New-York tribune., 1910-08-18
NEGROES MAKE PROGRESS
Business Men and Women Hear
Cheering News in Convention.
B. T. WASHINGTON SPEAKS
Serious Business and Speech
Making Enlivened by Hint
Regarding Chicken.

sion of its eleventh annual convention
The hall was crowded with delegates. men
and women. numbering more than eleven
hundred gathered from thirty states OF
the Union and the enthusiasm and opti-
mism displayed We're contagious.
| The aim of the business league was
summed up by Booker r. Washington.
permanent chairman of the convention, in
what he called the text Of his address:
ITO him who hath shall be given"
| But before Dr. Washington spoke a
Young negro of twenty-eight years, Sam
ueI Plato, of Marion. Ind, told the audi
ence how he had prospered as a contractor
| and builder in his home town.
Mr. Plato is philosopher, to judge from
his speech and name, though more on the
! Benjamin Franklin order than on that of
his illustrious namesake He said he
knew it was as much his right to possess
money as it was the right of plant to
have light and air.
Fill yourselves up with the invigorat-
ing conception of success he told his
hearers, who applauded his sentiments.
The PhiIosophic Plato.
The story of Samuel Platos rise. as he
told it, was one of those inspirations for
which the business league convenes every
year The young negro put himself partly
through college. studied architecture and
then went broke that he had to re-
sumo his old trade OF carpenter to make
living.
He got job on a schoolhouse they were
building in Marion but shortly afterward
was dismissed because the other carpenters
refused to work with negro. He swore
then that he would persevere until he be-
came the employer of some of the men
who refused TO work with him on this job
and to-day, he testified, some of these very
men were his employees.
These conventions of the National Negro
Business League take on something of the
favor of Methodist experience meetin's.
During the day session. and until Dr.
Washington arose last night. the speeches
of the negroes We're largely subjective in
tone. each orator holding himself up as an
example to Young negroes. and enunclating
the time worn formula OF financial success
DR.. Washington, however, broke the spell,
and with his appropriate stories and i'm
passioned exhortation swayed his hearers
with a magic touch.
His text raised laugh each time he ut
tered it during the first part of his ad-
dress. but as he reiterated and reiterated
the words their significance seemed to find
serious Judgement in the minds of his hun
dreds of hearers, and applause was substi-
tuted.
Story of Two White Men.
Did you ever see two white men meet
on Monday morning." said he. One.
who has nothing, says Good morning. Mr
Jones', and the other, who has something
says, 'Goodby.'
'One white man hasn't got any time to
spare for another white man who hasn't
got anything, and you know that he hasn't
got any time to spare for a negro who
hasn't got anything"
ITO him that hath shall be given" is the
| law of life. On the other hand, if the world
becomes convinced that We have no oppor-
tunities, that there is no future before US,
despair and death will follow and the op-
portunities that have will disappear.
The world is interested In the man who is
succeeding. The world is interested in a
race that is succeeding. Practically all the
fundamental conditions for industrial and
business success are before the negro in
America. and here [ speak of prevailing
conditions not of the exceptions.
| have referred to the importance of
keeping the bright side of our race before
the public In what l now say l may be
guilty of seeming contradiction; neverthe
less the matter is important and so fun
damental to industrial and business success
that | cannot fail to call the attention of
the public to it.
1 have referred frankly and plainly to
the duty of the ten millions of cOiored peo-
pie in fitting themselves for industrial and
commercial usefulness. | want to be equal
ly plain and frank in referring to the re-
1t is to enforce the law-to protect life and
property. for there can be little progress In
securing property or in business unless life
and property are safe in every part of the
nation.
I call attention to the numbering of col
ored people at this time because the habit
he he NJ. a
der Iynching of this kind attracts little
Be it remembered. too, in con
nectiOn with these recent murders. that not
one in ten has any connection with alleged
assaults upon woman
| speak with sorrow and with sense of
shame and humiliation when | call atten-
tion to the fact that within a period of
thirty days during the present summer no
fewer than tWenty-siX colored men were
hanged as if they had been so many wild
beasts. In one case. that near Palestine.
Tex, the Sheriff OF the county Southern
white man. says: Men were going out
killing negroes fast as they could find
them, and so far | could learn without
any just cause. These negroes had done
no wrong that | could discover What
blot upon Christian civilization does
such lawlesSness indicate! What blush OF
shame does such barbarous acts bring to
every American citizeni Let this truth
never be forgotten. that whatsoever man
or nation slows. that it shall also reap. The
white man who murders a negro TO-DAY
white man tomorrow and go unpunished.
There is only remedy that VIII stand
the test of centuries. the enforcing of all
laws in every section of the United States
without regard to class, race or color.
Some Eloquent Figures.
DR.. Washington gave some eloquent fig
ures to prove the progress his race had
rlade In the accumulation of wealth, esii-
mating their total possessions in the United
States as mot far from s600, 900, 0o0." And
in regard to the progress Of the negro in
the last fifty years he added
when | was making a speech up at
Northeast Harbor recently. under the wing
of my good friend Mr.. Schieffeln, Presi-
dent Eliot late of Harvard College, came
up to me, shook me by the hand and said:
You don't put 1t strong enough. If you
are too modest to say it for yourself, say 1t
as coming from me, that no race In all ms
tory has made such progress IN such
short time as the negro race
William Jay Schieffelin was an interested
listener on the platform as DIR. Washington
was speaking Later, when Major r. X
Moten, of Hampton, Va, was eXhortlnS his
brethren 20 sing another genuine negro
song. DIR. Washington spied henry Ciews'
the banker, in the audience, ana asked MIN
to sit on the platform.
But Mr.. Clews shook hands with the
negro educator, making his excuses, ana
promised to attend the session tonight ana