The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1907-05-10

ties incumbent upon me in accepting
the fnvitation.
This occasion, it seems to me- will
appear to the future students of this
department and historians of this
great institution which has done so
much in providing for our race ply
sicians, dentists, teachers, preachers,
musicians, and men and women who
have engaged in business, as one of
the beacon lights of its great career
AS long as this institution stands, the
names of these young men who, to-day
go forth with the blessings of their IN
structors and the best wishes Of the
whole faculty and their friends for
their success in life, will be linked in
dissolubly with this department as its
first graduates AS this occasion is
unique in the history of Walden Uni
versity, so 1t is in my own career; for
it is the first time that | have had the
pleasure-nay, | should say horror"
of breaking into the ranks Of So
called commencement orators. feel
justified In using the word horror"
when | think that ], mere student of
'the art preservative of all arts" am
assigned the task Of delivering an adj
dress to young men who have drunk
so deeply from the fountain Of knowl-
edge, supplied in a neverending
stream, as it were, from the teachings
Of Gutenberg, Jensen, Franklin and
Underwood and your own Professors
Hawkins. fear that whatever
Int raf - a.,
ous but, since | am facing the prob
lens that daily confront one in the
school of experience, questions which
you will meet if you follow yotr chos
en- profession, and, like you, am work
ing for the advancement of my race;
speak to you, as it is given me to
see, in the future of the Negro in
printing.
In the onward march of civilization
from the feudalism of the medieval
ages, when learning was confined to
the aristocratic and religious classes
to the present when enlightenment is
almost universal, no other invention
has been such contributing factor for
the good Of humanity as has that Of
printing. 1t has been an assisting
force in discovery, has preserved in
ventions, and has been the medium of
promulgating doctrines that have rev.
Olutionized the affairs of the inhabi
tants of this mundane sphere.
Columbus and the explorers who fol
lowed in his footsteps received their
inspiration from the printed page La
ter England, in her fight for the es-
tablishmeRt of those principles Of free
dom upon which this government of
ours is founded, was impelled by the
broadsides which mysteriously ap-
reared attacking the errors of the day
In the case of the American Ne
gro what greater example of the po
tency of printing can be given than
that Of Harriet Beecher Stoves "Un
"le Toms Cabin" which stirred the
whole continent and awakened the peo
pie to the inhumanities of slavery?
In Russia to-day we see a revolution
the ultimate outcome of which can
only be greater human liberties, fos-
tered and augmented by this self-same
invention printing. If printing has
been the open sesame by which men OF
intellect, the master minds of other
races, have worked great reforms; then
what might not this selfsame art hold
in store for us, the members of the
Negro race?
The exact origin Of printing, like
that Of many other inventions or
world movements that have wrought
good, Is Shrouded in mystery. 1t Is
claimed by the Germans that a man
named Gutenberg is the father of the
art. The Dutch, with eq6al assurance
and equal proof, give the same credit
to member of their race named Cos
ter. AS to which of these men the
honor really belongs, we do not know
Both lived about the same time and
10th worked at the art in different
cities at about the same time. This
however, we do know, the principles
which one or both of the men per-
fected the basic principle, had been
used by the Chinese and other races
centuries before either was born.
We know further that to these men
tribute must be paid undoubtedly for
the impetus which they gave to the
study and practice of the trade by
which was gained for it in few years,
votaries in all the nations of Europe.
They were the pioneers. Their disci-
Piles from that day to the present have
labored with an ingenuity worthy the
great calling to so improve the facili-
| ties, cheaper the cost of the finished