The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-01

sure that he will return to his place of
labor until all his wage has been spent"
We must teach our people to be just as
reliable in keeping their word as any
other race. We must teach our people,
whether they are miners or cooks, or
whatever their employment, that they
should never leave the service of their
employer without due notice, and that
when they make promise to perform
certain service, they should keep that
promise, though the heavens fall. We
must not only be reliable, but progressive
in our labor. The kind of labor that
would satisfy few years ago, is wholly
unsatisfactory today.
The Tuskegee Institute of Alabama, to-
gether with the State Normal School IN
Montgomery, and Professor Councilfs
school at Huntsville, for number of
years have been engaged in tremendous
| task-the task of education. In the first
place we had to educate the prejudice
| out Of our people with respect to indus
| trial education. 1t took a number of
years of hard work to convince the col
ored people that they should receive edu-
| cation in farming, in mechanics, in cook
| ing, sewing, laundering and what not.
+. That prejudice has boom largely over
come, and | believe that we are now to
| the point where we can articulate negro
education into the life of the white peo-
| pie of Alabama, so as TO let the white
| citizenship feel and see more of the bene-
| fits of negro education than has been
| true in the past. No section of Alabama
| is more interested from a financial point
of view in the success of the negro, than
| is true of the Birmingham district. In
| the first place. 1t is tremendously inn
portant that the negro be happy, that
peace exist between the races, because
there can be no satisfactory labor when
the white man and black man are at
daggers points. The more the laborer Is
satisfied, the better service will he rem
der.
Dignity of Labor.
l have referred to the subject of MAX
ing negro labor reliable. One way to do
it land that is what the Tuskegee 1nsti-
! tute has been driving at among other
thngs), in the first place is to teach the
negro laborer the dignity of labor, to
| teach him that all forms of labor are
| honorable, and all idleness a disgrace. In
the second place, to increase his wants;
! in a community where wages are high,
| labor is often the most unsatisfactory.
| This grows out of the fact that when
| the laborer receives a nigh wage, at
| the same time that he is without educa-
ton, he does not know how to spend
| wisely the high rate of wages The re-
| suit is because of his few and simple
wants which he can satisfy by work.
| ing three or four days in a week, he re-
mains III ideness during the other por-
tlon of the week, and thus his labor is
unsatisfactory. Through a proper sys-
| tenn of education such as we are trying
to give at the Tuskegee Institute, and
such as is being given elsewhere in
Alabama. we are gradually trying to in
| crease the negroes wants. We are get
ting him to the point where he has an
ambition to buy home, to paint it,,
to put decent furniture into it, and to
add a few pieces of carpet and some
pictures. We are trying to get him to
the point where he will want some books,
some newspapers, some magazines; where
he will want education for his children
| and as these wants increase, he will
| work six days in the week in order TO
satisfy them. Thus here, as it is through
out the civilized world that education
| must go hand In hand with satisfactory
labor Labor must not only be reliable,
| but intelligent and progressive; other
wise it will be impossible for the in
! dustries of Alabama to compete with
other sections of the country where there
] is trained brain behind the trained
/ hand. II Inn
In that same connection. it is impor-
tant thar members of my race learn to
save their money, to cease to scatter it
to the wind, as they do in so many
| other gewgaws which do not stay by
| them. We must learn more and more
as a race to invest our money in prop
| erty and thus we can have something
| laid up for the inevitable rainy day."
All these lessons properly practiced in
crease the efficiency and the satisfaction
that there is in connection with labor
Lessons lnstlled.
am glad to see that through the
Alabama Penny Savings Bank in this
city, these lessons are being instilled
into our people. There is not a white
| family in Alabama that should not be
vitality interested in the improvement of
the negro woman, especially in the i'm
| provement of the negro cook and the
negro nurse. 1t is impossible for the
Tuskegee Institute, or any other one
Institution. to turn out enough cooks. or
other household servants to place one in
each of the families in Alabama. 1t is
not practical. The few we could turn
our would prove mere drop in the
bucket What our institution can do, and
is doing is TO train leaders and teachers
in household world. who themselves can
go into local communities and set the
examples, and also train others. Right
here in Birmingham, there should be a
large central training school for the
training of domestic servants; such a
school should be in every large city in
the South. We could furnish the teachers
for these communities.
The food that goes into the bodies OF