The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-24


 Raleigh, N. C., May 2s.-(special)-I felt sure when I got to Raleigh should be able to learn the occasion that brought forth the famous remark of the governor of North Carolina to the governor of South Carolina But alas; as in the case of lobster Newburgh, Hamburg steak and Bologna sausage, the people of the town the dish is named for wot not of it. One old resident who ranked his ! memory for 20 years though "zeb Vance musta said it to Wade Hampton. It woulda been like zeb-and it wouldn't have needed no special occasion, neitherv' The much quoted governors comment might be even more feelingly applied to- day, for both Carolinas have prohibition. And I think it must be of Done dry, 1 strictness. Not since I left Washington have l seen a single person who had had obvious communion with ardent spirits. I called upon the editor of the News | and Observer, of which Secretary of the Navy Daniels is owner, to ask how pro hibition had worked out not only in the neat, brisk comfortable and homelike lit tle city of Raleigh but in the whole state I can't tell for the life of me how our
  tion. But I do know we were soon in lively combat, the good editors southern feathers all standing on end because l thought merit and not race should be the sole standard for advancement. And my northern fur bristling at the suggestion of any race or class or sex tyrannizing over any other
 But after we had threshed everything out and blown away the chaff we found fha1.a hF11xr foyx AiV1tS xUo on after all
 And I'll get Berry O'Kelly," said the editor, and you can find out from him direct what the state of North Caro- 1 lima is doing for her colored people and what their grievances are if any Isn't that fair and unprejudiced on my part?" I agreed that it was.
 GIVES VALUE RECEIVED ] Now Berry O'Kelly Is not an Irish man with a green necktie. He Is negro whose mother was a slave. His pie 1 turesque name is that of the family who owned him. But his picturesque career comes from nobody but himself Berry picked up an education somehow, and, 1 having a mind he made 1t up to be as l good a citizen and business man as any | of the white citizens of his community. 1 Today Berry O'Kelly has a prosperous store, a large fertilizer business, a block | of buildings erected and owned by him. l self on the main street of Raleigh and 1 a fine industrial school at the negro vil- 1 lage of Method, a few miles from here, | where he lives. He is fairly rich man, l adored by his own people and respected | by the whites. This is what he told me;
 First of all, the negroes of North 1 Carolina have not as complex problems as 1 those of some other places. There are l better educational facilities. And that is l at the bottom of all progress. If you /. give sudden power to an uneducated col 1 ored man he makes foolish mistakes, | just as white man will under the cir | cumstances.
 You cannot civilize a primitive peo- | pie in 8 minute. There are a great many I of us who are still in the dark, still un- 1 developed, still crude and untaught. To those I say: Listen, work, learn. No matter what you do, from cooking to practicing law, do it just a little bit | better than someone else does it. Give value received. Deliver the goods hon. l estly. generously, and you'll overcome l prejudice. It will be hard going for awhile but you'll win. I did. and I know what I'm talking about. I have more white customers than colored ones.
 But there is one thing I beg the white | man to give us, and that is square rep resentation. Take a newspaper, for in l stance. It is almost impossible for a pa | per not to blazon forth the misdoings of the colored folks, playing up the bad fea- 1 lures to the full, leaving out whatever extenuating circumstances there may be They make no excuses for us. They deny ] us a hearing.