The Colorado statesman., 1912-05-11
The following editorial appeared In
he Outlook March aQs

The following editorial appeared In
he Outlook March so:
No educational institution In tho
country, white or ooiored. Ia doing n
more efficient or more useful work in
education than Tuskegee Institute,
Alabama. under the direction Of DR..
Booker T. Washington. At the pres
ent moment the trustees of TuskeGee
institute are making great efforts to In
creaSe the endowment fund of that In
st1tutton to q point that will relieve Its
distinguished head and his associates
from the necessity of exhausting them-
selves in the work of raising money.
10 that their chief energies may be
expended In the actual work Of edu-
cation On its educational side Tus-
kagee was never more successful than
1t In today. 1t has grown from the
most modest beginnings until It has
campus and q group of buildings which
for architectural beauty and for efn-
cheney of design would be a credit to
any college In the land. Nearly two
thousand students, young men and
young women, are being trained, not
only intellectually but practically, to
be working citizens and to carry on
the steady uplifting Of their race,
which the south more than any other
section of the country now recognizes
is the only possible solution OF the. ne
gro problem DR.. Washington, who Is
one OF the great American educators
Of the time, Is the inspiring personal
fty that has created Tuskegee, but
after Dr. Washington has passed with
the rest of us out of the sphere Of hu-
man activities the negro peopls Of the
United States will remain, and Tuske-
gee must be enabled, as 1t undoubtedly
will be enabled, to carry on the work
which he inaugurated and Is today di-
recting with real genius. Not only are
the trade schools of Tuskegee models
of their kind, where wagon making,
carpentry, blacksmithing, dairy farm
ing. dressmaking, millinery, brickmak-
ing, cooking and housekeeping. book
keeping, and practical agriculture are
80 successfully taught that most of
the graduates have become prosperous
and property owning citizens, but the
oretcal education is made vital, be-
cause applied to human experience in
a very striking fashion. A recent visi-
tor to Tuskegee describes how he
found the students of arithmetic work
ing out on the blackboard arithmetical
problems in linear measure and per-
centage by showing how much plas-
ter 1t would require and what the cost
would be to plaster one Of the recfta-
ton rooms of the institution; how the
class in geometry was demonstrating
by Euclid the scientific method of at
taching the shafts OF a cart to the
crossbar 80 that the cart would pull
straight; how the class in grammar
had gone out into the truck garden
and had brought back into the recita-
tion room ears of corn and cabbages
and was writing grammatical SEN
tences about them on the blackboard;
how the student of chemistry In the
laboratory was analyzing the clay from
which all the bricks are made that are
used in the Tuskegee buildings; how
the pupils in geography had in their
room some Of the products of Japan
and some of the products of Alabama
and were being taught why these prod
ucts were exchanged and what route
they would travel In the exchange be-
tween Alabama and Japan; and he
wished that grammar, geography. ar
ithmetic and geometry might have
been taught to him in this human and
absorbingly interesting fashion Tus-
kegee is not only d very important fac
tor in the solution of the so-called
negro problem, but 1t is a practical ex-
perimental laboratory in education,
out Of which the whole educational
movement in this country is getting
suggestions and help. Leading and In
fuential southerners recognize DR..
Washington as one of the foremost cit
izens and educators In the south. and
are giving him hearty support. What
northern business men think of the
work OF Tuskegee is indicated by the
fact that Mr.. julius Rosenwald, the
head of the great firm OF Messrs
Sears, Roebuck & Company of Chi
cago, has recently become a member
of the Board of Trustees, of which the
president is Mr.. Seth Low, former
president Of Columbia university in the
city of New York. We hope the con-
tributions to the Tuskegee endow-
ment fund from northern benefactors
will be generous,