The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-26
DIR. BOWEN'S LECTURE
A BRILLIANT DISCUSSION OF THE
RACE QUESTION.
In Eloquent CoIored Divine Heard
by n Large Audience at
Simpson Chapel.

2 IL - " IL DO"Chf VI
historical theology in the colored Theo-
logical Seminary, at Atlanta. Ga, lectured
before a large audience In Simpson Chapel
last night. DR.. Bowen is the man who
came within three votes OF being elected a
bishop at the recent Methodist General
Conference in Chicago. Any one who lis
tened to his eloquent and learned address
last night must have been surprised that he
should have failed of securing an episco-
pacy. With DR.. Bowen on the platform
were seated Prof. Edward A. Robertson,
president OF George r. Smith College, Sc
dalia. Mo-; DR.. NJ. c. B. Mason, OF Cincin-
natl. senior secretary of the Freedmen's Aid
Society, and Rev. Z. l.. Gillian, formerly
presiding elder of the Lexington Confer
ence. now pastor of Simpson Chapel. Vocal
music was furnished by an excellent choir.
composed of Misses Vera Cravens, Allie
Beard, Biddie Miller. Mintie Bolden. jamie
Beard. Mamie clay. Mesdames Susie Miller,
Lucinda Hayden, Irene Franklin, Mrs.
Bradshaw and Messrs. w. A. Birch, A. G.
Bybee. John Grycel and Mr.. Hewitt. The
choir is under the leadership of DIR. a. w.
Birch. Mrs. Annie Johnston presided at
the organ. At the conclusion of the adj
dresses the audience was invited into the
Sunday school room to partake of ice cream
and cake provided by the Epworth League
of Simpson Chapel.
DIR. Bowen's address at all times com
manded close and respectful attention and
occasionally his forcible utterances were
greeted with hearty applause. His subject
was Be or Not To Be- and his address
was an outspoken exposition of the reasons
why the colored race does not progress as
rapidly as some of its leaders would like to
see. The lecturer at no time minced words,
but the truth of his statements and the
cogency of his arguments forbade any feel
ing of resentment. DR.. Bowen's opening
remarks clearly outlined the line of argu-
ment which he pursued. He said:
Race efficiency is the measure of race
existence. Once upon a time men studied
the heavens to sec the glory of God and the
evidences of His transcendent power. To-
day they place their ears upon the very
breast of the common hodcarrier or the be-
smeared blacksmith and they listen TO the
mystic thud OF the human heart which
sends the life current dancing upon the
lips and burning in the cheeks and hear the
inarticuiate refrain. The hand that made
us was divine"
Some of DR.. Bowen's brilliant utterances
were: The bald fact of the negro's intel
lectual capability has been established be-
yond doubt. To be capable of education ar
cues little in determining questions OF abil-
ity and effectiveness. The pig or the horse
can De trained, not educated; there is no
such thing as an educated pig-can be
trained 10 perform certain feats which ap
rroach the action of mind, but the fact
that you can train a pig to grant out five
has not altered the condition of the pig
from the time that Adam first saw one.
Pigology Is the same to-day that IL was in
the days of Adam and of Noah. Likewise
the bare fact that the negro can read Greek
and work in logarithms and in calculus
the bare fact that he can work these prob
lens out OF books does not settle the aues-
ton of race efficiency. The condition of
life Is TO be changed and we have come to a
day I'm our life when the question of utility
and of ability is under consideration and is
respected"
FUTURE OF THE RACE.
Races like individuals must and do
have a supreme purpose and their whole
history illustrates that purpose. 1t re-
quires no great wisdom to affirm that the
purposeless Is the worthless. Now. then.
is the thought of the negro race to be or
not to be- in other words. does the con-
science of the race contain a dominating
and a consuming purpose to live and to
achieve all the ideals within that purpose,
or does the race want to die? 1t may die
annlhilation may come by the destruction
OF the virtues of life or 1T may come by in
efficiency. lassitude or laziness. In any
case II Is humiliation or death. II any
race surrenders to death. that race ought
to die. 1t is suicidal on the part of the
negro TO expect that he can live without
grinding out the essentials of life"
There are scores of pusillanimous per-
sons within our ranks who insist that the
only way to bring the negro to his fullest
and these men are willing to lose their
identity and to surrender their personality
because they believe the only way to make
swallowed up or DESTROYED. Such men are
made of the stuff that towards are made
o.. My friends, expressions of hope on the
part or friends and the philanthropic will
PROVE abortive IL there is not born in the
very heart blood of the negro race the
thought, the passion TO be-to live. There
must be this ldea-to rule and control
there must be within his heart the echo
CT that sentiment OF the African Horace
i am = man and whatever concerns mer
concerns me-" IArplause.l
DR.. Bowen made a powerful arraignmenr
Of the negro race for the immortality which
he declared exists i'm it, He insisted elo-
quently that chastity is one of the prime
essentials to race progression. His tall
on this particular subject was execeedingly
impressive. He said in part: 1.-The stats
tics of the death rate alarm us: they are
gloomy, they are dark. they are forbidding
and j want to say TO you that there are
certain diseases that are sweeping oul
race into the grave which are the blackest
curse upon sinful lives. There is an in
crease i'm a certain kind of ills, due to a GER
tain type of life. before which we ought e
hang our heads in shame
1.-The ultimate criteria by which yol
measure the power OF a race are not IL
book learning or its financial power, blu
we have turned aside from these consider
ations as the measurement of man to-day
The man is measured, not by his learning
or by his property, but by his character.
tApplause.l
WHAT HISTORY TEACHES.
DR.. Bowen referred to the great learn
ing and military power of the ancien
Greeks and Romans, which did not never
theless prevent their utter destruction
lessons" he said, namely. that sin an,
shame are going to dig the grave of tn
individual and the race, and that right
eousness will exalt, according 10 the state
ment of the Old Book" In reinforcing hi
argument that a race which fails TO i'm
prove its opportunities must or necessit,
|, give way to more progressive nations, tin
speaker referred to the North American
Indian and the Beers of South Africa. III
said: ut Is a sad fact tina the Beers ar
being driven away from their land to-da,
in South Africa and America has risen u
in certain quarters and shed crocodile tear
; over them and spoken of the tyranny o
Great Britain, and yet that is just wha
America did 10 the red man. and that 1
, Just what America is going 10 do AGAR
! and that is just what the white man /
always going 10 do TO people that do no
. improve the ground. If a man canno
stand on his feet. what are you going {
do with him? Are YOU going 10 prOp hir