But while the work was thus extending, the question came to be asked, even by intelligent and far-seeing people, Is not industrial education for negroes a craze? The majority were convinced that industrial training in this case needed to go hand-in-hand with book-learning. It was thought that men should understand farming and divers handicrafts, and that women should possess such accomplishments as cooking, sewing and dressmaking, and other domestic matters. Other friends of the negro, who in the main agreed with this policy, still thought that there was danger of its being pushed too far, in which case the movement might even develop into a craze, and then it was almost certain that the outcome would be "a less extended and thorough mental and moral culture." In an open letter in the Century Magazine for 1889, Mr S. W. Powell referred to such objections:—
"The proposed change implies too great a concession to the widely prevalent opinion that the negro is, and in the nature of the case must be, better fitted for manual than for mental labour. They argue also that the new departure tends to foster materialistic notions of the value of education, the main object of which should be the ennoblement of the worker rather than the production of more cotton, sugar, coal, iron or lumber.... Then, again, the surprising success in some schools, and notably in one, in mastering the more advanced branches is profoundly affecting the opinions of many of the most influential people in the South as to the capacity of the negro, and to do anything which would make the work in these brigade schools less extensive, or less thorough, will push him and his friends off this hard-won vantage-ground."
Still further, we are exhorted to remember that "leaders qualified to hold their own in the sharp competition of professional life are a great, if not the greatest, need of the coloured race in this country. Over wide areas most of their clergy are illiterate, immoral, self-seeking, bitter sectarians, and the most determined opponents of every kind of improvement. So, too, the lack of lawyers, editors and physicians of sufficiently broad and thorough training to be able to defend their weaker brethren against designers or incapable advisers is a very discouraging feature of the situation. The negroes do not, as a rule, seek the leadership or counsel of competent and honest whites in matters of religion or of business, hence the greater need of well-qualified men of their own race."
It need hardly be emphasised that those who are favouring the cause of industrial education, as a means best calculated to raise the coloured race, are quite as earnest in their desire for negroes to advance to higher culture when exceptional capacity shows itself. In the nature of things, however, this higher culture can be extended only to a comparatively few individuals. Referring to those who are unable to push their way so far, and yet are aiming at becoming scholars, Mr Powell adds:—
"If they had the industrial education now given in some schools they might support themselves in the same communities where they teach, acquiring decent homes of their own, which would be a much-needed example and incentive to all about them. The lack of anything worthy to be called home is the most appalling obstacle to the elevation of the negro. If these higher schools should furnish this industrial training, as some of them are beginning to do, nine-tenths, or, in many cases, nineteen-twentieths, of the pupils who never finish even the grammar-school course might be put in the way of living for the rest of their lives like human beings instead of like beasts."
The fact is, that the industrial training is not only becoming more widely recognised as being what the coloured people most urgently need, it tends largely to make the students more independent by placing them in a situation in which they can pay their own way instead of receiving outside aid. Then, while the negroes have splendid capacities for service, there is surely no other people who so greatly need to be made to realise the value and dignity of labour. As Mr Powell further says:—
"It was one of the greatest evils of slavery that manual labour was considered degrading. This was especially mischievous in its effects on the poor whites. The South is only slowly coming to believe that one who works for a living can be qualified for good society. In many of the industrial schools already established, students are beginning to take pride in their command of tools, in their well-planned and executed mechanical work, and in the thorough, clean tillage, the enlarged and varied products, and the improved stock and buildings of the farms attached to these schools.... The ability to plan or build a church, a schoolhouse, or a dwelling, or to carry on a farm as it should be carried on, gives a man's opinion about purely professional matters greater weight in all struggling communities. A teacher, minister or physician could hardly have, aside from his mental and moral qualities, a more effective passport to the confidence and respect of coloured people."
It was well both for himself no less than for those who were dependent upon him for guidance and education, that Booker Washington harboured the notions he did concerning the worth of labour. Anyone who had visited the institution he was building up at Tuskegee, during the first and second year of its struggling existence, would have seen that if the work eventually succeeded order would have to be brought out of chaos. This was emphatically true of all things connected with the daily life of the students on the estate; but beyond that the hereditary prejudices of the students and their family connections had to be overcome. There seems to have been a deeply rooted opinion that, if school learning did not lift a man up above the necessity to labour, it was hardly worth having. Parents and students alike tenaciously held this notion, so that, besides looking after his growing institute, Booker Washington had to travel about the State of Alabama to show that such prejudices were no less false than mischievous. At the same time he had what would generally be regarded as his own prejudices, but, come what would, he was determined to hold his idea, and to give it practical expression. When buildings had to be put up on the estate, he took care that none save the students themselves should have any hand in building them. These coloured aspirants had even to dig the clay, to make and burn the bricks that were needed; and it was only after three dismal failures in trying to form a kiln on scientific principles that this enterprise, which demanded exhausting labour, was crowned with success. As was to be expected, some of the students grew discouraged while undergoing such experience; but those who persevered and conquered with their leader at last found themselves braced or strengthened, rather than injured, by the difficulties which they had been enabled to conquer. At the present time the students at Tuskegee are competent to turn out 100,000 bricks of superior quality a month, and all of the forty buildings on the ground are their own work. The latest addition in this department is a magnificent library building, the gift of Mr Andrew Carnegie, which, in the Southern Letter of December 1901, was spoken of as "now being rushed to completion." This house has cost Mr Carnegie £4000, and when finished there was already a large collection of books waiting to be placed on its shelves.
In proportion as the students increased in the early days of the Tuskegee Institute, there came the urgent need for additional buildings and more money, both for providing these and for the general outlay. It was decided to put up a main building at a cost of £2000, and in order to raise money Booker Washington had to do a good deal of travelling as a collector. He found the rich quite willing to respond in a handsome way when his needs became known; but while the work has often been stimulated by large gifts, the more numerous small gifts of commonplace people have from the first been its mainstay. Practically he was introduced to the people of the Northern States by General Armstrong, who accompanied him on a collecting tour. On this and other occasions some striking adventures were met with, and all tended to show that hard work, perseverance and freedom from worry carried a man over a great deal of ground, while in a providential way all things seemed in the end to turn out for the best. Booker Washington had the gift of being able to impart some of his own energy and enthusiasm to his subordinates, and even to the students, who generally came round to see in what direction their best interests lay. A wholesome discipline was maintained throughout the institution, and thus, while being qualified to become instructors of their fellows of the coloured race, the students learned to love and to respect their leader.