In discussing questions of race building it is but just that we recognize the causes that have led up to the condition that may exist. If we are to suggest methods by which we may correct our weak points, we should first attempt to make plain what these are and then offer our remedy. We have enterprises innumerable, enterprises of all classes and kinds, dignified and undignified, humble and pretentious, scattered all over this broad land. But these do not take on the sturdy growth of permanency and prosperity that usually attaches to the affairs of others. On the contrary we are surprised if they exhibit undue vitality and outgrow their long clothes. Some of our businesses are lasting monuments to our commercial and professional ability, and stand out proudly against a background of restricted opportunities, while the unnumbered many fade into the shadow of the horizon and are lost to sight. The questions that come to us are: Why is it so, and how may it be remedied? Are the causes for these economic conditions of commercial origin or social? Are they extrinsic or intrinsic? Are they the results of the unbusinesslike methods of our merchants, or the lack of appreciation of our buyers? We glory that we are a full-fledged race. It is a splendid thing to glory over. But do we realize what we have missed in our sudden growth? Imagine a man, who has had no babyhood, no childhood, no youthhood; a man born into manhood, without the pleasures and experiences of boyhood; who has never fallen into a pond, battled with wasps, played truant, or done any of those innocent mischiefs that develop the boy both in body and in mind, and fit him for the strenuous duties of life. Imagine such a man and you have our race. A nation in a day, is our record. We were born into cities, governments, laws, comforts, pleasures and schools. Aladdin's lamp has never accomplished anything so wonderful, and we rubbed our eyes and were amazed because everything had been prepared for us. This very munificence has hampered us. We have not had that development as individuals and as a people that would best fit us to grapple with each succeeding obstacle. Therefore we must patiently though painfully start from the beginning and travel over the same road, that each race has traveled, because individuals and races develop alike, and the same conditions that attach to the growth of one race, attach to that of all others. A nation in a day is a splendid record. But a nation that came out of the wilderness, constructed its own cities, builded its own roads, made its own laws, established its own schools, devised its own comforts and pleasures, and in the contest with nature and poverty, wrestled until it won a new name, that nation with its scars, its experiences, and its development has far more to be desired, and has far more resources upon which to draw in its after contests than the former.