school, equal to that of the whites. I went through the building and
found it supplied with improved apparatus and capable teachers, and
saw that first-class work was done there. Later, I was taken about
a mile outside the city, where there was a school with an incapable
teacher, and some sixty or seventy pupils being poorly taught. Here
was a third-rate teacher in a third-rate building, poor work, and the
children suffering for lack of proper instruction. Why? Simply because
the people wanted a school of their own denomination in that part of
the city.
Now you want to cultivate courage, and see to it that you are brave
enough to condemn these wrongs and to show the people the mistakes
which they make in these matters.
I mention all these things because they hinder us from getting a solid
foundation. They hinder us, further, in that in many cases they prevent
us from getting the right power of leadership in teaching, in the work
of the ministry, and in many other respects. Wherever you go, then,
make up your minds that you are going to make your influence felt in
favour of better prepared teachers and preachers--in better preparation
of all those who stand for leaders of the people. Just in proportion as
you set your lives right in this matter, will the masses of the race be
inclined to follow you.
EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS
Some people here in America think that some of us make too much ado
over the matter of industrial training for the Negro. I wish some of
the skeptics might go to Europe and see what races that are years ahead
of us are doing there in that respect. I shall not take the time here
to outline what is being done for men in the direction of industrial
training in Europe, but I shall give some account of what I saw being
done for women in England.
Mrs. Washington and I visited the Agricultural College for women, at
Swanley, England, where we found forty intelligent, cultivated women,
who were most of them graduates from high schools and colleges, engaged
in studying practical agriculture, horticulture, dairying and poultry
raising. We found the women in the laboratory and classrooms, studying
agricultural chemistry, botany, zo├Âlogy, and applied mathematics,
and we also saw these same women in the garden, planting vegetables,
trimming rose bushes, scattering manure, growing grapes and raising
fruit in the hot-houses and in the field.
As another suggestion for our people, I might mention that while I was
in England I knew of one of the leading members of Parliament leaving
his duties in that body for three days to preside at a meeting of the
National Association of Poultry Raisers, which was largely attended by
people from all parts of the United Kingdom.
In the trip which Mrs. Washington and I made through Holland, we saw
much which may be of interest to you. It has been said that, God made
the world, but the Dutch made Holland. For one to fully realize the
force of this one must see Holland for himself. One of the best ways
to see the interior of Holland, and the peasant life, is to take a
trip, as we did, on one of the canal boats plying between Antwerp, in
Belgium, and Rotterdam, in Holland.
It was especially interesting for me to compare the rural life in
Holland with the life of the country coloured people in the South.
Holland has been made what it is very largely by the unique system of
dykes or levees which have been built there to keep out the water of
the ocean, and thus enable the people to use to advantage all the land
there is in that small country.
The great lesson which our coloured farmers can learn from the Dutch,
is how to make a living from a small plot of ground well cultivated,
instead of from forty or fifty acres poorly tilled. I have seen a whole
family making a comfortable living by cultivating two acres of land
there, while our Southern farmers, in too many cases, try to till fifty
or a hundred acres, and find themselves in debt at the end of the year.
In all Holland, I do not think one can find a hundred acres of waste
land; every foot of land is covered with grass, vegetables, grain or
fruit trees. Another advantage which our Southern farmers might have
in trying to pattern after the farmers of Holland, would be that they
would not be obliged to go to so much additional expense for horse or
mule power. Most of the cultivating of the soil there is done with a
hoe and spade.
I saw the people of Holland on Sunday and on week days, but I did not
see a single Dutch man, woman or child in rags. There were practically
no beggars and no very poor people. They owe their prosperity, too,
very largely to their thorough and intelligent cultivation of the soil.
Next to the thorough tilling of the soil, the thing of most interest
there, from which the coloured people in America may learn a lesson,
is the fine dairying which has made Holland famous throughout the
world. Even the poorest family has its herd of Holstein cattle, and
they are the finest specimens of cattle that it has ever been my
pleasure to see. To watch thousands of these cattle grazing on the
fields is worth a trip to Holland. As the result of the attention which
they have given to breeding Holstein cattle, Dutch butter and cheese
are in demand all through Europe. The most ordinary farmer there has a
cash income as the result of the sale of his butter and milk.
Many of these people make more out of the wind that blows over the
fields than our poor Southern people make out of the soil. The
old-fashioned windmill is to be seen on every farm. This mill not only
pumps the water for the live stock, but, in many cases, is made to
operate the dairy, to saw the wood, to grind the grain, and to run the
heavy machinery. These people are, however, not unlike our Southern
people in one respect, and that is in having their women and children
work in the fields. This, I think, is done in a larger measure even
than in the South among the coloured people.
An element of strength in the farming and dairying interests of
these people is to be found in the fact that many of the farmers have
received a college or university training. After this they take a
special course in agriculture and dairying. This is as it should be.
Our people in the South will prosper in proportion as a larger number
of university men take up agriculture and kindred callings after they
have finished their academic education.
In the matter of physical appearance, including grace, beauty, and
carriage of the body, I think our own people are far ahead of the
Dutch. But the Dutch are a hardy, rugged, industrious race of people.
In our trip in the canal boat we saw the men at the landings in large
numbers, in their wooden shoes, and the women and children in their
beautiful, old-fashioned head-dresses, each community having its own
style of head-dress, which has been handed down from one generation to
another.
We were in Rotterdam over Sunday. The free and rather boisterous
commingling of the sexes on the street was noteworthy. In this, also,
our people in the United States could set an example to the Dutch.
The foundation of the civilization of these people is in their regard
for and respect for the law, and their observance of it. This is the
great lesson which the entire South must learn before it can hope to
receive the respect and confidence of the world. Europeans do not
understand how the South can disregard its own laws as it so often
does. If you ask any man on that side of the Atlantic why he does not
emigrate to the Southern part of the United States, he shrugs his
shoulders and says, "No law; they kill." I pray God that no part of our
country may much longer have such a reputation as that in any part of
the world.
From Holland we went to Paris. On a beautiful, sunny day, if you could
combine the whirl of fashion and gaiety of New York City, Boston and
Chicago on a prominent avenue, you would have some idea of what is to
be seen in Paris upon one of her popular boulevards. Fashion seemed to
sway everything in that great city; for example, when I went into a
shoe store to purchase a pair of shoes, I could not find a pair large
enough to be comfortable. I was gently told that it was not the fashion
to wear large shoes there.
One of the things I had in mind when I went to France was to visit
the tomb of Toussaint L'Ouverture, but I learned from some Haitian
gentlemen residing in Paris that the grave of that general was in the
northern part of France, and these same gentlemen informed me that his
burial place is still without a monument of any kind. It seems that it
has been in the minds of the Haitians for some time to remove his body
to Haiti, but thus far it has been neglected. The Haitian Government
and people owe it to themselves, it appears to me, to see to it that
the resting place of this great hero is given a proper memorial, either
in France or on the island of Haiti.
Speaking of the Haitians, there are a good many well educated and
cultivated men and women of that nationality in Paris. Numbers of
them are sent there each year for education, and they take high rank
in scholarship. It is greatly to be regretted, however, that some of
these do not take advantage of the excellent training which is given
there in the colleges of physical science, agriculture, mechanics and
domestic science. They would then be in a position to return home and
assist in developing the agricultural and mineral resources of their
native land. Haiti will never be what it should be until a large number
of the natives receive an education which will enable them to develop
agriculture, build roads, start manufactories, build railroads and
bridges, and thus keep on the island the large amount of money which is
now being sent outside for productions which these people themselves
could supply.
In all the European cities which we visited, we compared the conduct
of the rank and file of the people on the streets and in other places
with that of our own people in the United States, and we have no
hesitation in saying that, in all that marks a lady or gentleman, our
people in the South do not suffer at all by the comparison. Even at the
camp-meetings and other holiday gatherings in the South, the deportment
of the masses of the coloured people is quite up to the standard of
that of the average European in the larger cities which we saw.
I should strongly advise our people against going to Europe, and
especially to Paris, with the hope of securing employment, unless
fortified by strong friends and a good supply of money. In one week,
in Paris, three men of my race called to see me, and in each case I
found the man to be practically in a starving condition. They were
well-meaning, industrious men, who had gone there with the idea that
life was easy and work sure; but notwithstanding the fact that they
walked the streets for days, they could get no work. The fact that they
did not speak the language, nor understand the customs of the people,
made their life just so much the harder. With the assistance of other
Americans, I secured passage for one of these men to America. His
parting word to me was, "The United States is good enough for me in the
future."
THE VALUE OF SYSTEM IN HOME LIFE
Most of you are going out from Tuskegee sooner or later to exert
your influence in the home life of our people. You are going to have
influence in homes of your own, you are going to have influence in the
homes of your mothers and fathers, or in the homes of your relatives.
You are going to exert an influence for good or for evil in the homes
wherever you may go. Now the question how to bring about the greatest
amount of happiness in these homes is one that should concern every
student here. I say this because I want you to realize that each one of
you is to go out from here to exert an influence. You are to exercise
this influence in the communities where you go; and if you fail to
exercise it for the good of other individuals, you have failed to
accomplish the purpose for which this institution exists.
In the first place you want to exert your influence in those directions
that will bring about the best results; among these it is important
that the people have presented to them the highest forms of home life.
Very often I find it true--and especially the more I travel about among
our people--that many persons have the idea that they cannot have
comfortable homes unless they have a great amount of money. Now some of
the happiest and most comfortable homes I have ever been in have been
homes where the people have but little money; in fact, they might well
be called poor people. But in these homes there was a certain degree of
order and convenience which made you feel as comfortable as if you were
in the homes of people of great wealth.
I want to speak plainly. In the first place there must be promptness
in connection with everything in the life of the home. Take the matter
of the meals, for instance. It is impossible for a home to be properly
conducted unless there is a certain time for each meal, and promptness
must be insisted on. In some homes the breakfast may be eaten at six
o'clock one morning, at eight o'clock the next morning, and, perhaps,
at nine o'clock the morning after that. Dinner may be served at twelve,
one, or two o'clock, and supper may be eaten at five, six or seven; and
even then one-half the members of the family be absent when the meal
is served. There is useless waste of time and energy in this, and an
unnecessary amount of worry. It saves time, and it saves a great amount
of worry, to have it understood that there is to be a certain time for
each meal, and that all the members of the family are to be present
at that time. In this way the family will get rid of a great deal of
annoyance, and precious time will be saved to be used in reading or in
some other useful occupation.
Then as to the matter of system. No matter how cheap your homes are,
no matter how poverty-stricken you may be in regard to money, it is
possible for each home to have its affairs properly systematized. I
wonder how many housekeepers can go into their homes on the darkest
night there is, and put their hands on the box of matches without
difficulty. That is one way to test a good housekeeper. If she cannot
do this, then there is a waste of time. It saves time and it saves
worry, too, if you have a certain place in which the matches are to be
kept, and if you teach all the members of the family that the matches
are always to be kept in that place. Oftentimes you find the match box
on the table, or on a shelf in the corner of the room, or perhaps on
the floor; sometimes here, sometimes there. In many homes five or ten
minutes are wasted every day just on account of the negligence of the
housekeeper or the wife in this little matter.
Then as to the matter of the dish cloth. You should have a place for
your dish cloth, and put it there every day. The persons who do not
have a place for an article are the persons who are found looking
in-doors and out-of-doors for it, from five to ten minutes every time
that article is needed. They will be saying, "Johnnie," or "Jennie,
where is it? Where did you put it the last time you had it?" and all
that kind of thing.
The same thing is true of the broom. In the first place, in the home
where there is system, you do not find the broom left standing on the
wrong end. I hope all of you know which the right end of the broom is
in this respect. You do not find the broom on the wrong end, and you
always find that there is a certain place for it, and that it is kept
there. When things are out of place and you have to hunt for them, you
are spending not only time, but you are spending strength that should
be used in some more profitable way. There should be a place for the
coat and the cloak, for the hat, and, in fact, a place for everything
in the house.
The people who have a place for everything are the people who will
find time to read, and who will have time for recreation. You wonder
sometimes how the people in New England can afford to have so much
time for reading books and newspapers, and still have sufficient money
to send as much as they do here to this institute to be used in our
education. These people find time to keep themselves thus intelligent,
and to keep themselves in touch with all that takes place in the world,
because everything is so well systematized about their homes that they
save the time which you and I spend in worrying about something which
we should know all about.
I have very rarely gone into a boarding house kept by our people and
found the lamp in its proper place. When you go into such a house it is
too apt to be the case that the people there will have to look for the
lamp; then, when they have found it, it is not filled; somebody forgot
to put the oil in it in the morning; then they have to go and hunt up a
wick, and then they must get a chimney. Then, when they get all these
things, they must hunt for the matches to light the lamp.
I wonder how many girls there are here now who can go into a room and
arrange it properly for an individual to sleep in--that is, provide
the proper number of towels, the soap and matches, and have everything
that should be provided for the comfort of the person who is to use the
room, put in the room and put in its proper place. I should be afraid
to test some of you. You must learn to be able to do such things before
you leave here, in order that you may be of some use to yourself and to
others. If you are not able to do this, you will be a disappointment to
us.
WHAT WILL PAY
I wish to talk with you for a few minutes upon a subject that is much
discussed, especially by young people--What things pay in life? There
is no question, perhaps, which is asked oftener by a person entering
upon a career than this--What will pay? Will this course of action, or
that, pay? Will it pay to enter into this business or that business?
What will pay?
Let us see if we can answer that question, a question which every
student in this school should ask himself or herself. What will profit
me most? What will make my life most useful? What will bring about the
greatest degree of happiness? What will pay best?
Not long ago a certain minister secured the testimony of forty men who
had been successful in business, persons who beyond question had been
pronounced to be business men of authority. The question which this
minister put to these business men was, whether under any circumstances
it paid to be dishonest in business; whether they had found, in
all their business career, that under any circumstances it paid to
cheat, swindle or take advantage of their fellow-men, or in any way to
deceive those with whom they came in contact. Every one of the forty
answered, without hesitation, that nothing short of downright honesty
and fair dealing ever paid in any business. They said that no one could
succeed permanently in business who was not honest in dealing with his
fellow-men, to say nothing of the future life or of doing right for
right's sake.
It does not pay an individual to do anything except what his conscience
will approve of every day, and every hour and minute in the day.
I want you to put that question to yourselves to-night: ask yourselves
what course of action will pay.
You may be tempted to go astray in the matter of money. Think, when you
are tempted to do that: "Will it pay?" Persons who are likely to go
astray in the matter of money, furthermore are likely to do so in the
matter of dress, in tampering with each other's property, in the matter
of acting dishonestly with each other's books. Such persons will be
dishonest in the matter of labour, too.
It pays an individual to be honest with another person's money. It
never pays to be dishonest in taking another person's clothes or books.
None of these things ever pays, and when you have occasion to yield
or not to yield to such a temptation, you should ask yourself the
question: "Will it pay me to do this?" Put that question constantly to
yourself.
Whenever you promise, moreover, to do a piece of work for a man,
there is a contract binding you to do an honest day's labour--and the
man to pay you for an honest day's labour. If you fail to give such
service, if you break that contract, you will find that such a course
of action never pays. It will never pay you to deal dishonestly with an
individual, or to permit dishonest dealing. If you fail to give a full
honest day's work, if you know that you have done only three-quarters
of a day's work, or four-fifths, it may seem to you at the time that it
has paid, but in the long run you lose by it.
I regret to say that we sometimes have occasion to meet students here
who are inclined to be dishonest. Such students come to Mr. Palmer or
to me, and say they wish to go home. When they are asked why they wish
to go home, some of them say they wish to go because they are sick.
Then, when they have been talked with a few minutes, they may say that
they do not like the food here, or perhaps that some disappointment has
befallen their parents. In some cases I have had students give me half
a dozen excuses in little more than the same number of minutes.
The proper thing for students to do, when they wish to go home, is to
state the exact reason, and then stick to it. The student who does
that is the kind that will succeed in the world. The students who are
downright dishonest in what they say, will find out that they are not
strong in anything, that they are not what they ought to be. The time
will come when that sort of thing will carry them down instead of up.
In a certain year--I think it was 1857--there was a great financial
panic in the United States, especially in the city of New York. A great
many of the principal banks in the country failed, and others were in
daily danger of failure. I remember a story that was told of one of the
bank presidents of that time, William Taylor, I believe. All the bank
presidents in the city of New York were having meetings every night to
find out how well they were succeeding in keeping their institutions
solvent. At one of these meetings, after a critical day in the most
trying period of the panic, when some men reported that they had lost
money during that day, and others that so much money had been withdrawn
from their banks during the day that if there were another like it they
did not see how they could stand the strain, William Taylor reported
that money had been added to the deposits of his bank that day instead
of being withdrawn.
What was behind all this? William Taylor had learned in early life
that it did not pay to be dishonest, but that it paid to be honest
with all his depositors and with all persons who did business with
his bank. When other people were failing in all parts of the country,
the evidence of this man's character, his regard for truth and honest
dealing, caused money to come into his bank when it was being withdrawn
from others.
Character is a power. If you want to be powerful in the world, if you
want to be strong, influential and useful, you can be so in no better
way than by having strong character; but you cannot have a strong
character if you yield to the temptations about which I have been
speaking.
Some one asked, some time ago, what it was that gave such a power to
the sermons of the late Dr. John Hall. In the usual sense he was not
a powerful speaker; but everything he said carried conviction with
it. The explanation was that the character of the man was behind the
sermon. You may go out and make great speeches, you may write books or
addresses which are great literature, but unless you have character
behind what you say and write, it will amount to nothing; it will all
go to the winds.
I leave this question with you, then. When you are tempted to do what
your conscience tells you is not right, ask yourself: "Will it pay me
to do this thing which I know is not right?" Go to the penitentiary.
Ask the people there who have failed, who have made mistakes, why they
are there, and in every case they will tell you that they are there
because they yielded to temptation, because they did not ask themselves
the question: "Will it pay?"
Go ask those people who have no care for life, who have thrown away
their virtue, as it were, ask them why they are without character, and
the answer will be, in so many words, that they sought but temporary
success. In order to find some short road to success, in order to have
momentary happiness, they yielded to temptation. We want to feel that
in every student who goes out from here there is a character which can
be depended upon in the night as well as in the day. That is the kind
of young men and young women we wish to send out from here. Whenever
you are tempted to yield a hair's breadth in the direction which I have
indicated, ask yourself the question over and over again: "Will it pay
me in this world? Will it pay me in the world to come?"
EDUCATION THAT EDUCATES[1]