hat teachers were not required except for the benefit of the
students. That the students should be happy was almost a mania with
him. He was constantly sending for officers and teachers to inquire as
to whether the students seemed happy.

[Illustration: The cosmopolitan character of the Tuskegee student body
is shown by the fact that during the past year students have come from
the foreign countries or colonies of foreign countries indicated by
the various flags shown in this picture.]

To the delight of the students he would occasionally call a
mass-meeting where he would call upon them one by one to get up and
tell him of anything that was wrong, of anything that was keeping them
from being as happy as he wanted them to be. It was understood that
everything that a student said in such a meeting would be regarded as
a confidence and that nothing that he said would be used against him.
The teachers sometimes protested against the unbridled criticism which
Mr. Washington permitted in these meetings. He, however, continued
them without modification, and while many of the students' complaints
were grossly exaggerated their statements nevertheless led to reforms
in some important particulars. The meetings undoubtedly added greatly
to the contentment and happiness of the student body.

He was always trying to protect the poorer students against the danger
of being embarrassed or humiliated by the more fortunate ones. In this
connection he was constantly resisting the importunities of students
and teachers who wanted to charge admission fees to this or that game
or entertainment. When the occasion really demanded and justified an
admission fee he would make secret arrangements with the management to
have the poorer students admitted at his personal expense.

His willingness to hear the students' grievances was a characteristic
not always appreciated by the officers and teachers. He was a firm
believer in the right of petition either for a group or an individual.
No matter how pressed and driven he was with business no student or
group of students, and no teacher or group of teachers, was too humble
or obscure in the school's life to win a personal hearing. He would
without hesitation reopen and painstakingly review a case, already
decided by the Executive Council, if he thought there was the
slightest chance that an injustice had been done. He insisted upon
giving the accused not only "a square deal," but the benefit of ev