THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

by: Booker T. Washington
The political, educational, social, and economic evolution through
which the South passed during, say, the first fifteen or twenty
years after the close of the civil war furnishes one of the most
interesting periods that any country has passed through.

A large share of the thought and activity of the white South, of
the black South, and of that section of the North especially
interested in my race, was directed during the years of the
Reconstruction period toward politics, or toward matters bearing
upon what were termed civil or social rights. The work of
education was rather slow, and covered a large section of the
South; still I think I am justified in saying that in the public
mind the Negro's relation to politics overshadowed nearly every
other interest. The education of the race was conducted quietly,
and attracted comparatively little attention, just as is true at
the present time. The appointment of one Negro postmaster at a
third or fourth rate post office will be given wider publicity
through the daily press than the founding of a school, or some
important discovery in science.

With reference to the black man's political relation to the state
and Federal governments, I think I am safe in saying that for many
years after the civil war there were sharp and antagonistic views
between the North and the South, as well as between the white
South and the black South. At practically every point where there
was a political question to be decided in the South the blacks
would array themselves on one side and the whites on the other. I
remember that very soon after I began teaching school in Alabama
an old colored man came to me just prior to an election. He said:
"You can read de newspapers and most of us can't, but dar is one
thing dat we knows dat you don't, and dat is how to vote down
here; and we wants you to vote as we does." He added: "I tell you
how we does. We watches de white man; we keeps watching de white
man; de nearer it gits to election time de more we watches de
white man. We watches him till we finds out which way he gwine to
vote. After we finds out which way he gwine to vote, den we votes
exactly de other way; den we knows we 's right."

Stories on the other side might be given showing that a certain
class of white people, both at the polls and in the Legislatures,
voted just as unreasonably in opposing politically what they
thought the Negro or the North wanted, no matter how much benefit
might ensue from a contrary action. Unfortunately such antagonism
did not end with matters political, but in many cases affected the
relation of the races in nearly every walk of life. Aside from
political strife, there was naturally deep feeling between the
North and the South on account of the war. On nearly every
question growing out of the war, which was debated in Congress, or
in political campaigns, there was the keenest difference and often
the deepest feeling. There was almost no question of even a semi-
political nature, or having a remote connection with the Negro,
upon which there was not sharp and often bitter division between
the North and South. It is needless to say that in many cases the
Negro was the sufferer. He was being ground between the upper and
nether millstones. Even to this day it is well-nigh impossible,
largely by reason of the force of habit, in certain states to
prevent state and even local campaigns from being centred in some
form upon the black man. In states like Mississippi, for example,
where the Negro ceased nearly a score of years ago, by operation
of law, to be a determining factor in politics, he forms in some
way the principal fuel for campaign discussion at nearly every
election. The sad feature of this is, that it prevents the
presentation before the masses of the people of matters pertaining
to local and state improvement, and to great national issues like
finance, tariff, or foreign policies. It prevents the masses from
receiving the broad and helpful education which every political
campaign should furnish, and, what is equally unfortunate, it
prevents the youth from seeing and hearing on the platform the
great political leaders of the two national parties. During a
national campaign few of the great Democratic leaders debate
national questions in the South, because it is felt that the old
antagonism to the Negro politically will keep the South voting one
way. Few of the great Republican leaders appear on Southern
platforms, because they feel that nothing will be gained.

One of the saddest instances of this situation that has come
within my knowledge occurred some years ago in a certain Southern
state where a white friend of mine was making the race for
Congress on the Democratic ticket in a district that was
overwhelmingly Democratic. I speak of this man as my friend,
because there was no personal favor in reason which he would have
refused me. He was equally friendly to the race, and was generous
in giving for its education, and in helping individuals to buy
land. His campaign took him into one of the "white" counties,
where there were few colored people, and where the whites were
unusually ignorant. I was surprised one morning to read in the
daily papers of a bitter attack he had made on the Negro while
speaking in this county. The next time I saw him I informed him
of my surprise. He replied that he was ashamed of what he had
said, and that he did not himself believe much that he had stated,
but gave as a reason for his action that he had found himself
before an audience which had heard little for thirty years in the
way of political discussion that did not bear upon the Negro, and
that he therefore knew it was almost impossible to interest them
in any other subject.

But this is somewhat aside from my purpose, which is, I repeat, to
make plain that in all political matters there was for years after
the war no meeting ground of agreement for the two races, or for
the North and South. Upon the question of the Negro's civil
rights, as embodied in what was called the Civil Rights Bill,
there was almost the same sharp line of division between the
races, and, in theory at least, between the Northern and Southern
whites,--largely because the former were supposed to be giving the
blacks social recognition, and encouraging intermingling between
the races. The white teachers, who came from the North to work in
missionary schools, received for years little recognition or
encouragement from the rank and file of their own race. The lines
were so sharply drawn that in cities where native Southern white
women taught Negro children in the public schools, they would have
no dealings with Northern white women who, perhaps, taught Negro
children from the same family in a missionary school.

I want to call attention here to a phase of Reconstruction policy
which is often overlooked. All now agree that there was much in
Reconstruction which was unwise and unfortunate. However we may
regard that policy, and much as we may regret mistakes, the fact
is too often overlooked that it was during the Reconstruction
period that a public school system for the education of all the
people of the South was first established in most of the states.
Much that was done by those in charge of Reconstruction
legislation has been overturned, but the public school system
still remains. True, it has been modified and improved, but the
system remains, and is every day growing in popularity and
strength.

As to the difference of opinion between the North and the South
regarding Negro education, I find that many people, especially in
the North, have a wrong conception of the attitude of the Southern
white people. It is and has been very generally thought that what
is termed "higher education" of the Negro has been from the first
opposed by the white South. This opinion is far from being
correct. I remember that, in 1891, when I began the work of
establishing the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, practically all of
the white people who talked to me on the subject took it for
granted that instruction in the Greek, Latin, and modern languages
would be one of the main features of our curriculum. I heard no
one oppose what he thought our course of study was to embrace. In
fact, there are many white people in the South at the present time
who do not know that instruction in the dead languages is not
given at the Tuskegee Institute. In further proof of what I have
stated, if one will go through the catalogue of the schools
maintained by the states for Negro people, and managed by Southern
white people, he will find in almost every case that instruction
in the higher branches is given with the consent and approval of
white officials. This was true as far back as 1880. It is not
unusual to meet at this time Southern white people who are as
emphatic in their belief in the value of classical education as a
certain element of colored people themselves. In matters relating
to civil and political rights, the breach was broad, and without
apparent hope of being bridged; even in the matter of religion,
practically all of the denominations had split on the subject of
the Negro, though I should add that there is now, and always has
been, a closer touch and more cooperation in matters of religion
between the white and colored people in the South than is
generally known. But the breach between the white churches in the
South and North remains.

In matters of education the difference was much less sharp. The
truth is that a large element in the South had little faith in the
efficacy of the higher or any other kind of education of the
Negro. They were indifferent, but did not openly oppose; on the
other hand, there has always been a potent element of white people
in all of the Southern states who have stood out openly and
bravely for the education of all the people, regardless of race.
This element has thus far been successful in shaping and leading
public opinion, and I think that it will continue to do so more
and more. This statement must not be taken to mean that there is
as yet an equitable division of the school funds, raised by common
taxation, between the two races in many sections of the South,
though the Southern states deserve much credit for what has been
done. In discussing the small amount of direct taxes the Negro
pays, the fact that he pays tremendous indirect taxes is often
overlooked.

I wish, however, to emphasize the fact that while there was either
open antagonism or indifference in the directions I have named, it
was the introduction of industrial training into the Negro's
education that seemed to furnish the first basis for anything like
united and sympathetic interest and action between the two races
in the South and between the whites in the North and those in the
South. Aside from its direct benefit to the black race,
industrial education has furnished a basis for mutual faith and
cooperation, which has meant more to the South, and to the work of
education, than has been realized.

This was, at the least, something in the way of construction.
Many people, I think, fail to appreciate the difference between
the problems now before us and those that existed previous to the
civil war. Slavery presented a problem of destruction; freedom
presents a problem of construction.

From its first inception the white people of the South had faith
in the theory of industrial education, because they had noted,
what was not unnatural, that a large element of the colored people
at first interpreted freedom to mean freedom from work with the
hands. They naturally had not learned to appreciate the fact that
they had been WORKED, and that one of the great lessons for
freemen to learn is to WORK. They had not learned the vast
difference between WORKING and BEING WORKED. The white people saw
in the movement to teach the Negro youth the dignity, beauty, and
civilizing power of all honorable labor with the hands something
that would lead the Negro into his new life of freedom gradually
and sensibly, and prevent his going from one extreme of life to
the other too suddenly. Furthermore, industrial education
appealed directly to the individual and community interest of the
white people. They saw at once that intelligence coupled with
skill would add wealth to the community and to the state, in which
both races would have an added share. Crude labor in the days of
slavery, they believed, could be handled and made in a degree
profitable, but ignorant and unskilled labor in a state of freedom
could not be made so. Practically every white man in the South
was interested in agricultural or in mechanical or in some form of
manual labor; every white man was interested in all that related
to the home life,--the cooking and serving of food, laundering,
dairying, poultry-raising, and housekeeping in general. There was
no family whose interest in intelligent and skillful nursing was
not now and then quickened by the presence of a trained nurse. As
already stated, there was general appreciation of the fact that
the industrial education of the black people had direct, vital,
and practical bearing upon the life of each white family in the
South; while there was no such appreciation of the results of mere
literary training. If a black man became a lawyer, a doctor, a
minister, or an ordinary teacher, his professional duties would
not ordinarily bring him in touch with the life of the white
portion of the community, but rather confine him almost
exclusively to his own race. While purely literary or
professional education was not opposed by the white population, it
was something in which they found little or no interest, beyond a
confused hope that it would result in producing a higher and a
better type of Negro manhood. The minute it was seen that through
industrial education the Negro youth was not only studying
chemistry, but also how to apply the knowledge of chemistry to the
enrichment of the soil, or to cooking, or to dairying, and that
the student was being taught not only geometry and physics, but
their application to blacksmithing, brickmaking, farming, and what
not, then there began to appear for the first time a common bond
between the two races and cooperation between North and South.

One of the most interesting and valuable instances of the kind
that I know of is presented in the case of Mr. George W. Carver,
one of our instructors in agriculture at Tuskegee Institute. For
some time it has been his custom to prepare articles containing
information concerning the conditions of local crops, and warning
the farmers against the ravages of certain insects and diseases.
The local white papers are always glad to publish these articles,
and they are read by white and colored farmers.

Some months ago a white land-holder in Montgomery County asked Mr.
Carver to go through his farm with him for the purpose of
inspecting it. While doing so Mr. Carver discovered traces of
what he thought was a valuable mineral deposit, used in making a
certain kind of paint. The interests of the land-owner and the
agricultural instructor at once became mutual. Specimens of the
deposits were taken to the laboratories of the Tuskegee Institute
and analyzed by Mr. Carver. In due time the land-owner received a
report of the analysis, together with a statement showing the
commercial value and application of the mineral. I shall not go
through the whole interesting story, except to say that a stock
company, composed of some of the best white people in Alabama, has
been organized, and is now preparing to build a factory for the
purpose of putting their product on the market. I hardly need to
add that Mr. Carver has been freely consulted at every step, and
his services generously recognized in the organization of the
concern. When the company was being formed the following
testimonial, among others, was embodied in the printed copy of the
circular:--

"George W. Carver, Director of the Department of Agriculture,
Tuskegee, Alabama, says:--

"'The pigment is an ochreous clay. Its value as a paint is due to
the presence of ferric oxide, of which it contains more than any
of the French, Australian, American, Irish, or Welsh ochres.
Ferric oxides have long been recognized as the essential
constituents of such paints as Venetian red, Turkish red, oxide
red, Indian red, and scarlet. They are most desirable, being
quite permanent when exposed to light and air. As a stain they
are most valuable.'"

In further proof of what I wish to emphasize, I think I am safe in
saying that the work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute, under the late General S. C. Armstrong, was the first
to receive any kind of recognition and hearty sympathy from the
Southern white people, and General Armstrong was perhaps the first
Northern educator of Negroes who won the confidence and
cooperation of the white South. The effects of General
Armstrong's introduction of industrial education at Hampton, and
its extension to the Tuskegee Institute in the far South, are now
actively and helpfully apparent in the splendid work being
accomplished for the whole South by the Southern Education Board,
with Mr. Robert C. Ogden at its head, and by the General Education
Board, with Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr., as its president.
Without the introduction of manual training it is doubtful whether
such work as is now being wrought through these two boards for
both races in the South could have been possible within a quarter
of a century to come. Later on in the history of our country it
will be recognized and appreciated that the far-reaching and
statesman-like efforts of these two boards for general education
in the South, under the guidance of the two gentlemen named, and
with the cooperation and assistance of such men as Mr. George
Foster Peabody, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, of
the North, and Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, Chancellor Hill, Dr.
Alderman, Dr. McIver, Dr. Dabney, and others of the South, will
have furnished the material for one of the brightest and most
encouraging chapters in the history of our country. The fact that
we have reached the point where men and women who were so far
apart twenty years ago can meet in the South and discuss freely
from the same platform questions relating to the industrial,
educational, political, moral, and religious development of the
two races marks a great step in advance. It is true that as yet
the Negro has not been invited to share in these discussions.

Aside from the reasons I have given showing why the South favored
industrial education, coupled with intellectual and moral
training, many of the whites saw, for example, that the Negroes
who were master carpenters and contractors, under the guidance of
their owners, could become still greater factors in the
development of the South if their children were not suddenly
removed from the atmosphere and occupations of their fathers, and
if they could be taught to use the thing in hand as a foundation
for higher growth. Many of the white people were wise enough to
see that such education would enable some of the Negro youths to
become more skillful carpenters and contractors, and that if they
laid an economic foundation in this way in their generation, they
would be laying a foundation for a more abstract education of
their children in the future.

Again, a large element of people at the South favored manual
training for the Negro because they were wise enough to see that
the South was largely free from the restrictive influences of the
Northern trades unions, and that such organizations would secure
little hold in the South so long as the Negro kept abreast in
intelligence and skill with the same class of people elsewhere.
Many realized that the South would be tying itself to a body of
death if it did not help the Negro up. In this connection I want
to call attention to the fact that the official records show that
within one year about one million foreigners came into the United
States. Notwithstanding this number, practically none went into
the Southern states; to be more exact, the records show that in
1892 only 2278 all told went into the states of Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia. One ship sometimes brings as many to New
York. Various reasons are given to explain why these foreigners
systematically avoid the South. One is that the climate is so
hot; and another is that they do not like the restrictions thrown
about the ballot; and still another is the presence of the Negro
is so large numbers. Whatever the true reason is, the fact
remains that foreigners avoid the South, and the South is more and
more realizing that it cannot keep pace with the progress being
made in other parts of the country if a third of its population is
ignorant and without skill.

The South must frankly face this truth, that for a long period it
must depend upon the black man to do for it what the foreigner is
now doing for the great West. If, by reason of his skill and
knowledge, one man in Iowa learns to produce as much corn in a
season as four men can produce in Alabama, it requires little
reasoning to see that Alabama will buy most of her corn from Iowa.

Another interesting result of the introduction of industrial
education for the Negro has been its influence upon the white
people of the South, and, I believe, upon the whites of the North
as well. This phase of it has proved of interest in making hand
training a conciliatory element between the races.

In 1883 I was delivering an address on industrial education before
the colored State Teachers' Association of one of our Southern
states. When I had finished, some of the teachers began to ask
the State Superintendent of Education, who was on the programme,
some questions about the subject. He politely but firmly stopped
the questions by stating that he knew absolutely nothing about
industrial training, and had never heard it discussed before. At
that time there was no such education being given at any white
institution in that state. With one or two exceptions this case
will illustrate what was true of all the Southern states. A
careful investigation of the subject will show that it was not
until after industrial education was started among the colored
people, and its value proved, that it was taken up by the Southern
white people.

Manual training or industrial and technical schools for the whites
have, for the most part, been established under state auspices,
and are at this time chiefly maintained by the states. An
investigation would also show that in securing money from the
state legislatures for the purpose of introducing hand work, one
of the main arguments used was the existence and success of
industrial training among the Negroes. It was often argued that
the white boys and girls would be left behind unless they had the
opportunities for securing the same kind of training that was
being given the colored people. Although it is, I think, not
generally known, it is a fact that since the idea of industrial or
technical education for white people took root within the last few
years, much more money is spent annually for such education for
the whites than for the colored people. Any one who has not
looked into the subject will be surprised to find how thorough and
high grade the work is. Take, for example, the state of Georgia,
and it will be found that several times as much is being spent at
the Industrial College for white girls at Milledgeville, and at
the technical school for whites at Atlanta, as is being spent in
the whole state for the industrial education of Negro youths. I
have met no Southern white educators who have not been generous in
their praise of the Negro schools for taking the initiative in
hand training. This fact has again served to create in matters
relating to education a bond of sympathy between the two races in
the South. Referring again to the influence of industrial
training for the Negro in education, in the Northern states I
find, while writing this article, the following announcement in
the advertisement of what is perhaps the most high-priced and
exclusive girls' seminary in Massachusetts:--

"In planning a system of education for young ladies, with the view
of fitting them for the greatest usefulness in life, the idea was
conceived of supplementing the purely intellectual work by a
practical training in the art of home management and its related
subjects.

"It was the first school of high literary grade to introduce
courses in Domestic Science into the regular curriculum.

"The results were so gratifying as to lead to the equipment of
Experiment Hall, a special building, fitted for the purpose of
studying the principles of Applied Housekeeping. Here the girls
do the actual work of cooking, marketing, arranging menus, and
attend to all the affairs of a well-arranged household.

"Courses are arranged also in sewing, dressmaking, and millinery;
they are conducted on a similarly practical basis, and equip the
student with a thorough knowledge of the subject."

A dozen years ago I do not believe that any such announcement
would have been made.

Beginning with the year 1877, the Negro in the South lost
practically all political control; that is to say, as early as
1885 the Negro scarcely had any members of his race in the
national Congress or state legislatures, and long before this date
had ceased to hold state offices. This was true, notwithstanding
the protests and fervent oratory of such strong race leaders as
Frederick Douglass, B. K. Bruce, John R. Lynch, P. B. S.
Pinchback, and John M. Langston, with a host of others. When
Frederick Douglass, the greatest man that the race has produced,
died in 1895, it is safe to say that the Negro in the Southern
states, with here and there a few exceptions, had practically no
political control or political influence, except in sending
delegates to national conventions, or in holding a few Federal
positions by appointment. It became evident to many of the wise
Negroes that the race would have to depend for its success in the
future less upon political agitations and the opportunity of
holding office, and more upon something more tangible and
substantial. It was at this period in the Negro's development,
when the distance between the races was greatest, and the spirit
and ambition of the colored people most depressed, that the idea
of industrial or business development was introduced and began to
be made prominent. It did not take the more level-headed members
of the race long to see that while the Negro in the South was
surrounded by many difficulties, there was practically no line
drawn and little race discrimination in the world of commerce,
banking, storekeeping, manufacturing, and the skilled trades, and
in agriculture, and that in this lay his great opportunity. They
understood that, while the whites might object to a Negro's being
a postmaster, they would not object to his being the president of
a bank, and in the latter occupation they would give him
assistance and encouragement. The colored people were quick to
see that while the negro would not be invited as a rule to attend
the white man's prayer-meeting, he would be invited every time to
attend the stockholders' meeting of a business concern in which he
had an interest and that he could buy property in practically any
portion of the South where the white man could buy it. The white
citizens were all the more willing to encourage the Negro in this
economic or industrial development, because they saw that the
prosperity of the Negro meant also the prosperity of the white
man. They saw, too, that when a Negro became the owner of a home
and was a taxpayer, having a regular trade or other occupation, he
at once became a conservative and safe citizen and voter; one who
would consider the interests of his whole community before casting
his ballot; and, further, one whose ballot could not be purchased.

One case in point is that of the twenty-eight teachers at our
school in Tuskegee who applied for life-voting certificates under
the new constitution of Alabama, not one was refused registration;
and if I may be forgiven a personal reference, in my own case, the
Board of Registers were kind enough to send me a special request
to the effect that they wished me not to fail to register as a
life voter. I do not wish to convey the impression that all
worthy colored people have been registered in Alabama, because
there have been many inexcusable and unlawful omissions; but, with
few exceptions, the 2700 who have been registered represent the
best Negroes in the state.

Though in some parts of the country he is now misunderstood, I
believe that the time is going to come when matters can be weighed
soberly, and when the whole people are going to see that president
Roosevelt is, and has been from the first, in line with this
policy,--that of encouraging the colored people who by industry
and economy have won their way into the confidence and respect of
their neighbors. Both before and since he became President I have
had many conversations with him, and at all times I have found him
enthusiastic over the plan that I have described.

The growth of the race in industrial and business directions
within the last few years cannot perhaps be better illustrated
than by the fact that what is now the largest secular national
organization among the colored people is the National Negro
Business League. This organization brings together annually
hundreds of men and women who have worked their way up from the
bottom to the point where they are now in some cases bankers,
merchants, manufacturers, planters, etc. The sight of this body
of men and women would surprise a large part of American citizens
who do not really know the better side of the Negro's life.

It ought to be stated frankly here that at first, and for several
years after the introduction of industrial training at such
educational centres as Hampton and Tuskegee, there was opposition
from colored people, and from portions of those Northern white
people engaged in educational and missionary work among the
colored people in the South. Most of those who manifested such
opposition were actuated by the highest and most honest motives.
From the first the rank and file of the blacks were quick to see
the advantages of industrial training, as is shown by the fact
that industrial schools have always been overcrowded. Opposition
to industrial training was based largely on the old and narrow
ground that it was something that the Southern white people
favored, and therefore must be against the interests of the Negro.
Again, others opposed it because they feared that it meant the
abandonment of all political privileges, and the higher or
classical education of the race. They feared that the final
outcome would be the materialization of the Negro, and the
smothering of his spiritual and aesthetic nature. Others felt
that industrial education had for its object the limitation of the
Negro's development, and the branding him for all time as a
special hand-working class.

Now that enough time has elapsed for those who opposed it to see
that it meant none of these things, opposition, except from a very
few of the colored people living in Boston and Washington, has
ceased, and this system has the enthusiastic support of the
Negroes and of most of the whites who formerly opposed it. All
are beginning to see that it was never meant that ALL Negro youths
should secure industrial education, any more than it is meant that
ALL white youths should pass through the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, or the Amherst Agricultural College, to the
exclusion of such training as is given at Harvard, Yale, or
Dartmouth; but that in a peculiar sense a large proportion of the
Negro youths needed to have that education which would enable them
to secure an economic foundation, without which no people can
succeed in any of the higher walks of life.

It is because of the fact that the Tuskegee Institute began at the
bottom, with work in the soil, in wood, in iron, in leather, that
it has now developed to the point where it is able to furnish
employment as teachers to twenty-eight Negro graduates of the best
colleges in the country. This is about three times as many Negro
college graduates as any other institution in the United States
for the education of colored people employs, the total number of
officers and instructors at Tuskegee being about one hundred and
ten.

Those who once opposed this see now that while the Negro youth who
becomes skilled in agriculture and a successful farmer may not be
able himself to pass through a purely literary college, he is
laying the foundation for his children and grandchildren to do it
if desirable. Industrial education in this generation is
contributing in the highest degree to make what is called higher
education a success. It is now realized that in so far as the
race has intelligent and skillful producers, the greater will be
the success of the minister, lawyer, doctor, and teacher.
Opposition has melted away, too, because all men now see that it
will take a long time to "materialize" a race, millions of which
hold neither houses nor railroads, nor bank stocks, nor factories,
nor coal and gold mines.

Another reason for the growth of a better understanding of the
objects and influence of industrial training is the fact, as
before stated, that it has been taken up with such interest and
activity by the Southern whites, and that it has been established
at such universities as Cornell in the East, and in practically
all of the state colleges of the great West.

It is now seen that the result of such education will be to help
the black man to make for himself an independent place in our
great American life. It was largely the poverty of the Negro that
made him the prey of designing politicians immediately after the
war; and wherever poverty and lack of industry exist to-day, one
does not find in him that deep spiritual life which the race must
in the future possess in a higher degree.

To those who still express the fear that perhaps too much stress
is put upon industrial education for the Negro I would add that I
should emphasize the same kind of training for any people, whether
black or white, in the same stage of development as the masses of
the colored people.

For a number of years this country has looked to Germany for much
in the way of education, and a large number of our brightest men
and women are sent there each year. The official reports show
that in Saxony, Germany, alone, there are 287 industrial schools,
or one such school to every 14,641 people. This is true of a
people who have back of them centuries of wealth and culture. In
the South I am safe in saying that there is not more than one
effective industrial school for every 400,000 colored people.

A recent dispatch from Germany says that the German Emperor has
had a kitchen fitted up in the palace for the single purpose of
having his daughter taught cooking. If all classes and
nationalities, who are in most cases thousands of years ahead of
the Negro in the arts of civilization, continue their interest in
industrial training, I cannot understand how any reasonable person
can object to such education for a large part of a people who are
in the poverty-stricken condition that is true of a large element
of my race, especially when such hand training is combined, as it
should be, with the best education of head and heart.


Next: THE NEGRO IN THE REGULAR ARMY

Previous: OF THE TRAINING OF BLACK MEN

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