The Washington bee., 1908-09-05

opportunities. Let those who would
doubt this statement, look right about
them here in the city of Baltimore.
What is being done here is being
duplicated elsewhere. Certainly the
race has not been idle when according
to a recent statement by Professor
A. B. Hart, the Negro in America,
after forty years of freedom and only
twenty-five years away from the
wilderness wandering of reconstruc-
ton days, now pays taxes upon att
least five hundred millions of dollars
worth of property, and the Nergo, I
presume, taking the cue from the
white man does not give in all Of his
property for taxation purposes.
As strange as it may appear to the
uninformed, nevertheless it is true, that
the opportunity for industry, for bus
mess, increases as one goes farther
South, and it is in the far South that
business enterprises are most numer-
Gus and most successful The state
Of Mississippi, for example, has more
banks controlled by black men, than
any other single state, and the white
man in Mississippi draws no color
line upon dollars deposited in Negro
banks.
There is no hope for the Negro
race or any people except in the
direction of constructive work This
constructive work must find a place
and a need right in the communities
where we live. There are golden
opportunities for it in the cultiva-
ton of the soil, work in wood, in iron,
the home, in the world of trade.
To the man, whatever his color,
who gets right down to business and
does something that the world wants
done, and it better than any one else,
there is always a place. Let each
enc of us here gathered resolve, that
whatever may come, we shall make
such a place for ourselves.
A mere policy of opposition and de
struction never holds men together,
and never inspires them to high effort.
This great organization is held to-
gether and is succeeding because Ii
is composed of people who are con
structing something. Let each one
of us construct something, if it Is
nothing but chicken coop-if a store
OF bank, so much the better.
No matter what the excitement OF
the temptation may be in local politics
or national politics, let us resolve that
nothing shall turn US aside for a min
ute from getting the essential anC
fundaental things in life Politica
parties and public issues and public
men change and disappear, but tht
fundamental things in life, Politica
high rugged character,remain forever
Without them, all else is vain. Will
, them, nothing can defeat us.
/ In a large degree we are an emo
{ tional race but let no influence con
vince us that the world will ever Civ
US something for nothing. In coll
S blooded, clear, clean manner we mus
! at all times keep our feet upon tn
earth, and not yield to the tempta
70 ton to fly off into artificial almost
- phere At my own home at Tuskoge
= I try to find time every day to tax
5 my hoe or spade and go into my gal
q der and down into the earth, I lk
n to be sure that once a day I touch tn
), earth-the real thing. It is equal
It important that a race, especially dul
T ng its years of experience, to b
5 taught to keep its feet upon the eartl
Y This is one of the lessons that tn
= business league is constantly emph;
l. sizing-we must lay in this generation
:, the foundation for the substanti
II things in life for ourselves and chi
II dren.
IS The members of the National Neg
10 League believe that opportunities
10 exert our industry exist in a markt
IS degree in the Southern states, but
IT that we have white friends in eal
in Southern community who should n
f. be overlooked. The world has heal
n. much of the white man who does n
E. believe in the possibilities of the Y