Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-08-02
WHAT TUskEGEE HAS DONE.


Told on the Highest Authority.
In the early years of Tuskegee much
was formerly said about the effect of
the moon upon the crops, but the dis
cussions usually brought out the point
that deep blowing was more important
in agriculture than the moon and lunar
theories of agriculture have long since
been discarded by those farmers who
have attended the meetings.
IN the plantation districts l found
large families. including the visitors
when any appeared, living and sleeping
in a single room. l found them living
on fat pork and corn bread and yet not
infrequently l discovered in these cab
ms sewing machines which no one knew
how to use, which cost as much as $50,
or, snowy clocks which had cost as
much as $40 or So, but which never
told the time. l remember a cabin
where there was but one fork on the
table for the use Of the five members
OF the family and myself, while in the
opposite corner was an organ for which
the family was paying $50 in monthly
installments. The truth that forced IL
self upon me was that these people
needed not only book learning but
knowledge of how TO live. they needed
to know how to cultivate the soil, to
husband their resources, to buy land
and build houses and make the most of
their opportunities.
Tuskegee institute will complete this
year the first twenty-five years of its
existence. 1t was opened July 4, 1881,
with one teacher and thirty pupils. At
that time it had neither land nor build
ings, nothing but the $4,000 a year
granted by the Alabama Legislature.
Even the dilapidated shanty and the
old church in which its first sessions
were conducted were lent by the col
ored people of the village.
1t was not long, however, before the
school acquired a small tract Of land.
The first head of live stock which it be-
came possessed of was an old blind
mule, the gift of a white man in the
neighborhood. This represented the
capital of the school.
At the close of the school year last
May it owned 1000 acres of land,
eighty three buildings, large and small,
used as dwellings, dormitories, class
rooms, shops and barns, which, togeth-
er with the equipment, live stock, stock
in trade and other personal property,
were valued at about 1881 1882. This
does not include $4,000 acres of public
land remaining unsold from the $4,000
granted by Congress valued at $135,000,
nor the endowment fund, which
amounted on Jan. 1, 1906, to $1,275,-
G64.
SIX thousand students have come for
a longer or shorter time under the in
fluence of the institution during the
twenty-five years of its existence. SO
far as I have been able TO ascertain,
not one of the graduates has been con-
victed of crime and less than 10 per
cent are failures in the occupations
which they have adopted. There is an
increasing demand all over the South
for their services. One great reason
why SO many of the students who enter
fail to finish their course is that their
earning capacity is increased to such
an eXtent-On an average of 300 per
cent at the end of the full course-by a
few months or years at study that they
yield to the temptation to go to work
at the increased salary and do not re-
turn to complete their course at the
school, Booker T. Washington in
Worlds Work.