The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-15
CLEVELAND IAUDS
 WORK FOR BLACKS

WORK FOR BLACKS
 (Continued from Page. OnA) keeping with the objects and purposes of lhis occasion.
 Cooperation of This Section.
 As friends of the negro, fully believing In the possibility of his improvement and and sincerely and conhdent- y laborinG to that end. 1t is folly for us ,ng cooperation on the part of the white people of q South In tilis work. Labor as we will! those who do the lifting of the weight must be those who stand next to 1t. This cooperation cannot be forced; nor can 1t be gained by gratutiously run hing counter to firmly fixed and tena- ciously held Southern ideas. ar even nrejudices. We are not brought to the point Of doing or overlooking evil that good may come when we proceed upon where we may be directly and practical iy confronted with the question of the negros full enjoyment of civic advan- tages or even of all his political privi- ieEes. there are immediately before us and around us questions demanding our fectively with these ye can confidently rely upon the encouragement and assist ance of every thoughtful and patriotic citizen ot the laiid--wherever he may live and whatever may be his ideas or prode- tlctions concerning the more remote phases of the negro problem.
 These questions thai are 50 tmme- dlately pressing have to do with the prac- teal education of the negro and especial- ly with fitting him to compete with his spectacle and reniunerative livelihood. Hooker Washington. ifi speaking of the conditions and needs of his race, has wisely said: Tt is at the bottom of life we must begin and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to over- shadow our opportunities"
 In summing up the whole matter there ia one thing of which wc can be al,so- iutely and unreservedly certain. When we aid Tuskegee Institute and agencies like 1t. striving for the mental and man. ual education of the negro at the South, we are in every point of view, rendering him the best possible service. Whatever may be his ultimate destiny, we are thus helping to fit him for filling his place and ing we'll in the soil at ..the bottom of hfe' the seeds of the black mans devei. opment and usefulness. These seeds will not die. but will sprout and grow; and If 1t be within the wise purpose of God. the or prejudice can prevent the bursting forth of the blade and plant of the ne gro's appointed opportunity into the bright sunlight of a cloudless day.
 At the conclusion of his address. Mir.
 Cleveland introduced Edgar~G. Murphy. 9ho said: @
 MT. Murphy Speaks.
 Mir. Murphy said in part: I think that wise men everywhere are recognising m greatest moral assets in the life of our assets of our country today.
 The South has not applauded him with undiscriminating agreement or with mos The South has sometimes blamed him. But the South Is too fair to him and to his race to allow these occasions of dis agreement to distort the broad perspective n which she has viewed and appreciated which, for twenty years, in cheerful pa- tience and unaffected modesty. he has la bored for the upbuilding of his humble ana untutored fellows.
 He has greatly done a great work in to a great need North and South. there have been those who have seen peril in the negro's progress. But 1T the progress of the negro bring peril with It that peril is nothing in comparison with the periis attendant on the negro's failure.
 Dr. Lyman Abbott. who followed. said that the South deserved great credit for taking up, as it had. an untried problem, in helping the negro to help himself:
 Dr. Abbott Praises South.
 And the North" he said. has given her scant credit. She has given him schools that the North has refused him and done many other things towards his future that the North never thought of. !"
 pr. Abbott next spoke of the great work of Booker T. Washington and prais- ed him in the highest terms, declaring he had done as much for the white race as for the colored. His work had really brought about the union of North and South in the work that he had taken up as his life task. Quoting a remark made by Henry Ward Beecher, to the effect that we should make the negro worthy first and then give him suffrage" Dr. Abbott said: I've made the error of giv- ing him suffrage first and the unfortun- ate negro has had to suffer ever since. What the negro wants is education. Ii all depends upon edpcation whether the negro will be a shackle to our feet or wings to our body"
 W. H. Baldwin, Jr, Treasurer of the Tuskegee Institute, announced that since the meeting he'd begun, he had received two telegrams, one announcing a gift of s1o,0 900 from a lady in Ohio and the other a gift of 1.000 from 3 lady and gentle man in the South. He said that s56 0oo had been needed to pay the indebtedness of the institute. and that taking the gifts Into consideration, there was still sum of $45,000 needed, for which he made an urgent plea. as well as for further en- dowment sum.
 Mir. Cleveland. in introducing Booker T. Washington. the last speaker of the evening, said:
 "I have to introduce to you man too TT..lA lo States, man who has been spoken of too frequently and too favorably, for it to be necessary for me to say more than here Is Booker T. Washington"
 The Speech of Washington.
 Washington said in part: The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute at Tuske- gee. Ala. is the outgrowth of the efforts of Gen. s. C.. Armstrong of the Hampton Institute Tn Virginia. General Armstrone who realized that the task of the nation was not fulfilled when the shaclkles of slavery were struck from the limbs of the millions of slaves of the South.
 He realized that 100000 of human beings steeped in ignorance. minus experience, could be but half free. He foresaw that the nation must have a new birth and a new freedom. and that this regeneration must include the industrial intellectual and moral and religious freedom of the ex-slaves. Further. in refusing to return to his comfortable Northern home after the surrender at Appomattox and in de- ciding to remain in the South to help in fighting for freedom in larger and higher sense. General Armstrong appreciated as few Americans have, the North's thrilled duty to the South. General Armstrong said by word and action that it was unjust to leave the South with it's industrial system and overturned in the midst of a poverty that forbade the proper edu- cation of the white youth--to say nothing