The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1913-06-13
COMMENCEMENT AT FISK
UNIVERSITY.
CONTINUED from Page l..


Negroes remain hewers of wood and
drawers of water. | go further than
this. My highest ambition is for
US to get the Negro to the point wher
he will own plenty of wood to hew
and own plenty of water to draw.
With that problem settled many 9TH
ers will naturally settle themselves.
OF the 200,O00000 acres of unused
and unoccupied land in the South
there are few regions where the Ne
gro is not just as free to buy and oc-
cupy this land as is true of the men,
bers Of any other race. My object
is to impress upon the educated man
and woman of my race their respon-
sibility and duty in using more in the
future than in the past the power
that has come TO them by reason Of
education in science, mathematics
and literature in doing our part in
owning and developing the natural
resources of our Southland. Hither-
to for reasons that were natural and
excusable the educated men and
women of our race have not in any
large measure been the leaders in the
develop ment of the soil The duty
has rested too largely with the un-
lettered classes. The time has
come when our educated classes
should seize the opportunity that is
before them and right at their door
to identify their education with real,
tangible, visible, living, throbbing
life Our educated classes should
not make the mistake of letting their
education remain too artificial, too
disconnected from the life of the
community in which they live. In
every section of the South to-day we
r eed the brain. the skill and the cul-
ture of our educated classes in the
development of the land, the riches
that are in the forests, that are in
the minerals, that are in the streams
Of our country
The Graduates.
Those who go out from Fisk Uni
versity to-day go out under auspi-
cious circumstances, go out at per-
iod in the history of our country
which the school house is located, is
find itself, beginning to find itself in
the development of its natural re
sources, in education, in moral and
religious activity. You go out at a
period in the history of the develop
ment of the South when, on every
hand, there is the demand that the
educated classes shall articulate
their education into life. This is
shown by the activity of the numer'
GUS commercial clubs to be found in
every Southern center; by the in
creasing number of farm demonstra
ton agents that are being put into
nearly every county of the South; by
the increasing number of county and
state faEs; by the corn shows, by
the corn clubs, by the tomato canning
clubs. All this means that the
South is finding itself as never be-
tore. This is shown, too, in the
fact that education is being revolu.
10 lied in every seton Of the South
The old, stilted, artificial, lifeless
book education, unconnected with
the activities of the community in
which the school house located, is
passing away. The people are de
handing that education be articu-
lated into life.
Here in the South we have 90
90. 600 white neighbors. An inn
portant and, at the same time, very
interesting task devolying upon the
educated young man and woman is
solving the problem Of helping the
millions of white people in peace
and a state of mutual helpfulness,
each race maintaining its own self.
I respect.
Room In South.
In commercial directions there is
no question about the work to be
done. There is room in the South