Franklin's paper the statesman., 1911-07-22
Success for Negroes De-
pends upon the Undi-
vided Support Of All

the outset, that the way is hard and
cheerless. Whether in trade or pro
fession, he knows that he must WOO
his patronage away from whites of ap-
proved skill and experience, for the
civilization we copy, being of white
origin, of necessity has made the
white professional man or artisan the
teacher and the Negro the follower.
And it is the greatest compliment to
us that we have won such large pat
ronage in so short freedom. While
it is evident therefore that it is the
competition of the whites which is the
greatest encountered by colored work
ers, even for the trade of colored peo-
Pile, this condition is known before
hand by every Negro who aspires and
he is prepared to meet it; but he is
not prepared to meet the suspicion.
the prejudice and even the treachery
of his own people. Appreciation of
his white competitors arising from
past good service is natural but in
vidious comparison, platitudinous
praise and the like do not take into
account the fact that the colored phys
| ician has cases of merit just as worthy
as the white. It's worst feature is the
substantiation it seems to give to the
old slavery prejudice that the work of
colored hands and brains is of neces-
sity inferior.
The attack from without may as
well be borne with smile. But the
slurs and insinuations of our own
people are heavy burden. Where
colored men attempt to perform a
service and their efforts are met with
Indifference and their white competi-
Mt 10 nf
self-respect before the world. So it is
that we sympathiZe with the Denver
colored physicians who have recently
been held up to shame by the adver-
tising methods of white physician
of this city through the medium of a
colored paper.
Only the angel of mercy can tell the
cases where our colored physicians
have taken in hand patients stripped
of their last dollar and hopeless, and
fought off disease with consumate
care and skill. For they have never
stopped to subsidize the press and re-
cite the roll of their cures after the
manner of quacks. While they have
suffered the coward stroke of white
physicians who supplant them in cases
and brand their medicines as harmful.
| they have not paid them back in kind.
And so they should be spared the
gratuitous affront of fulsome praise
of a competitor when every word of
it true, was a covert slap at their
ability.
A T. Moore, the pioneer Negro un-
dertaker in this city, went into busi-
ness only after being refused an ap-
premiership even without pay, by all
the leading white undertakers of this
city. Yet some Negroes are so little
concerned about their race being re-
spected that they fall over themselves
soliciting business for the very men
who refused him.
Lawyer w. B. Townsend has rec
ord of 20 years sacrifice for his race
in Kansas and Colorado. Just last
Sunday, by his unsolicited initiative
he placed in the hands of his brethren
the so much needed information about
the Harris case at Rocky Ford, yet i,
is Negroes who direct their friends te
white attorneys.
Not a colored doctor but has some
signal success to his credit, yet col
ored newspaper supposed to be for the
race, business dependent upon the
race, directs colored people to white
physician! For shame!
If the praise bestowed upon this
white physician is productive OF re
suits, 1t will mean that the colored
people so Influenced will go to him
They will take their business away
from the colored men whom they
know in lodge and church, from those
whose social relations insure their
honest service, and transfer it to a
man whose position gives no like as
surance. They will forsake a member
of their own race whose success
means higher regard for themselves.
We are ashamed of the Negroes who
refuse to give their own men a chance
and most of all ashamed of the gusto
with which supposed to be race-loving
Ipeople praise their competitors.