ur which they performed had an economic
value to the institution itself. There were thirty-eight buildings upon
the grounds of the college, including a chapel having seating capacity
for 2500 persons, built by the students themselves. The value of the
entire property was about $300,000. Seeing that one-third of the
population of the South was of the negro race, he held that no
enterprise seeking the material, civil or moral welfare of America could
disregard this element of the population and reach the highest good."

Mr Bryce, M.P., also gave a brief speech, and showed that he was in
agreement with what the founder of the institution of Tuskegee had said
in reference to the importance of basing the progress of the negroes on
an industrial training:--

"Having made two or three visits to the South he had got an impression
of the extreme complexity and difficulty of the problem which Mr
Washington was so nobly striving to solve. It was no wonder that it
should be difficult, seeing that the whites had such a long start of the
coloured people in civilisation. He believed that the general sentiment
of white people was one of friendliness and a desire to help the
negroes. The exercise of political rights and the attainment to equal
citizenship must depend upon the quality of the people who exercised
those rights, and the best thing the coloured people could do,
therefore, was to endeavour to attain material prosperity by making
themselves capable of prosecuting these trades and occupations which
they began to learn in the days of slavery, and which now, after waiting
for twenty years, they had begun to see were necessary to their
well-being."

At the present time the institution at Tuskegee represents a value of
L100,000, if we include the endowment fund; and the annual cost of
training 1100 or more students is not less than L16,000. The work
continues to expand, as must ever be the case with all healthy
enterprises of the kind. Perhaps the most hopeful symptom of all is the
sanguine enthusiasm of Booker Washington himself, who, happily for
himself and for those whom he seeks to benefit, is, and must ever be, an
optimist. He believes that his race has a future, and that it is capable
of being so uplifted as to become a benefit to the world. We must all
allow that the right means are being used to bring about this new
reformation; but, at the same time, we need not close our eyes to the
fact that there are observers and ev