The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-30
THE OGDEN PARTY ;
 VISITS TUSKEGEE
The White and Black Schools There are Inspected by the New
 York PhilanthrOpiStS.

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 many other library buildings-many of l them greater in size than this. and cost | and portentiousness of architecture-have ve | also been building in different parts of
 the land through the generosity of the
 man who has made this building possible.
 But of them all. this one I think would
 g.ve him the deepest pleasure, if he could | see for himself what we are privileged
 to see, and could know what we know
 of it's value and it's significance.
 What wonderful caarrying power has a good thought, followed by kindly deed. Out in Pittsburg fifty years ago was a certain Col Anderson, a business man | who had perhaps 300 or 400 books in his
 house. He believed in reading-and, un-
 like some others who believe in 1t. he l loved his books so much that he wanted l them to serve the best ends of usefulness
 and inspiration. And so he oaned them
 on Saturdays to the poor working lads | Of Pittsburg. Andrew Carnegie was one
 of the boys privileged every Saturday to draw book from that little private li- | brary. And that Is why this new library
 building stands here today associated with his name. He resolved as a boy | that If he ever acquired the means and l found fitting opportunity, he would help
 poor boys to read good books just as Col
 onel Anderson had helped him.
 | But other good thoughts followed by nos l ble deeds had created Hampton Institute,
 had there trained the young founder of l Tuskegee Institute, and had made this | place conspicuously fit to be the recipient
 of Carnegie library: otherwise it would | not have come. Thus in the course of the years 1t always, without fail. so works ! out that all the separate streams of good | thought and deed unite and blend in one | great river of human progress. When | Carnegie had those boyish impulses to
 achieve and to be useful he was not an | important person, only poor immigrant boy, working for 20 cents a day. When Armstrong first cherished the aspirations
 that his great career fulfilled. he was a | boy away off in the Sandwich Islands l But when in these later years the Arm | strong idea meets the Carnegie idea, then
 this library building springs at once into being. The man who introduces the one l idea to the other, the indispensable link | is your own leader, Booker T. Washing | ton.
 l But bear in mind this one thing that 1 is for our encouragement and for our l strong incentive: 1t is not so much to l the powerful Carnegie, to the great edu- ! cators Armstrong and FrisseIl or to the 1 fained head of this institute that what we see is to be credited It is to the | good thoughts and purposes of their early years that these later fruitions are due. | It was easy for MT. Carnegie to make | the gift but 1t was not so easy for him
 
 | boy that fixed the lines of his career and | his character.
 Two lessons for US then stand out plain 1 ly: First, most lives are shaped by the purposes and determina tions formed in | youth. Second, almost every noble achievement that affects the welfare of the many is the result of the ultimate meeting of the hopes and aims of differ
 ent people; formed quite separately in remote and obscure days. The West Vir@ ginia boy detecmines to go to Hampton to school: and nothing daunted he mas ters difficulties and goes. This great school is here we are all here, the new Carnegie library is here-beCause that boy through Gods providence and leading. | went to Hampton.
 Every man who has lived to do service | that his fellowmen recognize as good, knows well that the things we praise and call great are merely the outworking in one time of occasions made long before, in humility and perhaps in pain. Make your life plans when your hearts are strongest and when your minds are clear est, when you seem to catch d glimpse
 of heavenly visions. Then settle down to the humdrum. plain everyday task of carrying out those plans. That I am very sure would be in the line of MT. Carnegie's advice If he were here.
 It matters little in the long run whether or not the things We accomplish are rec ognzed as important. and We are given personal credit and honor. But be sure of this. for what l am about to say Is true In the deepest sense. If We do our best, however small our places in life may seem to be. sorsc deed or word or influence of ours will find its way in as- sociation with the acts or words of oth- CTS. to the doing of some great thing in the world that could not have been done, but for us.
 You all see how this material structure is the result of cooperative effort, for you know who drew the plans. who ex- cavatcd for the foundations. who made the bricks. who laid the walls. who did the woodworking, and who contributed the brains and the labor that the other processes require d.. And you all see how the coming here today of the company of friends assembled by Mir. ogden has required the faithfW and Skillful help of many men connected with the great rail road organizations of our country and that the failure of any one of these men to do his duty might have been disas- trous.
 But my lesson goes deeper than these things. My lesson is that all worthy hu~ man life and work is so inter- dependent that away off in the future there Is some beautiful and useful thfng-just as beau- tiful and useful as this Carnegie library that will be made or marred, according as the humhlest boy or girl in this insti-
 tute now makes his aims and plans aright and lays hold of the problems of his or her own life btavely and Loyalty.
 And this brings me to the next thing want to say. in q few brief sentences. TuSkcEpe Institute IS SCnoOl-yeS, pvt rather it is a community, and life. It is for study-yes- hut chiefly il is for living Why should you love it devoted ly? Partly of course. because it means so much to each of you as individuals because it's influence is transforming. But aIso greatly because all the hopes of your race here and everywhere. are bound up in 1t.
 Tuskegec tills the soil as it ought to he tiled pursues the crafts and industries as they ought to be pursued, rightly ap- portions time, teaches mastery over na- ture or rather harmony with nature and mastery over the human impulses to sloth and passion. Tuskegee inculcates self-respect and respect for others; shows the economy and advantage of organiza- ton and the division of labor. and shows how the community as whole may have what kings have through union of hearts and of efforts. Tuskegee Institute Is the best purely negro community existing in the whole wo:ld today. This is the best library building ever in the whole world built for the people of your race
 The other day I was with MT. Carue- gie in his pleasant but unpretentious home library in New York. Not one of you probably will ever have so well sup ulied a private library as that But here at once through his gift and vour labor. are better library facilities than he him self ordinarily erioys. and thev are free |, yours for prHper use. as if your very uwn.