The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-06-17

has done much good in that it has cor !
rected q tendency among the college
bred to ignore the trades. Tuskegee has
some of the best equipped scholars direct
ing her industrial work. Yet emphasis
must be laid on an intelligent industrial
education. Says Mr.. Baldwin before the
Southern Educational Conference IN
Athens, Ca: Il believe in helping the
negro to help himself. and to my mind
the best way TO do this is to equip him
with an intelligent industrial training.
The industrial education of the negro
to be of much value to him and his en-
ployers must be intelligent, from the
writing of a book to the baking Of a
biscuit, from the building Of a palace to
the ironing Of clothes. 1t must be su-
perior to that of the mule. 1t is a great
power when it is infused with the life
which comes from religion and yltallzed
with a spiritual force.
By an unwritten law in American So
ciety. the negro's status is fixed. No
legislation can give him social recogni-
ton. Unfortunately there is a confusion
in mems minds between equality OF
rights and social equality. Politicians
nave helped to bring this confusion.
There is no law to make one man. be he
white or black, the social equal OF an
other. The human race advances in pro-
portion to it's opportunity for social con-
| tact. LAS iron sharpeneth iron. SO the
%countenance Of a man his friend There
! are many negroes who come into spirit
| uaI contact with Goethe, Homer, Dante,
Socrates, Spencer and others. and feel
an elevation of soul. In his address at
Charlotte, Governor Aycoch said. con-
corning negro education: He has been
y1-. H. two tJ0 VIC ~ thc ~ hnfOrn
1t is true he has been sent to school.
but his contact with the old planter and
with the accomplished and elegant wife
Of the planter has been forgotten. This
contact was IN itself a better education
thar he can receive from the public
schools" The editor of the Atlantic
Educational Journal, commenting on the
above says, THE negro must again have
the benefit of more intimate and kindly
association with the white people OF the
-; South" This is the view Of prominent
negro leaders. 1t is opportunity for So
cial contact. for spiritual communion,
not social equality. The two terms are
not correlatives. II the negro, during
bondage, had the advantage of contact
with the white people, shall he be de-
MED it in freedom? Was contact then
social equality, why should 1t be so
now? BY every noble sentiment OF hu-
manity we appeal to the white people OF
the South not to mistrust the negro, but
help to lift him by an e%levating con-
tact. The vital need in the social re-
generation of the negro is the soul con-
tact. the personal influence and mag
netism Of the white man, the white wo-
mar the white child who ere inferitors
Of centuries Of civilization.
. Periods of race growth.
There are three periods of race growth
as in man. Childhood, or the period OF
imitation; youth, the period Of assimila-
ton; manhood, the period OF creation and
consolidation. The negro race is passing
through these stages like all other races.
/ He is showing himself creditably along
these lines.
4. Some dangers of negro education.
While commendable results have been
achieved in his education, some OF his
educators, with the best of intentions
: are making serious mistakes by not
quickly adapting their methods to the
{ negro's needs, by a vain attempt TO make
the negro a white man, and instilling in
him false notions OF greatness. II a
mans leg is two feet long, it is wrong to
cover it with a piece of cloth one foot
, long, then keep on chopping off his Les
so as to reduce it to a foot long. Instead
of curtailing his leg you need to ado
more to the cloth. We do not need tC
! limit the negro so much as to adapt oul
methods to his needs.
1t is an error to assume that the In
t dian, the negro and the white man arc
! Identical. The negro cannot be treate,
: as an Indian any more than an Indian be
treated as an Anglo-Saxon. They canno
, be educated along the same lines. Al
flesh is not the same flesh. It is no re.
!, Election on the white man, the negro Of
, any other race is different from another
. The system of Massachusetts canno
wholly fit North Carolina, there mus
Y be adjustments here and there. Orange
and bananas cannot grow in Maine a:
+ they do in Florida. because of the diff
ference Of environments. If you max
their environments the same in Main'
as in Florida there will be no difference
r But who has succeeded in doing it? De
! ~velopment must come in a natural way
You cannot make an Anglo-Saxon of
negro, nor a negro of an Anglo-SaxOn
1t is not natural. Each has a right t.
exists as q distinct type. 1t is the glor,
: of Democracy to respect individual
6 growth, it should be the glory of Democ
. racy to respect and foster race growth il
harmony with it.
!, ORISHATUKEH FADUMA.
!, Troy, N. G..
Il p0r5 sYDEc rJrM