The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1914-07-24
SOUTH EXTENDS
WILLING HAND
Affords Race Greater Chance
Than the North.
WINNING ALL ALONG LINE.

orod man OF the Former 81; .
States 10 outstrippins His Brother
In the North-PolitieaI Recognition
viii Follow Industrial Advance.
By RALPH w. TYLER.
Washington.-To one who makes q
tour Of the south to study carefully
conditions In so far as they have an ef-
feet upon the present and future mate
rial progress Of the Negro race, the
fact that the race In the south Is very
rapidly outstripping the race in the,
north, Internationally as we'll as indus
trially and commercially, Is most i'm
pressive. 1 have just completed my
third trip into the heart Of the south as
a representative for and In the interest
Of the National Negro Business league,
the wonderfully effective organization
DR.. Booker T. Washington conceived
and organized. On the three trips l
covered more than 5000 miles, visited
isolated farming communities as we'll
as the congested cities. To the close OBJ
server, and my twenty years connec-
ton with the fourth estate has made
me a close observer, the apparent op-
timism, in spite Of restrictions and dis
ordinations, prevailing among the Ne
groes Of the south In contradistinctiOn
to the apparent pessimism prevailing
among Negroes Of the north compels
first establishment and then hope.
In practically every Negro home,
every Office and every business estab-
lishment in the south one visits the
visitor becomes conscious Of the in
visible motto, Enthusiasm Is COM
modify here" The world over that
motto expresses the sentiment Of only
the really earnest, hopeful and strenu-
ously active class. In the same places
before mentioned found photograph
Of DR.. Booker T. Washington.
No one will attempt to deny that the
Negro in the south Is grossly discrimi-
mated against or that he is denied GER
tain citizen rights, but from all saw
and learned on my trip these have
served as an accelerant rather than a
deterrent to race progress, paradoxical
as It may seem. In politics the Negro
in the south is practically nOnentity,
but In the trades, professions and In
business he Is becoming virile fac
tor. And just In proportion as he in
creases respect for himself because Of
advancement along industrial and COM
mercial lines I found political restric-
lions for the Negro becoming less re-
strictive. For instance, In one south
ern city met most enterprising and
substantial Negro business man, whom
the best white citizens Of the city had
urged to become a candidate for mem
Der Of the city council from a ward In
which the whites largely outnumbered
the blacks He refused, however, to
comply with their request, stating that
the office would interfere with his
business: that 1t could serve as no ad.
vantage, while II might prove disad-
vantage. No white man in that COM
munity enjoys higher respect from
white men than he, and the Judgment
Of no white man In that community
on business matters is more highly re-
spected and followed than that Of this
Negro who declined the urgent request
Of white men to become their cand1-
date for the city council in southern
city where the whites outnumbsr the
Negroes three to one.
On this trip also learned that the
number of Negroes who qualify and
vote each year is increasing. and to
such an extent that the trainers and
supporters Of the grandfather" clause,
which permits the white progeny OF
Confederate soldiers to vote without
complying with the educational quail
fcation, while denying the same right
to Negroes, have begun to realize that
the educational qualification Is serving
as a positive incentive to Negro educa-
ton and a deplorable retardance for
what are termed in the south the poor
whites" for the reason that the chill
dren of the poor whites" knowing
that they are exempted from the opera.
ton Of the educational test, are not ac-
cepting the unrestricted. for them, OPP
portunities for education with anything
like the avidity with which Negro
children pursue education.
I also learned that the whites are
not In the least alarmed over the in
creasing number Of Negroes who vote
each year, but on the contrary, In
many communities, white citizens who
desire to build up the commercial and
educational prestige of the south are
encouraging the Industrious, thrifty, in
tslligent Negro to pay his poll tax and
qualify as an elector. 49,. ,.,.,,..