The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.2, page 192, Apr. 1882, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WAS HINGTON Papers ing; secondly, it teaches him how to earn a living; and, thirdly, it teaches him the dignity of labor. Take the colored people in their present condition and we find very few students who are able to enter a boarding school and remain through one year, without a break, and the number able to finish a course of study without interruption is still smaller. There are thousands of poor but ambitious young people, far out on the back plantations, and in the woods and hollows, who, if given the chance, would gladly enter school and work their way through. The cost of board in most schools ranges from $8.oo to $~.oo per month. By a wisely organized labor system this price can be reduced one-third or one-half. Suppose there were a farm, carpenters' shop, tin shop, shoemakers' shop, or other branches of industry connected with the school, and each department so organized that students could have four days of mental training, and Saturday and one school day for manual labor; or Saturday and the spare hours before and after school. Let the arrangements be so that the girls can do the making, mending, and washing of the clothes, and all the other domestic duties; and at the same time let them be taught flower gardening and other decorative arts. And here I would add, that the condition of the average colored girl is such that if she does not learn how to properly keep house while at school she will never learn it. If this, or some similar plan, were carried out, the time usually spent by students in lounging about would not only be utilized in a way to bring pecuniary aid to themselves, but work would create an appetite for study, and vice versa, and thus many of our schools that are too apt to represent the stagnant pond would be transformed into sweet flowing streams hastening slowly on to pour their contents into the great ocean of usefulness. It may be suggested that a market cannot always be found for the articles produced, but when we consider that in a large school a great deal that would be produced would, necessarily, be consumed in the school, and by producing such articles as can be sold in a convenient market, we have the obstacle almost overcome. The idea of combining mental and manual training is not a new one. Napoleon Bonaparte was among the first to put it into practice, and it is now being carried on, successfully, in England and some parts of America. I believe that it presents to the majority of young colored men and women, in the South, the only alternative between remaining ignorant and receiving, at least, a common, practical education. I am 192