The age-herald., 1898-11-20
B. I. WASHINGTON
 IN NEW YORK Addressed a Large Crowd on the Race Question. RECOGNITION OF THE NEGRO Should be Governed by His Fitness to Sbe Accorded All the Rights of an American Citizen Portion
 of His Speech.
RECOGNITION OF THE NEGRO

1 New York, November 19.-(SpeciaL)-
 Booker T. Washington, the principal of the
 Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
 Tuskegee, Ala, delivered an address on
 Thursday evening in the Clinton Avenue
 Congregational church, Brooklyn, before
 the Manhattan-Brooklyn Association of 1 Congregational churches. His subject was
 Some Lessons and Opportunities"
 President Washington is regarded by
 many who have studied the difficult race problem as the Moses who is to lead the American negro to a higher social, civil and industrial plane.
 l Being a full-blooded negro, Professor Washington has the native right to speak l for his race. He is a powerful speaker but 1t is as a worker and as a counsellor
 that his influence is greatest. former
 slave, he knows his subject from the begin- ming
 I Interest in Professor Washingtons ad- dress was heightened by the fact that while
 he was speaking in Brooklyn the mass i meeting to protest against the race riots l in Wilmington, N. C., was in progress in 1 Cooper Union, Manhattan. A reporter who i saw the professor before he addressed the meeting asked him whether he had been invited to address the mass meeting and, 1 if not, whether it was because, as had been reported, he was not in sympathy with 1t. Mr. Washington said:
 T was not asked to speak at Cooper Un- ion, but the conclusion must not be reached that l am opposed to whatever may be done there. I do say, however, that the present Is a time in which, above all other things, calmness should be cultivated. These are very troublous trying times and men must keep cool if they wish to
 make them better. In my address tonight I do not directly alude to the present troubles of my race, but indirectly I shall endeavor to point out what believe to be the best remedy against their occurrence in the future"
 In his address, Professor Washington
 said:
 Tt must be apparent at this time that the effort to put the rank and file of the colored people into position to exercise the right
 of franchise has not been a success in those portions of our own country where the negro is found in large numbers. Either the negro was not prepared for any such wholesale exercise of the ballots as our recent amendments to the constitution con- tempIated, or the American people were not prepared to assist, and encourage him to use the ballot. In either case the result has been the same"
 After showing what advance the negro has made since the war, and referring with warranted pride to the bravery shown by negro soldiers in the late war; he said:
 Tn my mind there is no doubt that we made the mistake at the beginning of our freedom of putting the emphasis on the wrong end. Politics and the holding of office were emphasized almost to the ex- clusion of every other interest, and we accepted responsibilities which our expe- rience and education had not fitted us to perform with success and credit.
 ITO my mind the past and present teach but one lesson-to the negros friend and to the negro himsef-that there is but one way out, but one hope of solution, and that is for the negro in every part of Amer ica to resolve that his pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day shall be property, skill, economy, education and Christian character.
 s'The individual or race that owns the property, pays the tax possesses the intelli- gence and substantial character is the one who is going to exercise the greatest con-