ht of way. Tuskegee
students and graduates are never urged not to take such service,
especially not to refuse in preference to idleness, but it all involves
a simple, ordinary, economic principle. Capable men and women, skilled
in the industrial arts, are like those of all races--they seek the most
profitable employment. A blacksmith, a tailor, a brickmason, a
harness-maker, or other artisan, who can find work in shops and
factories, or independently, and make thirty to seventy-five dollars a
month, and even more, will not, simply because he is black, leave those
chances to accept service in private employment for fifteen dollars per
month, and less, and board himself. No school could covenant to train
servants for an indefinite tenure; it can at best only promise to train
leaders who shall go among the masses and lift them up; to train men and
women who shall in turn reach hundreds of others.

Those who write the following chapters represent, in the main, this
class. They have written simply, with perfect frankness, have dealt with
the significant things of their lives, and have demonstrated, the
writer believes, that from humble origin black men and women may
confidently be counted upon, with proper encouragement, to win success.
The chapters are autobiographical, significantly optimistic, with just
pride in what has been done, and outlining, as did "Up from
Slavery"--which was commended as a proper model--experiences from
childhood, the school-life of the writer, and the results achieved in
the direction of putting into practise what was learned in school.
Through this symposium it is hoped that the public may learn, in the
best possible way, some of the finer results already accomplished by the
Tuskegee Institute.

E. J. S.

TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE, ALABAMA, _April 1, 1905_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1

By Booker T. Washington.

PART I

THE SCHOOL AND ITS PURPOSES

I.--PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS AND GOVERNING IDEALS 19

By Emmett J. Scott, Mr. Washington's Executive Secretary.

II.--RESOURCES AND MATERIAL EQUIPMENT 35

By Warren Logan, Treasurer of the School.

III.--THE ACADEMIC AIMS 56

B