W. E. Bowen,
and other representatives of this group, can much longer be
silent. Such men feel in conscience bound to ask of this
nation three things:
1. The right to vote.
2. Civic equality.
3. The education of youth according to ability.
They acknowledge Mr. Washington's invaluable service in
counselling patience and courtesy in such demands; they do
not ask that ignorant black men vote when ignorant whites are
debarred, or that any reasonable restrictions in the suffrage
should not be applied; they know that the low social level of
the mass of the race is responsible for much discrimination
against it, but they also know, and the nation knows, that
relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result
of the Negro's degradation; they seek the abatement of this
relic of barbarism, and not its systematic encouragement and
pampering by all agencies of social power from the Associ-
ated Press to the Church of Christ. They advocate, with Mr.
Washington, a broad system of Negro common schools sup-
plemented by thorough industrial training; but they are sur-
prised that a man of Mr. Washington's insight cannot see that
no such educational system ever has rested or can rest on any
other basis than that of the well-equipped college and univer-
sity, and they insist that there is a demand for a few such
institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro
youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders.
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