The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-31
AT NEGRO SCHOOL.
President Tells Students How to Im-
 uroye Hace.

| ~~@s-t ~--~'~-r- prove Hace. l Hampton, Va, May 30.-A notable address was delivered to the students | of Hampton Institute this evening by
 President Roosevelt. He dwelt par | ticularly on the necessity of the de- velopment of the character. maintain | ing that education will fit none for
 citizenship unless accompanying 1t | there Is the right type of family life spoke extemporaneously and with deep | earnestness Speaking directly to tho negro students. he said:
 Now the first thing upon which ]
 wish to lay emphasis Is that school such as this, which strives to raise the colored man and colored woman to make them better citizens. is preemi- nently in the interests of the white
 man. There Is nothing that can bc done better for the white man who Is to live side by side with the colored
 man than to. train that colored man | to be a good citizen. The good man who Is a white man, by his presence Is benefit to every colored man in the community and the safety of the white man is In having the colored man to grow and to be good and decent man.
 From the standpoint of the white man, the safest and best thing that can happen is to have the colored peo- pie around him become thrifty, indus | trious home-makers and home-keepers, | for you never yet had any formidable quantity of criminals from a people or locality wheer the average type was | the home-maker and the home-keeper. 1 So from the standpoint of the white man nothing better can be done than | to give to the colored man that real fra snt ruhtTh ha | gets here at Hampton and In similar in- stitutions.
 From the standpoint of the colored man. the only real way to. help him Is l to help him help himself. In the long run in this world no human being can | he carried. The colored man who helps | his race most Is he who helps to teach the members of his race how to conduct | themselves with self respect, hard
 working, intelligent law abiding citf- | zens. "It is the honest virtues that count | |, the long run. No race, no nation I ality ever raises itself by the exhibi- | ton of genius in a few men; what | counts is character. It we can devel-
 on in the average colored citizen those
 qualities of character, of courage, Of | trutbfuIness. of sense of obligation, of | willingness to work, of desire to behave | decentlv toward those roundabout you, l YOU have taken the longest and most CT | fsctive step towards securing for the people of your own race their own selt respect and the respect of others
 fit Is often said that the true place
 for the negro Is in industrial work and if is the true place for the av- craze man and we will not get our civilization upon a proper basis until | we root out of the mind of the average
 man and the average girl of whatever | color the belief that to become a poor | clerk Is a better thing than being a
 first class hand worker. first class | mechanic, or a first class agricultural | laborer.
 en to our education In the past has hasn largely responsible for the large deve1ompent of the city at the expense of the country. Never in the past has snv nation been permanently greax
 when the city population has been aoorr,ous in size as compared with the
 country population.
 "If there is one thing I would like | esnecially to impress upon your mind | tt Is to advise you to take up the work | of tbe farms with the intention of owning them. In doing that you will he doing only what the best. the most intelligent and most advanced white people are more and more growing to do The growth of the agricultural colleges and their development has been one of the significant features for education for the white race be- cause more and more have people grown to realize that the child of the | farmer must be developed scientifical- ly.
 "Our whole civilization Is going to tend more and more toward recognizing