The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-16
BOOKER T.WAsHINGTON- A GREAT
SPEECH.

1
Washington, the greU5 Southern col
| ored orator, spoke to 4 large crowd
/ in the court house The audience was
composed of the most intelligent and
| refined of Durham's white and colored
citizenship. His subject was Indus
trial Education" and it was great
speech. He thoroughly understands
| the subject and treated it in a mas
terly way. He spoke as follows;
"The negro race is divided to-day,
narshaps into two classes-the one is
of the opinion that we cannot redeem
ourselves in this country, and espe-
cially in the South, and we just as well
give up all hope or leave this country;
| the other class believes that effort ana
| struggle will enable us to overcome
| every seeming obstacle.
''We have made mistakes, L fear,
| in not constantly keeping in our mind
| our advantages. We have had any
number of conventions whose
subject has been to seek re-
is right and proper, but it is with
a race as with an individual, it will
begin to make progress backward il
it is constantly dwelling on the dark
side, is constantly grumbling and find
ing fault, is continually finding way
not to succeed. 1t requires a man with
no special gift of brain power to find
fault with an individual, organization
or state of things. After all what we
want, and it is what America honOrs,
is the man who can teach his fellows
how to overcome obstacles, how to
find way or to make one
"In much that we have attempted,
fear that we have failed to get down
to first principles to reach a bed rock
ON which to lay a foundation. We have
spent much time in discussing the Ma
| tional debt that might have been better
spent in finding a way to pay the debt
due the man just across the street. We
| have spent time in discussing the value
of the nations keeping on friendly
| terms with France and the Sandwich
| Islands and have failed too often to
| cultivate in every manly way, friendly
relations with our next door neigh
Dor, even though he is Southern
white man. We have spent time and
energy in trying to go to Congress and
| to the Legislature, that would have
been better spent in trying to become
| the leading builder, or contractor, or
real estate dealer in our town or city.
| We have spent time and money in
making stump speeches and attending
| political conventions that could have
been better spent in becoming the lead
| ing truck farmer or merchant, or in
| starting steam laundry or dairy
| farm.
| people tell me that the young col
ored man is cramped and after he gets
| his education there are but few chances
| for him to use it. / have little pa
tience with such argument. Hereto
| fore we have had too much of the idea
| that an educated colored man must
| either teach preach, be a clerk or fol-
| low a profession. Our educated men,
more and more, must GO to the farms,
| into the trades, start brick yards, saw
mills, factories, open coal mines. They
must apply their education to conquer
| the forces of nature. Education with
in itself is nothing except as it is used
| in a way to make the world better and
more useful; unless it is used in way
to produce something. An educated
man standing on the streets with his
| hands in his pockets is of no more
value to the world than an ignorant
man doing the same thing.
SIN the present condition of our race,
our education for the next fifty or a
hundred years should be especially di
IECbEa h1OiAS und SNASAb1AAA
lines. The trouble with large pro-
portion of the negro race is that it is
hungry and it is impossible for any
race to make satisfactory progress
along educational, moral and religious
lines when in this condition; in other
words, it is hard to make a good
Christian out of a hungry man.
II have heard it over and over that
the negro knows how to work and does
not need training in industrial educa-
ton. There was never greater mis-
| take. Let me illustrate Sometime
| ago while travelling through the State
| of Indiana / saw a man engaged IN
| planting corn. Instead of walking he
was seated upon a large machine which
| he termed cultivation. Hitched to this
were two fine horses. The man was not
| only sitting down, but was holding a
| large umbrella over him, and all the
| strength he had to expend was in
/ holding the horses back to prevent
| their working themselves to death.
This machine plowed up the ground,
| laid off the burrows, dropped the corn
| and covered it. Besides, instead of
| planting one row at a time, two rows
| of corn were planted. Another time
while travelling through Alabama |
| saw a man planting corn. Instead OF
I his using the cultivator, / saw and old
| pillow that was loosely patched together
and about four inches wide. Hitched
to this pillow was an old mule that was
| going at the rate of about two miles
| an hour Instead of the man riding
along on the cultivator, this fellow
was following the pillow, barefooted,
carrying with him a long pole, which
he occae orally laid on the back of the
| weary oal;1p :rn;e. Nearly every
| t'i.sp ~ reached the end of furrow
Sc su'1 ase - stop and repair the
!ea, and YER often the harness,
ta.aa was composed partly of rags
q .a~tlr OF leather In addition to
n-5s q tie er>G"d. ne had TO go over
2e,,ir - t.la are old mule and
lay OF ae TOSS zen another man
came along dropping ne corn and an
other followed 10 cover it. He was
| 1zrb n + uniosht he called one Of these tome