The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-06

enee ts not nearly 80 great between white and black labor here as tetween white and Kaffir labor in Africa. In the nine millions Of eolored people the south has an asset the value of which Is difficult to overestimate. That elepnent should. therefore, be carefully guarded. fostered, and educated and hence improved. It Is here to stay and cannot be spared even if 1t could be expelled.
 Neither can 1t be permitted, with safety or profit to exist In ignorance It cannot stand still. Unless 1t marches for ward 1t must deteriorate. The question then Is what direction shall improvement take. The correct answer has been given by Tuskegee and Hampton and other similar institutions and has been urged and adhered to by the Moses of his people. the principal here, Booker Wash ington, by Principal Frissel at Hamp- ton, a worthy eo-worker of MT. Wash ington and by all the teachers of the coored race, l believe. It should be pri- marily industrial and scientific, with de- partments. however. in the principal in- stitutions for educating men for all pro- fessions. The colored teachers of the race are wise and conservative men; none realize quite as deeply as they the magnitude and difficulty of leading a people up from slavery to the condition requisite for diseharging the duties Of citizenship. This must be a long task of slow growth in which the colored masses must educate themselves. It is they themselves who by their attachments and conducts are to determine their own poli- tieal future. The day cannot be far dis tant when such men as Tuskegee and Hampton have produced and are now producing. will enjoy the suffrage every where because educated and capable of performing the duties of citizenship. say to you, colored friends, seek ye first education, and all right will soon be ad- ded unto yop in this coutry.
 Doubtful as to Result.
 'rhe immediate task in hand has hitherto been to demonstrate whether or not there lay In the colored race capacity for improvement. This should not have been matter of much doubt since history shows from what unpromising material are owned among other races of men has risen in the scale and slowly reached civilization, but 1t was naturally doubted by those who had known colored people only as slaves whether they could ever rise to the dignity of freemen. The teachers already produced, ministers lawyers doctors and members of all the other professions, the professors seen here and elsewhere in their colleges the steady increase of taxable property owned by negroes, and what we see here today gives the convincing answer. The negro just like our own race, raises himself whenever he obtains freedom of qualities by the exercise of it's inherent the hitherto latent powers. The question is no longer open. Hampton and Tuske- gee and several similar institutions have settled 1t for all time.
 It is always the few who elevate a race. our own no exception. Someone has to be first in acquiring an art handieraft, reading. writing or knowledge In any department or ability to execute. Even every flock of birds. every herd of deer has it's leader or leaders, few in mum Der. and what the most advanced ac- quire the followers subsequently, learn. The first man who learned only recently to run the first motor car gave proof that other men could learn, and so they have learned
 "In my own time there was not white man living who could take telegraph messages by sound. Doubters would have been disposed to declare that no white man ever could accomplish that seem ngly impossible feat. One man succeed, ed and he was considered a marvel for few weeks. Then other men in several parts of the country began to try with ilt result lDdI tOudy lO Onb Cpuh Ecl a position as telegrapher who could not do 1t without more effort than you listen to the Presidents address.
 Capable of Being Elevated.
 Now, today Tuskegee shows sixteen hundred negro students taught by one hundred and fifty teachers of their own race. The colored race having done this here and in several other similar colleges and schools in widely scattered parts of the south, proved that the whole race Is capable of being eventually elevated through education to a high state of gen- eral civilization. just as our white race has been elevated by the few unusually gifted individuals who led the way, clear ed the path beckoned their less gifted brethren on and led them upward to their own high standard. No race ever rose in any other way. All needed and produced exceptional men to lead them. The colored race has produced it's Wash ington. Douglas. Langston, Price. Chest mutt, Dunbar, Tanner The march of the negro is upward and onward under their guidance.
 "ff there still be doubters they must soon be convinced, for those who like us today have opportunities for seeing what has transpred have all doubts dis peled.
 We are upon the right path. therefore. ladies and gentlemen, when we seek the educated and public-sp spirited the members of southern society to permit us to CO., operate with them in expanding the in- fluenee of Tuskegee and her sister insti- tutions and in elevating tho colored race in every way and we are also right in asking them to cooperate with us as citizens of the great republic now more closely united into one harmonious whole than was ever possible before. when the two antagonistic systems of freedom and slavery prevailed. There does not exist today a great nation So completely one In thought and feeling throughout all it's wide domains as our own. May 1t ever so remain. Let us do what we can to in crease the sense of brotherhood.
 Is No Sectional Question.
 This is no sectional question It is national and we of the north. cannot evade the responsibilities of the situa- ton. It is our duty to share with our fellow-countrymen in the south. the ex- pense and labor of the restoring Or estab- fishing among our sorely tried neighbors harmonious society with free public schools for all. public libraries. churches. hospitals, colleges and universities, and all the other uplifting agencies such as We of the north generally enjoy.
 Anxious as we are to do our part to restore better conditions than those tp- rooted we must keep always in mind that only through cordial cooperation with the advanced of our own race in the south can the results we so ardently