Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-26
TOUR OF THE STATE
Booker Washington Addresses
Crowds in South Carolina.
MISSION OF GOOD WILL
Object Has Been the Creation of
Racial Peace.
EYES OF THE PEOPLE OPENED
They See a New Type Of Negro.
Successful Meetings in Many
Towns and Cities.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

You can't hold a man down in the
ditch without staying down there with
him." said Booker r. Washington in
the course Of one of his recent addresses
in South Carolina Lift the man up
who is farthest down in your commu-
nifty and you have raised. by that much,
the level of the whole people Keep a
man in ignorance, make him feel that
he has been abused and oppressed and
you drag down the whole community"
For more than week DR.. Washing
ton has been engaged in making tour
Of South Carolina, accompanied by be-
tween twenty and thirty noted colored
men. He spoke in thirteen cities and
| towns in the state making two and
three speeches a day, and all in the in
terest Of education and peace. He spoke
in churches, schools, colleges. playhouses.
in public gardens and from the rear end Of
| the special car in which the party travel
nifty for the people to hear his voice
People of all classes and all colors
crowded to see and hear him.
There has been. as one Of the speak
ers at these meetings, another disttn-
gufshed educator. President Eliot of
Harvard University. delivering addresses
through the state during the past week.
He has spoken to the higher classes and
has spoken to the multitude, and they
have understood him. In all, he has
probably addressed no less than 100. 900
persons during the past eight days.
Sowing Seeds Of Common Sense.
In the deep burrows that the racial
and political controversies of the past
have plowed in the souls OF the people
of this state he has sown the seeds of
common sense. No state in the south
has suffered more from the mischief and
the mistakes of reconstruction than
South Carolina. Nowhere has the strife
between the classes and the races been
fact has given new point and peril
nency to the things that DR.. Washing
ton has been saying to the people.
The campaign was begun at the little
city of Rock Hill by DR.. Washington and
the men who are assisting and supporting
him. 1t has been one Of racial peace-a
mission Of good will and peace. for, as
the famous negro educator from Tuskegee
has repeatedly pointed out. nothing pays
better in the long run than peace"
His addresses, filled with original say
ings and axfoms, have never sounded
preachy, prosaic or trite, because they
seem to meet the needs Of the masses Of
the people.
New Type of Negro.
1t is said the campaign has introduced
to the people of South Carolina a new
type-the negro business and professional
man. the new negro which the new south
has brought forth. The masses Of the
people have seen and heard the average
negro politician and they have framed
their conception of the negro leader"
upon that type. Rarely have they ever
sober and Industrious among the success
full men of the negro race upon public
platform Among the men who have &C
companied DR.. Washington's party
through the state is negro bishop, who
speaks not only. with eloquence. but with
energy. precision and philosophic compre-
hension of conditions; a negro farmer
who owns a thousand acres of the rich
est soil in South CCarolina; the founder Of
q negro orphan asylum; the. founder of a
negro insurance company; negro bank
er; negro physicians and lawyers who are
eminent in their professions and respected
by all classes of people In their commune
ties.
During the week DIR. Washington spoke
at Rock Hill, Winnsboro. Columbia, Den
mark, Orangeburg, Camden, Sumter Flor
ence, Charleston, Anderson, Greenville
and Carney.
Much Touched by Introduction.
At Rock Hill. where he made his first
address, the speaker was introduced by
Mayor John T. Roddey in an address of
welcome which was so discriminating and
so sincere that DIR. Washington said in
referring to it at the opening Of his
speech that he would care for nothing
better or different to be written upon
his tombstone after he was dead than
the words which the mayor uttered. The
thing that perhaps touched Dr.. Washing
ton most was not the praise of his ability
or the recognition Of his influence, but
the expression which Mayor Roddey gave
to this faith in the good Will of the great
negro from Tuskegee.
At Columbia DIR. Washington made
three speeches. He spoke to the students
of Benedict College. he spoke to a group
Of the negro teachers and leaders at the
Calvary Baptist Church. and he spoke at
night to the public in the opera house. At
Denmark DR.. Washington had an oppor-
tunity for the first time to visit a school
founded by one of the Tuskegee gradu-
ates. This school, called the Voorhees, In
dustrial Institute, Is like the Tuskegee In
stitute in the fact that 1t Is located in
the midst of farming district. 1t was
started twelve years ago in an upstairs
room over an old store with fourteen stu
dents and two teachers. At the present
time it has 400 acres of land. Is buildings,
large and small, and property valued at
$4,000 At the present time there are
over 200 students enrolled. More impor-
tant than this perhaps. is the fact that
the school has succeeded in winning the
the colored people surrounding it. One of
its trustees is ex-senator Mayfield, a
large land owner in this part of the coun-
try vvhn uas formally considered " he