FINAL REMARKS.
We have done well, but we could have done better. George Ruskin gives birth to a great river of thought in the expression, “The more my life disappointed me, the more solemn and the more wonderful it became to me.” We have suffered, it is true, and still we suffer, beneath the prejudice of a mighty people, the movings of whose will and passions none but God can stay. But, as we remember that the Almighty can rule the hearts of men, and that He has promised that the meek (He doesn’t respect persons) shall inherit the earth; that this prejudice about us is not a human essence, but a mere accretion upon human life, rising from abnormal social conditions which are passing away; that disappointment, instead of cowering and disarming us, should rouse us to nerve ourselves with a firmer resolution to endure suffering, to toil, to economize, to increase in knowledge and skill, to fill our homes with love and beauty, to be still more pure in heart and upright in word and deed—as we remember these things, we must confess that we could have done better.
Our greatest needs now are: (a) A closer walk with God; (b) more love and peace at home; (c) purer thoughts and more prayer in our hearts; (d) a nearer approach to gospel plans in all departments of our church work; (e) more race pride and race confidence; (f) more of the spirit of Christ in our annual meetings; (g) co-operation in business, such as banking and mercantile enterprises.
We earn millions of dollars, a large part of which we ought to and can keep among ourselves, and thus strengthen the financial standing of the Negro Race.
We need to establish and maintain money operations among ourselves, especially for the following reasons:
(1) No moneyless people have any power or voice in the solid things of life, in those facts which command homes, farms, store houses, railroads, live stock, steamship lines, furnaces, manufactories, merchandise, banks, and the like. We need plans of co-operation which will enable us to come together with our little savings until they aggregate to an amount that is large enough to support some sort of business. Saving societies or circles should be organized all over the country, for the purpose of studying methods for money saving and money investment.
Of course, it must be admitted that money raised by our people in this way has fallen into the hands of men who have made way with it. But this danger may be put out of the way by compelling the man who holds the money to give good security in the form of a bond, legally made and properly signed. The money thus raised should be deposited in the bank till the amount obtained is large enough for some business project. The Alabama Penny Savings Bank of Birmingham started somewhat after this fashion, with a small beginning, but now they command in one way and another nearly one hundred thousand dollars. This bank gives the colored people of Birmingham a power in financial circles that they could obtain by no other means.
(2) Our young people need something to do. When the young white man completes his course at school, he returns to find a job ready for him—a job as clerk, bookkeeper, collector or something so. Not so with the young black man—he returns to an empty void so far as concerns the business world. He comes home to be a loafer, or a boot-black, or a buggy boy, or a cook, or a waiter, or a barber, or a prisoner. He comes home to despair, to temptation, to ruin. And this sad state of things can never change by accident: if a better condition of things shall ever be our lot, it must come about as the result of forces which the Negro himself shall put in operation. Our white neighbor looks upon the facts that we earn the millions and can’t control the cents, as proof that we are an inferior race. They say we can be preachers, teachers and doctors, but we can’t manage money and can’t unite in great business enterprises. We seem not to realize that the handling of business affairs conduces to the formation of moral character. The writer dares to hope that there are better things in our hearts on this line than have yet appeared, and that ere long they will appear in our united action and in our substantial investments. However, “Fear God and keep His commandments.”
CONCLUSION.
And now our book is at its end. How well it serves the purpose for which it was produced, the reader will determine. We gratefully recognize the substantial services rendered by friends, as during the past ten years we have hunted and gleaned for subject matter. The author is under special obligations to Messrs P. W. Williamson, F. D. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Walker, Rev. T. W. Walker, Dr. Waldrop, Dr. and Mrs. Pettiford, Mrs. Rachel Jenkins, Mrs. H. C. Bryant, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Simpson, of Birmingham; Mr. Tom Posey, Bessemer, and Hon. H. A. Loveless, of Montgomery.
To such as may feel disposed to credit me with the ability to continue at work, I would say that but for the faithful toil and sacrifice of my wife, Mrs. M. A., and of my daughter, Miss Octavia B. Boothe, it is hardly likely that my name would now appear in its humble place on the roll of writers. They have borne the burden with me, and we together have performed these humble tasks. With them I cheerfully divide my meagre honors. The writer lays down his pen at the end of a pleasant but arduous task, fully believing that what we have done is but the bud and prophecy of what we can and will do in the years to come. This book can only tell of our infancy and youth while the historian who shall come upon the stage after twenty or thirty years beyond this date, will bring forth a book wherein shall appear a portraiture of our ripened manhood, out of which shall have grown great enterprises, manned by unity, wisdom, wealth and righteousness.