New-York tribune., 1908-03-17


ucation. which has affected the whole OF Ger Ger,
many's industrial progress and given 1t such
an enormous advantage in It's business comp.t-
tion with the rest of the world, came after the
Franco Prussian War and the organization OF
the German Empire.
The controversy. in which the system of in
dustrial schools was triumphant. was petWeeh
the learning of trades and Vocatlons IN lhe
schools and the learning of trade by the son
at the bench Of the father. The conservative
view was that the home teaching ana the learn m
ing to do by doing. under the influence OF tne
parent. was better than the teaching IN iarse
classes at an industrial school.
Such a controversy. however, could not arise
with reference to the industrial education OF the
negro race for while among the slaves there
had been some industrial training, and there
were good carpenters and backsmths. and otner
tradesmen. the number of craftsmen III proper
tion to the number of slaves was so small that
the prospect of the training of the chiidren OF
those artisans at the benches of their fathers
was not encouraging in respect to the Whoie
race
Hence the only system of leading the negro
into an industrial existence was through schools
established for the purpose and this was begun
by General Armstrong in 1868 even before the
impetus which Industrial education had received
in Germany after the French war.
PRAISE FOR SCHOOL FOUNDERS.
1t is net for me to dwell upon the details and
general advantages of industrial education-cer-
tainly not in a city which, like Brooklyn, pos
the Pratt Institute where industrial
education is given in it's most useful and ef-
fective form-but / may call attention to the
wisdom of General Armstrong and of his great
disciple Booker Washington. in adapting their
educational processes to lead the negro along
the path which natural taste and early environ
ment marked out for him by assigning the great
Importance to teaching in practical way
agricultural and kindred pursuits rather than
those of an urban community.
This taking advantage OF the natural ten
dency of the negro, received from the Gays Oh
his slavery environment. was only one manlfeS-
tation of that common sense which has distin-
guished the management of the Hampton lnstl-
tute under General Armstrong and DR.. Frssell,
;- fnVyrn nrH
has even been emphasized in that great instltu-
ton at Tuskegee founded by DR.. Washington;
Hampton Institute has been followed by the
organization of twenty-five thirty schools for
the industrial education of the negro. ana the
influence of the graduates of those INSTITUTIONS
throughout those communities in the South
where the negroes are in great number has peen
distinctly helpful. to the knowledge of every one
who has given the matter the slightest consio-
Grafton. :.
founding industrial schools by the social preju-
dice cultivated in a previous regime, that man
ual labor is a mark of slavery Many young
men who have been invited to take up the
trades of the printer. of the maChinist. of the
carpenter, of the electrician objected and have
asked to be allowed to prepare themselves as
clerks although they are told that the com
pensation of the former is $50 and $50 and $40
a month. and that of the clerk but $50 They
have said they preferred to be classed as gen
tIemen. This is now wearing Off
OPPOSITION TO LABOR.
In a different way there similar feeling
against manual labor among the enfranchised
negroes They had somehow got it into their
heads that freedom brought freedom from the
necessity for labor and that work was an ac-
compartment of bondage
Hampton and TuSkegee teach the dignity or
labor. the value of skill the use of the mind
and the application of the hand, and the lesson
that without attention and without taking pains,
without Self-reStraint no progress can be made
by either a man, nation.
The founders of Hampton and Tuskegee saw
the colored people needed training in the
hr9 n human PnCpaVOr which there
hope of real and immediate success and made
their schools accordingly They would not decry
the advantages of higher education for some of
the race. and would not shut the door OF oppor,
tunity to the negro in any vocation, professional
mined to train the race in the work plainly open
to the whole race and which in the end must
certainly add to the economic power and lnfiu-
ence of the negro for his uplifting.
That the policy has been abundantly justified
by the event the statistics of the Negro race
bear indisputable evidence.
In Virginia in 1898 the negroes owned 9iS,OO0
acres of land. In the five years next following
they had gained $4,000 acres The total bust
s.. 700 000: in 1888 this had increased to $S,s00,
00o and 10 per cent of the negroes had less than
$4,000 each, showing that the wealth was quite
evenly distributed among them.
In Georgia, which is one of the most prosper
Gus of the Southern states. in 1900 the negroes
owned one million acres, worth upward of s4,-
GOO 600 and the asset value of ali property
owned by them in that state was: Tax value,
$4,000 600 or double that for actual value. or
$30000,000.
RECORD OF PROGRESS.
In 1865 the negroes were almost without
homes of their own, and in 1900, thrty-fve
years later, there were in all the Southern
states $4,000 owners of homes and of these
225000 We're free from incumbrance.
The number of farms operated by negroes in
the United States in 1900 was $4,000. and of
these $4,000 We're in the South Atlantic states
and Loco in the South Central states. OF
the Southern farms 1877 600, or 20 per cent of
all, We're owned by the negroes who farmed
were cash tenants and 279,000 We're operated by
negroes who share tenants.
OF the negroes in the South there were 1874
900 agricultural laborerS and 15I 600 farmers,
planters and overseers
The agricultural wealth of the negroes of the
South was estimated at $500, 600, 600 in 1908
Between 1890 and 1900 the number of negro
farmers increased 81 per cent and the number
Of farm owners increased 81 per cent. The
negroes as owners or tenants cultivate one-half
of all the cotton farms one-third of all the rice
farms, one-seventh of all the sugar farms and
United States, although they form but one
eighth of the total population. Two-hfths Of
the cotton crop Is raised on farms owned or
managed by negroes. The negro population in
the South is about double since the close of
the war, i strong indication that, while their
death rate might be higher than the whites
their conditions of bodily health and comfort
are certainly greatly improving.
The increase in schools and churches among
the negroes of the South demonstrates the in
teectual, moral and religious progress of the
race since freedom came
OF course there is much to discourage in the
bewildered and helpless condition of so many
ignorant negroes, who, knowing useful trade
but agriculture, attracted to the Southern
cities and find there no occupation for which
they adapted
Nor is it pleasant for the well wsher of the
Negro to hear from railroad constructors
and other employers of labor that many negroes
in the South will work day laborers for two
or three days in the week earning thereby
enough to keep them for the rest of the week |