were put into a position to support
themselves by manual trades. The Government of the United States thought
well of the work. It gave the school a grant of 25,000 acres of land in
Alabama only last year. The State of Alabama, in which it was placed,
gave it an annual donation. In addition it derived something from the
funds left by the great philanthropist, George Peabody, and from another
fund founded by an American philanthropist. The remainder of the sum
needed for carrying on the work--some L15,000 a year--was derived from
voluntary contributions, which were stimulated by the appeals made by Mr
Washington, whom he regarded as the leader of his race in America."

There were no long speeches at this reception and after meeting. Booker
Washington himself was brief in his speech while describing the
condition and outlook of the coloured race in the United States. He
said:--

"Immediately after receiving their freedom the negroes, for the most
part, got into debt, and they had not been able to free themselves to
the present day. In many places it was found that as many as
three-fourths of the coloured people were in debt, living on mortgaged
land, and in many cases under agreements to pay interest on their
indebtedness ranging between fifteen and forty per cent. The work of
improving their condition was far from hopeless, and he was far from
being discouraged. If his people got no other good out of slavery they
got the habit of work. But they did not know how to utilise the results
of their labour; the greatest injury which slavery wrought upon them was
to deprive them of executive power, of the sense of independence. They
required education and training, and this was gradually being provided.
Starting in 1881 in the little town of Tuskegee with one teacher and
thirty students, they had progressed until in the present day they had
built up an institution which had connected with it over a thousand men
and women. They had some eighty-six instructors, and in all that they
did they tried to make a careful and honest study of the condition of
the negroes and to advance their material and moral welfare. Industrial
education was a vital power in helping to lift his people out of their
present state. Twenty-six different industries were taught, and every
student had to learn some trade or other in addition to the studies of
the class-room. The coloured students came from upwards of twenty States
and territories, and the labo