hand, property, money, if you please, will
purchase for us the only condition by which any people can rise to
the dignity of genuine manhood; for without property there can be no
leisure, without leisure there can be no thought, without thought there
can be no invention, without invention there can be no progress."

The Negro should be taught that material development is not an end, but
merely a means to an end. As professor W. E. B. Du Bois puts it, the
idea should not be simply to make men carpenters, but to make carpenters
men. The Negro has a highly religious temperament; but what he needs
more and more is to be convinced of the importance of weaving his
religion and morality into the practical affairs of daily life. Equally
does he need to be taught to put so much intelligence into his labor
that he will see dignity and beauty in the occupation, and love it for
its own sake. The Negro needs to be taught to apply more of the
religion that manifests itself in his happiness in prayer meeting to the
performance of his daily task. The man who owns a home, and is in the
possession of the elements by which he is sure of a daily living, has a
great aid to a moral and religious life. What bearing will all this have
upon the Negro's place in the South, as a citizen and in the enjoyment
of the privileges which our government confers?

To state in detail just what place the black man will occupy in the
South as a citizen, when he has developed in the direction named, is
beyond the wisdom of any one. Much will depend upon the sense of justice
which can be kept alive in the breast of the American people; almost
as much will depend upon the good sense of the Negro himself. That
question, I confess, does not give me the most concern just now. The
important and pressing question is, Will the Negro, with his own help
and that of his friends, take advantage of the opportunities that
surround him? When he has done this, I believe, speaking of his future
in general terms, that he will be treated with justice, be given the
protection of the law and the recognition which his usefulness and
ability warrant. If, fifty years ago, one had predicted that the Negro
would receive the recognition and honor which individuals have already
received, he would have been laughed at as an idle dreamer. Time,
patience, and constant achievement are great factors in the rise of a
race.

I do not believe that the world ever takes a race seriously, in it