The Twin City star., 1914-04-03
ENERGY OF FORT
SMITH PEOPLE /
Genuine Up|itt Noted In an
"a Arkansas Town. d.
WOMEN TAKE ACTIVE PART.

Business League Organizer Gives q
Glowing Account Of What Our Peo-
pie Are Doing az Merchants and
Their Per Capita Wealth as Individ.
uals-Success Of e. O. Trent.
.. BY RALPH w. TYLER. f.
Fort Smith, Ark.-The westerner's
idea Of distance is far from harmo-
nizing with an eastern mans idea Of
It If an eastern man should tell you
that a certain town was so near he
could look over his back fence and see
it you would surmise that certain town
was but fifteen or twenty miles away
an hours ride on the trolley line. When
a Fort Smithian informed me, prior to
my leaving for the far southwest, that
'.Muskogee is just beyond our back
fence" figured I could run over from
Muskogee to Fort Smith and back be-
tween late breakfast and an early
MONDAY lunch.
When started to make the trip, how
ever, I discovered the wide variance
between our and their idea Of dis
tances, for it took just four hours to
make the trip one way. Fort Smith Is
q delightfully."- located town, and for
bouleyards it comes nearer approach
ing Kansas City than any other munic-
ipality In this country. - D..
The colored people Of the town
rather, I should say, city, for it has
all the airs and accomplishments Of
city-have heretofore been rather con-
servative, each working along individ-
ual lines, with an absence of that. Coz
operative spirit which made "Made In
England" stenciled sentence on all
boxes containing goods manufactured
in Britain. A few weeks prior to my
coming here, however, Afro-Americans
caught the spirit Of organization and
cooperation which is sweeping over
the country and formed local busi-
ness league, electing that highly ener-
getic and excellent physician, DIR. 8.
w. Harrison, president, and enrolling
thirty members.
In the light of what progress the race
has made in this city without busi-
ness organization one cannot help but
marvel at what the progress might
have been had there been live, for
chile business league here all the while.
There are 5000 citizens here who are
collated as Negroes. and these 5000
own 100000 worth Of realty within
the corporate limits Of the city. At
present there are nine merchants,
whose capital invested in their busi-
ness aggregates $4,000. Including
their realty holdings and money invest
ed in business. the per capita wealth
Of the colored people Of this city will
reach .$45.6O.
The businesses in which members of
the race here are represented are:
Groceries, furniture. real estate, un-
dertaking, cafes. shoe repairing, barber
shops. wood and coal yards. There are
two school buildings in which sixteen
colored teachers are employed, and ten
churches, four Methodist and six Bap-
tist. Fort Smith has three colored
physicians and one or two dentists.
and these professional men in every
way are the equal Of their white broth
ers practicing the same professions.
There Jis, however, no colOred lawyer
or druggist. and the city offers a fine
opportunity for such.
Ifound something here that was sur
prising, agreeably surprising. which
only tends to prove that the business
success of the race has been, is and
will be accelerated by our colored wo-
men. One Of the most prominent, ag-
gressively progressive and public spir-
tied personages in the city is a woman
Mrs. M. Josenberger. She Is one Of
the most capable business women !
have ever met She takes an active
interest In every movement looking to
race elevation. Especially is she active
in promoting real virile business
league.
Fort Smith offers excellent oppor-
tunities to the race. and under the lash
OF the recently organized business
league the colored people here will
doubtless register this year much
higher water mark Of business success
than In any previous year. The COL
ored people here occupy some splen-
did homes. and the desire to possess a
home appears to have seized even the
humblest, with the result that It IL
becoming almost a reflection on one
not to own his own home. This. too.
is q very encouraging sign. During
my visit here ! met for the first time
In many years Professor e. o. Trent.
Q former schoolmate Of mine in Co