Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-05

r.
parts of the south a system OF seryftude
for debt has been creeping into vogue but
the decision OF your own and able ard up
right Judge Jones of the federal court, and
of the highest tribunal OF this country. that
peonage may be reached and suppressed by
the enforcement of federal penal statutes
has made its continuance an impossibility.
The thirteenth amendment has accomplish
ed its purpose
The fourteenth amendment secured to the
negro the equal protection of the laws OF
the state In which he lived. and due process
of law in deprivation of his life. liberty or
property under state law. This is the
amendment which second to his emancipa-
ton has become the most important In his
development
An Imperfect Analogy.
OF course the analogy between the strug-
gle of the whole human race toward civil
iization through cons of time and that OF
the negro race toward something better
since it's freedom from slavery. Is iInper-
feet for the reason that the negro race had
during It's two hundred years OF slavery
close association with the white race
and was necessarily and greatly influenced
by embracing Christianity and by the en-
richrnent of civilization But the ECONOMIC
education which the negro was subjected
to Immediately after his freedom nkeneo
Itself to that of the longer and harder
struggle through which the human race mad
to pass from its infancy until the prin-
ciples of modern society were Recognised
and enforced. The negro was oroushe ~
this country against his will and sub
jected to a bondage which, while II I'M
proved him in many ways, when ended
left him in condition of dense ignorance.
of utter irresponsfbifty, with sense "a
HELPLESS dependence on some one else.
And so with the lack of providence ana
with little understanding OF the rights OF
property. we find the negro after his eInan-
cipatfon in much the condition with re-
spect to self-support and seif-eievation
that the primeva1 man was. 1t IS true that
all about him he could read the lessons
which 1t was necessary Tor him 20 lea ear, ~
the customs and conventions and habits OF
his white brethren But 1t Is one thihs
to see principles and another to MAKE
them part of ones own life
First Essential to Progress.
OF course, primary education was the first
essential, particularly in the rising genera
tion to any hope of progress But the many
movements to confer on the negro the high
er academic and literary education which
were inaugurated were not well adapted to
securing the proper foundation for the up
building of the race The homelier virtues
must be instilled in a people before they
are ready to receive, with advantage, merely
literary or scientific education or can make
the best use OF it, Where a race which is
denied equal opportunity and lives IN con-
tact with a people more fortunate In having
had centuries or eQuCatlOna1 experience 10
help them upward is suddenly given free
dom and opportunity to improve itself the
first impulse is to initiate the more Tortu-
nate race, not in the practice of the viz
tues which really lie at the base of its
progress and success, but In those more
snowy things which are supposed to indi-
cate it's high intellectual development. In
other words. the disposition is to build the
top story before the foundation is laid.
The great wealth of the south was then
and stin is in agriculture. There has also
been a wonderful growth in mining and
manufactures. in all of which labor was q
pressing need. The opportunity of the ne
gro Law first in the skill of his hands as
laborer and in his industry as tiller of
the soil and, second, in his capacity to save
to accumulate capital to buy land and es-
tablish his economic independence In these
efforts he would encounter little II any OPP
position from the southern white. In the
pursuit of his economic rights and oppor-
tunities he enjoyed the equal protection of
the laws and the right of private property
secured to him by the fourteenth amend
ment This was the ladder up which he
could climb to that position which no preju-
dice of race or previous condition of servi-
tude could prevent his attaining.
Booker Washington, the Leader.
When the struggle of the negro in the
decade following the war was going on
there was growing to manhood leader of
his people who saw more clearly than the
rest of his race that the negro could be one
Of the greatest factors in the development
OF the whole south If only he could be led