The opportunity to earn a dollar in a
factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to
spend a dollar in an opera-house.
In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has
given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you
of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition;
and here bending, as it were, over the altar that represents the
results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting
practically empty-handed three decades ago, I pledge that in your
effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has
laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the
patient, sympathetic help of my race; only let this be constantly
in mind, that, while from representations in these buildings of
the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, letters,
and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material
benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray God, will
come, in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial
animosities and suspicions, in a determination to administer
absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the
mandates of law. This, this, coupled with our material
prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a
new earth.
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