The age-herald., 1899-03-31
WASHINGTON SPOKE TO LARGE AUDIENCE Told Of Methods for Educating the Me-
 gro. TO WHITE MANS INTEREST NesOeS IlllteraCy Leads to OVerprOduCtiOn
 Of Cotton GIVEN AS AN ILLUSTRATION Washington Gives Out a Statement Saying That He will Not Attend the New York One Dollar
 Dinner if Invited.
GIVEN AS AN ILLUSTRATION

Booker T. Washington, the noted negro educator of Tuskegee, Ala, spoke to an audience of over 250 ladies and gentlemen at the Birmingham Lyeeum last night. He talked for an hour about the methods fol- lowed at the Tuskegee Normal and Indus trial school and other matters pertaining to the negro, and he was interrupted contin- ually by applause from the audience, which seemed to be thoroughly in accord with the speakers views. Professor Washington, as is well known, is a polished talker. and ex- presses himself in the clearest and most concise manner.
 Professor Washington was introduced by H. K. White, the secretary of the Lyceum. Mr. White said that it was a matter of great regret that so much opposition had been aroused to Professor Washington's appearance before the Lyceum that before any invitation was extended all of the di- rectors had been consulted, and none of them found any serious objection to such an invitation. It was not one of the regular lyceum course of lectures, MT. White said, but the directors had invited Professor Washington merely because they thought lie HieHhDeIS WOuiu llhe to near nm.
 Professor Washington made no reference to the opposition which had been displayed against him in the press of Birmingham and otherwise, but went at once to his sub ject. He addressed the audience as "my friends" for" said he "during my entire residence of eighteen years in Alabama 1 have met with nothing but the most friend ly treatment at the hands of the white peo- pie, and consider them all my friends.
 Was B n Virginia
 During his speech he told how he had been born slave about 1859 in Virginia sometime, somewhere, ,''-he didn't know; how in boyhood he had worked in the coal mines of West Virginia, and had there heard of the Hampton institute where ne- groes could work out their education; how he had finally gotten into that institution and had gone through it, making the reso- lution as he did so that he would devote his life to the betterment of his race; and how in 1881 he had started his school at Tuskegee.
 T thank you most earnestly for the priv ilege of speaking to you concerning the education of my race. l feel sure that l come here in a spirit which neither you nor I misunderstood. Surely no people should have a more vital interest in the elevation of the half million of negroes in Alabama than the most enlightened white people in Alabama. No people have so much to lose by the negro's ignorance and degradation; no people have so much to gain by his education and industry being made useful. Since the old days of slavery l very much fear that, for reasons which l need not explain, in sympathy and mu- tual interest we have gotten too far apart from each other. In saying this do not want to be misunderstood, and would re- peat what nave said on another occasion that in all things that are purely social We can be as separate as the fingers yet one as the hand in all things that pertain to our mutual interest,"
 Interested in the Negro
 No people were more deeply interested in our fathers and mothers than you and your fathers and mothers. Between you and those who were in slavery there was a bond of sympathy which few have ever understood Between us today that bond of sympathy exists, though at times it may have seemed strained and warped. Considering what you have been to us and what you are today, it doesn't seem strange that you should inquire after our methods of elevation and our progress in education. We are not unmindful nor ungratefui for what you are helping us to do as a race; we recall with deepest gratitude that from the first year that we were made a free people that you have shared with us the few dollars which the state has been able to devote to education, and it is with spe- cal pride that we point to the fact that here in the city of Birmingham you seem to have taken special pride through your ef1- cient system of public schools in promot- ing the education of my people.
 At Tuskegee it has been our aim to give the students intelligence, Christian char acter. to teach them how to make living by becoming skilled in some industry-to do a common thing in an uncommon way and to teach them the beauty, dignity and civilizing power that there is in intelligent labor
 Tt has also been our endeavor in every manly way to teach them how to gain the respect and confidence of the white people among whom they are to live for all time. To do this we constantly remind them that they must learn to do something as well or better than any one else.
 ''When I first began this work at Tus- kegee and the idea got spread among our people that the students were to be taught industry in connection with their academic studies, I got great many verbal mes sages and letters from parents to the effect that they wanted their children taught books but not how to work. This protest went on for three or four years, but I am glad to say that our people have gradually