The Washington herald., 1908-03-02
GLAD south Is DRY
Booker I. Washington Calls
Prohibition Blessing.
SECOND ONLY TO ABOLITION
Negro Teacher Talks TO Huge Crowd
at New Rochelle, \. Y.-JrEes Col
ored Folk to Save Money and Not
Buy Tnwdry MISREPRESENTATION of
Race Depends Upon Industry.

New Rochelle, n. Y, March Before
the largest audience that ever assembled
az the Peoples Forum. Booker T. wash
ington. at the New Rochelle Theater. this
afternoon delivered an address on the
race question, in which he expressed his
qualification at the progress made by the
temperance cause in the South. and de-
eiared that the abolition Of the bar
room was blessing TO the negro second
only 10 the abolition Of slavery.
Two-thirds OF the mobs. Iynchlngs. and
burnings at the stake. ne declared were
the result OF bad whisky getting into the
stomaehs Of bad black men and bad white
men.
He said:
The great temperance movement which has swept
the south has been without parallel in history. Now
that have lived to set the whisky shops and open
oarooms done away with there is no telling what
other reforms may take place anywhere You little
realize how much It means to the colored reoc.
without expenditure Of money, a mighty revolution
has been accomplished.
Kentucky Almost Dry.
To-day we find only thirteen counties in Kentucky
where whisky is sold under license; in Tennessee
only four cities and two towns and in the state Of
Florida only fourteen counties. They are almost
extinct IN North Carolina. After next Christmas
every barroom in MissssipId and Alabama viii close
up. Already every barroom in Georgia has gone out
Of business and for the first time in forty years the
Atlanta Journal came out ard said hat not single
black man in prison (Appsus.-
The colored race in this country is nation
within nation. We have within a United States
according 20 the latest estimate. l9oO0eoo negroes
This means population twice as larEc the whole
Of Canada Of Mexico. II is enough people 10
equal the population Of Eve Of the smaller countries
Of Europe OF the entire negro population. $4,000
in the South. and II is there in large measure
that the race question must be worked cut
TusLegee Started I'm 1881.
The Tuskeeee Institute Wa started in 1881 With
only one teacher and % students. We now have ls
instructors and LOO TO 100 men and women. The
institute owns 23OO0 acres Of land and seventy
buildings valued at SeOoO0o bat the institute and
the buildings and the dollars in themselves VIII not
solve the problem. They only contsibute in propor
ton as used. not as ends but as means. We must
impress the negro race in the South through tho
graduates sent out. The greatest task that we have
10 perform is disabuse the Of the idea that
/ labor Is something 10 be given away.
The negroes Of the South are industrious class
Of people as a rule but the trouble With them Is
that srett deal Of the none which they earn sets
away frcm them They buy too much cheap Jew
elry-I mean of the kind that IS worth cnly 81 or
S bishel have been in homes in the South
where colorcd people have purchased clocks for 81
on the installmeut plan. when everything else IN
! their house was not worth So
Only One Fork I'm the House.
Not a long while ago / was invited 20 take dinner
with a family where they had only one FORK in the
house and in the corner Of the room was $50 or
gan which they were paying fer on the installment
plan But you should judge a negro By the best be
can produce. and not the worst.
The negro starting in Virginia forty years ago had
rot a dollar. They did not even osn the clothes
on their back To-day in Virginia they own one
tweuty-sxth OF all property in that Commonwealth
Further South in Georgia what have We 20 report
as 70 the result of negro education In That state
the negro pays taxes on SIS 5e 0o worth oi the land
would advise M negro friends 70 acquire their
own property and homes and not Weld 10 the temp
fation of spending a dollar as they get II.
Too many Of them spend al Of their wages on sat
urisv night and on Monday morning they have 20
start life over again.
introduced by Seth Low.
The negro orator was introduced by
ex-Mayor Seth Low. and was accompa-
MED 70 New Rochelle by ex-GOv. Pinch
back. Of Louisiana. who occupied a seat
on the platform. He was listened 10 by
3Oe0 people, many OF them negroes, who
came from all parts Of Westchester
county.
The subject of Mr.. washington's ad-
dress was The education OF the negro"