The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-17
Booker Washington, Leader OF
His Race, Is Here.
Will Deliver Lecture at Audi-
tOrium Tonight.
WHAT HE is DOING.
His Great Work az Reviewed by
Ebert Hubbard.
The Tuskegee Farm a Model In
Every Respect.

tic article which appeared in the July
number Of The Philistine, Gilbert Hub
bard says Of Booker Washington:
Fifty years hence, when Truth gets
a hearing, the Muse of History dipping
her pen in the sunlight, Will write in
clear blue above all others, the name
of the teacher, the orator, the man OF
affairs-the man of common sense
Booker T. Washington
Booker Washington is without doubt
one of the brightest negroes in the
country today. He has done more for
the uplifting of his race than any 9TH
er colored man. He is known from one
end of the world to the other for the
great work which he is carrying on at
Tuskegee. He is the man whose pres
ence at dinner at President RooseveIt's
table caused such a cyclone of con-
demnation on the part of hot-headed
southerners and commentator from
others.
Booker Washington has never been
in Topeka, but he has been secured to
give lecture tonight at the
Auditorium. No doubt. his reputation
both as a thinker and a doer, and as a
colored man who has set the world to
talking, will attract a big audience to
hear him.
In Ebert Hubbard's story. "a Lit
J
teresting sidelights on the character
and the work of Booker Washington,
are portrayed. Mr.. Hubbard says:
Recently I spent two days at Tus-
kegee. I arrived unannounced at a
time when Mr.. Washington was away,
so it need not be said that I saw the
place in other than its WOrking clothes.
AT Tuskegee there are nearly 1000
students and $50 teachers. There are
two classes of students, day schooP
and might school students. The night
school students work all day at any
kind of task they are called upon to
do. They receive their board, clothing
and a home-they- pey no tuition, but
are paid for their labor, SO that when
fifty dollars is accumulated to their
credit they can enter as day students
1.-THE day students make up the
bulk of the scholars. Each pays fifty
dollars a year. These all work every
other day at manual labor or some
useful trade.
THE Tuskegee farm consists of g.
500 acres. There are about 400 head
of cattle, about 500 hogs, 200 horses,
great fiocks of chickens, geese, ducks
and turkeys and many swarms of bees.
1t the intention to raise all the food
that is consumed on the place and to
are wagon shops, sawmill, harness
shop, a shoe shop, tailor shop, a
printing plant, q model laundry,
canning establishment.
1.-The place is religious, but not dog
matically so-the religion being mere
~ the natural safety valve for emo
ton. At Tuskegee there is no lachry-
NOSE appeal to confess your sins
they do better-they forget them.
Il never heard more inspiring con-
gregational singing, and the use of the
piano, organ, orchestra and band in
strumentS are important factors in
the curriculum.
'Tuskegee stands for order, cleanli-
ness, system, industry, courtesy and
usefulness. There are no sink-holes
around the place no back yards.
Everything is beautiful wholesome
and sanitary. All trades are repre-
scented. The day is crammed so full
of work from sunrise to sunset that
there is no time for complaining
misery or fault finding-three things
that are usually born of idleness. At
Tuskegee there are no servants.
when the negro is able to do
skilled work. he has ceased to be a
problem, he is a man.
LET us say right here, that there
is only one way in which a negro, or
a white man, can ever make himself
respected. Statute will not do it;
rights voted to him by the state are
of small avail; making demands will
not secure the desired sesame. If we
ever gain the paradise of freedom, it
will be because we have earned it. A
for a white man, especially if he has a
rich father, but a negro who has to
carve out his own destiny must be
taught to order system, and quiet
persistent useful effort.
Freedom cannot be bestoWed-it
must be achieved. Education cannot
be given-it must be earned. Lincoln
did not free the slaves-he only freed
himself The negroes did not know
they were slaves, and so they had no
idea of what freedom meant Until a
man wants to be free, each kind of
freedom is only another form of slav-
cry. Booker Washington is showing
the colored man how to secure a
genuine freedom through useful ac-
tivity.
s'I am familiar in detail with every
criticism brought against Tuskegee.
On examination these criticisms all
reduce themselves down to three:,
First: A vast sum of money has
been collected by Booker Washington
for his own aggran dizement and bene- |
fit.
Second: Tuskegee is a show-place
where all the really good work is /
done by picked men from the north. /
Third: Booker Washington is a
tyrant, a dictator and an egotist.
IF I were counsel for Tuskegee-as |
I am mott would follow the example
of the wordy accusers, and submit the |
matter without argument Booker
can afford to plead guilty |
to every charge; and he has never
himself by answering his ac-
cusers.
ut is probably true that many of |
his teachers and best workers are
picked people from the north, but
they are negroes and were selected by /
his greatness in the selection of his
generals.
THAT the man is uyrant and die
tator, there is no doubt. He is I
beneficent tyrant, but tyrant still, |
for he always. Invariably has his own
tiles, others can have theirs And as
for dictatorship the man who adj
vances upon chaos and transforms II
into cosmos, is perforce a dictator ana /
an egotist.
Early in the eighties, Booker Wash |
ington realized that, politically there