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THE ATHENAEUM 157 GO INTO BUSINESS! At present the whole United States is gasping and staring with amazement at the sudden suprising revealations in the Negro Busi ness world of Atlanta. Men everywhere are losing faith in the ability of the Negro to succeed as a business man—to put over a project ! and are prognasticating the eternal failure of Negro businesses on a large scale. But this failure is only the beginning of success. The white man has behind him years of experience, whereas the Negro ! has not. To gain this experience enterprises—must go to the wall and failures must come. At such a time college men need encouragement. Go into busi ness, I say, for the field is new and the harvest will be great But do not go in just because the field, is fertile, but let us analyze ourselves and see if we would succeed in the business world In working out any practical problem (1) we collect the facts (2) analyze the situation (3) make inferences (4) and proceed to verify these (inferences. So let us collect the facts about ourselves: see if we can think straight and clear on practical problems, if we have the knack of looking into the future and seeing what we will be doing a year from now; if we can comprehend human psychology (for to be successful in business we must have these three qualities: the mentality to, be a sound thinker, perception enough to took into the future, and the ability to handle those whom we come in contact with). If you have worked out this problem and find that you will succeed in business then let us turn the pages and see why the Negro needs competent business men. Sociologists tell us that the main causes of the backwardness IHid subjection of the Negro to-day is ignorance and poverty. Every where you hear teachers advising the student to a life of service; to llean not your energies to money-getting but just to live well and render service. Ah! but it would be far better if we could turn out : more real producers for the race: then we could rid ourselves of ignorance; we could put ourselves on a level with the white man for | we kn °w only too well that the medium of exchange, money is the controlling power of the modern world. Take the Jew for instance, “the most despicable human being on earth” yet the most powerful! Why ? Because the Jews are keen business men; the are go-getters. Knowing then that the intense heat and abounding banana trees of Africa made us by nature shiftless and inert, let us forever en courage the spirit of thrift and enterprise among ourselves. For on this more than anything else leans the hope of the Negro in America. —T. R. Hubert, ’26. \