Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-14
Effect of Education.

How has education affected hometown
ing?"
The ratio of home-owners Increases
among the negroes-or has increased since
emancipa tomas education has increased,
whether literary or industrial. 1t is nota-
BILE fact that one of the first effects of col
lege training given by such institutions as
Fisk University, was the creation of a
strong desire and purpose to have decent
home and ordered home life; desire
and purpose successfully realized too, in
most instances. The same effect is seen in
case of industrial training, where the
courses are not too short and where there
is some corresponding training of the mind.
1t is true that in the vicinity of the large
schools for negroes in the south, considera-
BILE and prosperous settlements of home
owners and taxpayers have sprung up, I'M
der the stimulus, not merely of industrial
training, but under the broader stimulus of
intelligence, character and higher ideals of
citizenship; things which invariably have
an economic reaction along helpful lines.
However, it will be mistake to confine the
causes of the negroes advance In home
owning and tdXpayinS to the immediate In
fiuence of the schools, for many of the larg
est property-owners, particularly in the
country districts, are illiterate negroes, who
learned their lessons in industry and saving
in the severe school of slavery. Indeed ii
would not be rash to claim that the bulk of
property now held by the race is the fruit
of habits gained in the ante-bellum days.
tural and mechanical training, with a
sharp, sound and severe course of intellec
tual and moral discipline, and then a fair,
honest chance to follow his chosen pursuit
without unjust, unlawful or unfair interfer-
ences, such as labor union determinations,
peonage, white-capping and the like, con-
stitute the door of hope
THE negro children very susceptible
to all forms of training, responding readily
to interest and skill on the part of their
teachers. They are equally susceptible to
moral training, the moral appeal finding a
surprising response when followed up by a
consistent and correct example They
ought to have the best teachers obtainable
in the schools you propose, regardless of
the race of the teachers. l do not believe
the negroes are ready to have their educa-
tional interests turned over wholly to their
own race.
Further, as to the probable value of such
a series of schools in imparting trend of
intelligent industry to the energies of a
race that has already contributed SO much
to the nations wealth. l would say that l
what mine of industrial activity the coun-
try has IN the negroes. They have a fine
physique and are capable of the hardest
labor under the severest strain.
Fine Specimens of Living Machines.
"Physiologically they are fine specimens
of living Industrial machinery. In many
forms of modern labor where severe tasks
must be performed under high pressure and
great strain, and where such labor is more
and more called for, the negro is the best
| industrial agent. Many are wondering why
the canal commission must needs go to Ia
pan, China or India, for coolies to do the
hard work on the Panama canal, when