It was in a speech made on Georgia soil, that first gave Booker T. Washington the eye and ear of the Nation, when he said, “It is worth far more to the negro to have the privilege of making an honest dollar side by side with the white man, than it is to have the privilege of spending that dollar sitting by him in a theatre.” It is this wholesome doctrine that has given him the right influence among right thinking people of both races.
When Booker Washington left Hampton Institute, Virginia, that great school for the practical training of the negro, he began his life work at a country cross roads, near Tuskegee, Alabama. It proved a good stopping place for that young and penniless, but cultured son of Hampton Institute.
As an educator and civic builder, he is known and honored wherever the forces of Christian civilization recount their worthies, and crown their heroes. It is a remarkable record, that in all his utterances, on both sides of the sea, Booker Washington has never been known to say a foolish or intemperate thing.
Speaking further of Georgia, it is asserted on good authority that the negroes of this State pay taxes on something over $18,000,000 worth of property. It is property at last, that is the test of civilized citizenship, especially in a land where good men may readily attain it.
With whiskey out of the reach of a race having a lamentable weakness for it, it is highly probable that these figures will be greatly increased within the next decade. The truth is gradually becoming known to the world, that the South is giving to the negro the only square deal a white race ever gave to one of another color, living among them under the same laws.
Through the refining influence of the holy teachings of the Man of Galilee, the Southern white man is harmonizing with his “Brothers in Black,” to a degree that he is spending three hundred million dollars in their education; not only this, but he is supplying them with wealth accumulating work, and allowing them to enjoy the rights of peaceable citizenship. That they duly appreciate all this, is daily expressed in the right living of the best element of our colored population.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
“THE ONLY PERMANENT BASIS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IS THE BROTHERHOOD OF SOULS.”