The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1916-09-16

present at and delivered an annual ad-
dress before the National Baptist Con-
vention. His presence and his sound
advice were always tower of strength
to this organization.
This year his spirit was with the con-
vention, and all felt his powerful per-
sonality reflected in the magnificent ad-
dress delivered on Friday evening, Sep
TENDER s, by DR.. Robert R. Motion,
Principal of Tuskegee Institute, and
successor to the Great Educator. No
address delivered by DR.. Motion since
his Inauguration so stirred and thrilled
an audience as did his powerful ap'
peal to the Baptists of America fol
greater religious sincerity and race
unity. He said in part:
1 want, first of all, to congratulate
the real leaders of the Negro race in
America, the Gospel ministers. What
ever may be said about the business
men and the educators being the lead
ers of the Negro people, as yet the
Negro leader is the Negro preacher.
do not need to tell you what a great
opportunity you have and how great
and how truly sacred is your response
bility. Few gatherings in the land
have more influence on so many as is
true of the friends into whose faces /
look.
It is quite proper that we should turn
our thoughts this evening to the one
who, were he living, would be occupy
ing this platform at this hour. He
would, in epigrammatic sentences and
phrases and with an earnestness and
sincerity and with an enthusiasm born
of conviction, encourage and inspire
this magnificent gathering of Christian
workers as only he could.
Let US therefore, think together fol
while on some of the great lessons
that our great leader and teacher
would emphasize. First: he would
seek, no doubt, to deepen our own faith
in and heighten our respect for the
Negro race. He would want to
strengthen our faith and belief, also, in
the White race by whose side we live
whose language and customs we seek
to copy, whose highest ideals and as
pirations we admire and are striving
as never before, to follow. He would
want to deepen our faith and belief
in all humanity, whether found on s
white, brown or black skin.
1 am very sure he would desire that
we should have greater and more gen
timely abiding faith in the religion OF
Jesus Christ. He would seek further
to strengthen our faith in God. Few
men in all the worlds history have
lived out and worked out more fully
and completely these three fundamental
elements in their daily life than he
did. DR.. Washington IS own life was in
very real sense the embodiment OF
the ideas and the ideals which are SO
necessary in the life of our own people
or in the life of all peoples. He was
truly a man of faith and of vision. His
name might justly and reverently, too
| be added to the roll of honor which St
Paul gives US in the 18th chapter of
Hebrews. By faith he struggled with
his kindly, though backward, jealous
and suspicious race. By faith he ae'
complished mighty works in education
and in Christian service through the
kindness of Southern White people and
the generosity of Northern White PEG
pie. By faith he was able to build the
great Tuskegee Institute not only to
serve the black race, but the white as
well; not only Alabama, but the nation
and the civilized world; and finally
succeeded in bringing about a more
cordial and sympathetic relation be
tween the various groups within the
Negro race.
There are people in this Baptist de-
nomination and in this audience who
have in a somewhat narrower sphere
done a similar sort of work for their
communities, and I do sincerely and
earnestly congratulate you, as well a:
myself and educated Negroes general
ly, on the great opportunity we have tc
gain inspiration ourselves from such an
unselfsh life as DR.. Washington g, and
to inspire others for greater and more
efficient service.
My friends, I am an optimist.
believe firmly in the possibilities Of
my own race. I believe we should
more and more encourage the Negro to
see and to use these tremendous ad
vantages by which he is surrounded