has always been from fifteen to twenty years ahead
of any other leader of his race.... While most of us were agonizing
over the Negro's relation to the State and his political fortunes,
Booker Washington saw that there was a great economic empire that
needed to be conquered. He saw an emancipated race chained to the soil
by the Mortgage Crop System, and other devices, and he said, 'You must
own your own land, you must own your own farms'--and forthwith there
was a second emancipation. He saw the industrial trades and skilled
labor pass from our race into other hands. He said, 'The hands as well
as the heads must be educated,' and forthwith the educational system
of America was revolutionized. He saw the money earned by the hard
toil of black men passing into other men's pockets. He said, 'The only
way to save this money is to go into business--sell as well as buy.'
He saw that if the colored race was to become economically
self-sufficient, it must engage in every form of human activity.
Himself a successful business man as shown by Tuskegee's millions, he
has led his race to economic freedom."

Later Mr. Lewis said: "Just as in Boston three-quarters of a century
ago began the movement for Emancipation from Slavery, so fifteen years
ago appropriately began the movement for our economical
independence.... In 1900 there was one league with 50 members, and a
few businesses represented. To-day I am told there are 600 leagues,
nearly 40,000 members, who represent every branch and variety of
business, trade and finance. When one realizes that business rules the
world, the possibility of such an organization seems almost unlimited
in its power to help the race along other lines of progress."

Such a tribute from one of the most rarely and genuinely talented
members of "The Talented Tenth" was indeed a triumph for Booker T.
Washington and his policies. In fact, it may fairly be said that this
event marked the end of the honest opposition from this element of
the Negro race--the end of the honest opposition of a group or section
of the race in distinction from the of course inevitable opposition of
individuals here and there.

One of the features of this 1915 meeting was a summary of the economic
progress of the race since the organization of the league fifteen
years before. This summary brought out the following facts:

In 1900, when the National Negro Business League was organized, there
were about 20,000 Negro business en