It was this reason that inspired the home manufacture of the needed supply of brooms. It had been found possible to supply most of the needs of the school by student labour, and after establishing a summer canning factory, which Chaplain Penney directs while the Bible School is not in session, making brooms seemed a natural evolution of supply and demand. But investigation showed that none of the instructors knew anything about making brooms, and that the Experimental Farm had not yet taken up the task of raising broom-corn. These obstacles were not serious in comparison with many others which had been attacked in the industrial school.
A way was found to make the first sample broom, and gradually the needed machinery was installed. Then the director of the Agricultural Department discovered that broom-corn could be raised on the farm, and now students can be equipped to take the industrial knowledge home with them, and also to grow the crop on their own farms. This department keeps the school supplied with good brooms at small cost, and out of a minor need grew another useful industry. The lesson in this little story is that finding a way to solve the problems closest at home helps to build up the community at large. It was found, also, that the work of the class room could be correlated even with broom-making, and made to harmonise with the Tuskegee theory of education of head and hands together. The girls were asked to write compositions descriptive of their work in this industry, and some of these efforts have been very creditable.
MATTRESS-MAKING
All the mattresses and pillows used at the Institute are made by the students]
I insert one of these compositions as a sample:
"BROOM-MAKING"
"I am a nice large broom just made Tuesday by Harriet McCray. Before I was made into a broom, I grew over in a large farm with a great many others of my sisters. One day I was cut down and brought up to the broom-making department, and was carefully picked to pieces to get the best straw. I was put in a machine called the winder. Here I was wound very tightly, and then put in another machine called the press. I was pressed out flat and sewed tightly. Out of the press I was carried to the clipper, and all of my seed and long ends were cut off. From the cutter I was carried to the threshing machine and combed out thoroughly, and put in the barrel for sale. I was sold to the school for thirty-five cents. He will use me very roughly in doors, and when I begin to get old, I shall be used in sweeping the yards. When I am worn completely out, I shall be pulled to pieces to get my handle, which will be used again to make a fresh, new broom."
Class-room work is also made a part of the training in this varied catalogue of industries in successful operation at Tuskegee: Agriculture, basketry, blacksmithing, bee-keeping, brick-masonry, plastering, brick-making, carpentry, carriage trimming, cooking, dairying, architectural, free-hand and mechanical drawing, plain sewing, dress-making, electrical and steam engineering, founding, harness-making, house-keeping, horticulture, canning, laundering, machinery, mattress making, millinery, nurses' training, painting, saw-milling, shoe-making, printing, stock-raising, tailoring, tinning, and wheelwrighting.