The Washington bee., 1910-03-19

secure their uplift than the thorough
classical and higher education OF
their preachers. If you are going
to spread industrial and primary
and secondary education among the
Negroes generally, you must do it
through competent teachers, and
those teachers can only be obtained
by receiving the best education that
the country can afford.
Another path along which the Ne
gro race must kaboriously mount up
wards is the path toward hygiene and
the guarding against the ravages of
disease. which has brought about
such loss and suffering to the entire
race all over the country; and that
can only be accomplished by having
among the Negroes competent ply
sicians, competent surgeons, cOmpe-
tent nurses, and competent leaders
of the people in this regard to teach
them how to live. And those ply
sicians have got to receive the high
est education. both academically and
medically, if they are to serve their
highest purpose.
One of the things that is always
very amusing is the criticism that
comes on the part of men who do
not know much about the subject of
which they are speaking, but with
regard to which they have q very
strong prejudice. There are many
well, there are not as many as there
used to be-who scout Negro educa-
ton at any rate, and then they may
come to primary education, but they
say beyond that teach the Negro how
to calculate how much his cow is
worth and how much his cotton will
sell for, and then don't teach him
anything else. They say that all this
that is wasted on the classical edu-
cation of the Negro ought better be
devoted to teaching them something
about the farm. Now, l am entirely
agreed that it is wise to teach those
who farm as much as possible about
! the farm, but what | want to call
your attention to is that the amount
of money that is devoted to the
higher education of the Negro, as
compared with the 100000 Ne
/ groes in this country, is not enough,
| if you are to divide it up with that
100000, to make any great amount
per capita. President Scarborough
can tell you. | went over the figures
once or twice, and instead of being
enough to indicate waste, there is an
, indication that there is not near
enough money to even educate the
leaders of the race that the race must
have if it is going on to progress
as it is. Therefore, whenever | hear
of a movement toward Negro educa-
tion-whether it be primary, second
Iary, industrial, or university am in
in favor of it from the ground up.
| know, and it is undoubtedly true
that a great deal of money is given
with the hope of improving the hu-
man race for charity and other pur-
poses that does not reach its object
in any efficient way, not for lack of
good intentions on the part of the
donor, but because he ties it up in
some way that makes it ineffective.
| Indeed, it is almost as hard to spend
the money so that it accomplishes the
good that it IS contemplated, as it is
to make the money itself. But |
venture to say that there is no mon
ey that has been devoted to the cause
of Negro education that has been
wasted.
I have had the pleasure of attend
! ing Hampton Institute, Tuskegee,
Lucy Laney's School in Augusta, and
Uncle Daniels little Shiloh in that
same village There a dear old col
ored man, with not a great deal OF
education, together with his wife,
constituted themselves the guardians
! of all the dark waits that found their
way on to the streets of Augusta,
and who. but for him and her, would
doubtless havh gotten into, prison
and into the penitentiary; and there
do not know how, by dint OF et-
fort and begging-living in three or
four shaCks-they have finally gath
cred together a school of from 90 to
100 little dark children. with non