| CHAPTER | SEVEN |
BOOKER WASHINGTON AND THE NEGRO FARMER
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON was a great believer in the experience meeting, and the Tuskegee Negro Conference, which he started in 1891, is nothing more nor less than an agricultural experience meeting. He placed his faith in the persuasive power of example—in the contagion of successful achievement. He once said: "One farm bought, one house built, one home sweetly and intelligently kept, one man who is the largest taxpayer or has the largest bank account, one school or church maintained, one factory running successfully, one truck garden profitably cultivated, one patient cured by a Negro doctor, one sermon well preached, one office well filled, one life cleanly lived—these will tell more in our favor than all the abstract eloquence that can be summoned to plead our cause. Our pathway must be up through the soil, up through swamps, up through forests, up through the streams, the rocks, up through commerce, education, and religion."
Nothing delighted Mr. Washington more than the successful Negro farmers who had started in life without money, friends, influence, or education—with literally nothing but their hands. At one of the Tuskegee conferences not many years ago his keen eyes spotted such a man in the audience and he called to him in his straight from the shoulder manner: "Get up and tell us what you have been doing as a farmer."
A tall, finely built, elderly man, looking almost like a Nubian giant, arose in his place, his face wreathed in smiles, and showing his white teeth as he spoke: "Doctor, I done 'tended one o' yore conferences here 'bout ten year ago. I heard you say dat a man ain't wurth nuthin' as a man or a citizen 'less he owns his home, 'least one mule, and has a bank account, an' so I made up my mind dat I warn't wuth nuthin', an' so I went home an' talked de whole matter over wid de ol' woman. We decided dat we would make a start, an' now I's proud to tell you dat I's not only got a bank account, but I's got two bank accounts, an' heah's de bank books (proudly holding on high two grimy bank books); I also own two hun'ed acres of land an' all de land is paid for. I also own two mules, an' bofe dem mules is paid for. I also own some other property, an' de ole woman an' me an' de chilluns lives in a good house an' de house is paid for. All dis come 'bout from my comin' to dis heah conference."
Another old fellow, when called upon to tell what he had accomplished, dexterously evaded the direct inquiry for some minutes, and when Mr. Washington finally succeeded in pinning him down, said: "All I's got to say, Doctah Washington, is dat dis heah conference dun woke me up an' I'll be back heah next year wid a report jist like dese oder fellers."
Mr. Washington was a great believer in his favorite animal, the pig, as a mortgage lifter and general aid to prosperity. At one of the conferences, after he had paid a particularly warm eulogy to the economic importance of the pig, an old woman got up and said: "Mr. Washington, you is got befo' you now Sister Nelson of Tallapoosa County, Alabama. All I has I owes to dis conference and one little puppy dog."
Mr. Washington challenged: "How's that?"
The old woman continued: "I got a little pig from dat little puppy dog an' I got my prosperity from dat pig!"
Mr. Washington and the whole company in amazement hung upon the old woman's words as she continued: "It was dis way: Dat little puppy dog when she growed up had some little puppies herself. One day one o' my fren's come by an' as' me for one o' dem puppies. I tol' him 'No,' I would not gib him dat puppy, but dat he had a little pig an' I would 'change a puppy for a pig. I had heard you tell ober heah so much 'bout hogs an' pigs dat I thought dis was a good chance to get started. He give me de pig an' I give him de puppy. In de course o' time dat little pig dun bring me in some mo' pigs. I sol' some an' kep' some. I had to feed de pig, so I had begun savin'. I den begun to find out dat I could git on wid less den I had ben gettin' on wid, an' so I kep' on savin' an' kep' on raisin' pigs 'til I was able to supply most o' my neighbors wid pigs, an' den I got me a cow, an den I begun to supply my neighbors wid milk, an' den I started me a little garden. Den I sol' my neighbors greens an' onions, an' so I went on fum time to time 'til I dun paid for de lot an' de house in which I lib, an' I keeps my pigs about me an' keeps my garden goin', an' dat's why I says all I is I owes to dat little puppy dog an' to dis heah conference."