laws and prejudice. For instance, nothing can prevent a
colored person from practicing industry, honesty, saving and decency, if
he or she desires to practice them.

The helpfulness of the colored race to the Government need not be
confined to fighting in the army nor to service in the manifold domestic
callings. It is the duty of the colored citizens, as it is their right,
to have a part in the substantial development of the nation and to
assist in financing its operations for war or peace. The colored people,
as a rule, are industrious and thrifty and have come to appreciate their
importance as a factor in the economic and financial world, as indicated
by their prosperous business enterprises, their large holdings in real
estate, their management of banks, and their scrupulous handling of the
millions of deposits entrusted to their care. This capital, saved
through sacrifice, has been placed in a most generous manner at the
disposal of the Government throughout its period of need, and the list
of corporations, fraternities and individuals who have aided in bringing
success to American arms by the purchase of Liberty Bonds and War
Savings Stamps and by contributions to other war relief agencies, is
indeed a long one.

Opportunities of the colored people to make safe investment of their
savings never were so great as they are today. The financial program the
Government has entered upon and is continuing to carry out to meet the
expense of the war gives a chance to save in sums as small as
twenty-five cents and makes an investment upon which return of both
principal and interest is absolutely guaranteed. Too often colored
people have entrusted their savings to wholly irresponsible persons,
lost them through the dishonesty of these persons, and in
discouragement abandoned all attempts at saving. Today, however, there
is no excuse for any man not saving a certain amount of his earnings no
matter how small it may be. It is a poor person, indeed, who cannot
invest twenty-five cents at stated intervals in a Thrift Stamp. Many are
able also to buy small Liberty Bonds. It is a duty and a privilege for
colored persons to help the Government finance the war, which was for
both whites and blacks.

It is the particular duty of white persons, in cooperation with the most
influential members of their own race, to explain these Government
financial plans to the colored men and women that they may make safe
investments, acquire a c