The broad ax., 1914-01-10

civilization, it is meet and fitting that
the descendants of this race should be-
stir themselves to show if the Negro
has benefited civilization and in what
way the world is better because he has
lived.
This idea originating with the race
loving president of Bethel Literary, has
been of great benefit and inspiration
! to the young Negroes of Chicago. They
feel that he has done more to stimulate
literary endeavor among them than all
the other influences combined.
The close student of history finds
that in every field of human endeavor,
the Negr. has made contributions
which have enriched, beautifed and ad-
vaneed civilization for the human fam
lily. Professor Boaz of Columbia Uni
versity has shown that in some parts
of Africa at the dawn of history,
Negroes had well ordered and well gov
erned states and had made progress in
agriculture, art and science, long be-
fore the nations which now boast of
civilization had begun to drink blood
out of human skulls. Professor Taylor
asserts, that centuries ago, Negroes on
the Isle of Meroe, built arches, monu-
ments, temples and pyramids of rare
architectural beauty and that these
were afterwards models for the famous
colossal structures of Egypt; while
Professor Sergi of the University Of
Rome claims that the cradle of eiyiliZa-
tion was in Africa and that in pre-
historic times, a race called the Med
iterranean race, of which the African
Negro is a branch, gave the world the
foundations Of art, science, astronomy,
mathematics and religion. According
to the historian Lueian, the Philippians
were the first who invented the science
of the stars and gave names to the
planets; and eminent authorities tell
US that Ethiopia was the land from
which the arts and learning of Greece
and Rome derived their origin, and
that the earliest efforts Of human
science and ingenuity was found in
this country.
Africa discovered iron and invented
the smelling of iron ore and made the
first iron implements. At the time Of
its discovery when primitive people of
all other continents were still in the
stone age and did not know how to
smelt metals, the iron industry was
found all over the African continent.
Thus mankind is indebted to the Negro
for one Of the most fundamental in
dustries, the use Of iron.
In 1919 Negroes were brought to
America from Africa by Dutch ira
ding vessel, exchanged for food and
made slaves by their purchasers. Sew
eral attempts had been made before
to establish settlements in Virginia,
but not until the Negro came and his
Drawn and muscle were used to fell
the forests, clear the new ground, till
the soil, SOW the crop and reap the
harvest was any colony in Virginia a
success. The younger sons Of the Brit
ish aristoeraey and those who came
with them to establish colonies in the
new world, had never worked with
their hands, and many Of them starved
10 death because they would not do 50.
The Negro raised plenty Of crops and
through him q true and lasting civil
ization was begun in Virginia and :
extended throughout the South. He
made this country blossom as a rose;
gave to civilization by the sweat Of
his brow, King Cotton, who in turn
furnishes cloth for the world. Not only
20, but q slave is said to have given
% Eli Whitney the invention Of the
cotton gin, according to Henry z.
Baker, assistant examiner United I
States Patent Office, and other author 4
ty. So it seems that not only has the
Negro raised the cotton, but he really
the cotton gin. Nor ID this
u. At the National Conservation Con- '
Press held in Kansas City, Missouri,
september 18th, 1911, President Henry
Wallace in his annual address to the
congress said, "were il not for over
500, 100000 worth Of cotton that We
end abroad each year, our country .
would be drained Of its precious metals
o settle cur foreign obligations and /,
Ve would be on thu verge Of bank :
uptey.V Here are words Of undisput.
d authority which say that the ,
Segro's present day contribution to
utilization, is the saving Of the ma
ions credit,
In the scientific field early in the
nineteenth century appears the name
{ Anthony William Amo, professor ]
{ philosophy in the University Of Wit ID