Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/460

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THE AFRO-AMERICAN PRESS.

slavery; (b) unequal competition with established current literature; (c) intellectual and financial inability, as manifested in collecting, selecting, classifying, and arranging matter; (I have reference here, not to appearance on the printed page but to its fitness, force and character,) also, a failure to get into the markets and homes.

4th. The future course of our Press. This, doubtless, would appear to be suggested from what has been said. Let me add, that, as a fact, the colored man's success in every avocation will depend, not so much at being at "par" with the white man, but the circumstances force it, and the future demands, that he should be par-excellent to the average white man; not that he must know more, or be more wealthy, but his standard must be higher. Loyalty to the eternal principles which alone can secure human success and happiness, must be his constant and single aim.

Opinion of James T. Still, M. D.

I think from my limited acquaintance with negro journalism, I am not able to give unqualified, positive or negative answers to the questions in regard to the Press in the hands of the negro. If a statement of my opinions may be of any value, they are as follows: I think the negro has, upon the whole, done an immense amount of good, not for his race only but for the American people also, by the part he has taken in journalism. Within a few years, his participation in this, to him, new occupation, has, by the fascinating, contagious fever of imitation, rivalry, and emulation, caused hundreds of our people, young and old, male and female, to bring forward their thoughts, ideas, and desires before the public; it is true, too generally, in rude garb, chirographically, typographically, grammatically, and rhetorically; yet, upon the whole, the volumes of these compositions have been of