The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-11
TAFT LAUDS SOUTH INATLANTA ADDRESS
President Says Entire Nation Has Been Benefited by Remark able Growth and Industrial Progress of Southern States Ends Speech by Making Strong Defense of e1st Con-
 gress, Saying More Work Was Done Than by
 Any Other Congress Since Civil War

~N5 - 70
 Any Other Congre
 Atlanta, March 10.-Following is the complete speech which President Taft delivered this afternoon before the South ern Commercial congress here:
 "Gentlemen of the Southern Commer-
 cial Congress-
 q was very much honored by receiving an invitation. signed by the governors of all the southern states to be present and take part in your deliberations. Tha commercial and industrial development of this country for the last 20 years has been so great that the statistics startle us An examination shows that propor- tionately the commercial and business growth of the south Is greater than that of any other part of the country A cotton crop that sells for a billion dol lars insures prosperity and when in ad dition to that you raise corn crop worth half a billion dollars and include the tobacco. you raise the product of your iron industry; your cotton manufactur- ing and your truck gardening, as well as the naval stores of the Carolinas and Georgia and the sugar and rice of Louisiana and Texas, the fruits and lum- Der of all the southern states, one be- gins to get a conception of the marvellous progress of the south.
 "Good business is not everything :n life the making and accumulation of money should not be the chief end of n community There has been danger in the past that the rush for wealth would injure the moral fibre of our people and degrade their ideals and standards Nevertheless, prosperity and the accu- mutation of wealth, if the effort to ac- quire them is not too absorbing, are very essential in the proper development of a people, and in the promotion of re- ffning civilization.
 Was Was Disastrous
 For years after the war the south was poor and was engaged in long and bitter struggle to recover from the disastrous condition in which she was left by the civil war. She could not maintain a proper modern and adequate educational system because it was inn possible to find taxable resources of sufficient extent to raise the requisite funds to establish a broad school sys- tenn. In the gloom of the days that fol- lowed the war, in the reconstruction period, and in the time of the slow growing business of the south, 1t was impossible for the southern people to avoid the resentment against the rest of the nation which the memories of the recent civil war engendered and which their hard lot emphasized. But, with the coming of prosperity with the resump tion of comfort in their lives, with growing sympathy on the part of the north in their working out of the se- rious problems confronting them, and with the sense of triumph in their suc- cess in overcoming their great difficult ties the southern people have mellowed The northern people have met them half way and never before in the history of the country have the two sections been so friendly and so near in such com plete union as they are today.
 "The cause of education has received tremendous impetus all over the south. The appropriations by the legis- latures have been liberal and the pub lie interest of schools has been wide spread. look for a vast improve ment in the thoroughness of education in the next 10 years. The appropria- tion of large sums of money and the building of school houses and the ap- pointment of superintendents and teachers are not. however, all the nec- essary steps in the growth of a really useful and successful educational sys- tenn.
 Need Thorough Organization
 "The organization must be made thorough and effective. The curriculum must be made simple but comprehen- sive The supervision by superintend ents of the teach CTS must be close and severe. The number of hours per day. of days per week, and of months per year for education, especially in the rural districts, must be increased and the real educational benefits to the people may then be improved in de- gree proportionate to the increase in appropriations in school houses and in teachers. A school system upon pa- per and in statistical report is one thing-a school system effecting the purpose for which 1t is adopted and implanting real education In the minds of all children, rich and poor, so as
 
 for their life pursuits is quite anoth- CT. Education in the south is in a transition period
 You have the race question in the south you have the question of eff cient labor Both are most serious problems. but I believe as strongly as I can believe anything that the solu- tion is to be found in a system of pri- mary and industrial education offered 70 every male and female. white and black. If one can judge of the pros pect from the enthusiasm of educa- tional conventions held in every state in the south he may safely prophecy that the movement is on foot to bring about in actual operation the best standards of primary and industrial education.
 Tt is a great pleasure for me to come to the south again. When l was here in the early part of the admin istration I expressed the hope that I might be permitted to do something to bring the north and south closer together and to convince our southern brethren that they were part of tho union and part of the government, and that we were all really Americans with no Mason and Dixon lines to divide us. My hope has been realized, for my appointments of southern men to high positions have been received tn roughout the north as well as the south as proof of that birth In the south and participation in the civil war on the side of the Confederacy was not the slightest bar to preferment to the most exalted positions of those plainly and fit.
 South Boosts Nation
 "The growth of the south in wealth, in education. in civil order and in civ