It is a recognition that
will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any
occurrence since the dawn of our freedom.
Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among
us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it
is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the
top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state
legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that
the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than
starting a dairy farm or truck garden.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly
vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal,
"Water, water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the friendly vessel
at once came back, "Cast down your bucket where you are." A second
time the signal, "Water, water; send us water!" ran up from the
distressed vessel, and was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you
are." And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, "Cast
down your bucket where you are." The captain of the distressed
vessel, at last heading the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it
came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon
River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in
a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating
friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door
neighbour, I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you are" -- cast
it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all
races by whom we are surrounded.
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