The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-04-01

associates with ii the training of ar
mics and the building of battleships.
But to Mrs. Mary Mcleod Bethune,
who came to New York the other day
from Daytona, Fla, the term stands
for the preparedness of the Negro race
for true citizenship. preparedness con
sisting of moral, spiritual, Industrial,
and intellectual training.
Mrs. Bethune, a Negro woman. is the
founder of the Industrial Training
School for Negro Girls at Daytona.
She understands the failings of her
people and is working hard to elimi.
nate their undesirable habits. Herself
the daughter Of parents who had been
under the scourge of slavery, she ap-
preciates that vice and slothfulness
are largely due to an ignorance of the
laws of right living, and that the rem.
edy lies in proper education.
With this idea in mind, Mrs. Bethune
set to work. Having made a study of
the moral and industrial conditions of
the Negro, she went to Daytona in
October, 1911, and began her work.
With only $3.50 in her pocket hut a
wealth of faith in my heart" as she
put it, she managed to rent a little
shanty. This she furnished with
benches made of old dry goods boxes
and other castoffs that the people had
offered her. Her pupils were five little
girls, whom she was going TO inspire
with the idea of the dignity of labor"
But first she had to overcome preju,
dice. The white people of the district
felt that the school was going to teach
the Negroes that they were tc0 good
to work; the Negro population, on the
other hand, thought that the school
was going to force them into degrad.
ing service.
Aside from this, the problem of
money was the greatest. This Mrs.
Bethune overcame by interesting
James n. Gamble of the Proctor &
Gamble company, in her work. She
invited him and other sojourners of
Daytona. which is a winter resort, to
h"r school, had them sit on her inn
provised benches, and told them her
plans. When he left, Mr.. Gamble had
promised a sufficient amount of money
to build a larger school and had
agreed to become a trustee. The
school was built and soon became pop
ula among the people, who realized
thS value OF the work. 1t now boosted
Of seventy-eight pupils, who were be-
ing trained along industrial and AGA
demic lines. Among the subjects
taught were domestic science, sewing,
laundry work, and dressmaking, and,
of course, there were academic sub
jects. That was the beginning of Mrs.
Bethunes work. In going among the
people she discovered that Tiers was
a lack of homo life and an absence of
pride in personal and property appear
ance She spoke to the people,
showed them that they themselves
vera the cause of their poverty and
degradation, and almost Immediately
a change for the better was to he felt.
Fences were m4nded, houses white
washed, and gardens weeded. 1T has
been a struggle and a sacrifice Mrs.
BGthune went On. But l remember
the difficulties l myself have had. |
was born in a log cabin in the cotton
fields of South Carolina. We were
seventeen children, all cropping in the
darkness, but there was a deep long
ing in my heart for light. WheL l
grew up | longed to do something for
my race, especially for the girls and
women, for they are tho Keepers of
the home. l believed that my peoples
starting point must be religion and i'll