438 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



According to the report above cited, I 

 161 academies and colleges for colored 

 youth in the United States reported. 

 The total number enrolled was 42,328, 

 of which 2,492 were reported in colle- 

 giate grades, 13,669 in secondary grades 

 and 26,167 in elementary grades. Even 

 in these colored colleges less than 6 

 per cent of the students are pursuing 

 collegiate courses. Of these, perhaps 

 not more than 2 per cent are pursuing 

 a college course equal to that offered at 

 Howard. Nearly two thirds of the total 

 enrollment in these colored colleges are 

 receiving elementary instruction in the 

 three R's. Classified by courses of 

 study, 1,711 — 217 in a million — were 

 taking the classical course; 1,200 — 150 

 in a million — the scientific; 4,449 — 555 

 to the million — the normal course in 

 preparation for teaching; 1,285 — 160 in 

 a million — professional courses; 9,724 

 the English course, and 244 the business 

 course. In each of these courses the 

 colored race has only about one fifth or 

 one sixth of its quota. Is there any- 

 thing in these figures to alarm the na- 

 tion? 



About one third of the total number 

 of students in these 161 colored 

 schools and colleges are taking indus- 

 trial training. When we consider the 

 great demand for educated colored min- 

 isters, teachers and physicians, and the 

 quick reward for ability in these lines, 

 on the one hand, and the exclusiveness 

 of some trade-unions in shutting out 

 colored workmen, on the other, the 

 wonder is that one third of the total 

 number of colored youth in these 

 schools have chosen the industrial 

 course. For it is by no means certain 

 that they will be allowed to work at 

 their trades after they have learned 

 them. 



The number of colored students who 

 have had even a smattering of the 

 higher education has been shown to 

 be ridiculously small, and the total 

 number of colored graduates with the 

 college degree proper does not at the 

 most liberal estimate exceed one thou- 



sand. Many of them are dead. Of the 

 number now living, almost every one 

 can be located in some useful and up- 

 lifting employment as ministers, teach- 

 ers, physicians, lawyers, business men, 

 or as wives presiding over nappy, pros- 

 perous, cultured homes which white per- 

 sons seldom enter except on business. 

 Our critics seem to know nothing of 

 these homes, which, as a rule, are owned 

 by their occupants. For the most part 

 these homes are scattered throughout 

 the South, and are centers of culture 

 and refinement that elevate the moral 

 and social status of the entire com- 

 munity. 



To deprive the youth of the colored 

 race of the higher education is to de- 

 prive them of all the nobler incentives 

 to study, to sacrifice, to struggle to get 

 an education. Every thoughtful person 

 knows that these incentives are neces- 

 sary for the white race; they are 

 equally necessary for the colored race. 

 Neither the white youth nor the col- 

 ored, in large numbers, will toil and 

 struggle and apply himself to get an 

 education, unless he sees that education 

 brings power and a better living to its 

 possessors. 



The colored race, like every other 

 part of our population, needs all kinds 

 of education. It is a sheer fallacy and 

 a grievous wrong to them to hold all 

 of them down to the rudiments of an 

 education, with industrial training. All 

 can not profit by the industrial training 

 any more than all can profit by the 

 higher training. There is no conflict 

 between the advocates of industrial 

 training and the higher education. Both 

 are right. Both are good in their re- 

 spective spheres. At any rate, it is not 

 necessary to disparage the magnificent 

 achievements of colored persons who 

 have received the higher training to 

 make an argument in favor of training 

 all of them in the manual trades, or 

 to justify their elimination from pol- 

 itics. 



Andrew F. Hilger, 

 Washington, D. C. 



