The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-20
Secretary Wilson Says it is Seen
in a School.
THE GREAT Work At TUSKEGEE
What Is Being Done BY Booker
People 10 Be Useful.

Secretary Wilson has given TO rep
resentative of the Washington Star his
observations of the southern trip of
the President snd party. Mr. Wilson
speaks OF conditions at Tuskegee. He
says.
An interesting feature Of the Presi-
dents trip TO the south was the visit
to Tuskegee, where the most success
full effort ever undertaken is now being
made to teach the colored people TO
do something somebody wants done.
They go to the woods, bring the logs
to the mill, saw the dimension lumber,
and do the carpenter work for all pur-
poses connected with the institution,
including the making of doors, win
dow frames, sashes, blinds and every
thing else pertaining to a house. They
go to the clay bank and make brick,
lay the brick, and, really, from the in
ception to the finish, make all thea
own buildings. They shoe their own
horses, make their own wagons, iron
and paint them, make buggies and car
The girls are taught nutrition, the
place that each element of food
has on the table, how to com
pound ratiOns and feed a young per-
son or an old person. They are taught
to cut, fit and make their own dresses,
to make and trim their own bOnnets.
They are getting attention not only
from the colored people of the south,
but from the white as well. The edu
Gated professors of the institution are
invited to address white audiences as
well as colored on matters relating to
the sciences affecting agriculture.
The management of the soil is being
taught by object lessons by the profess
sor of agriculture there, a young man
named Carver, who was educated at
the Iowa Agricultural College. He
shows them how to double the yield
of their crops by conserving the moist
ure Of the soil through proper and
timely cultivation. He is giving the
farmers of that country object lessons
in feeding the raw material OF the
south to dairy COWS and swine, poul-
try, etc.
There is great need of just such an
institution or several such institutions,
not only in every state in the south,
but in every state in the Union. Con-
gress in 1868 endowed an institution
in each of the states to educate the
young farmer and the young mechanic.
The intention was at that time to give
the young farmer a knowledge of the
sciences that relate to his life work.
Some of them have been more success
full than Others All of them are doing
we'll and some of them are doing re
markabIy we'll. Congress could not
furnish teachers. There were no
teachers. because there were no such
institutions. These colleges are doing
something along that line, but they
take the student into a college course.
not into a training school. They are
expected to make him scholar along
agricultural and mechanical lines. The
Tuskegee school begins further down
and prepared its own students thor
oughly before they are introduced to
the sciences.
A very interesting hint comes to the
people of the United States from Tus-
kegee at the present time. We will be
responsible to the world and the Max
er of the world for 100000 Of colored
people in the several islands now I'M
der our flag. The very best service
that can be done by the United States
to those isalnds is to teach their peo-
pie to work, just as Booker Washing
ton is teaching the cOlOred people OF
Tuskegee to work. We have not had
marked success with the Indian, be-
cause he would not work. We are
working people ourselves. A man has
scarcely respectable standing in the
United States who does not contribute
by his head or his hands to the vel