 Topic 25, First Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Chasta Oakland, California. 20th Century Negro Literature, Topic 25, First Paper by Theodore W. Jones. The honorable Theodore W. Jones was born during the temporary residence of his parents in the beautiful city of Hamilton, Ontario, September 19, 1853. His parents soon returned to New York, their native state, and there remained until he was 12 years old. In 1865, this family decided to make Illinois their home and settled in Chicago. Mr. Jones was one of a very large family. His parents were poor and unable to give him even a common school education. Compelled to support himself at the age of 15 years, he was driving an express wagon. He was an industrious boy, full of luck and energy, without money and by his own unaided efforts, step by step, he pressed on and soon built up a most successful express and moving business, discouraged by no difficulty. The ambitious young expressman turned his attention toward acquiring an education. He was a diligent student. Through the aid of private tutors and the midnight oil, he was able, when 25 years of age, to enter Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, where he remained three years. Leaving college, he returned to his business in Chicago and has been exceedingly prosperous. Mr. Jones is the owner of a large brick storage warehouse, 29th Street and Shields Avenue, and other valuable property in this city. In his employ are three lady clerks and about 50 men, all colored. In 1894, Theodore W. Jones was elected on the Republican ticket to the responsible position of County Commissioner of Cook County, Illinois. He ably and well performed the duty of this office, that he labored earnestly and unselfishly, who advanced the interest of the colored people, we need not relate only the following fact. During Mr. Jones term of office, the colored people of Cook County drew $50,000 yearly salary. This was about seven times the amount paid into the treasury by our race. He is a valued member of the National Legal Business League. He was present in Boston at the organization and has organized a branch league in Chicago, known as the Businessmen's League of Cook County. This league entertained the National League in Chicago, August 21st, 23rd, 1901. There has been so much controversy concerning the Negro, so much said and written about his alleged inferiority. Such an attempt made to establish relationship between him and the monkey, that even in this new century there exists in some quarters grave doubts as to his origin, and a general misapprehension as to his nature, capabilities, and purposes. But research into the primal history of man evences the fact beyond the possibility of skepticism that mankind had only one common origin. We are taught that in the beginning God created man in his own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and that man became a living soul. The closest and most thorough analysis of the blood of different races fails to detect the slightest difference in the color, size, shape, or quality of its corpuscles. The fact that one people are white, another yellow, another red, another brown, and yet another black, as its cause in the workings of a law of nature, which we do not fully understand. Sacred history plainly teaches that the Negro is a man like other men, and that of one blood God created all nations. Hence, there can be no racial barrier to a successful business career in the general constitution of a black man. What was the business of the Negro in the land of his nativity, or at the time of his emancipation in this country, does not so much interest us now, except as it may help us to appreciate his capacity for business at present. Life for our forefathers in Africa was very plain and very simple. The multitude was engaged with problems little more difficult than the acquirement of food and drink and rest. Rainmen not being a necessity, hence their only business, aside from frequent wars with kindred tribes, was to explore a way to the fruit tree, the water droop, and the shade. And so their years were principally filled up with the business of merely satisfying those three physical wants, hunger, thirst, and rest. When human slavery was established in the colonies, those of our race, either fortunate or unfortunate enough to be brought to these shores, were instructed, mainly in the care of cotton, tobacco, and rice crops. And from these few southern industries we could not turn aside. Slavery deprived the Negro of the little responsibility devolving upon him in his savage state, that of providing food and drink and finding rest. No responsibility was allowed to devolve upon him other than to perform a lot of work, not even the selection of his wife. And when children were born to him, he was not confronted with the problem of how he should provide food and shelter for them, nor wherewith they should be clothed. He and his issue being the property of this master, like swine or cattle, their issue were alike, stalled, and fed by the owner. With but few exceptions, this was the condition of the Negro when the proclamation of emancipation was issued 38 years ago. From that eventful day onward, the mighty aspiration of the ex-slave for education and material development has written a new page in the history of the world's progress. Let us now examine the record made and call to our assistance the statistics of the government that we may truthfully answer the question, can the Negro success as a business man? We are indebted to ex-Congressman George H. White for the information that since the dawn of our freedom, the race has reduced its illiteracy at least 45 percent. That we have written and published nearly 500 books, have edited fully 300 newspapers, have 2,000 lawyers at the bar, a corresponding number of practicing physicians, and 32,000 school teachers. We own 140,000 homes and have real and personal property valued at $920 million. The census of 1890 shows that 20,020 persons of African descent were engaged in business and there were more than 17,000 barbers not included in those figures. And it remembered that this showing was more than 10 years ago. It is true that we have produced no skilled master mechanics or great speculators, no commercial princes of merchant kings. These are beyond our immediate reach and reserved for later growth, but we have today on the floor of this convention, colored men who represent nearly every business enumerated in the census reports. Wagon makers, watchmakers, grocers, drugists, bankers, brokers, bakers, barbers, hotel keepers, caterers, undertakers, builders, contractors, preachers, publishers, decorators, manufacturers, tailors, insurance agents, cold dealers, real estate agents. Collectors, the proprietor of a brickyard, the owner of a cotton factory, and the president of a coal mine. The number engaged and the capital invested may not reach very pretentious figures, but the beginning has been made. Aside from the above, we have produced soldiers whose valor has reached worldwide reputation, poets, artists, teachers, and professional men and women of recognized ability. There are hordes of others pursuing the humbler walks of life, eager to acquire by education a higher ideal of manliness and womanliness, and to learn the ways of advanced civilization and approved citizenship. These achievements have been rocked by us under the most adverse conditions. We have really toiled by day and by night, have made bricks without straw, helped ourselves and taken advantage of small opportunities, though these are days of increasing combinations of capital. Growing corporations and gigantic trusts which greatly lessen the possibilities of individual success. Surely there is in the black man the same capacity for business, the same self-spirit, purpose, and aspiration that there is to be found in the white man. And he is as much entitled to the blessings of life and to share its honors and rewards as the descendants of other races, not withstanding Senator Tillman's plea for lynching Negroes, and the plaudits and acclaim of a Wisconsin audience. Despite the fact that the door of nearly every large factory, shop, and department store is closed against us, despite the fact that prejudice stalks our business streets with unblushing tread and dominates in all the commercial centers of our common country, yet we are not here today pleading for special legislation on our behalf, we are not here whining to be given a chance, we are not here even to complain of our hard lot or to find fault with conditions which we cannot change. This we conceive would be a very poor program to attract the attention of the business world, but we are here representing hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus demonstrating that we have achieved, at least in a small measure, one of the things which, by common consent, is taken as evidence of progress, ability, and worth. We have made money, have saved money, and are succeeding in many profitable business enterprises, which require the possession of skill and executive ability to direct and control. The Jew traces the industrial strides of his people from the first foot sore peddler through their present position of affluence in the financial world, and so, without residing further, the early struggles and hindrances experienced by our pioneers in business sufficient is it to say that we have men who should be placed in the class of Nelson Morris, A. M. Loschild, and Mandel Brothers. Not that we can compare with these men in the sum total of their wealth. No one expects this, but that they have began life without a dollar, having accumulated property, and acquired influence, and are today men of public affairs, able to stand, persevere, and prevail in the fierce struggle and competitions of business life. These mercantile strides the members of our rave are taking in the face of proscription and oppression, in the face of the administration of unjust laws, and in the face of disenfranchisement and barbarous lynchings, such as no other man ever had to face. In fact, we are prospering under conditions which would not only fill other businessmen with hopelessness and despair, but would surely drive them into bankruptcy. It is not true that the business patronage of the Negro is confined to his own race, nor is it true that he is a cringer, and so this is patronage among the whites, because of the fact that he is a colored man. We have long since learned that we are entitled to no more consideration because we are black than other men are who chance to have red hair, big mouths, or misshapen feet. If you will pardon personal mention, I would say that in my business as a furniture mover, few customers indeed have I among my own people, nor do I ask to remove any man's goods because of the color of my complexion or the texture of my hair, but because I have put brains into my humble calling and made the business of moving furniture a science. What is true in this instance is true in all others where progress is made. We are grasping opportunities and compelling adverse circumstances and forces to work together for our profit. Under the wise leadership of Booker T. Washington, we are finding our bearings and casting anchor in the dark and muddy waters of industrial conditions in which we are sent adrift without rudder, compass, or means of existence less than 38 years ago. It is not strange that as businessmen we have made some failures. It is a long way from the depth of the valley to the summit of the mountain, from a barbarian to a master mechanic, from the jungles of Africa to a successful business career, and from the slave cabin to the professor's chair. We have not all outgrown the feeling of dependence instilled in us by more than 250 years of chattel bondage. Many of us yet shrink from responsibility and lack the requisite amount of ambition. We recognize our shortcomings, our peculiar environments, and the limitations of our experience and powers. We are beginning to learn that if the Negro is to become more and more a factor in the business world, he must take a more active part in all of the trades, competitions, industries, and occupations of life. Again, he is learning, slowly perhaps, but surely, that he must outgrow the weakness and confusion resulting from distracted purposes, that he must have one aim and be one thing all the time. He must stop doing things in a slip-shot and halfway manner and become more thorough. He must put the force of a strong character and a determined willpower into whatever he undertakes, and he must stop stumbling and falling over impediments, especially of his own placing. The Negro is, however, affected by nothing now which education and personal endeavor will not, in time, remove. For example, we take the liberty to refer to our honored President, Booker T. Washington, who, about 40 years ago, was born a slave in Virginia. At an early age, he began to battle for himself, untutored and untrained in all ways of life. What he has since accomplished is a sufficient answer to those who claim that the Negro is void of any capacity for doing business and that his offspring has no chance to rise in the world. For 20 years, Booker T. Washington has not only been president of a great industrial institution, but has had very largely the acquisition, management, investment, and expenditure of its finances. In recent years, there has scarcely been a month in which he has not been offered positions in important and influential business enterprises, as well as in the affairs of government. His career is evidence that there is plenty of room at the top for Negro boys who have sense enough to rise to the level of their opportunities. The lack is not so much of opportunities as of men. It is a fact which cannot be gained, said, that success still is, and most likely always will be, a question determined very largely by the individual. For the man or woman who has made thorough preparation and is willing to do hard work a place will always be waiting, irrespective of race or color. The tone of this convention clearly indicates that the Negro will succeed as a businessman in proportion as he learns that manhood and womanhood are qualities of his own making, and that no external force can either give or take them away. It demonstrates that intelligence, punctuality, industry, and integrity are the conquering forces in the business and commercial world, as well as in all the affairs of human life. Permit me in closing to quote the language of President McKinley addressed to the students at the Tuskegee Institute. Integrity and industry, he said, are the best possessions which any man can have, and every man can have them. No man who has them ever gets into the police court or before the grand jury or in the workhouse or the chain gang. They are indispensable to success. The merchant requires the clerk whom he employs to have them. The railroad corporation inquires whether the man seeking employment possesses them. Every avenue of human endeavor welcomes them. They are the only keys to open with certainty the door of opportunity to struggling manhood. If you do not already have them, get them. For our encouragement, reference has been made to a portion of non-history of the distinguished president of this convention, and also for the same purpose, quotation has been made from the speech of the honored president of his country. We thus have made before us the example of the former and the precept of the latter, each a leader in his own sphere, the one black and the other white. By following the example of the one and the advice of the other, the Negro will not only succeed as a businessman, but the early dawn of the present century will yet witness the best achievements and the loftiest conceptions of a once enslaved race. End of topic 25, First Paper. Topic 25, Second Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Shasta, Oakland, California. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic 25, Second Paper by Andrew Franklin Hillier. The Negro as a businessman. The subject of this sketch was born in slavery near Monroe, Alton County, Georgia, August 14, 1858. In the early 50s, his maternal grandfather, Overton Johnson, was set free, given some money, and sent north. He went to Cincinnati and began a free man's life as a cook and steward in a hotel. In a short time, by strict economy, he had saved some money from his earnings. This, with the money brought from the south, enabled him to open the Dumas House, well known to the older residents of Cincinnati. In 1862, he sold this business, moved to St. Louis, and opened a hotel in that city, where he was at the close of the wall. In 1866, he sent for the remainder of his family in the south, consisting of his youngest son, and a daughter, and her four children, the eldest of whom was Andrew Franklin Hillier. About the time of their arrival in St. Louis, business reverses through the now enlarged family upon their own resources, and young Andrew, though at eight years old, was hired out. He early developed a burning desire for an education, and took advantage of every opportunity that he could find to study and to learn. He soon learned to read. With this key, he opened up through his inquiring mind a wide vista of knowledge, and saw through many things which before had seemed dark. The family remained in St. Louis for two years, but in very poor circumstances. During this period, Andrew was able to attend school but little. He was so anxious to learn, several persons gladly gave him instruction. It was during these struggles that he formed his purposes in life. He solemnly resolved to make a man of himself and to graduate from college. In 1868, the entire family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where their circumstances gradually improved, and Andrew was unable to attend school, a part of each year. His mother died in 1871, and the next year he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here was located the State University, and his opportunity to go to college had now come. To make this possible, he learned the trade of a barber and pursued his studies, graduating from the Minneapolis High School in 1878 and from the University of Minnesota in 1882. He soon came to Washington, entered the service of the government, and took up the study of law, and in 1885 graduated from the Howard Law School. Mr. Hillard takes an active interest in the progress of his race along all lines, but he has especially urged, upon their attention, skilled labor and business as very important factors in the progress of the race. In 1886, a married Miss Mamie E. Nichols, a descendant of one of the older Washington families, who graces a happy home. They have been blessed with two boys whom they are trying to rear and educate to become good men. The resistance of the white people to the progress of the colored people is leased along the line of business. The colored people themselves have only to develop a larger spirit of race help and business and a magnificent future is just ahead for them. In addition to little capital and much inexperience, the colored merchant has to contend against a hostile public opinion, which seems to resent his efforts to improve his own condition and that of his own race. When he assumes to tear himself away from the mass of his fellow laborers in attempts to keep store like a white man. Strange enough, this hostile feeling is shared in more by the colored than by the white people, especially along certain lines of business, not of a semi-social nature. It is a matter of common complaint by colored businessmen in those classes of business in which they must compete with white merchants that they do not get their share of the trade of their own race and that their patronage comes very largely from the white race. At present, the pathway of the colored man to success in business is very much handicapped by this unfriendly public opinion. His problem is to win the confidence of the public in his ability and purpose to serve them as well as or better than his competitors. Individuals here and there have won this public confidence to a surprising degree and are demonstrating day by day the ability of men and women to do business according to the approved business methods. The hostility of the whites is but another manifestation of the general feeling of race prejudice. But the hostility of the masses of their own race can only be attributed to envy and ignorance. For every colored man, woman and child should rejoice in the success or upward step of any colored person because it is an inspiration and a hope to thousands of others to follow his example. Only the strongest and most progressive few of any race can be successful pioneers. The masses of all races are led to attempt only what they see the persons of their own kind doing. Every community of colored people needs, as a powerful uplifting force, a few captains of industry who will lead his people along the pathway of home getting and the undertaking of business enterprises. For business will develop their sense of independence and personal responsibility and give strength and symmetry to character. No better service can be performed for the race at this time than to turn the light upon those successful business men and women of the colored race in every community. So that our youth may see them, know them, and take inspiration and courage from their example. The real leaders of the race are those who lead in doing. It has been said that 90% of all business enterprises among the highly favored white race finally fail in the lifetime of their promoters. The condition of success in business for the white race are so exacting, uncertain, changeable, and inscrutable that only 10% retire from the contest victorious. When we recall the fact that the colored people have come so recently from savagery through the barbarism and debasing effects of American slavery into the light of the present day civilization, we should expect them to be slow in getting a footing in the shifting and ever-changing sands of the business world. While in slavery they were deprived of every opportunity to learn anything about the art of business or even to drink in its spirit. It was one of the essential conditions of the slave system that they should be taught to distrust each other, and they learned this lesson well. We must expect that it will take some time to unlearn it. Along with this blighting feeling of distrust, the seeds of envy and jealousy were carefully sown. These seeds must have fallen in good soil for they sprang up and increased wonderfully and now constitute the thorns and weeds in the pathway of the colored man's success in business. In view of their economic, educational, and political history, we should naturally expect the colored race to make in the first generation of their freedom more progress in education and general culture, more progress in the building of churches and in the acquisition of homes and lands than in the exacting arena of business. At any rate, such has been the fact. The entire race is passing through a hard and severe economic struggle. The whole nation is in the throes of a great social distress on account of the presence of this colored race with physical aspects so different from the made body of the people. The colored people are being put to a severe test. They are being tried as it were by fire. They are face to face and in competition with the most efficient, the most exacting people the world has ever seen. The dross is being driven off. The race is being purified and strengthened for the contests which are to follow. The colored man or woman who would succeed in business must meet not only the competition of his white neighbor with his superior capital and training, but also the blight of distrust and jealousy and envy of many of his own race. His course is by no means plain sailing. He has foes within his race as well as foes without enemies in front and enemies in the rear. And yet, in spite of all these adverse conditions, a very creditable beginning has already been made in the business world. A beginning that promises well for the future. The business movement among the colored people has not as yet attained great volume, but its foundations have been laid broad and deep. The number of persons engaged in business is quite large and the classes already invaded by individuals of the colored race cover almost every class of business in which persons of the white race are engaged. The capital owned by Negroes. The colored people are rapidly acquiring property. This is a manner of common everyday observation. The value of property owned by them is no less than five hundred million of dollars. In Georgia alone, where separate records are kept, their assessed valuation exceeds fifteen millions, one million of which was added in the past year. The assessed valuation is only about forty percent of the actual value from all over the country. Equally encouraging reports are sent out of the steady progress of this people in the acquisition of landed property. Although tens of thousands are shiflus, thousands are saving money. It is being stored out slowly, but surely, for future use. Much of it is already invested in business. A larger part of this property and money will be turned into business channels as fast as the race by its patronage and support evidences its desire to advance this business movement. The extent of the business movement among the Negroes. In order to obtain reliable data for a study of the progress of the colored people in the skilled trades, in business, in getting homes, and in building churches and other institutions, the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 sent out the writer in February of that year as an expert agent to visit the chief industrial centers of the South and secure the data for the purpose of making the facts collected, a feature of the Negro exhibit. In every city or town visited, the colored people took great pride in showing their successful business establishments, and they all had some to show. In every place a beginning had been made. The writer personally visited, inspected, and collected data from 143 business establishments of considerable importance owned and conducted by colored men and women. They ranged from a grocery store with stock and fixtures of the value of $500 to a bank which, on the day of my visit, had a cash balance in its vault of $82,000. Only the best business places were visited. There were hundreds of small shops in the cities and towns visited, all of which evidenced the breadth of the business movement of the people. The Atlanta University Conference The results of this hurried trip corroborates, in a remarkable degree, the report of the Atlanta University Conference. The report of the Negro in business was made in 1899. In that year, the conference made an investigation of this subject under the direction of Professor W. E. B. Dubois, Professor of Sociology in that university. This report is the most valuable contribution to the study of the race problem. Professor Dubois has shown commendable zeal in studying the race problem, while so many others are content to discuss it. The data from his study were collected, principally, by the alumni of Atlanta University and are thus entitled to a high degree of credibility. Reports were received from 1,906 colored men and women in business, showing the kind of business, time in business, and the amount of capital invested. Almost every kind of business carried on by white people was represented, thus evidencing a desire and a reaching out on the part of the Negro that will produce great results in years to come. Only establishments of considerable importance were solicited and reported. Time in business. Four-fifths had been established five years or more. One-fifth more than twenty years. Sixty-seven more than thirty years. This shows a remarkable longevity in business that is highly gratifying. Capital invested. Complete returns were not received from all. Only 1,736 establishments reported capital. Their aggregate capital was 5,631,137. Professor Dubois estimated that the total amount invested by American Negroes in business managed by themselves in 1899 was $8,784,000. Compared with the immense sum of money invested in business in the United States, this seems meager enough. But when we consider the poverty of the colored people at the beginning of their freedom, the saving and investment of nearly $9 million in business enterprises conducted by themselves in one generation is a most creditable showing. By far the larger part of the capital of the colored people is as yet invested in enterprises conducted by white persons. In the city of Washington, where the idea of the advantage to the race in having a number of successful business enterprises has been very much agitated. Only about one-fifth of its wealthy colored people have any investments in enterprises conducted by colored men, as shown in the report of the Hampton Conference for 1898. A like proportion will doubtless be found in other cities. The Census of 1890 on Negro business. According to the Census of 1890, the returns from the Census of 1900 on this subject not being available at this writing. Taken 25 years after the war, the colored people had representatives engaged in every business listed in the Census schedules. It is true that the number of persons engaged and the capital engaged in some branches of business were not imposing. Yet an effort had been made. A start, a beginning, had been made in every branch of business carried on in this country. The Census of 1890 does not, in all cases, make a distinction between proprietor and occupation. Hence, it is not always easy to pick out the proprietors. The tables have been gone over very carefully. Only those occupations have been selected about which there can be no doubt that the person listed are proprietors. The total number of persons of Negro descent engaged in business in 1890 was 20,020. It is obvious to anyone who has paid even a little attention to it that there has been considerable increase since 1890 in the number of such business ventures and in the capital employed. The National Negro Business League. As an evidence that the race is rapidly advancing along business lines, a conference or convention of colored businessmen was called by Mr. Booker T. Washington to meet in Boston, August 23rd to 24th, 1900, for the purpose of making a showing of the progress of the race. It was a great success in business and to get encouragement and impetus to the business movement. The success of this convention was a pleasant surprise to many persons. Over 200 delegates reported in person and nearly 200 additional reported by letter. The tone of the reports they brought from their several localities was uniformly hopeful. Most of the delegates present lived outside of New England, some coming from as far south as Florida and Texas and as far west as Nebraska. A permanent organization was formed called the National Negro Business League. The purpose of which is to keep its members in touch with one another. Their proceedings were published by Mr. J. R. Han of number 46 Howard Street, Boston in a handsome volume of 280 pages and constitutes one of the most valuable contributions to the study of the progress of the colored people. This business league held its second annual convention in Chicago in August 1901. This meeting also was a great success in every way and received, if possible, more attention and space from the public press than the previous meeting in Boston. A recent study of the colored business enterprises of Washington published by the writer shows that there are in the national capital 1,302 colored proprietors in all kinds of business and professions. Their capital exceeds $700,000 and they transact more than $2 million worth of business annually, affording employment to 3,030 persons. Among the more conspicuous examples of successful enterprises conducted by colored men in the United States may be mentioned the following. 13 building and loan associations, 7 banks, about 100 life insurance and benefit companies, several mining companies, one street railway company, one iron foundry, one cotton mill, one silk mill, three book and tract publication houses, one of them having a plant valued at $45,000, over 200 newspapers and three magazines. One of these newspapers has 5,000 subscribers and a plant costing $10,000. One firm of truck gardeners near Charleston, South Carolina, over 500 acres under cultivation has been in the business over 30 years and ships several carloads of garden truck to northern markets every week. The railroad company considers its trade of such importance that has built a siding to their farm and the cars are loaded directly from the warehouses. This is probably the most extensive individual or partnership business carried on by colored men anywhere in the United States. Nozzet Brothers is the name of the firm near Kansas City, Kansas. There is a colored man, Mr. J. K. Graves, who owns and cultivates over 400 acres of land. He has been engaged principally in raising potatoes. His crop last year was over 75,000 bushels, which with the other things raised and sold was worth about $25,000. Within a radius of 35 miles of his farm, he says that there are 312 negro farmers, horticulturists, gardeners, truckers, potato growers and dealers, most of whom are up to date and have all modern appliances necessary to carry on their business. Mr. C. C. Leslie, a dealer in fish in Charleston, South Carolina, has $30,000 invested in the business in nets, boats, ice houses, real estate, etc. and ships to northern markets from three to five carloads of fish per week during the busy season. In Charleston, the most prosperous butchers are colored men. In Columbus, Mississippi, there is a colored butcher who owns his abattoir and supplies the best trade of his town with meat. Some of the most prosperous fish, produce and poultry dealers in the markets of Washington are colored men. One firm has been in business continuously over 30 years, the sons succeeding the father in the business. Several have maintained their stands over 20 years. Upon broker in Augusta, Georgia has $5,000 capital. The largest and best equipped drug store in Aniston, Alabama is owned by a colored physician. He has a considerable wholesale trade in patent medicines and drugists sundries. One of the best equipped ready-made clothing stores in Columbia, South Carolina is owned by a colored man. He carries a stock of $10,000. A stock breeder in Maxville, Tennessee is worth $100,000 and has $50,000 invested in blooded horses. A photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota does a business of $20,000 a year. Another in New Bedford, Massachusetts began as an errand boy, learning the photographic art thoroughly, gave his money, bought out the white proprietor and now conducts the leading studio in that old and aristocratic city. The caterers of Philadelphia and Baltimore have long been noted for the success in business, although they have lost some ground from white competition during the last few years. There are yet several with capital above $5,000. The caterer at the Great Naval Banquet at Newport in honor of Admiral Samson and our Navy upon its return from the victories in the war with Spain, very unusual task was accomplished of serving 1,000 men in a very satisfactory manner was a colored man. Before going are only a few of the many examples of success that individuals of the colored people have achieved in business. They are cited by way of a bill of specifications. They show conclusively that in spite of many adverse conditions, it is possible for a colored person by perseverance and honesty to succeed in business. End of topic 25, second paper. Topic 25, third paper of 20th century Negro literature. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shasta Oakland, California. 20th century Negro literature. Topic 25, third paper by the Reverend J. H. Morgan. The Negro as a business man. Reverend J. H. Morgan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1843. His father was Reverend John R. R. V. Morgan. His mother's maiden name was Mary Ann Harmon. At his mother's death, which occurred when he was 14 years old, he was adopted into the family of James T. Robinson of Philadelphia. Becoming dissatisfied at some fancied slight, he left without authority, determined to provide for himself and be his own man. He soon found that the job was not so easily done as thought about. Nevertheless, he was determined to win out, so he kept at it. And being of a jovial disposition, he soon made friends and had the happy faculty of keeping them. He started in the business of selling homemade pies and capes along the wharves. After a short time, he gave up this business for that of cabin boy on a passenger boat, flying between Philadelphia and Bristol, Pennsylvania, making Bristol his home. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he was very anxious to enlist as a soldier. But they informed him at Trenton that it was a white man's war and they were not taking colored men, as their ankles set so near the middle of their feet that when they said forward march, they would be as likely to go backward as forward. So he hired as a cook in an officer's mess and went to the front with Company C, First Regiment, New Jersey volunteers, six months men. He was not down there long before he lost all his desire to become a soldier when the opportunity came for him to enlist. While in Alexandria, Virginia, he started to learn the barber trade and on his return home worked as a journeyman at his trade until he set up in business for himself. In 1876, he organized a mission at the Kimsey, New York, and being young and enthusiastic, he requested at the next conference to be sent to the mission to build it up. Bishop Payne dimmered, but after his persistence in the matter, he consented, saying, well, I will let you make your own appointment this time, but will be expecting to hear from you before the year is out, asking for a change. So after ordaining him an elder in Sullivan Street Church, May 12, 1878, he was stationed at Poughkeepsie. There he had some misunderstanding with the people, which caused them to promise to cut his bread and butter short, which promise he says was the only one that they made, that they faithfully carried out. One day, they fed his family on wind pudding, air sauce, and balloon trimmings. At White Cure, Bishop D. A. Payne became a prophet because he heard from him and his time was short, as in a few days after, he received an appointment to Albany, New York, and was returned the following year on account of effective service done. At the following conference, he was elected as delegate to the General Conference at St. Louis with Reverend W. F. Dickerson, John F. Thomas, and C. T. Shaffer. On his return from the conference, he was transferred to New Jersey Conference and stationed at Princeton, New Jersey. And with the exception of four years spent in the Northeast Conference, one in the New York Conference, he has remained in the New Jersey Conference. Reverend Morgan is the recognized historian of the conference and was its secretary for a number of years and was the vice president of the First Board of Church Extension. The Reverend is known in his conference under the condiment of the only Morgan, his description of things and events getting for him this title. He was made presiding elder by Bishop H. M. Turner and he thus describes his return from the presiding eldership to one of the weakest apartments in another conference. Quote, Milton or someone says that the devil was nine days falling from heaven to hell. I made the trip in less than 20 minutes. Bishop H. M. Turner's second life and the subject of this sketch were converted in and became members of the same church at Bristol, Pennsylvania. He was considered an exceptionally good superintendent of the Sabbath School before he was a member of the church. It was during the time that he was a local preacher at this church that he learned the lesson of his life. I had a fierce mattering of an education and being in business I was always consulted in the affairs of the church. It becomes more and more evident every day of our existence as individuals and as a race that a grave mistake has been made by those who have heretofore may be now making claim to leadership of making higher education the main and only root to the full development of the race. The higher education is in the order of specials. It is true that we need the artistic structure but we need first the foundation upon which to rest it. We seem to have started with the idea that the structure has already been laid which is true as concerns the other man. But we have not laid one foot ourselves but are endeavoring to build upon others and as often as we build and finish the structure the other man by virtue of owning the foundation and that upon which it rests claims and takes all under the fixed rule that the people who own the land will rule it. And the last state is worse than the first unless this happens at a time of life when the experience will become a lesson well learned and time a lot of very new start along the proper lines. It is therefore very evident that the essential thing in the line of individual and race development is business. Business we discover when properly defined leads in its various ramifications to all roads to success. Business defined the state of being anxious, anxiety, care, the act of engaging industriously in certain occupations, the act of forming mercantile or financial bargains more generally and abundance of such acts done by separate individuals. Crab thus distinguishes between business, occupation, employment, engagement and evocation. Business occupies all of the person's thoughts as well as his time and powers. Occupation and employment occupy only his time and strength. The first is most regular. It is the object of his choice. The second is casual. It depends on the will of another. Engagement is a partial employment. Evocation a particular engagement. An engagement prevents us from doing anything else. An evocation calls off or prevents us from doing what we wish. A person who is busy has much to attend to and attends to it closely. A person who is occupied has a full share of business without any pressure. He is opposed to one who is idle. A person who is employed has the present moment filled up. He is not in a state of inaction. A person who is engaged is not at liberty to be otherwise employed. His time is not his own. He is opposed to one at leisure. Business, trade, profession and art are thus discriminated. The words are synonymous in the sense of a calling. For the purpose of a livelihood, business is general. Business, trade and profession are particular. All trade is business, but all business is not trade. Voting and selling of merchandise is separable from trade. But the exercise of one's knowledge and experience for the purpose of gain constitutes a business when particular skill is required. It is a profession and when there is a particular exercise of art, it is an art. Every shopkeeper and retail dealer carries on a trade. Brokers, manufacturers, bankers and others carry on a business. Plurgymen, medical or military men follow a profession. Musicians and painters follow an art. The distinction between business, office and duty. Business is what one prescribes to oneself. Office is prescribed by another. Duty is prescribed or enjoined by a fixed rule of propriety. Secondile concerns are the business which a man takes upon himself. The management of parish concerns is an office imposed upon him, often much against his inclination. The maintenance of his family is a duty which his conscience enjoins upon him to perform. Business and duty are public or private. Office is mostly of a public nature. A minister of state by virtue of office has always public business to perform. But men in general have only private business to transact. A minister of religion has always public duties to perform in his ministerial capacity. Every other man has personal or relative duties which he is called upon to discharge according to his station. There has been a vast number of theories advanced as regards the solving of the Negro problem. But the idea of business seems to have only a minor place which to our mind should be one of the leading factors. It seems that the race has been educated away from itself. It is not an uncommon thing to see young men who have splendid educational abilities versed in the languages with Czech apronson, scrubbing marble steps and doing other menial labor. Their plea is when questioned along this line I cannot get anything else to do. To what advantage then has the hard-earned money of their parents and friends been expended to educate them? Their fathers did as well as, if not better, than they without it and cannot this man with the advantage of education turn up something? There is something radically wrong with the plan of education. The old man could plod over the farm in his antiquated way and earn enough money to keep things going and educate his son. But when that son's education has been completed he has not the ability or business tact with modern improvements to build upon the foundation laid by his less cultured father. Let this cultured boy get down to business for him. Here is the root lead down. Secretary of Agriculture, Honorable Mr. Wilson in discussing the productive possibilities of the South and the problem of Negro labor makes the following observations. Quote, the pressing question is, what is the labor root down South who has been growing cotton and is not getting enough for his product to do in the future to enable him to live comfortably, not to speak of the improvement of his condition, education, and all that. Unquote, the cotton crop leaves very little that is valuable for domestic animals after the picking is done. Thus, differing from the corn crop of the Northwestern states, there is a byproduct, the cotton seed, that is exceedingly valuable and much good work is being done by scientists at experiment stations to show how valuable cotton seed is for feeding purposes. The nitrogen element in cotton seed is greater than that of any of the grains. It is richer in nitrogenous matter than peas or beans, richer than gluten or meat or oil cake. The northern feeder and the European feeder have been using this byproduct of the cotton fields to great advantage while the loss of its fertilizing qualities to the South has been very great. The South has more marked advantages over the North with regard to production. It has heat and moisture, the two great factors of production. And if the cotton grower is to diversify his crops, he must use those natural advantages. The dairy cow and mutton sheep would succeed admirably in the South, but something for them to eat must be provided first. The winters in the South are mild. Grasses, grains, legumes can be sown in the fall and grow abundantly in the winter, upon which the dairy cow and mutton sheep may thrive and prosper. From one-fifth to one-fourth of all the fat of the milk on the farms of the United States is lost because people do not thoroughly understand when to churn cream. The churning process is an art having much science underlining it, but the cotton grower of the South only needs to learn the way while the man who teaches him can understand the science. Much yet remains to be discovered in the art of breeding animals, but enough is known to indicate to the instructor of the colored cotton grower of the South who is to be diverted into work of this kind to enable him to breed his herd intelligently. The South can prepare the spring land much earlier than the North can. The Southern landowner understands horse racing. There is always a greater demand for saddle horses than is supplied. The world wants carriage and draft horses and good roadsters. Early spring chickens, the broilers, can be produced down there because of the milder winters and milder springs than we have, and the northern market can be supplied. Should the market be oversupplied, we can send this product abroad in the refrigerating compartments of steamships. The colored man is learning the trades at Tuskegee. He is mining coal and working the manufacturer of iron at Birmingham. We call this gentleman who is without doubt authority on this special line and therefore worthy of serious and careful consideration to support the point we make that this problem must be worked out along lines, especially along business lines. Business opportunities. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines are absolutely ours. The Philippines are said to be as large as the New England states, including New York and New Jersey. Hawaii is about the size of New England. Puerto Rico, the size of Connecticut. Hawaii, with a population of 109,000, Puerto Rico 900,000, Philippines 8,000, and very few whites, a climate in which the Anglo-Saxon, it is said, cannot stay for any great length of time, and that is rich in all those things which are desirable by the white man. These acquisitions must be developed by American genius and capital, and as the white American cannot stay there a year round to develop the same, what better agent to do this work than the Afro-American, who has been schooled in American ideas and customs and usages. Is now this an opportunity, given by Providence to commence business-building? The race should cease pleading to be the words of the nation, cease waiting for something to turn up or have somebody to do something for them, but should unite their forces and turn up something for themselves? The people who own the country, if intelligent and thrifty, will rule and run it. What Coleman has done in North Carolina, in a business way, could be done in a majority of the states to a greater or less extent. Small factories could be arranged for, or our people could be employed in producing the commodities of life. Some time ago, it was said that a large tract of land had been arranged for, backed by a number of Tammany Hall capitalists. Factories were to be built to give employment to the settlers. Deeds for lots were to be given at a nominal cost. The project was opposed by some of our so-called leaders because it was backed by Tammany, but it is the very thing needed, no matter who backs it up. It is the businessmen who run the country. It is they who put the millions to work and keep the mighty dollar in circulation. We must enter the business world and by pluck, tact, and thrift, live while we are living and die when we cannot do otherwise. The man who thinks almighty God when the news of disaster comes from land or sea, that no loss comes to him is not so wise in the sight of God or man as he who can think God that the interest on accrued stock had advanced and hundredfold before the crash came. End of Topic 25, Third Paper Topic 26, First Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Shasta Oakland, California Topic 26, First Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature by Professor George Washington Carver The Negro as Farmer A few years ago there was graduated at the Iowa Agricultural College a young colored man of unusual promise. His name was George Washington Carver and his specialty, the care and production of plants. Not long after graduation, he was engaged by Booker T. Washington as a teacher and assistant in his famous industrial school. And today, the young man is Mr. Washington's most trusted advisor while his reputation has gone abroad as a scientist and an original investigator of no mean order. Born during the period of the Civil War, he was separated from his parents when, what six weeks old, they having been sold to some distant slaveholders. The infant was puny and ailing and his master regarded him as worthless. A family named Carver took the babe and his brother a little older. It was with them the child had a home for nine years. About that time, the little black boy developed a remarkable love for plants and so much knowledge of their structure and life that he was given the name of the plant doctor. Mr. and Mrs. Carver were proud of the boy's talents and made much of him. It was their evident satisfaction in him that aroused the jealousy of their own children at last drove the new-colored boys away from home. Northward, they turned their faces to the land where white and black have equal chances in life as they fondly believed. The little plant doctor who had picked up the elements of an education wanted above all else to enter some good school. The boys were given from pillar to post but being devotely attached to each other, they held together until in Kansas they thought best to separate. During these years, young Carver had tried many kinds of work. At length, he found himself at Winterset, Iowa. It was there the wife of a physician encouraged him to go to Indiana Law where she thought he could enter college and earn his way to doing laundry work. He went there but didn't do any work and it was while there that a young lady, a well-known Iowa artist, became interested in him. Under the pretext of securing his help and correcting some drawings, she went to the mean quarters he occupied and found him starting to death. There was no work for him, no money. For weeks, he had subsisted on cornbread and callow. She then arranged for him to go to the Iowa Agricultural College where she had influential friends and where she believed he would have a chance. But even at the Agricultural College of Iowa the color line was sharply drawn by the students. Persecution and ill treatment were resorted to. But young Carver said, I will bear it. I must get an education. Here I hang at work and I will suffer anything rather than give up the one chance of my life to obtain a schooling. His old and intimate knowledge of plants stood him in hand and he was given charge of the greenhouses. True, he was shunned by many. His place at table was with the servants but he had warm friends and he was, by force of character, winning the goodwill of all. One day, an Indian olag lady who had come to know him before he left that place went to visit him at his college. Dressed in her best, she accompanied him though against his protestation to dinner taking a seat at the servants' table. The next time this lady visited the college the colored student sat at the table with the faculty. In the military drill he had taken the highest honors. When he was graduated it was with distinction. He wrote the class poem. He had succeeded in winning and holding friends. Some time ago he spent several weeks in Washington, D.C. and there the most kindly attention was extended to him by Secretary Wilson who never fails to recognize merit wherever he may find it. The name of George Washington Carver is now enrolled on the fellowship list of more than one scientific institution. The above subject is, by no means, an easy one to discuss as reliable data are fragmentary and widely scattered. Yet I am sure that I have been able to collect some interesting and valuable facts and figures bearing upon this important question. There is no doubt that the Negro as a tenant farmer is a failure. This we're forced to admit but we do so with a justly proud feeling that it is not an inherent race characteristic but the result of conditions over which we have little or no control. Failure is inevitably and indelibly stamped in the foreheads of any class of average tenant farmers regardless of race or color. In American agriculture, Negro has always held and is yet holding an important place. In fact, far more is a rule than has been accredited to him. Lest our judgment be too harsh in this particular, I have thought it wise to briefly scan the beginning and development of agriculture in the United States. In 1492, the first settlers found the Indians carrying on agriculture in a crude and limited way by the women. Their farm machinery consisting of their fingers, the pointed stick for planting, and the bones of animals and the shell of the clam for a whole with nothing more than a squatter's right as a voucher for the ownership of their farms. Professor McMaster's History of the People of the United States, George K. Holmes, Assistant Statistician of the United States Department of Agriculture and his progress of agriculture in the United States and other high authorities tell us that the white man came poor in materials of wealth, a stranger in a strange land with a strange climate. His tools were but little, if any, improvement on those of the Indians in agriculture as we know it today was an idealistic dream. The plow was an exceedingly crude thing and but little used, the hoe forming the principal implement of industry. After a piece of land had been continuously cropped until worn out, it was abandoned or the cows turned upon it for a while. It is further said that the poor whites who had formerly been indentured servants were the most lazy, the most idle, the most shiftless and the most worthless of men. Their huts were scarcely better than negro cabins. The chimneys were logs, the chinks being filled with clay. The walls had no plaster, the windows had no glass and the furniture was such as they themselves made. The grain was threshed by driving horses over it in the open field. When they ground it, they used a reed pestle and mortar or placed it in the hollow of one stone and beat it with another. Beef or pork, generally salted. Salt fish, dried apples, red made of rye or Indian meal, milk and a very limited variety of vegetables constituted the food throughout the year. When night came on, his light was derived from a few canals of home manufacturer. The farmer and his family were homespun. If linen was wanted, the flax was sown and reeded, pulled and retted, then broken and swingled for all of his processes nearly a year was required before the flax was ready for the spinners meeting on the grass and making and wearing. If woolens were wanted, sheep were sheared and the wool was dyed and spun and woven at home. The flax was almost invariably true of all the sandalings that the use and value of manure was little regarded. The barn was sometimes removed to get it out of the way of heaps of manure because the owner would not go to the expense of removing the accumulations and putting them upon his fields. Such were the dreary conditions of the farmer's life and colonial days living all the time very closely upon the margin of subsistence. Those conditions continued for some time after the republic had been established and were not measurably ameliorated until the present century had well advanced until an improved intelligence. The dissemination of information and the work of the adventurers had begun to take effect. From the above, we see how strikingly similar were the life methods of agriculture and the results obtained from the sturdy New Englander who represented the best blood, bone, and sinew of the whole world with its almost prehistoric civilization to that of the American Negro whose intellectual star is just beginning to rise above the horizon. Over two centuries and a half ago, the Negro found his way as a slave to America in a little Dutch trading vessel chief neighbor being the chief motive which prompted such a gigantic scheme. The experiment flourished and grew and at about the close of the 18th century six million slaves had been brought to this country. A major part of all the cotton, corn, cane, potatoes, tobacco, and other agricultural products were planted, cultivated, harvested, and prepared for, and not infrequently marketed by the slaves. In fact, they were the agricultural backbone of the South. Since cotton forms the largest and has been the most important agricultural product in the South, I think 109 years of its production will prove interesting and valuable. In 1791 8,889 bails were produced and the second cotton mill built at Providence-Roth Island. The first one being built at Beverly, Massachusetts in 1787. From this time on the average planted the output and the number of cotton mills and spindles increased. The estimated area planted in cotton alone in 1852 6,300,000 acres and the census report of 1860 showed 1,262 cotton mills 1,235,727 spindles in the United States with an output of 4,861,292 bails. Despite the depressing effect of the four years of civil strife it took only five years to almost completely retain the highest point reached in previous years. In 1889 in 1890 we find in the United States 19,569,000 acres planted giving an output of 7,311,322 bails with 905 cotton mills operating 14,088,103 spindles in 1898 1999 the acreage increases to nearly 25,000,000 with an output of 11,189,205 bails representing a money value of 305,467,041,000 such is the history production and growth of the cotton industry in the United States and were we to trace the other staple products we would find them nonetheless interesting since they were produced largely by Negroes before the war and as freed men after the war this applies especially to southern products whatever of truth there is in Mr. Bandycraft's grave apprehensions for the Negro he with us must admit that the ills of the black tenant farmer are simply the ills of the southern farmer in a more or less aggravated form it is also true that the curse of such a system falls the heaviest on the smallest and most ignorant tenant farmer who is the least capable of self-defense for years we have been content to let the preachers preach the lawyers argue the philosophers predict the teachers and the doctors practice with scarcely a question as to our priority of right we have in the face of the many oppositions which come to every race similar they situated labored with endurance patience and forbearance until the birth of the 20th century dawns upon us steadily marching on with something over $263 million worth of unencumbered property to our credit now as to the number owning farms and following intercultural pursuits as a livelihood we are pleased to submit some fears from the last census report from Crogman in his progress of a race and from other authorities beginning with the little district of Columbia with an aggregate area of 8,489 acres and 269 farms there are 17 negro farmers five of which own their land in whole or in part their farms contain 29 acres of which 25 are improved the total value of the land is $23,300 and the apartment buildings are worth $390 livestock is valued at $489 the farm incomes amounted to $4,244 10 farms aggregating 258 acres are operated by negroes as cash tenants the reported values are land $114,600 buildings $9,200 implements and machinery $1,200 and livestock $1,383 the total incomes for these farms in 1899 were $10,300 two farms together consisting of 21 acres valued at $149,630 are operated by negroes as salary managers of the 17 farms operated by negroes only one contains less than 3 acres seven contain from 3 to 9 acres five from 10 to 19 acres two from 20 to 49 acres and two from 50 to 99 acres given an average size for all of 18.1 acres in the state of Delaware the farms constitute 85% of the total land surface of the state which is divided up into 9,687 farms of which 169 or 91.6% are operated by white and 818 or 8.4% by negroes of the latter class 297 are operated by owners and 35 by park owners the value of their farms including implements, machinery and livestock together with the value of implements, machinery and livestock on the farms which other negroes operate as tenants is 495,187 dollars in Arizona we find that three negro farmers operate their farms as salary managers and home farms containing 1,511 acres with farm property valued at $60,422 one leases a 39 acre farm for cash and has implements and livestock worth $130 the total investment by negroes in agriculture owned by them and leased to others is therefore $60,552 which is a rather encouraging showing for Arizona Essers Walker and Fitch graduates of Hampton Institute in 1896 made a careful canvas of one congressional district in Virginia as follows out of the total acreage of 1,944,359 acres one fifteenth or 125,597 acres is owned by the colored people roughly estimated at $1,000,000 these figures mean farm owning chiefly $79,611 represent the total city property they also report that in Gloucester County 25 years from the above date the colored people owned less than 100 acres of land today they own 13,000 acres of land free from any encumbrance Mr. Fitch further adds has traveled quite thoroughly through more than 10 counties in Virginia with horse and buggy during the present year 1896 and that in no county through which he traveled did the colored people own less than 5,000 acres of land he found also that much of the improved farming was being done the strong public sentiment against moving to cities was having the desired effect again the statistician reports in 1890 12,690,152 homes and farms in the United States and of this number the Negro's own 234,747 free from all encumbrance and 29,541 mortgaged giving the percentage of mortgaged property owned by Negro's as 10.71 well the whole country percentage of mortgaged property for the whole country was 39.97 it is further stated that of all the property held by Negro's 88.58% is owned without encumbrance since so much has been accomplished in the Negro's pioneer days of freedom we may not predict with a considerable degree of assurance that the next decade and a half will far exceed our most sanguine hope the virgin fertility of our soils and the vast amount of cheap and unskilled labor have been a curse rather than a blessing to agriculture this exhaustive system of cultivation the destruction of forests the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter together with the great multiplicity of insect and fungus diseases that appear every year make the southern agricultural problem one requiring more grains than that of the northeast or west the advance of civilization has brought and is constantly bringing about a more healthy form of competition the markets are becoming more fastidious and he who puts such a product upon the markets as it demands controls that market regardless of color it is simply a survival of the fittest we are also aware that the demands upon agriculture were never so exacting as they are now all other trades and professions are holding out their inducements to the young men and women who are ready and willing to grapple with life's responsibilities one says come and I will make you a groove another, a rockoteller still another an aster with all the luxuries their names suggest too many of our own farmers illy prepare their land cultivate harvest and market the scanty and inferior crop selling the same for less than it cost to produce it I need not tell you that the above conditions imperatively suggest the provincial mule implements more or less privative with frequently a vast territory of barren and furrowed sides and wasted valleys instead of the veritable clondike of which their dreams are made sweet another mortage has been added as an unpleasant reminder of the years hard labor with this inevitable doom staring them in the face is it any wonder that so many of the youth of our land flock to the cities with the hope of seeking some occupation other than farming the above conditions together with the seemingly higher civilization of the city folk I claim are largely responsible for this but be this as it may in the light of what has been accomplished we see for us a very bright star of hope in the education of two-thirds of the brightest and best of our youth in scientific agriculture the many excellent schools colleges nature study leaflets farmers bulletins and reading courses conferences convocations congresses fairs and the like all factors designed to lead the race into higher agricultural activities the agricultural schools and higher institutions of that character are wisely laying much stress upon stock raising daring, horticulture landscape gardening poultry raising and every manipulation to the successful operation of this great industry these subjects have been taught almost only to young men but recent experience has taught not only in this but in other countries that many of these studies seem especially suited to women and many are taking the advantages offered by schools in the matter of learning the technique of poultry raising daring horticulture landscape gardening and the related sciences along with their academy or college work and as a reward are finding pleasant, profitable and helpful employment nature study with the first principles of agriculture is compulsory in many of the primary schools in error another decade is indelibly placed upon the historical records of the greatest events of the greatest century that will find us wonderfully in advance in this particular every year we see a perceptible increase in the funds for public education and magnificent schools and colleges with better paid professors springing up here and there stand out as beacon lights to this new and wonderful epoch the wisdom and spending these ever increasing middens upon the youth of our land becomes from year to year a matter of less concerned as we seek to give our boys and girls a broader education than that of a pure scientist it is very encouraging to know the course taken by our young men and women who have gone out from these institutions the way they have acquired land built homes and are devoting their entire time and talent in that direction I have no fears but what we in the course of time will do our part both globally and well in the matter of feeding a hungry world end of topic 26 first paper