n their own homes and have observed that employers seem to expect it,
wink at it, at any rate, put up with it. While they know, as their
parents know, that it is wrong, they have nevertheless come to feel
that it is one of the ways in which black folk and white folk get on
together; one of the indirect ways, in other words, in which black
people have learned to recompense themselves for disadvantages which
they suffer in other directions."

In conclusion he said: "Each one of you can do something toward
solving the race problem, for example, by making, each for himself, a
reputation for honesty in the community in which you live. If in the
part of the country where you now live members of our race have a
reputation for carelessness, looseness in regard to the ownership of
property, you can help to solve the race problem, and make life here
in the South more comfortable for every other member of the race if
you will win for yourself a reputation for downright honesty and
integrity in all your dealings with your neighbors, whether they be
white or black."

Mr. Washington once said, "In all my teaching I have watched carefully
the influence of the toothbrush, and I am convinced that there are few
single agencies of civilization that are more far-reaching." He made
periodic tours of the students' rooms to find out what students if any
were without toothbrushes. The possession and use of a toothbrush is
one of the entrance requirements for Tuskegee. In this connection he
used to tell with a chuckle the reply of the girl who in answer to his
question as to whose toothbrush he found on the washstand said, "That
is ours," referring to her roommate and herself.

In his tours of inspection of the students' rooms he would also
inquire how many nightgowns they owned. He insisted that every student
should have at least two nightgowns. He was constantly impressing upon
the students that decent, respectable people do not sleep in the
garments in which they work during the day. In fact, he preached the
gospel of the nightgown and the toothbrush as insistently as he did
the gospel of work and simplicity.

He constantly insisted that the welfare of the students should be at
all times the dominant consideration in the conduct of the
institution. When the teachers would sometimes complain that their
welfare was not sufficiently considered he would remind them that the
Institute was being conducted for the benefit of the students and
t