Part 4

In connection with church or religious matters, the work of the Colored Women’s Christian Temperance Union should not be forgotten. This great national association makes for morals, sobriety, good citizenship and education.

With all these remarkably large and numerous opportunities, the young Colored American should be able to find an opening for his desired ambition to be an apostle among his fellow men.

The spirit is working and inspires the race with noble ambitions, and all the human virtues possible to inculcate in this world.

It may be said, in passing, that to lead the souls of men to eternal bliss in the world beyond is the noblest and highest attainable profession or calling. In preparing men for a future home beyond the skies, he is converted into an advanced man of morals and good qualities on this earth to fit him for the next world.

Men and nations have sometimes forgotten God, but their end has always been untimely.

_LEADERS OF AMERICA WHOSE EARS ARE CLOSE TO THE GROUND_ _Americans, Regardless of Color, Who are Leading the People out of the Wilderness and Teaching the Brotherhood of Man._

We have at the present time in the United States certain persons regarded as eminent in progress and advanced thought, who must be reckoned with when it comes to human improvement, and the removal of obstacles to man’s intellectual life and physical welfare.

There have been numberless proofs in the years gone by, in fact, we have only to survey the pages of all history, to learn that it is a law of human nature, that there is no distinction between color and race, and that brains, intellect, soul, are and always will be the test, the criterion, the standard of human excellence.

To review the past would be to open the door to endless pages of history, and require pages of illustrious names that have shone like stars in the human firmament.

Those who are engaged in the development of the human family, and apparently unconsciously working out the designs of God in their persistent advocacy of human betterment, the destruction of inefficient environments, and the promotion of peace and good will, as well as the preservation of health, are numerous. Strikingly prominent are many of our Americans who seem to be blessed with an almost prophetic insight, and the ability to bring about changes in unpleasant conditions.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

We have in Theodore Roosevelt, a man of many parts, none of which is unimportant but all of them vital. When he speaks upon any subject he not only speaks with determination but with an absolute knowledge of the subjects he treats.

“Col.” Roosevelt, as he delights to be called, began in the New York legislature, then became President of the New York City Police Commission, where he did some powerful work in suppressing vice and the saloon evil. Becoming too powerful a factor in American affairs after his brilliant career as Governor of New York, he was nominated as Vice-President of the United States, the politicians thinking thus to close his career.

But he became President of the United States, succeeding to that high office through the deplorable assassination of President McKinley, and received the suffrages of the people for a second term because of his energetic Americanism, and as an exponent of “Fair Play.”

He is now a private citizen, but as distinguished and as influential as if he were filling the Presidential office. He is all energy, persistence and force of character. He will fight, talk, or argue his points, as long as he can stand on his feet, and then he will write them to the world. No such man ever before lived in the United States.

On the other hand, among our Colored Americans, there stand at the top two great leaders, Dr. Washington and Prof. Du Bois. Both of these men represent different schools of thought and each of them has an equally large following. This is encouraging, because working along different lines, as is the case with diverse national parties, one serves as a check upon the other, and without going to extremes they may follow a happy medium.

PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Professor Booker T. Washington, whose aims, exertions and success tends to advance his race along the same lines as other races, is meeting with tremendous results, bringing about a more decided respect for the intelligence of Colored Americans.

Mr. Washington, born in 1857, has, by grit and determination, reached the leadership of his race, and become one of the great men of the nation.

After a life spent in struggles to acquire an education, he was recognized as a great teacher, and called upon to take charge of a normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama, established by the legislature. He organized the school on July 4th, the anniversary of American Independence, an idea that denotes the character of the man.

Since that period, the widely known Tuskegee Institute has made such progress that, today, the site of the institution is a city of itself.

Mr. Washington worked his way to pay for his education at the Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. What he did and how he did it is best described by himself in giving his experiences at Hampton:

SELF HELP FOR YOUTH

“While at Hampton I resolved, if God permitted me to finish the course of study, I would enter the far South, the black belt of the Gulf States, and give my life in providing as best I could the same kind of chance or self-help for the youth of my race that I found ready for me when I went to Hampton, and, so, in 1881, I left Hampton and went to Tuskegee and started the Normal and Industrial Institute.”

Mr. Washington literally worked his way through college. He helped unload a vessel to get money to reach Hampton, and while there did odd jobs of manual work, and acted as janitor.

Referring to another American of another race, President Woodrow Wilson stands first, in reality he is the first gentleman in the land.

PRESIDENT WILSON

President Wilson is an uplifter rather than a reformer. When he sees things to be done to better the people, or to better anybody, for that matter, he does them and lets the reform take care of itself.

He has always been a student, and a worker at fashioning brains as a teacher, professor, college president and at the head of a great university—Princeton, New Jersey.

Having a trained, enlightened mind, and not buried beneath books, he expressed his views about public matters and public men who did not perform their duty to the people, so vigorously and so truthfully, that he was believed, and the people made him governor of New Jersey.

In this office he did so much in altering distasteful political conditions, that he was considered a proper candidate for the presidency of the United States where the same untoward conditions existed as in New Jersey. He was elected, and is doing things all the time to better conditions, and although he has many enemies who fancy only a settled condition of things where they will not be disturbed in the management of them, the President is driving them to cover and will undoubtedly be successful in his endeavors.

Woodrow Wilson is a man of action and has a large background of learning to fortify himself. Fortified in every direction and from every point of attack, he is not an easy man to tackle or to find fault with. The opposition to him was that he was a university man, and therefore he did not know enough about politics to carry the country safely through a four years’ term. But the people are finding out that it does not require as much politics to run the country as it does education and intelligence combined with energy and persistence. He is beating down petty statesmanship and establishing the government along the lines of benefit to the people. He may be considered as an instrument in the improvement of a nation, and as giving it a long start back to first principles which mean progress.

DR. W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS

A noted man who is doing a great work along the line of betterment of the Colored Americans and directing their thoughts into high altitudes, is W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, known as the editor of “The Crisis,” A Record of the Darker Races.

Dr. Du Bois stands on the principle that intellectual emancipation should proceed hand in hand with economic independence, and he is making himself felt by the earnest advocacy of a truth that must impress the people for whose interests he is laboring.

It may not be known to everybody that Dr. Du Bois is one of the Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The movement of nations toward the accomplishment of the designs of the Almighty to make all nations one, and in the supremacy of the intellectual over physical force, is well understood by Dr. Du Bois, and he is working along that line with other ardent humanitarians. He aims to accomplish a world peace and a realization of human brotherhood.

To turn our attention to another race, William Jennings Bryan looms up conspicuously with the others in his struggle to bridge the chasm of prejudice and place all men upon the road toward human betterment and universal peace.

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

For nearly twenty years William Jennings Bryan has fought the battle of human rights, and his name has become a household word in many ways. His versatility has no limit, and to say that he is an extraordinary man and friend of the human race, is saying one-half the truth.

Rising from the humble position of an attorney in Lincoln, Nebraska, Mr. Bryan in an hour became the leader of the great masses of the American people, and he has held his ground ever since. He had aspirations and ambitions, but they were denied him through adverse circumstances, but he never wavered in his love for the people and his desire to benefit them in their onward movement toward betterment. As Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Wilson, he stands for everything that is admirable in a man of honor, virtue and probity, and is in line with the great movement toward universal peace.

Miss Jane Addams is a lady that causes one to believe in the human race along humanitarian lines. Miss Addams in her settlement work at the celebrated “Hull House” on Halsted Street, has incited others to copy and others have taken up the great work of bringing the homeless workers into social contact for mutual benefit. The lady is not only a worker among the people, but an author and a lecturer, whose example may be followed to advantage.

THE COLORED AMERICANS’ NATIONALITY

The Colored Americans’ field is the entire United States. They are an integral part of the nation the same as other citizens, and their rapid progress entitles them to an occupation of that field on a par with all others.

We are fast getting rid of the vulgar epithets heaped upon citizens of the United States who are Jews, Germans, Irish, etc., and the vulgar epithets hurled at Colored citizens of the United States on account of their color.

The time is soon coming, therefore, to ask: Why should we say, “Colored Americans?” Let us advance to the next Government census and forestall an episode to see how it would work:

The scene is supposed to be in the year 1920 and represents the United States census taker of that period going his rounds and making inquiries. He calls upon a well known Jewish citizen, and the following conversation takes place:

“Mr. Solomon Isaacs, what is your nationality?” Mr. Isaacs replies: “I am an American citizen, I was born in Chicago in the 19th Ward.” The examining man asks: “Are you not a Jew?” Mr. Isaacs replies: “No, sir, I am an American.” “But your nose,—” “My nose has nothing to do with my nationality.” This being true, the Jew is allowed to go.

Calling next upon Mr. Patrick McGillicuddy, he opens his book:

“Patrick McGillicuddy, what is your nationality?” Mr. McGillicuddy makes the same answers as the Jew. “But,” says the examiner, “Your long square chin and protruding lower jaw proclaim you an—”

“My chin, sir, has nothing to do with my nationality.” So the Irishman is passed.

Next in succession come visits to the Italian, the Spaniard, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Russian, the Hindoo, and so on. All these men deny that they are anything but Americans. The examiner points out their nationality in their features, but is told that features, face, complexion, noses, chins, or hair, have nothing to do with nationality. They were all born in this country and there is nothing more to be said.

“I AM AN AMERICAN, SIR”

Finally, the examiner brightens up. He has found something that can not be disputed. He calls upon George Washington Adams. “Ahem, Mr. Adams, what is your nationality?” Mr. Adams responds: “I am an American, sir.” The examiner is puzzled, but revives. “Are you not a Negro?” Mr. Adams, having learned something from the Jew, the Irishman and the others, replies: “No, sir, I am not a Negro, I am an American born in the United States.”

“But, your color indicates that you are a Neg—.” “My color, sir, has nothing whatever to do with my nationality, no more, in fact, than the Jew’s nose, the Irishman’s jaw, or the Spaniard’s olive face, the Russian’s matted hair, the Swede’s blonde whiskers, the Chinaman’s pigtail, the Italian’s earrings, or the Indian’s scalplock. According to the United States Constitution and all the laws thereunder, my color has been erased and I am an American to all intents and purposes, the same as you.”

After recovering from his swoon, the census taker goes out to the nearest saloon, takes some refreshments and begins a movement to have the legislature enact a law, prohibiting Colored Americans from breathing the same atmosphere as other Americans. But the scheme fails because when it comes to the question of color, the Jews, Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen, Mexicans, and so on, would be affected.

Of course this appears ridiculous. It is not intended to be ridiculous, however, but suggested in sober earnest. It is what has been going on in this country for several decades, and it is time to stop such folly.

The main point is, that the whole of the United States is the fair field for the exploitation by Colored Americans. And there will not be the slightest obstacle in the way of such exploitation, if Colored Americans drop the past and look to the future. It is not supposable that ten millions of people, who, in another generation will number twenty millions, can be extirpated or crowded out of the enjoyment of human rights because of the prejudices of a few persons who judge from their own standpoint.

To show how fast this field is being exploited by Colored Americans would require a large volume of statistics, but the essentials may be given so that it may be inferred that the field is in a fair way of being occupied.

Our most valuable account, strangely enough, comes from an English source:

In 1911 a commission was sent by the English Board of Trade to the United States to investigate the cost of living in American towns, but the report included important information concerning the occupations of Colored Americans in cities of the United States.

It appears from the report that the Colored Americans in New York City, in spite of the industrial barriers that exist there, contain within themselves most of the elements, professional, trading, and industrial, that go to make up the life of other and more normally situated communities.

BRICKLAYERS AND CARPENTERS

In Atlanta, Georgia, about three-fourths of the bricklayers are Colored Americans, but the majority of the carpenters are white. Nominally, the rate of wages is the same for both races. One large employer held, that Colored American’s as bricklayers had a value exceeded by no one, and that in his own case the highest paid workmen were Colored Americans.

In Baltimore, it was found that Colored Americans occupy a very important position in the working class element of the population. An overwhelming majority in the building trades are Colored Americans.

In Birmingham, Alabama, there is a larger number of Colored American workmen than in any other district in the United States. The building and mining industries are the two in which the two races come into the most direct competition with one another, yet in neither of these industries does a situation exist which occasions any serious friction.

In Cleveland, Colored Americans were found in the steel and wire works, as plasterers, hod carriers, teamsters and janitors.

In Memphis, in the transport trades and also in certain industries, such as the making of bricks and cottonseed oil, the labor is almost entirely Colored American. They are making their way into the skilled trades, and in some wood working establishments both whites and blacks work side by side at skilled occupations.

In New Orleans, the industries are of a kind which employ mainly unskilled or semi-skilled labor, with the result that white men and Colored Americans are found doing the same kind of work and earning the same rate of wages.

In the Pittsburg district, more than a hundred Colored Americans are employed in business as printers, grocers, hairdressers, keepers of restaurants, caterers, etc. Many are employed by the municipality as policemen, firemen, messengers, postmen, and clerks. A large number of work people in the building and iron and steel trades are Colored Americans, some being in highly skilled occupations.

Here is the truth from a foreign source that must be considered fair and unprejudiced. But the home records show a more diversified distribution maintaining a proportionate employment everywhere.

There does not appear anywhere to be a fear that the labor of Colored Americans will crowd out the white labor, but there is a lingering suspicion that it may do so, although practically it does not.

In consequence of this timidity, what are known as “segregation” laws and ordinances have been passed in various places, Baltimore having made the most extensive effort to keep the laborers of the two races apart.

In other cities, as Atlanta, Kansas City, Norfolk, Richmond, and St. Louis, efforts were made to effect legal segregation.

The result of all these attempts to keep the Colored Americans out of their legitimate field of competition with other Americans, failed utterly, or caused such great financial losses to White Americans without affecting Colored Americans in any way, or stopping their accumulations of property, that segregation may be considered a dead issue.

In Spokane, Washington, it has been decided judicially, that Colored Americans can not be excluded from buying property in any particular place in the State. The same is the judicial sentiment in New York and elsewhere.

THE FIELD OF ORGANIZED LABOR

In the field of organized labor, Colored Americans are also making great strides, the prejudice heretofore existing having almost disappeared. At New Orleans, Mr. T. V. O’Connor, President of the International Longshoremen’s Union, sounded the keynote when he declared, upon the admission of Colored Longshoremen to the Union: “We are going to bring about industrial equality. If Colored Americans stand ready to assist themselves, they will get the same wages and working conditions that the white man enjoys.”

THE FOUR DIVISIONS of MANKIND The African One of the Purest Types

Of the four great primary divisions of the human race, the Aryan, Mongolian, Semitic, and Hamitic, there are three that preserve their racial type and have been little changed by intermixtures. These are the Semitic, or Jews; the Hamitic, or Africans, and the Mongolians, or Chinese.

The Aryan division spreading out from the Caucasus Mountains by way of India, and thence westward, became split up into a hundred different races, with varying peculiarities and racial differences, becoming as they are today English, German, French, Irish, Scotch, Swedes, Finns, Russians, Hindus, and a hundred other varying races that have intermingled until the Aryan designation as a division of the human race is entirely lost.

All these split Aryan races have become centralized in the United States, where they are continuing their intermingling, and getting farther away from the Aryan type.

On the contrary, the three other divisions, the Jews, the Africans, and the Chinese, have maintained during all the ages since their creation, their original characteristics, with only slight intermixtures, so slight, indeed, that they are barely noticeable.

Historically, the races that make up the Aryan splits, are a mere breath on the surface of the ages of time, when compared with the other three divisions of the human race. Long before the ancestors of many of them composed the barbarian hordes that thundered at the gates of the Roman capitol, and finally effaced it from the face of the earth, the Jew, the African, and the Chinaman, were in possession of the evidences of high civilization, wise government, and splendid monuments, and cultivated the arts of peace. The Aryan posterity, on the other hand, were warlike, and became conquerors of the others, appropriating their arts, and are still digging among the ancient ruins of splendid empires, wondering what manner of people could have perfected such noble works.

All the races had many forward and backward movements, with the dominance always with the warlike Aryan blood.

But today, in the United States, the Hamitic, the African, if you please, has found and utilized the civilizing arts of the Aryan, and is moving upward toward the pinnacle of the same civilization which is essentially modern and original, and which retains the ancient civilization of the other three great divisions of the human family, in its museums as objects of curiosity and admiration. At the same time he is maintaining his racial unity.

MAKING THE BURDEN OF LIFE MORE ENJOYABLE

There is no going back, now, there can be nothing but advance toward progress and higher civilization, that is, in the more adequate and efficient means of making the burden of life more enjoyable and easier.

In one thing only is there doubt as to our progress, and that is in human development, and racial perfection. The scientists and thinkers of the age are impressed with the fact that there is degeneracy, or at least, “recession,” as it is termed, which means a going back to some unknown evil type that will operate disastrously upon civilization, morals, and general well-being of individuals.

By a remarkable unanimity of opinion, these marks of recession and degeneracy, sometimes called “delinquency,” are limited to the posterity of the Aryan type. Superhuman efforts are making to avert catastrophe by what is known as “selection,” that is, by limiting intermarriages to those who shall have been declared physically and mentally capable of assuming the marriage state. But in the opinion of many, this will still be a further remove from the pure Aryan type, and thus be always descending the human scale. At any rate, there can be no reversion to an ancestral type, because the ancestor himself is mixed, and there is no pure strain to culture up to.

But with the Jews and Africans, there is no such question, because the type remains as it was in the beginning, and it is very easy to make a selection.

THE JEWS HAVE AGES OF LEARNING

The Jews understand this matter and they maintain their own racial standards which are the highest and best. Now, it is up to the African, the ten millions of them in the United States, to adopt the standards of excellence proper to their dignity, and to their purity as one of the original or primary divisions of mankind.