Latest / The Spiritual Life / Putting the Most Into Life-Booker T. Washington
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter one of Putting the Most into Life. This is
- 0:04Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
- 0:10Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Recording by Andrew Kennedy Putting the Most into Life by
- 0:21Speaker 1: Booker T. Washington. Health are requisite for effective living. The
- 0:29Speaker 1: individual who puts the most into life is the one
- 0:33Speaker 1: who gets the most out of life. The first requisite
- 0:37Speaker 1: for making life effective for one's self or society is
- 0:42Speaker 1: a sound body. There have been many people who, in
- 0:46Speaker 1: spite of weak bodies, have enriched the world by noble
- 0:51Speaker 1: thought and work. There has been a long line of
- 0:55Speaker 1: physically weak men who have helped the world onward. But
- 0:59Speaker 1: the rule holds that the best work has been done
- 1:03Speaker 1: by men and women of vigorous health. It is important
- 1:09Speaker 1: that the negro race, in its present condition, shall learn
- 1:12Speaker 1: just as quickly as possible how to have good, strong, healthy,
- 1:17Speaker 1: working bodies, for so much is dependent upon them. In
- 1:22Speaker 1: the world of industry, the world of commerce, all mental
- 1:26Speaker 1: activity and spiritual endeavor, no matter in what direction one's
- 1:32Speaker 1: attention or energies may be turned, strong bodies are needed
- 1:37Speaker 1: to meet the demand. There are a few simple rules
- 1:42Speaker 1: which should serve as guideposts to those who would make
- 1:46Speaker 1: the most of their physical being. One of the conditions
- 1:51Speaker 1: of a good, strong, working body is contact with fresh air.
- 1:56Speaker 1: In the early days of this school, when we were
- 1:59Speaker 1: housed in shacks and cabins, whatever else we lacked, we were,
- 2:04Speaker 1: by virtue of necessity, abundantly supplied with air. But now
- 2:09Speaker 1: that we are getting into plastered buildings with good floors
- 2:14Speaker 1: and windows and doors, there is danger of suffering from
- 2:18Speaker 1: poorly ventilated rooms and a lack of health. Given air,
- 2:24Speaker 1: those who live in the large cities would do well
- 2:27Speaker 1: to become disciples of wordswork, and with him learned to
- 2:30Speaker 1: know the inspiration and strength that come from wood and forest,
- 2:36Speaker 1: the joy of intimate acquaintance with birds and flowers. The
- 2:41Speaker 1: individual who has the privilege of living on the farm
- 2:45Speaker 1: and coming in contact with the earth and grass and
- 2:48Speaker 1: trees and real things, is the individual who, provided he
- 2:54Speaker 1: has an eye to see and an ear to hear,
- 2:58Speaker 1: is most to be envied. Next in importance to an
- 3:03Speaker 1: abundance of fresh ear is the habit of regular systematic exercise.
- 3:11Speaker 1: People often think that this kind of exercise costs a
- 3:14Speaker 1: great deal of money, that it means costly apparatus and
- 3:18Speaker 1: artificial fixtures. Not so, it requires no great outlay of
- 3:24Speaker 1: time or energy for the boy on the farm to
- 3:27Speaker 1: breathe deeply as he follows the plow or scatters the seeds.
- 3:32Speaker 1: And yet simple exercises of this kind are essential to
- 3:36Speaker 1: the life of a race whose mortality from pulmonary diseases
- 3:41Speaker 1: is alarming. Every boy in the machine shop knows how
- 3:46Speaker 1: necessary it is to keep his machinery well oiled and
- 3:50Speaker 1: in good running condition. Then to every such boy knows
- 3:55Speaker 1: the importance of keeping every part of his machinery as
- 3:59Speaker 1: clean as possible. Now, your body is a machine, but
- 4:04Speaker 1: how much more delicate and intricate than any made by man,
- 4:10Speaker 1: how much more necessary to keep it in good running
- 4:13Speaker 1: condition and absolutely clean, in order that it may do
- 4:18Speaker 1: its best work. In addition to pure ear and cleanliness,
- 4:23Speaker 1: I want to speak of the wearing of comfortable clothing
- 4:27Speaker 1: as another essential to right living. I am glad to
- 4:32Speaker 1: see that the world is fast getting away from the
- 4:34Speaker 1: old habits that used to enslave people in this matter
- 4:38Speaker 1: of dressing. The habit exercised by many of wearing small shoes,
- 4:44Speaker 1: for instance, until their feet were cramped in severe pain
- 4:48Speaker 1: merely to have the world think they had small feet.
- 4:53Speaker 1: What doesn't matter to the world whether a person has
- 4:56Speaker 1: small feet or large feet. Whoever stops to think, whether
- 5:01Speaker 1: great poets, historians, the great workers in economic and religious life,
- 5:07Speaker 1: men and women who have really accomplished something had large
- 5:13Speaker 1: or small feet, whether they wore fours or eights, or
- 5:18Speaker 1: wore large or small corsets or none. I am glad
- 5:23Speaker 1: to see that all peoples and races are getting away
- 5:26Speaker 1: from that kind of thing. And I want the Tuskegee
- 5:30Speaker 1: students to make up their minds to buy shoes to fit,
- 5:35Speaker 1: no matter what the number. We consider the Chinese ridiculous
- 5:40Speaker 1: to keep their feet cruelly cramped in order that they
- 5:44Speaker 1: may be small, But many of us, in somewhat less degree,
- 5:48Speaker 1: are guilty of the same thing. The importance of temperance
- 5:54Speaker 1: has been repeated over and over again from this platform,
- 5:58Speaker 1: and in temperance in eating or sleeping is not less
- 6:02Speaker 1: disgusting than in temperance in drink. The world's work is
- 6:07Speaker 1: to be done by men and women of vigorous intellect.
- 6:11Speaker 1: But the sound mind must have its foundation in a
- 6:15Speaker 1: body which is kept clean and made comfortable by proper clothing,
- 6:21Speaker 1: pure ear, regular exercise, and wholesome food. No workmen, however, competent,
- 6:29Speaker 1: can do work unless his tools are kept in proper repair.
- 6:35Speaker 1: My plea is that the young Negro students shall acquire
- 6:38Speaker 1: strong working bodies to be used as tools to serve
- 6:43Speaker 1: therewith their fellows and their maker. This is the end
- 6:49Speaker 1: of all living. End of chapter one two of Putting
- 7:01Speaker 1: the Most into Life by Booker T. Washington. This LibriVox
- 7:05Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Andrew Kennedy.
- 7:11Speaker 1: Some of the qualities essential to the most successful school life.
- 7:17Speaker 1: The student who would put the most into his school
- 7:20Speaker 1: life must, first of all, be happy. I do not
- 7:24Speaker 1: believe it is possible for a student to accomplish very much,
- 7:28Speaker 1: certainly not the most, while he is in school, unless
- 7:32Speaker 1: he learns to be happy in all his relations in
- 7:36Speaker 1: school life. If the students are unhappy, there is something
- 7:40Speaker 1: wrong with the institution, or with the teachers, or with
- 7:45Speaker 1: the student body. The normal state of a student in
- 7:48Speaker 1: a well ordered institution is a happy one. It is
- 7:53Speaker 1: impossible to get the most out of the life of
- 7:56Speaker 1: any institution unless there is joy in worlds out the
- 8:00Speaker 1: ideals of the institution. The student should make himself familiar
- 8:05Speaker 1: with the purposes of the school to which he seeks admission,
- 8:10Speaker 1: and having made the choice, he should be loyal to
- 8:13Speaker 1: its traditions and purposes. The Bible teaches over and over
- 8:18Speaker 1: again that freedom, without which happiness is impossible, is self
- 8:23Speaker 1: imposed restrained, that to be really free, we must live
- 8:28Speaker 1: within the law. He who lives outside the law is
- 8:33Speaker 1: a slave. The free man is the man who lives
- 8:36Speaker 1: within the law. Whether the law be the physical or
- 8:40Speaker 1: the divine, all life is governed by law, and the
- 8:45Speaker 1: student must acquire freedom by obedience to law. The student
- 8:51Speaker 1: in any institution are divided into two classes, the happy, contented, ambitious,
- 8:57Speaker 1: hopeful ones who have faith in the institution and respect
- 9:01Speaker 1: for its traditions, and the miserable, discontented, grumbling class. One
- 9:08Speaker 1: class lives not only within the letter, but in the
- 9:11Speaker 1: spirit of the law, and are consequently happy. The second
- 9:17Speaker 1: class are miserable, discontented, and hopeless because they try to
- 9:22Speaker 1: live outside the law. No student can get much out
- 9:26Speaker 1: of any institution who does not enter wholeheartedly into its spirit,
- 9:32Speaker 1: its traditions, and its ideals. The ability to do hard
- 9:38Speaker 1: Methodolical work is one of the prizes which every school
- 9:42Speaker 1: worthy of the name offers to its students. The years
- 9:46Speaker 1: at school not infrequently give bent to the whole life.
- 9:52Speaker 1: The student who does slipshod work at school is more
- 9:55Speaker 1: than likely to lack direction in his subsequent career. But
- 10:00Speaker 1: mental strength comes not as a bequest. It is a
- 10:04Speaker 1: prize that must be contended for right earnestly. And dictionary, encyclopedia,
- 10:11Speaker 1: text books, and shop are tools which instructors place in
- 10:16Speaker 1: the hands of students to help them win the prize.
- 10:22Speaker 1: The proper use of these tools must depend finally upon
- 10:27Speaker 1: the individual student. No one gets much out of life
- 10:31Speaker 1: who does not make his education a real, vital part
- 10:35Speaker 1: of himself. Many people have education very much as a
- 10:41Speaker 1: parrot has his command a certain number of words or sentences.
- 10:46Speaker 1: The words and sentences that the parrot utters are no
- 10:50Speaker 1: real part of him. They are merely something tacked on
- 10:55Speaker 1: to the parrot and foreign to his real natural make up.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Some people use education as they use their Sunday clothes
- 11:05Speaker 1: on extra occasions. Only they bring their education into play
- 11:11Speaker 1: when they are in the company of others, commit a
- 11:14Speaker 1: few quotations and use big words which have no working
- 11:18Speaker 1: place in their vocabulary. To try to make education a
- 11:22Speaker 1: real part of one's self is the way to get
- 11:26Speaker 1: most out of one's school life. Just as the food
- 11:30Speaker 1: a man eats become a part of his blood and bone,
- 11:34Speaker 1: so should education become a vital part of him. Education
- 11:40Speaker 1: must be digested and assimilated in order to make it significant.
- 11:46Speaker 1: The student who leaves undone immediate duties because of bodily
- 11:50Speaker 1: laziness is leaving happiness far behind him. Sins of commission
- 11:56Speaker 1: and sins of omission alike tend to weakness. Our ability
- 12:02Speaker 1: to make the world better depends entirely upon our ability
- 12:05Speaker 1: to use every opportunity to make ourselves better. A largeness
- 12:11Speaker 1: of life, a variety of interest, and breadth of view
- 12:15Speaker 1: are among the prizes which a school offers to its students.
- 12:20Speaker 1: These qualities the ignorant man does not possess, largeness of
- 12:25Speaker 1: life and breath of vision. Give faith in the future.
- 12:28Speaker 1: That largeness make one person take the long view when
- 12:32Speaker 1: the other is taken the short view. That largeness lifts
- 12:36Speaker 1: the educated person far above the temptation to gossip about
- 12:40Speaker 1: little things, above the temptation to get down into the mud,
- 12:44Speaker 1: and slime with which weaker individuals are smeared to be
- 12:50Speaker 1: loyal and obedient to the legislation of an institution. To
- 12:54Speaker 1: make thrifty use of textbook and shop and farm in
- 12:58Speaker 1: every part of the school equipment is to attain that
- 13:02Speaker 1: mental strength that makes for largeness of life and breadth
- 13:06Speaker 1: of view. These qualities come not by observation, but they
- 13:11Speaker 1: do come by conscientious work in season and out of season.
- 13:17Speaker 1: They are all within the reach of the student who
- 13:20Speaker 1: is willing to work for them, and they are all
- 13:23Speaker 1: essential to real happiness. End of chapter two, Chapter three
- 13:35Speaker 1: of Putting the Most into Life by Booker T. Washington.
- 13:39Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
- 13:43Speaker 1: Andrew Kennedy. A word to prospective teachers about putting the
- 13:49Speaker 1: most into their work. The large problem of the teacher
- 13:54Speaker 1: is not to impart knowledge and maintain discipline. The larger
- 13:58Speaker 1: problem is to bring school life and real life into
- 14:01Speaker 1: closer contact with the average teacher as with the average student.
- 14:07Speaker 1: There is very little connection between the school and life
- 14:11Speaker 1: as it is actually lived every day outside the schoolroom,
- 14:16Speaker 1: and as long as this is true, there will be
- 14:19Speaker 1: ground for reasonable and just criticism in the primary school,
- 14:25Speaker 1: the intermediary school, and the high school. There is often little,
- 14:29Speaker 1: if any connection between life as it is lived in
- 14:33Speaker 1: the shop, on the farm, in business, and in the home.
- 14:38Speaker 1: It cannot but prove of mutual advantage. If the teacher
- 14:41Speaker 1: can bring school life into actual touch with the life
- 14:46Speaker 1: of the people about him. The interest of the parents
- 14:49Speaker 1: will be increased just in proportion as they find that
- 14:53Speaker 1: the teacher is making his instruction stimulate and vitalize conditions
- 14:58Speaker 1: outside the school room. It is difficult for the parent
- 15:03Speaker 1: of the country child to note the results of education
- 15:07Speaker 1: through the usual processes and channels of knowledge. Colored parents
- 15:13Speaker 1: depend upon seeing the results of education in ways not
- 15:17Speaker 1: true of the white parent. It is important that the
- 15:21Speaker 1: colored teacher in this generation should give special attention to
- 15:26Speaker 1: bringing school life into closer touch with real life. Any
- 15:31Speaker 1: education is, to my mind, high, which enables the individual
- 15:35Speaker 1: to do the very best work for the people by
- 15:39Speaker 1: whom he is surrounded. Any education is low that does
- 15:44Speaker 1: not make for character and effective service. The average teacher
- 15:50Speaker 1: in the public schools is very likely to yield to
- 15:53Speaker 1: the temptation of thinking that he is educating an individual
- 15:59Speaker 1: when he is teaching him to reason out examples in arithmetic,
- 16:04Speaker 1: to prove propositions in geometry, and to recite pages of history.
- 16:11Speaker 1: He conceives this to be the end of education. Hearing
- 16:16Speaker 1: is the sad deficiency in many teachers who are not
- 16:19Speaker 1: able to use history, arithmetic, geometry as means to an end.
- 16:26Speaker 1: They get the idea that the student who has mastered
- 16:29Speaker 1: a certain number of pages in a textbook is educated,
- 16:33Speaker 1: forgetting that textbooks are at best but tools, and in
- 16:38Speaker 1: many cases, ineffective tools for the development of man. Modern
- 16:44Speaker 1: educators are getting more and more away from books. Now.
- 16:48Speaker 1: This will be hard for the average teacher who has
- 16:52Speaker 1: worked out all the problems in arithmetic and prove them
- 16:56Speaker 1: by the answers in the book. But I believe that
- 16:59Speaker 1: the best educac occasional thought tends toward the study of
- 17:02Speaker 1: real things and not mere books. One of the ways
- 17:07Speaker 1: of bringing the school into closer touch with society is
- 17:11Speaker 1: to make school surroundings, including the grounds and buildings, as
- 17:15Speaker 1: homelike and as attractive as possible. The school rooms are
- 17:21Speaker 1: in too many cases cold and barren. In schools of
- 17:25Speaker 1: this sort there is little connection between the home and
- 17:28Speaker 1: the school. I believe that the teacher should study the
- 17:32Speaker 1: home surroundings of his pupils and become more intimately acquainted
- 17:37Speaker 1: with the parents. When teachers are able to make their
- 17:40Speaker 1: schoolrooms inviting and are able to project their influence into
- 17:45Speaker 1: the home life of the pupils, there will be few
- 17:48Speaker 1: absentees or truants. A child cannot be expected to leave
- 17:53Speaker 1: a comfortable, attractive, and convenient home to go into a dull, inconvenient,
- 18:00Speaker 1: uncomfortable school room. Nor can it be expected that pupils
- 18:05Speaker 1: will leave comfortable chairs at home and go into school
- 18:09Speaker 1: rooms where they must sit on stools with their feet
- 18:13Speaker 1: six or eight inches from the floor. It is hardly
- 18:19Speaker 1: necessary to say that the teacher should set the example
- 18:22Speaker 1: for the student in the matter of cleanliness and neatness.
- 18:27Speaker 1: The teacher who would preach against grease spots, rents in clothes,
- 18:32Speaker 1: and buttless jackets must see to it that he is
- 18:36Speaker 1: himself without faults in these respects. When I go into
- 18:40Speaker 1: a school and notice that the instructor has buttons off
- 18:43Speaker 1: his coat, I am at once convinced that he is
- 18:47Speaker 1: not the right teacher. I do not believe that there
- 18:51Speaker 1: is much that the student can learn at that school
- 18:55Speaker 1: that can be put into practice in real life. I
- 18:59Speaker 1: believe that the teacher should not only set an example himself,
- 19:03Speaker 1: but that he should go further than this. He should
- 19:07Speaker 1: see that every boy and girl in his school is
- 19:10Speaker 1: familiar with the practical applications of soap and water, and
- 19:15Speaker 1: knows the work of the toothbrush and the darning needle.
- 19:21Speaker 1: Some parents may at first resent this encroachment upon their
- 19:25Speaker 1: special domain, but persistence in an endeavor of this sort
- 19:29Speaker 1: will finally cause the parents to look upon the teacher
- 19:33Speaker 1: as a new force in the community. The average parent
- 19:38Speaker 1: cannot appreciate how many examples Johnny has worked that day,
- 19:42Speaker 1: how many questions in history he has answered. But when
- 19:46Speaker 1: he says, mother, I cannot go back to that school
- 19:50Speaker 1: until all the buttons are sewed on my coat, the
- 19:53Speaker 1: parent will at once become conscious of school influence in
- 19:58Speaker 1: the home. This will be the best kind of advertisement.
- 20:03Speaker 1: The button propaganda tends to make the teacher a power
- 20:07Speaker 1: in the community. A few lessons in applied chemistry will
- 20:12Speaker 1: not be amiss. Take grease spots, for example. The teacher
- 20:17Speaker 1: who with tact can teach his pupils to keep even
- 20:21Speaker 1: threadbeer clothes neatly brushed and free from grease spots, is
- 20:25Speaker 1: extending the school influence into the home and is adding
- 20:30Speaker 1: immeasurably to the self respect of the home. In the
- 20:35Speaker 1: schoolhouses in the city and in many of the larger
- 20:38Speaker 1: towns and country districts, janitors do all the work of cleaning.
- 20:44Speaker 1: This may be necessary in city schools where it is
- 20:47Speaker 1: not possible for the children to do all the work
- 20:50Speaker 1: of beautifying and cleaning the school building. But when all
- 20:55Speaker 1: this work is done by outsiders, the children are robbed
- 20:59Speaker 1: a part of their instruction, and they thus lose a
- 21:03Speaker 1: very important lesson in cleanliness and order, which it is
- 21:07Speaker 1: the duty of the teacher to give. Think of the
- 21:11Speaker 1: time lost in the average family looking for the broom
- 21:15Speaker 1: when the time comes to sweep the floor. At this
- 21:20Speaker 1: time all business suspends. Mother cries out, first, where is
- 21:25Speaker 1: the broom? The oldest sister cries to John, and Susie
- 21:29Speaker 1: and Jane, where is the broom? And that kind of
- 21:32Speaker 1: thing goes on every day in the week and year.
- 21:37Speaker 1: It takes the average family from ten to twelve minutes
- 21:41Speaker 1: every day to find the broom. Now we should teach
- 21:45Speaker 1: a different lesson in our schools. We can teach in
- 21:49Speaker 1: the first place, that there are two ways for the
- 21:52Speaker 1: broom to be put up, a proper and an improper way.
- 21:56Speaker 1: We can teach the children that there is a place
- 21:59Speaker 1: for or the dust pan and the dust cloth, and
- 22:03Speaker 1: the match box. The match box is another thing that
- 22:07Speaker 1: suspends business every night. When the matches are wanted, everything
- 22:12Speaker 1: goes helter skelter. This is a larger problem than the broom.
- 22:18Speaker 1: There being absolutely no light on the subject. The children
- 22:23Speaker 1: should be taught that there must be a definite place
- 22:26Speaker 1: for the broom and for the match box. And it
- 22:29Speaker 1: is surprising how quickly these lessons will be taken from
- 22:33Speaker 1: the school room into the home. Even the listless parents
- 22:38Speaker 1: will be roused to interest by such practical teaching. The
- 22:43Speaker 1: child who goes to school in a room that is
- 22:46Speaker 1: clean and attractive will not long be content to live
- 22:50Speaker 1: in a home that is dirty and disorderly. I was
- 22:54Speaker 1: recently in a schoolroom in South Carolina. The teacher had
- 22:58Speaker 1: a reputation for being a well fitted instructor, and I
- 23:03Speaker 1: expected much of him. He was teaching the children by
- 23:08Speaker 1: the latest methods. The children sang well, they recited their
- 23:13Speaker 1: lessons well, but the fact that one third of the
- 23:16Speaker 1: plastering was missing made the greatest impression on me. I
- 23:21Speaker 1: could not detect the slightest attempt on the part of
- 23:24Speaker 1: the teacher or students to see that the plastering was restored.
- 23:30Speaker 1: I should have suspended school a day or two until
- 23:34Speaker 1: the plastering could be replaced, rather than teach day after
- 23:39Speaker 1: day by silent approval a lesson of disorder. If the
- 23:45Speaker 1: teacher is careless, the pupils will accept his standards and
- 23:49Speaker 1: go through life in an indifferent, slipshod manner. If from
- 23:54Speaker 1: the first day they enter school they are surrounded with
- 23:58Speaker 1: object lessons of order and cleanliness, more will have been
- 24:02Speaker 1: done to educate them in a large and helpful way
- 24:06Speaker 1: than if they had centered their interest in books alone.
- 24:11Speaker 1: Order and beauty are sacrificed in many of our schools
- 24:14Speaker 1: because one third or one fourth of the window glass
- 24:18Speaker 1: is out. Sometimes I have seen obsolete hats and discarded
- 24:24Speaker 1: dresses doing duty in the absence of window glass or
- 24:28Speaker 1: window panes knock out in order that the stovepipe might
- 24:32Speaker 1: be run through the broken place. The child never outlives
- 24:37Speaker 1: the impression made by such a sight. The parents will
- 24:42Speaker 1: join their children in helping to patch broken plastering. If
- 24:46Speaker 1: the teacher will take the lead. When the plastering is mended,
- 24:52Speaker 1: a few pictures should be placed on the walls, and
- 24:56Speaker 1: in this work the parents' cooperation can be the ended upon.
- 25:01Speaker 1: Teachers must put not less conscience, but more thought into
- 25:06Speaker 1: the work for the children to whose lives they are
- 25:09Speaker 1: given direction. By putting into their work more of their
- 25:14Speaker 1: better selves, more of their personality, teachers will add not
- 25:19Speaker 1: only to their own happiness and usefulness, but will be
- 25:24Speaker 1: doing real work toward hastening the coming of that kingdom
- 25:28Speaker 1: for which they daily pray. End of chapter three, Chapter
- 25:40Speaker 1: four of Putting the Most into Life by Booker T. Washington.
- 25:45Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain recording by Andrew
- 25:50Speaker 1: Kennedy Industrial Efficiency and Aid to the Higher Life. It
- 25:57Speaker 1: was Emerson who said that one generation clears the forest,
- 26:02Speaker 1: the next builds the palaces. Each generation is very anxious
- 26:07Speaker 1: to engage in the building of the palaces, an ambition
- 26:11Speaker 1: which is altogether laudable. But the forests must first be cleared,
- 26:17Speaker 1: or there will be no palaces. And so it falls
- 26:21Speaker 1: to the lot of every successful individual of every race
- 26:25Speaker 1: and nation to engage, at some time or period in
- 26:28Speaker 1: their existence, in dealing in a large degree with the
- 26:33Speaker 1: industrial or material affairs of life. The forms of industry
- 26:38Speaker 1: that occupy the majority of people in a civilized country
- 26:42Speaker 1: may be classed under one of the following heads. First,
- 26:47Speaker 1: and perhaps most largely, the production of raw material in
- 26:51Speaker 1: one form or another. The second step is the manufacturing
- 26:56Speaker 1: of these materials. Third, the problem of transportation and getting
- 27:01Speaker 1: these products on the markets of the world, and having
- 27:05Speaker 1: them properly distributed and economically and wisely consumed. The production
- 27:12Speaker 1: of cotton in the South presents a familiar example of
- 27:15Speaker 1: all these processes. The growing of cotton is an industry
- 27:21Speaker 1: largely in the hands of my race. In the second step,
- 27:25Speaker 1: the manufacturing of cotton, the colored people have as yet
- 27:30Speaker 1: little part in putting these materials on the market through
- 27:34Speaker 1: the medium of steamboats, steam cars, and their distribution through
- 27:39Speaker 1: wholesale and retail establishments. Colored people have diminishing interests. The
- 27:46Speaker 1: lesson for all young people to learn in this busy
- 27:49Speaker 1: industrial age is to deal with materials, whether at first
- 27:54Speaker 1: hand in getting something out of the soil, or as
- 27:59Speaker 1: constructing or distributing agents, so as to increase the value
- 28:04Speaker 1: of the material they handle, and to make themselves more useful.
- 28:08Speaker 1: As individuals. The main source of all productiveness is in
- 28:13Speaker 1: the soil, and the work of getting out of the
- 28:16Speaker 1: soil all that can be gotten out of it has
- 28:20Speaker 1: in recent years made agriculture and intellectual pursuit. It is
- 28:26Speaker 1: very important to note the progress of the world during
- 28:29Speaker 1: the last few years, when people have learned to put
- 28:33Speaker 1: more into life by putting brains and skill and confidence
- 28:38Speaker 1: into all industrial operations. A few years ago, the man
- 28:42Speaker 1: who was going to be a farmer made almost no
- 28:46Speaker 1: preparation for his work. Skill and intelligence were not considered necessary.
- 28:52Speaker 1: But today in every civilized country there are institutions that
- 28:58Speaker 1: have for their sole purpose the teaching of methods of
- 29:02Speaker 1: getting everything possible out of the soil. A few years ago,
- 29:08Speaker 1: the mining of coal, copper, silver and gold was left
- 29:13Speaker 1: to the most unintelligent, ignorant, and unskilled people. There was
- 29:18Speaker 1: little thought or skill put into the preparation for this
- 29:22Speaker 1: kind of work. To day, mining schools have been established
- 29:28Speaker 1: in all important mining districts, and this industry has been
- 29:33Speaker 1: so dignified that intelligent and skillful men delight to enter it.
- 29:40Speaker 1: The same thing is true of forestry. Within the last
- 29:44Speaker 1: few months, a chair of forestry has been established at
- 29:48Speaker 1: Cornell University, where young men can learn all about the
- 29:53Speaker 1: selection and cultivation of trees. The Department of Agriculture at
- 29:59Speaker 1: Washington spending over two million dollars yearly in showing people
- 30:04Speaker 1: how to take care of the forests. The world is
- 30:08Speaker 1: making all the material products serve not as masters, but
- 30:13Speaker 1: as servants, and servants in the sense that they are
- 30:17Speaker 1: making people put more thought, more effort, more skill into life,
- 30:23Speaker 1: and enabling them thus to get more abundant returns, wherewith
- 30:28Speaker 1: to enlarge and ennoble their lives. There are opportunities about us.
- 30:35Speaker 1: On every hand. The southern farm offers great opportunities to
- 30:40Speaker 1: every young man who will use his talents. The idea
- 30:45Speaker 1: that farming means plowing with one mule or digging the
- 30:48Speaker 1: ground with a spade is fast disappearing, for this industry
- 30:54Speaker 1: is developing into a high and dignified calling. Young women
- 31:00Speaker 1: of maturer races than ours are making large economic successes
- 31:04Speaker 1: in the raising of chickens, in fruit growing, in raising
- 31:09Speaker 1: small berries. And young colored women should begin to get
- 31:13Speaker 1: some of the benefits of these industries. But the chance
- 31:18Speaker 1: of material success in connection with industrial life is relatively
- 31:23Speaker 1: of less importance than is the chance for the individual
- 31:28Speaker 1: to get development through the mastering of difficulties in the
- 31:33Speaker 1: management of industrial operations. The mere mastering of these difficulties
- 31:40Speaker 1: have made many of the captains of industry of this country.
- 31:45Speaker 1: Poverty discourages many a youth who start out in the
- 31:49Speaker 1: busy industrial world, but the fact that others have conquered
- 31:54Speaker 1: poverty is an earnest that others, for centuries to come,
- 31:59Speaker 1: will get courage and strength out of adverse struggle. The
- 32:05Speaker 1: colored man starts out, it is true, with an additional handicap,
- 32:11Speaker 1: but here is the chance for Negro youth to learn
- 32:14Speaker 1: to turn disadvantages to advantages. A colored man, born in
- 32:20Speaker 1: poverty and an ex slave owns today one of the
- 32:24Speaker 1: largest tailoring establishments in one of the most prominent streets
- 32:30Speaker 1: in the city of Boston. This man has learned the
- 32:35Speaker 1: sweet uses of adversity and knew how to lay hold
- 32:39Speaker 1: of disadvantages. His establishment is patronized by people who buy
- 32:45Speaker 1: from him, not in spite of the fact that he
- 32:49Speaker 1: is a Negro, but because he is a Negro. The
- 32:54Speaker 1: world needs man, be they white or black, who can
- 32:59Speaker 1: rise on success sessive failures to useful citizenship. No person
- 33:05Speaker 1: can enter industrial life without for a time feeling some
- 33:09Speaker 1: days of almost complete failure. But mistakes and weariness begat
- 33:15Speaker 1: confidence and experience. All industrial operations and material progress should
- 33:23Speaker 1: be used not as ends, but as means of making
- 33:28Speaker 1: life more comfortable, more useful, and more beautiful. The intelligent farmer,
- 33:35Speaker 1: as he plans and works and harvests the cotton, must
- 33:39Speaker 1: remember that the production of cotton is not the end
- 33:43Speaker 1: of his effort. Every bale of cotton can be turned
- 33:48Speaker 1: into books, into opportunities for travel and study. The man
- 33:53Speaker 1: who grows corn must remember that the growing of corn
- 33:57Speaker 1: is not the end of life, but the corn can
- 34:00Speaker 1: be turned into refinements and beauties of a civilized life
- 34:05Speaker 1: and a Christian home. No one can doubt that the
- 34:09Speaker 1: people who have built the railroads and constructed the great
- 34:13Speaker 1: steamships that find country to country have added to the
- 34:17Speaker 1: wealth and happiness of the world. Finally, it must be
- 34:23Speaker 1: remembered that the mastering of difficulties should bring poise, purpose,
- 34:28Speaker 1: and vision. I want every Tuskegee student, as he finds
- 34:34Speaker 1: his place in the surgent industrial life about him, to
- 34:39Speaker 1: give heed to the things which are honest and just,
- 34:44Speaker 1: and pure and of good report. For these things make
- 34:49Speaker 1: for character, which is the only thing worth fighting for,
- 34:53Speaker 1: either in this life or the next. End of chapter four,
- 35:06Speaker 1: Chapter five of Putting the Most into Life by Booker T. Washington.
- 35:11Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
- 35:16Speaker 1: Andrew Kennedy, making religion a vital part of living. Educated
- 35:23Speaker 1: men and women, especially those who are in college or
- 35:27Speaker 1: other institutions of learning, very often get the idea that
- 35:31Speaker 1: religion is fit only for the common people and beneath
- 35:35Speaker 1: the interest and sympathy of the educated man. In too
- 35:39Speaker 1: many cases they are disposed to think that religion is
- 35:42Speaker 1: for the weak, and that to express doubts concerning religion
- 35:46Speaker 1: and the future life is an indication of a vigorous,
- 35:50Speaker 1: independent mind. No young man or woman can make a
- 35:54Speaker 1: greater error than this. Some years ago, when I was
- 35:59Speaker 1: in New York City, I went down to Wall Street
- 36:02Speaker 1: to consult a friend as to methods of arranging for
- 36:05Speaker 1: a large meeting. I wanted in this meeting to get
- 36:09Speaker 1: interest centered in the work we are trying to do
- 36:12Speaker 1: at Tuskegee. My friend said, if you can secure the
- 36:16Speaker 1: corporation of fore men in New York City, the success
- 36:20Speaker 1: of your meeting will be assured. I went to the
- 36:23Speaker 1: fore men whose names had been given me and secured
- 36:27Speaker 1: their interest and cooperation. Some weeks later, there was a
- 36:32Speaker 1: large meeting held in New York in the interest of
- 36:35Speaker 1: the Young Men's Christian Association movement. In looking over the
- 36:39Speaker 1: list of persons who were sponsors for this meeting, I
- 36:42Speaker 1: found the names of the fore men whom my Wall
- 36:46Speaker 1: Street friend had mentioned. He gave me these names, however,
- 36:51Speaker 1: with no thought that they were leaders in the religious
- 36:55Speaker 1: activity of New York City. He named them chiefly because
- 37:00Speaker 1: he knew their standing in the commercial and business life
- 37:04Speaker 1: of the city was secure, and that anything they said
- 37:08Speaker 1: would attract the attention of the public and would secure
- 37:11Speaker 1: the confidence of the people whose interest and aid we
- 37:15Speaker 1: were seeking. And so it appears that the four men
- 37:20Speaker 1: who at that time represented the commercial and business interests
- 37:24Speaker 1: of New York were men who were closely identified with
- 37:28Speaker 1: the religious life of the city, and were active in
- 37:31Speaker 1: Sunday school and church work, and connected with many other
- 37:35Speaker 1: agencies which had to do with the uplifting of the masses.
- 37:41Speaker 1: My observation has taught me that the people who stand
- 37:44Speaker 1: for the most in the educational and commercial world, and
- 37:48Speaker 1: in the uplifting of the people, are in some real
- 37:51Speaker 1: way connected with the religious life of the people among
- 37:55Speaker 1: whom they reside. This being true, we ought to make
- 38:01Speaker 1: the most of our religious life and to avail ourselves
- 38:04Speaker 1: of certain outward helps, helps which are not ends, but
- 38:09Speaker 1: aid to hire spiritual living. First, the habit of regular
- 38:14Speaker 1: attendance at some religious service should be cultivated. This is
- 38:20Speaker 1: one of the outward helps toward inward grace. Nothing is
- 38:25Speaker 1: ever lost by this habit of systemic devotion. But one
- 38:29Speaker 1: says what good is accomplished by attending church? Another says,
- 38:36Speaker 1: I stay away from religious service, and I am just
- 38:39Speaker 1: as good as those who go. To put the question
- 38:43Speaker 1: another way, was any one ever injured by regular attendance
- 38:48Speaker 1: upon religious services? The man who allows himself to grow
- 38:53Speaker 1: careless about sacred things yields to a temptation which is
- 38:58Speaker 1: sure to drag him down. As you value your spiritual life,
- 39:03Speaker 1: see to it that you do not lose the spirit
- 39:06Speaker 1: of reverence for the most High, as revealed in your
- 39:10Speaker 1: own life and experience, reverence for the most High as
- 39:15Speaker 1: revealed in the men and women about you. In the
- 39:19Speaker 1: opening flower, the setting sun, and the song of the bird.
- 39:25Speaker 1: Do not mistake denominationalism for reverence and religion. Religion is life.
- 39:33Speaker 1: Denominationalism is an aid to life. Systematic reading and prayful
- 39:40Speaker 1: study of the Bible is the second outward health which
- 39:43Speaker 1: I would command to those whom I wish to see
- 39:46Speaker 1: make the most of their spiritual life. Many people regard
- 39:51Speaker 1: the Bible as a wonderful piece of literature. Only the
- 39:56Speaker 1: reading of the Bible as literature only brings its reward
- 40:00Speaker 1: in that it throws new light on secular history and
- 40:03Speaker 1: gives acquaintance with men and women and ideals which have
- 40:07Speaker 1: been the inspiration of the noblest things that have ever
- 40:12Speaker 1: been spoken or written. Nowhere in all literature can be
- 40:17Speaker 1: found a finer bit of oratory than Saint Paul's defense
- 40:21Speaker 1: before King Agrippa. But praiseworthy as this kind of study is,
- 40:27Speaker 1: I do not believe it is sufficient. The Bible should
- 40:31Speaker 1: be read as a daily guide to right living and
- 40:35Speaker 1: as a daily incentive to positive Christian service. I think
- 40:41Speaker 1: that no man who lives a merely negative religious life
- 40:44Speaker 1: can ever know real spiritual joy. There are many people
- 40:49Speaker 1: who pride themselves on the things they do not do.
- 40:54Speaker 1: The negative Christian always suggests a lamp post to me,
- 40:59Speaker 1: the negative Christian and says he is going to heaven
- 41:01Speaker 1: because he does not lie, neither does the lamp post.
- 41:07Speaker 1: The negative Christian does not steal, neither does the lamp post.
- 41:13Speaker 1: He does not cheat, He does nothing of which he
- 41:17Speaker 1: is ashamed. He is therefore blameless. The lamp post has
- 41:24Speaker 1: never done any one of these things. I do not
- 41:28Speaker 1: want the Tuskegee student to be a lamp post in
- 41:31Speaker 1: their religious life, but I want them to turn their
- 41:35Speaker 1: beliefs into energy that shall work into every detail of
- 41:39Speaker 1: their lives. Not less repulsive to me than the negative
- 41:44Speaker 1: Christian is the one who is always using his religion
- 41:48Speaker 1: as a means of escaping from something from hell, fire
- 41:51Speaker 1: or brimstone, or some less remote punishment. This class of
- 41:56Speaker 1: Christian us religion as people use the injurious bag or
- 42:01Speaker 1: are disinfectant toward off evil. They are not drawn to
- 42:05Speaker 1: any vital thing in religion. They simply use it as
- 42:09Speaker 1: a cloak to shield them from harm. To live the
- 42:14Speaker 1: real religious life is in some measure to share the
- 42:17Speaker 1: character of God. The word atonement, which occurs in the
- 42:21Speaker 1: Bible again and again, means literally at one men. To
- 42:26Speaker 1: be at one with God is to be like God.
- 42:29Speaker 1: Our real religious striving men should be to become one
- 42:34Speaker 1: with God, sharing with Him in our poor human way,
- 42:38Speaker 1: his qualities and attributes. To do this, we must get
- 42:43Speaker 1: the inner life, the heart right, and we shall then
- 42:47Speaker 1: become strong where we have been weak, wise where we
- 42:52Speaker 1: have been foolish. We are often criticized as a race
- 42:56Speaker 1: because people say that our religion is not real. They
- 43:01Speaker 1: say that our religion is superficial, that in spite of
- 43:05Speaker 1: our attendance at religious services and Protestations of faith, we
- 43:10Speaker 1: are guilty of petty pilfering, stealing, lying, and of walking
- 43:15Speaker 1: crookedly in many directions. Whenever this criticism is true, it
- 43:21Speaker 1: means that we have not learned what the religious life
- 43:24Speaker 1: really means. We must learn to incorporate God's laws into
- 43:30Speaker 1: our thoughts and words and acts. Frequent reference is made
- 43:35Speaker 1: in the Bible to the freedom that comes from being
- 43:38Speaker 1: a Christian. A man is free just in proportion as
- 43:42Speaker 1: he learns to live within God's laws, and he makes
- 43:46Speaker 1: grievous mistakes and serious blunders the minute he departs from
- 43:51Speaker 1: these laws. As a race, we are inclined I fear
- 43:56Speaker 1: to make too much of the day of judgment, have
- 44:00Speaker 1: the idea that in some far off period there is
- 44:03Speaker 1: going to be a great and final day of judgment,
- 44:07Speaker 1: when every individual will be called up and all his
- 44:11Speaker 1: bad deeds will be read out before him, and all
- 44:14Speaker 1: his good deeds made known. I believe that every day
- 44:19Speaker 1: is a day of judgment, that we reap our rewards daily,
- 44:24Speaker 1: and that whenever we sin, we are punished by mental
- 44:27Speaker 1: and physical anxiety and by a weakened character that separates
- 44:32Speaker 1: us from God. Every day is I take it a
- 44:36Speaker 1: day of judgment. And as we learn God's laws and
- 44:40Speaker 1: grow into His likeness, we shall find our reward in
- 44:44Speaker 1: this world, in our life of usefulness and honor. To
- 44:50Speaker 1: do this is to have found the Kingdom of God,
- 44:53Speaker 1: which is the kingdom of character and righteousness and peace.
- 45:00Speaker 1: End of chapter five, Chapter six of Putting the Most
- 45:09Speaker 1: into Life by Booker T. Washington. This LibriVox recording is
- 45:14Speaker 1: in the public domain recording by Andrew Kennedy on making
- 45:21Speaker 1: our race life count in the life of the Nation.
- 45:25Speaker 1: In the Bible, one finds over and over again the
- 45:27Speaker 1: words a peculiar people. Reference is made to the Jews
- 45:33Speaker 1: as a peculiar people, a people differing in thought and
- 45:37Speaker 1: temperament and mode of life from others by whom they
- 45:41Speaker 1: were surrounded. Now, the race to which Americans of African
- 45:46Speaker 1: lineage belongs is often described as a peculiar people, having had,
- 45:52Speaker 1: as we know, a peculiar history. They differ in color
- 45:56Speaker 1: and in appearance, and in a very large degree their
- 46:00Speaker 1: temperament and thought differ from that of the people about
- 46:04Speaker 1: them now. The Jews, because they were different from the
- 46:08Speaker 1: peoples by whom they were surrounded, because of their peculiar
- 46:12Speaker 1: religious bent, were able to give to the world the
- 46:15Speaker 1: doctrine of the unity and Fatherhood of God, and Christianity
- 46:21Speaker 1: the finest flower of Jewry. It is, then, I think,
- 46:25Speaker 1: not too much to hope that the very qualities which
- 46:29Speaker 1: make the Negro different from the peoples by whom he
- 46:32Speaker 1: is surrounded will enable him, in the fullness of time,
- 46:36Speaker 1: to make a peculiar contribution to the nation of which
- 46:40Speaker 1: he forms a part. What that contribution is to be,
- 46:45Speaker 1: no man can now tell. But we must keep in
- 46:48Speaker 1: mind that the race is made of individuals, and every
- 46:53Speaker 1: man God made is different, has some deed to do,
- 46:58Speaker 1: some work, to work be undismayed. Though thine be humble
- 47:04Speaker 1: do it too. As with an individual, so with a race.
- 47:10Speaker 1: When you and I and all the other individuals that
- 47:14Speaker 1: go to make up our race shall have learned to
- 47:17Speaker 1: do well our own peculiar work, we shall be able
- 47:21Speaker 1: to determine the bent of the race. It must fall
- 47:25Speaker 1: upon you and me, who have had opportunity to work
- 47:30Speaker 1: out in some measure our own individual problems, to give
- 47:34Speaker 1: direction to the race. It is for us, therefore, to
- 47:39Speaker 1: bring to the enrichment of our lives as individuals every
- 47:44Speaker 1: quality which we are capable of cultivating. There is in
- 47:50Speaker 1: the New Testament a passage which I like to refer
- 47:53Speaker 1: to and to think of. It reads something like this,
- 47:58Speaker 1: he that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment. The
- 48:04Speaker 1: expression he that overcometh occurs several times in the New Testament.
- 48:11Speaker 1: I am anxious that the Tuskegee students shall get the
- 48:14Speaker 1: idea firmly fixed in their minds, that there are definite
- 48:19Speaker 1: rewards coming to the individual or to the race that
- 48:23Speaker 1: overcomes obstacles and succeeds in spite of seemingly insurmountable difficulties.
- 48:31Speaker 1: The palms of victory are not for the race that
- 48:34Speaker 1: merely complains and frets and rails. I do not mean
- 48:40Speaker 1: to say that there is not a place for race
- 48:42Speaker 1: loyalty and enthusiasm. There is a proper and vital place
- 48:48Speaker 1: for protests against the wrongs that are inflicted without cause
- 48:53Speaker 1: or reason. Every race, like every individual, should be swift
- 48:59Speaker 1: to protest against injustice and wrongs. But no race must
- 49:04Speaker 1: be content with mere protests. Every race must show to
- 49:09Speaker 1: the world, by tangible, visible, indisputable evidence, that it can
- 49:15Speaker 1: do more than merely call attention to the wrongs inflicted
- 49:19Speaker 1: upon it. The reward of life is for those who
- 49:23Speaker 1: choose the good where evil calls out on every hand.
- 49:29Speaker 1: That reward is moral character. The more temptations resisted, the
- 49:35Speaker 1: more difficult the struggle, the more robust the character. The
- 49:41Speaker 1: holy innocent person is much less praiseworthy than is he
- 49:45Speaker 1: who has faced temptations and has come out of it
- 49:50Speaker 1: on scard. The virtues of foresight and thrift and frugality,
- 49:56Speaker 1: brought bravely to the front, will bring large material possessions, which,
- 50:01Speaker 1: if properly used, will refine and enrich life. I am
- 50:07Speaker 1: constrained to refer once more to that peculiar people, the Jews,
- 50:12Speaker 1: a race that has been handicapped in very much the
- 50:16Speaker 1: same way as the colored people. Their opportunities have been
- 50:21Speaker 1: limited in many directions. In Russia today they are in
- 50:26Speaker 1: many cases the barred from schools and from entrance into
- 50:30Speaker 1: the professions. And notwithstanding the barriers in this country, one
- 50:36Speaker 1: of the most noted banking firms in the United States
- 50:40Speaker 1: is composed of Jews. Members of a despised race. They
- 50:45Speaker 1: made up their minds that in spite of difficulties, they
- 50:49Speaker 1: would not stop to complain, but would compel recognition by
- 50:54Speaker 1: making a real contribution to the country of which they
- 50:58Speaker 1: formed a part. The Japanese race is a convincing example
- 51:03Speaker 1: of the respect which the world gives to a race
- 51:07Speaker 1: that can put brains and commercial activity into the development
- 51:11Speaker 1: of the resources of a country. What material difficulties the
- 51:16Speaker 1: thrifty Hollanders have had to overcome in the development of
- 51:20Speaker 1: their country, but the battle against water and wind has
- 51:25Speaker 1: developed not only a country, but an energetic thrifty people.
- 51:31Speaker 1: The Netherlands have literally been made by these sturdy Hollanders, who,
- 51:36Speaker 1: because they overcame, are looked upon as a great and
- 51:40Speaker 1: happy people. There is then opportunity for the colored people
- 51:45Speaker 1: to enrich the material life of their adopted country by
- 51:50Speaker 1: doing what their hands find to do minor duties, though
- 51:54Speaker 1: they be so well that nobody else of any race
- 51:58Speaker 1: can do them better. This is the aim that the
- 52:02Speaker 1: Tuskegee student should keep steadily before him. If he remembers
- 52:08Speaker 1: that all service, however lowly, is true service, an important
- 52:14Speaker 1: step will have been taken in the solution of what
- 52:17Speaker 1: we term the race problem. For it must be remembered
- 52:23Speaker 1: that no individual of any race can contribute to the
- 52:27Speaker 1: solution of any general problem until he has first worked
- 52:32Speaker 1: out his own peculiar problem. Some months ago I met
- 52:37Speaker 1: a former schoolmate whom I had not seen for a
- 52:40Speaker 1: number of years. I was naturally interested to hear about
- 52:45Speaker 1: his progress, and began to question him. I asked him
- 52:50Speaker 1: where he lived, and he said he had no abiding place.
- 52:56Speaker 1: In fact, he had lived in a half dozen places
- 52:59Speaker 1: since we parted. In answer to other questions, I found
- 53:04Speaker 1: that he had no special trade, no special business, no
- 53:08Speaker 1: bank account. I asked then what he had been doing
- 53:13Speaker 1: in the intervening years, and he answered he had been
- 53:17Speaker 1: traveling about over the country, doing his best to solve
- 53:22Speaker 1: the race problem. That man should rather have been at
- 53:27Speaker 1: work at the solution of his own individual problem. An
- 53:33Speaker 1: individual circumstance, as he was, could not solve anybody's problem.
- 53:39Speaker 1: It is important to have one's own dooryard clean before
- 53:44Speaker 1: calling attention to the imperfection in the neighbor's yard. Each
- 53:50Speaker 1: negro can put much into the life of his race
- 53:53Speaker 1: by making his own individual life present a model in
- 53:57Speaker 1: purity and patience, in industry, and courage, in showing the
- 54:02Speaker 1: world how to get strength out of difficulties. The late
- 54:08Speaker 1: President Garfield once said that no person ever drowned, no
- 54:13Speaker 1: matter how many times he was thrown overboard, who was
- 54:17Speaker 1: worth saving. And that remark, with a few modifications, might
- 54:22Speaker 1: be applied to our race. No race is ever lost
- 54:27Speaker 1: that is worth saving, and no race need be lost
- 54:31Speaker 1: that wants to save itself. The world is full of
- 54:36Speaker 1: little people who, through lack of wisdom and patience and perseverance,
- 54:41Speaker 1: merely add to the world's burdens. The despised negro has
- 54:47Speaker 1: a chance to show to the world that charity which
- 54:50Speaker 1: suffereth long and is kind, and which never faileth in
- 54:56Speaker 1: the face of discouragements and difficulties. The need roe must
- 55:00Speaker 1: ever remember that nobody can degrade him. Nobody can degrade
- 55:06Speaker 1: a big race or a big man. No one can
- 55:11Speaker 1: degrade a single member of any race. The individual himself
- 55:16Speaker 1: is the only one who can inflict that punishment. Frederick
- 55:21Speaker 1: Douglas was, on one occasion compelled to ride for several
- 55:26Speaker 1: hours in a portion of a freight car. A friend
- 55:31Speaker 1: went into the freight car to console him and said
- 55:34Speaker 1: to him that he hated to see a man of
- 55:37Speaker 1: his intelligence in so humiliating a position. I am ashamed
- 55:43Speaker 1: that they have thus degraded you. But Douglas straightened himself
- 55:48Speaker 1: up in his seat, looked the friend in the face,
- 55:52Speaker 1: and said, they cannot degrade Frederick Douglas, And so they
- 55:59Speaker 1: cannot degrade a single individual who does not want to
- 56:04Speaker 1: be degraded. Injustice cannot work harm upon the oppressed without
- 56:10Speaker 1: injuring the oppressor. The Negro people must live the precepts
- 56:16Speaker 1: taught by the Christ. They must go on multiplying day
- 56:22Speaker 1: by day deeds of worthiness, piling them up mountain high.
- 56:30Speaker 1: And just as you and I, as individuals are called
- 56:34Speaker 1: upon to serve the race of which we are a part,
- 56:38Speaker 1: so let us, as our race, recognize the fact that
- 56:42Speaker 1: we are a part of a great nation which we
- 56:46Speaker 1: are bound to serve. End of Chapter six. End of
- 56:54Speaker 1: Putting the Most into Life by Booker T. Washington