Franklin's paper the statesman., 1907-10-11
THE STATESMAN. DENVER. COLORADO.

VIII be as sure as the laws OF SraVlta-
ton. If this is true how much more
| true is ii with people in whom the
instinct of self reliance was smothered
| for over century of enforced servi-
tude. 1t took many years of freedom
before these seeds of self reliance and
self lssertiveness began even to sprout
and will you cut the plant down in its
bloom and just asst is to bear its best
fruit? ] believe that the intelligence
\ and manhood of your people will ans
wer such a proposal with an indignant
protest. l believe you will say help
us to help ourselves but do not do vio-
lence TO our manhood and our woman
hood by looking upon us and treating
us dependents. All We ask is the
| same opportunity that your people had
in their struggle for advancement and
We can then be depended upon to take
| care of ourselves. ] may express my
self too strongly upon this question;
/ may carry my views of individualism
too far. but If there is one thing which
my own experience and my own OBJ
servation has made me to see and be-
lieve more clearly than another II is
that personal initiative Is the main
spring of human progress and that
races advance only through and by
virtue of the advancement and devel-
opment of the individuals composing
thsm
Another reason why am opposed to
any scheme which is directed to the
| mass of your people rather than to the
| individual is that experience has shown
that your people progress. develop and
become independent more readily when
thrown in close contact with the white
race. think this is evidenced by the
| fact land i feel it to be a fact) that
| the condition of the colored race is
| much better in the north than 1t is in
| the south. | believe this is because
your people are here met with more
consideration; their rights are re-
spected and protected; you have con-
| & d. hafnra "a q o
| and example of people which has
| overcome the handicap under which
you have been working. In our
| churches. in our schools and in our
universities no ,odious discrir nations
are INDUCED In against yDu. The
whole environment is better suited to
| infiame your ambition and inspire your
| energies. Here you are free moral
| agents in the full sense of that term:
| here you are citizens endowed in fact
as well as in name with all the privil-
| eyes and all the responsibilities which
| that term implies. The more isolated
any portion OF your people shall be-
| come the less chance will these ele-
ments have to exercise their beneficial
| influence. To bring endeavor every
| person must have before him some
thing to which he aspires. II is always
| the example set for us by others that
| Inspires us to climb. There is no man
| who can not learn from others and to
have before us an inspiring model is
| an infinite help in our struggle for
| those things TO which our ambition
| leads us. II has rever been thought
| necessary to bring forward colonial
| tion or other kindred plan for the
| aid and betterment of the Negro in the
| North. The reason for this is that he
has broken away from the influences
| which are holding his brother back
| and has worked out his own salvation.
| He has worked II out as all his people
| must work IL out. in the one way by
| which IT can he worked out at all BY
| application. by work and by individual
effort The same influences which have
| brought about his moral. intellectual
| and mental upbuilding are at work
| among his brothers in the South, and
while the conditions there are not as
| favorable as here. and conse-
| quence. there progress Will be slower
| natural law is working to certain
| end: this law may be retarded by hui
| man agencies but IL can not be stopped
| Involuntary servitude was not new
at the time OF the Civil War: It is not
| a creature of a century or OF two CEN
turtles. 1t is as old as the human race.
| No people have been wholly free from
its baneful influences The slavery of
| the villein or serf under the early
| Saxon and Norman kings in England
was not less real nor less hopeless than
that OF your people prior to the eman-
| cipation. Men were bound to the land
and sold with the land. and not only
their substance and their welfare. but
even their lives depended upon the ca
| price of the over-lord and master 1t
| took centuries of struggle; centuries
| OF unreduited toll; centuries OF sacri-
| nee and patience. centuries of self as
sertion before they were able to gain
| for themselves the independence. the
opportunities and the privileges OF free
| men. When they commenced To assert