Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization

by Emmett J. Scott; Lyman Beecher Stowe

I earnestly beg and urge that each convention remain in session until all differences are composed. In the event this cannot be done I hope each convention will empower a small committee or authorize some one to appoint committees that may have power in settling present difficulties so that next year there may be but one convention. It is easier now to bring about reconciliation than it will be later. It will be a calamity to the Baptist Church and to our race for the present split to continue. It will soon spread to all the Baptist churches in all the States. I would urge that each side manifest a broad liberal spirit and be willing to sacrifice something for the good of the cause. Millions of our humble people throughout the country are depending upon our leaders to settle their difficulties in a Christian spirit and they should not be disappointed. If I may be used at any time in any way my services are at your command. Have sent a similar telegram to Dr. ——.

[Signed] Booker T. Washington.

Unhappily he did not have the satisfaction of bringing the two factions together before he died, but until the last he continued his efforts in this direction.

Largely because of his intimate knowledge of the plain people Booker Washington appealed to the great of the earth. In his books, "Up from Slavery," "The Story of My Life and Work," and "My Larger Education," he tells of taking tea with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, of his association with Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, of his introduction to Prince Henry of Prussia, of his dining with the King and Queen of Denmark, and of his long friendships with William H. Baldwin, Jr., Robert C. Ogden, Henry H. Rogers, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. He was of value and interest to such people largely because of his closeness to his own people. His power to interest such people was largely because he was so close to the rank and file of his own people.

After the death of Henry H. Rogers, Mr. Washington said of him in an interview published at the time in the New York Evening Post: "The more experiences I have of the world, the more I am convinced that the only proper and the only safe way to judge any one is at first hand and by your actual experience. It seems to me that, outside of the immediate members of my family, I knew the late Henry H. Rogers during the last fifteen years as well as I could know any one. Of all the men that I have ever known intimately, no matter what their station in life, Mr. Rogers always impressed me as being among the kindest and gentlest. That was the impression he made upon me the first time I ever met him, and during the fifteen years that I knew him that impression was deepened every time I met him." (And this was Booker Washington's impression of the second greatest figure in the building up of the huge, world-powerful corporation whose methods during its period of rapid expansion had at that time been only recently described in McClure's Magazine by Ida M. Tarbell.) "I am sure that the members of his family will forgive me for telling, now that he has laid down his great work and gone to rest, some things about him which I feel that the public should know but which he always forbade me to mention while he lived.

"The first time I ever met Mr. Rogers was in this manner: about fifteen years ago a large meeting was held in Madison Square Garden concert hall, to obtain funds for the Tuskegee Institute. Mr. Rogers attended the meeting, but came so late that, as the auditorium was crowded, he could not get a seat. He stood in the back part of the hall, however, and listened to the speaking.

"The next morning I received a telegram from him asking me to call at his office. When I entered he remarked that he had been present at the meeting the night previous, and expected the 'hat to be passed,' but as that was not done he wanted to 'chip in' something. Thereupon he handed me ten one-thousand-dollar bills for the Tuskegee Institute. In doing this he imposed only one condition, that the gift should be mentioned to no one. Later on, however, when I told him that I did not care to take so large a sum of money without some one knowing it, he consented that I tell one or two of our Trustees about the source of the gift. I cannot now recall the number of times that he has helped us, but in doing so he always insisted that his name be never used. He seemed to enjoy making gifts in currency."

In an article published in McClure's Magazine in May, 1902, Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans thus describes the occasion on which he presented Booker Washington to Prince Henry of Prussia: "The first request made by Prince Henry, after being received in New York, was that I should arrange to give him some of the old Southern melodies, if possible, sung by Negroes; that he was passionately fond of them, and had been all his life—not the ragtime songs, but the old Negro melodies. Several times during his trip I endeavored to carry out his wishes, with more or less success; but finally, at the Waldorf-Astoria, the Hampton singers presented themselves in one of the reception rooms and gave him a recital of Indian and Negro melodies. He was charmed. And while I was talking to him, just after a Sioux Indian had sung a lullaby, he suddenly turned and said: 'Isn't that Booker T. Washington over there?' I recognized Washington and replied that it was, and he said: 'Evans, would you mind presenting him to me? I know how some of your people feel about Washington, but I have always had great sympathy with the African race, and I want to meet the man I regard as the leader of that race.' So I went at once to Washington and told him that the Prince wished him to be presented, and took him, myself, and presented him to the Prince. Booker Washington sat down and talked with him for fully ten minutes, and it was a most interesting conversation, one of the most interesting I ever heard in my life. The ease with which Washington conducted himself was very striking, and I only accounted for it afterward when I remembered that he had dined with the Queen of England two or three times, so that this was not a new thing for him. Indeed, Booker Washington's manner was easier than that of almost any other man I saw meet the Prince in this country. The Prince afterward referred to President Roosevelt's action in regard to Booker Washington, and applauded it very highly."

In 1911 Mr. Washington visited Denmark with the particular purpose of observing the world-famed agricultural methods of that country. While in Copenhagen he was presented to the King and Queen. This experience he described on his return to this country in an article published in the New York Age, the well-known Negro paper, in December of the same year. The portion of the article describing his meeting with the King and Queen reads as follows:

"Soon after I entered, the Chamberlain went in and presently returned to tell me the King would be ready to see me in about five minutes. At the end of the five minutes exactly the door was opened and I found myself in the King's chamber. I had expected to see a gorgeously fitted apartment, something to compare with what I had seen elsewhere in the palace. Imagine my surprise when I found practically nothing in the room except the King, himself. There was not a chair, a sofa, or, so far as I can recall, a single thing in the way of furniture—nothing except the King and his sword. I was surprised again, considering the formality by which he was surrounded, by the familiar and kindly manner in which the King received me, and by his excellent English. Both of us remained standing during the whole interview, which must have lasted twenty minutes. I say we remained standing, because, even had etiquette permitted it we could not have done anything else because there was nothing in the room for either of us to sit upon.