The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-01-13
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

most needs Is Industrial education, the
training OF the hands as well as the
brains of our youth, To
such a movement our lawmakers have
heretofore established agricultural and
mechanical and normal and industrial
schools. where our boys and girls are
taught how to work, and are given
practical training In all useful and
honorable occupations, such as farm
ing. cattle raising, shop work, shoe
making, mechanics and engineering.
These institutions were never in
tended to be the competitors OF our
private UNCONVENTIONAL schools and col
leges, places where practical and indus
trial, head and hand education are
taught; n every effort should be
made by the law-making power TO SO
equip, direct and control these schools
as TO carry out more effectively the ends
for which they were primarily intended.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.
Answering the argument that indus
trial education is too expensive, we
simply state that all large enterprises
spring from small beginnings; and.
having commenced this work in the
state we must not look backward. but
&c forward as rapidly as our means
will allow. One phase Of this kind Of
education car. without cost, b. taught
in our common schools, our colleges,
from the pulpit and on the hustings,
and that is that all work, honorable in
It's nature, whether it be in the shop,
On the farm or as an apprentice to a
trade, is just as much to be respected
and supported by the law, as the higher
occupations and professions filed by
those to whom fortune has given more
extended advantages, and that the boys
and girls who engage in such callings
are in the forefront of those who are to
add to our material and moral wealth
and are the destined leaders of the
state.
Let US not judge people by the clothes
they wear or the occupation they fol-
low, but let us take the higher ideal
and respect men and women for ther
character, industry and requirements;
the interior instead of the exterior; for
mark it, oVeralls and homespun often
cover as noble and brave hearts as
brOadclOth and silks, and a bootblack
who carefully and honestly shines shoes
is more worthy of our admiration than
the spendthrift, who lives on others and
does nothing for his own Or the worlds
good.
Let industrial eudcation be, even
more than at present, encouraged in
cur Institutions for the deaf, dumb,
blind and insane; thus affording these
unfortunate mes an opportunity of
doing something that will help the
state, n aid them in becoming self
sustaining.
Even in our state University many
features Of mechanical training a
be successfully taught, and 1 earnestly
hope that the legislative branch Of
government, to whom the constitution
has entrusted this power, will, in max
ing appropriations to our institutions,
require industrial work to be taught
in reality and not merely in name. In
saying this, I mean no reflection on the
present able management of these in
stitutions, but simply wan their work
encouraged, widened and made more
practical. We nave the raw material,
the natural u here at our
very doors, we have no freight to pay,
all we need is skilled labor to convert
this material into a higher order of pro-
duct, thus, instead of sending our ma
terials elsewhere to be worked or send
ing to other states for skilled help, we
SHOULD educate our own folks to manu-
facture our own materials. So in the
near future, we can more than compete
with those h have no raw material,
and who pay high freight rates on long
hauls, thus inducing foreign manufac-
turers to move their plants into our
midst.
NEGRO EDUCATION.
ully s~ympathizing with our need of
both intellectual and industrial educa-
ton, there remains to be considered, the
most practical method of training the
negro in the manner best suited to his
condition and development.
After his emancipation, without
any knowledge of self-government, he
was given the right of suffrage, pc
coming often the dupe Of designing
men. He was also sent to schools
where corrupt Or ignorant teachers,
taught error instead of truth, often
engendering a desire for social equal
ity, that could not be realized; prov
ing in the negroes case, that a lit
tie learning was indeed a dangerous
thing. His education was simply COM
menced in the wrong way, for hand
training and moral development,
must ever proceed intellectual culture.
No race ever made inventions. estab-
lished schools n built universities,
until it had earned to till the soil,
cut trees and build houses. Educa-
ton is only training, and all shout
, be trained along ines for which they
are best suited. Educate whites and
negroes alike, and what will you do
with the negro? Will you put him in
your business houses, or make him
your social equal? Of course not.
But by this educating him you unfit
him for his station, put desires in
his head that he can never obtain
and render him unhappy and discon-
teneted. Not getting what he wants,
and that which he kinks his educa-
ton calls for, and not willing to fill
he position for which he is suited,
he too often becomes a vagabond and