damental. The opportunity of the common school must be universal,
and attendance in it compulsory. Beyond this, training in the decencies
of life, in conduct, and in all the industries, must be offered in such
industrial institutions as that of Tuskegee. For the exceptional cases a
higher education can be easily provided for those who show themselves
worthy of it, but not offered as an indiscriminate panacea.

The question at once arises as to the kind of teachers for these schools
of various grades. It is one of the most difficult in the whole problem.
As a rule, there is little gain, either in instruction or in elevation of
character, if the teacher is not the superior of the taught. The learners
must respect the attainments and the authority of the teacher. It is a
too frequent fault of our common-school system that, owing to inadequate
pay and ignorant selections, the teachers are not competent to their
responsible task. The highest skill and attainment are needed to evoke
the powers of the common mind, even in a community called enlightened.
Much more are they needed when the community is only slightly developed
mentally and morally. The process of educating teachers of this race, fit
to promote its elevation, must be a slow one. Teachers of various
industries, such as agriculture and the mechanic arts, will be more
readily trained than teachers of the rudiments of learning in the common
schools. It is a very grave question whether, with some exceptions, the
school and moral training of the race should not be for a considerable
time to come in the control of the white race. But it must be kept in
mind that instructors cheap in character, attainments, and breeding will
do more harm than good. If we give ourselves to this work, we must give
of our best.

Without the cordial concurrence in this effort of all parties, black and
white, local and national, it will not be fruitful in fundamental and
permanent good. Each race must accept the present situation and build on
it. To this end it is indispensable that one great evil, which was
inherent in the reconstruction measures and is still persisted in, shall
be eliminated. The party allegiance of the negro was bid for by the
temptation of office and position for which he was in no sense fit. No
permanent, righteous adjustment of relations can come till this policy is
wholly abandoned. Politicians must cease to make the negro a pawn in the
game of politics.

Let us admit