The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11

| in prisons are without knowledge of | trades and sixty-one per cent are 1 illiterates This statement alone dis
 proves the assertion that the negro | education. If the negro at the North is more criminal than his | brother at the South, 1t Is largely be- | cause the North withholds from him the opportunity for employment that the South gives. It is not the edu- cated negro who has been guilty of or even charged with crime. It is. as
 rule the one who has mere smatter- | ing of education or the one who Is in total ignorance.
 From the point of view of intellectual growth and self -help the education of | the negro has also been success. Few ! white Americans realize what sacrifices the negro has had to make because of his poverty to secure education. The
 fact that practically no schoolhouse has been opened for the negro that has not been filled shows his zeal for knowl- edge. View the picture of the black woman teacher from the Tuskegee In- 1 stitute, teaching a school for weeks under an oak tree. then with hatchet and saw leading the way in the build ing of a schoolhouse and receiving for
 her services a pittance of $l0 a month.
 Later, see her closing her school at | l may cultivate the land about the school | building, from which three bales of cot ton can be raised, the proceeds of which l enable her to lengthen the term from | three to seven months.
 In one Southern State year before
 last, each negro child of school age had spent on him for his entire educa-
 ton, Sl.S9. while each child in New | York State had spent upon him s2o.bb. I of Southern States and other obstacles. the
 negro Is not ashamed of his record of forty years of freedom. After many | years of civilization and opportunity
 in Italy, thirty eight per cent. of the
 population are iiliterate; in Spain six ty-six per cent, in Russia seventy
 eight per cent, in the average South l American country eighty per cent. 1 while after only forty years of freedom and opportunity. the negro has but
 corty-four per cent. of tlliteracy to his | dc',it
 Finally, there should be no attempt | to disguise the fact these are anxious
 days for my race and that serious eff fort Is ahead but never for moment
 do I doubt our ultimate triumph. Free dom can never be bestowed. It must be achieved. Our success will finally
 come as I have insisted on numerous | other occasions, when we have learned | to exercise that patience, self-control. | and courage which will enable us to
 begin at the bottom and lay the foun-
 dation of our growth in the ownership
 and skiliful cultivation of the soil, Tn 1 the possession of a bank account in
 the exercise of thrift and skill, and in
 the application of the highest culture
 of hand. head and heart to the thing l which the needs of the times demand. | Tn proportion as the negro can cone
 vince the Southern white man that
 reason of education. he can perform
 in the best manner, the services of
 head and hand that the community de-
 sires in the same proportion will be
 strengthened that lasting friendship
 between the races which is so vital
 The race. like the individual. that
 makes itself indispensable, has solved
 most of its problems
 In this connection I ought to add
 that one of the dangers which con-
 stantly threatens one race that sur | passes another in numbers. wealth and
 power, is that it will yield to the
 temptation of crushing the hopes and ambitions of the weaker people. There
 are two ways of exerting one's
 strength: one in pushing down. the
 other in pulling up It Is a sign of
 the highest civilization when individ-
 uals reach the point where their l
 man soul up to the very highest point
 of usefulness and service. In this
 work the descendants of Africa will | pledge themselves to join hands with every white man on this continent. | Though myself an ex-s1ave, pity from | the bottom of my heart any human being who has undertaken a contract to keep in ignorance and poverty any other child of the common Father have so far freed myself from the dom ination of racial and sectional preju- dice, that I can say that have today no higher ambition than to serve the best interests of all the people of our hallowed Southland. regardless of race. color or creed.
 I should like to free your minds If can. from possible fear and appre- hen nsion in two directions The negro in this country does not seek as a race to exercise political supremacy over the white man. nor is social interming- ling with any race considered by the negro to be one of the essentials to hks progress. You may not know it. but my people are as proud of their racial identity as you are of yours, and in the degree that they become intelli- gent. social pride increases. was never prouder of the fact that am classed as a negro than I am today
 You of the white race do not know of the best that Is occurring among my people Many of you know more Of the best in Japanese. Italian and French life than in the negro life at your door. people should be judged by their best. not by their worst. One should see the negro in his industrial and business occupations, and especial ly in his progress in the church school. and home life. before judgment be passed. There are two classes among us as In all races, the vicious and the virtuous. I can point you to groups of my people in nearly every part of our country. that In intelligence. in the high and unselhsh purpose of their school and church life, and in the puri- ty and sweetness of their home life and social intercourse. will compare favorably with any races of earth. You can never lift any large group of peo- pie by continually calling attention to their weak points. A race like a child in school. needs encouragement as well as chastisement In Agriculture.
 The most interesting and valuable department of the school is that of agriculture. And 1t Is a fact that none of the work of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute has I