Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-11

l |
| the agreement before proceeding to
other business, If 1t be deemed wise
| or necessary to proceed to other
l. business.
| ATLANTA, Ga, March 11.-President
Taft, in a speech before the closing ses-
sion of the Southern Commercial Congress
| last night, reviewed the work of the
Sixty-first Congress, and urged the young
men Of the south to take up the political
issues Of the day from broad and lib
eral standpoint, and to eliminate from
their consideration all narrow PARTISAN
ship and sectionalism.
Come fully into our national COM
munion,' said the President, with the
patriotic purpose Of stimulating the prog
ress Of our civilization In every right d.
rection, maintaining our country's pros
perity and accommodating it's wealth, but
always in subordination to higher ethical
standards and to the promotion Of right
eousness and Justice"
| The President declared that the Sixty
first Congress, in its three sessions just
closed, had enacted more helpful legisla-
ton than any Congress since the civil
war. Mr. Taft asserted that the greatest
accomplishment OF the session was the
ratification Of the Japanese tretay and the
greatest disappointment was the failure
Of Congress to ratify the reciprocity agree
ment with Canada, which he expected
| would be ratified at the coming extra
session before proceeding to other busi-
ness. If 1t be deemed wise or necessary to
proceed to other business.
The Presidents Address.
The President in his address said:
AN examination shows that proper
tionately the commercial and business
growth OF the south is greater than that
of any other part Of the country. A cot
ton crop that sells for a billion dollars
insures prosperity, and when in addition
to that you raise a, corn crop worth half
a billion dollars. and include the tobacco
you raise. the product OF your iron indus
try. your cotton manufacturing and your
truck gardening, as we'll as the naval
stores Of the Carolinas and Georgia and
the sugar and rice OF Louisiana and
Texas. the fruits and the lumber of all
the southern states. one begins to get a
conception of the marvellous progress of
the south.
Good business is not everything in
life; the making and accumulation Of
money should not be the chief end of a
community. There has been danger in the
past that the rush for wealth would in
jure the moral fiber of our people and
degrade their ideals and standards. Never
theless. prosperity and the accumulation
of wealth, il the effort to acquire them Is
not too absorbing. are very essential in
the proper development of a people and
in the promotion of a refining civliza-
ton.
Disappearance of sectionalism.
lin the gloom of the days that followed
the war. IN the reconstruction period, and
in the time of the slow growing business
of the south, it was impossible for the
southern people to avoid the resentment
against the res. of the nation which the
memories of the recent civil war engen-
dered, and which their hard lot empha-
sized.
But with the coming prosperity. with
the resumption of comfort in their lives.
| with a growing sympathy on the part Of
the north in their working out of the
serious problems confronting them and
with the sense of triumph in their success
in overcoming their great difficulties the
southern people have mellowed The
| northern people have met them half way
| have the two sections been SO friendly
and so near. in such complete union as
they are today.
Impetus to Education.
THE cause of education has received a
tremendous impetus all over the south.
The appropriations by the legislatures
have been liberal. and the public interest
in the organization Of schools has been
| widespread. I look for a vast improve
ment in the thoroughness of education in
the next ten years. The appropriation OF
large sums of money and the building Of
schoolhouses and the appointment of su-
perintendents and teachers are not. how
ever all the necessary tops in the growth
tional system. The organization must be
made thorough and effective. The curric-
uum must be made simple. but compre-
hensive. The supervision by superintend-
| ence Of the teachers must he close and
severe.
You have the race question in the
south. you have the question Of efficient
labor. Both are most serious problems
| lieve anything that the solution is to be
found in a system of primary and indus
trial education offered to every youth,
| male and female. white and black. II one
can Judge OF the prospect from the en-
| thusiasm Of educational conventions held
in every state in the south. he may safely
prophesy that the movement Is on foot
| to bring about in actual operation the
education,
Presidents Hope Realized.
1T is a great pleasure for me to come
| to the south again. When ! was here in
the early part of my administration I ex-
pressed the hope that I might be per-
mitted to do something to bring the north
and south closer together and to convince
our southern brethren that they were
part Of the Union and part of the govern
ment, and that We were all really Amer
leans, with no Mason and Dixon line to
divide us.
MY hope has been realized for my
appointments of southern men to high
ONCE have been received throughout the
north as we'll as the south proof that