Alexander's Magazine (Vol. 1, No. 1, May 15, 1905)

NO. 1, MAY 15, 1905) ***

Transcriber’s Note: A reprint edition provided by the Negro Universities Press, New York, 1969. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Obvious typos were corrected.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

ALEXANDER’S MAGAZINE

_Charles Alexander, Editor_

_Vol. 1_ _Boston, Mass., May 15, 1905_ _No. 1_

_Missionary Work and African Education_

FROM THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY MAGAZINE

Mystery becomes opportunity. Mr. Mott’s book, “The Pastor and Modern Missions,” contains the following summary: “One hundred years ago Africa was a coast line only. Even one generation ago, when Stanley emerged from that continent with the latest news of Livingstone, nine tenths of inner Africa remained unexplored. More than 600 white men have given their lives to explore this one continent. Now, however, H. R. Mill, D. Sc., formerly librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, can well say, ‘The last quarter of the nineteenth century has filled the map of Africa with authentic topographic details, and left few blanks of any size.’ Bishop Hartzell says: ‘Yesterday Africa was the continent of history, of mystery, and of tragedy; today it is the continent of opportunity.’ When Stanley, starting in 1874, made his journey of 999 days across Africa, in the course of 7,000 miles he never met a Christian. There was not a mission station, or church, or school on all that track. Now the chain of missions is almost complete from Mombasa to the mouth of the Congo, and there are scattered through inner Africa hundreds of churches and Christian schools and over 100,000 native Christians.”

“Three distinct Africas are known to the modern world—North Africa, where men go for health; South Africa, where they go for money; and Central Africa, where they go for adventure. The first, the old Africa of Augustine and Carthage, every one knows from history; the geography of second, the Africa of the Zulu and the diamond, has been taught us by two universal educators, war and the stock exchange; but our knowledge of the third, the Africa of Livingstone and Stanley, is still fitly symbolized by the vacant look upon our maps which tells how long this mysterious land has kept its secret.” So said Henry Drummond in “Tropical Africa” in 1888; the mystery is now revealed; we see an open door for the gospel of love, light and life.

The African work of our Missionary Union is in the Congo Free State. The mission was adopted by us in 1884. There are now 8 stations; 31 missionaries and were last year 306 native helpers; 13 churches with 3,3692 members; 135 schools, with 4,456 pupils. [Transcriber’s Note: obviously, 3,3692 is a misprint. 3,692 members seems most likely (= about 250 per church), but 33,692 is also plausible.]

[Illustration: REV. HENRY RICHARDS]

Who says that the next 25 years will surely determine what Central Africa is to be. Considering what has been done in Uganda and Congo land, we ought fully to expect that the gospel tree will have so grown that its branches with healing leaves will overshadow the whole land.

[Illustration]

WORK OF THE HAMPTON INSTITUTE

_Told at the 35th Anniversary Exercises of that Splendid Seat of Learning_

_By E. Jay Ess_

WRITTEN FOR ALEXANDER’S MAGAZINE

Hampton Institute, Va., May 3rd, 1905.—This has been anniversary week at Hampton Institute. The spirit of Armstrong—the courageous and strong—has been all about and in everything. The famous Ogden Party headed by Dr. Robert C. Ogden, trustee of Hampton and of Tuskegee, has been in attendance and has given to the occasion an importance of overwhelming interest.

[Illustration: DR. H. B. FRISSELL]

First of all the weather has been perfect. Everything whether of exhibit or address has been in perfect good taste and the 35th anniversary exercises have been voted the most successful in the history of the school—made so in large part because of the presence upon Hampton’s grounds of her most famous and eloquent son, Dr. Booker T. Washington, who delivered the principal address upon both days—“Virginia Day,” May 2, when nearly 300 White Virginians from Richmond attended in a body—and upon Wednesday, May 3, when the anniversary exercises proper were held. He has been lionized wherever he has gone and has been as cordially sought after by banker, prelate, educator and what not, as by those who are students or have been students of Hampton.

A report of Tuesday’s exercises may be interesting:

The spacious room was handsomely decorated with flags and bunting. The exercises were of an exceptionally interesting character, the opening service being followed by plantation songs from the chorus of Negro and Indian students of the school. J. Enoch Blanton, a member of the class of 1905 in agriculture, read an essay on “Changed Ideas of Farming.” Francis E. Bolling, a graduate of the class of 1905, in domestic science spoke of “What Hampton Has Meant to Me,” paying a glowing tribute to his Alma Mater. Dr. John Graham Brooks of Harvard University, spoke on the “Fruits of Hampton.” He said that as the race problem is probably the hardest with which the world has to deal, and one of which we are the most profoundly ignorant, he would avoid the big and keep near the little. “One of the truest things about Hampton,” he said, “is that she is finding out her own business, the real business of Hampton is to learn how a race can be disciplined into independence and how success is to be won. In this Hampton succeeds admirably.”

Dr. Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute was then introduced and received a splendid ovation. After Doctor Washington’s address, President Boatwright of Richmond College spoke on “The Educational Problem,” in which he paid a glowing tribute to the work of the Hampton Institute. Dr. R. E. Blackwell of Randolph-Macon College followed and spoke of the misgiving with which Southern men approach the problem of education, and expressed the opinion that if respect and co-operation between the races is to be restored, it must be through such institutions as Hampton and Tuskegee. Dr. Robert C. Ogden made a few remarks in which he gave a hearty welcome to the guests present. He also paid a very high tribute to Doctor Frissell, whom he said, was the real founder of the Conference for Education in the South. He briefly reviewed the work in the institution and spoke of the American fellowship existing between Massachusetts and Virginia, of Boston and Richmond which binds the hearts of all together.

[Illustration: HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY]

On Wednesday representatives of the several classes spoke most acceptably after which Dr. Robert C. Ogden, president of the Hampton board of trustees, presented the diplomas and trade certificates to the young men and women of the several academic and industrial departments. Of these 13 were awarded to post-graduates, 23 to members of the senior class, and 45 trade certificates to those who had finished trades. After this ceremony Dr. Booker T. Washington again spoke. He said in part:

“When I was a student at this institution I was taught that Ponce de Leon spent years in search of a fountain of perpetual youth. In my opinion there is no spot in America where one can more nearly renew his youth and strengthen his faith in the wisdom and perpetuity of our institutions than at Hampton.

“To the students who are to go out from the Hampton institute today to begin what I hope are to be careers of usefulness, I wish to say: I hope that you will learn to be even tempered, self-controlled and hopeful. You will find many conditions that will try your soul, but the test of Hampton’s training will be shown by the ability with which you are able to choose the fundamental things in life and stick to them and not become discouraged because of the temporary and non-essential. The great thing is for you to conduct yourselves so as to become worthy of the privileges of an American citizen and these privileges will come. I hope you will not yield to the temptation of becoming grumblers and whiners, but will hold up your head and march bravely forward, meeting manfully and sensibly all the problems that may confront you. Place emphasis upon your opportunities rather than upon your disadvantages; place emphasis upon achievement rather than upon the injustices to which you will be subjected. As you go out into the world you may expect rebuffs, sometimes insults, opposition, injustice. You will meet with race prejudice in many forms, but if you are true to Hampton and its traditions you will meet and overcome all of these conditions with a calm and patient spirit.

[Illustration: VIRGINIA AND CLEVELAND HALLS]

“No one can degrade you; you, yourselves, are the only individuals who can inflict that punishment. I hope that you will pursue the policy of making yourself so indispensably useful in every community into which you go that the members of that community, black and white, will feel that they cannot dispense with your services. The race that goes quietly and contentedly on doing things day by day will reap its reward. It often requires more courage to suffer in silence than to retaliate; more courage not to strike back than to strike; more courage to be silent than to speak. We must not permit ourselves to harbor the belief that our friends among the white people in the south are disappearing. If we pursue the sensible and conservative course, the number of such friends will multiply. There are great opportunities for us here in the south in education, industry, business and the professions. The race that gets most out of the soil, out of the wood, out of the kitchen, out of the school room, the doctor’s office or the pulpit, is the race that is going to succeed regardless of all obstacles.”

The signal tribute to Dr. Frissell was received with every manifestation of pride on the part of the students and alumni, and of gratification upon the part of Dr. Frissell himself, the board of trustees and the distinguished visitors present. Some of those who have been here as members of Mr. Ogden’s party and as guests of Hampton and friends of Negro Education—many of whom have spoken during the two days stay—are: Dr. John Graham Brooks, Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. Wallace Buttrick, executive secretary of the General Education Board, New York; Mr. E. H. Clement, editor Evening Transcript, Boston; Dr. A. S. Draper, State Committee of Education, New York; Rev. Paul Revere Frothingham, Boston; Mr. Frederick T. Gates, confidential secretary to Mr. John D. Rockefeller; Hon. Seth Low, New York; Dr. St. Clair McKelway of the Brooklyn Eagle; Mr. W. R. Moody, East Northfield, Mass.; Mr. Robert Treat Paine, Boston; Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Thorpe, Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. F. G. Peabody, Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. Geo. Foster Peabody, New York and a great number of others—some 95 in all—many with their wives.

A great number of prominent Colored persons have also been present, including Hon. Harry S. Cummings of Baltimore; Rev. M. J. Naylor of Baltimore; Mr. Emmett J. Scott, secretary to Dr. Booker T. Washington and many others.

[Illustration: MEMORIAL CHAPEL, HAMPTON INSTITUTE]

SOCIALISM AND THE NEGRO.

By Reverdy C. Ransom.

What do the Socialists propose to do with the Negro question? One says, he is willing to treat a black man as he would a white man; that is, when Socialism is fully established. Another tells us, he has never considered the subject, besides he is too busy considering the question of “class consciousness.” The Socialistic cult in this country, under whatever name it may act, is bound to consider the Negro and the questions growing out of his presence here. Nine million people cannot be ignored. They are the storm centre for the exhibition of vigorous racial prejudices and animosities.

[Illustration: REV. R. C. HANSON, D. D.]

Mr. Eraste Vidrine, a socialistic organizer in the Southern states, in the International Socialist Review for January, says: “The socialist organizations are restricted to whites, who refuse admission to Negroes.” This is God’s world and not a devil’s world.

Of all the numerous attempts through the ages to read the teachings of Jesus into widely differing schools of thought, that of socialism is nearest.

Karl Marx is the high priest of modern socialism, and Joseph Mazzini, Count Tolstoi, and Henry George are of the same company. It will take years for the ruling ideas of the present age to spend themselves. New England is conservative. Precedent, custom, the old-established order of things, hold sway. In the west, it is different. The immense distances of her prairies, and the lofty altitudes of her mountains are congenial soil for the growing of great ideas.

Theories, economic, populistic, socialistic, coming out of the west, strike the staid people of the east as being quite grotesque. But it must ever be that true prophets and reformers are made out of cranks and heretics.

With those who advocate the Negroes, forced elimination or self-effacement from politics, we have nothing but uncompromising dissent.

The obsequious, cringing, sycophantic man, with his hat under his arm, is only a thing to be despised. To be a man, one must stand erect, and contend for the recognition of all that belongs to a man. The Democratic party does not seek the Negro; the Republican party uses him, but has small use for him, in the paths that lead to honor and to power.

Those who falsely picture the Negro as indolent, shiftless, lazy, are one with those who seek to keep him in a condition of social, political and economic inferiority. The Negro is industrious and aspiring and is seeking to mount each round in the ladder of moral, social, industrial and political strength and progress.

Seventy percent of our women are wage-workers, with the overwhelming majority of our men. Organized labor may discriminate, but there can be no permanent advance while one-eighth of our population is ignored.

The program of socialism is begirt with the spirit of righteousness and seeks to establish itself on the foundations of justice. Sooner or later, in the affairs of men, there must come a levelling process. The Negro needs to take a broader outlook and a larger view of himself in relation to his surroundings.

Within the present century the mightiest battle of all the ages will be fought right here in the United States. It will be that of the people coming into their own. I have used the term socialism loosely; but I mean what Chicago meant when it voted to own its street railways; I mean what Kansas meant when it sought to establish its own oil refineries; I mean the spirit of what Edward Bellamy said in his “Looking Backward,” I mean in fine, that the wheels and spindles, the wealth of the bowels of the earth, and the produce of the soil shall be justly shared by the producers. The Negro’s cue for all time to come, is to preach brotherhood and to practice it. He or some other race, whom God shall choose, has it in his power to more mightily enrich the world than did Egyptian or Jew, Greek, Roman, or Anglo-Saxon, this by consecrating himself to a mission of unselfishness, to war against social, political and economic inequalities, and for a bringing in of the realization of the brotherhood of man.

New Bedford, Mass.

BUSINESS RULES.

In Andrew Carnegie’s “Empire of Business” he sets down the prime conditions of success as they appear to him. Above all, he says, a young man should concentrate his energy, thought and capital exclusively on the business which he has adopted. If he has begun on one line, he should fight it out on that line.

The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here, there and everywhere. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is all wrong. I tell you “Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.” Look round you and take notice; men who do that do not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American business man is lack of concentration.

To summarize what I have said: Aim for the highest; never enter a barroom; do not touch liquor, or if at all, only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm’s interests yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.

OF INTEREST TO WAITERS.

Said the man about town as he pushed a coin across the table and poked several bank notes into his vest pocket: “Have you ever seen a waiter who stands in with the cashier in a fashionable hotel, cafe or rathskeller dress up his change as you’d dress a window, so that you’re tempted to tip him? No matter what denomination you pay in, between them they’ll always make one bill look as if it had been broken up with dynamite. If your check calls for half a dollar you never get half a dollar back from a dollar. There’ll be a quarter and two 10-cent pieces and a nickel. If you’re generous you won’t pick up the quarter; if you’re kind of stingy you’ll leave a dime, and you’ll pass over the nickel anyway, even if you’re tighter than a tight shoe.”

“Let me ask you a harder one,” replied the man addressed. “Have you ever seen a waiter who didn’t stand in with the cashier in a fashionable hotel, cafe or rathskeller?”

WITH OUR THINKERS

“I believe that any man’s life will be filled with constant unexpected encouragements if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life—that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish useful living.”—Booker T. Washington.

* * * * *

“The ability to live and thrive under adverse circumstances is the surest guarantee of the future. The race which at the last shall inherit the earth will be the race which remains longest upon it. The Negro was here before the Anglo-Saxon was evolved, and his thick lips and heavy-lidded eyes looked out from the inscrutable Sphynx cross the sands of Egypt while yet the ancestors of those who now oppress him were living in caves, practicing human sacrifices, and painting themselves with woad—and the Negro is here yet.”—Charles W. Chesnutt.

* * * * *

Fortune is often too kind and generous to the mentally, morally delinquent and too often covers the path of the undeserving with flowers, while real merit and genius is allowed to starve and die.

The Disfranchisement of the Negro

BY WILFRED H. SMITH

FROM THE OUTLOOK

As an American Negro I feel compelled to take issue with the Hon. John B. Knox of Alabama, in his article in The Outlook of January 21, on the “Reduction of Southern Representation,” and challenge his statement that the recent Constitution of Alabama does not disfranchise the Negro as such, but only prescribes an educational and property qualification test for both races; and his further statement that in case a Negro is discriminated against by the registrars, an appeal to the courts of Alabama will not be in vain.

On the contrary, the fact is that the suffrage provisions of the new Constitution of Alabama are an open disavowal and nullification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and an exclusion of the Negro from the electorate on account of his race and previous condition; also the law providing for an appeal to the courts of the State of Alabama, where a Negro is refused registration, is only a snare, and affords him no relief whatever.