The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.13, page 343, Aug. 1915, U. of Illinois Press

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AUGUST · I 9 I 5 financial condition and thereby a longer lease on life to carry out his plans directed by yourself and others. Mr. Washington is in debt to the amount of nearly twenty thousand dollars ($zo,ooo), brought on by what he has tried to do for his family and others. Things he has done for himself and them, and much more that he has done in a financial way for others, which have brought no returns whatever. He has borrowed from the banks in Tuskegee, money which is due in Oct. and Jan. next, to the amount of nearly ten thousand dollars ($ ~ o,ooo ~ . Mr. Washington Is making more than human effort to pay these banks. He simply cannot do it. I worked for Mr. Washington for eleven years at a salary of $55. per month simply because ~ am tad graduate of his and have felt that ~ ought to do what ~ could for him, and because Mrs. Washington has asked me again and again to work on. She knows their financial condition and is now letting me use every dollar she makes, in keeping the small bills, which they are obliged to make daily, paid up. ~ can see plainly how both Mr. and Mrs. Washington are wearing under the strain of this heavy indebtedness. In no sense do ~ wish to handle any man's money. You can take my word or write to Mr. W. W. Campbell, President Macon County Bank, or Mr. J. H. Drakeford, President the Bank of Tuskegee, both in Tuskegee, for further information. ~ want to beg of you to treat this letter confidentially. ~ do not wish Mr. Washington to know that ~ have written you. It would be a great humiliation. You may not think it wise to do anything. ~ do not know, but ~ cannot be silent longer when a word might lift a heavy burden from the shoulders of a man who is carrying minions of people on his heart and mind. ~ have been influenced too to write you especially instead of some one else, because of the fact that you and Mrs. Rosenwaid so generously remembered the teachers here, who had served the school faithfully for fifteen years or more, and ~ realize that it was natural for you to regard Mr. Washington as not at aB in need of this sort of help. ~ thank you for the time that ~ have taken, Mr. Rosenwaid, and sincerely hope that In some way, something wiD be ~done, in order that Mr. Washington's mind will be free to grasp and carry on his work, 343