The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Thousand Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the Community
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.00 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, September 11, 1915Volume I. Number 11
Farm Property Value
One Billion Dollars
Statistics Surprising in Showing the
Race’s Stupendous Success in
Securing Rich Tillable Land.
THERE ARE FOURTEEN NATIONS
Numerically Greater than the Colored
People in the United States of
America.
Dr. Booker T. Washington, in his
splendid address, replete with com
mon sense, sound advice and encour
aging facts, delivered before the Na
tional Negro Business League in Bos
ton, recited some surprising statistics
which show that despite opposition
the reproach of our being a landless
people is being rapidly rolled away.
It is worth while to know that the
colored people of this country own
farm land aggregating more than one
billion dollars in value. This fact
was brought out by Dr. Washington,
who said:
"We have not the figures covering
all the Negro’s wealth, but the federal
census bureau has just released a
document which gives the value of
the Negro’s farm property alone as
$1,142,000,000. From 1900 to 1910 the
Negro’s farm property increased 128
per cent. In 1863 we had, as a race,
2,000 small business enterprises. At
the present time the Negro owns and
operates about 43,000 concerns with
an annual turnover of about one bil
lion dollars. Within fifty years we
have made enough progress in busi
ness to warrant the operation of over
fifty banks. With all that 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 traveling.
During the last six years we have
experienced as a race not a few busi
ness failures, including the closing of
several banks. We must not let these
failures discourage us. We must re
member that it is with a race as it is
with an individual; that it is only
through seeming failure, as well as
success, that we finally gain that ex
perience and confidence which are
necessary to permanent success. With
all that I have said we should remem
ber that we have but scratched the
surface of industrial and business suc
cess. Our future is before us, not
behind us. We are a new race in a
comparatively new country. Let any
who may be inclined toward pessim
ism or discord consider with me for a
few moments the opportunities that
are before us. It is always of more
value to consider our advantages
rather than our disadvantages. In
considering one’s opportunities it is
worth while not to overlook the size
of our race.
The Race’s Opportunities.
"There are only fourteen nations in
the world whose population exceeds
the number of Negroes in the United
Let’s Play MUF
BOULEVARD SCENE IN OMAHA
States. Norway has a population of
only 2,400,000; Denmark, 2,700*,000;
Bulgaria, 4,000.000; Chile, 4,000,000;
Canada, 7,000,000; Argentine, 9,000,
000. When we contemplate these fig
ures and then remember that we in
the United States alone are 10,000,000
Negroes, we can get some idea of
the opportunities that are right about
ns.
“Let me be more specific in point
ing the way to these opportunities. If
you would ask where you are to begin
I would answer begin where you are.
As a rule the gold mine which we
seek in a far off country is right at
our door.
Over a million of our people live in
the Northern and Western states. In
these states at the present time our
people operate about 4,000 business
Enterprises. There are opportunities
in the north and west for 8,000 busi
ness enterprises or double the present
number. In the Southern states where
the great bulk of our people live we
have about 40,000 business concerns.
There should be within the next few
years 20,000 more business concerns.
“In all this, we should never forget
that the ownership and cultivation of
the soil constitutes the foundation for
great wealth and usefulness among
our people. I have already indicated
that we operate about 800,000 farms.
Within the next decade let us try to
double the number. To indicate a lit
tie more in the directions in which we
should seek. There are now 4,000
truck farms operated by us; we ought
to increase this number to 8,000. We
ought never to forget that in the own
ership and cultivation of the soil in a
very large measure we must lay the
foundation for our future.
"A landless race is like a ship with
a rudder. Emphasizing again our op
portunities, especially as connected
with the soil, we now have for exam
ple 122 poultry raisers; the number
should be increased to 1,500. We now
have 200 dairymen; the number
Bhould be increased to 2,000.
Too Many Negroes in Cities.
“At present there are far too many'
of our people living in the cities in a
hand to mouth way, dependent on
someone else for an uncertain job.
Aside from what the soil offers there
are other opportunities in business.
For example, we now own and oper
ate seventy-five bakeries; the number
can be increased to 500. From thirty
two brickmakers the number can be
increased to 3,000. From 200 saw
mills, we can increase the number to
1,000. From fifty furniture factories,
the number can be increased to 300.
Where we now have 4,000 dry goods
stores and grocery merchants we
should have in the near future 15,000.
Where we now have 700 drug
stores we should have 3,000. Where
(Continued on sixth page.)
The Divine Mission of
Negro In New World
To Help Win Personal Freedom for
All Mankind and Final Triumph
of Democratic Principles.
AS SAVIOUR OF WEAKER RACE
Organizes First Armed Resistance on
Western Hemisphere—Joseph
Carr Writes Interestingly.
Some day or other from some
land, the tongue of some dusky war
bler will woo the Goddess of Song and
send forth in the inspired strain of
an epic poem the coming of the Negro
to America to free it from these twin
curses, slavery and political oppres
sion, that the white man, fleeing from
yet clinging to, brought with him to
oppress and degrade a weaker and de
fenseless race of God’s children.
In the year 1492 America was dis
covered. The discoverers found here
a gentle, inoffensive and hospitable
people, who were called by them In
dians. These natives wore trinkets
of virgin gold, the sight of which
awakened the cupidity of the Span
iards and then forced the natives to
disclose the source of their golden
trinkets, and then inhumanly en
slaved and forced them to dig for
this metal that these Spaniards might
enjoy life free from the mandate of
their Maker to ‘‘earn their bread by
the sweat of their own faces.’”
Nature had not provided these na
tives with strong bodies and consti
tutions, hence in a very short time
they disappointed their masters by
dying so rapidly as to presage their
early extinction, which has been their
fate. Yet extinction was delayed and,
due to another cause, absorption in
another and stronger race of people
that has crowded the then master
race from the beautiful West Indjan
isles that he made a curse of to their
aboriginal inhabitants.
Bishop Las Caseas, filled with almost
a divine pity for these frail natives
and their deplorable condition, urged
his countrymen to import Negroes
from Africa to replace the natives and
to labor in the mines, as they, the
Negroes, were of a physique to with
stand the hardships of slavery, and
thus as a savious of a weaker man,
the Negro, from urgent necessity to
the American Spaniard, in obedience
to the Divine Will and for the ulti
mate benefit of the whole human race
was ushered in as a native of this
new world, to be at some future time
when thoroughly understood the place
of his glory.
Barely had the Negro set his foot
in this, his new home, that he regis
tered the first protest to the inhuman
ity of his captors in robbing him of
his personal freedom by running
away and getting with the Indians
and organizing the first armed resist
ance to that curse of humanity, slav
^Continued on fourth page)