The Washington Bee Newspaper, September 5, 1908, Page 1

NGTO Rit. 2 — a ee WoL. XXIX NOI4 WASHINGTON,AD. C., SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 1 The Neoto In Business PART OF ADDRE OF BOOK- | ER T. WASHINGTON, BEFORE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS | LEAGUE IN BALTIMORE, ON | WEDNESDAY NIGHT, AU GUST 19TH. It is well that the National Negro Business League, meets in Baltimore, a Southern City, where ,with perhaps two exceptions, there is the largest | Negro population of any City in the | ntry In this city for the most | part thre is athrifty, prosperous and | law-abiding Negro population, and the most kindly relations exist | between the races. Much of this, let | me add, is due to the infil great citizen and Chure her uence of the | hman, Cardi- | nal Gibbons, whom every Negro} loves and horors | The Negro Business League | stands for courageous optimism, peed tive work and frier idly relations | between all classes and races. The | Negro Business League is now com-} posed of over four hundred local leagues scattered throughout the coun- | | | try as well as hundreds of individuals. | s organization begi nine nning rs ago in a modest manner, now represents the humble but courageous efforts of a race of ten to take some } | millions of | peopl part in the in-| dustrial, commercial and business ac- } tivity of their country. Heretofore, for the most part, the the activities of the race have natual-| 1] ly fined to the production of een CO’ raw material. While not leaving aside | glectin. is important function, | ganization would go a step fur- and would seek some share in the placing of products upon the markets the world. As to the success of this organiza-| tion and the need for it , the presence ere today of these hundreds of suc- | cessful, happy, thrifty men and wo- 1, will testify more-eloquently than | hing I can say. Tt National League is composed of Negro men actually doing} Negro Business} nd who are something in the comunity where they women Show me a man who is doing} the ept talking, speculating, and theorizing, live nothing - in community, exe and I will show you a pessimist,—on who believes that the world is a fail- ure because he is a failure. Show me +» man who is engaged in business, n,actual- ing white and black ly achieving something in the world | trade and commerce, and I will show you an optimist Th | keeps at work doing somet | to usefulness and happiness his fellows, is usuallly hopeful, wh one who occupies himself in find- ing fault with what is being done usually miserable and wanting in| hope | This organization is not only com-} posed of individuals who are opti- | mistic, but of those who possess cour only real courage that Any weakling can} age—the werth the name. sit down and cry and complain from | day to day about untoward conditions, | that surround him and his race, but in business or} who starts / a simple way, as} | } the man in many of you have done, and quietly some industry ty, lack of experience, want of con- fidence, and sometimes race prejudice, | till throgh his success, he makes all and honor | him, is the one who has the elements | of the highest courage. Whie we do | of the highest courage. While we do| t overlook wrongs and injustices | and obstacles needlessly placed in our pathway, we are more concerned in| finding a way to overcome these diffi- culties than in merely exploiting them. | More and more as a race we must be- lieve in ourselves, in our race, in our | white heighbors and in our country. No banker ever lends money to 2 man who doubts his ability to return the loan. No people put confidence in a race who doubts its ability tto suc- ceed. From an industrial and business point of view, the ten millions of my race in America have an opportunity who know him respect that is more favorable, in my opinion, than those of a similar number of our race in the world. The facts demonstrate that we are | us something for nothing fearth, and not yield to the tempta- d persistently battles against pover- ; b opportunities. Let those who would | doubt this statement, look right about them here in the city of Baltimore. | What is being done here is being} duplicated elsewhere. Certainly the race has not been idle when according to a recent statement by Professor A. B. Hart, the Negro in America, ter forty years of freedom and only twenty-five years away from the wilderness wandering of reconstruc- tion days, now pays taxes upon att least five hundred millions of dollars worth of property, and the Nergo, I presume, taking the cue from the white man does not give in all of his property for taxation purposes. As strange as it may appear to the! uninformed,nevertheless it is true,that the opportunity for industry, for bus- | | | | | | iness, increases as one goes farther South, and it is in the far South that business enterprises are most numer- ous and most successful. The state ssissippi, for example, has more anks controlled by black men, than of M b any other single state, and the white Mi line upon dollars deposited in Negro banks. There is no hope for the Negro the ditection of constructive work. This constructive work must find a place and a need right in the communities where There man in ippi draws no color | rice or any people except in we live. are golden | opportunites for it in the cultiva- tion of the soil, work in wood, in iron, the home, in the world of trade. To man, who gets right down to business and does something that the world wants done, and it better than any one else, there is always a place. Let each cnc of us here gathered resolve, that the whatever his color, whatever may come,, we shall make such a place for ourselves. A mere policy of opposition and de- struction never holds men together, never inspires them to high effort. s great organization is he!d to- and thi get is composed of people who are con- structing something. us construct something, if it 15| hing but a chicken coop—if a store vank, so much the better. ner and is succeeding because it Let each one net or No matter what the excitement or | the temptation may be in local politics | or national politics, let us resolve that nothing shall turn us aside for a min- from getting the essential and fundaental things in life. parties and public issues and public men change and disappear, but the Political | ite Political fundamental! things in life, high rugged character,remain forever. Without them, all else is vain. With | them, nothing can defeat us In a large degree we are a tional race but let no influence con-| vince us that the world will ever giv a In a cold} blooded, clear, clean manner we must at all times keep our feet upon tne tion to fly off into. artificial atmost-| phere. I try to find time every day to take| At my own home at Tuskogee my hoe or spade and go into my ga:- cer and down into the earth, I like to be sure that once a day I touch the earth—the real thing. It is equally important that a race, especially dur- ng its years of experience, to be taught to keep its feet upon the earth. This is one of the lessons that this siness league is constantly empha- | ing—we must lay in this generation, the foundation for the substantial } things in life for ourselves and chil- dren. The members of the National Negro League believe that opportunities to exert our industry exist in a marked} degree in the Southern states, but in that we have white friends in each! Southern community who should not} be overlooked. The world has heard} much of the white man who does not | believe in the possibilities of the Ne- gro, t should, through us, hear more| of the Southern white man who does | not stand by us through his influence and his dollars. Every Southern community represented here has doz- ens of such men of the white race to| whom many of us are largely indebted for whatever degree of success we have attained to. In my own com- muntiy, n the town of Tuskogee, I always pride myself upon the fact that some of the warmest and most substantial friends that I have in the world or ever can have are my white learning to take advantage of these neighbors. In over twenty years of $900, he went to the Philippines, t Feb. 1, 1904, he was appointed secretary of war. gus service in the Philippines; in negotiations with Pope Leo; in Cuba; Panama, and to American interests throughout the world. residence I have never asked favors which they could withheld. Let us advertise our friends more think and our enemies less. Let us me atout our disadvantages. If we are ui earnest and worthy, others may | inconvenience us but they cannot de- feat In community must strive to make ourselves so valu- us. every we able as producers , so valuable te banking interest; all forms of trade, | in high character and every form of useful service that the community will | feel that pre plac and servvice. There is a and a useful place in this coun ence uld grant that has been | bout our opportunities and less | the | it can not dispose with our | A LATE PICTURE OF William Howard Taft, secretary of war and leading Republican preaidea- tial candidate, was born in Cincinnati Sept. 15, 1857. A graduate Ctacinnati Law scuool, he began work @¢ the superior court of Cincinnati; in 1890 he was appointed United solicitor general; in 1892 he became United States circuit judge; in March, o organize the American government theres S a reporter. oral character is as necessary as valuable an in the business world as in private life. One cannot reach the highest success in business as_a rule whose moral life not clean. Habitual immorality will clog the wheels of your business more sure’y than any other influence. spirit of her work are well expressed in the following excerpt from her let- ter of acceptance: “I realize that there is no work which offers greater opportunities for serving the race or humanity than that of directing college women to the highest ideals of womanhood. “In my judgement, it is not rules and regulations as to what is right, but the power to do the right which his own conscience dictates, that every individual needs. With this thought in view, it will be my constant en- deavor to make the home life of the girls in the Hal! of such a nature that it will be a source of inspiration and strength in gaining those habits and ideas which we wish them to embody in their lives. It is Christian charac- ter in its highest and broadest sense we wish to develop in our women. T shall strive earnestly with the co- operation of the young women them- selves to find the best means to attain this end.” Miss Jackson will also teach, in ad- dition to her work as Preceptress, thus getting a stronger hold on the intellectual life of the young women of Howard. She will have as her assistant, in the care of the Hall and the oversight of the physical and gen- eral life of the girls, her mother, Mrs. Jennie Jackson, who was with her through her college course in Chicago University. The presence of such a capable woman insures the mother- ly care of the young women and young men at Howard‘in every hour of sick- ness or need. Mrs. Messer is con- tnued as House-Keeper. and asset is MISS CORA B, JACKSON THE NEW PRECEPTRESS HOWARD UNIVERSITY. The election of Miss Cora B, Jack- son as Preceptress, in charge of the oung women of Howard University, marks a new era in the relation of ung women to that Institution. She ucceeds Miss Jacobs, who resigned AT Contracts for the new steam heat- ing plant, in connection with the new Freedman’s Hospital, that is to heat ill the buildings of Howard Uni- versity, were let on the 31st. Work will be completed within sixty days. \ COLORED MAN’S TRIBUTE. In the Buxton Gazette this week, A, L. DeMon4d, the editor, has the fol- lowing article which he terms a “col- ored man’s tribute to Senator Alli- ry 4 SECRETARY TAFT. son The death of Senator Allison at his home inDubuque on last Tuesday aft- ernoon has removed from earthly scenes Iowa’s most prominent states- wan during the last two score years of the nation’s history. The recent campaign through which he pased/ successfully and out of which he came of Yale and In 1887 he a tes He has rendered peerage SENATOR J. ——$—$ $$$ B. 2 who is willing to pay the the try for price, the price of beginning a bottom and working to higher useful- ness. I warn you most earnestly against all get- the dangers of short cuts and rich-quick schemes. In business as in other spheres of life, one cannot get , have , for some years in the high schools of got to pay the price of hard werk. | Indianapolis, and later in the Colored Do not be ashamed to begin in a small | High and Training Schools of Balti- something for nothing; you way; better begin small and large than begin large 2nd small rests upon a reality and not upon a/or its force. show,—a pretense. FORAKER. grow * nore. grow one of the most influential and win- Be sure that your business ning teachers the Schoo! has ever had triumphantly served to bring before the present generation something of hic admirable qualities and the splen- |did-record he had made in the public In the lime llight of heated campaign crtizism that beat upon him for months there was nothing ‘that could mar his honorable career, cause one of his followers to blush with shame, or make the warm affect- tion of a devoted commonwealth to cold. He was a Republlican who will be missed in the councils, the leadership and the ranks of the party whose youth ran parallel with his own, and whose heroic moral heroism found faithful embodiment in his own life. He was a statesman whose grasp of the great problems of state made him the adviser of presidents. He was a friend of the black man. Without spectacular display he stood for the rights of all men. He helped to blot out the Fugitive Slave law, nominate Abraham Lincoln, have the black man’s bill of rights set as a j jewel in the constituton of the na- tion, and we are glad that he did not die until he had a chance to see the colored men of Iowa show their ap- preciation of his friendship for them and their race by standing loyally by him in the last contest in which he ever called for support from his fel- izens. We will mourn his loss and honor his memory, for he belonged to the few remaining members of the grand old guard that stood true as gold amid the fiery conflicts of the civil war. Ours will be the smallest flow- er cast upon his casket, but it will be fragrant with the affection of an emancipated people. Ottumwa Courier. service. grow low ci on account of health and advancing ears. President Thirkeld congratulates himself and the Institution that he has secured such a thoroughly equipped pable woman for this work. s Jackson is a graduate of the versity of Chicago. She taught The secret of long life lies in mod- eration of the habits in every par- Dr. Waring commends her as picular, Isn’t it about time for Editor Ros- coe Conkling Simmons to make up his mind to be happy? Her ideas as to the character and SPAGRAPHIC EWS Last Monday afternoon a meeting was held to decide upon a regulation to prohibit the use of flat wheels on street cars in the District and to con- sider routine matters. Warrants were issued last Monday in the police court at Detroit, Mich., against Manager Hugh Jennings, of the Detroit American League Base- ball Club, and ten members of the team who participated in last Sun- day’s game. A fire which broke out in the com- mercial district at New Orleans last Sunday did damage to the extent of $1,500,000. A law has been made in theDfstrict that a loaf of bread must weigh a pound or the baker be prosecuted. It is repored that John Early, the leper, will spend the remainder of his daysh ere. In a few weeks a small frame cotiage will be commenced to serve as the future home of the leper, Rabbi Uvlinsky, Brooklyn, N. Y., who is 106 years old was married for the third time about three months ago. It was not known until last Sunday Mr, W. L. Houston of this city,will preside over the Fourteenth B. M. C., said to be the “greatest Negro de- liberative body in the world,” at At- lantic City, N. J., commencing with the 14th instant. The death of Mrs, Mary E. Simms, the wife of Rev. George H. Simms, pastor of the Union Baptist Church, New York, was a great shock to her many friends inthat city. Mrs. Simms The remodeled Court House at Berkeley Springs, W. Va., was ded- icated today. Among those honored at,the tenth annual convention of-the National Medical Association, which convened in New York, was Dr. A. M. Cur- tis, former chief surgeon at the Freedman’s Hospital, in this city,;who was elected ‘president of the associa- tion. Many persons were killed in the recent floods in Georgia and South Carolina. It has been decided that Japan will not have its exposition until 1917. Poverty has been given as a reason. Forty persons were arrested in this city and thirty-one in Georgetown, D. C., last Saturday night. A pavilion for the care of patients afflicted with tuberculosis at Albany, N. Y., the first of its kind to be erect- ed in this countryy,.was dedicated i i last week at Kenwood The officia! journal of the Brother- hood of painters, Decorators and Pa- perhangers of America vote either way, it does not make much difference, Mrs, Charles Brown, the mother of Misses Sara and Fairfax Brown and Dr., John E., Harry and James Brown, of Pittsburg, Pa., died at her residence on Q street last week. The interment was at Winchester, Va. A cargo of raw silk weached San Francisco last week valued at $2,- 000,090. The colored contingent of United Spanish War Veterans of the District left the Union Station for Boston last Sunday morning at eleven o'clock. There will be one delivery of mail at 7.30 a.m. on Labor Day. Judge I. Kimball, of the United States Branch of the Police Court left the city last Monday for a two weeks’ vacation. John Moss, a co'ored attorney of this city, has been formally charged beore Judge Kimball, of the Police Court, with being in contempt, yand it has been requested that he be dis- barred. It is alleged that he is guil- ty of soliciting cases within the court building. Last year $9,392 was paid to the Collector of Taxes in the form of fees for permits in this city. It is expected that Labor Day will be celebrated in this city as well as some others. Mount Calvary Commandery, No. 4, Colored Knights Templar, will leave this city for Boston, Mass., and Providence, R. I., Tuesday morning, September 8. A shortage of more than $400,000 has been disclosed in the Havana Postoffice by an inventory of stamps, et cetera.