country, and that the benefits
coming from such efforts of publicity do not confine themselves alone
to Hampton and Tuskegee, but benefit all the schools in the South.
With this end in view, I very much hope that the Trustees may see
their way clear to encourage and help us as far as possible in holding
a number of large public meetings during the coming year." These were
brave words for a dying man. Five months later he died of sheer
exhaustion shortly after addressing one of these "large public
meetings." They also show the breadth of his conception of his task.
You will note that he points out that such publicity as he urges,
"benefits all the schools in the South"--not merely the schools for
Negroes, but "all the schools." It never occurred to him to limit his
sense of responsibility to his own school nor even to the schools for
his own race. As previously mentioned he would sometimes devote an
entire public address to an appeal for more and better schools for the
poor whites of the South.

Booker Washington's money-raising efforts consumed two-thirds of his
time and perhaps even more of his strength and energy. He planned
these money-raising campaigns just as carefully as a good general
plans a military campaign. His last big money-raising campaign was
conducted during June, 1915. He and the Trustees of the Institute had
been engaged for two or three years in the effort to raise the money
to complete the cost of the central power and heating plant, but
nearly $100,000 of the $245,000 needed had not been raised. This
burden bore heavily upon him. At last, with the approval of the
Trustees, he decided to make one last herculean effort not only to
raise this huge sum, but in addition, the money necessary to end the
school year free of debt. For this purpose he formulated a plan of
campaign by which five representatives of the school should cover the
chief centres of population throughout the Northern and Middle Western
States. This was the outline of the territorial assignments of the
collectors:

Frank P. Chisholm: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut--important centre--Boston.

Charles W. Wood: New York east of Syracuse, and Binghamton--important
centre--New York City.

Jesse O. Thomas: New York west of Syracuse and Binghamton,
Pennsylvania--important centre--Philadelphia.

John D. Stevenson: Illinois, Wisconsin--important centre--Chicago.

Clarence A. Powell: Michigan, Ohio--imp