The Portland daily press., 1896-01-25
Thu Negroes NEED
Somebody to Teach Him How to Live
and Work.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TALKS OF
HIS BRETHREN.
He Cites the Case of an Educated Negro
Whose Example Changed the Condition
of an Entire Community.

Whose Example Changed the Condi. ion
of an Entire Community.
Booker I. Washington at the Hamilton
Club, Brooklyn
1t is not practical nor desirable thing
for the North to educate all the negroes Of
the South, but it is a perfectly practical
and possible thing for the North to help
the South educate the leaders, who in
turn will go out and reach tho masses aud
show them how to lift themselves up.
In discussing this subject it is to be borne
in mind that SIS per cent of the colored
people South live practically in the ooun-
try districts, where they are difficult to
reach except by special effort. In some Of
the counties in Alabama, near Tuskegee,
the colored outnumber the whites four
and tive to one. In an industrial sense,
what is the condition of these masses?
Inc first year our people received their
freedom they had nothing on which TO
live while they grew their first cotton
crop, funds for the first crop were sup
piled, by the storekeeper, or former mas
| ter, debt was created; to secure the
indebtedness lion was given on the cot.
ton crop. In this way we got started in
the South what in known as the mort.
| gage or crop lien system-a system that
has proved a curse to the black and white
| man ever since it was inf TINTED. By
this system the farmer is charged rate
of interest that ranges from Is DER cent
| to 40 per cent. BY this system you will
| usually lind three fourths of the people
| mortgage their crops from year to year,
| as many deeply in debt and living in OIL
roomed cabins on rented lard. By tins
ystem debts and extravagapces are en-
| Outraged, and the land is Impoverished
and values fall.
| The schools in the country districts
rarely last over three and hall months
| IN the year, and are usually taught III a
church or WRECK OF IA log cabin, or un-
| der crush arbor. My information is
that each child entitled to attend the pub
lie schools in Massachusetts has spent on
him each yenr between SIS and $40. In
Alabama each colored child has spent on
him this year about II cents and the
white children but few cents MOI O..
thus far in my remarks have been per-
forming raEher ungracious task il stat
ing conditions without suggesting g. rem
| edy. What is the remedy for tho srate of
things l have attempted to describe? Ii
/
slavery it was in the habit Of work. In
this respect the masses of the colored
| people are differ Mt from most races
among whom missionary effort is made
| III That the negro as race works. You
will not find anything like that high ter :
sion of activity that is maintained here /,
still the negro works whether the call foA
labor comes from the rice swamps of tho
Carolinas, the cotton Plantations uf Ala
bama,or the sugar cane bottoms of Louis :
ana, The negro is ready tc all lwer it-yes,
toll is the badge OF all his tribe, thous h
| he may do his work in the most sbiftle 9
and costly manner, still with him it is
labor / know you will find q class
around railroad stations and corners Of
| streets that loaf. just as YOU will find
among my people, and Q have got some
| black sheep in our h0ok as there are in
all focks; but the masses in their humble
way are industrious. The trouble CEN
ters here. Through the operations Of the
mortgage system. high rents, the allure
ments of cheap jew ,lry and bad whiskey
and the gew gaws of life, the negro is
deprived OF t he results of his labor. I'm
used to self-goye cnment, unused 10 the
responsibility OF controlling our own
earnings, or expenditures, or even our
own children, it could not be expected
| that we could take care of ourselves ipkall
respects for several generations. The
great need of tho negro today is intelli-
gent, unselish leadership in his educa-
tional and industrial life. Let me illus
trate, and this no fancy sketch. Ten
years ago young man born in slavery
found his way to the Tuskegee School.
| BY small cash payments and work on the
farm he finished the course with a good
English educatlon and a practical and
theoretical knowledge of farming. Re-
turning to his country home where five
sixths of the citizens were black, he still
| found them mortgaging their crops, Iiv-
ing on rented land from hand to mouth
and deeply in debt. School had never
| lasted longer than three months, and was
| taught in a wreck Of log cabin by an
| inferior teacher. Finding this condition
of things, the young man to whom have
| referred took the three mouths public
school as starting point. Soon he or
| ganized the older people into club that
came together every week. In these
meetings the young man instructed as to
| the value of owning home. the evils of
| mortgaRing and the Importance Of eduoa
ting their children. He taught them how
to have money, how to sacrifice-to live
on bread and potatoes until they got out
of debt, begin buying home and stop
mortgaging Through the lessons and
| influence OF these meetings, the first year
OF this young mans work, these people
built up by their contributions in money
and labor a nice frame school house that
replaced the wreck of log cabin. The
next year this work was continued and
those people, out Of their own pockets.
aSded two months to the original three
months school term. Month by month
has been added to the school term till it
now lasts seven months every year. All
ready fourteen families within radius
of ten miles have bought and are buying
homes, large proportion have ceased to
mortgage their crops and are raising their
own food supplies. In ths midst of all
was the young man educated at Tuskegee,
with model cottage and model farm
that served as an example and center of
light for the whole community. My
friends, wish you could have gone with
me some days ago to this community and
have seen the complete revolution that
has been wrought in their industrial,
educational and religious life by the
work of this one teacher and l wish you
could have looked with me into their faces
and seen them beaming with hope and
delight. wish you could have gone
with me into their cottages containing
now two and three rooms, through their
farms, iEto their church and Sunday
school. Bear in mind that not dollar
was given these people from the outside
With which to make any of these changes