New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-22
TUSKEGEE'S HARD
RISE RECALLED
Veterans at Institute Tell
of Early Ten-Acre Farm
and Rickety Shack.
OFT-PAWNED WATCH
SAVED SCHOOLS LIFE
When Funds Ran Low Timepiece
Disappeared, to Return with
Better Days.
By JOHN J. LEARY. JR.

Tuskegee, Ala. Nov. 21.-The pro-
possl made in several places that q
monument be erected here TO the mem
DRY Of Booker T. Washington impresses
those who know what Tuskegee is as an
attempt to paint the lily. Tuskegee
Institute, with its $500 acres, its score
Of magnificent buildings, It's well
equipped shops and school rooms, is in
itself a greater monument than any
sculptor could design, or popular fund
pay for, were design made.
And If lesser monuments are desired
elsewhere they are to be found now in
the form of schools, some small, some
large, built on Tuskegee lines in widely
scattered points by those who imbibed
the spirit of Washington as his pupils.
What is wanted and what the friends
Of the school propose to obtain Is a
memorial In the form Of large me-
mortal fund to be used as an endow-
ment fund for the institute. 1t now
has slightly less than 100000 and
/ SO ,0OO. 900 more is needed TO place 1t on
a footing that will eliminate the neces-
sty for the heaft-bre Ling task of rails
| ing funds for running expenses that
broke DR.. Washington down. Just how
/ this fund will be raised will have to be
determined by friends Of the institute
in the North, the impression prevailing
here that some plan will be announced
In New York next week.
To such a fund the South will be a
large contributor, and In contributing
the whites will not be backward. In
the last week the grip DR.. Washington
and his work had upon the white popu-
laton of the South was manifested as
never before. The demonstration at
his funeral was as largely white mans
a negro's. To one not familiar with
conditions in the south as regards
Washington this was as impressive as
the institute must be TO one who had
never before visited it. II is a city in
itself, and the thol oughness with which
everything is done at the place is a
wonderful object lesson of what man
with an idea and tenacity Of purpose
can accomplish.
Tuskegee a Surprise.
The route to the institute contributes
to the impression Tuskegee must have
upon the visitor. There is nothing at
Cheewaw, the station on the main line
of the Southern Railway at which Wis
itors dsembark, to indicate that there
is anything of size or importance in
the immediate country. For miles as
one drives toward the school one sees
nothing but rather ordinary farm coun-
try, until at d bend IN the road what
looks like a large city on a distant
range Of low hills looms up.
THAT is Tuskegee," says the driver.
as it as big as that? How large
is it?"
"Thirty-fve hundred acres" says the
driver, almost six square miles"
That is just before one swings into
the city of Tuskegee-judged from
Northern or Western Standards it Is
only a village-and a sleepy little viii
large at that. The trees tell that it is
a very old village, and the home of peo-
pie who know wealth and long estab-
old place.
Beside the institute further out it is
insignificant, for the buildings are
vastly larger and better Ike. t. Only a
glance and one can well appreciate
that The Atlanta Constitution" did not
overstate when it said Tuskegee is the
largest and most complete educational
plant in the South.
AS a money raiser Washington stood
without a peer With him gone, where
would the $4,000 needed each year
to meet running expenses come from
not to mention the large sums raised
from time to time for new equipment
This Is the question now besetting DR.
Washington's assistants. Tuskeget
cannot stand still. Like Topsy, it hai
"growed," and is still growing. TIL
reams Of kilograms then pouring IL
after DR.. Washington's death gave tn,
answer. In its hour of trouble friend
Of Tuskegee were standing by.
Cleanliness a Religion,
For days more messages poured in
In the executive Offices there was
world Of work, but no excitement. Il
the shops and on the farms the 100
pupils and their 200 instructors worke,
as though nothing had happened. TIL
work could not stop. And all were bus!
when, with a clean-cut young captail
of cadets, | started on a round If thu
shops.
have seen shops Of various kinds
thought | knew something abou
such things, but ! was not prepare
for what | saw.
First was that seeming contradiction
in terms-a dustless woodworking
shop. There was pile of shaving
where young man was working
lathe-but everywhere else dust an
waste was not in sight. Later, when
remarked this to Miss Miner, one o
the teachers, she smiled ard said Their
was reason for this that I had no
suspected.
"Of course, we have to keep every
/ .L,nx warm vary claap-that uas MI