The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-04-05
her making better Roadway from the sta

Aio. NAMING pelleF neaQWay from the start.
Another question which might arise
| with regard to the whole scheme Of work
at Tuskegee is, why the same ends could
not be accomplished by simply opening
Dig smlth1es, and carpenter shops. and
masonry yards, and the like, on be-
neVolent foundation, and teaching negro
apprentices by putting them in at the
Dottom and making them work up. Such
a system would be better than nothing
undoubtedly; but the beauty OF the rus
kegee plan is. first that the idea of help
ing others is taught alongside of the art
OF helping ones self. so that every Tus-
kegeelte goes out with his mind awake TO
the need OF lifting other black men and
women UP out of the dregs by like
process; in the second place, theory as
we'll as practice is taught in all the in
dustries. A boy learns not only how to
shape a horseshoe, how to fit it to the
moor, and what part of the hoof to cut
away, but he learns why the rest of the
moor must be let alone, or what parts can
De safely interfered with, how they should
be treated, and just what function every
part performs. In carpentry work he is
Taught not only how to mortise Joints,
Dut what way OF the wood the mortises
must run, and why, and what would hap
pc as the result of deviation from sucl,
ana such practices, and why In brief,
ne IS expected to use his head in the
work which he is outwardly. doing with
his hands, and for that purpose his head:
is trained to work while his hands also
are busy. l was struck with the applica-
LION or this idea in the machine shop at
Iuskegee, where it had always been the
custom until while ago, when a heavy
metal pipe had to be cut, to cut it by
SLOW and painful hand process, Turning
| TINS over in his mind one of the young
mechanics saw an opportunity for rigging
saw blade to bit of machinery whose
motion carries it back and forth on one
| pane with great nicely, SO that by grip
ping pipe underneath the saw the lat
| ter would do the cutting while the ma
chlne tender was off looking after anot her
| job.
All the teachers and officers Of the
school, outside OF the board of trustees
are negroes. Mr.. Washington has an
extraordinary instinct for judging human
nature, and almost all his staff are of his
personal selection. more remarkable
| Ooay OF men and women probably could
not be found within the lines of their
| race. In the industrial shops. particu
larly, one Is struck with the intelligence
| and mental alertness of the persons in
charge, and with their capacity for teach
| lng-a trait, which is unhappily so sep
aranle from expert knowledge as often to
be found lacking among the greatest
scholars. George w. Carver, the profess
sor OF agriculture, a pure-b looded negro
| o. the BLACKLIST type, not long ago made
| a discovery of deposit of mineral which,
on reduction, makes a Prussian blue said
to be the finest on the market, with by
| products of fine green and red dyestuffs
| The mineral is on the land of an i'm
provement company near Montgomery,
and the officer of the company, white cap
ltallsts. are said to appreciate his clever
ness so highly that they intend making
him sharer in the profits of their enter
prise Every building on the school
premises, with the exception Of the one
with which the institution started, has
! been designed by negro architect, and
built by negro student labor under the di-
rection of a negro builder, with bricks
made by negro pupils in the Tuskegee
brickyard, Of clay dug out Of the bank in
the school land; the wooden frames being
made from lumber cut down by Tuskegee
students and sawed in the school mill;
| the roof covered with tin soldered and
laid by negro pupils from the school tin
shop. Even the furniture in the building
| is made by the boys in the cabinet shop.
| This years conference week was made
especially memorable by the return, for a
brief visit, of Clinton j. Galloway, Tus-
kegeeite, who had been for eighteen
months, in German Africa under a COM
mission from the imperial government to
teach the natives how to raise cotton.
This is perhaps the greatest distance, in
point of miles, to which the direct infu-
ence of Tuskegee has extended; and it is
hardly to be wondered that he was met
at the train by battalion of uniformed
| students and brass band, and borne in
| triumph back to the scene of his former
! laborS