Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1904-07-01
Booker Washington's Address.

Booker Washinston's Address.
Booker r. Washington spoke of
'The Education of the Southern Ne
gro" He said in part:
Judged purely from an economic
and industrial point of view, the edu-
cation of the negro is paying. and will
pay more largely in the future in pro-
portion as educational opportunities
are increased.
"A careful examination shows that of
the men and women trained at Hamp-
ton and Tuskegee, not 10 per cent can
be found in idleness at any season Of
the year. They have learned the
beauty of work, the disgrace Of idle
ness. .
But it has been repeated with en-
phasis that no matter how much
strength of mind or skill of hand the
black man may acquire, after all. the
weak point in that education does not
help but retards his moral growth and
that educated negro youths are more
given to crime than was true in the
older generations. A study of the
criminal statistics of the whole world
shows that it Is the young people who
are most given to crime But what are
the facts as to the effect of education"
Within the last month 1 have asked
and secured direct Information IS TO
the criminal records of the graduates
of fifteen of the largest and oldest ne
gro colleges and industrial schools, and
the facts are that only two graduates
out of the whole number have ever
been sentenced to prison, and at the
present time not single man or wom-
an gearing the diplomat OF Que OF lnese
fifteen institutions wears The PRISON
garb.
The records of the south show that
80 per cent of the colored persons In
prison are without knowledge of trade
and I'll per cent are illiterate. This
statement alone disproves the assertion
that the negro grows in crime as he
secures education III the negro at the
north is more criminal tnan his brother
at the south. it is largely because the
north WithhOlds from HIM the oppor-
tunity for employment that the soLth
gives. 1t Is not the educated negro VINO
has been guilty OF, or even charged
with. crime. 1t is, as a RUE, the one
who has a mere smatterins vi eduta-
ton or who is in total ignorance.
Education OF Negro Success.
From the point OF view OF intelec-
tual grown and SER heip, the euuca-
ton OF the negro mas been success.
kew white Americans realize WGat
sacrifices, on account of his poverty,
the negro has maze 10 secure euucation,
ana tnat pracuCauy no ScnOOl mas been
opened that has not been nIieu. view
the picture OF Diack woman teacher
from the Tuskegee institution teacnlns
school for weeks under an oak tree,
then with hatCner anu saw leaulng Inc
way in the building of Il school mouse
and receiving tor ner services pit
tance OF $lO montn. Later, see ner
closing her school at ociock tnat sne
and the older children may cultivate
the acre OF land about Lne scnool
building, from which three bales OF
cotton are raised towards the suppoft
or the school, so that the term is finally
heightened from three to seven months.
~ Ou OF the white race do not know
or the best that IS occurring among my
people. Many of you know more OF the
best in Japanese, Italian anG French
life than OF that of the negro right at
your door. A people should be Judged
by their best, not by their worst. One
should see the negro in his industrial
and business occupations, and
especially in his progress in church,
school and home life, before judgment
be passed. There are two classes
among us, as in all races, the
you to groups of my people III nearly
every part OF our country, that in intel
ligence and high and unseltish purpose
OF their school and church life and in
the sweetness and purity Of their home
life and social intercourse, will COM
pare favorably with the races of the
earth. You can never lift any large
section of people by continually calling
attention to their-Weak points. A race,
like the child in school, needs encour-
agement as well as chastisement.
My fellow teachers, let us as we go
out from this great gathering, teach
the children Of the land that in pro-
portion as they lift their hands to op-
press and harm another race, in that
degree will their souls be degraded and
weakened, but that in so much as they
try by word or action to lift UP the
humbleSt and meanest and most un-
protected OF the human family, they
themselves will be strengthened and
broadened and made after the fashion
Of the Teacher of Teachers. who when
on earth became the servant of all that
in the end he might be the Master"