The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-07-18
SECRETARY ROONEY MAKES AID
DRESS TO NEGROES

| According TO appointment MT. j. IL
Rooney, secretary of the Ocala board
of trade, addressed the colored men
at their regular board of exchange
meeting recently held in the Metropol-
itan building. Perhaps there were less
but then they were the best represen-
tatives of those men who stand for
something, and who are really trying
to do something.
President Giles asked Prof Wiley
to present Mr.. Rooney, which he did
in fitting terms.
Mr.. Rooney is an outspoken, inter
he pleases, and who takes his audi
ence with him from the start. and
they never desert him till the finish.
He can tell you of your faults without
offending you, and you thank him for
it, for he always opens up the door of
! hope for you. He early established
cordial relations with his hearers by
assuring them of his sympathy, and
of their own splendid opportunity of
cooperating with the whites, their
best friends, in making Ocala and Ma
rion county the best in the state or
in the whole south, for that matter.
One of the greatest needs of the
race, he said, was the drawing of
sharper lines between the morally
good and industrious and the immor-
al, worthless element, who are a great
handicap to the race, and bring upon
it much unfavorable criticism. The
moral and industrial welfare of the.
race would advance in proportion as
this element was made to feel that if
they behaved as outcasts they would
be treated as such by the better class.
That this was fundamental in race
development.
He was pleased to see the develop
ment of a colored bank here in Ocala,
and he hoped it would meet with en-
enlargement from the colored people,
as it would from the whites, who
wanted to see the colored man pros
per If this institution should get into
straits no one would come to it's res
cue quicker than the white people
here in Ocala, who best know the men
trying to operate it. This bank would
put to test in a large measure the
races ability to organize and manage
affairs of it's own. One opportunity,
however, they were missing-a splen-
| did chance to show their larger capa
bilities as organizers and managers
in a larger race sense by purchasing
large acreage and establishing a
colored colony, and nowhere were op-
portunities more inviting than right
here in Marion county for an enter
prise like this, which should become
home objective point for the
best elements of the race, and from
| the present outlook he could see no
reason why such an enterprise would
not succeed. The southern whites. he
said, would encourage any worthy I'M
dertaking of the negro, as they have
always shown that they were his
friends. If, for instance, this banking
concern should get into straits nobody
would come to it's rescue quicker than
the white business men of Ocala, who
know best those who are operating it.
In their business relations, all should
cooperate and get together for the
common good of the community.
He urged the establishment of IL
braries and parks, and a closer rela-
tionship of the town with the country
people, and the erection of stock
sheds and other conveniences for the
better accommodation of the farmers
upon whom we are very dependent.
The speaker did not close without a
hopeful forecast of the large things
destined to come
The constant applause which greet
ed Mr. Rooney's speech showed how
heartily it was appreciated and many
remained at the close to express their
personal satisfaction.