The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-04-01

had thousands of young men being taught
farming. others blacksmithing, others car
pentry, others wheelwrightlng. brickmar
sonry. etc. It is safe to say that we had
during slavery more young men learning
trades in a single county In the south than
We have in a large city today. I should be
the last to apologize for the curse of sla-
very; I am not doing that. I am simply
stating facts. This business contact and
this training in the matter of skilled labor
on these plantations left us at the close of
the war in possession of all the common
and skilled labor in the south. But the
great problem that is pressing upon us
more and more as race Is. can we still
hold ON to this legacy in the matter of
skilled labor that was purchased by our
forefathers at the price of $50 years slav-
cry? We cannot hold our own in the me-
ehanical and industrial world unless we do
two things: First. we must put brains and
skill into the common occupations that are
about our doors; and in the second place,
we must dignity and ennoble common la
Dor.
1.-The two races will be as one in all civil
and commercial relations just in proportion
as the negro, by reason of skill and edu-
Gated brains, produces some thing that the
white man wants or respects, and when
you pursue the question a little further,
one white man cares little for another
Hnlte man, except the one mas something
that the other wants.
THE negro, like other people, should Sc
cure all the mental development possible;
but 1t is especially necessary for people
in the present condition of the masses Of
the negroes in the south to apply their
education in the direction of industrial life.
Industrial education Is not meant to teach
one how to work so much as to teach him
how to make the forces of nature-horse
power, steam and acknowledgements for him.
II is the ignorant, unslxilled man who tolls
from day to day with his hands, while the
man with education and trained hands
makes the forces of nature do work for
him
by reason OF the negro's lack of skill
he is a present at the bottom so far as the
matter of profit-sharing is concerned. At
the Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, we
seek to give such an education as will put
the negro on the upward tier IN the matter
of production and profit-sharing. Despite
her faults, when it comes to business pure
and simple, the south presents an oppor-
runity for business for the negro that no
other section of the country does.
in Alabama we find it pretty hard to
make a good Christian of a hungry man.
1t is only as the negro is taught to mix in
with his religious fervor and emotion hab-
its OF industry, economy, land, houses with
two or three rooms, and little bank ac-
count, just as the white man does, that he
will have a Christianity that is worthy of
the name.
"In all parts of the country there should
be more vital and practical connection
between the negro's educated brain and his
opportunity for earning a living.
81 have just finished reading a little
pamphlet written by a well-educated COL
oored man, Mr.. George w. Carver, giving
the result of some of his experiments in
raising sweet potatoes this year. In this
pam phlet this colored man has shown in
plain, simple language, based on scientific