Scarcely any of the wealthy people of the North, and thinkers on vital questions of the day in European nations, properly consider the salary of colored laborers of the South, as a comparison to that of the white laborer. It is universally admitted that the colored race has made rapid progress—progress worthy of praise. But in the face of destitution, educational endeavorment, exertions put forth to erect church edifices, and imposition as described in the preceding chapter, thousands of good people stand and say: “The negroes are allowed to work in nearly all the branches of labor that are in the South, and why should we help them to build their schools and churches, since they have been freed long enough to look after themselves from a financial standpoint? and why should we try to assist them in getting their rights at law, when they don’t try to assist themselves when they are outraged by the lynchers, there being as many or more colored people in some States than white people?” If the negro was allowed the same chance or the same wages as his white brother, then we could to some extent join with the above in asking, why? But few of the many colleges and churches of the colored people are paid for. Could colored millionaires be expected within 35 years of freedom? No. There are some pursuing riches. In the State of Mississippi many colored persons owned “plantations.” Only owned until some “heir” arise to force them by “law” to disown their property. This course of defrauding the colored people out of their stringent and honest earnings has existed many years. In consideration of these things we must conclude that donations amounting to enough to pay off debts of colored institutions, such as that of Payne Theological Seminary should be given by those who have received abundantly from the hands of a Father, who is rich in houses and lands, and holdeth the wealth of the world in His hand. In sustenance of what has been said as a proof of the Southern colored labor being discounted, in that a minority of those who are fitted for all departments of work are not employed, we give a clipping from the _Detroit Evening News_: “WAGES IN THE SOUTH. “The Chattanooga Tradesmen has made a statistical examination of the white and colored labor of the Southern States. From the reports received from employers of nearly 100,000 hands, 58 per cent. of the employees are white and 42 are colored. One-third of the whole number are termed skilled laborers, only 10 per cent. of whom are colored. “A remarkable fact brought out by this investigation is, that over 90 per cent. of these workmen are native born; 61 per cent. of the employers said all their help were natives of the south, and only 19 per cent. reported that they employed as many as half natives and half of northern or foreign birth.