py event, his
achievements have been marvelous.

Optimist, as I try to be, I am not one of those who believe that the
Negro has reached the delectable mountain, and that he is as good as
anybody else. He is far from perfection, far from comparison with the
more favored Anglo-Saxon, in wealth and culture, yet he has made
progress commensurate with his opportunities.

It is a well-known philosophical axiom, that "action is equal to
reaction, and in a contrary direction." The American Negro is now
meeting the reaction consequent upon his violent action in the
direction of civilization and culture; but, this reaction is only
temporary, and, even the realization of his condition by the leading
thinkers of his race, is a sign of hope, and an evidence of
substantial progress that must tell for good.

Now, what achievements did he make? First, as to wealth: According to
the census of 1900 he has forty million dollars in church property,
and twelve millions in school property. He has 140,000 farms, worth
$750,000,000, and 170 million dollars in personal property. This is
the result of thirty-six years of freedom. One noticeable feature is
that the great bulk of his wealth has been accumulated in the South,
where the large majority of the American Negroes live. No one fact is
more startling in history, than that a people, once held as slaves,
have been able to live and thrive among the very people by whom they
were held. This accentuates the fact that, after all, nowhere has the
Negro better friends than can be found among the white people of the
Southland. His property aggregates $75 per capita for every man, woman
and child in this country, which is certainly no mean showing for
thirty-six years of freedom.

As to education, he has reduced his illiteracy forty-five per cent,
he has written more than 500 books, publishes 300 newspapers, three
of them dailies; he has produced 2,000 lawyers, a still larger number
of doctors and 32,000 teachers. He supports several colleges,
seventeen academies, fifty high schools, five law schools, five
medical schools and twenty-five theological seminaries. It is true
that all of the education he is obtaining is not practical; and also
true that many so-called educated ones are shiftless and trifling; but
this is no more than was to be expected under the circumstances.

He has built 29,000 churches, and this must mean something. It is true
that in the past, his ministers have in many cases