The Denver star., 1914-04-04
BY RALPH w. TYLER.

BY RALPH W. TYLER.
Fort Smith, Ark.-The westerner' 3
| idea Of distance is far from harmo-
nizing with an eastern mans idea or
| 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 could run over from
| Muskogee to Fort Smith and back be
| tween a late breakfast and an early
| MONDAY lunch.
When started to make the trip, how
ever, l 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
delightfully."- located town, and for
boulevards it comes nearer approach
ing Kansas City than any other munic-
ipality in this country.
rather 1 should say, city, for 1t has
all the airs and accomplishments OF
city-have heretofore been rather con
servative, each working along indtvid-
ual lines, with an absence of that co
operative spirit which made Made In
England" 4 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 bust
ness league, electing that highly ener-
getic and excellent physician, DR.. S.
w. Harrison, president, and enrolling
thirty members.
In the light of what progress the race
has made in this city without busl-
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 ~
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.GO.
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 is, however, no colored lawyer
or druggist, and the city offers fine
opportunity for such.
found 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 woman
Mrs. NJ. Josenberger. She Is one OF
the most capable business women l
have ever met. She takes an active
interest in every movement looking to
race elevation. Especially is she active
vii htpt
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 a much
higher water mark OF business success
than in any previous year. The col
ored people here occupy some SPLEEN
did homes, and the desire to possess a
home appears to have seized even the
humblest, with the result that It Is
becoming almost a reflection on one
not to own his own home. This, too,
is very encouraging sign. During
my visit here / met for the first time
in many years Professor T.. O.. Trent,
former schoolmate OF mine in Co.
lumbus. o. Professor Trent has been
resident here for the past twenty
years, and II the palatial residence in
which he resides and the city block Of
houses he owns may be accepted as n
criterion his leaving Ohio to become
an adopted son Of Arkansas was not
without its compensations.
With such progressive race men as
Drs Harrison Moore Williams ,nd
Miller and such enterprising business
men as Messrs. George Miller. Cha
vous. Conwell. Harrington, Winston.
Tillman. Trent Hoyls. Black and 9th
ers cooperating to minimize the indi-
vidual efforts made mt the expense Of
cooperative efforts. the future Of the
race In this city is indeed exceedingly
,iSf,