The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1910-12-02

been left to their sons or has come t.
naught. But as years rolled on there
came a great change over the Negro
Along with many othr strange notion
he got the idea that business is racial
and he set about to bend his energies
toward doing things for the benefit of
the race; every fellow set out to lift
up the down trodden" and as a result
we find the young Negro of today for
ever whining that his own people will
not patronize him, and he cannot sue
coed. A greater mistake was never
made.
But granting that a Negro does
open a business and fails to get the
patronage of the people of his own
race, the question he should first ask
himself is, Am l conducting my bust
ness in way to invite trader" We ven
ture the assertion that the most of the
failures that overtake Negroes in bus
mess are due to negligence on the part
of the man himself We have never
known a Negro to fail in business who
was painstaking and energetic, but
we have known scores of them to fail
because of slothfulness.
Any man who embarks on the ship
of commerce may expect to run into
a storm before many knots have been
sailed Competition is certain to de-
velop, and the man who is on the alert
at all times will succeed, and he who
expects to hold his suctomers through
sympathy will fail
Comparisons are odious, but we will
admit them for argument. A Negro
opens business and heralds to the
world that he is going to conduct his
place on high plane; it will be first
class in every particular The people
flock to the new enterprise and for a
short season the proprietor keeps his
word, and then he begins to substitute
cheaper goods, and employs inferior
help. His customers complain, and
he promises them that all defects will
be remedied, but the promise is not
kept. While this controversy be-
tween Negro merchant and his GUS
toners is going ON, Jew or Greek, or
a man of some other nationality than |
Negro is doing his best TO please his |
and his customers in
clude everybody who will pay
bill. Goods are kept up to the
the store is neat and
clean, fly specks are washed off the
windows, every employee is ordered
to keep their clothes clean and we'll
and he invites the public to
come in and see how politely he can
have them served Ask yourself the
question, who will get the business?
There is a remedy for this short
coming on the part of our young men
who are trying to do business They
ought to succeed. Some of them are
succeeding, but too many of them are
merely eking out an existence. We
believe that a we'll organized associa-
ton, on the order of a board of trade
or merchants asso citation, where the
men could come together once
month would be of great benefit.
The members could help each other in
the way of suggestions, and by frank
ly pointing out to each other their de-
fects, but always in spirit of mutual
interest. No place in the country is
suffering more for progressive young
business men than Nashville, and
since it seems impossible to get either
of our business leagues in operation
we ought to have another organization
with men who have the in
terest of all the business men at heart
The governor of a southern state