have not failed, at the proper time and
in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain terms, to the
wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty of. I have found
that there is a large element in the South that is quick to respond to
straightforward, honest criticism of any wrong policy. As a rule, the
place to criticise the South, when criticism is necessary, is in the
South--not in Boston. A Boston man who came to Alabama to criticise
Boston would not effect so much good, I think, as one who had his word
of criticism to say in Boston.

In this address at Madison I took the ground that the policy to be
pursued with references to the races was, by every honourable means,
to bring them together and to encourage the cultivation of friendly
relations, instead of doing that which would embitter. I further
contended that, in relation to his vote, the Negro should more and more
consider the interests of the community in which he lived, rather than
seek alone to please some one who lived a thousand miles away from him
and from his interests.

In this address I said that the whole future of the Negro rested largely
upon the question as to whether or not he should make himself, through
his skill, intelligence, and character, of such undeniable value to the
community in which he lived that the community could not dispense with
his presence. I said that any individual who learned to do something
better than anybody else--learned to do a common thing in an uncommon
manner--had solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin,
and that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other people
wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be respected.

I spoke of an instance where one of our graduates had produced two
hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes from an acre of ground,
in a community where the average production had been only forty-nine
bushels to the acre. He had been able to do this by reason of his
knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and by his knowledge of improved
methods of agriculture. The white farmers in the neighbourhood respected
him, and came to him for ideas regarding the raising of sweet potatoes.
These white farmers honoured and respected him because he, by his skill
and knowledge, had added something to the wealth and the comfort of the
community in which he lived. I explained that my theory of education
for the Negro would not, for example, confine him