ms of the home, are written by an old
bachelor of pure African descent, without a drop of white blood, who
in himself refutes two popular fallacies: the one that bachelors
cannot be skilled in domestic affairs, and the other, that
pure-blooded Africans cannot achieve intellectual distinction. This
man is George W. Carver, who is not only the most eminent agricultural
scientist of his race in this country, but one of the most eminent of
any race. His work is so well known in scientific circles in his field
throughout the world that when leading European scientists visit this
country, particularly the Southern States, they not infrequently go
out of their way to look him up. They are usually very much surprised
to find their eminent fellow-scientist a black man.

The last of these conferences over which Booker Washington presided
was held at Tuskegee, January 20 and 21, 1915. A woman, the wife of a
Negro farmer, was testifying when she said: "Our menfolks is foun' out
dat they can't eat cotton." As the outburst of laughter which greeted
this remark died down, Mr. Washington said in his incisive way: "What
do you mean?" The woman replied: "I mean dat we womenfolks been
tellin' our menfolks all de time dat they should raise mo to eat."

She then displayed specimens of canned fruits and told how she had put
up enough of them to supply her family until summer. She told of
having sold thirty-six turkeys and of selling two and three dozen eggs
each week, with plenty left over for her family. She said that she and
her husband had raised and sold hogs, and still had for their own use
more than enough pork to last them until the next hog-killing time.

"How often do you eat chicken?" asked Dr. Washington.

"We can eat chicken every day if we want it," she replied.

When she had finished Mr. Washington explained that all this had been
done on 178 acres of the poorest land in Macon County.

In his opening address at this conference Mr. Washington denounced
"petty thieving, pistol-toting, crap-shooting, the patronizing of
'blind tigers,' and unnecessary lawsuits" as some of the weights and
encumbrances which are keeping the Negro from running well the race
which is set before him.

These are some of the basic questions which Booker Washington placed
before the conference for discussion:

"How and why am I so hard hit by the present hard times?"

"What am I doing to meet present conditions?"

"How may I, after all, get some