The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-10-24

md some should follow. The main rea-
SON why Spurgeon was such an excellent
leader was because his people believed
Il, him and followed him. Our success
will depend greatly upon the respect
we show to our leaders. 1t Is o1teh
true that the people would not go wrong
il they were not misled by their leau-
ers. The people generally 1olioW tne
nreachers, and they have a greater oppor-
unity to do them good or harm than
any one else. If the preachers VIII take axe
pr0per interest in the paper the people VIII
follow them. Read the papers ana re-
mort YOUR own work. Fred Douglass
said. MEN like to hear good things
said about them whether 1t is true or
not" A newspaper is a power, Wneth-
er it is for you or against you. me!
make wonderful impressions. 1t helps
any set of people TO have paper. IL
We evnect TO fight battles in this world
we must have the same kind OF weapons
that the Caucasian race has used. The
white papers are good, but they are not
expected to fight your battles. Whte
naDers are run in the interest OF white
neople and we must run papers Ill our
interest, This paper is your organ ana
Won should support it. | propose to
stand side by side with my people, ana
if they go up | will rise with them, ana
if they go down ! shall sink with them.
I believe that God intends for us to
shane our own destiny. Our many
school teachers, refined ladies, profess
sional men of various kinds all make
M this race. and all must help to uplift
il. This we cannot do without paper
TO voice your sentiments. | have seen
the Herald Office, and it is well fitted up
and is giving employment to a good num-
Der of boys and girls. | heard a senator
say that he had long been in doubt as
to the ability of the negro to edit paper,
but he had been convinced that they
can do better than a good many whites.
You have here in Texas some of the
best colored papers in the country. we
need instruments by which the race can
be built up. Any man can succeed III
tearing down a building, but it takes
skillful man to erect one OF the same
kind.
Hon. C. NJ. Ferguson of Paris, Tex,
was next introduced and spoke as follows:
am glad to find you thus engaged, not
as set of low people in great rabblH,
as some Of the good folks would have
us believe you are, but you are here as
a set of respectable men. | see women
of noble character, professional men,
scholarly men and in short men who
have played well their part in Texas.
! see no reason why you should not sue
coed. | see your convention drawing
men from other States and men
who are of National reputation, such as
Drs. Walker, Brawley, Carr, from the
far East. 1t is always source of
pleasure for me to encourage those. who
are trying to help themselves. am
not with you often, but you have my sym
pathy, and not only so, but your paper
has had contributions from me. L have
given to your college. know the pres
ident, was in school with him, and regard
him as man of whom all Texas should
be proud. | have contributed every
year to his school. Some of the Texas
people have thought me too closely allied
to you, but / am not ashamed of you.
| am not only in sympathy with you, but
with all who are trying to work out the
problem that lies before us. The white
people here have come to the conclusion
that we must begin to walk some our
selves. | have lost considerable in my
line of work, because / believe that when
n man of our race gets into position
he should gather around him as many
as possible of those whose ability will
suit to help in the work. do not only
contribute on such occasions as this to
your paper, but have given i'll work
to the extent of 5000, and | believe that
l can do the same thing this year. These
Offices of this kind take the girls and
boys from the streets. If we had places
in which we could give employment to
all of our boys and girls in the country
we would soon have the problem solved.