The Washington bee., 1908-05-23

| national Detterment IS one OF the hrSt
| essentials for success; that the matter
of ownership of land, of homes, of
cultivating habits of economy, of pro-
viding today for tomorrow, this year
for next year, are prime requisites.
We can unite upon the idea that it
is only through constructive efforts
that we are to succeed. Your own
church is an example of what can
be accomplished by a race of people
who are working in progressive, con-
struCtive directions instead of work
ing in destructive directions. It has
only been through constant, persist
ent constructive methods that you
have built up a great Church organ
ization that commands the respect
and confidence of the world. In these
great constructive directions, in these
great constructive movements there
is no racial discrimination, no chance
for the drawing of the color line.
Man may discriminate as TO race, but
soil and sunshine and rain and wood
and iron and water draw no color
line; they yield their richese as quick
ly to the touch of the hand and the
brain of the black man as they do to
the hand and The brain of the whitest
| individual in America. No man can
! enact a law to stop the progress of
the civilization of the world. In pro-
portion as we lay solidly and care
fully the same kind of material foun-
datiOn which has made other races
useful and successful, in the same
degree will we prosper.
We can unite again upon the idea
that we have great opportunity in
this country to enter into business,
to become commercial factors; and
IN these respects the Negro minister
must in large degree be the leader
and the guide. In respect to material
and business betterment, the Negro
minister, unlike the white minister,
must teach the people, because many
of the material and commercial con-
siderations that now confront the
Negro have been settled centuries ago
| by the white man himself, hence it
is important that the Negro minister
| perform a broader and more varied
service than is true of the wwhite
minister.
In our Southern country especial
| y does the Negro have an oppor-
tunity to sell his labor in wwhatever
market he chooses, and he has a
rare opportunity to succeed in corll-
mercial business enterprises.
| We must learn to overcome evil
with good. If man says the Negro
cannot buy a farm, do not argue with
him, but let us show him a farm
that a Negro has bought. If man
says the Negro cannot build and live
in a decent house, do not argue with
him, let us point to a decent house
that the Negro has built and occu-
pies. If man says a Negro cannot
save money and live an honest, de-
cent, industrious life, do not argue
with him, let us be in a position to
point to scores and hundreds of our
people in his community who are
living decent and honorable lives. If
a man says the Negro cannot conduct
a bank, do not argue with him, but
show him a bank that the Negro is
conducting successfully. The object
lesson in all these respects will go
further in convincing people than
thousands of abstract arguments.
We can again unite upon the idea
that it is of fthe first importance
that the masses of our people be ed
ucated. Only a very small percent
of fthe Negro children in this and the
next generation will ever get beyond
the public school branches. A very
small percentage will ever go to a
high school, college or industrial in
stitution. Those who do not get
their education in the ordinary city
and county schools for the most part
will grow up in ignorance. It be-
hooves us, then, to see to it in con-
nection with our Church work that
in some manner either through pub
lie fund or private fund, that every
child that we are able to influence
remains in school for six or eight
months during the year. We can
unite upon the idea that education
must be suited to the needs of fthe
/ d