The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-04-03

Them for Honest Work, and No
the Kind That Makes Pool Room
and Street Corner LOafers.
For three hours Sunday afternoon
in Atoc A. NJ. E. church an immense
audience, including a number OF
white citizens, listened attentively to
various speakers at a massting for
the uplift of the negro along practi-
cal lines The meeting was presided
over by Rev. E. F. Morgan, pastor of
the Dawson Methodist church.
]. c. Stiles, a we'll known negro
teacher, was the first speaker, and
made an excellent address. James
Weston, a successful negro farmer,
spoke of improved farm conditions
and urged his people to remain on
the farm. He urged his race to live
clean and wholesome lives.
Hon. r. r. Marlin, former mayor,
made an admirable and timely ad-
dress, and Rev H. T. Crumpton, pas
spoke Interestingly on the church
and school as factors in the solution
of the negro problem.
Dr. G. C. Hill, colOred physician
of Dawson, made a good speech. vi
tai statistics show increasing mortal
ity among negroes due to unsanitary
living, the ratio of deaths to whites
being five to one.
Hon. NJ. J. Yeomans' address was
practical and timely.
Stinson's Address the Feature.
The principal speech of the meet
ing was that of Rev. R. D. Stinson,
president of Atlanta Normal and In
dustrial School and a negro educator
Of wide reputation whose work has
the endorsement of many of the most
prominent white men of the South.
He said in part:
you may think somewhat
strangely of me when l assert that a
large number Of us have advanced
more rapidly along financial and ma
terial lines that we have along per-
menent moral and spiritual lines, yet
it is truth that cannot be gainsaid.
l am prepared to prove my assertion.
Training in the college university
and grammar school has been to
much of the theoretical SNOWY kind,
more for name than reality. How
many of our boys and girls who are
said to be well educated are almost
helpless for the reason that they can
do nothing that really pays or that
somebody really wants done. This
is illustrated by the large army to be
seen at our depots, pool rooms and
street corners in the red-light dis
tricts of the communities and cities
where we are so largely congested.
Untitled for the Times.
Il need not call your attention to
that large class who are complaining
daily that they cannot find work to
do by which they can earn an honest
support 1t is not in the fact that
they cannot find work so much as il
is in the fact that they are incapable
OF doing well the, work that is to be
done, as their past training has un.
fitted them for the times in which
they live.
This is true not only in the South
but wherever we live; it is to be seer
in our homes; it is to be noted in the
localities where we live. Too, we are
shiftless people, to our own disad-
vantage. This doesn't mean where
negroes work for white people, but
where negroes control their owr
homes, their own families and where
they have acquired some money and
own property.
Think of the army of school,
teachers in the state of Georgia who
are teaching for the pitiful sum OF
SD to $40 per month and many OF
our skilled cooks, coachmen, chauf.
feurs and other mechanics make that
much per week. Competent work
men among us can command all the
way from $3.50 to $50 per week. but
the world is asking for men who dc
not talk things but do them, and we
have not vet learned that any work
is honorable that gives an individual
an honest support.
Not Allowed to Work in North.
Il do not mention what l have
read, not what some one has told me
but l tell you what l have seen with
my eyes and witnessed daily. In the
North the negro is not allowed tt
work in hotels, cafes, restaurants
brick and rock masonry, on rail
roads, in coal mines, carpentry or tC
work upon public buildings and they
are too glad in that section to bt
hod carriers, and yet we are here
croaking and complaining and dis
cussing the dangers under which VIZ
are laboring and talking of race
prejudice, all because we don't know
that we don't know.
If you will believe me, the remed!
of this ever annoying problem is tina