Indeed, one of the strongest claims for the higher education of the
Negro is that it will stimulate the dormant industrial activities of
the race. The surest way to incite a people to meet the material
demands of life is to teach them that life is more than meat. The
unimaginative laborer pursues the routine rounds of his task, spurred
on, only by the immediate necessities of life and the taskmaster’s
stern command. To him, it is only time and the hour that run through
the whole day. The Negro lacks enlightened imagination. He needs
prospect and vista. He does not make provision because he lacks
prevision. Under slavery he toiled as the ass, dependent upon the daily
allowance from his master’s crib. To him the prayer, Give us this day
our daily bread, has a material rather than a spiritual meaning. If you
would perpetuate the industrial incapacity of the Negro, then confine
him to the low grounds of drudgery and toil and prevent him from
casting his eyes unto the hills whence come inspiration and promise.
The man with the hoe is of all men most miserable unless, forsooth,
he has a hope. But if imbued with hope and sustained by an ideal, he
can consecrate the hoe as well as any other instrument of service, as
a means of fulfilling the promise within him. When a seed is sown in
the ground it first sends its roots into the soil before the blades
can rise out of it. But is it not actuated by the plant consciousness
to seek the light of heaven? For what is the purpose of sending its
roots below, if it be not in order to bear fruit above? The pilgrim
fathers in following the inspiration of a lofty ideal developed the
resources of a continent. Any people who attempt to reach the sky on a
pedestal of bricks and mortar will end in confusion and bewilderment as
did the builders of the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar in the
days of Eld. It requires range of vision to stimulate the industrial
activities of the people. The most effective prayer that can be uttered
for the Negro is “Lord, open thou his eyes.” He can not see beyond
the momentary gratification of appetite and passion. He does not look
before and after. Such stimulating influence can be brought to bear
upon the race only through the inspiration of the higher culture.