The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1908-02-27
TUS'l'Ill:::| s / | !: ]: |: I 1 ]
Negro Confe
Works for
Indicators Unite with
Farmers in Their Efforts to SEle. 4
E.. ~ vate Race and Themselves y 4
In the Southland. I'M .S&

usual ptCIuISSque scenes attended
the Tuskegee Negro Conference.
which met here at the Tuskegee Nor
NAL and Industrial Institute, for the
seventeenth time today. Negro
farmers came to this famous school;
for Negroes of which Booker b.
Washington rs Principal, on horsa.y
back, in wagons and vehicles of yari.r
GUS degrees of .sightliness, afoot, ana
on train; some of them have travel
ed all night to be here for, the open-
Ing Of the session. Delegates ara IN
attendance from all of the Southern
States, the greater number from Ala
bama Of course, while nearly two
hundred visitors from the North and
East, and from nearly all Of kha edil-
catlonal institutions for the edticaG
ton of Negro youths are represented.
On every side among these strug-
Cling farmers are evidences of kindly:
sympathy and brotherly love, an in {
terdependence, an earnest desire to-
help each other. and to learn all they
can upon thisS their one day In
school" The meeting was called To-
order by Mr.. Washington promptly
at 10 O'Clock. An old. ante-bellum )
minister read the scriptures, another
led In prayer, and a third intone1
one of the old plantation melodies
that are so carefully preserved and
cherished among the Negroes OF the
South and made much of by such In
st1tutions as Hampton and Tuake-
gee Institutes, and Fisk University
at Nashville. .,",. ~, ~, I@>f
These meetings in many respects J
resemble old-time Methodist expsrt-
enee meetings. The delegates staa. Il
, tify" as to their moral and material, y
progress. not overlooking the spir-
|itual in their. oft-repeated iYlsistenSa
upon clean ministers and clean taaeh-N
s,;;. egs The stories run the whole ,gasns
ut of struggle and" failure and small
|successesr and ST. thriktlesshee8 ara
improvidence. Here for instance is
the story OF man who had long
wasted his money buying cheap
jewelry, In going on excursions, and
for whiskey and frivolous ;non-eS-
sentials who had seen the error OF
his way and was now saving his
money for what he could buy, for
what he really needed. then, another
story Of going into debt by borrow
Ing with no real hope of repaying,
and then coming to his senses and
learning that, earning should always
precede spending; and. then, story
after story OF time wasted in LOADING
and then Of finding that time is
money and working with all Of might
and earnestness; Of rented lands and
crops. and of land ownad
ana improved, of crops free from
mortgage and debt; Of content II,
olhe-room shanties and then of de-
cent homes with two, three, four and
more rooms; Of short school terrna
uncomfortable schoolhouses, inefi1
cient teachers and immoral minis
lers' Ihese stories came from
areas as widely separated as North
Carolina and Texas, and were char.
acter1zed In the main by that chasrv y
hopeful optimism 50 noteworthy az !
these simple folk. Mr.. Washington.
VINO was present at all Of the Con
ference sessions as he did at todaV,a
session, has taken note of certain
fundamental facts, and these aSa
Kept In evidence as he ski1lfu11v
draws out the story of some tirnf6
speaker, and in his sharp, pregnant,
aomon1tory comments. He believes
to begin with: CD. That the great
masses Of the Negroes of the South
are permanently to remain there:
W that an individual, race, or na-
ton, Is respected as it becomes self
respecting, and that it's advancement
Ia most certainly assured when,
qE1cken1ng impulse to become self
respecting is awakened; (3l that the
lines of all permanent progress ara /
to be found In continued industry. :
painful thrift, heroic self-denial. ana !.
tne perception anu practice of moral
obligations. ..... 80, -
Mr.. Washington in his opening re-
marks reminded the delegates that
the man who would receive the beat
nearing today was the ono who had +
done something, who really had
something Of progress to REPORT.
Ot these farmers who attended the
Tuskegee Negro Conference a North
ern observer recently wrote: - - y, ~ -
The Negro farmer Of the South fs
generally pictured as dull, sloYeniy
clad, without foresight or thTift, al
most as lazy and irresponsible an hts (.
mule. The picture may In some
cases be fairly accurate; but certain
~ it would not be even caricattirB 4
Of the farmers who are here today, (.
They are roughly but cleanly dressed K
as BELTS their occupation; they talk
about as correctly as the AHaranSy
farmer Of Scheharie or Delaware.
county, New York. They are az alert
in appearance, as their, NpTHhexn.s
netghbors; and, are far sppeSts rs !
Continued on page MS aYs