ubmit the matter without argument. Booker
Washington can afford to plead guilty to every charge; and he has never
belittled himself by answering his accusers.
But let the facts be known, that this man has collected upward of six
million dollars, mostly from the people of the North, and has built up
the nearest perfect educational institution in the world.
It is probably true that many of his teachers and best workers are
picked people--but they are Negroes, and were selected by a Negro. The
great general reveals his greatness in the selection of his generals: it
was the marshals whom Napoleon appointed who won for him his victories;
but his spirit animated theirs, and he chose them for this one
reason--he could dominate them. He infused into their souls a goodly
dash of his own enthusiasm.
Booker Washington is a greater general than Napoleon. For the Tuskegee
idea no Waterloo awaits. And as near as I can judge, Booker Washington's
most noisy critics are merely camp-followers.
That the man is a tyrant and a dictator there is no doubt. He is a
beneficent tyrant, but a tyrant still, for he always, invariably, has
his own way in weighty matters--in trivialities others can have theirs.
And as for dictatorship, the man who advances on chaos and transforms it
into cosmos is perforce a dictator and an egotist.
Booker Washington believes he is in the right, and he makes no effort to
conceal the fact that he is on earth. In him there is no disposition to
run and peep about, and find himself a dishonorable grave. All live men
are egotists, and they are egotists just in proportion as they have
life. Dead men are not egotists. Booker Washington has life in
abundance, and through him I truly believe runs the spirit of Divinity,
if ever a living man had it. A man like this is the instrument of Deity.
Tuskegee Institute has applications ahead all the time, from all over
America, for competent colored men and women who can take charge of
important work and do it. Dressmakers, housekeepers, cooks, farmers,
stockmen, builders, gardeners, are in demand. The world has never yet
had enough people to bear its burdens.
Recently we have heard much of the unemployed, but a very little search
will show that the people out of work are those of bad habits, which
make them unreliable and untrustworthy. The South, especially, needs the
willing worker and the practical man. And best of all the South knows
it, and stands ready to pay for
|