d representative men and women of the race, who come to spend
a day in finding out what the actual industrial, mental, and moral
conditions of the people are, and in forming plans for improvement. Out
from this central Negro Conference at Tuskegee have grown numerous state
and local conferences which are doing the same kind of work. As a result
of the influence of these gatherings, one delegate reported at the last
annual meeting that ten families in his community had bought and paid
for homes. On the day following the annual Negro Conference, there is
the "Workers' Conference." This is composed of officers and teachers who
are engaged in educational work in the larger institutions in the South.
The Negro Conference furnishes a rare opportunity for these workers to
study the real condition of the rank and file of the people.

In the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent coloured
men as Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my hands in every
effort, I organized the National Negro Business League, which held its
first meeting in Boston, and brought together for the first time a large
number of the coloured men who are engaged in various lines of trade
or business in different parts of the United States. Thirty states were
represented at our first meeting. Out of this national meeting grew
state and local business leagues.

In addition to looking after the executive side of the work at Tuskegee,
and raising the greater part of the money for the support of the school,
I cannot seem to escape the duty of answering at least a part of the
calls which come to me unsought to address Southern white audiences and
audiences of my own race, as well as frequent gatherings in the North.
As to how much of my time is spent in this way, the following clipping
from a Buffalo (N.Y.) paper will tell. This has reference to an occasion
when I spoke before the National Educational Association in that city.

Booker T. Washington, the foremost educator among the coloured people of
the world, was a very busy man from the time he arrived in the city the
other night from the West and registered at the Iroquois. He had hardly
removed the stains of travel when it was time to partake of supper.
Then he held a public levee in the parlours of the Iroquois until eight
o'clock. During that time he was greeted by over two hundred eminent
teachers and educators from all parts of the United States. Shortly
after eight o'clock he was d