Booker T. Washington Part 13

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 Washington 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 Washington 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. Washington 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 ship 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 hardships, 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. Washington, 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 Washington 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 Washington 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.

Washington 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:

"(1) To keep a list of the young men and women who are intelligent, trained, and qualified to fill responsible places as clerks, accountants, salesmen, janitors, porters, etc.; in this way a league can do much in getting suitable occupations for as many as are competent, especially so in Northern States.

"(2) In protecting the community against fraudulent schemes, as false stock companies, that are gotten up solely for the purpose of defrauding colored people.

"(3) In fostering an interest in civic affairs, such as sanitation, clean yards, cultivating pride in making attractive in appearance the home districts of our people, and in other ways showing an interest in everything that may make up a better community life."

In the same pamphlet under the head of "Suggested Subjects for Discussion" comes the following list:

1. How to unify the colored people in the business interests of the community.

2. What the professional men, ministers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc., can do to a.s.sist the business men and women.

3. What the business men can do to a.s.sist the professional men.

4. Patronizing Negro business enterprises.

5. What new business can be established in the community.

6. How can the business enterprises already established be improved?

7. How to secure additional country trade.

8. If a bank does not exist, can one be established and supported?

9. If a millinery establishment does not exist, can one be established and supported, etc.?

10. If a shoe store or gents' furnishing store does not exist, can one be established and supported?

11. If a drug-store does not exist, can one be established and supported?

In another such pamphlet monthly meetings between the grocers and the clubwomen are suggested. Such meetings would have as their object the fixing of uniform and mutually satisfactory prices and service. It is also recommended that Negro insurance agents const.i.tute themselves unofficial health inspectors for their sections of the town. In this capacity they would report to the public health committee of the local league all instances of badly ventilated homes or schools, mosquito-breeding spots, acc.u.mulations of rubbish and filth, or any other conditions menacing the health of the colored citizens. The suggestion is made that where possible reading-rooms and bureaus of information be opened in connection with the offices of Negro newspapers and that such rooms place the colored papers from all sections of the country at the disposal of the patrons after the editor has finished with them. That several small shopkeepers club together and employ one expert bookkeeper is another idea offered. It is also proposed that small retailers get together for the purpose of purchasing jointly such commodities as can be advantageously secured in this manner. It is finally urged that a committee be appointed each year to make a social survey of the Negro population. This study would show what progress had been made during the year in all lines of endeavor and at the same time furnish a directory of all the business and social activities of the Negroes of the community. It is pointed out that the sale of advertising s.p.a.ce in its pages would alone more than pay for such a directory.

It will be noted that these business leagues, like all other organizations founded or moulded by Booker Washington, do not stick to their lasts in any narrow sense. Mr. Washington never lost sight of the fact that the fundamental concern of all human beings was living, and that farming, business, education, recreation, or what not, were only important in so far as they made the whole of life better worth living. The means employed never obscured his vision of the aim sought as is so frequently and unhappily the case with lesser men.

Just as at the agricultural conferences, so at these business gatherings, Booker Washington used the methods employed by the revivalist at the experience meeting. By so doing he accomplished the double purpose of encouraging the successful by the tribute of public recognition and spurring on the less successful and the unsuccessful to go and do likewise. Also by means of men and women telling their fellows in open meeting how they achieved their success the race is, as it were, revealed to itself. It was, for instance, through a meeting of the National Negro Business League that it came to light that the man who raises the most potatoes in the United States, and who is commonly known as the Potato King of the West, is a Negro--J.G.

Groves of Edwardsville, Kan. Groves' story at one of the annual meetings attracted so much attention that an account of his life later appeared in an ill.u.s.trated special article in the _American Magazine_.

It was also discovered through a league meeting that Scott Bond, another colored man, was probably the most successful farmer in the State of Arkansas. After he had told his story at the meeting of the National League held in New York in 1910 he was pursued by cameramen and interviewers for days and weeks and his story was spread all over the United States. At the Chicago meeting of 1912 Watt Terry, a modest and even shrinking colored man of Brockton, Ma.s.s., unfolded a remarkable story of success in spite of the hardest and must untoward circ.u.mstances. So unbelievable seemed this man's story that the Executive Committee took up with him personally the facts of his recital, and later the Secretary of the League, in response to a demand, had to vouch for his statements in open meeting. To clinch the matter still further Mr. Washington wrote to the Secretary of the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation in Brockton, who replied that Terry's story had, if anything, been understated rather than overstated. Booker Washington himself told Watt Terry's story in the pages of the _Independent_ for March 27, 1913. Here it is: "... Mr.

Terry is a modest-appearing young man about thirty years of age. When he landed at Brockton some twelve years ago he had, according to his own story, a capital of just twelve cents. He found work at first as a coachman. After a time he obtained what he thought was a better position as janitor in the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation Building.

Some of the members of the a.s.sociation succeeded in getting him a position as a railway porter.

"'Somehow or other,' said Terry, 'I did not care for that sort of work, and after a few months gave it up. I made up my mind that I would rather work at a trade, and tried to get work in one of the shoe factories in Brockton. As I did not know the trade and there was a good deal of compet.i.tion for the places open to apprentices it looked rather hopeless at first. Finally, I got the foreman to say he would give me a chance, provided I was willing to work for two weeks without pay. I accepted that offer and made up my mind to make the most of those two weeks.'

"At the end of the two weeks Terry had done so well that he was given a position in which he earned $7 a week. By sticking close to his job and making the most of his opportunities he was gradually promoted until he earned first $10, then $15, $18, and finally $25 a week.

"'I had some difficulties at first,' said Terry. 'The other men did not like me at first and showed it. However, I stuck to the job, kept on smiling, and it was not long before I was on just as good terms with the men in the shop as I cared to be. As I did not have much opportunity to spend my money, I found it easier to save.'

"When Terry reached the point where he was earning $25 a week his wife was earning $9 as matron in the Brockton railway station, and they both saved their money. Meanwhile Terry had begun to buy and sell real estate in a small way. One day he sold a house and lot upon which he cleared as commission $100.

"'That seemed to settle the question of my future,' said Mr. Terry. 'I decided to go into the real estate business.'