The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-12-02
THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS AND THE NEGRO
A. AND NJ. COLLEGE.

cooked In their report on the colored A. and M.
College at Greensboro. The vigorous reply of
Hon. A. NJ. Scales of the Board of Trustees, shows
this conclusiVely. 1t looks very much as if the
Examiners went to the institution with deep
seated prejudice against it's kind of education,
and with a hasty and merely nominal inspection,
proceeded to roast" the management in a manner
highly spectacular. But the reply of Mr.. Scales
was not a whit less vigorous than the attack of
the critics and seems to be very much more relia-
bic. While the Examiners report indicated that
the institution had less than sixty pupils costing
about $500 each annually, Mr.. Scales asserts that
there are ia students and that the average cost is
only $138.15, more than half of which is paid by
the National Government. As to two other
charges inexplicably wide of the mark, Mr.. Scales
says:
GAS a matter of fact during the time mentioned
~(sixteen months) there was spent on the farm,
including machinery, etc., $4,488.81 instead of
$1O,O52.88; and on the brick yard installed only
about a year ago; including cost of machinery,
building and all materials, the sum Of $1,900.19,
instead of $8,252.23, as stated, making errors of
$14,916.11 in these two items alone. The brick
yard is paying expenses and the farm is making
a handsome income"
And without intending to reflect on the charac-
ter OF the Board of Examiners (for we believe
that their errors were due to haste and to preju-
dices honestly formed), we cannot forbear quoting
the manly words with which Mr.. Scales concludes
his defense:
"The examiners advise against further appro-
~priations until it is shown by experience that this
kipd of teaching is calculated to promote the best
ia tests of the great mass of our needy people,
Men and brethren, be honest. If you want to take
away appropriations from the negro, do it like
men. Don't say you will close up an institution
until it demonstrates by experience what it can do.
eff the General Assembly thinks it can improve
the management, I feel sure that all the Board of
Directors will willingly resign, but it would be a
fatal mistake to close up the institution. The
college has been built up under many difficulties
to a point of great usefulness, and it would be a
pity to have so much effort and invested capital
wasted in order to save a paltry $1,000 and be-
cause a board of examiners, after a few hours
looking around, said it should be done. There are
people in North Carolina who would like to take
away all aid from the negro, and possibly the ex-
aminers thought it would be popular to roast this
leading institution of a helpless race, or possibly
they thought it was expected of them to roast
somebody and recommend a saving somewhere,
and not daring to select a powerful white institu-
ton, and yet wishing to show a rHison detre, they
fall upon a weak and disheartened race.
IT worked as hard as any one to get the negro
out of politics, but I thank God that 1 am not so
narrow and so small of soul as to want to deprive
him of a chance in life. We must be patient with
the negro and we can afford to be magnanimous."
What we have said is not intended as a defense
of the management of the College. We have never
visited the institution nor carefully investigated
it's methods, hence it is not for us to commend 1T
or accuse it of ineficiency. We know only that
Mr.. Scales seems to have made a crushing and
effectual reply to the criticisms made by the