The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1919-07-05
The BLACK MAN AND
HISCFIANCE Of TODAY
BY CLEMENTS c. JOHNSON.
Assistant to the Director of .nforina-
alton u. S. Employment Service.

alton u. S. Employment Service.
If the negroes Of Mississippi, and
Of the South gereraIlv, will heed the
counsels of the wise of their own race
ard act intelligertly upon the advice
which is being given them at this
time by some seriouS-mlnded and
more Intelligent negro educators OF
the Southern States-those who were
born and reared in the South and
understand the conditions as they ac-
tualiy exist-tncy will take advantage
of the unprecedented opportunities
which are presented to them during
Inc reconstruction period and place
oemseives upon a firm and substan-
~Ial basis in the industrial life of
the country, a position from which
It will be difficult, if not impossible,
to remove them.
Never has there been time in the
history of the country when the white
employer has manifested a more sin
cere desire to help the negro than
the present. Scarcely is there an en-
ployer of labor in the South who
does not earnestly hope that the ne
gro will realize his opportunity and
grasp the fact that he will receive
| Just compensation for services rem
dered; but that he must show a will
lingness and determination to per-
form satisfactory service before the
employer will advance the rate of his
compensation or improve his work
ing conditions to an appreclable ex-
tent, is an incontrovertible fact, and
one which the negro must realize in
order that he may reap the lasting
| benefit of conditions which now exist.
The Colored Mans Opportunity.
This idea was most forcibly ex-
pressed recently by William H.
Roltzelaw, pricipal Of the Utica,
(Miss.) Normal and Industrial In
stitute (colore) in an address de-
| livered at the closing exercises TO
the Franklington, La, Industrial
School, when among other things, he
said:
"The one great thought that should
occupy our minds today is the thought
of the great opportunity which con-
fronts US at every turn of the highway
of our lives. | know that there are
thousands of things that the best
like to see changed, that there are
people, both white and black, would
conditions which all of us would like
TO see bettered, that there are wrongs
that ought to be righted, and yet,
despite all these and thousands of
| others, 1t still remains that few peo-
pie in history or few people living
today, for tnat matter, have ever
| been confronted with such oppor-
tunities for advancement as are the
people of the negro race This is
the opportunity that l want you to
grasp, for despite rosy outlooks, l
can't feel that the present opportu-
mites will go on forever if we do
not take advantage of them now"
That this negro has grasped the
situation comprehensively and real
ICES It's significance to his race is
evidenced by the following:
Tighten Up Loose Screws.
Zone of the things I want to see
done is general tightening up of the
loose screws along the machinery of
our lives. A race is very much like
stock, or your wagon; you know that
a machine. Take your old plow
stock or your wagon; you know that
It you are careless, and if nne screw
after another, is ollowed to loosen up,
1t is only matter of time when every
bolt in it will be loose, and the thing
will go to pieces; whereas, if you
tighten up each bolt as it has a ten
dency to become loose, you plow or
your wagon, or your wheelbarrow will
be given new lease on life. Herein
IS our lesson. AS race, we have got
to tighten up the bolts We can't al
low this and that thing to so wrong,
and yet be able to play our part IN
this great country among the fellow
citizens with whom we live.
Learn TO Care for Property.
Il hope to see the time when the
majority of the people of this coun-
try, both white and black, will own
the homes in which they live, but un-
I'll that time comes, and so long as
some of Us live in the houses prepared
for US by our landlords, and work the
lands which they rent US, we must
learn to care for this property in the
| same sense We would care for it if it
was our own. l have often heard
complaints when talking to various
members of my race, to the effect
that one of the great troubles with
the Southern white man is that he is
not willing to pay the negro sufficient
wage to enable him to live under pres
ent conditions.
Il have studied this condition at
some length and with considerable
care and yet | would be willing to say
that II the wages were even higher
than they are at the present time, and
continually increasing, l am still of
the opinion that a great many white
men in the State of Missssppi are pay
ing wages for which they are getting
no adequate return.
Having been an employer myself.
for number of years, employing
large numbers of people, / know
whereof | speak when say there are
some people among us who when thew