It is evident from the signs of the times, the business situation, our
interstate commerce laws, and the domination of the trusts and combines
by the Federal government, that there will soon come a great change in
our business methods, and practices.
We are expecting that competition will be restored to the place it
occupied before men were forced out of business by overpowering
interests and vast aggregations of capital. It will certainly happen in
the near future that any man will be able to open a modest store, or
engage in a quiet and reasonable business without being driven into
bankruptcy and poverty.
Our Colored Americans are not men of large capital, nor can they control
large amounts of capital, consequently they have been unable to make any
headway against great combinations, but here is an opportunity and if
you wish to grasp it make ready. Prepare for this turning point, for it
will be the turning point in the fortunes of many of our people who
never had such a chance before, and will not again if they permit others
with more sand and hustle to jump in and take up every valuable claim
and chance.
THE PROGRESSIVE COLORED AMERICAN EARNS RESPECT FOR HIS RACE
What Other Races are Doing to Rise—Persistence and Determination Will
Win
In a country like the United States where there are so many different
peoples gathered together, it is difficult for all of them to live in
perfect harmony.
In view of what is said in other parts of this book, it must come that
all men will be united as one nation, with one set of rules and laws
applicable to all alike and without discrimination against any branch of
the human family, and without regard to his color.
There are not so many prejudices against races as was formerly the
custom, or rather habit, and the signs of the times are that prejudice
and opposition are diminishing every day.
Colored citizens have had to fight against all kinds of prejudice and
even submit to humiliations that ought to rouse their manhood and compel
them to inquire when or whether it will ever end. Every Colored American
who reads this book may feel assured that the end is in sight, and that
his children will witness a great diminution in the slights put upon his
race and color. It will be effected by personal influence based upon
education and high standards of living.
Not so very long ago, the Jew was about as humiliated a race of men as
exist in the world. Driven out of public places because they were Jews;
unable to do business with others on account of their race, they were
made a byword and a laughing stock in every occupation of life, and held
up to the world on the theater stage as objects of derision and
caricature.
The Jew was a “Sheeney,” a “Shylock,” an “Ol’ clo’ man,” a “Christ
killer,” and given other choice epithets to bring him into disrespect
and excite prejudice, even abhorrence.
All these epithets and others equally as cruel and vulgar, were applied
to the whole race of Jews, and it did not make any difference whether he
was an honest Jew, or one of education, and of high repute, he was still
a “sheeney.”
But a change has taken place and the Jew is no longer a “Sheeney,”
unless he merits the epithet, but stands as a man among the other men
and is entitled to and gains their respect. Jews, as a race, are no
longer “Sheeneys,” or “Shylocks,” only those individuals of the race
that are in bad repute among their own people are such. Hence we
perceive that prejudice against the Jew as a race is diminishing.