as any
other American. So we started academies and colleges and even
universities for him, and a medical school and a theological seminary."

"I can see myself that there's a difference between that and the
industrial idea," said J.W.

"Decidedly, there is," answered the minister; "all the difference which
has helped to bring this new day I'm talking about, and to produce such
Negro leaders as William Hightower. You see, J.W., it's this way: Booker
Washington believed that after the Negro had been taught to read and
write and cipher, his next and greatest educational need was to learn
to make a living."

"Well, what's the matter with that?" retorted J.W. "Seems to me it's
common sense."

"Possibly," Mr. Drury answered, dryly. "But what would you say was the
first thing needed in the fight against the almost total illiteracy of
the freedmen?"

"Why, teachers, I suppose," said J.W. "And it would sure take a lot of
teachers, even to make a start."

Mr. Drury said, "That's exactly the fact. It has called for so many that
to this day there isn't anything like enough teachers, although some of
our schools and those of other churches have been at work for fifty
years. And, remember, that practically all of these teachers, except in
a few advanced schools, must be black teachers, themselves brought up
out of ignorance."

"Well," said J.W., "that's my point. The quicker we could teach the
teachers, the sooner they would be ready to teach others."

"That is to say," Mr. Drury interpreted, "the less we taught them, the
better? Seems to me I heard something of a small revolt in your time at
Cartwright because it seemed necessary that a young tutor should be
temporarily assigned to the class in sophomore English."

J.W. chuckled. "It was my class. Why, that fellow was never more than
two jumps ahead of the daily work. We knew he had to study his own
lesson assignments before he could hear a recitation. We weren't
getting anything out of it except the bare text. So some of the boys
made things lively for a few days, and he asked to be relieved."

"Quite so. Your class had every imaginable advantage over the colored
boys and girls in our schools--just one teacher below par. And yet you
think it would be all right to have all colored teachers no more than
two jumps ahead of their pupils."

"Well, yes, I see," J.W. said, with a touch of thoughtfulness. "I
suppose a good teacher needs more than the minimum text-book knowled