The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-31
CAN DO NOTHING BUT GOOD.

The address of Booker Washington at
the Negro Fair in Raleigh yesterday was
full of wise counsel to his race. 1t can do
good and nothing but good. He spoke
more than an hour and from the first sem
tence to the last it was free from the air
ing of grievance or any faint of complaint.
The speech was remarkable for what he
did say. 1t was more remarkable for what
he did not say.
The chief emphasis of his speech was in
urging the negroes to stick to the farms.
He said that the negro in America is found
at his best in the rural districts of the
South, at his worst in the great centres of
tions of city life. He urged them to try
to become better farmers, to mix brains
with Drawn, to labor conscientiously and
bring up their children to love the life of
the farm. He said that ninety per cent
of the negroes found their best homes and
best opportunity on Southern farms and
would do so for the next hundred years. He
impressed upon them the necessity of learn
ing the best methods and of doing their
work conscentiously. In placing the chief
emphasis upon agriculture as the best oc-
cupation for the negroes, he showed him.
self sincerely interested in their true wei
fare. The South needs them in its agrl-
cultural progress and development. They
are best fitted by training and by their
long tutelage to till the Soil. When they
show more skill and their skill produces
more they will receive better pay, and
many of them will come to own small
farms of their own.
Equal emphasis was laid upon the neces-
sity of character. He counselled the ne
groes to ''draw the line''-to drive out of
the pulpits and the schools preachers and
teachers who were immoral in their lives,
to deny the same recognition to men re-
turning from the penitentiary that is
given to honest negroes, and to ho,d up
virtue and integrity and industry. He
declared that the negro race could not rise
SO long as the immoral girl of the race
was regarded as worthy to associate with
girls who were pure in life. Personal mo-
ralty. habits of industry and saving OF
a portion of the earnings were impressed
as the foundation of race progress.
There was real wisdom in his declaration
that the negroes needed the friendship OF
their white neighbors ten times more than
they needed the friendship of those
thousand miles away. He pointed out the
sure way to secure the friendship of their
white neghbors-a path that has been
trodden by many North Carolina negroes,
particularly those in Raleigh. In this city
there has never been any race conflict The
Raleigh date line has never been over any
story of race trouble The reason has been
because the negroes have conducted them
selves wei, and the white people of Raj
eigh have helped them in every effort they
have made to better their condition
There are fewer idlers among Raleigh ne
groes than any Southern city of its size.
Booker Washington SAID he had seen few
er idlers here than elsewhere. He truly
declared that idle negroes who loafed on
the street corners were fostering sores
i'll any community. and that they can live
III this idleness only because they are sup
ported from the back-door of kitchens. He
counselled that their supplies be cut off.
Washington is not an orator like Price.
His father was a white man and he shows
in his face in his speech, in his executive
ability, his white blood Price was of pure
African blood without any admixture and
had a native eloqucnce that no other
American negro has possessed. Price could
stir the blood Of his race by his eloquence
Washington is nothing of an orator i'll the
sense that Price was an orator. He IS .
speaker of power and effectiveness. HI
makes his points with clearness, is logical
and his illustrations illustrate. Above
all he is practical and candid, and hi:
speech i'll Raleigh dwelt upon the topics
that are calculated to do the most Goot
in his race. All who follow the counse
he gave yesterday will be benefited by it
--.------
Many genius thinks he has invented
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