with a vim, prevented
what might have been a stampede on the
part of the audience which filed the ira
ternity hall before Mr.. Taft arrived. A
defective fiue ignted woodwork in the
attic. and when the firemen entered the
building the audience arose to make for
the doors.S The students in uniform kept
their seats and went through their reper-
x,f
In the meantime Mr.. Taft, who had
reached the entrance, was not permitted
to enter until the danger was over.
Eulogizes Teachers Profession.
What Mr.. Taft thinks Of the profession
of teacher and it's future was tod in his
speech at the State Normal School After
expressing the belief that higher pay
would eventually come to woman teach
ers he continued:
But, whatever happens. you may always
have the satisfaction of knowing that
there is no higher profession known in
which self-sacrtice is manifested more
clearly and none in which more good can
be done than that o. the teacher. l con-
gratulate you on beginning your life in
that way, and l hope you will continue
It through life and not regard matrimony
as necessary. l think that the secret of
most domestic infelicity is in the thought
are married their lives are not success.
is exactly true. Look into your own lives
and your families. Take some aunt O.
yours who never married-what a sw ct.
sslf-sacrf1cing. disinterested and love-
character she has grown to be. seventy
and eighty years of age. and think what
beneticence she spreads over all the
family circle in which she lives, and then
say that sh- would have been better off
| believe 4
Sympathy for Negro Progress.
Universal education. for the leaders of
the negro race, for their physicians and
professional men and Industrial and pri-
mary education for the body of workers
composing the balance of the race was the
note struck by Mr.. Taft in addressing the
big meeting of negroes at Bethel A. NJ. +.
Church this afternoon.
with your Efforts said Mr.. Taft, ito
uplift yourselves 1 have the deepest SYM
pathy. l say as the coming President
that l must stand as the representative of
all the American people. The President
of the United States can have no more
sacred function than to speak words of
encouragement and hope to assist your
own efforts. Fate in the past has not
been kind to you, and the whole American
people has the highest obligation of trus-
teeship and guardianship iOr your up
lift.
Il say to the cOlOred men and women of
this country that, hard your lot has
been and hard as the road is likely to be,
Ii will be a road onward if you abide by
your consciences and by ideals of self
restraint and that you will attain condi-
ton you hardly dream of today.
Look back of you. Forty years ago
not five per cent of your race could read
and write while today the figure is nearly
fifty per cent.
Aid Given by Southern Whites.
After summarizing the heavy burdens
said:
''It is this country to which your for
tunes must always be attached. Consider
how it was reduced to a condition making
it almost impossible ior the white property
holders here to make living and then
consider the progress your race has made.
The country is dotted with little farm
houses of negroes and this shows what
can be DONE
Mr.. Taft said he would not discuss race
feeling or race prejudice. Then he con-
tinued:
EVERY one Of you knows that able and
men and women in the south
and that you Will develop
faster and faster through the efforts made
by the white race to aid i'll your up
lifting
Then followed a terse outline of what
Mr. Taft considered the best educational
scheme for negroes.
The meeting was opened by the singing
Of America Mr.. Taft joining In.