andicaps that faced us as a people
not so long ago, and the commercial ones that face our business men of
to-day. We grow impatient with their mistakes and twit them because
they are unable to display as large and as valuable a stock as some
one else, or because of their shabby establishments. We are too
exacting. We are not as generously inclined towards our enterprises as
we should be, and it is only when we put ourselves in places that
require patronage, that we can understand why so many fail. The power
to discriminate between the useful and useless is born of experience
and is of slow growth. The struggle between the right and wrong, the
necessary and unnecessary is the heritage that came to us with our
sudden birth of racehood. All fields of endeavor are new to us, and
even when there are no restrictions, our adjustment must be slow.

For us to rally to our enterprises simply because they are ours, would
bring temporary but not permanent success. The latter can only come by
normal means. Abnormal conditions are not lasting. They may hold for a
time and even prosper, yet they must ultimately fail, and then affairs
will follow their natural tendency, and seek the normal. The
restrictions that press us so, must in time yield to this law, and all
efforts to rally to our enterprises from pride, and not from reason,
must follow the same fate. There are a hundred cents in a dollar but
no sentiment. Lessen its purchasing value and you lessen the desire to
purchase.

We may rally to enterprises simply because Negroes are the projectors,
but we soon begin to cast about for reasons for our patronage, and if
we find none to outweigh self-interest we soon drop off. But if we
find good reason for our support, we soon lose the idea of race pride,
in the greater idea that our merchant is a splendid business man.

The best agents for securing active support for our enterprises are
the attractions that these enterprises hold within themselves. Our
intelligent and thrifty merchants, with their well appointed stores,
and enlarged stock are to settle this problem of patronage, because
they have within their keeping, the means to develop the normal
conditions of trade and to build up a demand for their wares.

TOPIC XII.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE
CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY MRS. WARREN LOGAN.

[Illustration: Mrs. Warren Logan]