The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1897-09-11
coLoRED MEN IN BUSINESS

NoTfneFu 0T0SneF ~ Dsss"ces es'
Money Getting.
THERE Is another side to this
picture of the negro IN Nashville.
A side which Is seldom presented OF
the negroes Of the North. | have
nothing TO say in dispAragement OF
the business men of color In the
North. They are doing the best
their circumstances allow and de-
serve all the encouragement they
get. The negro business men and
professional men of Nashville are
far and away ahead of the negro
business men of Washington or
New York, and make less OF an
effort to secure patronage. These
men are prosperous and indepen-
dent. and are able at 8 moments
notice to put their hands on enough
of the substantial to satisfy the
most sceptical of the fact that they
have reduced money getting to a
positive science. There is not that
competition in the South in bust.
ness and the professions for negro
patronage which is found in the
North. And negroes in business
get their fair share of all the bust
ness they are capable of doing. 1t
is my firm conviction that if syn
dictate of moneyed negroes would
establish In any Southern city a
clothing store, q dry goods store
and two or three irst-class drug
stores, the investment would yield
a handsome revenue, and at the
same time would do much toward
breaking down the barriers which
everywhere confront the intelligent
and progressive negro. "a negro
politician isn't worth much more in
Tennessee or Georgia or Missis.
sippi than hers in Washington or
New York or Pennsylvania. Poll
tics and business won't mix any
quicker than theology and politics.
A mans business or profession is
his master, and until he is able to
release himself from the exactions
and duties of his position as the
servant of this master, he ought
not attempt to engage In politics,
except in so far as his duties as a
good citizen compel him to. The
successful business men of color in
the South are not politicians, but
they exercise on every proper occa-
SION their prerogatives at the polls,
which is duty that belongs to
every freeman.
In Nashville the negro business
men appear to have learned lesson
from the Jews who, as business
men, succeed everywhere, and in
everything they undertake. Nobody
has ever seen a poor and struggling
Jewish merchant in the South
wasting his time, energy and cash
fooling with politics. If he goes
into politics at all it is for the pur-
pose of succeeding, and he generally
succeeds if there is any possible
chance for him to do so. The Jew
doesn't permit anything to stand |
between him and the American |
dollar, except space, and he closes
the spertures as speedily as pos
aible. With him, "peezness is |
peezness, INIT politics-vy dot is
anoder stdory."
! say that the colored business
men of the South, and of Nashville |
in particular, are becoming imbued
With this idea, the development of
which has made the Jews a strong
iorce in the commercial life of that
section, as well as of the entire
country. And it is a hopeful sign
to see colored men every
where IN this section, taking aprac-
ical and sensible view of the mo-
nentous question which every ne.
10 of average intelligence consid.
N to be of more Importance than
ny other question which concerns
'ur well being as class. A negro
nth $50, 600, 100000 or more
Iollars in Nashville or Georgia, or
mississippi, Is every whit as big a
nan, if not bigger, than a negro in
be North with . like amount of
be substantial. There is no preiu- !
ice 70 money In the South, but | /,
here is a very pronounced feeling /,
gnnst both poverty and ignorance.
md ] doubt not but that the same
seling obtains elsewhere. TheI
1ndition of the masses of both the
70 races in the South Is more in
meal to their advancement than
1lor. A poor white man with q
Dor quality Of brains hasn't mncb / :