The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1911-10-06

San Antonio Express, Sept. 27.-Ful-
ly three thousand people, about one
Thousand of whom were white, filled
every available seat in the Beethoven
Hall, crowded in the windows and
stood around the walls and aisles to
hear Booker T. Washington, the ram
GUS Tuskegee Negro educator speak
last night. The occasion marked the
beginning of an eight-day trip
through the State of Texas, which is
Icing taken for the purpose of pro-
noting the friendly relations between
The races and to further promote the
progress of the Negro people.
In the afternoon Dr. Washington
spoke to the Negro school children at
Second Baptist Church, counseling
them to make their education worth
While in their everyday lives and to
. take their mothers and fathers in
their training with them. Don't let
people discourage you," he said on
this occasion. Do not listen to such
talk that will make you dispondent or
dissatisfied. People will tell you that
you are poor, that you are black and
members of the despised race Take
lessons after the foreigners who come
here in the direct poverty, peddle ba-
nanas on the streets, then rise to own
ers of small stores, then afterwards to
directors in banks, Begin now to
save your pennies and help your
mothers and fathers in your own sup
port"
What the Negro owns in Texas.
Let me repeat, the colored people
have made progress. They are max
ing progress, and | come to you with
the sole object in view of helping you,
if possible, to make greater progress.
According to the most accurate
record that we can find, colored peo-
pie in this State own and pay taxes
on $30000,000 worth of property In
1900 the colored people in this State
owned and paid taxes upon $4,000
farms; during the last ten years they
have bought 1900 additional farms.
While this is not as great gain as
has been made by the colored people
of other States, it indicates progress
in farm getting, and | urge upon all
our people, with all the emphasis
that | can command, the Importance
Of their owning land, of their getting
out of the cities into the rural COM
munities, onto the soil AS a rule our
people are better off in the country
districts, cultivating the soil than
they are in large cities. If we do not
get hold of farms now, the time will
come when it will be impossible for
us to do so.
81 find further, that last year the
colored people raised in Texas about
4G5 900 bales of cotton, valued at
about 32,000,000; that they raised
16.OO0,OO0 bushels of corn, valued at
about $12OOO,0O0. 1t is safe to say
that the colored people of Texas last
year got for their farm products of
all kinds about $4OOO0O00. 1t is
safe to say further, that colored peo-
pie living by other forms of labor than
bv farming earned about $l0,000,000
more. making the total earnings in
Texas for our race about $50,000,0O0.
South is the Place for Negro.
NOW the main question which l
want to put to you colored people is
this: What becomes of this immense
amount of money? How much of it
is invested in property, in lands, in
houses? How much of it is squander-
ed, practically thrown away, year by
year, in drink, in gambling, in idle
ness, in useless dress, for cheap jew
elry, and in other directions that mean
nothing to the race. | want to urge