The Washington bee., 1911-10-28
~ Fellow Citizens.

NJ Fellow Citizens.
No friend of the Negro race would
e. could minimize the obstacles
against which YOU have TO contend in
building ND yourselves Individually,
sud in building up your race as a
community in the United States.
No one who deals with you truthfully
would attempl TO depTeCIate the diff
culties or mental suffering that many
of y1ur race have to undergo in en-
countering cruel and unreasonable
race preiudices, and no one either
would do you any good who attempt
ed to stir up I'D your minds that kind
81 a prejudice against those Difficult
ties, against the prejudice, which
would lead you 10 do something that
your friends would regret 1t is one
of the facts that have to be overcome
and one of the facts. which, when you
have overcome them, VIII entitle you
to the greater credit for the success
1ul struggle that you have made.
! have taken great interest III
what Is called the Negro problem
anu | believe It Is to find its solution
in the widespread industrial education
of the race, especially in that part of
the country where the race IS most
numerous, through the Southern
States; and while there is a strong
feeling at the South that presents a
difficulty, those who have studied the
question and those who live in the
South know that there IS large ele-
ment Of the white men IN the South
who are the real true friends of the
people of the South, and those who
are his enemies are not OF the best
people of the South and do not have
the true patriotism and the desire to
solve the question presented by the
races in the proper way | know that
there are differences among you. /
know that your greatest leader, Book
er Washington, finds those who do
not aoree with his method of uplift
ing your race. Per~onally, think
Booker Washington one of the great
est men of this and the last century,
white or black, and / think SO be
cause he has had the courage, while
he loves your race-his race, and
would not be other than Of that race
he has had the courage to tell you
the truth, and to tell you the only
way by which you can earn your place
IN the community and render II bet
ter and better and higher and higher.
He has had the courage to tell you
that it is work, attention, industry,
that shall make you valuable To your
community, that will cure the preju-
dices that you now have TO struggle
against, and that when you furnish
merCenarv or a selfish motive to the
white man, however low he may be,
to respect you and To ask for your
labor to assist in building up the com
munity, then prejudices disappear and
his interest yields and you get your
rights.
Now, my friends. I thank you for
your kindly testimonial | want you
To know, whether you do know it or
not. that there are those of the white
people in this country, and they num-
ber millions, that Sympathize deeply
with you in the struggle that you
have to undergo and realize that those
sufferings are not TO be done away
with by eloquence, not 10 be done
away with by expressions of sympa-
thy, that they are real, hard burdens
to- carry, but it may help you to
carry them to know that you have
friends in the white race, that you
have men who have sense of re-
sponsibility for this Government and
this people-this Government and
this people that in times past brought
you here against your will and have
necessitated the conditions that now
exist. Therefore. the United States
IS responsible for you and for your
betterment, but that responsibility
cannot. in the nature of things, reach
to a point where it will save you
and elevate you unless you shall
struggle on with bravery and cour-
age and self-restraint and a determi-
nation to win