Franklin's paper the statesman., 1911-08-05
Stick to Your Bush

look 10 call alIeullOI W lHe III gem
need of Negroes depending upon rea-
son rather than upon mere sentiment
if they would make progress in indus
trial life This week we wish to en-
phasize the desirability of persisting
in ones trade or profession even over
difficulties.
In the news columns of this paper
are two articles, the one about the Ne
gro colony near Akron, the other
about the completed arrangements for
the care of colored consumptive pa
tients at the Mount View hospital by
the Lincoln Douglass Association,
which are illustrative of the certain
success of endeavor which is well di-
rected and long sustained. Our OBJ
servation provides other illustrations
of the advantage which lies in sticking
to ones bush.
1t is the one most unfortunate feature
of the prescription which colored peo-
pie endure in this country, that when
we have achieved an education. prac-
ticed honesty, maintained character
and then get the rudiments of a trade
or profession, that the way is not yet
open for us to continue to follow it as
a life's work. Where opportunity un-
folds for the white person similarly
equipped, the black man or woman
must accept an inferior wage for the
same work if perchance he is fortun-
ate to secure employment at all. 1t is
therefore natural that many should
choose the easier way to live and give
up the calling they had chosen and
accept the class of work which custom
has assigned to our race. We can see
how they are thus disposed to yield
ambition to eXpediency, yet we believe
that such a course is simply shifting
the day of disaster till later in life,
when growing years will compel the
worker to make the worse fight
against conditions.
In the first place, If adverse condi-
tions continue to drive Negroes into
a few lines of work, the labor supply
will soon exceed the demand and all
will suffer loss of wages. That holds
true in addition to the fact that the
lines easily open to us are the poorest
paid already. They are the lines in
which invention is continually displac-
ing labor, where foreign immigrants
are already gaining foothold, where
hours are worst and conditions most
undesirable. We should resist with
all our might the pressure exerted to
drive us down and hold us away from
the work which is our ambition.
The more we acquiesce in this en-
barge laid by prejudice, the weaker
grows our will, the less our fitness for
more skilled work, the less our conf
dence in our own ability and at the
same time the barriers against us will
grow higher and the custom more set.
Sporadic efforts at overcoming the i'm
pediments to our industrial progress
are hopeless. We must fight every
inch of the way-fght continually and
with all the brain power we can COM
mand. In the industrial warfare being
waged there is no quarter and no let
up. Mere Drawn does not win. The
Negro workman expects in the outset
to be hampered by his color, he ex-
poets the smaller wage, he KNOWS he
must deliver the greater service. Let
him do this and know that it is newt
able that his superior power in pro-
duction will finally overcome preju-
dice.
If he tries momentarily and sporad
ically, he does not do himself justice,
for efficiency is a growth begotten of
practice; and no workman, no matter
how we'll trained in the principles OF
his trade, can equal his best effort
after a period of idleness or change Of
occupation. If he does not stick to his
bush, even though at a sacrifice for
time, he confesses lack of confidence
to meet competition and begets in pos
sible employers the fear that he will
not stand the test. Let us illustrate:
The Negro who is waiter is the
better for keeping at his trade. There
his ambition lies and to it he gives his
best endeavor. The lawyer who gets
into financial difficulties and takes up
table waiting as the easier way to earn
a living, feels superior to his work,
sights it because he feels that it is
only temporary, makes the mistakes
which are the result of inexperience,
all to his own disadvantage. Worst
of all, his unsatisfactory service re-
fleets discredit upon colored walters
in general and sooner or later compe-
tent colored walters are let out of ho-
tells because of the amateurs to whom
that class of work is the easier way.
The reverse proposition is equally
true. The waiter who sees easy mon
ey in police court practice brings re-
proach upon all colored lawyers.
1t is every man to his trade. No
matter how long the night or dark the
way, if he will work and will plan he
will reach the highest attainable pres
tige and position He will set
standard which his children can fol
low after and thev in some degree
benefited by the start he has given
them, car advance still higher.
Race movement 70 by individuals
and not - ->neses very Negro can