The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.4, page 385, Feb. 1898, U. of Illinois Press

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FEBRUARY · ~ 898 We are living in a rich country so far as the soil is concerned, with little or no skill among the working classes to command it. Our streets are sometimes thronged with a beggarly element, possessing acres of land not having sufficient skill to eke out an honest, respectable living. The great problem with us, in this section, is what shall we do with this beggarly element that feed themselves a few months in the year and beg the balance. Were it not for fish and oysters, things that really grow without cultivation, the situation would be most apalling sometimes. Agriculture is fast becoming a lost art among our people. Our older mechanics that have mastered the situation and bore the burden in the heat of the day for thirty years are passing out and we find none or at least few that are prepared to take their places. We doubt not that during thirty years of freedom the Negro is fast losing one of his strongest lines of salvation—viz. the Industrial Art. I asked one of my members a few months ago, who plants about five acres of land in cotter, how much cotten he expects to get or does he get from so many acres and his reply was ''about one bale and a half of lint cotter.'' Think of a rich plain country bringing only one bale and a half to five acres of land. Land that ought to bring easily one bale to an acre. What we want to do is to teach this man's son to command better results from the soil than his father. This is not an abnormal circumstance. Now to! the point. Mrs A. H. Christensen2 a resident of Beaufort and who also has a home in Brookline Mass. is agitating the matter of an Industrial school here for the Negro and we are all anxious for it but we want you to suggest some plans for organization and operation. If you will do this you will confer a great favor on us and a blessing upon our people. Mrs A. H. Christensen met your wife during last summer. You do not know me and as near as I can tell you who I am is to wit, I am a graduate of Lincoln University. I was there some years ago when you delivered the annual address for the Philosophian Literary Society. Mr. Alton Bythewood who attended your School last year is a first · ~ cous~n ot mine. Kindly let me hear from you at once. Yours for the best things for the race, D. W. Bythewood ALS Con. ~37 BTW Papers DLC. 385