on of four,
have been erected by the labour of the students.

Since this work started, there has been collected and spent for its
founding and support $800,000. The annual expense is now not far from
$75,000. In a humble, simple manner the effort has been to place a
great object-lesson in the heart of the South for the elevation of the
coloured people, where there should be, in a high sense, that union of
head, heart, and hand which has been the foundation of the greatness
of all races since the world began.

What is the object of all this outlay? It must be first borne in mind
that we have in the South a peculiar and unprecedented state of
things. The cardinal needs among the eight million coloured people in
the South, most of whom are to be found on the plantations, may be
stated as food, clothing, shelter, education, proper habits, and a
settlement of race relations. These millions of coloured people of the
South cannot be reached directly by any missionary agent; but they can
be reached by sending out among them strong, selected young men and
women, with the proper training of head, hand, and heart, who will
live among them and show them how to lift themselves up.

The problem that the Tuskegee Institute keeps before itself constantly
is how to prepare these leaders. From the outset, in connection with
religious and academic training, it has emphasised industrial, or
hand, training as a means of finding the way out of present
conditions. First, we have found the industrial teaching useful in
giving the student a chance to work out a portion of his expenses
while in school. Second, the school furnishes labour that has an
economic value and at the same time gives the student a chance to
acquire knowledge and skill while performing the labour. Most of all,
we find the industrial system valuable in teaching economy, thrift,
and the dignity of labour and in giving moral backbone to students.
The fact that a student goes into the world conscious of his power to
build a house or a wagon or to make a set of harness gives him a
certain confidence and moral independence that he would not possess
without such training.

A more detailed example of our methods at Tuskegee may be of interest.
For example, we cultivate by student labour seven hundred acres of
land. The object is not only to cultivate the land in a way to make it
pay our boarding department, but at the same time to teach the
students, in addition to the practi