it? Every city in the South, for example, would give support to a
first-class architect or house-builder or contractor of our race. The
architect and contractor would not only receive support, but, through
his example, numbers of young coloured men would learn such trades as
carpentry, brick-masonry, plastering, painting, etc., and the race
would be put into a position to hold on to many of the industries
which it is now in danger of losing, because in too many cases brains,
skill, and dignity are not imparted to the common occupations of life
that are about his very door. Any individual or race that does not fit
itself to occupy in the best manner the field or service that is right
about it will sooner or later be asked to move on, and let some one
else occupy it.

But it is asked, Would you confine the Negro to agriculture,
mechanics, and domestic arts, etc.? Not at all; but along the lines
that I have mentioned is where the stress should be laid just now and
for many years to come. We will need and must have many teachers and
ministers, some doctors and lawyers and statesmen; but these
professional men will have a constituency or a foundation from which
to draw support just in proportion as the race prospers along the
economic lines that I have mentioned. During the first fifty or one
hundred years of the life of any people are not the economic
occupations always given the greater attention? This is not only the
historic, but, I think, the common-sense view. If this generation will
lay the material foundation, it will be the quickest and surest way
for the succeeding generation to succeed in the cultivation of the
fine arts, and to surround itself even with some of the luxuries of
life, if desired. What the race now most needs, in my opinion, is a
whole army of men and women well trained to lead and at the same time
infuse themselves into agriculture, mechanics, domestic employment,
and business. As to the mental training that these educated leaders
should be equipped with, I should say, Give them all the mental
training and culture that the circumstances of individuals will
allow,--the more, the better. No race can permanently succeed until
its mind is awakened and strengthened by the ripest thought. But I
would constantly have it kept in the thoughts of those who are
educated in books that a large proportion of those who are educated
should be so trained in hand that they can bring this mental strength
and knowled