The Savannah tribune. [volume] (Savannah [Ga.]) 1876-1960, 1913-11-15

Prlnc1paI OF the ZuSRcgec lnSLI-
tute, writes special article,
what | am Trying to Do," for
the November issue of the Worlds
Work New York City: a series OF
twelve articles under this title
have been published in the Worlds
Work during the past twelve
months.
The contributors to the series so
far have represented every phase
of business and edu cational life
captains of industry and leaders Of
one kind and another In every field
of activity. The Worlds Work
is quite the most representative
business magazine published in
this country and surveys the whole
field of progress from one end of
the earth to the other.
In the particular article here re-
ferred to, DIR. Washington sum-
marizes his life work at 1uskegee
Institute, explaining in detail just
what he has been trying to do
in helping to bring about the pres
ent progress of the Negro people
in the United States. The whole
scheme of what has come to be
known as the ''Tuskegee Idea'' is
explained SO that one can get a
pretty goodidea of the work being
accomplished through Tuskegee
Institute.
With particular reference to the
matter of racial relationships in
the South, DIR. Washington writes:
Another thing that / have tried
to do mas been to bring the white
people In the Southern States and
throughout the country into what
seems to me a proper and practical
attitude toward the Negro in his
efforts to 60 forward and make
progress. I am seeking to do this
not only in the interest of my race,
but also in the interest of the
the white race.
''There are in the Southe IN
States nine million Negroes.
There are three million Negro
children of school age. Fifty
three per cent. or more than half,
never go to school only from three
to four months of the year. I am
trying to get the white peope to
see that, both from an economic
point of view and as a matter of
justice and fair play, these condi-
tions must be changed. | am try
ing to get the white people to see
that sending ignorant Negroes to
jails and penitentiaries, putting
them in the changing, hanging
and lynching them does not civil
ize, but on the contrary, though it
brutalizes the Negro, it at the
same time bIuntsan dulls the con-
science of the white man
II want the white people to see
that it is unfair to expect black
man who goes to school only three
months in the year to produce as
much on the farm as white man
who has been in school eight or
nine months in the year; that it is
unjust to let the Negro remain ig-
norant, with nothing between him
and the temptation to I'll his body
with whiskey and cocaine and then
expect him, in his ignorance, to
be able to know the law and be
able to exercise that degree of self
control which shall enable him to
keep it.
Still another thing that / am
trying to get the people of the
whole country to realize is that
education of the Negro should be
considered not as a matter of
| charity, but as a matter of bust
ness, that, like any other business,
should be thoroughly studied, or
ganized, and systematized. The
money that has already been spent
by states. institutions, and individ-
uals would have done vastly more
good if there had been years ago,
more thorough organization and
cooperation between the different
isolated and detached members
of the Negro school system III the
Southern States.
Il am trying to get the white
people to realize that since no col
or line is drawn in the punishment
for crime, no color line should be
drawn in the preparation for life,
| in the kind of education, in other
words, that makes for useful clean
living. I am trying to get the
| white people to see that in hun
dreds of counties in the South it is
costing more to punish colored
people for crime than it would cost
to educate them. | am trying TO
pet all Ia see that iunorance. A0y-