A correct and permanent solution of this problem involves the ready co-operation of the colored race, the South, and the National government. The colored race, which constitutes one-third of the population of the South, is such a factor in the life of the South, that no plan of civil and material welfare can ignore his rights if it hopes to reach the highest success. We are learning the value of industrial independence and education. Leaders of my race are coming forward, men of ideals and of vision, who are giving to millions inspiration, ambition and hope. Given but the opportunity, we will help to make industrious, intelligent and patriotic citizens of our people. Today the South is half a century behind the North in the development of her resources and her industries. It is to the interest of the South to learn that the time spent in repressing the negro is just that much time lost from the promotion of its industrial and civic welfare. It is to the interest of the South to learn that those efforts which tend to curtail the fullest growth of one-third of this population must inevitably curtail the fullest growth of the South itself. It is to the interest of the South to have a spiritual awakening, if it hopes to develop its material and civil resources. The National government that poured out its treasures and the blood of its sons that men might be free, cannot stop short of their full enfranchisement through the freedom of knowledge and culture. The National government must give its aid to develop skilled hands, disciplined minds, and patriotic hearts. For the colored race is the one asset of this country, especially of the South, which at present shows promise of the greatest returns in proportion to the money and energy spent in its development. We, the younger generation of the colored race, realize the gravity of the situation, and that we are factors in its solution. We are aware of the fact that we are in the midst of a people that is the product of twenty centuries of human progress. At present we have every reason to be hopeful. When, during the last half of the nineteenth century, the cries of my people were for charitable help to combat ignorance and poverty, the philanthropists of the North responded in the form of Morehouse, Fiske, Tuskegee and other institutions of both higher education and industrial training. These schools today have thousands of graduates scattered in all parts of the South, giving their lives in fighting poverty and ignorance. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the cry from the South is for equal opportunity and a proper administration of justice. We expect the government to respond. We have faith in American ideals—in the ultimate triumph of Americanism.