The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.4, page 481, Oct. 1898, U. of Illinois Press

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O C T O B E R · I 8 9 8 world. Nature has given the inhabitants of these countries immensely rich territories. Then what is the trouble? It is simply this, that these people have not turned their brains to the cultivation of the soil. They have not put their brains into the construction of the agricultural implements and machinery which go: toward laying the foundation of a race. At Tuskegee we emphasize two lines of work; first, normal teaching; second, industrial training, by which we purpose to send out young men and women skilled in all these lines of industrial, agricultural and domestic science and in the fine mechanic arts. We do this not without a purpose, not without thinking; we do it because we have studied the condition of the 8,ooo,ooo of our people in the country, and unless this generation can be wise enough, brave enough, strong enough, to put intelligent brains into these occupations, and thus lay the foundation deeply for the generations that are to come, it is impossible that we shall have a successful race in this country. Without this courage and patience necessary to the laying of this foundation, we shall find ourselves in the same condition as the unfortunate people of Hayti, Liberia and San Domingo. We cannot say that in these Republics to which I have referred, these people are in this condition for want of education. Of course there is no public school system in either of these places to commend, but from all of them there have gone men to France and England and Germany who are highly educated so far as letters are concerned; especially is this true of Hayti, where the people have been educated in France for a number of generations, and have a high degree of literary education. But practically none have been trained along industrial and scientific lines. Whenever the government of Hayti wants an engineer for her men-of-war, it sends to England or the United States; or for an engineer to build the bridges and other work requiring technical knowledge and skill. Unless you, young men and women, are going to be missionaries along all these lines of development, we cannot hope to have a race that will ever be on its feet. You have got to go out and lay the foundation. We expect you to become leaders in all these important lines. It is not enough that our people get book education, but we must connect with our book learning, industrial development, and no race which fails to do this, will ever get upon its feet. You are the generation that in a large measure has got to gather the 481