Message Commending the National Urban League on Its Job Training Efforts for Negroes.

[Released March 13, 1930. Dated April 1, 1929]

Dear Mr. Jones:

The first step toward being a good citizen is to achieve economic independence. It is the soil in which self respect takes root, and from which may then grow all the moral and spiritual enrichments of life. The work of the National Urban League to train Negroes in the city to find new lines of occupation is fundamental to the progress of the race. I wish you success in this undertaking.

Yours faithfully,

HERBERT HOOVER

[Mr. Eugene Kinckle Jones, Executive Secretary, National Urban League, 17 Madison Avenue, New York City]