The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1920-01-24
THE RACE PROBLEM AND DOMES-
tbs SERVICE

The significance of this meeting
| is that you are young southern white
men and women. said Mrs. Booker
It. Washington in Addressing the
| twenty or more Phelp-Stokes Follow.
! and Professors in Southern UniVer-
stiles who met recently at Tusl1eget
! Institute land you are going to live
| in the South, which will give you an
opportunity to do so much good il
bringing about better relations be-
tween the races.
Il remember hearing Mr.. Wash
ington and one of his Southern white
white man of outstanding influence
and Importance. This friend was
telling Mr.. Washington how the man
they were discussing had changed in
his attitude towards the Negro. II
pleased Mr.. Washington very much
10 know this but he added 1T is such
pity that he waited until he was
an old man before changing. With
his influence and power. just think
what he could have accomplished for
the cause while he was young and
active"
THAT is the reason I am so glad
your minds and heart open while
YOU are young.
White and ColOred Women Must Work
out Problem
One Of the speakers who preceded
Mrs. Washington was Miss Ruth
Reed of Gainesville, Georgia, who Is
a Phelps Stokes Fellow at the Uni
Versity of Georgia and she suggested
joint study of the problem by the
white and Colored women of the
Mrs. Washington in her remarks
concurred in this suggestion and adj
ded THE stand which the Southern
white women takes in the question
will in the last analysis determine
the attitude of the Southern white
man. Then she told of the splendid
work Of the (whitel Federation of
Women's Clubs of Ga, in arousing
against lynching and mob violence
Mrs Washington also referred to
Miss Reeds comments on the Negro
and domestic service. Home life"
part of the system of slavery, so that
am afraid that much of the mis-
understanding between the servant
and the mistress in the Southern
although we are over fifty years
removed from slavery that in many
of the Southern homes sufficient
attention is not given to the question
Of providing home life for the Colored
girls who are employed as domestic
servants"
II remember sometime ago re-
ceived letter from n city in the
South in which the. request was made
for Colored girl to work in the
home and when | wrote the lady and
asked her what provisions would be
made for the girl to sleep and battle
and for something for home life for
herself. she replied that she thought
the girl could find some place to
live in the community but she. of
course, was not sure"
81 refer to this letter because II
describes a condition which is doing
much to make domestic service un-
popular among the educated and well
trained Negro girls. Our schools.
our literature and our organizations
for social welfare are all emphasiz-
ing the care Of the children, protect
ION of girls and mode of home life.
These to my mind emphasize the
importance of providing as much
home life as possible for the girls
in domestic service in order to at
tract Colored women who ars being
trained in schools like TusSegee."
Frequently, added Mrs. Washing
ton" our students here 20 into do
nestle service as means to and
end but some Of them have had ex-
periences such as l have indicated
which caused them to make up their
minds to do school teaching or any
other work rather than to do domes-
tic service. II I had time to relate
some OF the experiences of these
young women, of their neglect of
their exposure. and of their loneliness
you would understand some of the
reasons why the problem of domes-
tic help is so aggravated at present