The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-11-03
TAFT FERYENT IN
APPEAL To SOUTH
FOR AID IN WORK
President Made Thousands of
Friends BY Words In Mis-
sissippi Yesterday
TALKS ON SUFFRAGE
TO THE YOUNG LADIES
Believes Every Girl Should Be in Po-
sition Where She Would Not
Have to Marry Unless From
Choice.

| Choice.
| President Taft's campaign for winning
| the south to closer union with the states
of the north" was in full swing when the
| chief executive reached Birmingham at
! TBS o'clock last night. At his various
stops in Mississippi eliminating at Co
| lumbus, the old home of Secretary of
War Dickinson, the President had called
out the cheers of the people by his dec
| larations of friendship to the south and
by the repeated statement that his visit
was without political significance.
"It is not that we want to make you
republicans" said the President ''or that
| we want to become democrats. We all
| have our views and our tastes in that
| regard. 1t is that you shall come to be-
| lieve that you are as near to the heart of
| the central government, as now admins
| tered, as any other people in the union"
The old rebel yell was heard In Column
| bus as the President spoke today as 1t
| has not been heard in years. The pretty
| little town was crowded to the bursting
| point with excursionists. President Taft's
| address from a stand erected on Main
street seemed to catch the fancy of the
crowd, and nearly every sentence of his
talk was punctured with cheers. In
speaking OF his desire to bring the south
ern people closer to their neighbors of
the north and west, President Taft de-
clared that the cordial reception he has
thus far had convinced him that the
southern people are willing to come more
than half way in the encouragement Of
that sentiment
Secretary Dickinson, in speech at Co
lumbus, declared that, as a Judge of the
federal court, with jurisdiction extend
ing into the southern states, President
Taft came to know much of the charac-
ter, the traditions, the aims and ambi-
lions of the southern people, and was
nearer to them in this regard than was
| Grover Cleveland, who was elected by
their suffrage. The secretary said the
| President had no such cheap or paltry
purpose as the gaining of votes and
| repeated, amid cheers, the Presidents
| own declaration that his visit to the
/ SOulQ was WllnOul poillCdi purpose.
| The President has entirely recovered the
voice he lost in Texas, and which grad
ually came back to him during the trip
| down the Mississippi and the stay In New
Orleans.
On Woman's Suffrage.
| In addition to declaring his good will
to the people of the south, the President
had a few words to say yesterday with
reference to marriage and woman's suf-
| frage, when he was surrounded on the
campus of the Mississippi Girls Industrial
Institute and College by 800 as pretty girls
as could be found in all the south, and
who afterwards helped to serve the Pres
ident, his party and the citizens of Co.
lumbus with the first barbecue of the
Presidential tour.
II wish that every woman In the world
was SO situated" the President declared,
that she should not think it necessary
for her to marry II she did not want to-"
Mr.. Taft said he would be the last man
in the world to put anything in the way
of matrimony, but he believed a girl
should be so situated as to her future as
to be able to make free choice and to
look forward to a life of unmixed hap
piness.
Education in the arts and industries, he
said, were the best means of bringing this
condition of affairs about.
1T know that 1t is generally supposed"
continued the President that those who
inherit wealth are in the best situation
for future happy life.
Il mean In this world" he added amid
laughter.
Dat 7 10, hf,,1-t
that the best legacy that can be left to
young man is good education and a
good character by training in a family
to good moral standards and nothing else
Has Not Had Fair Show.
1.-THE same thing is true with respect to
the young women who are given a fair
chance in life In earning and carving
out their own futures. The great trouble
has been that we have not given the
women a fair show. We have not opened
all the avenues to livelihood that they are
quite as we'll able to fill and in certain
respects better able to fill than we are.
II am not a rabid suffragist. The truth
Is, am not in favor of suffrage for
women until I can be convinced that all
the women desire it, and when they de-
sire it am in favor of giving 1t to them,
and whe nthey desire 1t they will get it,
too. But / do believe that one Of the
advantages OF giving tnem tDdI KIM OF
| influence will be more certainly to open
the avenues of self-support to them than
has heretofore been done.
81 shall be glad that l shall not have
any property to leave to my boys, of
whom I have two, but only good char
acter and pride in themselves and
good education, but for my daughter
am going to scrape together as much as
can give her and as good an education
as l can, SO that she shall take in the
lesson which I first sought to announce
as the text of my discourse that she
marry only when she chooses to marry
and not because of circumstances
Chief Address at Columbus.
In his principal address at Columbus,
President Taft said:
Colonel Johnson. Mr.. Mayor, Ladies and
Gentlemen, Citizens of Columbus:
II have been spending a considerable
part of the last week in Mississippi and
| am now just about to leave her pre-
cincts, and l want to say before ] do
\ leave 1t that l like Mississippi. l am glad
| to be In Columbus-this pretty city with
so interesting history. I am glad to
| be in the city of your great General Lee.
| I am, indeed, sorry that It was not given
| to me to meet him in person and receive
| that kindly gentle influence that he shed
| wherever he moved. / am especially sorry
| not to be able to come into his presence
| and to talk with him In regard to the re-
| lations of the south to the rest of the
| union, because he represented that spirit