The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1908-11-13


most in the minds of the thinking
Negroes of the State of Tennessee at
this time is industrial education
Nashville is the recognized Athens
of the South, and the State of Ten
nessee is fairly well dotted with acad-
emies, normal colleges and universities,
but there is not single school in
the State for Negroes that is distinc-
lively an industrial institution. It is
an indisputable fact that the Federal
Government appropriates several
thousand dollars annually to this
commonwealth for industrial educa-
ton, and the law specifically states
that in the States where co-education
is prohibited by statute that the ap-
preparations shall be equally divided
Other states are taking advantage of
these appropriations and as result
they have magnificent institutions
that are doing great good toward
making the Negro youth help to the
communities where they live rather
than burden. They are even going
step farther and supplementing
what is received from the Federal
Government with annual appropria-
tions by the states. Tennessee is
away behind her sister states in this
respect The Negroes feel that they
are largely to blame for the condition
of affairs as they now exist They
have put great stress on the opportu-
nifty afforded for higher education
but have allowed the primary interest
10
youth of other Southern states are
Outstripping the black sons of the
Volunteer State in the commercial
world and as scientific laborers.
They have learned in Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, Georgia, Florida and other
states the value of the soil They are
also learning that every man is re-
sponsible for the welfare of the com
munity in which he lives. They have
further learned that if a farmer
would be prosperous he cannot be so
by working only while the leaves are
green on the trees. but that every day
must count for itself; that there is as
much to be done on the farm in Jan
uary as there is in July. The Ne
groes of Tennessee are awakening to
this fact, and while they do not feel
that they have a single institution
for higher learning that they do not
need and that they are not justly en-
titled to, but as citizens they know
they are entitled to their portion of
the fund set aside by the Federal Gov
ernment, as we'll as that appropria-
ted from time to time by the state as
supplementary to the Government
fund.
1t is acknowledged by the foremost
thinkers in the world that the masses
need first that kind of education that
will fit them for the duties that come
to every one, and they style that kind
industrial education, or in other
words, the people need to know how
to work consistently. They need to
be taught how necessary 1t is to
keep an appointment whether it is to
shut mans gate at a certain hour
every day or to pay bill Of thou
sand dollars; that leaving the gate
open may be the cause of more than
a thousand dollars worth of property
being destroyed; that if a man knows
how to be Industrious he is welcome
in any community.
In passing the little stations on
any railroad in the South one will see
at nearly every stop from five to fifty
Negroes. mostly young men, standing
around to see the train pass and to
say "howdy" to some friend who
they think may be on that train. The
time consumed in this way could be
proftably spent otherwise, but the