The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-06-02
ADDRESSES
PRESIDENT SPEAKS TO BLUE and
GRAY AT PORTSMOUTH.
Also Addresses Students OF
HAMPTON Institute-Dwelt Par
ticularly Upon the Develop
ment of Character, Both in Ne
gro and White Man.

address was delivered to the students
of Hampton Institute yesterday by
President Roosevelt. He dwelt par
ticularly upon the necessity for the
development of character, not only in
the negro, but in the white man as
we'll, maintaining that education would
fit neither for citizenship unless &C.
complaining it there was the right
type of family life in Che home.
President and Mrs. Roosevelt and
their party arrived from Old Point
Comfort in the Mayfower shortly af-
ter 4 80 O'Clock in the afternoon and
were taken ashore in launches. The
president was escorted to the veranda
of the administration building, from
which he made his address. Before
the address the students sang "The
Great Camp Meeting in the Promised
Land" The president applauded
heartily and shouted '.More, more!"
The students in response sang 1--WE
Are Climb bling Jacobs Ladder"
The president spoke extemporane-
ously and with deep earnestness. He
began by saying, after the students
had given him a cordial welcome,
that they we're no more anxious for
him to visit them than he was to visit
the institute. Speaking directly to
the 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 men and better wo-
men, better citizens, is prominently in
the interests of the white. There is
nothing that can be done better for
the white man, who is living side by
side with the colored man, than to
train that colored man up to be good
citizen. From the standpoint of the
white man. the safest and best thing
that can happen is to have the color
ed people around him become thrifty,
industrious, homemakers and home
keepers.
Help Him Help Himself.
From the standpoint of the color
ed man, the only real way to help him
is to help him help himself. What
this institution does is to train young
men and women to walk by them
selves. The colored man who helps his
race most is he who helps teach the
members of his race how to conduct
themselves with self-respect-hard.
working, intelligent, law-abiding citi-
zens. No race, no nationality ever
raises itself by the exhibition of gen.
ius in few men; what counts il
character, the character of the average
man and the average woman.
'You have sent out from Hampton
Institute in all something like SO, 200
graduates, and, if remember rightly,
there are but two of whom you have
record as criminals, and that fact il
answer to the Hind people who say
that no good will come from educa.
ting the negro. So far is that from
the truth that it may be said that the
real hope for the negro, as we'll as the
white man, is in education, if only we
understand the meaning of education
in its proper sense.
Develop and Own Farms.
cit is often said that the true place
for the negro is in industrial work.
That is the true place for the average
negro and it is the true place for the
average white man, and we will not
get our civilization upon proper basis
until we root out of the mind of the
average man and the average woman
of whatever color the belief that to
become poor clerk is better thing
than being first-class mechanic or q
first-class agricultural laborer. II
there is one thing I would especially
impress upon You, it is to advsie you
to take up the work on the farms with
the intention of owning them. Take
up agricultural work. In doing that
you will be following only what the
best, most intelligent and most advan-
ced white people are more and more
growing to do. The growth Of agri-
cultural colleges and their development
has been one Of the significant features
| of the education of the white man in
the states of this Union.
ssOur white civilization is going to
tend more and mora toward recogniz-
ing the capital part played by the
manual worker, whether in the work.
shop or on the farm. It is the work Of
the man that works with his hands
that counts in the end for the most,
provided the hand work is directed by
an intelligent brain.
Depends Upon Home Life.