The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-05-31
Business and Arrangements.

sold in Nashville, was heard to make
this remark: "Niggers never have
no business; white folks have bust
ness; Niggers have engagements. A
Niger never was known to have
no business; they just have range
mentsg" Most of the people who
heard the remark laughed it off as
joke Some were disguised, in fact,
all who heard the remark regretted
that the man of their race was con-
Quoting himself so rudely in public.
But there were some who heard the
statement and stopped to think, and
they asked themselves the question:
after ALL is not there some truth
in the assertion" The man was not
questioned as to what he meant by
the statement, but the question sug-
gests itself: 'Ts it possible for a
man who is not educated to thorough
ly understand business?" We submit
that Negroes are yet in their infancy
when considered as a race. Not
quite fifty years from slavery; de-
prived of the opportunity to study
business with the leading men of the
country, they have been greatly han
dicapped in commercial pursuits. But
they have nevertheless made great
strides along business lines. Some
of them are succeeding beyond doubt,
kbut many have attempted and failed.
Failures are not racial, for thousands
of men who are members of other
races that have had centuries of
training, start in business only to
make a complete failure; and, on
the other hand, thousands succeed.
Business is a pursuit or occupation
that requires energy, time and
thought; arrangement is the act OF
putting it in proper order.
One of the things on the part OF
the black man that has caused his
undoing in the commercial world is
! the tendency to discredit education
Many of them reach the conclusion
that experience will outlast educa
ton. This is a misnomer. Those
men of the race who are not educat
ed, and who have succeeded in bust
ness are creatures of circumstances
In this age we find men organizing
combines and what we generally
term trusts, and where the uneducat
ed man counts his profits in dollars
! the educated man counts his in cents
and mills. He Is able to figure
out the value of mill, and can cal
culate what the mill will be worti
to him in twenty years or fifty years
He then sets about to organize hi
business. He figures out the cost o
every item. He knows beforehand
what it will require to produce hi
stuff and what it will cost him t,
sell it. He is able also to estimat
what a certain thing ought to b
? worth at certain time. With hi
trained mind he is able to see il
the distance the probable revers
that are likely to come to him. S
I he calculates on a margin of safety
2 and is therefore in position to NEE
S the reverses when they come. TIL
+ uneducated man cannot do this. H
+ goes on from year to year succeed
: ing. Sees his cost and his profits, bu
e he is not able to see the reverse
+ that are likely to come, and is Their
e by unable to prepare for that da,
~ He is unable to see also that theT
L is a greater danger in handling a bi
e business than there is in handling
e small one, and thereby he become
drunk on success. AS a result
d awakes some morning to find hir
a. self a bankrupt and unable to e
:" tricate himself from the awful pr
ID dicament he is in.
ID Education is a necessity in this al
a of big business, and no race can hol
i'd to permanently succeed in busine
ID or in any line when it reaches Il
Or conclusion that education is Of !
&c use.