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reached the point where they want a prayer book!

Through the medium of religion let us continue to multiply the wants of the negro, and they will render six days of honest labor in order to supply these increased wants, and thus become one of the most efficient class of laborers that the world has seen.

Another thing which I hope this movement will do for the white man in the South and in the North is to convince him of and convert him to the duty he owes to the millions of negroes in the South, to provide them with education. There are about one million black children who entered no school-room this year, and another million who have been in school for only three or four months in the year. Putting the ignorant negro under arrest will not give him Christianity. Putting him in the jail or penitentiary will not give him Christianty.

So far as the negro is concerned, there is supreme need for this Forward Movement. Do you realize that within this civilized land, during the year 1911, there were murdered in the United States alone 8,272 persons, including both races. In contrast to this there were only seventy-four legal executions as against seventy-one lynchings. This includes both races.

We do not know just how many negroes were included in this eight thousand who died by personal violence; it is very probable, however, that the number amounted to two thousand or more,

which is several times larger than the number of persons killed by personal violence in the whole of Great Britain and Germany. Cursing the negro on the part of the white man will not work a reformation. Cursing the white man on the part of the negro will not do it. Nothing but the spirit of religion and education vitalized in every community, North and South, will do it. No mere negative and neglectful policy, which would push the negro outside as a thing not to be considered, will help the negro or white man. Here is a field for Christian endeavor.

It is well that you have given the negro a part in this Forward Movement; for in the most vital things in American life, despite all the laws that can be passed, the life of the black citizen touches the life of the white citizen, and we rise or fall together. In a large section of our country, a large portion of the food consumed by the white man is produced by the hand of the negro. A large part of the raw material used in clothing the nation is produced by black hands. When food is prepared and served, the life of the negro touches that of the white man. When clothes are laundered, the life of the negro touches that of the white man. When sickness and death come to the white man's house, the life of the negro touches his. Crime draws no color line. Filth draws no color line. Contagious disease draw no color line.

Another result of this movement, I hope, will be to cause every Christian to make an effort to

know the negro better in his own town, in his own street. Unfortunately, in this country many of the best white Christians do not know about the best type of negroes by first-hand information. The white man in many sections knows more about the criminal negro than about the law-abiding negro. Without sacrifice of money or social prestige, you can get into helpful contact with the best negroes. To do this you will not have to cross the ocean; in many cases it will merely be to cross a street.

I want the white man in every part of America to see more of the struggles and the progress that the negro is making in the direction of better homes, Young Men's Christian Associations, better Sunday-schools, better churches, better schools and colleges, as well as in commercial growth. In a large degree in the future the white man must try to judge the negro by his best types, not by his worst. In all these things the church furnishes a potent and practical agency through which the two races can know each other better and cooperate with each other more sympathetically.

Mine is not a selfish plea to the church. I want to see the negro saved for his own sake, and I want to see the negro saved in order that the white race which surrounds him may be saved. All history teaches that wherever the white race has been surrounded by a weaker race and a neglected race of any color, there the white man has yielded to the temptation to de

grade and weaken himself because of injustice perpetrated upon the weak race.

It is a glorious thing to be permitted to live in this century. Changes are taking place in human civilization such as were never witnessed before.

I count it a rare privilege to belong to a race whose ancestors were brought here only a few years ago as savages. You of the white race should count it a glorious thing to have had a part in transforming twenty slaves into ten millions of aspiring, hopeful American citizens. We are yet a new race. Our best is before us. Already we speak the tongue that you speak, wear the same clothes, eat the same food, profess the same religion, and love the Stars and Stripes as dearly as you do; and in traveling still further toward a more perfect religious life, gladly will be helped and guided by you.

A few days ago on the banks of the Mississippi there was a great flood. It swept through that section threatening to devastate millions of acres of land. The white man were throwing in sacks of sand by the thousand in order to stay the rising flood. At one point their last bag of sand had been used and the water was still rising. There were four hundred black men, and when the suggestion was made that these black men lay down and with their backs keep back the inflowing water, almost without exception they lay there, and thus, for the time being, prevented the flooding of that great district. As by our backs

we kept back the danger there, as we continue to receive help and encouragement and protection, the time will come when, in all the larger and more important matters of life, with our bodies, minds and souls, we will keep out anything that may threaten our great civilization.

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