The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-27
BOOKER WASHINGTON
 ON LABOR QUESTION
Some of the Reasons the Negro Cares No Longer to Work on the Farms Faults of the. Elm
 plOyer and the Employed.

T
 | hrst-ciass, moral teacher, Further. 1t, l will pay to lead the way In seeing that reasonable facilities are otherwise pro- l vided.
 l This, repeat, will lead to a demand l for land and increase of efficiency in
 the labor force. Financially, there will
 soon be a great difference fin the price of land when there are tenants bid- l ding for opportunities Instead of going to cities as now. Wherever 1t is prac-
 ticable. I would urge that at least A
 primary course in agriculture be given | in every country school. This would lead to love of farm work and of the country life. Again many are not on the farms as they say, because thew
 have not been treated fairly. To illus. trate recall that some years ago q l certain white farmer asked me to so- cure for him a young colored man to l work about the house and to work in the field The young man was secured. a bargain was entered into to the ef- feet that he was to be paid a certain sum monthly and his board and lodging furnished as well. At the end of the kcolored boys first day on the farm he returned. I asked the reason, and he said that after working all the after noon he was handed a buttered biscuit I for his supper and no place was pro- |
 Overlooked Hits sOsvn Pocket.
 At night he was told he could find a l place to sleep in the fodder loft. This white farmer, whom know we'll Is not l a cruel man and socks generally to do the right thing, but in this case he sim ,. l ply overlooked the fact that it would have paid him in dollars and cents to give some thought and attention to the comfort of his helper.
 I sa trs this boy been we'll cared for he would have so advertised the place that oth- CTS would have sought work there.
 The readers of your paper know too well that in a few counties of several of our Southern States there has been such reign of lawIessness led by white -eappers and iynchers that many of the best colored people have been driven from their homes and have sought in large cities safety and police protection. Tn too many cases the col- ored people who have been molested have been those, who by their thrift | and diligence, have secured homes and other property. These colored people have been oppressed in most instances not by the property holding, intelligent white people, but by the worst and most shiftiess elemont of whites. Have the higher class of whites escaped re- sponsibility for letting their affairs be controlled by the worst element? The prantfee of peonage in a few counties Of the South has also caused a fear among an element of the colored people that prevents their going into. or remaining in the country districts that they may be forced to labor invol- untarily and without proper remunera- tion. I have said that such lawless conditiOns exist in only flew" counties in the South. and I use the word ad- visedly. In the majority of the coun- ties in the South life and property are | just as safe as anywhere in the United States, but the harm comes because of the widespread notoriety that a few l lawless communities and counties have given the South, and this serves to spread the r ca pretty generally among the colored people that if they want po- lice protection when they are charged with crime or under suspicion they most hastily seek the confines of city. repeat that fear has stripped some counties of It's most valuable col- ored labor and left the dregs of that population. In the matter of law and order. my constant appeal is that there | be hearty cooperation between the best whites and the best blacks
 | Nothing Is clearer than that crime iS rarely committed by the colored man who has education and owns property. have not failed either to say to the i coiored people oiA more than one ocea- sion, we should lsee to it that crime | in all its phases Is condemned by the ] race and a public sentiment kept alive | that will make 1t impossible for a criminal to be shielded or protected by any member of the race, at any time. or in any place"
 Few white people realize how far g. 1 little encouragement goes in helping to .ff of the colored people. Some months ago I recall that I listened for an hour to a white man in the South who was making a political speech. He was in a State where a revised constitution had disfrauchlsed nineteen-twentieths of the coIored voters fifteen years ago and there was not the slightest chance for any political uprising, or even opposition on the part of the coIored people, yet two-thirds of this mans address was devoted to ridicule and abuse of the colored people.
 HnFangues of Politicians.
 The sad feature of such an address lay in the fact that in many parts of the country such speech Is taken se- riously. To most of those who heard it and to those who knew the man in that community 1t did no especial harm for the people knew that his talk did not tally with his actions, but he had become SO accustomed to making that kind of speech that he repeated by force of habit. This man had drawn his first life's sustenance from the breast of a colored woman, had beep reared by one. and at that moment he had dozens of the best colored people in that section on his plantation, any one of whom would have laid down their lives for him, and the man him. self would have fought to the death in defense of these colored serYantp of his.
 Every year these same laborers were making him richer and richer by their patient, faithful labor. and he would trust them with all that he possessed Tn this community the negroes have never made an unavailing appeal to this man for aid in building churches or school houses, or in supporting g. school. Few white men anywhere in the world in their actual daily prac- tice had done more to help the black man. Yet, such a speech read in the newspapers at a distance would give the impression to thousands Of colored Iaborers that the County in which the speaker lived was for them absolute ly unsafe. Such a speech was not calculated to gain a single vote, but 1t was calculated, in my opinion, to lose to the community good many bales of cotton. repeat that few under stand how much good could be accom- plished in the way of helping the col n~aN 1aonIa fn Iaaa Iau