cular
foundation. History shows that no class or nation has risen to
independence without first accumulating property. However much we
disparage the qualities of greed and selfishness which the rush for
wealth has made obnoxious, we must acknowledge that the solid basis of
the virtues is thrift. The improvidence of the negro is notorious. His
neglect of his horse, his mule, his machinery, his eagerness to spend
his earnings on finery, his reckless purchase of watermelons, chickens,
and garden stuff, when he might easily grow them on his own patch of
ground,--these and many other incidents of improvidence explain the
constant dependence of the negro upon his employer and his creditor.
There are, of course, notable exceptions where negroes have accumulated
property through diligent attention and careful oversight.[19] These are
all the more notable when it is remembered that the education of the
negro has directed his energies to the honors of the learned professions
rather than to the commonplace virtues of ownership, and that one great
practical experiment in thrift--the Freedman's Bank--went down through
dishonesty and incapacity. With the more recent development of the
remarkable institutions of Hampton and Tuskegee and their emphasis on
manual training and property accumulation, it is to be expected that
these basic qualities of intelligence and independence will receive
practical and direct encouragement.

Cooperation is the third and capital equipment for attaining the rights
of citizenship. There are two forms of cooperation--a lower and a
higher. The lower is that of the chief or the boss who marshals his
ignorant followers through fear or spoils. The higher is that of
self-government where those who join together do so through their own
intelligence and mutual confidence. In the lower form there are
personal jealousies and factional contests which prevent united action
under elected leaders. Negro bosses and foremen are more despotic than
white bosses. The Colored Farmers' Alliance depended upon a white man
for leadership. The white "carpet-baggers" organized the negro vote in
the reconstruction period. The negro was in this low stage of
cooperation because he was jealous or distrustful of his fellow-negro
and could rally together only under the banner of a leader whom he could
not depose. With the growth of intelligence and moral character there
comes a deepening sense of the need of organization as well as lea