It cannot be denied that the Negro has made remarkable progress along all lines of commendable endeavor since his emancipation. Yet he is but an infant, in the larger sense, in the industrial world. This is the most serious part of his problem, for he belongs almost exclusively to the laboring class. In the country he is the farm hand and in the city he is the domestic servant, for the most part, and common laborer. Except in the South he is rarely employed as a mechanic. The white men of the North have persistently and successfully kept him out of the trades. And worse than that they are driving him out of the menial occupations which are his very existence. This exclusion from domestic service the Negro cannot charge to prejudice on account of color. The truth is, competition is becoming so keen in other branches of employment that a good class of intelligent white men and women are forced into these humble walks of life for a livelihood. They put brains into the work which the Negro too often foolishly despises. They elevate it from unskilled to skilled labor. It is easy enough to forecast the result of such a situation. The employer will get the best labor possible for his money. He is not going to hire an incompetent man, when he can get a competent one at the same price.
Once out of his usual occupations, there is nothing for the Negro to do. He becomes an idler subjected to all of the dangers and vices of his condition. Crime is sure to follow idleness. Unless the Negroes endeavor to excel in all branches of work in which they are employed they will be driven out of them, and no one can tell how far reaching will be the result. This matter is of vital interest, not only to the people themselves directly concerned, but also to the Negro tradesmen and Negro professional men who are dependent upon them for a living. The lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers and the men in business cannot escape the logic of the situation. In this practical age the laborer must in truth be worthy of his hire.
Through the public press the news comes to us that in Germany schools are being established in which waiters are trained. In addition to the art of becoming skilled in their trade, they are taught the English and French languages. These efficient and well schooled servants are coming to America from time to time in large numbers. It is not to be expected that the unskilled Negro waiters can successfully compete with these men. Sentiment in their favor may save them for a while, but not for all time. Cooks, chambermaids and nurses among the whites are similarly drilled. Unless the colored people dependent upon these vocations for a living adopt like methods of training, they will awake some morning and find these occupations in the cities gone from them. A proper appreciation for work, a respect for labor of all kinds on the part of the Negro may save him from this calamity.
The most encouraging fact touching the Negro’s present condition is his deep and earnest interest in education. His conduct in this respect is beyond all praise. He cannot be held responsible in any way for the illiteracy that exists among his race. Slavery is the plain historical cause of this misfortune.
Though the colored people have made commendable progress in education, yet they have not reached a point that justifies them in quibbling and splitting hairs as to the kind of education the schools should give them. Let them be sure to make good use of what they do get. As a race they are sadly, very sadly in need of that training so eloquently advocated by Booker T. Washington. The men and women who are to be teachers and who purpose to enter the professions will find a way to get a training which will fit them for their work. But they are the few in any race. In the present stage of their development the colored people need to concern themselves especially about the great multitude among them who can only get, at most, the veriest rudiments of education. The time has not yet come among Negroes for “The Battle of the Books.”
In conclusion let me commend your effort to celebrate this day—a day which every man in this country with Negro blood in his veins should bless and hallow. Though September 22, 1862, was only the day of the announcement, yet it is hardly of less importance than the day of the actual issuance of the proclamation of freedom. We reverence the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator. For before he gave to the world the great charter of liberty, no Negro in America had rights or privileges worthy of the name.
The black man has not been ungrateful for this act, nor for any other consideration which his country has ever shown him. In all of the Nation’s wars his blood has crimsoned every great battle field, from Bunker Hill in Massachusetts to San Juan Hill in Cuba. And nowhere in history is it recorded that he ever dishonored or disgraced the uniform of a United States Soldier. He has been no less faithful in peace than he was brave in war. He has been law-abiding and industrious; “he has been as patient as the earth beneath and as the stars above.” Some day his right to life, liberty and happiness will be granted in all its fullness.
“For freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.”