Mr. Bruce's Speech in Sanders

The annual Memorial Day exercises were held under the auspices of the Memorial Society in Sanders Theatre at 12 o'clock yesterday.

The service was opened with prayed by Rev. A. P. Fitch '00, of Boston, after which the Glee Club led the audience in singing 'Fair Harvard." Professor G. H. Plamer '64, president of the Memorial society, then introduced R. C. Bruce '02, of Tuskegee Institute, who delivered the address on 'Freedom through Education."

We gather, he said, to commemorate the resolute and faithful men, who fought and fell in the Civil War to preserve American nationality and American free institutions. They freed the negro slave. His complete emancipation, however, the freedom of his mind and soul as well as his body can be secured only through education. It is the opportunity and the privilege of the nation to grant him this. The vast number of illiterate negroes in the South proves that the nation is not doing this adequately.

Of the 9,000,000 negroes in the United Sates, 7,000,000 live in country districts. The primary problem is therefore that of the negro peasant. This problem is made more acute by the fact that the negro farming population tends to segregate in rather sharply defined areas and thus loses the instruction and stimulus of contact with the more progressive white planter. Education is of great value in relieving this situation.

The moral and industrial regeneration of negro life in the South must come from within, it must be brought about by men and women, educated and trained in negro schools and inspired to help their people. Institutions seeking to contribute to this far reaching service should be established at the centre of each of the greater black belts; and they should as President Eliot has recently suggested, receive the nation's aid. The opportunities for trained negroes to help in the uplifting and bettering of their race are many. But today there is a great dearth of well-trained men and women to do the work.

To train the selected negro youth to these fields of usefulness in developing the race, more colleges and professional schools are needed. Until they are secured and the fetter fall from the minds and hearts and energies of the millions of black Americans, the nation's duty is not done.