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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1901)
tnnrwrfrfr' rW'IMIW W' jTSW f ? ? ? k Booker Washington's Work, Tho Springfield, Mass., Republican contains an interesting account of tlio last annual conference at the Tuskegco Institute. For ton years this conference has boon held at Tuskegco, Ala., and Bookor T. Washington has been its leading spirit. Tho institute is really a part of tho edu cational work which has made Mr. Washington tho most conspicuous living member of his race. Moro than two thousand negroes, representing farmers and artisans as well as teachers and stu dents, wore assomblcd in tho chapel and the time was devoted to short speeches, caoh participant presenting in a few words his own experience or his views upon the subjects under discussion. Mr. Washington reviewed the progress of the colored raco during tho last half century and pre dicted oven greater improvement during tho next fifty years. Ho warned his hearers against self indulgence and going into debt; and urged upon them tho importance of saving their money and buying a homo. Reports wore presontod from other similar sooioties; a Texan woman described a society formed in her state, with twenty-five hundred members, which had purchased fifty thousand acres of land and was doing much to help poor men to seouro homes. Tho resolutions adopted by the conference represent so well tho purpose and spirit of tho gathering, as expressed by tho speeches, that they are given in full: 1. "Wo have reached tho 10th annual session of tho Tuskegco negr.o conference. During all tho years since tho conferonce was started, we have clung steadily to ita original purpose, namely, to encourage tho buying of land, getting rid of the one-room cabin and tho abuso of tho mortgage system, the raising of food supplies, building better school houses, the lengthening of tho school term and tho securing of bettor teachers and preachers, tho doing away with sectarian prejudice, tho improvement of the moral condition of tho masses and the encouragement of friendly relations between the races. In all these particulars wo aro convinced from careful investiga tion that substantial progress is constantly being made by the masses throughout tho South. 3. Wo would urge our people not to become dis couraged while tho raco is passing from what was largely a political basis to an economic one, as a foundation for citizenship. 8. Wo urge, since the country school is the back bone of tho intelligence of tho masses, that no effort bo spared to increase its efficacy. Any injury to the country schools brings discontent to the people and leads them to move to tho cities. 4. Statistics show that crime, as a rule, is not committed by those who have received literary, moral and industrial training. 5. Regardless of .how others may act, we urge upon our raco a rigid observance of the law of the land, and that we bear in mind that lawlessness begets crime and hardens and deadens not only the conscience of the law-breaker, but also the conscience of the community. 6. Tho rapid riso in tho price of land throughout the South makes it doubly important that we do not delay in buying homes, and tho increased demand for skilled workmen of every kind makes it necessary that a larger proportion of our young people prepare themselves for trades and domestic employment before they are crowded out of these occupations. 7. Community and county fairs, as well as local conferences and farmers' institutes, should be organ ized as rapidly and widely as possible. 8. Wo call tho attention of our women, especial ly, to the wealth there is for them in tho garden tho cow the pi and the poultry-yard. ' f. We note with pleasure that landlords are The Commoner. building better houses for their tenants. We feel sure that all such improvements are a paying invest ment from every point of view. Mr. Washington's work is worthy of all com mendation. His school, with thirteen hundred students" and nearly a hundred teachers, is a splen did monument to his own energy, ability and lofty purpose, as well as proof that the negro's hope lies in his intellectual and moral devel opment. Kace prejudice and race pride are such that no white man could do the work that Mr. Washing ion is doing. No white man could so secure the confidence of the negros or win their affection, arid without confidence and affection little can be done. It would be fortunate for the country if Mr. Washington's work at Tuskegee could be duplicated in othe southern states. Tho white people of the south have thus far furnished almost all tho money used in the education of the negros and they have, of course, an immediate and powerful interest in the uplifting of the race. But the work which is being done by Bookor Washington ought to appeal strongly to the philanthropists of the North, many of whom have been quick to condemn the southern whites, but slow to aid them in solving the tremendous problem which was thrown upon them by eman cipation. W Prof. Ross on Cheap Labor. The dismissal of Prof. Ross from Stanford University occurred before The Commoner- en tered upon its journalistic career and its readers may not have seen the speech which led Mrs. Stan ford to demand his resignation. She had been more or less hostile to him since 1896 because of his opposition to the gold stand ard, and this hostility had been increased by the i-Tofessor's advocacy of the municipal ownership of municipal franchises; but the speech on coolie labor was the last grievance, and, added to the others, caused her to protest against his retention as a member of the faculty. It has been the custom of western railroads to employ Asiatic labor, and Mrs. Stanford prob ably felt that Mr. Ross' remarks were a reflection upon her husband's business methods. Of course, there is no excuse for her conduct unless the university which she has so liberally endowed was intended not for an 'institution of learning, but as a literary bureau for the vindica tion of Mr. Stanford's financial operations, but aside from their bearing on the university contro versy, Prof. Ross' words are valuable because they present the Chinese question from his point of view. The speech was delivered in the city of San Francisco and the following extract is taken from the report given by Organized Labor: But what American labor objects to is exposure to competition with a cheaper man. The coolie can not outdo him, but ho can underlive him. He can not produce more, but he can consume less. The Oriental can elbow the American to one side in the common occupations because ho has fewer wants. To lot him go on, to let the American be driven by coolie competition, to check the American birth-rate in or der that the Japanese birth-rate shall not be checked to let an opportunity for one American boy be occu pied by three Orientals so that the American will not add that boy to his family, is to reverse the I rren of progress, to commit race suicide, Everything w, call progress lias helped to develop man vrho can pro duce much and can consume much; it has abhorred the cheap man. It has favored and fostered not tho man of crude palate, of tough stomach, of low organ ization, of few wants and of little intelligence and energy, but tho superior man. Starting with tho Oriental peoples of Egypt and Babylonia, civilization has in 3,000 years swept around the globe, insisting on better, finer and brainier men as it went, and now by tho waters of the Pacific it is face to face with peoples like the Chinese and Hindoos and the Japanese, who are nearest to.reproducing the economic conditions of those ancient peoples which rocked the cradle of civilization. Shall we allow the process of uplifting tho com mon man to be defeated by this confrontation? Shall wo suffer the work already done to be nullified? Shall we look idly upon this inverted competition of the cheap man and the dear man, the low-grade man and the high-grade man, and allow tho survival of the unfittest to proceed unchecked? A policy of restriction on immigration is not, un der such circumstances, unfair or predatory or blame worthy. Remember, we do not assail tho Oriental peoples. We do not propose to treat tho Orient as the powers are treating China. We are not grObing lands or seizing ports, or extorting railway contracts, or forcing trade at the cannon's mouth. Wo enter tain no emnity and cherish no designs against the trans-pacific peoples. We hope they will prosper and elevate their working people by the means vre have used. But we are absolutely determined that Cali fornia, the latest and loveliest seat of the Aryan race, shall not become, if wo can help it, tho theater of such a stern wolfish struggle for existence as pre vails throughout the Orient. "4f'"'ly As this week opened with St. Patrick's Day it is appropriate that this number should contain Moore's beautiful poem: The Shamrock. , Through Erin's Isle, To sport awhile, . Mia. . As Love and Valor wandered, - &' With Wit the sprite, if- Whose quiver bright A thousand arrows squandered. Where'eer they pass, A triple grass Shoots up, with dew-drops streaming, As softly green As emeralds seen Through purest crystal gleaming. Oh, the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf Of bard and chief, Old Erin's native Shamrock I Savs Valor. " Rp.n ' They spring for me, Those leafy gems of morning! " Says Love, "No, no, For me thftv rrrnrxr My fragrant path adorning, n But Wit perceives ' ;, The triple leaves, And cries, "Oh, do not sever A type that blends Three godlike friends, Love, Valor, Wit forever! " Oh, the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf Of bard and chief, Old Erin's native Shamrock! So firmlv fond May last the bond They wove that morn together, And ne'er may fall One drop of gall On Wit's celestial feather. May Love, as twine ins uowers divine, Of thorny falsehood weed 'em; May Valor ne'er His standard rear " .. Against the cause of Freedoml Uli, the Shamrock, tho green, immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf Of bard and ohicf. . Old Eriu'i nativ Shamrock I- 't ,'s fi V L, i ' liAiiueijMLJ.lS,tk -- At!