The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1908-01-18


/ a crank about personal liberty. IL 1 am a
/ crank about anything-my heart goes out
/ to the black man wherever. ] see him
/ honestly struggling to raise his children
/ TO q condition better than his own. Hence,
/ let me repeat that ! am glad 10 be here
tonight. to witness what ] see before me
and around me. to bear this testimony,
and to ask you 10 fall behind, not to
! seek 90 march before, Booker Washing
/ ton and his great work.
Every Man TO His Vocation.
THE race question Is a mystery. For
The matter Of that. life is a mystery.
! Whence We came. whittier we are going.
we know not. The Ethiopian is thought
/ 10 be especially initiative. All Of us are
more OF less imitative-particularly the
ultra smart set of high soeiety-which.
/ here on tie seaboard, initiates the little II
knows about the European nobility and
| In the Interior. whatever il can find out
about the smart set OF the seaboard. II
is an unfortunate characteristic OF imi-
tation to take for its examples rather the
bad than the good of whatever attracts
/ ps admiration or It's envy. Jess Ike
white folks IS sometimes heard in col
ored circles OF fashion-that is. among the
colored smart set OF the c0lored four
hundred Now for my part. | scarcely
think much more of the Colored four hun
dred than l think of the Caucasian four
hundred who live for vanity and pleas
ure and who, II they can't go 10 heaven
in their automobiles, dent want 10 go
at all!
Every shoemaker to his last. the say
ing hath IL. and that say leach mothers
son Of us 10 his vocation, whatever II be.
Men in their places are the men who
stand. Neither AIr Seth Low nor Mr..
Rogers. not even Booker Washington or
Mark Twain-can make silk purse out
Of a sow's ear No more can they make
a musician. or a poet or a lawyer. or
doctor. out Of material that was intended
for blacksmithing. dray-dTiving and plow-
ing. Happily they don't try
All of US are the creatures OF evolu-
ton and education The white races
seem to have got along faster in the
great eternal plan than the black races.
Why. I cannot tell you. 1t is a simple
fact obvious TO all az rs, that, just as
Europe and America are further advanced
In arts and arms than Africa. are the
Europeans and the Americans ahead OF
the Africans IN the developments of mod
ern culture AS this ought not 10 be the
subject Of vainglOriGus eXaltation among
the whites, it should not be considered.
OF felt, as either a humiliation or re-
proach By the blacks In case il should
become so the future would be dark in
deed for both races. Each needs to grow
in grace, but It is my belief that each
can and will thus grow in grace, in the
South first Of all and most Of all, and
within lines plainly fixed by God and
nature leading 20 that ultimate peace
that passeth understanding, when the
lion and the lamb shall lie down together
in harmony. And Booker Washington is
blazing the way
The Record of Forty Years.
Since. in our Southern country, at
least. this is so-since neither race can
get rid OF the other. or act Independently
Of the other-let us take account Of what
has been done these forty years of
freedom.
i stand here tonight 10 declare that
the world has never witnessed such
progress from darkness to light as that
which we see In those districts of the
South where the negro has had a de-
cent opportunity for seIf-improvement
Look at Jamaica-nearly a century Of
emancipation, the negro at a standsun;
look at South Africa-riches piled on
riches. the negro still a savage and less
considered than the animals. Yet it is
England that piques. herself on what
Albion has done for freedom and the
black man.
Let the negro go 10 any alien com
munity and try 70 get employment, Barred
on every hand; plenty Of sentiment. but
no work. There are regions North. East
and West, which never knew slavery; and
were a unit for the Union. where the
negro is refused admittance He Is told
TO move on. He is what the President
described the other day as an undesirable
citizen. Turn Southwark plenty both of
work and wages for all who bring tran
Gull minds and willing hands Bad peo-
pie slothful people, get on nowhere; but
nowhere on the habitable globe has the
liberated slave Jared so well nowhere
has he so fair an outlook. as in the
Southern States Of North America
The local Afiinities.
"Why2 Because we know one another,
and because, no matter what anybody
may say to the contrary. there is a
common bond of association between us.
Never can the white man Of the South
forget what the black man did during
a war waged for his freedom; and what
he might have done. Never should the
black man of the South forget that ne
is the weaker in the race. and for
long time must look to the white man
for help of many kinds It is through
these reciprocal obligations and interests
that the two races will reach some in
stitutional system of living and doing en-
tirely satisfactory TO both.
Nothing is TO be expected from the
rushing, dollhouse process, or from any