y, that furnishes the means of earning a living. Now if
on this foundation, laid in a rather crude way, it is true, but a
foundation nevertheless, we can gradually grow and improve, the future
for us is bright. Let me be more specific. Agriculture is or has been
the basic industry of nearly every race or nation that has succeeded.
The Negro got a knowledge of this under slavery: hence in a large
measure he is in possession of this industry in the South to-day. Taking
the whole South, I should say that eighty per cent of the Negroes live
by agriculture in some form, though it is often a very primitive and
crude form. The Negro can buy land in the South, as a rule, wherever the
white man can buy it, and at very low prices. Now, since the bulk of our
people already have a foundation in agriculture, are at their best when
living in the country engaged in agricultural pursuits, plainly,
the best thing, the logical thing, is to turn the larger part of our
strength in a direction that will put the Negroes among the most
skilled agricultural people in the world. The man who has learned to do
something better than any one else, has learned to do a common thing
in an uncommon manner, has power and influence which no adverse
surroundings can take from him. It is better to show a man how to make a
place for himself than to put him in one that some one else has made
for him. The Negro who can make himself so conspicuous as a successful
farmer, a large taxpayer, a wise helper of his fellow men, as to be
placed in a position of trust and honor by natural selection, whether
the position be political or not, is a hundredfold more secure in that
position than one placed there by mere outside force or pressure. I know
a Negro, Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor of a
town; it is true that the town is composed almost wholly of Negroes.
Mr. Montgomery is mayor of this town because his genius, thrift, and
foresight have created it; and he is held and supported in his office
by a charter granted by the state of Mississippi, and by the vote and
public sentiment of the community in which he lives.

Let us help the Negro by every means possible to acquire such an
education in farming, dairying, stock-raising, horticulture, etc., as
will place him near the top in these industries, and the race problem
will in a large part be settled, or at least stripped of many of its
most perplexing elements. This policy would also tend to ke