The Omaha guide., 1938-09-03
fby CLARENCE II. PEACOCK)

AS long as Negroes look to the white race lor
ready made jobs, they will be caught and bourne
down by every economic depression that comes along.
Colored people can prevail themselves OF the many
existing opportunities of creating their own employ
ment.
Negro Youths must be trained to have conIl-
dence in their own abilities as business men, and en-
couraged to go into business for themselves. Inc
Negro race has a purchasing power OF ABOUT 9o'ooo'-
100000 a year, yet they are suffering because tney
have practically no producing power. Some OF TINS
S3.OO0,0 100000 might easily be kept within the race,
and used to establish enterprises where Colored
youth can get business experience and training.
This business experience and training is es-
sential to fit them to successful meet competition III
the business world. Success assured, they Will De
their own boss, and their opportunities VIII DE I'M
limited. depending upon their ability and ambition.
They will not be Disseminated against because OF
color. and most important OF all, they VIII De panu-
mo a secure economic foundation for generations 10
follow.
Statistics show tnat about $4,000 OF the IL
100000 Colored Americans are engaged IN business
The majority of these people who have gone INTO
business are for the most part conflnlng their actlV-
tiles to the service trades, such as barber shops, res
aurants. undertaking parlors, tailor shops, etc. From
this. one can readily see that the COl0red people IN
America are not engaged in the fundamental ana
producing industries of the times, and that barter
and trade has not been a part OF our group. Ihls
has been due to a lack OF cOOpofdLlOu WlLllIl CC idSC
as well as to the lack of opportunities for business
experience and training.
Biographies of most of the business leaders
of the race will show that these leaders began at the
bottom and worked up to the top, with but little in
itial capital. A number of the readers of this column
are making inquiries as to how they can go into busl-
ness for themselves with little or no capital. | would
like to point out to these people that there is not only
an opportunity to strengthen their future security,
but an excellent CHARGE tor them to make spare time
money by becoming agents for quality products in
their own neighborhood.
There are many sections in the United States
where Colored people must travel miles to reach a
desirable retail outlet, for the necessities they wish
to purchase. A copy of Specially Statesmen Mag
azine' or Independent Salesman or any of the sal
es magazines, can be obtained at your local library,
or at the nearest news stand. In these magazines,
and in your Colored newspapers, you will find adv
e~rtisements of firms seeking agents for uniforms
soaps, cosmetics, ~polishes, foods, clothing, etc.
BY taking a few of these items, and talking
about them to your friends you can secure orders,
and in a short time establish yourself in a small bust
ness. Aside from the revenue it will bring you, it
will be a source of business education and experience
and a long step toward the goal for which the race
must head, if we are to gain economic security.
Read your Colored papers, and patronize their
advertised products.