long period it must
depend upon the black man to do for it what the foreigner is now doing
for the great West. If, by reason of his skill and knowledge, one man in
Iowa learns to produce as much corn in a season as four men can produce
in Alabama, it requires little reasoning to see that Alabama will buy
most of her corn from Iowa.

Another interesting result of the introduction of industrial education
for the Negro has been its influence upon the white people of the South,
and, I believe, upon the whites of the North as well. This phase of it
has proved of interest in making hand training a conciliatory element
between the races.

In 1883 I was delivering an address on industrial education before the
colored State Teachers' Association of one of our Southern states.
When I had finished, some of the teachers began to ask the State
Superintendent of Education, who was on the programme, some questions
about the subject. He politely but firmly stopped the questions by
stating that he knew absolutely nothing about industrial training, and
had never heard it discussed before. At that time there was no such
education being given at any white institution in that state. With one
or two exceptions this case will illustrate what was true of all the
Southern states. A careful investigation of the subject will show
that it was not until after industrial education was started among
the colored people, and its value proved, that it was taken up by the
Southern white people.

Manual training or industrial and technical schools for the whites have,
for the most part, been established under state auspices, and are at
this time chiefly maintained by the states. An investigation would also
show that in securing money from the state legislatures for the purpose
of introducing hand work, one of the main arguments used was the
existence and success of industrial training among the Negroes. It was
often argued that the white boys and girls would be left behind unless
they had the opportunities for securing the same kind of training
that was being given the colored people. Although it is, I think, not
generally known, it is a fact that since the idea of industrial or
technical education for white people took root within the last few
years, much more money is spent annually for such education for the
whites than for the colored people. Any one who has not looked into the
subject will be surprised to find how thorough and high grade the work