Part 13 (1/2)
Lewis, a merchant tailor, and perhaps the most successful business man of the race at the time: ”But what hope has the Negro to succeed in business?” said Mr. Lewis. ”If you can make a better article than anybody else, and sell it cheaper than anybody else, you can command the markets of the world. Produce something that somebody else wants, whether it be a shoe string or a savings bank, and the purchaser or patron will not trouble himself to ask who the seller is. This same great economic law runs through every line of industry, whether it be farming, manufacturing, mercantile or professional pursuits. Recognize this fundamental law of trade; add to it tact, good manners, a resolute will, a tireless capacity for hard work, and you will succeed in business. I have found in my own experience of thirty years in business that success and its conditions lie around us, regardless of race or color. I believe that it is possible for any man with the proper stuff in him to make a success in business wherever he may be.
The best and only capital necessary to begin with is simply honesty, industry, and common sense.”
The Boston _Herald_ of August 24, 1900, said of this gathering: ”The national convention of colored business men began its sessions in this city yesterday in a businesslike and hopeful manner. This is not a political gathering. It is not a race gathering in the sense of one met to air sentimental grievances that spring from race oppositions.... President Was.h.i.+ngton believes that the security and progress of the colored people in this land depend upon their development of a moral worth commanding respect and an industrial capacity that will make them both useful and independent. He apprehends that these qualities cannot be bestowed as a gift of benevolence, but must be acquired by individual energy and struggle.
'As I have noted,' he says, 'the condition of our people in nearly every part of our country, I have always been encouraged by the fact that almost without exception, whether in the North or in the South, wherever I have seen a black man who was succeeding in his business, who was a taxpayer, and who possessed intelligence and high character, that individual was treated with the highest respect by the members of the white race. In proportion as we can multiply those examples, North and South, will our problem be solved.' That is the great lesson that the members of the colored race have to learn. It will aid in extending this knowledge for those colored business men who have attained a measurable degree of success in life to meet for mutual encouragement and helpfulness.”
Just fifteen years later, in August, 1915, Booker Was.h.i.+ngton presided over the last session of the league held during his lifetime. This meeting also was held in Boston. There attended it seven hundred delegates from thirty different States. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton in his annual address as president summed up what had been accomplished by the race during the fifteen-year interval and projected what they should strive for in the future. He also took occasion publicly to thank his foremost colleagues in developing the work of the league, particularly Mr. Scott, the secretary of the league. Undoubtedly he fully realized that it was his farewell meeting. He practically collapsed before the sessions were over. In less than three months he was dead.
Among other things he said in this speech: ”Since the league met in Boston fifteen years ago, great changes have taken place among our people in property-getting and in the promotion of industrial and business enterprises. These changes have taken place not solely because of the work of the league, but this and similar organizations have had much to do with bringing about this progress. Let me be more specific.... In 1863 we had as a race 2,000 small business enterprises of one kind and another. At the present time, the Negro owns and operates about 43,000 concerns, with an annual turnover of about one billion dollars. Within fifty years we have made enough progress in business to warrant the operation of over fifty banks. With all I have said, we are still a poor race, as compared with many others; but I have given these figures to indicate the direction in which we are travelling.”
Later he said: ”A landless race is like a s.h.i.+p without a rudder.
Emphasizing again our opportunities, especially as connected with the soil, we now have, for example, 122 poultry raisers; the number should be increased to 1,500. We now have 200 dairymen; the number should be increased to 2,000.... We now own and operate 75 bakeries; the number can be increased to 500. From 32 brickmakers the number can be increased to 3,000. From 200 sawmills we can increase the number to 1,000.”
And so he continued giving the present achievement and future goal for many more industries. After giving these estimates he said: ”With our race, as it has been and always will be with all races, without economic and business foundation, it is hardly possible to have educational and religious growth or political freedom.
”We can learn some mighty serious lessons just now from conditions in Liberia and Hayti. For years, both in Liberia and Hayti, literary education and politics have been emphasized, but while doing this the people have failed to apply themselves to the development of the soil, mines, and forests. The result is that, from an economic point of view, those two republics have become dependent upon other nations and races. In both republics the control of finances is in the hands of other nations, this being true notwithstanding the fact that the two countries have natural resources greater than other countries similar in size.... Mere abstract, unused education means little for a race or individual. An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction. We must not be afraid to pay the price of success in business--the price of sleepless nights, the price of toil when others rest, the price of planning to-day for to-morrow, this year for next year. If some one else endures the hards.h.i.+ps, does the thinking, and pays the salaries, some one else will reap the harvest and enjoy the reward.”
Just before his closing words he said: ”No matter how poor you are, how black you are, or how obscure your present work and position, I want each one to remember that there is a chance for him, and the more difficulties he has to overcome the greater will be his success.”
Perhaps the most significant speech at this conference, next to that of Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, was that of William Henry Lewis who is probably the foremost lawyer of the Negro race in America. Mr. Lewis is a graduate of Harvard where he distinguished himself on the football field as well as in the cla.s.sroom. After graduation from the Harvard Law School he served with distinction in the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature, was appointed a.s.sistant United States District Attorney for the Boston district by President Roosevelt, and became a.s.sistant Attorney-General of the United States under President Taft.
In opening his speech Mr. Lewis said: ”I do not know why my fellow-citizens have chosen me for this honor, except to heap coals of fire upon my head. Fifteen years ago I was not with you. I was one of the critics, one of the scoffers, one of those who asked, 'What is it all about?' 'What does it amount to?' You have lived to confute my judgment, and shame my sneers, and I am now making generous acknowledgment of my error. I claim no merit in doing this, except that I can look backward as far as your great leader can look forward.
Booker Was.h.i.+ngton has always been from fifteen to twenty years ahead of any other leader of his race.... While most of us were agonizing over the Negro's relation to the State and his political fortunes, Booker Was.h.i.+ngton saw that there was a great economic empire that needed to be conquered. He saw an emanc.i.p.ated race chained to the soil by the Mortgage Crop System, and other devices, and he said, 'You must own your own land, you must own your own farms'--and forthwith there was a second emanc.i.p.ation. He saw the industrial trades and skilled labor pa.s.s from our race into other hands. He said, 'The hands as well as the heads must be educated,' and forthwith the educational system of America was revolutionized. He saw the money earned by the hard toil of black men pa.s.sing into other men's pockets. He said, 'The only way to save this money is to go into business--sell as well as buy.'
He saw that if the colored race was to become economically self-sufficient, it must engage in every form of human activity.
Himself a successful business man as shown by Tuskegee's millions, he has led his race to economic freedom.”
Later Mr. Lewis said: ”Just as in Boston three-quarters of a century ago began the movement for Emanc.i.p.ation from Slavery, so fifteen years ago appropriately began the movement for our economical independence.... In 1900 there was one league with 50 members, and a few businesses represented. To-day I am told there are 600 leagues, nearly 40,000 members, who represent every branch and variety of business, trade and finance. When one realizes that business rules the world, the possibility of such an organization seems almost unlimited in its power to help the race along other lines of progress.”
Such a tribute from one of the most rarely and genuinely talented members of ”The Talented Tenth” was indeed a triumph for Booker T.
Was.h.i.+ngton and his policies. In fact, it may fairly be said that this event marked the end of the honest opposition from this element of the Negro race--the end of the honest opposition of a group or section of the race in distinction from the of course inevitable opposition of individuals here and there.
One of the features of this 1915 meeting was a summary of the economic progress of the race since the organization of the league fifteen years before. This summary brought out the following facts:
In 1900, when the National Negro Business League was organized, there were about 20,000 Negro business enterprises; now there are 45,000.
In 1900 there were two Negro banks; now there are 51.
In 1900 Negroes were running 250 drug stores; now they have 695.
In 1900 there were 450 undertaking businesses operated by Negroes; now there are about 1,000.
In 1900 there were 149 Negro merchants engaged in wholesale businesses; now there are 240.
In 1900 there were 10,000 Negro retail merchants; now there are 25,000.
In the fifteen years since the National Negro Business League was organized, farm property owned by Negroes has made a remarkable increase. From 1900 to 1910, the value of domestic animals owned by Negro farmers increased from $85,216,337 to $177,273,785, or 107 per cent.; poultry from $3,788,792 to $5,113,756, or 35 per cent.; implements and machinery from $18,586,225 to $36,861,418, or 98 per cent.; land and buildings from $69,636,420 to $273,501,665, or 293 per cent. In ten years the total value of farm property owned by Negroes increased from $177,404,688 to $492,892,218, or 177 per cent.
It is significant of the standing and catholicity of this convention that the Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, Hon. David F. Walsh, and Dr. John E. White, a leading white Southern clergyman, both spoke at the opening meeting at Symphony Hall.
The National League is made up of more than 600 local leagues which influence in a direct and practical way almost every community in the United States with any considerable number of Negro inhabitants. These local leagues are all chartered, guided, and supervised by the national organization and with them all the Secretary, Mr. Scott, keeps in touch. From time to time he issues pamphlets setting forth methods of organization, activities that can be undertaken, and subjects that may be discussed under the head of ”Some things that it is possible for a local league to do to be of service to the town or city in which it is located” are the following: