The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-04-03
GAVE GOOD ADVICE TO HIS RACE

every teacher should set themselves
! like flint to prepare the youth to do
| something with his hands that pays,
not because he is a negro but because
| he is free to be of service to himself
and others or to be a criminal and a
/ menace.
Don't Charge 1t to Prejudice.
Go out into your streets, into
your alleys, into your public high
/ ways if you think what | am saying
is a hyperbole; go into the homes of
/ the widows and orphans; go into our
prisons and places of Incarceration
and see the army of worthless boys
and men, mean and ignorant to the
extreme, that might just as well have
been intelligent, honest and hard
working persons at that thing they
could best do. Have you a son, a
daughter, a brother, a father, a sis
ter, a nephew or an uncle in that
band? Don't charge it to prejudice;
don't say il is because he is
negro, but charge it to ignor-
ance, malicious ignorance; charge it
to inability of the individual to do
something by which he could make
an honest living.
Kind of Education Needed.
Being a negro myself, having
been a country school teacher, pas
tor, presiding elder and having lived
in community with the people and
knowing something of their real
needs and having studied this prob
lem in national way | feel that |
know what 1 am talking about. It
is to our interests to give 80 per cent
of our people an education that will
employ their hands and good sense.
If we do not do this they will be re-
quired to work largely for the author
ity of the state for being idle and de-
string to dress and to act as they see
others, more fortunate than them
selves, act. Ruin, shame and dis
grace is bound to come to them.
There can be no other remedy, who
ever may argue to the contrary.
The South has fortune in cot
ton, in corn, in the lumber business,
truck farming and the domestic field
for the energetic, honest, hard-work-
ing negro youth that wants to be
somebody. Whatever the critics of
industrial education may have to say
the fact remains the same.
Learn Them to Work.
Il am not unmindful that individ-
uals among us are making Roadway
that will permanently enable them
to be fixtures in the communities
where they live so far as their own
comforts are concerned, but they are
one in every thousand. Let me re-
peat, as forcibly as l am capable:
Put the negro youth in school that
is manned and controlled by persons
who believe in fortifying every boy
and girl with trade that will enable
him to make a living for himself.
Find your place and stay in it..
II you are a cook see to it that you
are the best one in town. If you
are a seamstress do your work so
well that when those who employ
you pass you on the streets will say
of you, there goes the best seam
stress in this place Character and
common sense are the essential
things to strive for, and a few def
mite things along the line of right
have value with God and with men.
You may die ignorant, but you can
| die honest and respectable. The best
| thing you can give your child is a
! practical education. While l believe
in higher education there are only
ten out of hundred that need it
or would be benefited by it.. God
/ has set the metes and bounds of some
| things and some men -