The Washington bee., 1910-03-26

iportant bearing on the uplift of our
ten millions of Negroes than an hun
dred political appointments of high
or low degree could have,
If the Negro critics will stop and
consider the deep interest shown, and
the efforts put forth by President
Taft's administration, to preserve
the independence, and to provide for
the permanency and progress of the
Liberian republic-thus affording an
opportunity for the Negro to show
and develop his capacity for self
government perhaps they will as
sumo, and rightly too, that the cause
of the Negro is a matter of deep
concern with the President.
If the Negro critics, and those
seekers for the temporary elevation
to be found in political appointments
will recall that the President, in his
annual message to Congress, advOcat-
ed the holding of a semi-centenniai
celebration of the emancipation OF
the American Negro from slavery,
in order that the race might show in
concrete and assembled form the
wonderful progress made in fifty
years of freedom, perhaps they will
will agree to give him the credit he
has earned for a sincere desire for
race upIift.
| And also it must not be lost sight
Iof, when in forming a judgment of
President Taft, that in every meas
ure, policy or Legislative enactment
recommended by him to benefit the
people of the United States as
whole the Negro, as a part, must
necessarily be benefited, and for this
we have a right, in common with the
whites, to feel grateful to him.
! The fact that the President re-
ltained his membership on the Jeanes
Fund Board, a board having the
management and disposition of a
fund for Negro Education, although
he had retired from active partici
patton in all his manv societies and
boards; save the Yale corporation,
makes it inconceivahle that he can
be regarded in any other light than
one who aims to be a friend And
that he takes a keen interest in the
work of the Jeanes Fund Board is
bers meet with him at the White
| House last December.
! After all the paramount considera-
ton involved in the Negro question
is not what influence should be ex-
erted for any restricted or prescrib-
ed sphere for the Negro, but what
influence should be put forth to form
IAN incentive to a forward march all
,down the line. Not what influence
should be exerted merely to conserve
1.-THE interests of the aspirantS for Of
fee, but what influence is necessary
Ito conserve the industrial, CONNER
cial and professional advance of the
trace Not what influence should be
idirected merely to and for the Negro
but what influence should be direct
ed affecting both, the Negroes and
whites in order to order to anchor
ate the conditions of the one by at
tracing the sympathy and help of
the other
That President Taft is desirous of
J having, and means to see that the
| Negroes receive fair and equitable
political representation no one who is
informed doubts. Not because of any
possible bearing it may have on his
future political fortunes. but because
he believes it their just right and
due. But Rome was not built in a
DAY, and no administration was ever
able to fulfill all its promises within
a year from date. President Taft is
sincere in his desire, and aim to re
duce race friction to the minimum,
and increase the harmony between the
traces to the maximum. Criticism is
not likely to dissuade him from his
purpose to conserve. first, the inter
ests of the whole people, without
reference to race or color, and sec
ondly to eoncerve the interests of the
classes without preJudicing the cause
OF the latter.
BEFORE criticiSiuo the diSOenSinO