The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-01-01
WORK OF BOOKER
WASHINGTON
THE NOTED EDUCATOR TELLS
WHAT HE is DOING AND TRYING
TO DO.

Booker T. Washington in a recent adj
dress concerning his work said:
If we would discuss what is known
as the race question with any degree of |
benefit, we must reach that point where
we can so far rid ourselves of sectional |
and racial prejudice that we can in a
large degree place ourselves in the |
position of southern white man and at
the same time in the place of the ne
gro. Nothing will be gained for either |
race or for any section of our country |
by bitter attacks and criticism. When
we consider the past and the tremen-
dous difficulties that have grown out
of the presence of the negro in this
country and take a broad, generous
view, all must agree that while there is
much to be accomplished we have some
reason, North and South, to congratu-
late ourselves that the situation is as
hopeful and satisfactory as it is.
|. confess that when l first began the
work of educating my race in the south
l did so with a selfish ambition-that
of seeking the interests of my race
alone, but l have learned that broad
er and more practical thing is to seek
to do that which is going to serve the
| highest interests, in the end of both
races.
beginning in poverty, with not dol
| lars worth of property, the Tuskegee
| institute has now grown into a seat of
| learning where there are 141S students
| gathered from 80 states, under the
teaching and guidance of SO instructors.
! In addition to training in religious and
academic branches we give constant
! instruction in 20 industries, and all of
them are industries at which our stu
dents can find immediate employment
! as soon as they leave the institution,
and all of them are Industries which are
greatly in demand in the South. The
| property of the institution consists of
230O acres of land SO buildings large
and small and is valued at $3.50, 900. The
annual expense of carryink on the in
stitutiOn is about $1,000 We have an
endowment fund of $3.50 900 The in
stitution has been built very largely
by the students so far as the buildings
are concerned, but we are dependent
largely upon gifts of friends for our
/ current expenses and the cost of build
ing. The state of Alabama assists in
! our expenses to the extent of it's abil-
ity.
In the present condition of my race,
| industrial education in connection with
mental and moral training is of the
| highest value. The mere fact that
through our 20 industries we give our
students the opportunity to help them
selves is of great importance. The
| mere effort on the part of the student
! at Tuskegee gives to him a certain
amount of self-relance and moral
backbone that he would not get without
such an effort on his part. The saliva
ton of my race will, in a large degree,
be secured just in proportion as it
learns to put brains, skill and dignity
into the common occupations of life; in
proportion as it learns to do a common
thing in an uncommon manner; to lift
the common occupations up out of
drudgery into that atmosphere where
labor will become in the eyes of the in
dividual beautiful and dignified. For $50
years the negro was worked. What he
wants to learn now is to work. There
is a vast difference between working
that work is honorable and to be idle
is dishonorable is at the foundation of
civilization.
Our effort, however, at Tuskegee
would mean little except as we are able
to impress upon each man and woman
who is being trained there the idea that
they are not to get education merely
with a view of going out and leading
a selfish life but are to go out and give
themselves in an unselfsh manner to
the lifting up of their fellows. Count
lllS lllOSe VINO nave IIlSneu lne regular
course at Tuskegee, together with those
who have had partial course, it is safe
to say that we have over 1000 men and
/ women who have been trained al TuS-
kegee who are working in various parts
of the country. 1t is not the negro
who has been properly trained in hand,
head and heart who commits crime. 1t
is the ignorant, shiftless negro, who has
not learned to love labor and who does
Tn rla1 i- Yal1 3 he
criminal When a man becomes the
owner of a piece of land and a decent
house, and has a bank account he be-
comes, | notice, at once a conservative
lawabiding citizen, and one who can
be trusted to vote intelligently for the
best interests of the community in
which he lives.
There are still those who doubt the
progress OF the negro. By what signs
is progress usually measured? Let me
give you a few definite fats. The OIL
cial records for the state of Georgia
show that at the close of the last year
the negro owned 1,141,OOO acres of land,
and paid taxes all told upon property
to the value of over S15,000000, adding
$1,00OOO0 to the taxable value of has
property during the past year. In Vir-
ginia the reports are equally encour-
aging. Other southern states SHOW
much growth in the same direction.
Last summer l asked one of the teach
ers at Tuskegee to take two townships
in Alabama and make a thorough, first
hand investigation by a door door
canvass of the actual condition Of the
people. In the first township the peo-
pie had had brought to bear upon them
little influence in the direction of edu-
cation and home-getting, and as a re-
suit they were found to be largely in
debt, living in one-room cabins in most
cases, mortgaging their crops, and with
poor school facilities and not an en-
couraging moral status. In the second
township a graduate from Tuskegee
had been at work for 10 years. In this
township there were found l2S homes,
and in them were 667 persons, Out OF
the l2S homes only rs were of the char
acter known as the one-roOm cabin.