the colored people.

This business league held its second annual convention in Chicago in
August, 1901. This meeting also was a great success in every way, and
received, if possible, more attention and space from the public press
than the previous meeting in Boston.

A recent study of the colored business enterprises of Washington,
published by the writer, shows that there are in the National capital
1,302 colored "proprietors" in all kinds of business and professions.
Their capital exceeds seven hundred thousand dollars, and they
transact more than two million dollars worth of business annually,
affording employment to 3,030 persons.

Among the more conspicuous examples of successful enterprises
conducted by colored men in the United States may be mentioned the
following: Thirteen building and loan associations, seven banks, about
one hundred life insurance and benefit companies, several mining
companies, one street railway company, one iron foundry, one cotton
mill, one silk mill, three book and tract publication houses, one of
them having a plant valued at $45,000; over two hundred newspapers and
three magazines. One of these newspapers has 5,000 subscribers and a
plant costing $10,000. One firm of truck gardeners, near Charleston,
South Carolina, over 500 acres under cultivation, has been in the
business over 30 years and ships several carloads of garden truck to
Northern markets every week. The railroad company considers its trade
of such importance that it has built a siding to their farm and the
cars are loaded directly from their warehouses. This is probably the
most extensive individual or partnership business carried on by
colored men anywhere in the United States. Noisette Bros. is the name
of the firm. Near Kansas City, Kansas, there is a colored man, Mr. J.
K. Graves, who owns and cultivates over 400 acres of land. He has been
engaged principally in raising potatoes. His crop last year was over
75,000 bushels, which, with the other things raised and sold, was
worth about $25,000. Within a radius of thirty-five miles of his farm,
he says that there are 312 Negro farmers, horticulturists, gardeners,
truckers, potato growers and dealers, most of whom are up to date and
have all modern appliances necessary to carry on their business.

Mr. C. C. Leslie, a dealer in fish in Charleston, South Carolina, has
$30,000 invested in the business, in nets, boats, ice-houses, real
estate, etc., and ships to Northern m