Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-10
Money Needed at Tuskegee.


Meeting Booker T. Washington the other
day l asked him what was most needed at
Tuskegee School, and he replied:
Money! he said. "Our. greatest need
just now is the increase OF our endowment
fund from it's present figure, s1,0400OO, to
at least So 600 600; so that we shall not have
to depend upon miscellaneous and continu-
Gus begging for so large a proportion OF
our current expenses. People are very
kind and appreciative We have multltudes
of loyal, generous friends. / am sure that
no institution in the world has stronger
backing than ours, and it is deep-rooted In
the confidence that We are on the right
road and are doing good work for the col
ored race and the south. But we are COM
PEELED to be begging continually to meet
the necessary expenses of the institution
If we could have an endowment of three
million dollars we could devote all of our
time to the work of education and not be
worried by pecuniary matters.
Next to an endowment fund We want
more dormitories for both girls and boys.
They are very much needed. If we had the
funds we could enlarge and improve our
work in training more students in the va
rious branches of agriculture and that
includes more thorough teaching in the
way of additional appliances and instruct
ors. Agriculture, in my opinion. is the one
great industry In which the negro Is most
likely to succeed, and is the base for him
upon which to lay the foundation of his
future career.
"All of the ex-slave states, except Ten
nessee, give a certain amount of money
for the support of special institutions for
the education of colored people," continued
Prof Washington. In Tennessee the
money that comes from the proceeds from
the sale of government land is appor-
toned among several institutions. In all
of the states the larger proportion of the
money expended in the industrial educa-
ton of the colored race comes from the
sale of government lands, and simply pass
es through the hands of local officials from
the treasury of the United States; the
schools for colored people receiving their
pro rata of the various funds devoted to
mechanical and industrial colleges. These
state institutions have an average attend
ance of about 200 students each.
Supported by Northern People.
'1t is difficult to say how much state
money and local money and how much
northern money is expended for the edu-
cation of colored people in the south.
think it is fair to say that nine-tenths of
the funds expended in the higher educa-
ton and Industrial education of the negro
comes from northern people. There are,
however, several colleges and industrial
schools supported wholly by southern white
people. The most notable is Paine College,
at Augusta, Ga, supported almost entirely
by the southern white Methodist Church.
The Presbyterian Church South has the
illogical seminary at Tuscaloosa, Ala, and
there are several other schools which
cannot recall
The officials of every industrial school
for colored people in the south tell the same
story of their inability to accommodate
the young men and women who come to
them seeking an education. Even when
many of them have money to pay for it
they cannot be accommodated. At Tuskegee.
Huntsville, Alcorn University, Snow Hill
and every other institution that / have in
quired about, they tell me that almost as
many applicants are turned away at the
opening of the school year as are enrolled,
and every one of them is crowded to its full
capacity. And 1t is not a classical educa-
ton, to fit them for politics or a profession
that they seek; but training in the trades
and in the various branches of agriculture
A School in Every District.
If there was an Industrial school for the
training of farmers and mechanics in every
congressional district in the south they
would all be crowded with ambitious young
colored people, eager to learn how to make
the most of their time and labor; and in
stead of one or two thousand qualified me-
chanics and farmers that are now being
turned out each year, forty or fifty thou
sand, or even larger number of graduates,
would be sent annually into the shops and
the fields by these institutfons-until the
labor problem in the south would be solved
And yet the people who are most inter-
ested, the men who own the lands and do
the business and employ the labor, are not
willing to be taxed to pay for schools.
With all of her great negro population.
Alabama, for example. spends only about
t15, 600 a year for the Industrial education
of that race. The remainder of the sup