The times., 1897-04-06
STOP BEGGING FOR OFFICE
Booker I. WaShington's Advice
to the Colored Youth.
SHOULD MAKE OPPORTUNITIES
The Best Way 10 Prove That the
Negro Is Not Shiftiess Nor Lazy
Is by Each One Showing What
He Can Do for Rimself-Large
Audience Filled the Church.

When Booker T. Washington was es-
corted TO the platform ofthe Fifteeath Street
Presbyterian Church last night by Rev.
f j. Grimke and Prof d. NJ. Browne, Of
the Colored High School, he looked pleased
at the size OF the audience. Every seat in
the church was occupied, and there were
nearly, if not quite, as many white people
as colored ones.
The women connected with the church
has placed palms on the platform in a
tasteful manner, that added greatly TO its
appearanec. The lecture OF MIR. Wash
ington was given for the benefit of the
Fifteenth street Presbyterian Church, and
very handsome sum was realized.
Mr. Washington was introduced TO the
audience by Prof. Browne, who explained
that the delay OF half an hour in arriving
at the church was unavoidable by Mr..
Washington. After the formal intro
duction, the lecturer said:
The average man usually has the idea
that if he were just somewhere else, in
another State or city, or in contact with
another race he would succeed, forget
ting too often to utilize the forces that are
about flm and In ndnu.
As bad as American slavery was, as
great as was its curse to black and whit e
man, we as race got one benefit through
the providence of God that we should not
fail to utilize and take advantage OF in
our present condition. Every large slave
plantation in the South was in limited
sense an industrial school. 1t had its com
mon farming department, its carpentry,
wheel wIie ehting, blacksInthing, brick ma
sonry, cooking and sewing departments.
For 250 years God made the Southern
white man do business with the negro If
Southern white man wanted a house
built or a suit of clothes made he con-
suited 4 neeIo about the building OF that
house orthe making of those clothes. Thus
the two races got used TO doing business
with each other. This training and this
business contact found us at the close Of
the war in possession of all the common
and skilled labor
While would he the last in the slight
est degree to seem TO apologize for slavery,
vet lit is efe to say that during slavery we
had more colored youths learning trades
in one county in the South than there are
learning trades today in the whole city
of Washington. The thing that | wish l
could burn into the heads and hearts of
my people all over this country is that
we do not want to lose this legacy in the
form of skilled labor that was purchased
and handed dow n to us by our fathers at the
price of ESQ years in slavery. We shall
lose this element of strength unless we do
two things: one is to put more brains and
skill into the common occupations that
l,g1 * a
dignity and glorify common labor. We
want to put into these industrial Occupa-
tions, If we would compete with the for
eigners who are pouring into the South,
the highest training OF intellect and great
est skill of hand. This competition should
not he leftto the ignorant or TO those merely
with a common school education, hut those
educated in universities and colleges should
more and more enter industrial life.
President Mckinley is q great and good
man, but with all his greatness and good
ness he cannot supply places for one-tenth
of those who are knocking Il his door
What l would say TO the black youth in
this respect / would repeat TO the white
youth: 60 somewhere in the South and
start an humble business of your own,
then instead of having to beg another for
office some one will soon be hegging you
for a position. Start brickyard, a print
ing office, truck garden, a creamery, a
stock farm, a real estate office; become
contractor and builder, an architect, or
landscape gardener, and then when Mr..
Mckinley sees that YOU have made sue
cess of your own business, started in an
humble manner, he will send for you and
ask you TO step up to higher things. We
all cannot secure offices under Mr.. Nc
Kinley, but we all can secure offices under
ourselves. Let US utilize the forces that
are in hand.
The best way to knock a man down is
with fact. If a man comes into our
town and says that the negro is shiftleSs
and lazy, let US be able TO show him the
best farm in the county owned and cuIti-
waited by an educated negro; the best saw
mill, the best lumberyard, the best row
of brick houses, the best grocery store,
the best factory, the best machine shop,
the best horse and carriage, the best col
Iege. One object lesson of this kind is
worth more to us as a race than all the
fine spun theories we can produce concern
ing the future possibilities of the negro
We must convince our next door neighhor
of our worth, and more and more through
out the South we are doing it.
A few minutes ago l mentioned the i'm
portance of our taking advantage of the
forces that are right about us. This
we have been trying to do for fifteen years
at Tuskegee, Ala. Starting on an old
plantation in a small shanty and church,
we have gradually built up by the labor
of the students themselves and the help
of friends on the outside, an institution
that now has property valued at
100000. On this old plantation there
are thirty-eight buildings, large and small,
and all but three have been almost wholly
erected by the students We have i, 800
acres Of land, 700 acres under cultiva-
ton, and twenty-sX industries arein con-
slant operation. There are more than
forty wagons and buggies owned and used
by the school. There are 50 horses and
mules, and in all 4So head of live stock
The annual expenses of the institution
are about S65 900 year. The students
themselves supply labor every year to the
amount of S45 900. For example, we
have six printing presses in operation and
print four newspapers. There are $50
students and eighty-one instructors. Count
ing the families of our instructors, we have
a constant population on our school grounds
of over ] 100 people. We not only give
industrial training, but the most thorough
literary and religious training in cnnec-
tion with it, We are trying here to plant
a great object lesson in the civilization