The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-04
EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO.
DIS CUSSED BY TWO LEADING cor.
 CRED MEN OFTHE SOUTH.

Booker 1T. Washington of Tuslegee In-
 sfitute and R. l.. Smith of Oakland.
 Texas, at United Church Last Night-
 Practical Plans for the Development | of the Southern Negro.
 | One of the largest audiences that ever assembled in United church was l there last night to hear Booker T. 1 Washington, the famous negro educa- | tor of the Tuskegee Institute in .Alaba-
 ma, who spoke under the auspices of the Mems club. Every seat in the
 church wan occupied and in addition
 to this nearly all the standing room was
 taken. MT Washington spoke on
 Some Results of Negro Education" With him was R. l.. Smith of Oakland, Texas, who Is one of the most intelli- gent colored men of the south, and who ia engaged in educational work among
 the people of his race in Texas He
 teaches school during the week and
 Saturdays and Sundays devotes his
 time to the organization of Farmers
 Improvement societies among the col
 ored people of his state The object of
 these societies is to train their mem
 bers in habits of industry and econo-
 my, to teach them approved methods
 in agriculture, and to improve their
 condition in every way possible. Mr.
 Smith explained last night the plan of
 his work and what had already been
 accomplished He said that six years
 after the first society was organized
 the homes of the members were entire
 ly changed for the better and were not
 distinguishable from the homes of their
 white neighbors. Whereas previous to
 the organization of the first society
 few negro homes contained more than
 two rooms, in six years the homes of
 those who came under the influence of
 the organization contained at least
 four rooma and some of them seven.
 The homes contained decorations never found there before and every colored family in the town of Oakland took at least one newspaper. As the colored people there went up along these lines in that degree they gained the respect of their white neighbors and the more independent they became the more their white friends recognized them
 There are now eighty-six branches of the Farmers Improvement society with 2,34O members pledged to the societys platform They have purchased 46,O0O acres of land at s1o per acre. and some of them placed as much as $40 worth Of Improvements on their land in one year. They own 2,00o head of cattle and 1000 horses and mules, their prop erty in these chattels amounting to $170,000. In all they pay taxes on $60O,- 900 worth of property.
 MT. Smith told of many ways in which the people were taught to better and said that they had been advised to turn their attention more to chickens, eggs and butter as means of money making The men would not put their attention to these small things and soon an organization was perfected among the women, known as the Wo- mems Barnyard auxiliary, and now many dollars are made out of these products.
 MT. Washington spoke in substance as follows:
 There are people in the north who have been aiding in the matter of negro education in the south during the last ten, twenty or thirty years. These peo- pie have right as plain matter of business to ask what are the results 1f their aiding the negro-what evil fences can we present to prove that heir investment is a paying one. In he first place, it Is not to be wondered It that it required some years of exper- menting to determine just what was he proper course to pursue. History lad blazed no path through the wilder- less that could be followed in the case # the negro at the south. There had )een no parallel case. I think I do not the case when I say that this esult has been accomplished We have cached the point where there is prac- ical agreement among the most thoughtful negroes, the southern white nan and the negro's friends at the forth that in connection with religious he academic training religious de- 'elopment is the thing that the negro t the present time most needs. It means great deal in the settlement of his problem that we have reached, the oint where there is practical agreement n the method of settling 1t. We have ound the method, what we most need ow are the means There are few thoughtful men in the south at the resent time who are not willing to en- outrage the industrial development of he negro.
 We have reached the point, largely trough the influence of the aid that he north has given the south during he last thirty years, where there is tile opposition in the south to the ne- roes receiving any form of education. Ve can plant school in any county in ne south, and while in some cases it lay not receive the encouragement of 1e whites it will not receive their ac- we opposition, and in many cases it ill receive their hearty sympathy and lpport. We have also reached the pint where the negro can buy property l any portion of the south about as lsily as white man can. With the egro left free to secure education and roperty and to secure employment.JI link we may congratulate ourselves lat we have the basis for the solution this problem and I see no ground for encouragement
 We have accomplished another very nportant result during the last thirty ears. At first the problem was not l..- IL