HOWARD UNIVERSITY RECORD
Volume 12 JANIZARY 191S Number 1
Some Addresses
at
Ilie Sociological Conference
held in connection with
THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL
of
Howard University
March 1-2, 1917
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Washington, D.C.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY RECORD: Published by Howard University in January, March
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Entered at the Post Office at Washington, D.C., as second class mail matter.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ex-Chief Justice STANTON J. PEELLE, LL. D., President of Hoard of Trusters
STEPHEN M. NEWMAN, D. D., President of the University
GEORGE Wm. COOK, LL. M., Secretary andBusiness Manager
EDWARD L. PARKS, D. D., Trtasurrr and Itegistrar
Term expires 1918
Justice GEORGE W. ATKINSON, LL. D., Washington, I). C.
Rev. H. PAUL DOUGLASS, D. D„ New York City.
ANDREW F. HILYER, LL.M., Washington, D. C.
Rev. STEPHEN SI. NEWMAN, D. D., Washington, D. C.
Ex-Chief Justice STANTON J.-PEELLE, LL. D., Washington. D. C.
lief. ULYSSES G. B. PIERCE, D. D., Washington, D. C.
Rev. OH A RLES H. RICHARDS. D. D., New York City.
Term expires 1919
Justice JOB BARNARD, LL. D., Washington, D. C.
WILLIAM V. COX, A.M., Washington, D. C.
Rev. FRANCIS J. GRIMKE, D. D., Washington, D.C
Bishop JOHN HTTRST, Baltimore, Md.
Hon. CUNO H. RUDOLPH, Washington, D. C.
WILLIAM A. SINCLAIR, M. D.. Philadelphia, Pa.
Term expires 1920
Mr. JOHN T. EMLEN, Philadelphia, Pa.
THOMAS JESSE JONES, Ph. D., Washington, D. C.
Rev. JESSE E. MOORLAND, D. D., Washington, D. C.
Hon. JAMES C. NAPIER, LL. D., Nashville, Tenn.
CHARLES 15. PURVIS, M. D., Boston, Mass.
Justice WENDELL PHILIPS STAFFORD, Washington, D. C.
JAMES H. N. WARING, M. D., Kings Park, L. I.
MARCUS F. WHEATLAND, M. D., Newport. R. I.
HONORARY MEMBERS
Mr. JOHN A. COLE, Chicago, 111.
Bishop BENJAMIN F. LEE, D. D„ Wilberforce, Ohio.
Mr. HENRY E. PELLEW, Washington, D. C.
Hon. JOSEPH D. SAYERS, Austin, Texas.
Hon. WILLIAM H. TAFT. LL. D., New Haven, Conn.
Bishop BENJAMIN TUCKER TANNER, LL. D., Philadelphia, Pa
Bishop WILBUR P. THIRKIELD, LL.D., New Orleans. La
Hon. GEORGE H. WHITE, Philadelphia, Pft.
PATRON EX-OFFICIO
IJon. FRANKLIN K.LANE. Secretary of the Interior
SOCIOLOGICAL CONFERENCE
XN the plans for celebrating the Semi-Centennial of
Howard University the holding of a Sociological Con¬
ference took an important place. Cordial acceptances
of the invitation to attend were received from many persons in
different parts of the country and the result gave great satisfaction.
Forenoon and afternoon sessions were held Thursday and Fri¬
day, March 1-2, 1917. The general topic was
"Fifty Tears of Progress by the American Negro."
Papers were presented and discussions held upon four as¬
pects of this progress, viz:
I. Oivnership of Rwal and Urban Homes.
II. Business Enterprises.
III. Education.
IV. Health and Sanitation.
This copy of the Record contains the introductory address by
President Newman of the University, the brief statement by Dr.
J. H. N. Waring, Chairman of the Committee which arranged
the Conference, three addresses by Mr. R. R. Wright, Jr., Mr.
Wm. Anthony Aery, and Mr. Eugene K. Jones, together with
the conclusions which were drawn up by a committee and adopt¬
ed by the Conference.
Address of Welcome by President Newman
^ADIESand GENTLEMEN: It becomes my wel¬
come duty to greet you in the name of Howard Uni¬
versity. I wish at the very outset to state something
which I ask you to bear in mind. We do not ask you or any
other of our friends to come from different parts of the country
to these meetings in connection with our Fiftieth Anniversary,
simply to bring congratulatory speeches and become aroused by
some kind of sentiment over the history of Howard Univer¬
sity. We wish to go deeper than that. Our problem is one
of life and service. We desire to hold such meetings as may
promote life in the mind and heart of each one who comes and,
through each attendant, in the minds and hearts of those with
whom you may come in contact after you go away. Please do
not regard us as standing here for the sake of evoking any special
oratory from our history. The mission of this Conference is
broader than that. It relates, as the topic of the day states it, to
the progress of the American Negro in fifty years. Neither do
we wish that progress to be regarded simply in the past. Won¬
derful things can be said about it, but if there are any difficulties
in the way, if there are, at any points through this long stream
of years, things which should be mentioned which make against
seeming progress, let us sift those—to be weighed, held in the
balance. It is often true that when there is loss, it is only seem¬
ing loss, and that success is really found. You, of course, know
in your personal life that you have often been most successful
when you have seemed to be defeated. Out of defeat comes
that inner victory of the heart and mind which is incomparably
more valuable than any statistics of outward circumstances can
show.
I wish to call your attention to another thing. The block
of fifty years which is to pass in survey by us in this Conference
is the smallest block of respectable size which can be considered
in such an undertaking as this which we have in hand. Ten years
will give us, perhaps, hints; twenty-five years will give us a few
plainer suggestions; fifty years is the smallest block of time from
which we can determine what the trend is. One hundred years
would be better, but fifty years compasses a generation, and while
4
it is true that there is no exact boundary between generations, still
it is true that in twenty-five years not all of any generation pass
off the stage. Within fifty years there is a practical change of
generations. Now, in all the history of the world, it has become
evident that the progress we seek is, to a great extent, between
generations and not within any one generation. Progress takes
place between a generation whose footsteps we hear dying
away in the distance and those whose steps we hear com¬
ing along to take part in the present. The legacies which are
important for the World are left between generations. Each gen¬
eration takes up the burden, does its work under the inspiration
of the past, and thus takes not only forward steps, but passes to
a higher level of undertaking. For instance, let me mention
this. I can remember the time when the talk of sociology was
largely occupied with groups-=years and years ago. The group
method of trying to reach the people was the method pre-eminent
in the minds of the workers, as illustrated, of course, by the ef¬
forts on many sides, before the Civil War. All attempted to
treat men by the group method, but we have got beyond all that.
The watchword now is "treat men as people." We treat the
great problems we have from the point of view of the people,
the people as a whole; the people as in all kinds of work; a uni¬
form record — not because they are all alike in their characteristics
but because they need the same amount of attention on the part
of the specialists and workers. Today is no day for the talk of
groups, small or large, as the case may be. The work of every
one must be toward the great, coming democracy of the future;
it must bear upon the worth of the work of the great coming
democracy, embracing the children of men.
So, I say, the breadth of such a survey as this is incontest¬
able. We are not here for a little thing. We are here for one
of the biggest possible outlooks that men can have. Our stand¬
point is not the standpoint of the University, nor the standpoint
of the community, nor of the group, but the standpoint of the
world with its people.
I want also to say, in this connection, that while this Con¬
ference is called together to look at matters brought before it from
the historical point of view, it is not that it shall have
5
no glimpse, or take no glimpse, of the future. It is not intended
that we shall not occupy ourselves with the future. A great many
race, and other conferences and congresses, have been held to
look forward into the future. No view of the future is safe and
sound until it has made a wide foundation in the life of the past.
What is that foundation, is the question which we shall try to view
and, to some extent, settle by the meetings of this Conference to¬
day and tomorrow. The history of fifty years is to be a great
resume of possibilities which are to come out from these discus¬
sions. Let me then close by suggesting again that our effort is to
get at life. We may get at statistical tables from one year's end
to another and know nothing about life. What are the advan¬
tages of rural and urban homes; what is the prevention of disease
by sanitation; what is the work of education; what is the estab¬
lishment of business enterprises; what do they all amount to un¬
less the souls of men of any race or color, standing all of them
together upon the basis of humanity, what are they all, unless the
life of the spirit be growing in Divine power for the work of
the world. Let me call attention, as statistics are given, to the
fact that behind these statistics there is an indescribable, a mag¬
nificent view, for each one of you to take, of the business of life—
life and power. With these words, indicating to some extent the
scope of the Conference which is historical—which is not to be
limited to statistics and outlays of statements of similar kinds,—
and with the hope that this Conference may have not simply a set
of speeches in it, which may be interesting at the time but with¬
out helpful suggestion—as I am sure these speeches will be help¬
ful—I turn the Chair of the meeting over to Dr. Waring to take
charge of the exercises.
6
Introductory Statements by
Dr. J. H. N. Waring, Chairman
HE general Committee appointed by the board of Trus¬
tees of Howard University to arrange for the celebra¬
tion of the Semi-Centennial, selected me to be the
chairman of the Committee on this Sociological Conference, and it
was thought best by this latter committee that in my capacity as
chairman, I should make a brief statement of the purposes of the
conference.
The Committee selected for discussion the general subject,
Fifty Years of Progress by the American Negro," for during the
fifty years existence of the University it has sustained a very in¬
timate and vital relation not only to this progress of the American
Negro but also to the general progress of the country and, indeed,
of the world. Through the sons and daughters who have been
sent into every part of the earth, the influence of Howard has en¬
tered into the warp and woof of the social fabric for the past half
century and it has seemed to the Committee, .therefore, that it is a
very fitting time to review the progress of the American Negro
during the past fifty years with reference to education, acquisition
of homes, his success in business, and the general problem of
health and sanitation. In such a review, two very definite ob¬
jects may be accomplished. First, we may be able to set forth to
the interested public a reliable and definite amount of information
upon these points, and in the second place, we may reveal to some
extent the part which the University and her graduates have played
in this great march of progress.
In the minds of some of us who have been thinking along
these lines, there opens up in connection with this Sociological
Conference another and a larger opportunity for service. While the
general government has made certain studies of great value with
reference to the social conditions, amidst which the colored peo¬
ple of America are struggling, there yet remains a wider, a more
comprehensive, a more vital field which as yet is almost entirely
unexplored and undeveloped. May we not hope that Howard
University, standing as she does upon the high ground of social
7
and educational effort, may undertake and consummate those soci¬
ological students which will give to the American people and
to the world exact and comprehensive knowledge of every phase
the life of the American Negro.
There exists in this Committee on sociological conference a
strong hope, amounting almost to a belief, that the work which
will be accomplished during the sessions will be so valuable, so
far reaching, so definite and determining that the Board ofTrustees
will be led enthusiastically to provide for just such investigations
and studies.
The Committee has been fortunate in the extreme in secur¬
ing the services of men who have been conspicuous in the various
lines of work to be discussed here, men who have given and are
still giving their lives and their earnest efforts to the upbuilding
of the American Negro.
I wish to take this opportunity as a member of the Board
of Trustees and as Chairman of the Committee on the Sociologi¬
cal Conference to express our appreciation and gratitude for their
acceptance of the invitation to participate in these meetings.
Address by R. R. Wright, Jr., Editor Christian
Recorder, Philadelphia, Pa.
Upon Ownership of Rural and Urban Homes
MAN who owns a home has a different moral interest
in his community from a man who does not own one.
And then there is another interest which has moral
value, and that is patriotism—the love of country. We all nat¬
urally love the place where we were born, but when that place is
ours, our fathers had it, our grandfathers had it, we struggle to
get it. There is a deeper love and it strikes me that one of the
greatest things that our country can do for Negroes is the en¬
couragement of home ownership, on which there is founded a
strong sentiment of patriotism.
And to go a step further. The home ownership also is the
basis, of the Negro's re-entrance—asDr.Young has just said, into
politics. We went into this political exercise, not knowing what
we were doing, but when we get homes and there are problems
of sanitation, and housing, and taxation, and dozens of other
problems, we have a real reason for political activity and it will
be a difficult thing for Negroes to be kept out of political activ¬
ity when they acquire homes. We are now shifting our politics
from a theoretical economy to a political sociology and the ques¬
tion of social justice, the questions of municipal operations, are
being more and more thrust to the fore in our politics, and the
men who will settle these questions are home owners.
Then from the strictly economic point of view, or industrial
point of view, home ownership means—as Mr. Young has stated—
stability, not only moral stability but what precedes it, an economic
and industrial stability. The man who purchases his home has to
keep his job. He has to do that first, before he purchases, and
then after he purchases he must do the same, and so the encour¬
agement of home ownership tends more and more to the stability
of our industrial system and the Negro becoming more and more
a home owner, becoming more and more a factor in our indus¬
trial improvement.
Viewed from that point, I can see how a University such as
this great University should stop and consider why we have
"owned homes." Not because we have so many million dollars
9
worth of property, but because there are so many hundred thous¬
and Negroes becoming, year after year, more and more settled
and more and more interested in their country—more and more
a part of it.
I had planned to say a word about the statistics. There are
no statistics of ownership of property by colored people that I
have ever seen published. There are guesses. The best we have
is what the United States Census gives, but the Census is far off
on the Negro of the North. The records of the Negro in the North
have usually been records of things which are detrimental to the
race. We have the record of death. We have the records of arrest.
We have the records of imprisonment, etc. In local statistics and
nowhere else do we find records of the ownership of property,
the registration of graduates from our schools, etc., and so, when
one goes to get the property in the North, he is at a great dis¬
advantage.
Furthermore—the color question is not so much to the front
in the North as it is in the South. (I am glad Mr. Pelham is
here; he works on the Census statistics.) When I first saw the
Census statistics of farmers in Pennsylvania I wrote to the Cen¬
sus Office and said, "Why, you have no colored farmers in
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, why is that?"1 I said, "Look
up the record of James T. Patterson and see whether you have
him colored or white," I have made my summer home there for
several years and Mr. Patterson's people have made their home
there for over a hundred years, and across from him is another
colored farmer. And I asked the Census Department to look up
the record. I got the response that they would do it, but when
the Bulletin came out I saw there was no record of Negro farm¬
ers there. What has happened there has happened in many
other places where the Census enumerator, not very keen on the
colored question, has let the colored man go in as white, and
when it comes to figures, we don't get the credit we should. I
want to make another observation about the Negro ownership in
the North and that is this: It was my privilege to visit about 85
Negro rural communities. In most of these rural communities
in the North the Negroes who owned property fifty years ago,
got their property largely by gift from white people. One of the
10
largest of these pieces of property is in Greene County, Ohio,
and another in Darke County, Ohio, also Brown County, and
many in Indiana, where Negroes were emancipated or manumitted,
and sent to these places, their owners frequently giving them a
thousand acres of land; for instance, in Brown County, 2,000
acres of land were given to a former slave; sometimes as much
as $10,000 was also given. In 1866, in Greene County, Ohio,
for example, all of the property—the farms owned by Negroes
(being more than 100,000 acres) were given them by white peo¬
ple. A little less than fifty years after that date I examined the
record and found in one section that all the land that had
been received by Negroes as gifts had been dissipated to an
amount of less than 50 acres, and that the larger holdings
were all, without a single exception, in the hands of men who
had bought the property themselves, or their fathers had pur¬
chased it. The same thing was true in another section—Brown
County. The men who got their property largely by gift from their
white parents or their former masters, as a rule have let it go, and
the larger amount of the property now owned is owned by people
who worked for it themselves, or whose parents worked for it.
That is generally true in all the rural communities of Negroes in
the North, which shows that this ownership of property by col¬
ored people during these fifty years means the exercise of their
own or their fathers' energy; their fathers' thrift or their own
thrift; and the conservation by themselves of their parents.
An interesting study of Negro property in the North is that
showing that there is a great deal of property in Indiana, Michi¬
gan, and Ohio, which Negroes have received from the Govern¬
ment in 60 or 160 acre lots. In most cases where they have re¬
ceived this property from the Government—where the pioneer
Negro father went out and cleared the forest—this property is still
in the hands of Negroes, and one of the most interesting of these
cases is in Cass County, Michigan, which probably is known to
all of you.
In conclusion let me speak of city ownership. Mr. Work
made a study of city ownership in Chicago, and there has been a
study made of city ownership in Philadelphia. Outside of this I
do not know of any intensive study of city ownership of property
11
among colored people. In 1909, by personal effort, I located
3,373 Negroes in the State of Pennsylvania who had an assessed
property value of $5,000,000. About' six years before this time
a study of Negro property in the city of Philadelphia revealed
ownership to the amount of $280,000 worth of property. In
1909 there was therefore something like $5,589,000 worth of
property owned in 105 towns, and I calculate that is about fifty
per cent of the holdings of colored people in the state of Pennsyl¬
vania to-day. I would conclude that there are about 6,500 Ne¬
groes who are property holders—who have (exclusive of the value
of the property in churches and institutions) property valued at
between $15,000,000 and $20,000,000—an amount gotten at only
approximately because of 200 district assessors who stated that
they had no Negroes in their districts who owned property, al¬
though the ministers in the community, in 1887, returned names
of colored property holders, which were afterwards verified by an
assessor who at first stated there were no Negro property holders
in his district. So what we have is entirely an estimate.
It is interesting to study how the Negro acquires his proper¬
ty. There is more in the method of acquirement than there is in
the figures which we give. The city of Philadelphia probably
has more colored owned homes than any of the large cities of the
country. Most of these are acquired through the Pennsylvania
Building and Loan System of purchase. It may be known to you
that Pennsylvania has more homes than any state in the Union;
that, though New York has 9,000,000 people, Philadelphia has a
half a million more homes—dwelling places—in it than New
York has, and Philadelphia has more homes that are owned by
the people who live in them than any other city in our country.
Now this is largely due to the fact that the easy method of pur¬
chase, through the building and loan association, relieves a man
of the fear of foreclosure mortgage, and also of the necessity of
having to pay a large sum at any time. I happen to be the President
of one of these associations and in talking with dozens and dozens
of these Negroes who have come from the South, especially, we
find this difficulty, that he fears the mortgage will be foreclosed.
As soon as we can explain to him that there is no two-year or four-
year or five-year mortgage, at the end of which time he will, if he
is unable to pay the $1,000 or $1,200, lose all of his holdings, he
is convinced that the purchase of the home is not only a sensible
thing but a very easy thing, and I wish that Howard University
might study the Pennsylvania system of building and loan asso¬
ciations as a method of purchasing homes for poor people. This
method has proved a wonderful benefit to white and colored in
Pennsylvania and if it could be adopted throughout our country,
it would increase the holdings of colored people in the next ten
years, a very, very large per cent.
13
Address by Win. Anthony Aery, Press Service
Hampton Institute, Va.
Upon Business Enterprises
ERHA PS you will pardon a personal word if I tell you
that I belong to that relatively small group of white
people who serve as buffers between the great mass of
white people on the one hand and a great mass of colored people
on the other, and sometimes white people misunderstand what I
try to do and certain colored people misunderstand what I try to
do, but I have to assure you that what we do at Hampton and
what white people of my class are doing is done with a Christian
spirit, and if I say things that are critical or harsh, you will un¬
derstand.
Now, the paper that Mr. Work read you just now empha¬
sizes very strongly and very emphatically certain success elements.
You have the daring, the initiative, the industry, thethriftthat made
this wonderful paper possible, but as the men in the white busi¬
ness world are learning, it is not enough for us to make progress
or to be satisfied with investigating—that is not the best. What
we have to do is apply the survey method of looking after the
facts, whatever they may be, pleasing or displeasing, and in the
consideration of these facts, realize that they are mere foundations.
As I see the problem, it seems to me that every day that you
and I work together for this national prosperity and for the pros¬
perity of the colored and white people, we must be willing to
adopt the foundations that are built upon character, upon intelli¬
gence, upon thrift, upon cooperation, upon racial good will. Now
when you take facts into consideration, and build on them, you
have something which we can go out and work with in the fu¬
ture. Of course there are certain business dangers. One is that
we shall forget the weakness in our present organization. When
we go out to carry out a big campaign, whether it is for education
or even in politics, the thing we must try to do—the thing that
men try to do, is to perfect their organization, and the big thing
in organization is to make every man in the organization feel the
force of somebody's personality. Because of this,—in Howard
University you have had strong personality at work in the form
of your presidents, in the form of your professors—you have been
14
able to inject some new life and new hope an<l new ambition in¬
to more and more a common cause, and with new hope and am¬
bition these people have gone out into the North and South—
everywhere—carrying out the concrete ideas of Howard Univer¬
sity. Now, that is the thing we have got to work for, not only
in Howard and Hampton, but at Harvard and Cambridge. The
colored business men and women must come together and decide
what is going to be the big platform on which they are going to
work. Then when you have decided on your platform and you
can get people trained—students in stenography, in typewriting,
in bookkeeping, in the technique of business—and establish some
offices, it seems to me that you take the history of the past and
capitalize it. Now, what do we mean? We mean to put the
thing to work without abusing it. When you put money to
work, what do you do? You make money work over and over
and over again, and when you capitalize personality, you use peo¬
ple over and over, but you do not wear them out. And it seems
to me all important to meet the possible dangers of business.
That is the thing we have got to do. Capitalize our manhood;
capitalize our womanhood; make our young men and women in
school realize the great obligation they owe. For instance,
frequently in the South, and I think Bishop Thirkield will bear
me out, the question comes up again and again, of giving some
money for colored schools, and what do we find? No money.
Difficulties in getting money. And when a ^roup of people look
you in the eye and say, "We have no money," what can we do
about it? It means that some individual has got to take the risk.
The leader, the man who takes the risk, if there are profits,
gets them. But the man in the South especially, who wants to
help education, must have money and he can not have money
unless people have wants to be satisfied, and they will not have
wants to be satisfied unless they are educated. And it all comes
back to education, to good homes, and to the development of
character. But how far can business men of this country go, if
we are sending out to them people lacking in education?
How much education do you suppose a white boy or a
colored boy can get when he has to go to a one-room school,
taught by a teacher who has never gotten out of the fourth grade
15
of the local schools, who gets $15 or $18 a month and teaches
from three to five months in the year? How much of an impetus
is given that boy or that girl to go on and earn money, and be a
good farmer or merchant, and make it possible for us to put
money into the schools? My friends, it seems to me this morning,
as never before that on this talk about the facts that have been
brought out by reference to Census reports—the facts that Mr.
Work has brought out,—we must build up a program of action,
something that we really can do. This is to be a progress pro¬
gram. If you find that the great bulk of the people you are try¬
ing to help are living in the country, you have got to work on a
platform which must appeal to and help that class of people, and
the big thing is not so much to tell them what kind of fertilizer
to put into the ground as it is to build them up as men, and help
the men on the land, and then the men on the land will build up
their farms. And you can apply the same kind of reasoning to
the merchant. When you really help a merchant, you do not help
him by going in and loaning money necessarily. When a man
wants to borrow money but objects to telling you what he wants
to use it for, in all probability he is not likely to use that money
wisely, and if he goes to the bank and wants to borrow money he
must establish a good credit.
As was said some years ago, the big thing is character. The
man who has good character in this country can get credit, and
I think again that Bishop Thirkield will bear me out, that there
does not seem to be another place in the country where the aver¬
age colored man, without education, but with character, can get
more real credit than he can in the South.
Somebody was saying a moment ago that we are considering
the colored man now, because he is moving out of the South.
Yes, we are, and the North is as much distressed in some in¬
stances about it as the South. The South will let him go away but
in many, many cases they won't let him come in. And he is going
to move out of the South, and he is going to keep on moving out
of the South until we have a better place, a more secure place for
him to live in. Now, one of the points that I would like to make
perfectly clear to you is that the best people of the South today,
16
while they are not saying much about it,—they may not be mak¬
ing many promises as to what they are going to do,—but the best-
people have this whole thing on their hearts and they realize that
certain things must be done for colored people, not because they
are colored, but because they are folks, and whenever anything
in this world comes that is worth while, whether it is a new idea
or a new life, or anything else worth while, there is trouble, there
is pain, there is danger—in many instances there is death. But
out of that travail and that pain and that death we are going to
have a new life.
Some one talked, a little while ago, about men selling their
farms and going into the North with material possessions. There
is another side too. Not long ago, standing on the station plat¬
form there at the Atlanta terminal, what did I see? Perhaps fifty
men, with nothing but overalls on. Many of them had nothing in
their possession but a dirty white handkerchief; some had cheap
suitcases. These men were going out to Columbus and Chicago.
A great many are bound to fail. Why. Because they are colored?
No, because they are of the class unfitted to meet the com¬
petition they are going to face, and what we have to do first is to
protect these people who may have left their homes unwisely.
People get panicky. Not long ago I heard of a case where a man
left his property, unharvested crops, perhaps $2,000 worth. Can
anyone explain why he left? He became panic striken. When
we teach our boys and girls the fundamental ideas of economics
and sociology and psychology and their business methods, and
the other things which we can do through schools, it seems to
me we are going to get wrhat we call a methed of social control
which is going to make it possible to avert a repetition of this
kind of exodus.
Then, again, in the matter of the school attendance. I have
looked into this matter. I am not blaming anybody. I am not
blaming colored people. I am not blaming white people, but
here are the facts. They are according to the Census of 1910
and I judge the ratios are just about the same now.
There were, between the ages of 6 and 20, in this country,
3,420,000 colored children; of that number we have 1,600,000,
or in other words, 47.3 of the colored children in school. Of that
17
aggregate, let us take that group down to 14 years of age. We
had 68 per cent, in school. Now let us compare that for just a
moment with the white situation. For the white children as a
whole we had 64.5 per cent, in school as against 47.3 per cent, in
school—for the colored—for that group 6 to 20 years. In the
case of the group 10 to 14 years of age; we had 91.1 per cent, of
the white children in school; we had 68 per cent, of the colored
children. Now, it seems to me, that no matter who is to blame
for that situation, these colored children are colored children and
therefore the colored people of the whole county are under obli¬
gation to strain every nerve and use every possible effort to see
that at least 91 per cent, of the colored children between these
ages, are put into the schools. That is merely fair. And so we
could go on and make other comparisons but I want to leave that
with you, it seems to me, as a responsibility. On the other hand,
were I speaking to just as large a group of Southern white peo¬
ple, I'd say to them, that you can not afford, morally or econom¬
ically, not to do the square thing by these children; and they are
waking up to see that point. Of course people do not like to
put on shoes that they don't want to fit, and it would be a very
easy matter when so many things have been said, that we should
not say this at all.
Now, you say you have reduced the illiteracy of the colored
people. Yes, but you still have about 30.4 per cent, and you can
not get the results you ought to have until you make every possi¬
ble effort to cut down that illiteracy.
As regards farming. In farming, as in other occupations,
we are employing more and more of machine labor. Take the
state of North Carolina, white people and colored people have a
great abundance of man labor and a great scarcity of machine
labor, and what happens. North Carolina trails down at the end of
the list for agricultural output, per acre, and Iowa goes way ahead.
Now, we are not saying that Iowa ought to be held back, but
what we need to do is to show men on the land that they really
can use machines to the greatest advantage. The facts that I
have here about the Negro farmer are very similar to those that
have been presented by other speakers but there is one thing I
would like to try to emphasize and that is, that, whereas we have
18
218,000 Negro farm owners, we have 672,964 Negro tenants.
That is that great tenant class, mining the land in the South, and
mining the land everywhere. This is not peculiar to colored
tenants. Wherever we have great numbers of white tenants we
have the problem of the ignorant man getting just as much as he
can out of the land in order simply to keep body and soul togeth¬
er, and what then do you find is true? That these tenants move
from one county to another, from one state to another, and move
just as often as they possibly can. When the boll weevil strikes
Alabama, when the floods come to Alabama, when the white
man at the bank says,"We can not extend you any more credit,"
what happens? He must get out, and in many cases he has to
get out by selling the very last thing on earth, which he has. He
burns his bridges behind him. Now that tenant goes out and tries
it in Chicago and finds that he does not make a go of it and then
wants to come back South. Do you suppose that the South is
ready to receive him again? No. If the man, however, who
has been a farm owner and has sold his land and gone away,
happens to make up his mind to go back, all he needs to do is to
announce the fact and they will say to him, "We want you
back." That difference between the owner and the tenant is a dif¬
ference that is based upon an economic difference and not a racial
difference. And if we can learn, I think, the two great groups
in this country, that many of the things that trouble us are sim¬
ply economical and sociological and psychological rather than
racial, I think we will get somewhere.
Something was said, just a moment ago, about farming and
manufacturing. The figures in the case show very clearly that
in this country there has been for instance, a cutting down on the
percentage of those people in agriculture as compared with those
engaged in trade and transportation pursuits. At present the
Negro has about 56 per cent, of his number in agriculture as com¬
pared with 32 per cent, of the white people. The country as a
whole has about 20 percent, in trade and transportation; the col¬
ored people has about 6 per cent. The country as a whole has
about 28 per cent, engaged in manufacturing and economic in¬
dustries; the colored people has 4 per cent. You can see, my
friends, the wonderful possibility there is for you to enter into a
19
new line of opportunity that some people think is closed to them
on account of their race. It isn't at all; it just simply means
that we have not organized our forces and we are not moving in
lines that are opening up every day that we are here.
Another condition of this progress that we are talking about.
If you find that one group is dying off at the rate of 25 in a
thousand and another at the rate of 14 in a thousand, you do not
need to be surprised if at the end of twenty or thirty years one
group has everything and the other has lost everything. There
is no use of saying that the Census figures are not right; they do
not include everything they ought, perhaps; they do not guaran¬
tee that they do, but they indicate the trend of things. We can
not afford to deny these figures but we need to see what are
some of the things we can do. In the matter of housing you are
very frequently limited by statute. Recently I was in Baltimore
and that question was discussed. The Mayor of Baltimore had
called a conference. There are other men who are interested in
the housing problem, and changes in the housing conditions will
come about just in proportion as you can show definitely, but with
kindness of spirit, that changes ought to be made.
White people are a very hard-headed group of people, but
you know you can take the most obstinate, hard-headed white
men in Washington and get the right colored people to intercede
with them, in the right way, and you can almost get them to say
that black is white. You say, "We do not want to lose any of
our manhood and we do not want to sacrifice." You do not
need to. You do not need to sacrifice any real pride, if you will
go to a man and in a kindly way tell him what the facts are. But
sometimes we have discovered this, that just as soon as you pick
up figures like these and throw them at white people through the
papers or in any other way, you get a lot of white people to say,
"All right, we won't do anything if they come at us is this way."
I can give you an instance where a school building was delayed
seven years because one colored man, without judgment, hurled
some figures at people when they were not in a mood to listen to
them, but if he had gone at it in a different way, he would have
immediately gained what he was after. That is not sacrificing
manhood; it is just simply knowing how to take the bull by
the horns.
20
In the matter of Negro homes; it is very clear to me from
the studies I have made, that unless a man has a good home he
is not going to have much of an incentive to do a great deal. To
have good homes we have got to have women who are prepared
to make good homes, and as a part of the program, I would say,
let us help the woman, and to do that, let us give her as many
labor saving devices as possible so that she migh^ have some
time to herself to study the problems of her home, and so that
she may go out, and with other women, organize movements that
only women can start and push along. I have had enough ex¬
perience with colored women to know that they can do anything
they start out to do, but frequently they are so tied down to the
routine of home duties that they simply haven't time. I think
in schools and colleges we ought to make sure that the girls learn
the fundamental principles of economics just as the boys do, that
they ought to learn how the masses of the people work so that
they could handle business and sociology. Let me say this. You can
take boys and girls and direct them toward the better things in
this life. We are doing this at Hampton and you can do exactly
the same things for boys and girls at Howard. Howard Univer¬
sity has its commercial college and it is doing splendid work, but
for the great bulk of people we need that new attitude toward
business and toward life.
21
Address by Eugene K. Jones, Executive Secretary
National Urban League, New York Gity
Upon Health arid Sanitation
XAM sure there isn't a colored person in this room who
did not understand Dr. Roman in the position that he
took in regard to high infant mortality among Negroes,
which, together with pulmonary diseases is really the cause of the
high Negro death rate as recorded in the various cities through¬
out our country. In fact there is no question in my mind as to
the fact that the high infant mortality is largely due to the im¬
morality among many of our people. Recently the Urban
League made an investigation in New York City of the high in¬
fant mortality existing on the West Side—the social cause under¬
lying the large number of deaths of Negro babies under one year
of age and it was found that of those that died, 25 per cent, were
illegitimate children. If you will observe the records of Wash¬
ington, D. C., you will find that 22 per cent, of the babies born
in this city among colored people are illegitimate. It is no
wonder that we find a record of high infant mortality when these
conditions exist. There is no question in my mind that the
death rate among Negroes in Africa was at least normal so far as
the death rate among uncivilized people was concerned. We
have authoritative information to the effect that diseases due to
pulmonary causes, syphilis and smallpox are almost unknown
among the Negroes of Africa. We also know that there must
have been a very high death rate following their transfer to this
country, due to despondency, dress, and illtreatment—and we
have authority for the fact that a large majority of Negroes were
not well treated. We also know that several authorities on social
matters have stated that unless the Negro is up and doing, the
solution of the Negro problem in America will be in the Negro's
despondency; that as a result of that despondency, the Negro's
birth rate will decrease, the death rate increase and gradually the
Negro will become a smaller unit in the population. But the
Negro, because of his hope and determination to make good, in¬
creases in numbers in this country.
We know that the city dwelling with its poor housing con¬
ditions and insanitation, the habit of keeping late hours to which
22
many Negroes became addicted, liquor, and venereal diseases help¬
ed to increase the death rate among the race following the war.
We have authority to the effect that the mortality among
Negroes in rural districts is never more than 25 per cent, more
than that of the whites. The Board of Health of New York
City has gone on record as saying that the rural death rate among
Negroes is nearly the same as the rural death rate among the white
people. We know that very few of the rural districts of the
South have reliable statistics on this matter; they are not included
in the registration area and reports contrary to this opinion must
not have any effect upon our judgment. We also know that ac¬
cording to the records showing admission to the hospitals of the
army, the Negroes have exceeded in those diseases that were not
known to Negroes in Africa but are diseases of civilized man—
pneumonia, frost bites, smallpox, and sunstroke. The whites ex¬
ceeded the Negro in typhoid fever, measles, malaria, ghonorrea,
dysentry, and deaths from alcoholism, the majority of which are
diseases to which Negroes had become almost immune. We
know also that the Jews on the East Sidein New York City have
a lower death rate than the average death rate for the city as a
whole which indicates the power of "selection" in a group. This
lower rate is due largely to the fact that the Jew has been stand¬
ing before persecution and unfavorable living so long that the
weaker members have died off leaving a strong people who have
a lower death rate than other people.
Now we will take the urban death rate for the registration
area. The death rate for the city of New York in 1915 was 13,
which was the lowest of any large city in the world. The death
rate among Negroes in New York in 1915 was 24.5 as compared
with 30 in 1910. This change for the better followed the mov¬
ing of large numbers of Negroes to houses in which they have the
best sanitary conditions. So you can see that after all it is en¬
tirely a question of environment. According to Dr. DuBois'
"Philadelphia Negro" the death rate among Negroes in Phila¬
delphia from 1884 to 1890, in the 5th Ward was 48.4, due to the
extremely bad conditions. About the same time, in the 30th
Ward, the death rate was only 21.7, which is another evidence of
the fact that the conditions under which people live determine
the death rate.
23
Dr. Roman dealt briefly with the question of physicians. In
1890 there were 909 Negro physicians in the United States; in
1900 there were 1,734; in 1910 there were 3,077 or one to every
3,259 Negroes in this country, or but one to every 600 families,
So you can see that we are very likely soon to get the proper
medical attention that our people should have in time of sickness.
Not long ago I was in a conference in which the question
of prevention of disease was being discussed, for a large section
of New York City. The subject was "Preventative Health
Measures." When I was asked to speak I spoke almost entirely
of the Negro wages, Negro rent, the condition of our houses, the
attitude of the Union towards colored labor, and such things.
When I was through the Chairman of the meeting got up and
said, "We came here, gentlemen, to discuss preventative meas¬
ures, not the attitude of the Unions toward Negro labor; not the
economic condition of the people." I arose immediately and
said, "I think that the time when a city like New York will per¬
mit its Health Department to discuss health without regard to
wages and rent and the narrow margin between the cost of living
and the income of the people, ought to be passed, and that we
are not any longer to tolerate conditions of that kind." And I
went straight to the various departments of the Health Depart¬
ment in New York City, and I found a ready response. I found
that they were ready to take up this question of the industrial
condition of the people. In New York City we found that the
colored people were paying one third of their income for rent; the
whites, one-sixth. The Negroes were living in five, six, and sev¬
en-room apartments, with small incomes, because they could not
find two, three and four-room apartments; that their incomes were
so insufficient to meet their needs that the Negroes in 62 per cent,
of the families had to take lodgers, thus aggravating an over¬
crowded condition. We found that 31 per cent, of the popula¬
tion was lodgers—a floating population—and that there was not
a single bathing facility in that whole community of 60,000 peo¬
ple. We found that the city street-cleaning department did not
flush the streets regularly. We found out that the Health De¬
partment did not make regular inspection; that there was no mill:
station; no health station in the community. By demanding a
24
better condition we have been able to get all these things im¬
proved in our city and the result is a lower death rate. Now I
think that in every community throughout this country, whether
we have control of the reins of Government or whether we are
kept in the background politically, it is time for Negroes to come
forward and intelligently demand better conditions as a basis for
better health. I find that we can get at least a hearing and that
some results will follow.
Just the week before last an illness census was taken. Who
ever heard of an illness census? We have always had death rates
but we wanted to find out what diseases the people were suffer¬
ing from. We were able to get the Health Department to use
400 nurses to find out whether the people were using physicians
or not, or simply doctoring according to advice of friends; wheth¬
er they were getting sufficient funds to purchase medicine or not;
whether they go to the clinics; whether they use the public facili¬
ties furnished by the city. Strange to say, we found in many
cases our people would not take advantage of the opportunities
they had provided for them, but be that as it may, it is the duty
of the various city departments to instruct the people in the use
of the facilities they have at their command, and I am sure if this
Conference does nothing more than send out the information that
we believe in better health conditions, by the people demanding
more consideration from their government, by instructing the
children as to hygiene and sanitation, and following the advice of
Miss Ovington, to get more ventilation in our homes and in oui
public buildings and thus reduce materially our death rate, this
Conference will be doing a material and effective piece of work.
The Following Conclusions were Drawn up by a
Committee and Adopted by the Conference
The Howard University Sociological Conference on fifty
Years of Progress by the American Negro" which was held on
March 1 and 2, brought together from all parts of the country
several hundred men and women who are working intelligently
and in a Christian spirit to promote racial good-will and national
prosperity.
Some of the big constructive ideas of the Conference follow:
Christian character, intelligence, co-operation, respect for
womanhood, thrift—these are the foundation stones upon which
all progress is built. To the degree that individuals and groups
secure these precious possessions there come national prosperity
and racial good-will.
The sociological conference serves as an excellent and effec¬
tive clearing house for the exchange of ideas and the comparison
of methods which deal with vital problems such as health, educa¬
tion, enforcement of law and order, industrial opportunity, home-
making, community improvement, and character building.
It brings together representative leaders who are seeking the
truth as a guide to the building of a constructive program of so¬
cial progress, in spite of legal restrictions and discriminations.
It brings the University into helpful touch with those who
are leading the masses toward the better things of life. It gives
the leaders a chance to discover how much of service the Univer¬
sity can render, and stands ready to render, to them, if only they
will make known their needs and wants.
How a sociological conference can most effectively deliver
its message to the public is still a serious problem.
Health is an individual and a public problem. It is defi¬
nitely correlated with morality. Whatever the individual will do
to regulate his or her life according to the teachings of the Bible
and whatever the public will do co-operatively to improve sani¬
tary conditions, housing, water and milk supplies, will surely
improve public health and will prove a blessing to the nation.
Education must provide for the training of the whole mass
and for every man, woman and child who needs to meet the eco¬
nomic and social demands of the present day.
Education must be carried to the people, when, for any rea¬
son, people do not seek education.
Education provides leaders, and without leaders the people
must suffer needlessly.
Education must bring to every man and woman definite re¬
sponsibility for helping disadvantaged individuals and groups.
26
Those engaged in business, regardless of their previous
training or present success, need to do more professional reading,
need to form local, state and national associations to study better
methods of business organization and need to exchange ideas more
freely.
Educational institutions should give all their students the
essentials of psychology, economics, sociology and modern busi¬
ness methods so that future leaders, already trained in scientific
methods of study, may be able to attack with intelligence their
perplexing, complex, recurring problems.
They should train men and women to use initiative, persist¬
ence and vision in solving problems and should lay stress upon
developing independent, broad-minded thinkers.
Co-operation of colored men with white men and co-opera¬
tion of colored women with white women, to secure welfare im¬
provements, have proved to be lines of the least friction.
Throughout the country there are evidences, in spite of the
proverbial newspaper reports, that racial cooperation is slowly,
steadily growing.
When men and women of economic and social standing in
the community oppose unjust discrimination and present these
facts bravely before those who are in authority, there are many
cases in which favorable action is taken.
Amid the numerous disappointments which come to patient,
loyal colored citizens on account of the white man's failure
to understand or even consider, when he does understand, the
colored man's thoughts and feelings on the common prob¬
lems of life, there is, in the attitude of some strong southern
white men who are leaders, a ray of hope that, in time, justice
will prevail and race prejudice will disappear with the advent of
education for all the white people.
Women are invaluable to society, not only as makers of
Christian homes, but also as pioneers and developing forces in
all movements for the relief of poverty and pain, the improve¬
ment of the handicapped, the advancement of the ambitious and
the development of all welfare enterprises.
The social service work done by women throughout the na¬
tion commands the highest respect of everybody, for it is of a
high order of excellence and has been done patiently, quietly
and in spite of many hardships.
The work of women to raise all classes to a higher level of
civilization has made men realize anew the great importance of
teaching all classes and races that any progress is conditioned by
the respect which is commonly paid to womanhood.
27
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Important Notice to Alumni
We trust that all alumni will keep the President's
Office informed in regard to change of address. We are
sending out from month to month more literature than has
ever been sent out in the past, and we wish to avoid all
waste. Every graduate ought to see what is sent.
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