Education that saves a race and profits the whole nation, or Industrial work in schools of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church

The Education that
Saves and Profits

GIVE ME A CHANCE

Industrial Work in Schools of the Freed-
men’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church brought down to date, ft ft ft ft

The Education That Saves a Race and
Profits the Whole Nation ;

or.

The Industrial Work of the Schools
of the Freedmen’s Aid Society
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

By

Secretary P. J. Maveety

The education that is called for under pres-
ent-day conditions must take into account the
threefold needs and nature of man, viz., phys-
ical, intellectual, and moral. He must be
clothed, housed, and fed; his mind must be
trained to think correctly, and his moral na-
ture brought into harmony with the divine law
of conduct. More and more the school is
broadening out to include training in all these
lines, as its mission to the young people of
the Nation.

The common school for the “Three R’s” as a
foundation to be followed by the technical and
industrial school and the college, with the pro-
fessional school to prepare for the ministries
of theology, medicine, and law, furnish the
ideal system of education that to-day gives
New England and Germany industrial su-
premacy. The old educational theory of the
South was private tutors, colleges and acad-
emies for the rich; no common schools for the

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poor; education for the blacks a crime. The
results are in line with this false and un-Amer-
icrn theory, now happily forever given up.
Think of it! While in 1860 Massachusetts had
less than one per cent of illiteracy, Virginia had
14 per cent and North Carolina 21 per cent
among their white citizens. Now the common
schools for all, poorly equipped though they
be, supplemented by the colleges, norma] and
industrial schools, are laying the foundations
for a new future in the South.

This new South is now awakening to the vast
material resources within its borders. In addi-
tion to cotton, corn, and sugar, it is now pro-
ducing great quantities of rice, fruit, coal,
iron, and oil. Immigration is tending South-
ward to develop these rich fields. The Negro
is now and must ever be the chief industrial
factor in this new movement. That he be a
trained worker is a prime necessity under the
new conditions.

Need of Trained Workers

The American Negro is better adapted to
many forms of this work than any other la-
borer. He is American in spirit, Protestant
in religion, adapted by nature to a semi-trop-
ical climate, and adjusted to the civilization of
the South. Trained workers, however, are
needed. Since emancipation the race has had
no general school of industrial training. Under
slavery it had. All the skilled work of the
vast plantations was done by Negroes. Thus
many received careful training in the higher
industries. Young men of mechanical bent

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were apprenticed. They mastered all the vari-
ous trades. At the close of the war the Negro
thus had leadership in the industrial trades of
the South. Since emancipation the millions
of young Freedmen have had no teaching, no
discipline, no direction in agriculture or the
mechanic arts, such as the “school of slavery”
gave their fathers. Because of lack of training
the higher industries are now slipping from
their grasp. Unless we can send forth from
our industrial schools trained workers and
leaders in the industries, this race will be sup-
planted and be driven to the wall. The char-
acter, skill, intelligence, and thrift developed
in such schools are needed as never before, if
this race is to hold its own in the era of almost
unparalleled industrial expansion and strenu-
ous competition now opening before the South.

Industrial Work Not a New Feature

This Society began the work of industrial
training over thirty years ago. From the be-
ginning, in greater or less degree, this has
been the established policy of the Society.
Along with the normal and academic depart-
ments, which have sent forth thousands of
teachers, preachers, and leaders of the race,
there have always been some forms of indus-
trial training. Thus along with the Bible and
the spelling-book were the plow and the plane,
the forge and the trowel, the hammer and the
saw. Over twenty years ago Claflin and Clark
Universities had two of the best-equipped
plants in the South.

During the past several years the largest ap-

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propriations for industrial work in the history
of the Society have been made. Nearly three
thousand students have annually been taught
in many forms of industry. Last year the
record was as follows:

Manual-training and Trade Schools: Agri-
culture, 137; printing, 95; tailoring, 79; paint-
ing, 24; masonry, 43; laundry, 85; sloyd, 158;
broom-making, 37; carpentry, 132; cabinet-
making, 28; machine-shop, 46; blacksmithing,
35; machine-shop (iron-working), 18; wagon-
making, 27; foundry, 6; engineering, 10. Total,
805.

Students in Domestic Economy as follows:
Housekeeping, 364; sewing, 1,698; cooking,
785; dressmaking, 341; millinery, 113; others,
98. Total (counting none twice), 2,146.

Grand total Industrial Schools (counting
none twice), 2,951.

Architectural drawing, 217.

In Professional courses: Theological, 78;

medical, 3.34; dental, 124; pharmacy, 75; nurse-
training, 25; law, 4.

Some Examples of Our Training

The practical results of the industrial train-
ing of the schools of the Freedmen’s Aid So-
ciety are apparent. Besides the thousands
helped to larger usefulness and efficiency, here
are a few examples of those trained for leader-
ship. One of our industrial graduates is the
efficient superintendent of the Slater Manual-
training School at Orangeburg, S. C.

From Claflin and Clark have gone forth a

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score or more who are now heads of depart-
ments in other industrial schools. Hundreds
hold important positions as carpenters, black-
smiths, plumbers, printers, wheelwrights, etc.
Their earning capacity has been increased
three or fourfold.

Several of the steam-heating plants in our
system of schools were installed by those
trained in our shops. The plumbing in our
schools is done by students now in training.
Two of these trained plumbers and steam-fit-
ters were head-workmen in the installation of
the steam plants at Chicago University and at
Mr. Rockefeller’s estate on the Hudson. The

Learning the Iron Moulder’s Trade at Morristown

plans and specifications for several of our best
recent buildings were prepared in the architec-
tural department of Claflin University. Thus
the result of the careful mental and moral,
along with the industrial, training in our
schools is seen in the industrial and general
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leadership gained by many of our graduates.
What more striking tribute could be given to
the soundness of the theory on which our
schools are conducted?

Whole Communities Transformed

Many preachers who received industrial
training during their school course have built
churches and parsonages, doing much of the
work with their own hands. Our graduate-
preachers and teachers have introduced a bet-
ter type of homes among the people. They
have drawn plans and have shown them how to
do the work. Thus the one-room cabin has
been transformed into the two and three-room
home, where virtue and modesty may have a
chance. They have made pulpit, church, and
home furniture. In social and industrial bet-
terment they have been the leaders in many
communities.

One girl, who went out to teach, could find
only a one-room cabin in which to board. She
could not live in common with grown children.
Rather than desert the task, her industrial
training at Thayer Home, of the Woman’s
Home Missionary Society, and in the course
at Clark University, stood her in good stead.
She cut pine saplings; made a room apart in
one corner of the cabin; covered the outside
with a quilt and old grain-sacking; illumined
this with pictures that she had brought for
the children; and thus made in the rude, win-
dowless, pictureless, old cabin a little house
beautiful. It became the attraction of the
neighborhood. That year nine of the one-room

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cabins were transformed into two and three-
room homes, where modesty and virtue may
live and grow. By the power of a Christian
example and through plain teaching of the
Word, a score of her pupils were led to a per-
sonal knowledge of Christ. Such practical
work represents the spirit of those sent forth
from our schools.

Industrial Work at Claflin

At Claflin University, Orangeburg, S. C.,
President Dunton has developed our most ex-
tensive and complete industrial shops. They
represent an investment of $50,000. The shops
in extent and equipment compare favorably
with any plant in the entire South. They rank
third among the great industrial schools.
Training is here offered in twenty-four trades
and industries, covering practically the entire
list given above. In the sloyd department
young women also receive training. As teach-
ers and home-makers they carry out among
their people the principles here learned. The
girls are also taught cooking, dress-making,
and millinery.

From this Slater Manual-training and Trade
School more than a score of industrial leaders
have taken positions as instructors in indus-
trial and trade schools. Mr. W. W. Cooke, a
graduate of Claflin. and for years superintend-
ent of its architectural and mechanical depart-
ment, took the United States Government ex-
amination, vThieh he successfully passed, and
is now making and executing plans for Govern-
ment buildings. Tuskegee and the Georgia
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State Industrial School have found Claflin
graduates worthy of their highest places.
Many of them have developed industrial enter-
prises in towns throughout the South. Archi-
tectural plans and specifications sent out from
this department are now secured for the build-
ings of this Society. Nearly a score of build-

There Is Always a Market for Brooms — We Make ’Em

ings on the campus have been erected by the
students under his direction.

Thus in our schools the students receive not
only industrial training, but at the same time,
by practical work, hundreds of them earn
enough to enable them to go on with their

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education. Scores of students make their way
on from thirty to fifty dollars cash for the
year.

One of the most interesting features at Claf-
lin is the “Louise Soules Home for Girls,”
where over one hundred girls are now earning
their way and securing an education at the
low cost of from $1.60 to $2.50 per month. A
happier, brighter set of students I have not
seen. Thus we are training hundreds of girls,
as a part of their education, to cook, to wash,
to iron, to become good housekeepers and
home-makers. Above all, they carry forth
among their people the example of ennobled
Christian womanhood. As teachers and moth-
ers they are uplifting and purifying the life
of a race at the fountainhead.

Industrial Training at Morristown

Through the work of President J. S. Hill,
the Boyd Industrial Shops at Morristown Nor-
mal and Industrial College, Morristown, Tenn.,
were made possible. The building is of brick
and over two hundred feet long. Its several
departments are equipped with modern ma-
chinery. Here we have a foundry, from which
cooking and heating stoves of seven styles, and
other castings, are in demand throughout
East Tennessee. From the printing depart-
ment many students are sent out as skilled
printers. Broom-making is a special industry.
This gives profitable employment to many stu-
dents. The entire output is sold in advance.
In the wood-working department the fittings

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for the city gymnasium, consisting of lockers,
turning poles, clubs, bars, swinging rings, etc.,
were made. Scores of girls receive domestic
training, and over two hundred cooks and
house-helpers have been furnished to Northern
homes through President Hill.

Industrial Work at Other Schools

At Clark University several trades are
taught. A large number of skilled blacksmiths
have been sent forth. The printing depart-
ment turns out commercial and general work
of a high grade. Several years ago the agri-
cultural department was established. It has
120 acres of land under cultivation, with 300
or more acres of woodland pasture. A trained
farmer, with twenty-five boys, carries on a
model dairy, truck, and general farm. Milk
and vegetables are sold in the city of Atlanta,
and are in great demand. The farm barn was
burned, and Mr. William Deering, of Chicago,
gave $3,300 to replace it with a new and mod-
ern one, which is now in use, a credit to the
donor and a much needed illustration to the
Negro farmers of Georgia. Farmers’ Insti-
tutes are held a couple of times a year, and
judging from the attendance and interest, the
Southern Negro is waking up to the fact that
he must “mix brains with his soil” if he would
succeed.

At Rust University, Holly Springs, Miss.,
basket weaving and “mission furniture” are
specialties. The drawing-room of the new
Presbyterian College for white girls in Holly

ii

Springs is fitted out with this furniture made
at our neighboring industrial shops.

A new industrial building has just been fin-
ished and equipped with engine, wood-working
machinery, forge and blacksmith outfit, and
other tools.

Here also farming, vegetable gardening,
care of stock, and poultry raising are taught.
The institution raises most of its own milk,
butter, eggs, and vegetables.

At Wiley University, Marshall, Texas, a
number of industries are taught. The entire
electric plant of the institution has been in-
stalled and is run by the students. The work
on our large central hall and boys’ dormitory
was mostly done by them.

The new president at Gilbert Academy,
Baldwin, La., Prof. J. It. Reynolds, formerly
of Wiley University, has made a fine start
towards the inauguration of a great agricul-
tural and mechanical industrial plant at this
school. He has a small electric light plant al-
ready in operation, and will extend it as fast
as his funds will warrant. He has built a
dock on the Bayou Teche, which runs in the
rear of his grounds, on which he expects to
unload wood and supplies for the school.

He and one of his teachers have purchased
out of their own funds a second-hand motor
boat, which they expect to use in the service
of the school.

His boys enter into all these labors with
great zeal. Of the large sugar cane planta-
tion belonging to the school fifteen acres are
reserved for an agricultural experiment farm.

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President Reynolds already has assurances of
co-operation from the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, which will furnish books,
pamphlets, and seeds for use in teaching mod-
ern methods in this great industry. As fast as
experience and money will admit this training
will be enlarged.

The farming, market gardening, dairying,
and poultry industries are being introduced in
connection with nearly all our schools in one
form or another. Most of the schools have a
few acres thus cultivated, providing illustra-
tions in thrift and industry to the students
and incidentally furnishing supplies for the
college kitchen.

These small beginnings, it is hoped, will ulti-
mately grow into strong departments of agri-
cultural training.

Special Training for Girls

Our nurse-training schools furnish another
form of practical training for which women
of the Negro race have special adaptation.
The Sarah Goodridge Nurse-training School
and Hospital at New Orleans University offers
a complete course in modern nurse-training.
Instruction is given by the staff of the Flint
Medical College. They have the advantage of
the clinics and practical drill under competent
physicians. Mercy Hospital at Meharry Med-
ical College, Walden University, Nashville,
Tenn., was bought and equipped by graduates
of the college. It is a practical illustration of
what our graduates are doing. Our trained
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nurses are in demand at good wages. The
Negro woman has a natural gift for this work.
Southern physicians praise her skill and deft-

“I was sick and ye visited Me”

ness of touch, combined with tenderness and
steadiness of nerve that give her pre-eminence
as a nurse. The training of our schools fits
her for superior work, and her contact with
both races is a benediction.

Co-operation of Woman’s Home Missionary
Society

With a number of our schools there are con-
nected “Model Homes,” with well organized
sewing and cooking schools, largely supportec
by the Woman’s Home Missionary Society
Girls are trained here for home life and do
mestic efficiency. The ideals of womanhood, o

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motherhood, of home life here given are of
priceless value to a race degraded by slavery.
Here are taught the practical industries on

Future Homemakers

which home depends. Examples of character,
industry, cleanliness, thrift are here given.
Hundreds of girls are trained to neatness and
economy in dress. The home idea is here en-
throned in the thought and affection of women
who are to be the home-makers of a race.
Scores of these graduates have married minis-
ters. They make homes that stand as exam-
ples to their neighbors. When one contrasts
the slovenly, mean surroundings of a preacher
who has an ignorant or untrained wife, never
in touch with the well-ordered home-life of our
schools, with a parsonage neat and clean, with
flowers and library, and well-kept kitchen and

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garden, one realizes how this practical work
is transforming the home-life of a people.

The Fullness of Character

The Freedmen’s Aid Society is giving to the
Negro the opportunity for a properly rounded
out, fully developed manhood and womanhood.
Its grade schools take the little children, where
adequate provision is not made for their educa-
tion by the State, and gives them their abc’s,
if necessary. It provides preparatory and nor-
mal schools for the training of teachers with
preparation for colleges and seminaries, from
which ministers, doctors, and lawyers are sent
out to serve their peedy people. Besides these
a very large number of students are taught
useful trades and industries. But the Church
does not stop here. It believes in man as a
moral being, and in all of its schools, along
with intellectual and industrial education, it
trains the conscience, the will, and the moral
nature.

For further information, write the Corre-
sponding Secretaries, 222 Fourth Avenue,
West, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Bequests and Devises

Persons disposed to make bequests to the
Society by will are requested to observe the
following form:

I give and bequeath to “The Freedmen’s Aid
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,”
a corporation under the laws of the State of

Ohio, the sum of $ and receipt of

the Treasurer thereof shall be a sufficient disr
charge to my executors for the same.

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