The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-10
EXPERIMENT IS
 GREAT SUCCESS. Good Cotton Grown in German
 West Africa ROBINSON IS IN CHARGE Negro Was Recommended for the Work By Booker T. Washington, of Whose School He Is
 Graduate.
ROBINSON IS IN CHARGE

Tuslxegee August 9.-(Special.)-A hota- blv interesting letter has just been re- oo,,,ad bv Booker T. Washington rom John ". Robinson, one or HIS ioiiiiei students. who is now in charge or the eA- nerimental cotton raising under the aus ntees of the German government at Muat- ,,a ,.one. Togo, West Africa. Respon- sive to certain powerful and farsighted commercial interests the German govern mont is determined to discover whether cotton can be successfully raised on large scale in Africa; and finding the diff 1eulties many and various, asked Prin- cipal Washington to send some cotton ex- perts from Tuskegee. This he did, placing the expedition in charge of Prof. James N. Galloway. In Professor Calloway's re- port for 19OO-1, he outlined a policy which has been severely tested and proved sound; and, since his return to resume his duties at Tuskegee, the work. now under the charge of Robinson, has fol- lowed the principles and to some extent even the details of Calloway's report. 4
 Tn my letter to you," says Robins ' to Principal Washington, "I shall with the subjunctive if and the COG ate and Generally speaking, l an A able to see many impossibilities in 'We doings of men. Of course there are con ditions to be righted and obstacles to be overcome. So, after one years expe- rience with our undertaking here, l felt convinced that 1t was possible for us to accomplish our purpose; so we set to work to extirpate the ifs root snd branch.'
 Win the Natives.
 The first essential to success in the woEk was to win over the natives to hearty sympathy with the undertaking. Such an enterprise can only be counted successful to the degree that it is supported, de- veloped, and sustained by the people. It was plain that "if' Robinson and his men could succeed in interesting the people generally so that they would feel That the industry is pre-eminently of the neo- pie, for the people, and by the peo pie, the first "if' would evaporate.
 But, at the outset it was difficult to arouse any popular interest; illumined by costly experience. the natives distrust ev- cry proposition made them by foreigner, and in the beginning would not even lc- cept gifts of cotton seed. These untrav-
 
 bearing giftsl They argued that, should they accept the seed. the foreigners would come again and claim their own with cruel usury. Certain Europeans, initiated into the mysteries of native psychology, confidently predicted that the natives would never become interested in the movement and that on this rock the en- terprise would founder.
 But" says Robinson, tive worked on, and already the farming districts are dot ted with hundreds of native cotton farms. Now, they no longer mistrust US, but come and eagerly ask for cotton seed. A conservative estimate places the incom- ing native harvest at the 1000 bale mark"
 Of eourse-the native methods are an- tediluvian and grotesque, and they culti- vate cotton exclusively as a secondary crop But, the foreigners are contented at the outset to let them follow if they must, their own lights; the process will advance from the known to the unknown, from short-sighted habits to improved methods. The new must, as in all other teaching, be grafted upon the old Thus, the days of If" number one are num- bered.