The Portland daily press., 1896-12-05

\ a6lon that probably the very morning
these 600 negroes set out for Liberia
there were rs many negroes born III the
South. Then they said the way to solve
the problem was to place all OF the
negroes In one territory and there let
tnein grow up a separats and distinct
race. 1T is impossible to solve the
problem in that way" said MIR. Wash
ington. . 1t would require very high
wall to keep the negro in this territory
and much higher wall to keep the
white man out, especially if gold or
diamonds were to be discovered in this
| negro reservation. You must remem ber
that the negro race was the only race
which ever received a most pressing and
| special Invitation to visit this country.
The Anglo Saxons landed here contrary
to the protest of the leading citizens of
the country. We came here at the 10 vita
tlon Of the Anglo Saxons and conse-
lquently we think We have beUter right
here than you have and here we intend
to stay and hslp you build the country
up.
Ihe white man was worse SuHerer
from slavery than was the black man.
The negro was taught to WORK and did
work and his condition was in certain
degree improved. The white man was
degraded by slavery and has not even
yet recovered from the effects of it, So
long as the negro is ignorant in the
South SO long will the laws be in
terpreted to mean one thing to the whi te
Lynch law msans for the negro a
physical death. 10 the white man it
means something more terrible and that
| is A moral death.
Mr.. Washington said that he came
| here not alone in the interest of the
TUskegee school but in the interest of the
whole South to whom the education of
4 h. oil hr
ington then told the audience something
about thesschool at Tuskegee. 1t now
| contains over 800 students who have come
| to 1t from 20 States Last year 400 STU
! dentS who sought admission wero turned
away for want of acco nm odatiOnS for
them. Of the 800 students sixth sevenths
| of them board on the school grounds and
| by their labor aid in paying for their
board and for maintaining the school.
There ara 81 instructors in all and not
only are the English studies taught but
also 26 industries and trades suoh as car
| .pentry, brick making, tailoring, black
SIN thing, eto.
Mr.. Washington said that he believed
| the black man of the South should be
taught how to improve his own condi-
tion. Many of the negroes of the South
| living in the Black Belt are as badly off
now rs they were during slavery times.
| They are in debt to the store keepers and
to The owners of the cotton, sugar and
rice plantations and every year since the
war they have been plunging deener and
deeper into debt The negro is now
owned body and soul by the general store
keeper aud the plantation owner. This
is chiefly brought about by the negro's
| lack of economy and Ignorance of all that
the term thrift implies. Hor years they
had been cared for and had every want
supplied and then when the shackles of
br oG %IoU
came their own masters and were Obliged
to provide for themselves they were un-
| equal to the task.
| Mr.. Washington went on tn state how
| he intended by his TskeRee school to
aid the negro in casting off this burden
of debt aud becoming in every sense of
the word free man. "It is impossible
| to teach and instruct every black man
in the South all at once" said MIR. Wash
ington.. "There are 80 many of tn Q III
and they are scattered over such an ex-
tent of country and surrounded by suoh
conditions that to gather them all into
the school house would be task impos
sible to perform. Nor is it sufficient, as
some Ieople seem to think, to build q
church and give them religion al one.
The negro is naturally a religious teing
and is possessed of deep religious ma
| ture. 1t is Impossible to make u good
| Christian of hungry man and the negro
| is in need of something beside religion at
present. He should be taught economy.
| thrift and industry and this is what the
school at Tuskegee is trying to do. We
are educating young men and won Ell
who will Become the leaders of the regro
com mmuGitfes from which they coine to
Es. We teach them some useful trade
and how to work at it besides giving
them good education in the English
branches. When they return home they
III RS i,,St
their people and thus We reach the whols
South and in time will be able to I'M
prove the condition of our whole people.
Mr.. Washington thought that the
relations tetwean the negro and the
whites would be improved and we'll
settled when business had drawn the two
races nearer together. At present the
negro is the white mans debtor and
therefore the negro is despised. If the
negro is taught industry, thrift and
economy and the white man becomes the
Degro's debtor. then the black mali will
be no longer looked down upon and will
command more respect and be better
treated because it will be for the white
mans interest so to 10.
At the Tuskegee school there are now
600 scres under cultivation, and this
farm, worked by the students, is furnish
ing an object lesson to the black man
as well as teaching him how to farm in
telliRently. At the school the students
have also built a chapel with their own
HANDS. Every brick and every piece of
work in their building has been done by
the students and in this way many of
them have been taught the art of brick
making brick laying and carpentry. Mr..
Washington said tht salavery after all
had loft a valuable legacy behind it as it
had brought the white and black into
business relations, ono with the other.
The black man WAS at one time ths
master of all trades and she skilled
laborer Of the South. But he had not
held his own in adnpting this knowledge
OF the useful arts to his own ad vantage.
By lack of industry and thrift the negro
had not bsen able to compete, since the
war, with the skilled laborer of the
North, and had gradually lost his hold
i n all IF the usafu1 arts aud trades The