The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-18
PLAIN TALK
 TO NEGROES Rid Race of Criminal
 Class BOOKER WASHINGTON SPEAKS Tells Men of Race to Be Grateful
 For Prohibition  Also Advises strongly That His Audi sace Join Producing Army and contisue te wsrk--white
 Man's View.
BOOKER WASHINGTON SPEAKS

>Tne most interesting of the meetings of negroes of this season, being held ct Old Ship Church Sunday, afternoons, was the one of yesterday when about 2,ooo men and youths of the negro race and more than 200 prominent white cit- izens heard Booker T. Washington, the famous principal of Tuskegee Insti- ute, speak. He was introduced by the blind colored poet James B. Mccall, of Montgomery, in fitting and eloquent phrase.
 Dr. Washington was cheered and ap- plauded throughout his remarks.
 The burden of the negro leaders ad- dress was direct appeal to his fellow members of the black race to wash themselves of crime, start bank ac- counts, make producers of themselves, and accept prohibition as boon that it should be. he declared, to the ne- groes especially.
 Tn part he spoke as followsi
 .iSometimes 1t is true with races as with individuals, that they get so in the habit of calling attention to their disadvantages and trouble that they overlook their advantages and opportunities to succeed. am most anxious to help all of our people right here in the heart of the South that they may realize what q great chance we have before us
 .In the matter of labor we are great ly blessed. In e large part of the world today people are seeking labor, are going about the streets. in many cases, from shop to shop, door to door. farm to farm, asking for employment and finding 1t not Only few days ago you perhaps read how thousands of people were marching the streets of London in search of labor and were willing to accept it at almost any price. lA0 Ia f,N awsa x.f 1.ox ing to seek labor.
 There is not a negro man in Ala bama who cannot find employment if he desires it. This is an advantage which we should not lightly value. It is fundamental. No matter what other opportunities or rights we may possess, without the opportunity of finding profitable employment all else Is vain and will fail. With this opportunity toNfind plenty of profitable labor how ever, goes a great responsibility-that- of proving ourselves worthy, of seeing to it that whatever we do, whether 1t is common labor or skilled labor, is done just as well as any other race or people can do it.
 We want to put just as much skill, just as much intelligence just as much conscience Into, 1t as anybody else. The native Southern white man has no pre- 1ndice against the negro in the field of: skilled labor, in fact, he rather prefers him in that respect provided he can perform the work as we'll as anybody else. But the time has come when we cannot .hold our place in the labor world of the South or anywhere else by merely being tolerated. We must be actually. needed must be actually sought for because we can perform service better than others.
 Must Be Producer.
 "Whatever the negro may be in the, future, atSpresent and for long num- Der of years to come in the Southland he will constitute the main serving and producing class. In all prosperous countries the people who produce and the people who serve are in a degree intelligent and skilled. It Is an insult to the best white people of the South for any one to suggest that while the serving and producing classes in Ger many, in England, in Boston and New York need education the serving and producing class in the South does not need education and training. Any one who argues that the negro should be kept in ignorance and not be trained argues at the same time that the South ern white people are satisfied with a low standard of service. argues that the Southern white people are different from other intelligent and highly pro- gressive people in that they are satis- fled with a serving class that is un- clean and ignorant. This idea does not represent the best sentiment of our white people in the South
 "In connection with the subject of labor, we must do our part in getting rid of that element which clusters around our large cities in too large numbers mean the idlers, the va grants and those who live by their wits, those who are found constantly around the street corners and in dens of sin and misery. These are the class that disgraces us, that furnish the fuel out of which mobs and riots are created. We have duty which we cannot escape in doing our part In making public sentiment so strong against this class that they cannot af- ford to live in a city like Montgom- cry.
 Many of these idlers. am sorry to say, are supported by the hard earn ings of women who wash and iron and cook for white people. These idlers soon grow to be criminals. read with