“The South has within itself the forces that are to solve this tremendous problem. You have the climate, the soil and the material wealth. You have the labor to be performed that will occupy many times our present Negro population. While the calls come daily from South Africa, from the Hawaiian Islands, from the North and the West for the strong and willing arm of the Negro in the field of industry, you, at your very door, have that which others are energetically seeking. Not only are you in possession of that which others are seeking, but more important than all, custom and contact have so knit the two races together that the black man finds in these Southern States an open sesame in labor, industry and business that is not surpassed anywhere. It is here alone, by reason of the presence of the Negro, that capital is free from tyranny and despotism that prevents you from employing whom you please and for that wage that is mutually agreeable and profitable. It is here that form of slavery which prevents a man from selling his labor to whom he pleases on account of his color is almost unknown. We have had slavery, now dead, that forced an individual to labor without a recompense, but none that compelled a man to remain in idleness while his family starved.
“The Negro in all parts of the country is beginning to appreciate the advantage which the South affords for earning a living, for commercial development, and in proportion as this is true, it will constitute the basis for the settlement of other difficulties. The colored man is beginning to learn that the bed rock upon which every individual rests his chances for success in life is securing in every manly way—never at the sacrifice of principle—the friendship, the confidence, the respect of his next-door neighbor in the little community in which he lives. Almost the whole problem of the Negro in the South rests itself upon the question as to whether he makes himself of such indispensable service to his neighbor, to the community, that no one can fill his place better in the body politic. There is no other safe course for the Negro to pursue. If the black man in the South has a friend in his white neighbor, and a still larger number of friends in his own community, he has a protection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and more lasting than any Federal Congress or any outside power can confer. While the Negro is grateful for the opportunities which he enjoys in the business of the South, you should remember that you are in debt to the black man for furnishing you with labor that is almost a stranger to strikes, lock-outs and labor wars; labor that is law-abiding, peaceful, teachable; labor that is one with you in language, sympathy, religion and patriotism; labor that has never been tempted to follow the red flag of anarchy, but always the safe flag of his country and the spotless banner of the cross.
“But if the South is to go forward and not stand still, if she is to reach the highest reward from her wonderful resources and keep abreast of the progress of the world, she must reach that point, without needless delay, where she will not be continually advertising to the world that she has a race question to settle. We must reach that point where, at every election, from the choice of a magistrate to that of a governor, the decision will not hinge upon a discussion or a revival of the race question. We must arrive at that period where the great fundamental question of good roads, education of farmers, agricultural and mineral development, manufacturing and industrial and public school education will be, in a large degree, the absorbing topics in our political campaign. But that we may get this question from among us, the white man has a duty to perform, the black man has a duty. No question is ever permanently settled until it is settled in the principles of the highest justice. Capital and lawlessness will not dwell together. The white man who learns to disregard law when a Negro is concerned will soon disregard it when a white man is concerned.
“In the evolution of the South it seems to me that we have reached that period where private philanthropy and the Christian church of the white South should, in a large degree, share directly in the elevation of the Negro. In saying this I am not unmindful of or ungrateful for what has already been done by individuals and through public schools. When we consider the past, the wonder is that so much has been done by our brothers in white. All great reforms and improvements rest, in a large measure, upon the church for success. You acknowledge that Christianity and education make a man more valuable as a citizen, make him more industrious, make him earn more, make him more upright. In this respect let me see how the three largest white denominations in the South regard the Negro.
“To elevate the ignorant and degraded in Africa, China, Japan, India, etc., these three denominations in the South give annually about $544,000, but to elevate the ignorant, the degraded at your doors, to protect your families, to lessen your taxes, to increase their earning power; in a word, to Christianize and elevate the people at your very side, upon whom, in a large measure, your safety and property depend, these same denominations give $21,000—$21,000 for the benighted at your doors, $544,000 for the benighted abroad. That thirty-five years after slavery and a fratricidal war the master should give even $21,000 through the medium of the church for the elevation of his former slave means much. Nor would I have one dollar less go to the foreign fields, but I would plead with all the earnestness of my soul that the Christian South give increased attention to the 8,000,000 of Negroes by whom it is surrounded. All this has a most vital and direct relation to the work of this Industrial convention. Every dollar that goes into the education of the Negro is an interest-bearing dollar.
“For years all acknowledge that the South has suffered from the low price of cotton because of over-production. The economic history of the world teaches that an ignorant farming class means a single crop, and that a single crop means, too often, low prices from over-production or famine from under-production. The Negro constitutes the principal farming class of the South. So long as the Negro is ignorant in head, unskilled in hand, unacquainted with labor-saving machinery, so long will he confine himself to a single crop, and over-production of cotton will result. So long as this is true, you will be bound in economic fetters; you will be hugging the bear, while crying for some one to help you let go. Every man, black and white, in the South, with his crop mortgaged, in debt at the end of the year, buying his meat from Iowa, his corn from Illinois, his shoes from New York, his clothing from Pennsylvania, his wagon from Indiana, his plow from Massachusetts, his mule from Missouri, and his coffin from Ohio, everyone who is thus situated, is a citizen who is not producing the highest results for his state. It is argued that the South is too poor to educate such an individual so as to make him an intelligent producer. I reply that the South is too poor not to educate such an individual.
“Ignorance is many fold more costly to tax-payers than intelligence. Every black youth that is given this training of hand and strength of mind, so that he is able to grasp the full meaning and responsibility of life, so that he can go into some forest and turn the raw material into wagons and buggies, becomes a citizen who is able to add to the wealth of the state and to bear his share of the expenses of educational government. Do you suggest that this cannot be done? I answer that it is being done every day at Tuskegee, and should be duplicated in a hundred places in every Southern state. This I take to be the white man’s burden just now—no, no, not his burden, but his privilege, his opportunity, to give the black man sight, to give him strength, skill of hand, light of mind and honesty of heart. Do this, my white friends, and I will paint you a picture that shall represent the future, partly as the outcome of this Industrial Convention, and will represent the land where your race and mine dwell:
“Fourteen slaves brought into the South a few centuries ago, in ignorance, superstition and weakness, are now a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000. They are surrounded, protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart and head, given the full protection of the law, the highest justice meted out to them through courts and legislative enactment, they are stimulated and not oppressed, made citizens, and not aliens, made to understand by word and act that in proportion as they show themselves worthy to bear responsibilities, the greater opportunities will be given them. I see them loving you, trusting you, adding to the wealth, the intelligence, the renown of each Southern commonwealth. In turn, I see you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning them on to the highest success, and we have all been made to appreciate in full that,
‘The slave’s chain and the master’s alike are broken,
The one curse of the race held both in tether;
They are rising, all are rising,
The black and white together.’”
The most encouraging thing that happened in connection with this convention was an address delivered by ex-Governor MacCorkle, of West Virginia, in which he took the position that the time had come when the Southern States must face the race problem bravely and honestly; that the South could not any longer afford to get rid of the Negro’s ballot by questionable methods, and that the Southern States ought to pass a law which would require an educational or property test, or both, for voting, and that this law ought to be made to apply alike to both races honestly and fairly, and that there should be no evasion permitted or attempted.