The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-11-29

osophical Vagaries- which invariably,
led to swelled head, and an empty
stomach. Booker invited US to come
and see Tuskeegee, the Alpha and
omega OF his efOrts,-which keeps him;
good part of the year dining with AMI
soliciting governors, philanthropists
and President; and at the same time
ne promised to run down and see
Ethiopian Florida sometime" :
The amount of money lavished on
higher education" by wealthy men of
the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Carne-
gle type, is extraordinary, compared
with the pittances given elsewhere to
meet the common necessities of life.
When mans physical life is starved
out of him, there is little room for any
intellectual or spiritual life. When the
colored man meets disaster, sickness,
or crop failure, there is no one now to
stand between him and utter despair.
Many of the old plantation darkies
even point back to the days of slavery
as much better than their present con-
dltlOn. And we partly believe it.
The North freed these people and
dropped them. Uncle Sam ''emanci,
pated" them and then left them to their
fate. AS DR.. Curry fearlessly puts it:
The National government rusheS
eagerly to the education of her new
wards in Porto Rico, the Philippines.
Alaska etc., but cruelty turns a deaf
ear and unfeeling heart, and a closef
pocket, to the pathetic cry of the IL
literate millions she suddenly emanci
pated."
The same may be said of wealthy
philanthrOpists. In a personal inter
view with our friend John Wanamaker.
this summer, in Philadelphia, we tried
to interest him in this subject. With al
most Chesterfield an suayity and polite
ness he replied, IF we do this, it will
only take the money away from some
thing else"
In calling on his partner, Mr.. Robt G.
Ogden, who is head of the New York
Wanamaker store, and whom we have
personally known many years, he
listened, and said, 1--WE have got to the
end of the rope"
What rope, he did not say, but since
then, another big Ogden banquet has
been held, and it was there announced
that some wealthy individual had given
(SSO,OOO.) Eighty thousand dollars to-
wards this race problem"
We suppose it will be spent on
higher education" or sky-scraping
Ethiopian ethics, on the same old prin-
ciples of polishing the spire while the
foundation is crumbling to decay The
Japanese people began their efforts for
modern civilization at the top of the
ladder years ago, but found they had
to reverse the process to succeed. The
history of higher classical and Scienti-
f1c education among the HindoOs for
the past forty years, has proved, that
intellectual education does not sOIVe
the problem of physical living, and
that multitudes are educated out of the
industrial aVOcatiOn. of their fathers,
only to be landed in a region Whefe
there are not enough political or PRO
fesslOnal positions to support them. In
many instances education" rendefS
them more sensitive to he grim srf-
ferings of want, without affOrding them
a chance to keep soul and body to-
gether. People who have never been
hungry, cannot realize this. Indeed,
these wealthy philanthropists, are
about on par with the Spanish Prin-
cess, who, on being told the common
people were starving for bread" re-
piled in surprise, why don't they eat
cakes and pies?'
It is this 'eake and pie" era, we are
now going through, with the ROcka-
fellers and Carnegies Of higher educa-
ton" A touch of it has even reached
Leon county. For the colored people Of
the whole Lake Jackson region at least
have just emptied their corn-cribs, or
mOrtgaged their last OK or bit of furHi-
ture, to pay,-C'a la Carnegie, ,')-fgr
several hundred large fancy-boued
family Blbles,-fOr which, Tin tbe
sprng,) some enterprising Georgian
took their notes"
/ But chattel mortgage notes comes
due,-eVen On Bibles.
"a drink of spiritual Whiskey lis
given we are told, as a reward ts)r
promptly paying the note" This doubt
less takes the place of the philanthroEi-
cal banquet"
The result is. that the Bainbridse
road region of Leon county, now PCS
sesses more copies of five dollar
Bibles, and of three dollar "guides,"
than there are bushels in many of the
cOrn-cribs.
The illiterate victims declare, in