gely a condition due to poverty, illiteracy and inferiority of
paper, but time will bring about a change. In the hands of the Negro
the press has been a success. Failure in management and poor financial
profit have been to one and all engaged in the pursuit, yet the net
result shows success, not failure; and its success demonstrates the
possibilities of the race, notwithstanding the lack of encouragement.

SECOND PAPER.

IS THE NEGRO NEWSPAPER AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE ELEVATION OF THE
NEGRO?

BY WALTER N. WALLACE.

[Illustration: Walter N. Wallace.]

WALTER N. WALLACE.

Walter N. Wallace, the organizer of the Colored Co-operative
Publishing Company, of Boston, Mass., publishers of the
"Colored American Magazine" and many other race
publications, was born at Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Va.,
in 1874.

His mother was Nannie J. Ellerson, who has the distinction
of being one of the first graduates of the Hampton Normal
School. Mr. Wallace is the oldest grandchild of that
institution. His father Merritt Wallace was also a student
of Hampton, and after leaving that school he settled in
Boydton, in educational work, where he became one of the
most prominent and energetic citizens of his community. He
was at one time Deputy Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue
for the county.

At nine years of age Mr. W. Wallace was sent to school in
Richmond, where he completed the grammar course, then
spending two years preliminary training at the High, before
entering the State College (Virginia Normal and Collegiate
Institution, at Petersburg), where he spent another two
years. While at this college he was prominent in athletics
and a member of the institute band.

Later, determining upon the study of medicine, he entered
the Leonard Medical College, where he spent two years in
theory, then turning his face northwards he came to Boston
in 1896, where he secured a position as prescription clerk
in a prominent drug store, there becoming more practically
acquainted with medicines.

In May, 1901, he launched his pet scheme, the "Colored
American Magazine," and under his editorial care there is
now no question of its future, as it has passed far beyond
the experimental stage, and is now an assurity.

The confidence which has been displayed by