CHAPTER XIX.

THE WEST VIRGINIA AND OTHER RECEPTIONS AFTER EUROPEAN TRIP.

“Dear Sir:—Many of the best citizens of West Virginia have united in liberal expressions of admiration and praise of your worth and work, and desire that on your return from Europe, you should favor them with your presence and with the inspiration of your words. We most sincerely endorse this move and on behalf of the citizens of Charleston extend to you our most cordial invitation to have you come to us, that

we may honor you who have done so much by your life and work to honor us.

“We are, very truly yours,
“The Common Council of the City of Charleston,
“By W. Herman Smith, Mayor.”

This invitation from the City Council of Charleston was accompanied by the following:

“Prof. B. T. Washington,
“Principal, Tuskegee Institute.

“Dear Sir:—We the citizens of Charleston and West Virginia, desire to express our pride in you and the splendid career you have thus far accomplished, and ask that we be permitted to show our pride and interest in a substantial way.

“Your recent visit to your old home in our midst awoke within us the keenest regret that we were not permitted to hear you and render some substantial aid to your work, before you left for Europe.

“In view of the foregoing, we earnestly invite you to share the hospitality of our city upon your return from Europe and give us the opportunity to hear you and put ourselves in touch with your work in a way that will be most gratifying to yourself, and that we may receive the inspiration of your words and presence.

“An early reply to this invitation, with an indication of the time you may reach our city will greatly oblige,

“Yours very respectfully,

“The Charleston Daily Gazette, The Daily Mail-Tribune, G. W. Atkinson, Governor; E. L. Boggs, Secretary to Governor; Wm. M. O. Dawson, Secretary of State; L. M. LaFollette, Auditor; J. R. Trotter, Superintendent of Schools; E. W. Wilson, ex-Governor; W. A. MacCorkle, ex-Governor; John Q. Dickinson, President Kanawha Valley Bank; L. Prichard, President Charleston National Bank; Geo. S. Couch, President Kanawha National Bank; Ed. Reid, Cashier Kanawha National Bank; Geo. S. Laidley, Superintendent City Schools; L. E. McWhorter, President Board of Education; Chas. K. Payne, wholesale merchant; C. C. Lewis, Jr., wholesale merchant; R. G. Hubbard, wholesale merchant; Dan. D. Brawley, City Sergeant; Grant P. Hall, Clerk of Circuit Court; O. A. Petty, Postmaster; R. Douglas Roller, Rector St. John’s Episcopal Church; M. M. Williamson, Cashier Citizen’s National Bank; J. N. Carnes, Assistant Cashier Citizen’s National Bank; J. A. Schwabe & Co., merchants; J. A. DeGruyter, ex-Mayor; A. H. Boyd, M. D.; E. W. Staunton, Clerk Kanawha County Court; M. F. Compton, Pastor State St. M. E. Church; T. C. Johnson, Pastor Charleston Baptist Church; Coyle & Richardson, merchants; J. H. Gaines, United States District Attorney; Sterrett Brothers, merchants; N. S. Burlew, merchant; Joel H. Ruffner, merchant; M. P. Ruffner, merchant; E. G. Pierson, senator; B. R. Winkler, member City Council; Flournoy, Price & Smith, lawyers; Abney, Barnes & Co., wholesale merchants; Sam D. Littlepage, member of City Council; D. W. Shaw, Pastor Simpson M. E. Church; J. McHenry Jones, President West Virginia Colored Institute; Jas. M. Canty, J. C. Gilmer, Byrd Prillerman, S. W. Starks, J. M. Hazelwood, Phil. Waters, C. W. Hall, Judge Criminal Court; C. W. Boyd, Principal Garnet School; B. S. Morgan, member of City Council.”

This invitation to accept a reception from the citizens of Charleston, W. Va., where I had spent my boyhood days, was a very satisfactory surprise. When I left Charleston, and when I left Malden, which is very near Charleston, I was quite a boy and had not been able to spend any great length of time there since I had first left to enter the Hampton Institute.

I accepted the invitation for the Charleston reception, and when I reached Charleston was met by a committee of citizens headed by ex-Gov. W. A. MacCorkle. The meeting in connection with this reception was held in the opera house, and was presided over by Gov. George W. Atkinson. It was very largely attended by white and colored citizens from that vicinity, a large number of whom had known me in my boyhood days. I must refrain from giving any detailed account of all the kind and complimentary things they were kind enough to say about me at this meeting. I spent several days in Charleston, visiting the scenes of my early boyhood, and my sister in Malden, and many of the older citizens who remembered me.

After this reception in Charleston I was invited to go to Atlanta, Ga., by the white and colored citizens, to receive a reception there. The meeting in Atlanta was presided over also by the Governor of the State, and was largely attended.

Receptions by the citizens of Montgomery and New Orleans soon followed. Invitations to attend receptions in other states came to me, but I was not able to accept them all.

In the fall of 1899 a meeting was held at Huntsville, Ala., the spirit of which has since been taken up by other Southern cities, which promises to prove of lasting benefit in settling the race problem in the South. In October a meeting was called at Huntsville, which had for its object the discussion of all matters relating to the upbuilding of the South. It was well attended by representatives from nearly every Southern State, and was a strong body of men. Among the other subjects discussed was the Negro problem in its relation to the industrial progress of the South.

In connection with others, I was invited to deliver an address. The audience was composed mainly of Southern white men, but in it was a large number of Southern white women, together with quite an attendance of colored men and women. The address which I delivered on that occasion attracted a great deal of attention throughout the country, and for that reason I have taken the liberty of giving it in full:

“In all discussion and legislation bearing upon the presence of the Negro in America, it should be borne in mind that we are dealing with a people who were forced to come here without their consent and in the face of a most earnest protest. This gives the Negro a claim upon your sympathy and generosity that no other race can possess. Besides, though forced from his native land into residence in a country that was not of his choosing, he has earned his right to the title of American citizen by obedience to the law, by patriotism and fidelity, and by the millions which his brawny arms and willing hands have added to the wealth of this country.

“In saying what I have to-day, although a Negro and an ex-slave myself, there is no white man whose heart is more wrapped up in every interest of the South and loves it more dearly than is true of myself. She can have no sorrow that I do not share; she can have no prosperity that I do not rejoice in. She can commit no error that I do not deplore. She can take no step forward that I do not approve.

“Different in race, in color, in history, we can teach the world that, although thus differing, it is possible for us to dwell side by side in love, in peace, and in material prosperity. We can be one, as I believe we will be in a larger degree in the future, in sympathy, purpose, forbearance and mutual helpfulness. Let him who would embitter, who would bring strife between your race and mine be accursed in his basket and in his store, accursed in the fruit of his body and the fruit of his land. No man can plan the degradation of another race without being himself degraded. The highest test of the civilization of any race is its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.

“The South extends a protecting arm and a welcome voice to the foreigner, all nationalities, languages and conditions, but in this I pray that you will not forget the black man at your door, whose habits you know, whose fidelity you have tested. You may make of others larger gatherers of wealth, but you cannot make of them more law-abiding, useful and God-fearing people than the Negro who has been by your side for three centuries, and whose toil in forest, field and mine has helped to make the South the land of promise and glorious possibility.

“Before we can make much progress we must decide whether or not the Negro is to be a permanent part of the South. With the light that is before us, I have no hesitation in declaring that the great bulk of the Negro population will reside among you. Any hesitation or doubting as to the permanent residence of the race will work infinite harm to the industrial and economic interests of both races. Here, in His wisdom, Providence has placed the Negro. Here he will remain. Here he came without a language; here he found the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Here he came in paganism; here he found the religion of Christ. Here he came in barbarism; here he found civilization. Here he came with untrained hands; here he found industry. If these centuries of contact with the American has done this, can you not trust to the wise Creator, aided by the efforts of the Negro himself, and your guidance, to do the remainder? At this point, are you willing to cease your efforts and turn the work over to others for completion? Your duty to the Negro will not be fulfilled until you have made of him the highest type of American citizen, in intelligence, usefulness and morality.

“The South has within itself the forces that are to solve this tremendous problem. You have the climate, the soil and the material wealth. You have the labor to be performed that will occupy many times our present Negro population. While the calls come daily from South Africa, from the Hawaiian Islands, from the North and the West for the strong and willing arm of the Negro in the field of industry, you, at your very door, have that which others are energetically seeking. Not only are you in possession of that which others are seeking, but more important than all, custom and contact have so knit the two races together that the black man finds in these Southern States an open sesame in labor, industry and business that is not surpassed anywhere. It is here alone, by reason of the presence of the Negro, that capital is free from tyranny and despotism that prevents you from employing whom you please and for that wage that is mutually agreeable and profitable. It is here that form of slavery which prevents a man from selling his labor to whom he pleases on account of his color is almost unknown. We have had slavery, now dead, that forced an individual to labor without a recompense, but none that compelled a man to remain in idleness while his family starved.

“The Negro in all parts of the country is beginning to appreciate the advantage which the South affords for earning a living, for commercial development, and in proportion as this is true, it will constitute the basis for the settlement of other difficulties. The colored man is beginning to learn that the bed rock upon which every individual rests his chances for success in life is securing in every manly way—never at the sacrifice of principle—the friendship, the confidence, the respect of his next-door neighbor in the little community in which he lives. Almost the whole problem of the Negro in the South rests itself upon the question as to whether he makes himself of such indispensable service to his neighbor, to the community, that no one can fill his place better in the body politic. There is no other safe course for the Negro to pursue. If the black man in the South has a friend in his white neighbor, and a still larger number of friends in his own community, he has a protection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and more lasting than any Federal Congress or any outside power can confer. While the Negro is grateful for the opportunities which he enjoys in the business of the South, you should remember that you are in debt to the black man for furnishing you with labor that is almost a stranger to strikes, lock-outs and labor wars; labor that is law-abiding, peaceful, teachable; labor that is one with you in language, sympathy, religion and patriotism; labor that has never been tempted to follow the red flag of anarchy, but always the safe flag of his country and the spotless banner of the cross.

“But if the South is to go forward and not stand still, if she is to reach the highest reward from her wonderful resources and keep abreast of the progress of the world, she must reach that point, without needless delay, where she will not be continually advertising to the world that she has a race question to settle. We must reach that point where, at every election, from the choice of a magistrate to that of a governor, the decision will not hinge upon a discussion or a revival of the race question. We must arrive at that period where the great fundamental question of good roads, education of farmers, agricultural and mineral development, manufacturing and industrial and public school education will be, in a large degree, the absorbing topics in our political campaign. But that we may get this question from among us, the white man has a duty to perform, the black man has a duty. No question is ever permanently settled until it is settled in the principles of the highest justice. Capital and lawlessness will not dwell together. The white man who learns to disregard law when a Negro is concerned will soon disregard it when a white man is concerned.

“In the evolution of the South it seems to me that we have reached that period where private philanthropy and the Christian church of the white South should, in a large degree, share directly in the elevation of the Negro. In saying this I am not unmindful of or ungrateful for what has already been done by individuals and through public schools. When we consider the past, the wonder is that so much has been done by our brothers in white. All great reforms and improvements rest, in a large measure, upon the church for success. You acknowledge that Christianity and education make a man more valuable as a citizen, make him more industrious, make him earn more, make him more upright. In this respect let me see how the three largest white denominations in the South regard the Negro.

“To elevate the ignorant and degraded in Africa, China, Japan, India, etc., these three denominations in the South give annually about $544,000, but to elevate the ignorant, the degraded at your doors, to protect your families, to lessen your taxes, to increase their earning power; in a word, to Christianize and elevate the people at your very side, upon whom, in a large measure, your safety and property depend, these same denominations give $21,000—$21,000 for the benighted at your doors, $544,000 for the benighted abroad. That thirty-five years after slavery and a fratricidal war the master should give even $21,000 through the medium of the church for the elevation of his former slave means much. Nor would I have one dollar less go to the foreign fields, but I would plead with all the earnestness of my soul that the Christian South give increased attention to the 8,000,000 of Negroes by whom it is surrounded. All this has a most vital and direct relation to the work of this Industrial convention. Every dollar that goes into the education of the Negro is an interest-bearing dollar.

“For years all acknowledge that the South has suffered from the low price of cotton because of over-production. The economic history of the world teaches that an ignorant farming class means a single crop, and that a single crop means, too often, low prices from over-production or famine from under-production. The Negro constitutes the principal farming class of the South. So long as the Negro is ignorant in head, unskilled in hand, unacquainted with labor-saving machinery, so long will he confine himself to a single crop, and over-production of cotton will result. So long as this is true, you will be bound in economic fetters; you will be hugging the bear, while crying for some one to help you let go. Every man, black and white, in the South, with his crop mortgaged, in debt at the end of the year, buying his meat from Iowa, his corn from Illinois, his shoes from New York, his clothing from Pennsylvania, his wagon from Indiana, his plow from Massachusetts, his mule from Missouri, and his coffin from Ohio, everyone who is thus situated, is a citizen who is not producing the highest results for his state. It is argued that the South is too poor to educate such an individual so as to make him an intelligent producer. I reply that the South is too poor not to educate such an individual.

“Ignorance is many fold more costly to tax-payers than intelligence. Every black youth that is given this training of hand and strength of mind, so that he is able to grasp the full meaning and responsibility of life, so that he can go into some forest and turn the raw material into wagons and buggies, becomes a citizen who is able to add to the wealth of the state and to bear his share of the expenses of educational government. Do you suggest that this cannot be done? I answer that it is being done every day at Tuskegee, and should be duplicated in a hundred places in every Southern state. This I take to be the white man’s burden just now—no, no, not his burden, but his privilege, his opportunity, to give the black man sight, to give him strength, skill of hand, light of mind and honesty of heart. Do this, my white friends, and I will paint you a picture that shall represent the future, partly as the outcome of this Industrial Convention, and will represent the land where your race and mine dwell:

“Fourteen slaves brought into the South a few centuries ago, in ignorance, superstition and weakness, are now a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000. They are surrounded, protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart and head, given the full protection of the law, the highest justice meted out to them through courts and legislative enactment, they are stimulated and not oppressed, made citizens, and not aliens, made to understand by word and act that in proportion as they show themselves worthy to bear responsibilities, the greater opportunities will be given them. I see them loving you, trusting you, adding to the wealth, the intelligence, the renown of each Southern commonwealth. In turn, I see you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning them on to the highest success, and we have all been made to appreciate in full that,

The most encouraging thing that happened in connection with this convention was an address delivered by ex-Governor MacCorkle, of West Virginia, in which he took the position that the time had come when the Southern States must face the race problem bravely and honestly; that the South could not any longer afford to get rid of the Negro’s ballot by questionable methods, and that the Southern States ought to pass a law which would require an educational or property test, or both, for voting, and that this law ought to be made to apply alike to both races honestly and fairly, and that there should be no evasion permitted or attempted.

Governor MacCorkle is a Southern man, a democrat, and the words which he spoke on this occasion received the most hearty cheering, and the convention on the next day passed a resolution without a dissenting vote recommending Governor MacCorkle’s suggestion in the settlement of the franchise question in the Southern States. The influence of this convention was most beneficial on the minds of the Southern white people, and gave encouragement to the Negro and to his friends throughout the country.

As I write this chapter a conference is being arranged for by the leading white citizens of Montgomery, Ala., which is to take place there during the month of May of each year. The object of this conference is to afford an opportunity for free and generous discussion of the race problem from every point of view. This movement, organized as it has been at the seat of the Confederate government, is most remarkable. It seems fitting that Montgomery should be the place where from year to year the best thought of the nation can assemble and assist in working out our national problem.

In closing this chapter I simply wish to add that I see no reason why the race should not feel encouraged. Every individual or race that has succeeded has done so only by paying the price which success demands. We cannot expect to get something for nothing. We shall continue to prosper in proportion as each individual proves his usefulness in the community, as each individual makes himself such a pillar in property and character that his community will feel that he cannot be spared.

CHAPTER XX.

THE MOVEMENT FOR A PERMANENT ENDOWMENT

Having, through nearly twenty years of incessant toil, succeeded in securing for Tuskegee the annual expenses for running the school and the money with which to purchase its present plant and equipment, valued at about $300,000, it has been for several years clearly seen by the trustees and myself that the thing needed to secure Tuskegee in the future was a permanent endowment fund. Not only is an endowment fund necessary as an assurance that the work of Tuskegee shall go on in the future, but it is necessary in order to relieve the Principal of the hard work of remaining in the North the greater portion of his time begging and speaking in order to raise the amount annually necessary to carry on the work. An endowment fund, the interest from which would be sufficient to meet, partially, the current expenses of the institution, would enable the Principal to devote his time to the executive work of the school, and this would obviously lead to greater perfection in the work there, both in the academic and industrial branches. Improved methods and facilities would redound to the benefit of each person educated at the institution. Various appeals, for the last year or two, have been made to the friends of Tuskegee for an endowment fund, and within the past year we have received by gifts and bequests $38,848.93 for this purpose. The United States Congress, in the winter of 1899, donated to Tuskegee 25,000 acres of land out of the public domain of Alabama, the proceeds of this grant to be added to the endowment fund.

No organized effort, however, was made to interest the friends of Tuskegee in the matter of raising a permanent endowment until the fall of 1899. It was then thought by the trustees and myself that the time was ripe for putting forth specific effort in this direction. Accordingly, it was decided to hold a public meeting in December, 1899, in the city of New York, at which the work of Tuskegee might be set forth by capable speakers, and the good the school was accomplishing, not only among the Negroes of the “black belt” but for the whole country, might be brought forcibly to the ears of the public. This meeting was held in the concert hall of Madison Square Garden, in the City of New York, on the evening of December 4, 1899. I take pleasure in giving a description of this meeting and in mentioning some of its immediate results, because it proved to be a magnificent tribute to the cause for which Tuskegee stands.

Ex-President Grover Cleveland had very kindly consented to be present and to preside at this meeting. The beautiful concert hall, which holds about 2,000 people, was packed that night so that it was difficult to procure even standing room. Many prominent people occupied seats upon the platform and in the boxes. Among the former I might mention Mr. Morris K. Jesup, Mr. Wm. E. Dodge, Mr. Alexander Orr, Mr. Robert C. Ogden, Mr. George Foster Peabody, Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, Rev. Dr. D. H. Greer, Mr. Charles E. Bigelow, Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, Mr. John A. Stewart, Mr. A. S. Frissell, Mr. George McAneny, Mr. Horace White, Hon. John M. Barrett, Mr. Walter H. Page, Hon. Seth Low, Hon. E. M. Shepard, Hon. Levi P. Morton, Dr. N. M. Butler, Mr. J. G. Phelps Stokes, Mr. John E. Parsons, Hon. Carl Schurz, Rev. P. B. Tompkins, Mr. Samuel P. Avery, Mr. R. F. Cutting, Mr. J. S. Kennedy, Mr. C. P. Huntington, Mr. C. S. Smith, Mr. R. W. Gilder, Chancellor H. K. McCracken, Mr. William G. Low, Mr. W. P. Ware, Prof. Chas. Sprague Smith, Mr. Wm. Jay Schieffelin, Mr. Charles Lanier, Mr. J. Hampden Robb, Mr. Dorman B. Eaton, Mr. Horace E. Deming, Mr. Joseph Lorocque, Mr. J. Kennedy Todd, Mr. LeGrand B. Cannon, Mr. Charles S. Fairchild, Mr. August Belmont, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, Mr. Gustav Schwab, Mr. James C. Carter, Mr. John L. Cadwallader, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, Rev. Dr. H. Heber Newton, Mr. Edward Hewitt, Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie, Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham, Mr. Everett P. Wheeler, Mr. I. Fredk. Kernochan, Col. Wm. Jay, Mr. Chas. C. Beaman, Rev. Dr. Wm. R. Huntington, Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, Mr. Wm. Dean Howells, Gen. Wagner Swayne, Hon. W. L. Strong, Mr. Charles H. Marshall, Mr. Henry Holt, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Among those who occupied boxes were Mr. Robert C. Ogden, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dodge, Mrs. C. R. Lowell, Mr. Henry Villard, Mr. C. D. Smith, Miss Putnam, Mr. George Foster Peabody, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Mrs. Fredk. Billings, Miss Olivia Stokes, Mrs. C. A. Runkle, Miss Matilda W. Bruce, Miss Mary Parsons, Mr. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore K. Gibbs, Mrs. W. H. Harkness, Mrs. C. B. Hackley, Miss Bryce, Mrs. F. C. Barlow, Mr. and Mrs. A. T. White, Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Pratt, Mr. C. E. Bigelow.

The day before the meeting was to be held Mr. Cleveland found himself confined to his house by illness, and wrote me his inability to be present. The letter proved to be almost, if not quite, as great an encouragement to the object of the meeting as Mr. Cleveland’s presence would have been. The letter was read at the meeting, and I think the reader will not complain if I quote it here. It is as follows:

Princeton, N. J., Dec. 3, 1899.

“My Dear Mr. Washington:

“My inability to attend the meeting to-morrow evening, in the interest of Tuskegee Institute, is a very great disappointment to me. If my participation could have, in the slightest degree, aided the cause you represent, or in the least encouraged you in your noble efforts, I would have felt that my highest duty was in close company with my greatest personal gratification.

“It has frequently occurred to me that in the present condition of our free Negro population in the South, and the incidents often surrounding them, we cannot absolutely calculate that the future of our nation will always be free from dangers and convulsions, perhaps not less lamentable than those which resulted from the enslaved Negros, less than forty years ago. Then the cause of trouble was the injustice of the enslavement of four millions; but now we have to deal with eight millions, who, though free, and invested with all the rights of citizenship, still constitute, in the body politic, a mass largely affected with ignorance, slothfulness and a resulting lack of appreciation of the obligations of that citizenship.

“I am so certain that these conditions cannot be neglected, and so convinced that the mission marked out by the Tuskegee Institute presents the best hope of their amelioration, and that every consideration makes immediate action important, whether based upon Christian benevolence, a love of country, or selfish material interests, that I am profoundly impressed with the necessity of such prompt aid to your efforts as will best insure their success.

“I cannot believe that your appeal to the good people of our country will be unsuccessful. Such disinterested devotion as you have exhibited, and the results already accomplished by your unselfish work, ought to be sufficient guarantee of the far-reaching and beneficent results that must follow such a manifestation of Christian charity and good citizenship, as would be apparent in a cordial and effective support of your endeavor.

“I need not say how gratified I am to be able to indicate to you that such support is forthcoming. It will be seen by the letters which I enclose, that already an offer has been made through me, by a benevolent lady in a Western city, to contribute twenty-five thousand dollars toward the Endowment Fund, upon condition that other subscriptions to this fund aggregate the amount required. With so good a beginning I cannot believe it possible that there will be a failure in securing the endowment which Tuskegee so much needs.

“Yours very truly,
“Grover Cleveland.”

“Booker T. Washington, Esq.”

In the absence of Mr. Cleveland, the Hon. Carl Schurz consented to preside at the meeting; and, as might be expected of one so ripe in experiences, he proved to be all that could be desired of a presiding officer. His short speech on taking the chair showed a hearty sympathy with the work that is being done at Hampton and Tuskegee. Mr. Schurz is a well-known German-American, who has been a general in the war of the Rebellion, a Senator in Congress and a member of the Cabinet of President Hayes. He has been for years a foremost worker in the Civil Service Reform movement. He is a writer of ability and a man who needs no introduction in the United States.

The Tuskegee Male Quartette was present and rendered plantation melodies, to the great delight of the audience.

The first speaker of the evening was Mr. Walter H. Page, a native of North Carolina, but for many years the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, in Boston. The effort of Mr. Page was truly wonderful. He is a native Southerner, who has studied the Negro question for more than twenty years, from every point of view, as he alleged. He was well prepared to speak, and with irresistible logic and unusual eloquence, pointed out the benefits of the Tuskegee plan for the solution of the race problem. He claimed it to be the only solution that had been discovered. He pointed out how hopeless was the condition of the race, unless the problem was solved by industrial and moral training, and how hopeful would be its condition if the problem were settled in this way.

At the conclusion of Mr. Page’s address, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr., one of our Trustees, and a member of the Committee on the Investment of the Endowment Fund, spoke in behalf of the Trustees as follows:

“It is my privilege to speak to you as a Trustee of Tuskegee Institute on the subject of its finances. The generous friends who have made Tuskegee possible should know its exact business condition. It has been a hard but beneficial struggle for Mr. Washington to raise the funds necessary to pay the current expenses of the Institution, to acquire the 2,267 acres of land, and to erect the 42 buildings now comprising the school.

“During the 18 years of development, there have been imperative demands from time to time for buildings for which no specific funds were available. The rapid growth of the work, the constantly increasing number of students, with applications for admission far beyond the capacity of the buildings, put a burden on the Trustees which compelled them in their positions as Trustees, to advance some of the unrestricted contributions for the construction of buildings to protect the general welfare of the Institution.

“During this period, enough money has been collected to pay the current expenses, and to accumulate $300,000 in plant and equipment, and an endowment fund of $62,253.39.

“No mortgage has ever been placed upon the property, and the Trustees desire to pay any and all indebtedness without mortgaging the property, and without using other resources which should be used for endowment, or for increased plant.

“The grant of 25,000 acres of land from the United States Government in 1897, is valued at a minimum of $100,000, and that land, together with unrestricted legacies to be received, are obviously full security for the advances made by the Trustees. But these resources should be kept for permanent uses, and to care for the constantly increasing demands of the School.

“The income for the fiscal year ending May 31, 1899, amounted to $110,161.59. The current expenses for running the Institution were $64,386.70, showing very economical administration for the care of nearly 1,200 people. The balance of income was used in the construction and completion of buildings, and in reducing a part of the indebtedness. The Endowment Fund received $38,848.93 last year.

“In order that the accounts of the School should be kept on a strictly business basis, the Trustees, in 1897, appointed an Auditor, a Certified Public Accountant of New York, to direct and supervise all the accounts. The Trustees are in position to assure you that any contributions made, are properly and rigidly accounted for; and furthermore, that all expenditures are made with great economy and wise discretion.

“In short, Tuskegee has a good business organization, and warrants the entire confidence of its friends. Its Endowment Fund will be strictly preserved. Special contributions for buildings or other specific purposes, will be kept separate for their particular uses, and the contributions for current expenses will be expended economically and effectively.

“Though the School is still in need of simple buildings for dormitories, classrooms and shops, the Trustees determined in 1898 that a point of development had been reached when the Institute should not go into debt for any new buildings, and that in future no buildings should be erected until all the necessary funds are guaranteed for the purpose.

“There are two interests to be served by the upbuilding and strengthening of Tuskegee—the whole Negro race, and the country as a whole. The industrial education of the Negro—the education from the foundation up, as practiced at Tuskegee, is of vast business importance to all of us. The difference between ten million ignorant Blacks and ten million reasonably educated industrial workers, means more than sympathy, more than sentiment, more than our duty—it means wealth to the community.

“There is no longer the old problem of what to do with the Negro. That question has been settled. The problem now is one of co-operation and help and work.

“Booker Washington represents the evolution of this problem. His untiring devotion to the cause of the Blacks, his modesty, integrity, ability, in short, his greatness in dealing with this question, has brought about such a complete change in the understanding of the problem within the last few years that we can hardly repay the debt.

“Can we stand by and see a man who has such power to lead and educate his people, begging from door to door for the funds necessary to carry on his work? Is it not our duty to raise such a fund as will enable him to spend most of his time in the South, where he is needed, and where he can serve his people, and all of us, as no other man can do?

“Now is the time and the opportunity to show our recognition of the wonderful service he has done his people and his country, and to make the opportunity for him to be free to work to the best advantage. He asks an Endowment Fund of $500,000—a very modest request. Now that the White and the Negro of both the North and the South, and the authorities of the State of Alabama, and the President and Congress of the United States, have all agreed that Tuskegee and Booker Washington show the true way, we feel confident that there will be a quick response to the appeal to place Tuskegee on a firm financial standing.

“The friends of Tuskegee, in the past, have contributed generously to work out a problem. The problem is now solved—and it should be a privilege to us all to aid in this work, with the full knowledge that every dollar expended by Tuskegee will aid the Negro race in the only effective way, and that our whole country will profit by the investment.”

At the conclusion of Mr. Baldwin’s address I was introduced to the audience by the Presiding Officer. In my speech I told the audience, among other things, that the White people North and South, and the Negroes as well, had practically agreed that the methods of Tuskegee and Hampton offered the best solution of the perplexing Negro problem that had been put forth. In other words, that the whole country had agreed upon this solution of so important an economic, political and social problem. It was the duty, therefore, of those who could to supply the means for an effective solution in this way. I will not burden the reader with extracts from that speech.

After I had concluded, Rev. Dr. W. S. Rainsford, Rector of St. George’s Church, New York, made a few extemporaneous remarks, which were regarded as a strong appeal in behalf of the purpose of the meeting. I only wish I could lay before the reader the remarks of this gentleman in full. He said, among other things, that Tuskegee was doing a work for humanity—not only for the “Black Belt,” but for the whole country. Pointing to me, he said, “It is our duty to do for that man, engaged in that noble work, what we failed to do for General Armstrong. We allowed General Armstrong to go around begging, begging from door to door, to carry on the work at Hampton, until it killed him. It is our duty to save Mr. Washington from an untimely death, brought on in this way. It is our duty to save him for useful service by endowing Tuskegee.”

As may be partly gleaned from Mr. Cleveland’s letter, the results of this meeting began to be felt immediately.

A few days after the lady in the West, mentioned in Mr. Cleveland’s letter, gave notice that she would give us $25,000 on condition that the whole amount sought for was raised, we were very pleasantly surprised to receive her check for the $25,000, she having decided to remove the condition. Counting this $25,000 with the $50,000 given by Mr. Huntington and $10,000 by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the result of the meeting was $85,000; Mr. Rockefeller’s $10,000, however, being given for current expenses. Adding what was received as a result of this meeting to our previous Endowment Fund, we have now in the hands of our Endowment Committee about $150,000 from which the school is receiving interest.

CHAPTER XXI.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK OF THE TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.

As has been said many times before, the school began in 1881 with only the State appropriation of $2,000 per annum, specifically for the payment of teachers’ salaries and for no other purpose. The method by which we have succeeded in securing the 2,267 acres of land which the school now owns has heretofore been described. These 2,267 acres of land are mainly comprised in two tracts. The tract that forms the site of the Institute is composed of 835 acres, and is known as the “home farm.” The other large tract, which is about four miles southeast of the Institute, composed of 800 acres, is known as “Marshall farm.”

Upon the home farm is located the 42 buildings, counting large and small, which make up the Tuskegee Institute. Of these 42 buildings, Alabama, Davidson, Huntington, Cassidy and Science, Halls, the Agricultural Trades and Laundry Buildings, and the Chapel are built of brick. There are also two large frame halls—Porter Hall, which was the first building built of the Tuskegee group, and Phelps Hall, a commodious and well appointed structure dedicated to the Bible Training department. The other buildings are smaller frame buildings and various cottages used for commissary, store rooms, recitation rooms, dormitories and teachers’ residences. There are also the Shop and Saw Mill, with Engine Rooms and Dynamo in conjunction. The brickyard, where all the bricks that have been used in building our brick buildings were made, is also situated near the school. Last year alone the brickyard made 1,500,000 bricks. It is equipped with excellent and improved machinery for brickmaking, and is under the immediate supervision of Mr. William Gregory, a graduate of Tuskegee. The total valuation of the property, including the yards and all buildings, the home and the Marshall farms is placed at $300,000. This does not include the endowment fund.

The Agricultural Department of the school has at its head Prof. G. W. Carver, a graduate of the Iowa State University, and a man of experience as a scientific farmer and a scientist of no mean acquirements. He has 8 assistants who help in looking after the divisions of dairying, stockraising, horticulture and truck farming embraced in this department. The State of Alabama appropriates annually the sum of $1,500 for the maintenance of an agricultural experiment station in connection with our agricultural department. Some of the experiments of Prof. Carver have attracted much attention, and it is recognized that his conduct of the station is doing much to show what improvements upon the old methods of farming may be wrought by scientific agriculture. This department is well housed in a beautiful brick building, containing a well equipped chemical laboratory, erected at a cost of $10,000, adapted to the purposes of agricultural experiment, and other apparatus necessary for the dairy and other divisions.

It is through the direction of the Agricultural department that the vast amount of farm and garden products, used by the 1,200 people constituting the population of the school when in session, is grown. About 135 acres of the home farm are devoted to the raising of vegetables, strawberries, grapes, and other fruits. The Marshall farm, with 350 acres in cultivation, is utilized for the growing of corn, sugar cane (from which syrup is made), potatoes, grain, hay and other farm products.

Mr. J. N. Calloway is the manager of the Marshall farm. It is worked by student labor, keeping from thirty to forty-five boys on it constantly. There is also a night school upon this farm, for the accommodation of students who work there, which is a branch of the main night school at the Institute. At present the farm night school requires the services of two teachers.

The Marshall farm not only produces a large amount of the farm products that are used by the school and its 800 head of live stock, counting horses, mules, cows, oxen, sheep and hogs, but also furnishes opportunity for students to learn the art and science of farming, at the same time attending night school and making something above expenses to be used when the student enters day school.

A large portion of the Marshall farm, about 400 acres, is utilized as pasture for the dry cows and beef cattle. Everything grown upon the farm is sold to the school at market prices. The expenses of running the farm are also accurately kept. At the end of the year a balance is struck. Last year the Marshall farm come out over $500 ahead, including in the expense account the salary of the manager.

The mechanical department of the institution is now housed in the well equipped trades building, recently completed at a cost of $36,000. It is known as the Slater-Armstrong Memorial Trades Building. It was dedicated and formally opened on Wednesday, January 10, 1900, and is the largest building on the Tuskegee Institute grounds, and stands between the Agricultural Building and the new chapel. The shape is that of a double Greek cross, having an open court 85x112 feet in the center. When completed, it will measure 283x300 feet, the main or central portion being two stories high, the wings one story. This measurement does not include a room for the sawmill, which is to come at the extreme rear end. Owing to the fact that sufficient money has not yet been obtained, the rear portion of the building, consisting of seven rooms, has not been completed. It is built entirely of brick, and contains twenty-seven rooms. In round numbers, it took ten hundred thousand bricks to construct the building thus far, and every one of these bricks was made by students under the instructor in brickmaking, and laid in the wall by students under the instructor of bricklaying. The plans and specifications of the building were drawn by Mr. R. R. Taylor, formerly in charge of the architectural and mechanical drawing department of the Institute. The general oversight of both the planning and construction was, of course, exercised by Mr. J. H. Washington, Director of Industries.

The interior arrangements of the building are splendidly suited to the teaching of the trades. The rooms, while varying in size from 37x42, the smallest, to 37x85, the largest, will average 37x55, the ceiling being 13 feet high. On the first floor there are the Director’s office, reading room, exhibit room, wheelwright shop, blacksmith shop, tin shop, printing office, carpenter shop, repair shop, woodworking machine room, ironworking machine room, foundry, brickmaking and plastering rooms, general stock and supply room, and a boiler and engine room. The second floor contains the mechanical drawing room, harness shop, paint shop, tailor shop, shoe shop, and electrical laboratory, and a room for carriage trimming and upholstering. Each shop has a cloak and tool room connected with it. Better lighted rooms could scarcely be found in any building. Each shop receives light from two sides and end. The office, reading room, and exhibit room are finished with wainscoting to window sills, and plastered from there up and overhead. In the drawing rooms the walls are plastered, but overhead the ceiling of this room is of yellow pine, panelled so as to show design. This ceiling is painted white. The other rooms are not plastered or sealed, but have what is called a yellow ochre finish on the walls. The machinery in the building is run by a 125-horse power engine and 75-horse power boiler, both donated by Mr. C. P. Huntington, of New York.

Each division is well supplied with all of the tools, appliances and machinery necessary to its successful working and to the accurate teaching of the trades. The director of this large and important department is Mr. J. H. Washington, who has under him twenty-two instructors for the various divisions.

The department for the teaching of the Domestic Sciences has for its directress Mrs. Booker T. Washington. This department embraces laundering, cooking, dressmaking, plain sewing, millinery and mattress making. It is at present housed in several small frame buildings, except the laundry, which is located in a brick building. Friends have already given money for the erection and equipment of a building for this department. The foundation of this building has already been laid and within a year we hope to have the divisions of this department permanently located in it. Not only are the trades above named taught in this department, but the young women, under the motherly direction of Mrs. Booker T. Washington, are taught the duties of systematic and orderly housekeeping and duties pertaining thereto.

The nurse training department is run in connection with the school hospital and has for its instructors our resident physician and a competent trained nurse. It has not constituted a separate department, but has formed one of the divisions under the Director of the Mechanical Department. The increasing demand for trained nurses in the South has necessitated the establishment of a regular Training School for Nurses in connection with the school hospital.

A complete course of three years has been adopted of practical and theoretical work in the wards of the hospital; two years of which consist of daily work and instruction in the hospital, and the third year of lectures and bedside instructions,