THE MOVEMENT FOR A PERMANENT ENDOWMENT
Having, through nearly twenty years of incessant toil, succeeded in
securing for Tuskegee the annual expenses for running the school and the
money with which to purchase its present plant and equipment, valued at
about $300,000, it has been for several years clearly seen by the
trustees and myself that the thing needed to secure Tuskegee in the
future was a permanent endowment fund. Not only is an endowment fund
necessary as an assurance that the work of Tuskegee shall go on in the
future, but it is necessary in order to relieve the Principal of the
hard work of remaining in the North the greater portion of his time
begging and speaking in order to raise the amount annually necessary to
carry on the work. An endowment fund, the interest from which would be
sufficient to meet, partially, the current expenses of the institution,
would enable the Principal to devote his time to the executive work of
the school, and this would obviously lead to greater perfection in the
work there, both in the academic and industrial branches. Improved
methods and facilities would redound to the benefit of each person
educated at the institution. Various appeals, for the last year or two,
have been made to the friends of Tuskegee for an endowment fund, and
within the past year we have received by gifts and bequests $38,848.93
for this purpose. The United States Congress, in the winter of 1899,
donated to Tuskegee 25,000 acres of land out of the public domain of
Alabama, the proceeds of this grant to be added to the endowment fund.
No organized effort, however, was made to interest the friends of
Tuskegee in the matter of raising a permanent endowment until the fall
of 1899. It was then thought by the trustees and myself that the time
was ripe for putting forth specific effort in this direction.
Accordingly, it was decided to hold a public meeting in December, 1899,
in the city of New York, at which the work of Tuskegee might be set
forth by capable speakers, and the good the school was accomplishing,
not only among the Negroes of the “black belt” but for the whole
country, might be brought forcibly to the ears of the public. This
meeting was held in the concert hall of Madison Square Garden, in the
City of New York, on the evening of December 4, 1899. I take pleasure in
giving a description of this meeting and in mentioning some of its
immediate results, because it proved to be a magnificent tribute to the
cause for which Tuskegee stands.
Ex-President Grover Cleveland had very kindly consented to be present
and to preside at this meeting. The beautiful concert hall, which holds
about 2,000 people, was packed that night so that it was difficult to
procure even standing room. Many prominent people occupied seats upon
the platform and in the boxes. Among the former I might mention Mr.
Morris K. Jesup, Mr. Wm. E. Dodge, Mr. Alexander Orr, Mr. Robert C.
Ogden, Mr. George Foster Peabody, Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, Rev. Dr. D.
H. Greer, Mr. Charles E. Bigelow, Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, Mr. John A.
Stewart, Mr. A. S. Frissell, Mr. George McAneny, Mr. Horace White, Hon.
John M. Barrett, Mr. Walter H. Page, Hon. Seth Low, Hon. E. M. Shepard,
Hon. Levi P. Morton, Dr. N. M. Butler, Mr. J. G. Phelps Stokes, Mr. John
E. Parsons, Hon. Carl Schurz, Rev. P. B. Tompkins, Mr. Samuel P. Avery,
Mr. R. F. Cutting, Mr. J. S. Kennedy, Mr. C. P. Huntington, Mr. C. S.
Smith, Mr. R. W. Gilder, Chancellor H. K. McCracken, Mr. William G. Low,
Mr. W. P. Ware, Prof. Chas. Sprague Smith, Mr. Wm. Jay Schieffelin, Mr.
Charles Lanier, Mr. J. Hampden Robb, Mr. Dorman B. Eaton, Mr. Horace E.
Deming, Mr. Joseph Lorocque, Mr. J. Kennedy Todd, Mr. LeGrand B. Cannon,
Mr. Charles S. Fairchild, Mr. August Belmont, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, Mr.
Gustav Schwab, Mr. James C. Carter, Mr. John L. Cadwallader, Mr.
Cleveland H. Dodge, Rev. Dr. H. Heber Newton, Mr. Edward Hewitt, Dr.
Hamilton W. Mabie, Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham, Mr. Everett P. Wheeler, Mr.
I. Fredk. Kernochan, Col. Wm. Jay, Mr. Chas. C. Beaman, Rev. Dr. Wm. R.
Huntington, Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, Mr. Wm. Dean
Howells, Gen. Wagner Swayne, Hon. W. L. Strong, Mr. Charles H. Marshall,
Mr. Henry Holt, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Among those who occupied boxes
were Mr. Robert C. Ogden, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dodge, Mrs. C. R. Lowell,
Mr. Henry Villard, Mr. C. D. Smith, Miss Putnam, Mr. George Foster
Peabody, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Mrs. Fredk. Billings, Miss
Olivia Stokes, Mrs. C. A. Runkle, Miss Matilda W. Bruce, Miss Mary
Parsons, Mr. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, Mr. and
Mrs. Theodore K. Gibbs, Mrs. W. H. Harkness, Mrs. C. B. Hackley, Miss
Bryce, Mrs. F. C. Barlow, Mr. and Mrs. A. T. White, Mr. and Mrs. C. M.
Pratt, Mr. C. E. Bigelow.
The day before the meeting was to be held Mr. Cleveland found himself
confined to his house by illness, and wrote me his inability to be
present. The letter proved to be almost, if not quite, as great an
encouragement to the object of the meeting as Mr. Cleveland’s presence
would have been. The letter was read at the meeting, and I think the
reader will not complain if I quote it here. It is as follows:
PRINCETON, N. J., Dec. 3, 1899.
“MY DEAR MR. WASHINGTON:
“My inability to attend the meeting to-morrow evening, in the interest
of Tuskegee Institute, is a very great disappointment to me. If my
participation could have, in the slightest degree, aided the cause you
represent, or in the least encouraged you in your noble efforts, I would
have felt that my highest duty was in close company with my greatest
personal gratification.
“It has frequently occurred to me that in the present condition of our
free Negro population in the South, and the incidents often surrounding
them, we cannot absolutely calculate that the future of our nation will
always be free from dangers and convulsions, perhaps not less lamentable
than those which resulted from the enslaved Negros, less than forty
years ago. Then the cause of trouble was the injustice of the
enslavement of four millions; but now we have to deal with eight
millions, who, though free, and invested with all the rights of
citizenship, still constitute, in the body politic, a mass largely
affected with ignorance, slothfulness and a resulting lack of
appreciation of the obligations of that citizenship.
“I am so certain that these conditions cannot be neglected, and so
convinced that the mission marked out by the Tuskegee Institute presents
the best hope of their amelioration, and that every consideration makes
immediate action important, whether based upon Christian benevolence, a
love of country, or selfish material interests, that I am profoundly
impressed with the necessity of such prompt aid to your efforts as will
best insure their success.
“I cannot believe that your appeal to the good people of our country
will be unsuccessful. Such disinterested devotion as you have exhibited,
and the results already accomplished by your unselfish work, ought to be
sufficient guarantee of the far-reaching and beneficent results that
must follow such a manifestation of Christian charity and good
citizenship, as would be apparent in a cordial and effective support of
your endeavor.
“I need not say how gratified I am to be able to indicate to you that
such support is forthcoming. It will be seen by the letters which I
enclose, that already an offer has been made through me, by a benevolent
lady in a Western city, to contribute twenty-five thousand dollars
toward the Endowment Fund, upon condition that other subscriptions to
this fund aggregate the amount required. With so good a beginning I
cannot believe it possible that there will be a failure in securing the
endowment which Tuskegee so much needs.
“Yours very truly,
“GROVER CLEVELAND.”
“BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, ESQ.”
In the absence of Mr. Cleveland, the Hon. Carl Schurz consented to
preside at the meeting; and, as might be expected of one so ripe in
experiences, he proved to be all that could be desired of a presiding
officer. His short speech on taking the chair showed a hearty sympathy
with the work that is being done at Hampton and Tuskegee. Mr. Schurz is
a well-known German-American, who has been a general in the war of the
Rebellion, a Senator in Congress and a member of the Cabinet of
President Hayes. He has been for years a foremost worker in the Civil
Service Reform movement. He is a writer of ability and a man who needs
no introduction in the United States.
The Tuskegee Male Quartette was present and rendered plantation
melodies, to the great delight of the audience.
The first speaker of the evening was Mr. Walter H. Page, a native of
North Carolina, but for many years the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly,
in Boston. The effort of Mr. Page was truly wonderful. He is a native
Southerner, who has studied the Negro question for more than twenty
years, from every point of view, as he alleged. He was well prepared to
speak, and with irresistible logic and unusual eloquence, pointed out
the benefits of the Tuskegee plan for the solution of the race problem.
He claimed it to be the only solution that had been discovered. He
pointed out how hopeless was the condition of the race, unless the
problem was solved by industrial and moral training, and how hopeful
would be its condition if the problem were settled in this way.
At the conclusion of Mr. Page’s address, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr.,
one of our Trustees, and a member of the Committee on the Investment of
the Endowment Fund, spoke in behalf of the Trustees as follows:
“It is my privilege to speak to you as a Trustee of Tuskegee Institute
on the subject of its finances. The generous friends who have made
Tuskegee possible should know its exact business condition. It has been
a hard but beneficial struggle for Mr. Washington to raise the funds
necessary to pay the current expenses of the Institution, to acquire the
2,267 acres of land, and to erect the 42 buildings now comprising the
school.
“During the 18 years of development, there have been imperative demands
from time to time for buildings for which no specific funds were
available. The rapid growth of the work, the constantly increasing
number of students, with applications for admission far beyond the
capacity of the buildings, put a burden on the Trustees which compelled
them in their positions as Trustees, to advance some of the unrestricted
contributions for the construction of buildings to protect the general
welfare of the Institution.
“During this period, enough money has been collected to pay the current
expenses, and to accumulate $300,000 in plant and equipment, and an
endowment fund of $62,253.39.
“No mortgage has ever been placed upon the property, and the Trustees
desire to pay any and all indebtedness without mortgaging the property,
and without using other resources which should be used for endowment, or
for increased plant.
“The grant of 25,000 acres of land from the United States Government in
1897, is valued at a minimum of $100,000, and that land, together with
unrestricted legacies to be received, are obviously full security for
the advances made by the Trustees. But these resources should be kept
for permanent uses, and to care for the constantly increasing demands of
the School.
“The income for the fiscal year ending May 31, 1899, amounted to
$110,161.59. The current expenses for running the Institution were
$64,386.70, showing very economical administration for the care of
nearly 1,200 people. The balance of income was used in the construction
and completion of buildings, and in reducing a part of the indebtedness.
The Endowment Fund received $38,848.93 last year.
“In order that the accounts of the School should be kept on a strictly
business basis, the Trustees, in 1897, appointed an Auditor, a Certified
Public Accountant of New York, to direct and supervise all the accounts.
The Trustees are in position to assure you that any contributions made,
are properly and rigidly accounted for; and furthermore, that all
expenditures are made with great economy and wise discretion.
“In short, Tuskegee has a good business organization, and warrants the
entire confidence of its friends. Its Endowment Fund will be strictly
preserved. Special contributions for buildings or other specific
purposes, will be kept separate for their particular uses, and the
contributions for current expenses will be expended economically and
effectively.
“Though the School is still in need of simple buildings for dormitories,
classrooms and shops, the Trustees determined in 1898 that a point of
development had been reached when the Institute should not go into debt
for any new buildings, and that in future no buildings should be erected
until all the necessary funds are guaranteed for the purpose.
“There are two interests to be served by the upbuilding and
strengthening of Tuskegee--the whole Negro race, and the country as a
whole. The industrial education of the Negro--the education from the
foundation up, as practiced at Tuskegee, is of vast business importance
to all of us. The difference between ten million ignorant Blacks and ten
million reasonably educated industrial workers, means more than
sympathy, more than sentiment, more than our duty--it means wealth to
the community.
“There is no longer the old problem of what to do with the Negro. That
question has been settled. The problem now is one of co-operation and
help and work.
“Booker Washington represents the evolution of this problem. His
untiring devotion to the cause of the Blacks, his modesty, integrity,
ability, in short, his greatness in dealing with this question, has
brought about such a complete change in the understanding of the problem
within the last few years that we can hardly repay the debt.
“Can we stand by and see a man who has such power to lead and educate
his people, begging from door to door for the funds necessary to carry
on his work? Is it not our duty to raise such a fund as will enable him
to spend most of his time in the South, where he is needed, and where he
can serve his people, and all of us, as no other man can do?
“Now is the time and the opportunity to show our recognition of the
wonderful service he has done his people and his country, and to make
the opportunity for him to be free to work to the best advantage. He
asks an Endowment Fund of $500,000--a very modest request. Now that the
White and the Negro of both the North and the South, and the authorities
of the State of Alabama, and the President and Congress of the United
States, have all agreed that Tuskegee and Booker Washington show the
true way, we feel confident that there will be a quick response to the
appeal to place Tuskegee on a firm financial standing.
“The friends of Tuskegee, in the past, have contributed generously to
work out a problem. The problem is now solved--and it should be a
privilege to us all to aid in this work, with the full knowledge that
every dollar expended by Tuskegee will aid the Negro race in the only
effective way, and that our whole country will profit by the
investment.”
At the conclusion of Mr. Baldwin’s address I was introduced to the
audience by the Presiding Officer. In my speech I told the audience,
among other things, that the White people North and South, and the
Negroes as well, had practically agreed that the methods of Tuskegee and
Hampton offered the best solution of the perplexing Negro problem that
had been put forth. In other words, that the whole country had agreed
upon this solution of so important an economic, political and social
problem. It was the duty, therefore, of those who could to supply the
means for an effective solution in this way. I will not burden the
reader with extracts from that speech.
After I had concluded, Rev. Dr. W. S. Rainsford, Rector of St. George’s
Church, New York, made a few extemporaneous remarks, which were regarded
as a strong appeal in behalf of the purpose of the meeting. I only wish
I could lay before the reader the remarks of this gentleman in full. He
said, among other things, that Tuskegee was doing a work for
humanity--not only for the “Black Belt,” but for the whole country.
Pointing to me, he said, “It is our duty to do for that man, engaged in
that noble work, what we failed to do for General Armstrong. We allowed
General Armstrong to go around begging, begging from door to door, to
carry on the work at Hampton, until it killed him. It is our duty to
save Mr. Washington from an untimely death, brought on in this way. It
is our duty to save him for useful service by endowing Tuskegee.”
As may be partly gleaned from Mr. Cleveland’s letter, the results of
this meeting began to be felt immediately.
A few days after the lady in the West, mentioned in Mr. Cleveland’s
letter, gave notice that she would give us $25,000 on condition that the
whole amount sought for was raised, we were very pleasantly surprised to
receive her check for the $25,000, she having decided to remove the
condition. Counting this $25,000 with the $50,000 given by Mr.
Huntington and $10,000 by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the result of the
meeting was $85,000; Mr. Rockefeller’s $10,000, however, being given for
current expenses. Adding what was received as a result of this meeting
to our previous Endowment Fund, we have now in the hands of our
Endowment Committee about $150,000 from which the school is receiving
interest.
[Illustration: A VIEW OF MACHINE SHOP. STUDENTS AT WORK. TUSKEGEE NORMAL
AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.]
[Illustration: HARNESS MAKING AND CARRIAGE DRESSING AT TUSKEGEE
INSTITUTE.]