The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-02

ough training being offered to all who seek it. 1t is an invaluable thing that Is being done for the negro boys and girls of the South and it strikes me more
 forcibly and gains my unqualined ap- proval because of the fact that the avow- ed purpose is to teach all who come now to do those things that negroes nave been doing in the past, with common sense and practical Knowledge applied-with training to do them all we'll, and above all to know how to do them. The ne- groes have been doing the work that falls to the manual laborer all around me ever since l can remember anything. My father used to own very intelligent negro for his time who was one of the best carpenters of his day also shoe maker, who could make the best shoes: he also owned d blacksmith who could shoe horse in as little time and with as much satisfaction as anybody in those parts, and l remember with what pride my father has often spoken of the splen- did work of those negroes. all most valu- able hands. who cou.d not have been bought at any price: and well do l re- member the ola mammy. who almost raised me and to whom l was about as much devoted as J was to my own mother: and then there were my nurses who were att, ntive and fdthful and did their work we'll. and vet how much bet
 ter 1 am convinced now they codiu have all done it hId they been trainCd and drilled as theS are t:H'nirs and drilling them here tOIay. Tu fariae-'. the me
 chanic the cen .rattb.. tn" b"irkmaker, all want more intelligent lah1p. aud Wherr
 they e n find t ai,.ed and ezpeli need Ia borC-s they will not only give them the
 prtfe; el.os, hut will gladly pIy mor' wages than to the ignorant and nn- skilled lAho.er. [ re2ilm3er that only a few days ago q gentlemen in neigh bnring city was in reed of skilled la borers ard ne a sked me if they could be found in certain departments st Wash ingt onS school Fe said he had been for tunate enough to have students from school to work for him and in every in- stance they had been industrious and trustworthy and had proven so satisfac tory in their work that he wanted them now wherever he could get them in pref erence to all other labor. And such is the case in every department of lahar. The tIaFed and educated laborer is fast supplanting the ignorant and unSkilled labor: and the negro of today who goes through the school, not only is prepared to do the work that the negro has af- ways done, but behind the hand that does the work there Is a knowledge and intelligent direction which is worth more than can be calculated to those for whom they are to work I prefer the negro to all other class of labor and with the op- portunities he has offered here know that he will prove more valuable than any other class of labor in that work which they have always done and are now depended upon to do. know that education turns the head of some negroes and makes them devils. but there are bad men everywhere. white as well as black. but they are the exception, and I am sure any of us had rather have negro to work for us who had been trained for his work than one who had not and that is just what this school is trying to do
 Read the interview of the Principal which immediately fellows these words Ov,1 hot I, | 1 Nnc- n0 keep right along the first tracks and hews strictly to the line upon which he founded the school to educate the ne- gro in all industrial pursuits. It is being realized that aericuture is the basis of
 prosperity for this section and moro at
 tention is to he paid to practical instruc- ton in that branch of industry and pu-
 pils at the school are to be taught how
 10 farm intelligently, scientifically and profitably.
 The man who regards the twenty-one years of Booker Washingtons work as an experiment. is either ignorant of the true results or else he is wtlfully mis- representing it.. There is no longer any experiment about it. The trial has been had and the verdict rendered. In all the departments of labor the students from
 the school have entfr red and have been successful. Look tD tho farms, to the workshops and t. the trades and you will md that negroes turned out from this school are working ai'd are proving them selves most satisfactory l9borers. They
 are not working in the fIctoIiss and mines. to any g?ra tcXtent, because as
 rule negro labor has not vet been sought after or employed in the cotton factolie ies and the neGro miners in Ala Dama are princir9ly convicts farmed out Dy the State, aud 1t may be truthflIlly
 said that these latter are about the only ones who come in contact with white la Dor and among them the graduates. from
 this school are about as scarce, as are
 Wnlte men who are .Gra iu 1.es. The fact
 whl'e labor is not to De found to do the
 main work for which Washington is de-
 voting his best efforts in training his pupils to do. and there is not a man who has to employ them who does not prefer the skilled labor. The methods here then will not bring about any sep aratton of the races. but will tend to more closely cement the Southern white man and the negro, and the problem will be easily solved if left to these to work out for themselves. I said before that I greatly prefer the negro lahorer to any other class of labor I mean of course Tn those respects where the negro has been employed in the past. As the farm laoorer, as the yard and house servant. as the gardener as the body servant-he Is much more preferable to the average Southerner-they better understand each other and the negro will know his place and keep it far better than any ,lass of white labor that can be procured | do not see in the education of the negro boys and girls of the present day any sharp competition with the white people
 in the industrial work that is beine taught here and with that elem, mt out of the way all argument for the cause of separation falls to the ground