The late Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who was a good friend of the black man as well as the white, struck the right note in his introduction to the biography of Booker T. Washington when he said: 

     “If there is any lesson more essential than any other for this
     country to learn, it is the lesson that the enjoyment of rights
     should be made conditional upon the performance of duty.”

There exist certain rights which every colored man and woman may enjoy regardless of laws and prejudice.  For instance, nothing can prevent a colored person from practicing industry, honesty, saving and decency, if he or she desires to practice them.

The helpfulness of the colored race to the Government need not be confined to fighting in the army nor to service in the manifold domestic callings.  It is the duty of the colored citizens, as it is their right, to have a part in the substantial development of the nation and to assist in financing its operations for war or peace.  The colored people, as a rule, are industrious and thrifty and have come to appreciate their importance as a factor in the economic and financial world, as indicated by their prosperous business enterprises, their large holdings in real estate, their management of banks, and their scrupulous handling of the millions of deposits entrusted to their care.  This capital, saved through sacrifice, has been placed in a most generous manner at the disposal of the Government throughout its period of need, and the list of corporations, fraternities and individuals who have aided in bringing success to American arms by the purchase of Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps and by contributions to other war relief agencies, is indeed a long one.

Opportunities of the colored people to make safe investment of their savings never were so great as they are today.  The financial program the Government has entered upon and is continuing to carry out to meet the expense of the war gives a chance to save in sums as small as twenty-five cents and makes an investment upon which return of both principal and interest is absolutely guaranteed.  Too often colored people have entrusted their savings to wholly irresponsible persons, lost them through the dishonesty of these persons, and in discouragement abandoned all attempts at saving.  Today, however, there is no excuse for any man not saving a certain amount of his earnings no matter how small it may be.  It is a poor person, indeed, who cannot invest twenty-five cents at stated intervals in a Thrift Stamp.  Many are able also to buy small Liberty Bonds.  It is a duty and a privilege for colored persons to help the Government finance the war, which was for both whites and blacks.

It is the particular duty of white persons, in cooperation with the most influential members of their own race, to explain these Government financial plans to the colored men and women that they may make safe investments, acquire a competence, and thus become better citizens.