COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES. 453 



nology, and then what? He did not go about seeking for a position which 

 other brains and other hands had created, but used his knowledge of 

 the sciences and mathematics in creating a bootblack establishment, 

 where he manufactures his own blacking and polish. Starting with 

 one chair, he now has a dozen; starting with one place of business, he 

 now has several. AVhat matters it to this man whether Kepublicans, 

 Democrats or Populists are in pow'er in Washington? He knows that 

 he has a business that gives him independence, and with its expansion 

 and growth will come wealth and leisure and the highest educational 

 opportunities for his children. Oh, for a thousand men with the force 

 of character and common sense to begin on such a foundation. 



It is not alone the mere matter of the negro learning this or that trade 

 for which I plead, but through the trade, the industry; out from the 

 trade or industry I want to see evolved the full-fledged, unhampered, 

 unfettered man. I plead for industrial development, not because I want 

 to cramp the negro, but because I want to free him. I want to see him 

 enter the great and all-powerful business and commercial world. 



* * * 



If for a brief moment you will excuse me for the seeming egotism, I 

 will tell 3'ou what a set of devoted colored men and women have done 

 at Tuskegee, Alabama, during the past nineteen years. 



Beginning in 1881, with absolutely no property, the Tuskegee Institute 

 now owns 2,500 acres of land. Of this amount about 700 acres are this 

 year under cultivation. There are upon the school grounds forty-eight 

 buildings, and of these all except four have been wholly erected by the 

 labor of the students. Students and their instructors have done the 

 work from the drawing of the plans and making of the bricks to the 

 putting in of the electric fixtures. There are fifty wagons and buggies 

 and GOO head of live stock. The total value of the real and personal 

 property is $300,000. If we add to this our endowment fund of |1G5,000, 

 the total value of the property is $405,000, and if we add to this the 

 value of the 25,000 acres of public land recently granted to this insti- 

 tution by congress, the total property of this institution is |500,000. 

 The students earn by work at their trades and other industries about 

 $90,000. The total monthly expenditure is nearly $7,500. Tlie total 

 daily expenditure is not far from $250. 



Beginning with thirty students, the number has grown until at the 

 present time there are connected with the institution a thousand and 

 more students from twenty-four states, Africa, Jamaica, Cuba, Porto 

 Rico and other foreign countries. In all of our departments, industrial, 

 academic and religious, there are eighty-eight officers and teachers, 

 making a total population on our grounds of about 1,200 poo])le. 



During the nineteen years the institution has been in existence hun- 

 dreds of students have finished the academic and industrial courses, 

 and if we add to the number about 2,000 students who were not able 

 to remain and ixet a diploma or certificate, who nevertheless got the 

 spirit of the institution and a knowledge of industry to such an extent 

 that they are doing good work as teachers, as farmers, as tradesmen, 

 as leaders of thought, industry, thrift, morality and religion, the num- 

 ber can safely be placed at nearly 2,500. 



