Article June 6, 1903 Issue

The True Line of Progress

WILLIAM LAW with contributions from JEREMY TAYLOR

[FROM an address by Booker T. Washington before the Twentieth Century Club. Reported in Boston Transcript.]

What is freedom, and how obtained? The child who wants to spend time in play, rather than in study, mistakes play for freedom. The spendthrift who parts with his money as soon as it is received, mistakes spending for freedom. The young man who craves the right to drink and gamble mistakes debauchery for freedom. The man who claims the right to idle away his days upon the street, rather than to spend them in set hours of labor, mistakes loafing for freedom. And so, all through human experience, we find that the highest and most complete freedom comes slowly, and is purchased only at tremendous cost. Freedom comes through seeming restriction; those are most truly free to-day who have passed through great discipline. Those persons in the United States who are most truly free in body, mind, morals, are those who have passed through the most severe training, are those who have exercised the most patience and at the same time the most dogged persistence and determination.

To deal more practically and directly with the affairs of my own race, I believe that both the teachings of history, as well as the results of every-day observation, should convince us that we shall make our most enduring progress by laying the foundations carefully, patiently, in the ownership of the soil, the exercise of habits of economy, the saving of money, the securing of the most complete education of hand and head, and the cultivation of Christian virtues. There is nothing new or startling in this. It is the old, old road that all races that have got upon their feet and have remained there have had to travel. Standing as I do to-day before this audience, when the very soul of my race is aching, is seeking for guidance as perhaps never before, I say deliberately that I know no other road. If I knew how to find more speedy and prompt relief I should be a coward and a hypocrite if I did not point the way to it.

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