ld let politics alone that
many have come to the conclusion that this is a field to be entirely
abandoned. But the Negro has his public duties as a citizen to perform
unless he proposes to drop out of sight, and in this field he has a
duty. Here the man of education should do as it has seemed good for some
of the Anglo-Saxon race--lend his help toward purifying the corrupt
atmosphere, standing for what is upright and just. It is an
incontrovertible fact that the standing one gains demonstrates the
capabilities and worth of the race. To be clean-handed in all political
dealings, to guard both honor and responsibility in matters of
business--in short to quit oneself like a man in all things--must be
preached daily as of the utmost advantage to the race. The present
attitude of the outside world places the Negro scholar in a most
responsible position, for every movement on his part is noticed,
criticized, and if he falters or fails higher education receives another
blow. Not for one second can the educated Negro men and women afford to
be indifferent to an iota of their action or conduct.

With all these spheres calling especially for education and culture
there is still another of the most importance, for it holds so much for
the future of the race. This is the improvement of domestic life. We
want no upper classes where evils are glossed over because there are
money and position to be respected. We must work for the ideal family
life. Home is the social center for a race, the real center of race
improvement, and we want better homes. For this we must have better
fathers, better mothers, better husbands, better wives, better sons and
daughters. Industry alone does not make for morality. As one has said,
"A strict labor diet does not strengthen morals, it only suppresses
passions." In the home and for home building is needed that ethical,
philosophical, and esthetical training that belongs to the higher
education. This training is the great instrument for the present
upbuilding of the race which is to do so much in laying foundations for
the fine heredity every race covets. I repeat that the seeds of culture
are to be sown by the educated Negro and in the home they are never
wholly without fruit.

The artisan, the laborer have their niches, but they must work with and
not against the educated classes. That the strong working brain must be
the guide of the strong working hand, I have ever contended. The masses
must move,