With the establishment of a number of Negro enterprises,
however, it will be possible for some to find education by
apprenticeship. Even here most of them are men of broad
education such as will give them an appreciation and understanding of the business. The Durham businesses have begun
their second generation. Mr. Edward Merrick, the son of the
most distinguished member of the pioneer group, is the treasurer of the insurance company. He came to the work with a
good education and learned the business from the bottom. He
entered the business just as the second generation in white
businesses enter their fathers' business. This younger genera-
tion is building upon the firm foundation of the work of the
first generation. They are not dreamers attempting to create
Negro business out of nothing. It is well to mention here the
recent failure in Atlanta. The attempt to establish big business there began in an enterprise—the Standard Life—that
was sound in principle. The failure came when the promoters
resorted to the practices of the magician and the schemes of
speculators. Although the Atlanta group, especially the young
men, did not have the business experience of the Durham
group, the failure was not due to the young men with technical training but to the older men.
These younger men are truly modern business men. They have adopted the technique of modern business and are saturated with the psychology of the capitalist class. They work hard, not because of necessity, but to expand their businesses and invade new fields. They have the same outlook on life as the middle class everywhere. They support the same theories of government and morality. They have little sympathy with waste of time. Their pleasures are the pleasures of the tired business man who does not know how to enjoy life. They are distinguished laymen in the churches. They endow charities and schools. Middle class respectability is their ideal. Above all they want progress. Like modern business men who have one economy for business and one for private consumption, they maintain fine homes and expensive cars. They spend their vacations in the same manner as the whites at Newport.
In this account of the rise of the black middle class, we have
