The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-06

practical operation of its plans. The authors grandfather was one of the most successful industrial educators of the ne- Eroes in his generation. It Is true that his system was confined to the planta- tions, the blacksmith shops, the old car penter shops, the threshers, cotton gins and other industrial operations of the old times, but his system was wonderfully effective. Under it many skilled artisans were produced who built houses, made carriages, constructed farm implements, and otherwise exhibited expert workman ship which can still challenge the efforts of the most finished graduate of any special technological institution of today. The reason for this excellence was that the apprentices learned to work by ac- tually working. The nice experimenta- ton of these schools will never make generation of workmen comparable to | those old artisans, until the idea of work, and hard work, is more emphasized in the curricula of some of these schools. It Is Idle to teach a boy how to operate a Mo Cormick harvester when he Is to run twenty-acre farm, and cannot wield a cradle or splice a broken finger of the | implement. The theory of mechanics is | wasted where a youth who ought to be contributing to the products of the land is unable to set blow point or to shoe horse. Thousands of dollars may be squandered in these so-called industrial | schools unless their efforts are along the lines of the real needs of the people. Then too, this educational system Is worthless if it has the least tendency to unfit the youth for the most persistent and severe manual labor. It is folly to expect a negro who for a large number of years is coddled in one of these schools | to step out and follow Sle blow with as steady a tread as his less CD fortunate cousins who have been doing so for the years that he has been securing his in dustrial education. If these schools are to do any real good they ought to see to it that every one of their pupils Is en- gagged in at least six hours hard manual labor daily so that they can go focth to their life work fully able to stand the strain of the task before them.
 | With these predatory remarks 1t is to be said that under our present conditions this system of education. by which the negroes are fitted for their special posi- l ton in our social structure is by far the best yet devised for them. It is no won der the worthless and vagabondish pro- ducts of the false culture" of the ab- surd educational systems carried on in this country for so many years for the negroes should be so alarmed at Booker Washingtons methods. Those men of his race who have been bowling at him are l the very essence of all that Is undesir- able in the whole round of negro life. Lazy, pampered, loud-mouthed, lying. rot ten and corrupt to the core. they vent
 their spleen on Washington, forsooth. be-
 cause he teaches that the negro ought to
 work. Disguise it as they may, that is
 the unvarnished truth about their attacks
 on him and his ideas Some of his col
 ored critics are doubtless honest and sin
 cere, but the adjective just used apply
 only too sadly to many of them. Of
 course there are some things about this
 man Washington which the white people
 of the South might wish otherwise. but
 he Is an angel of light and mercy beside
 these negroes who are fighting him, and
 the silly idiots of white color who persast
 in thinking that the negro must be edu
 cated along the old classical lines. Al well give Homer to a baboon.
 Last of all. 1t is to be observed tha . the greatest need of this race is stric , discipline. That the youth of the color , ed people are under practically no dis