et with the question,
Should not the Negro be encouraged to prepare himself for any station
in life that any other race fills? I would say, Yes; but the surest
way for the Negro to reach the highest positions is to prepare himself
to fill well at the present time the basic occupations. This will give
him a foundation upon which to stand while securing what is called the
more exalted positions. The Negro has the right to study law; but
success will come to the race sooner if it produces intelligent,
thrifty farmers, mechanics, and housekeepers to support the lawyers.
The want of proper direction of the use of the Negro's education
results in tempting too many to live mainly by their wits, without
producing anything that is of real value to the world. Let me quote
examples of this.

Hayti, Santo Domingo, and Liberia, although among the richest
countries in natural resources in the world, are discouraging examples
of what must happen to any people who lack industrial or technical
training. It is said that in Liberia there are no wagons,
wheelbarrows, or public roads, showing very plainly that there is a
painful absence of public spirit and thrift. What is true of Liberia
is also true in a measure of the republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo.
The people have not yet learned the lesson of turning their education
toward the cultivation of the soil and the making of the simplest
implements for agricultural and other forms of labour.

Much would have been done toward laying a sound foundation for general
prosperity if some attention had been spent in this direction. General
education itself has no bearing on the subject at issue, because,
while there is no well-established public school system in either of
these countries, yet large numbers of men of both Hayti and Santo
Domingo have been educated in France for generations. This is
especially true of Hayti. The education has been altogether in the
direction of _belles lettres_, however, and practically little in the
direction of industrial and scientific education.

It is a matter of common knowledge that Hayti has to send abroad even
to secure engineers for her men-of-war, for plans for her bridges and
other work requiring technical knowledge and skill. I should very much
regret to see any such condition obtain in any large measure as
regards the coloured people in the South, and yet this will be our
fate if industrial education is much longer neglected. We have spent
much