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diff --git a/78199-0.txt b/78199-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b3fd86 --- /dev/null +++ b/78199-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2928 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78199 *** + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + Italic text displayed as: _italic_ + + + + + August 15, 1922 Supplementary to the Brick News + + + A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA + + And Several Addresses to the + Negro Farmers’ Congress of + North Carolina + + BRICK SCHOOL IN RETROSPECT + + [Illustration] + + By Principal T. S. INBORDEN + Joseph Keasby Brick Agricultural, Industrial and Normal School + Bricks, North Carolina + + President of the North Carolina Negro Farmers Congress + President of the North Carolina Negro Historical Association + Twenty-seven years Principal of Brick School + + MITCHELL PRINTING CO., RALEIGH + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + + APRIL 22, 1922. + + MY DEAR FRIEND: + +You will be interested to know that I am again back from my five months +trip to the North and Northwest. While away I covered, according to +the railroad time tables, about twelve thousand miles. This took me +through most of the Northern States and the New England States and in +the Western States. + +I left Chicago the 21st of January and visited and stopped at the +following places: St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota; Aberdeen +in South Dakota; Marmarth in North Dakota; Miles City, Three Forks, +Butte and Gerson Hot Springs in Montana; crossing Idaho into Spokane, +Washington. We crossed the Continental Divide a few miles east of Butte +in four or five feet of snow in an elevation of six thousand feet above +sea level. This train was pulled by powerful electrical engines for +six hundred miles over the most picturesque mountains in the world. We +crossed the tributaries of the great Missouri River more than a score +of times, and scaled many mountains, from the highest elevations and +glided down into Seattle, Washington, into an elevation of fifteen feet +on Puget Sound. Trees were budding and many flowers were already in +bloom. After a few days we went to Tacoma in Washington and Portland in +Oregon. Then we were off to Sacramento, San Francisco in California. +The course took us from the beginning of the Sacramento River in the +Siskiyou and Shasta Mountains to its mouth at San Francisco Bay or +to the Straits of Carquinez, landing us at Port Costa for Richmond, +Berkley and Oakland in Alameda County. At the fine Oakland pier we +disembarked from the train and took the ferry boat four miles to San +Francisco, passing the Government Island to the left looking right into +the setting sun through the Golden Gate. + +A few days here in this beautiful setting and we were off for Los +Angeles, five hundred miles to the south still. Fresno, Bakersfield, +Tehachapi, across the snow-clad Sierra Madre ten thousand feet +elevation and in sight of Mount Whitney four thousand feet higher. Down +a mountain incline for fifty or more miles to Mojave Desert into Death +Valley and to San Fernando and Burbank and Los Angeles. Then to the +Orange Show at San Bernardino, passing on our way Pomona, San Gabriel, +Claremont and Garrett & Co.’s grape vineyards, one of the homes of +the Virginia Dare Extracts. Mr. Garrett is an Enfield man. We could +spend only a few days at Los Angeles, then we were off the Coast Route +to San Francisco again. Santa Barbara, Ventura, Guadaloupe, San Luis +Obispo, Delmonte, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Santa Clara, Red Wood Cities +are familiar names. It took three steam engines to pull the train +over the mountains coming north. A few days later we were off again +for Sacramento, and Salt Lake City in Utah, and Glenwood Hot Springs +in Colorado. Passing Florence we came into sight of Pike’s Peak more +than a hundred miles east of us, and passing the water-swept city of +Pueblo and Colorado Springs into Denver the mile high city. A few days +spent here and I was off again for Phillipsburg and Des Moines and +to Chicago, coming through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, +Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. I spent a few days in Chicago, was held up +on my arrival from the station to my stopping place in Chicago, but +was not robbed. My outcry for “Police and help!” thwarted their plans. +Then I was off to Washington City and home on the 22nd of March. At the +station I was overwhelmed by the students, teachers and friends in the +community who had come to welcome me home with school yells and band +music. + +I traveled two thousand miles in California alone. I gave twenty-eight +addresses, attended eight recitals, fourteen lectures, four theaters +where persons of color were the stars, three ministers’ meetings, one +annual conference, the meeting of the American Missionary Association, +the annual meeting of the Connecticut Congregational Association, +visited ten colleges and schools, nine state capitals, seventeen city, +state and municipal and school museums, twenty public markets. In +addition I talked with Japanese and Chinese farmers, fruit growers, +cattle men, sheep men, miners, negro ranchmen. I met them on the +trains, on the farms, in the hotels and restaurants, on the boats, on +the streets, in the stores, markets, and everywhere. I came back with a +few pounds less in weight, but with a vision that money could not buy. + + I am very truly, + T. S. INBORDEN. + + + + +JUST A MINUTE + + +I am here for only a couple of days. It is a long ways from Bricks, +North Carolina, to Seattle, Washington. I still have two thousand miles +before me before I turn my face eastward. One gets an idea of this +great big country only by traveling over it, as I have done for the +past three months. He can get it no other way. Such a trip ought to +condition every young man graduating from an Eastern college. + +Here we go from Bricks in the eastern part of North Carolina to +Washington City. The Atlantic Coast Line train takes us through +the most historic setting of the Coastal Plains of that eastern +section into the foothills of the Old Dominion, through the Civil +War battlegrounds of national fame, up the historic Potomac, passing +Richmond, Fredericksburg, the rustic triangular monument to the great +general who in his unfortunate retreat met death at the hands of his +own men, into Alexandria, the most historic and conservative town of +the pre-war days. Alexandria, the other end of the old pike leading +from the “far west” through Winchester Town seventy-five or more miles +away. This old pike was put in history by Sheridan’s ride, twenty miles +away from Winchester Town. + +Well, we cannot stop in Washington City. It needs nothing that I +can say. From Washington we went up into Old Virginia. Taking the +Southern train we went through the Virginia Valley and the Shenandoah +Valley. The trip took us right through the heart of the battle-fought +country of Manassas, Bull Run, over “Goose Creek,” “Painter Skin,” +“Jeffries”—creeks that are well known to all Virginians. We went right +into the heart of the Old Blue Ridge, and looking down on Harper’s +Ferry, Winchester, Middleburg, Leesburg, Upperville, Berryville, the +Shenandoah River, on to Washington itself, sixty miles away. Here are +five counties: Fauquier, Loudon, Warren, Clark, Jefferson and others in +the distance, covering an area of more than ten thousand square miles +of the finest country in the world, all to be seen from one level space +without moving ten feet on this historic old mountain. Corn, wheat, +cattle, and sheep, fill her valleys. There is no part of these valleys +and mountains that cannot, and that do not, grow the finest apples and +peaches that are grown in the world. (I am saying this in Seattle, +Washington.) + +I went back to Washington from this fine country, and from Washington +to Jersey City. From there I went over to New York and Brooklyn, and +out on Long Island Sound. From New York I went to Springfield, Mass. +From Springfield I went to the great meeting of the American Missionary +Association, which was held at New London, Connecticut. From there +I went back to New Haven for Armistice Day and to see Marshal Foch +receive his degree from Yale, and the great football game where there +were eighty thousand people. I went back to New York again, where I put +in two very profitable weeks studying racial and living conditions. + +From New York City I went to Rochester and put in several days speaking +here and there to small groups of people. From there I went to Batavia +for only a few hours, and then to the city of Buffalo. From Buffalo +to Cleveland and Oberlin, Ohio, and in two weeks on to Detroit, Mich. +A few days spent in Detroit, and I was on my way to Ann Arbor, Jackson +and Kalamazoo, Mich. I reached Chicago a few days before the Christmas +holidays. After the Christmas vacation I visited the high schools +of Gary, Indiana, and put in another week attending the Mid-Winter +Conference of Congregational Workers of the United States. Only three +other colored men were in attendance at this conference. They were Dr. +Alfred Lawless, of New Orleans; Dr. Kingsley, of Cleveland; Dr. C. W. +Burton, of Chicago. + +We learned in this great Mid-Winter Conference that there are other +problems besides the Negro problem. Indeed, he was scarcely discussed +at all. + +Immediately after the Conference I turned my face westward. It did not +seem safe that I should go alone to buy my ticket and to have my money +put into travelers cheques before leaving, so our good friend, Mr. J. +E. Wade, of the police force, offered his services and accompanied me +to the bank and ticket office. Mr. Wade was formerly from Elerby, N. +C. He and his nephew from Richmond County are giving fine services +on the police force of Chicago. I was told that they have about a +hundred colored men on the police force. All of these men are giving +excellent service. I was surprised and glad to see in many of the +largest business houses in Chicago our colored men and women doing +business over the counters. I saw them in the shipping houses and in +the ticket offices. In the city postoffice of Chicago I was told by one +of the “checkers” that out of about eight thousand or more employees +that nearly two thousand were colored. I was escorted through every +department of the great postoffice and saw the men handling the nine +hundred tons of mail that go through the office every day. Many of the +men I knew personally, and some were relatives. Most of the men were +experts at their job. A very large number of them are graduates from +our best colleges. All of them were fine looking, well groomed men. +They were not the least in appearance when compared with the other +racial groups. + +From Chicago I took the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul train to St. +Paul. The glacial swept areas of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota +abounds with natural resources aside from the farm products. This is a +community of wheat, corn and flour mills. It is the home of the world’s +best packing houses. Minnesota is the synonym for “Gold Medal”; it also +says the last word on poultry feed and products. I was shown through +a sanitary packing-house where nearly or quite a thousand people were +given employment. Coffee, tea, spices and sugar and other commodities +are shipped in daily by the train loads and made into new products, +repacked and shipped out daily to all parts of the world. The amount of +all sorts of candy, cakes, etc., handled was a revelation. Machinery +has taken care of every operation in this great establishment, except +the absolute thought of man. To the uninitiated it might seem to think +also. The world’s best brand of cheese comes from these parts also. I +was surprised to learn that one little community east of St. Paul, in +Wisconsin, called Rio, shipped two years ago more than two hundred and +twenty-five thousand dollars worth of the finest grades of tobacco. + +Some of the soldier boys will be interested to know that some of the +buildings, probably most of them, at Camp Douglass were still intact as +we sped by them through the cliffs and dells. + +From St. Paul we turned our face westward for a two thousand mile jaunt +on one of the best equipped and finest trains that ever rolled the +iron. Not a minute late on its own account, up hill, down grade, across +deep canyons, under the mountains, over the top of the mountains, +spanning valleys, across the river beds and lowlands, with the same +speed, whether in eight feet of snow on the Cascade Mountains or +whether there is no snow, and on to the Pacific Coast. Pulled by the +most powerful electric engines in the world, she leaps onward by the +touch of her engineer like a thing of life and thought. + +Our first stop was in Aberdeen, in South Dakota. It was night on our +arrival, and I left the train to spend the night for the rest, so that +I might have the day to see—yes, just to see. I had been to Aberdeen +in 1909 and knew what to expect. The porter advised me not to go out +without wrapping up well, as it was about twenty degrees below zero. I +went to the first place where the sign read “hotel.” I was comfortably +located, and after I had gotten a lunch thought I would find the school +where I once spoke, but before I had gone very far I decided that my +room was the best place for a stranger in that sort of weather. My face +could not have been colder if it had been buried for twenty minutes +between two blocks of ice. This particular community is noted for its +fine quality of white potatoes. They are grown in great quantities, and +they are the last word in potato growing. There are none any better +anywhere else in the world for flavor and texture. + +In a country so cold and bleak one would not expect to find much +vegetation. Quick maturing crops of wheat and corn are grown. Hogs, +cattle and sheep abound. For hundreds of miles in every direction there +is absolutely nothing but a barren track of land which affords great +quantities of the finest hay, which grows naturally. Every mile looks +for the world just like the one from which you have just come. There is +nothing to break the monotony of the landscape except the monotony of +another one. The porter or conductor comes in and says, “Twin Brooks,” +“Stone Falls,” “Odessa,” etc., and you look out when the snow does not +blind the view and you see nothing but a few houses, a wheat elevator, +or a lot of sleds drawn by two or four horses; not a tree except +perhaps a few planted by the government agents. As you reach the North +Dakota line not a tree to mark even the site of the little towns that +may be more pretentious. + +At Marmarth we come into Montana at an elevation of 2700 feet, having +put behind us nine hundred and ninety-five miles since leaving Chicago. +We have already passed Wakpala, an Indian Reservation, and school. +These are easily in sight. We have also left the Missouri River and +the Little Missouri River behind. We come into Musselshell Division, +and soon cross the Yellowstone River. Miles City is our station for +the night. It is nearly twelve hundred miles out of Chicago with 2300 +feet elevation. Several smaller tributaries to the Yellowstone River +are passed. Small shrubbery and a few trees in the river courses are a +great relief to the landscape. But before we reach the “City” to which +we are destined for the night we come into “Bad Lands.” Here nature +went into contortions and left an awful frown upon her face. I asked +the white porter, a very fine fellow (a Lutheran by faith), what was +the matter with the country. He said “This is Bad Lands.” + +Miles City was not a bad looking city. It had all the modern +improvements. For several hundred miles we followed the valleys of the +Musselshell River and the Yellowstone River, crossing and recrossing +the rivers and valleys, sometimes over a high mountain and then almost +precipitously down and under another mountain, only to rejoin the river +again through another tortuous valley. We reached the Rocky Mountains +Division at Harlowton, Montana, thirteen hundred miles west of Chicago +at an elevation of 4,000 feet. If you have any heart trouble you will +know that something outside in the physical world has happened before +you get here. On we go over the “Summitt of Big Belts” literally up, +up, up, around this curve, across that ravine, up by this tall hill, +finally on the top, and you look back for five, ten, fifteen or twenty +miles and you see the ribbon of track you have spun out. You see the +thousands of waste acres of snow and the cattle hugging the hills for +protection against the winter’s cold. They are inured to it. Ours +would die the first night out. The reader would get sleepy before he +had spent one hour out there. That is the way you freeze to death; +you just get sleepy. We pass Ringling, the Montana Canyon, and again +miles further Montana Canyon, with rocks projecting hundreds of feet +above you, still we speed along and cross the great Missouri River +seven hundred miles above where we crossed a few days ago. Near Eustis +we cross the Jefferson, Madison, Gallitin rivers forming the Missouri +River. Bull Mountains have been left three hundred miles behind and +still we speed along. Our horse neither tires nor pants. They feed him +“white coal” generated at great substations from fifty to a hundred +miles apart. Generated by mountain streams in their mad rush to the +great bosom of waters. + +At dark I wanted to stop at some small mining town for the night so as +not to miss any scenery. The conductor advised against this because +of the condition of the people and their accommodation for strangers. +I listened, and stopped at his advice at Three Forks, almost fifteen +hundred miles out from Chicago, and still 4,000 feet elevation. This +was in a valley of farming land of more than three hundred thousand +acres of the best farming land in Montana. The great valley was very +beautiful, with the mountains ten, twenty, thirty, fifty and a hundred +miles away in every direction, silhouetted above the clouds, and dotted +with its own shadows. As the sun came up from the east and spread +its majesty over the snow-clad peaks every one was made a diamond of +beauty. But we were not to stay at Three Forks over Sunday. We are +traveling on trains 15 and 17. If we leave 15 over night we take 17 the +next morning, and so we had 15 or 17 every day. At 8:50 we departed in +very cold weather—ten degrees below zero, they said. It was only three +hours ride from Butte, Montana. I did not want to pass the highest +point reached on the whole trip in the dark. I wanted to have my eyes +open and see when I went over the real top. Well I did. It was 10:53 by +my watch—1,505 miles out from Chicago, 6,322 feet elevation. + +The writer of the “Ex-Colored Man” said when he was in Paris with his +landlord he was very fond of music, etc., and so one night he went to +one of the finest theaters in the city. Soon after he had taken his +seat a very aristocratic looking gentleman came in whom he had at one +time seen at his mother’s house in the state of Georgia. He was very +small at the time he saw him in Georgia, and he was sure it was the +same gentleman. He had with him his beautiful wife and a more beautiful +daughter. To his amazement they sat almost adjoining him in the +theater so close that he might have touched them. They did not know +him. He knew that it was his own father, and this beautiful girl just +finishing high school was his own sister, flesh and blood. He wanted to +speak, but conventionality and tradition had closed his mouth, and to +save tragedy he arose and left in silence. + +I have looked forward all my life for just such an opportunity to see +this great country, as I have now had, and as I am having, because I +still have 5,000 miles ahead. Most of my younger life was spent in +trying to get an education. Most of my grown life has been spent in +missionary service on small salary, and with a family of children to +educate and prepare for a larger life than I had the opportunity of +having. This opportunity now comes to me through the officials and +friends of the American Missionary Association under whose auspices I +have worked for thirty-two years. It comes as an appreciation on their +part for my long service. I may not have done everything they wanted me +to do, but I have tried to follow the dictates of an honest conviction. + +When I passed over the great _Continental Divide_ I remembered my dream +of forty years. I knew no one and had no one to talk to about it. I +looked into space and thanked the Lord of all of us that I had cast +my lot where the rewards had been faithful and abundant. I felt like +crying out in paroxisms of joy. + +We are still “a-going.” We reached Butte, Montana, at noon Sunday, +January 29th. It was very cold, but I found a good hotel near the +station, so that I did not have to be in the cold very long. I was +advised and was quick in deciding that I would in an hour take the +trip to Gerson Hot Springs, eighteen miles away. Several miles from +the place I saw what seemed to be smokestacks with steam pouring out +each one. I found on arrival that these were just openings in the roof, +forming vents for the steam from the hot water as it comes from the +mountains at a temperature of 195 degrees. The water has wonderful +healing properties. I did not take the bath because of the extreme +temperature outside. The hot springs are very numerous in these parts +of the country. All the rivers were frozen several feet deep but here +and there where the streams pass very close to the mountain gorges one +can see the temperature of the water change by the warmer currents +coming right out of the hills. + +Butte is the largest mining center in the world. One hill is the +richest hill in all the world—is worth more than all of Wall Street, +New York. The bar-iron, copper, silver, gold, and other by-products +probably go down to the center of the earth. I went 2,200 feet down, +and I was then 800 feet from the bottom of it. I was donned in a real +miner’s outfit, including a miner’s acetelyne lamp. Our descending cage +was about four feet square, and held four men. It was built to bring up +twenty tons of ore about every minute of the day. State laws define how +fast human beings shall be brought up or taken down. The installation +that operates this mine cost more than a million dollars. It is the +finest electrical outfit I ever saw. The house in which the machinery +is located that operates the pulleys, under air pressure, is more than +a hundred feet square. When the signals are given, twenty-eight feet +down, one man brings the load to the tenth of an inch exactness to +any level in the pit or on top of the ground, a hundred feet high if +necessary. Thousands of wheels, belts, pulleys, pistons, etc., move +in every part of this building to the touch of one man. If he makes a +single mistake it may cost one life or a thousand in the mine. It may +cost a mint of money in destruction. Efficiency, absolute efficiency is +the only thing that counts. + +Five very large pumps about twelve feet square each bring up the +surplus water from below. They are located many feet below the surface +of the ground, and it is never cold down there. The water is charged +with copper, and this disintegrates any other metals, so that the pipes +must be lined with wood and brass. This water is run through long +troughs over old tin cans and iron waste, where the copper is deposited +and afterwards taken off. I did not have time to get all the details of +the process. Mr. J. D. Rockefeller, I was told, owned most of the stock +of this particular mine. + +In the morning of the same day I visited one of the best schools in +this country. It was a city high school. Everything taught in this +school leads to mining. That is the big job there. The youths are +prepared to do the things they will have to do when they leave school. +Boys ten to fifteen years old are experts already in the machine shop. + +We left at noon Tuesday, and my destination was Spokane, Washington. We +crossed the Missouri River, the valley of the same name, and saw scores +of apple orchards. Near East Portal we crossed Bitter Root Summit and +Bitter Root Valley, also made famous by its fine apples and vegetables. +We passed again under the mountains two miles. Here we were eighteen +hundred miles from Chicago in an elevation more than 4,000 feet. At +Superior we were delayed several hours in the night on account of a +freight wreck. We arrived in Spokane about noon Thursday. We crossed +the Cascade Mountains in eight feet of snow. This was after leaving +Spokane. We visited the Spokane Valley, another valley made famous by +its apples. I talked with a banker about the products of the community. +They are trying to get emigrants from the East to come into the +community. It is a farming and lumber community. I visited the exhibits +of farm products kept by the chamber of commerce of the city. They are +wide awake. I saw all sorts of vegetables grown on irrigated land and +by dry farming methods that would make our farmers take notice. I never +saw finer vegetables anywhere. They are grown under great pressure. + +From Spokane 1,900 miles west of Chicago, in an elevation of 1,882 +feet, we dropped down here (Seattle) in a few hours to 2,200 miles west +of Chicago and to sea level. From eight feet of snow crossing into a +temperature of 36 degrees above zero. No snow and no ice. + +February 2nd we arrived at Seattle. Twelve days and about twenty-two +hundred miles from Chicago. This is considered the chief city of all +this part of the country. It has a population of about 350,000 people. +Its scenic environment, with its background of mountains and its valley +intersected by sounds, bays and rivers, make it the most beautiful city +in the world. It is called the “Floral Paradise.” I saw many flowers +blooming in the open. It is said to be the cleanest and best lighted +city in the world. + +I wanted to see Puget Sound, so the next morning bright and early I +found my way over the network of railroads on a high elevation above +the streets to the fine pier several hundred feet above the water. +Here I had a fine view of the Sound and the great expanse of water and +mountains yonder a few miles, and literally thousands of boats of +every kind and from everywhere in the world. The place from which I +made the observation was a fine room with large glass windows, leather +seats, heat, restaurant, etc., to make the weary traveler rested and +welcome. This was Puget Sound. This is where literacy has the highest +rating of any American city. If any city is cleaner or better lighted I +have yet to see it. + +In these parts there are billions of feet of lumber untouched by the +despoiler. I saw fir trees measuring four and six feet in diameter. +I was told they were three and four hundred feet tall. I saw two men +sawing with a cross-cut saw, one on one side and one on the other side, +and the diameter was so great that only one man could be seen below his +head. + +The Sound itself is said to be large enough to contain all the navies +of the world and still have more room. The diversity of scenery, +its climate, air, beautiful sunshine, mountains, sounds, and inland +waterways, woods, flowers, parks, fine hotel, theaters, public markets, +and city railway system, postoffice, and the State University, give +that place a setting hard to describe in this limited space. The +three or four public markets are works of art. One on Second Street +was terraced, and is the cleanest market I ever saw, and I have seen +a great many. The markets will generally indicate what the farmers +are doing. They show the best products raised in the community. The +arrangement of these country products will give you an idea of their +artistic values. The Japanese were in evidence everywhere. They were +universally polite and clean. They may be ubiquitous, but they are +certainly utilitarian. They know how to get the best results from +the soil as farmers. They had the best things I ever saw from the +farms. They are credited with having a lot of sense and of being very +industrious. These are very important assets in the development of any +community, whether in California or in North Carolina. Having sense +means having efficiency, knowing how to do. Industry means power and +wealth. + +As much as I would have loved to linger here longer, I had to divide +my time with other points of interest. I left there early Sunday +morning, the fifth of February, for Tacoma, about forty miles away. +Through miles and miles of orchards of raspberries, loganberries and +blackberries, apples and pears and walnuts, passing great canning and +packing houses, irrigation projects, mining sections, etc., and at +10 o’clock the Olympian rolled into Tacoma. Mount Rainier, Mount St. +Helena, Mount Hood, and Mount Adams, off in the distance had already +come into view. You are overwhelmed by their vastness and grandeur. +Their snow-capped peaks, timbered inclines and fertile valleys cannot +be equaled anywhere else in the world. + +We are still on the Puget Sound. The city has a population of more +than a hundred thousand souls. They represent every nationality under +the sun. It has the finest harbor and the most equitable climate in +the world. The rainfall is around thirty-five inches a year, which +insures better farming conditions. The Chamber of Commerce of Seattle +and Tacoma are vieing with each other as to which will show the best +exhibits of the state. Their great varieties of wheat, corn, flax, +rye, oats, grasses, barley, buckwheat, apples, pears, small fruits and +nuts, and their by-products: honey, preserved fruits, tomatoes, and +manufactured products, views and paintings of cattle and sheep raising, +lumbering, etc., simply baffle the imagination. You want to sit and +look for hours and write impressions in your notebook, and then go out +and come back again and do the same thing as long as you have a minute +to spare. + +Tacoma has a stadium that seats forty thousand people. Nothing else +like it in the United States except the college stadia at Cambridge and +New Haven. Schools and churches are the finest in the whole country. +It was my pleasure to speak twice the Sunday I was there in one of the +largest and finest churches in the city (white), and in the evening to +one of our colored churches. The museum contains pictures of the early +pioneers and Indian history curios. It was in this community where the +earliest white settlements were made. The stadium and Stadium High +School are located on one of the highest points in the city overlooking +Puget Sound, which is precipitously, several hundred feet at the base +of the hill. Trains may be seen for miles and miles coming from the +East and North, and boats from Alaska, Seattle and Vancouver as they +turn the western promontory. I traveled with an elderly gentleman who +built almost the first house in that part of the city for the father of +the present occupant, and I also had dinner in that house overlooking +the stadium and the Sound. The minister living in the house is an +eastern man, and his wife is the daughter of a missionary to Honolulu. +She went over in the Morning Star soon after its construction forty +years ago, in company with President Fairchild of Oberlin College. At +that time she was a small child. + +The state of Washington produced in 1921 28,000,000 bushels of apples +alone that were worth more than $30,000,000. At the same time New +York is said to have produced 14,000,000, California 6,000,000, and +Michigan 6,000,000 bushels of apples. At the time Spokane County, +in which Spokane is located, is said to have produced 80,000,000 +bushels of wheat. I went through this valley, a part of Yakima and +a part of Wenatchee valleys. One wonders at the great productivity +of this country when he thinks of the great mountains almost +everywhere—mountains where absolutely nothing can grow. The valleys +are protected by these mountains. They are for the most part virgin +soil. Irrigation projects have brought the melting snow to the ripening +fruit and grain. The sun, penetrating into these mountain recesses have +brought color and flavor equaled by no other community. + +Pity it is that we cannot stay here to see more of this environment. +We must go to Portland, Oregon. “We pass Rainier National Park on the +left closed to winter tourists, and the towering sentinels already +mentioned. We are in sight of them until we get to Portland, nearly two +hundred miles away. Portland is a fine city of unusual wealth, fine +houses, parks, hotels, banks, more than two hundred miles of street car +lines, beautiful stores and public buildings, and flowers, flowers, +everywhere flowers. The mountains back of the city are circled by +beautiful drives and street car lines, and every sort of house that can +be built on the face of the earth, terraced from top to bottom, trees, +ferns, flowers, vines, form the most perfect menagerie of vegetation +and of art that one can conceive. It looked like the composition of one +mind. It was the coöperation of many minds for civic beauty. The view +from Council Crest—see it once and you will never forget it if you have +any imagination. The Columbia River cutting in half and stretching away +for miles in the distance, the towering snow-capped mountains already +named above, the beautiful Willamette River whose course for several +hundred miles we shall soon follow, the Cascade Range, thousands of +acres of fine farms and beautiful farm homes spreading out in every +direction as far as the eye can see, a flock of sheep, a few thousand +cattle, a herd of ponies and horses, the weird whistle of steamers +coming up the river, and trains passing up the several valleys, all +seen from Council Crest give you a feeling of scenic beauty that you +cannot overcome. What a paradise for botanists. How I would like to +have lingered in that environment until the foliage came into their +glory! The markets are again gems of beauty. One has to buy whether +he needs anything or not. The sellers are so courteous and polite. +The arrangement of the products are so unique and artistic; they +have so much and so great a variety; the people handling the goods +were so clean in their pure white garbs; the tables and stands were +immaculately clean; everything put on the market was absolutely clean +and pretty. You just had to stop and taste here and there and buy. I +bought here several kinds of honey for samples, which I brought six +thousand miles home. I carried it all the way. Sage honey, clover +honey, alfalfa honey, apple honey, orange honey, olive honey, raspberry +honey, etc. + +At night I saw a big roller machine actually scrubbing the streets. +Beat that if you can. I saw it. The Chamber of Commerce gives out every +year free literature telling about the products of the state, and +they have a show of the farm and mineral products that simply cannot +be equaled anywhere. The market stands I was told were owned by the +city and are rented to the farmers and others on condition that only +farm-grown products produced by themselves were to be on sale in them. +The rent was just a nominal rent to encourage the farmer to bring his +wares and sell it. + +The Southern Pacific train took us south from Portland. The road leads +for many miles up the Willamette River through the most beautiful +valley, then up the Umpqua River, and the Umpqua River Valley, and into +the Rogue River Valley. The climatic conditions are well adapted for +grains, grasses, fruits and walnuts. The growing seasons are especially +long, and there is not much danger from frost. The fruit orchards +yield from five hundred dollars to a thousand dollars an acre. Some +of course with less care, yield much less. The higher figures show +the possibilities under the best care. On my way south I saw a great +many apples thrown out in the fields. I was advised that the fruit +association were not getting their prices, and they were thrown away +to save cheap sales. They picked last year 2,650,000 boxes of apples +valued at $2,600,000. These apples were the Spitzenbur, Yellow Newton +Pippins, Jonathan, Rome Beauty. These are the varieties prized for +their color, keeping quality, flavor and conformity to the best types. +The trees come into bearing the fourth and fifth years, and increase +their yield from one bushel to seven a year, and as they get older +the increase may reach twenty boxes a year. Their apple pests are the +same as ours. They must spray to get the best results. The trees are +not large. The average yield to the acre is from three hundred to four +hundred bushels, at a total cost of about forty and sixty cents a +bushel. + +Large acreages of pear trees of the standard varieties are grown, and +they are more prolific bearers. The yield is said to be higher per +acre than that of apples. I saw scores and scores of very large pear +orchards. The trees are less trouble to care for than apple trees. + +I saw thousands and thousands of trees in the Willamette, Umpqua and +Rogue River valleys that baffled me to know what they were. They did +not look like any sort of trees I had even seen, and yet I did not +want to appear too ignorant to my fellow travelers. I had only one way +to find out, and that was to ask somebody who knew. They were _prune_ +trees. The cost of caring for a prune orchard is said to be from five +to seven dollars an acre. The average crop an acre is about five tons. +The average value per acre is from $75 to $250. About thirty million +tons are produced, and the demand is growing. They have not begun +to fill the demand. People are learning more than ever the food and +medicinal value of this fruit. + +Nearly fifty million pounds of cherries are produced annually at a +value of more than two hundred thousand dollars. They yield about +six thousand pounds to the acre at a profit of from one hundred to +eight hundred dollars an acre. In Western Oregon, the Upper Columbian +Valley, and the southwestern part of the state peaches are grown on a +large scale and at great profit. Grapes, strawberries, raspberries, +blackberries, loganberries and currants are grown in great quantities. +At La Grande, Oregon, there is a sugar beet factory whose capacity +is three hundred and fifty tons daily. Beets are grown largely in +that section. French walnuts are grown in large quantities. Seedlings +are grafted with improved varieties. The largest I ever saw were in +the markets. I stopped one night at Grant’s pass and saw some of the +largest and finest pumpkins that can be grown in the world. + +Stock raising probably stands at the head of the productive resources +of the state. Great quantities of cattle, sheep, horses, mules, hogs, +and even goats are raised. The income from this industry would be +many millions of dollars. Poultry is grown all the year, and millions +of dollars are realized yearly from dairying. The annual output of +honey is around two million pounds, averaging more than three hundred +thousand dollars. + +I have said nothing about the fisheries, the fertility of the rivers, +lakes and bays, and the lumber conditions. There are about twenty +million acres of land in Oregon unappropriated, waiting for brain +and brawn. It belongs to the government. You may have it if you will +qualify and meet the conditions. + +On my way to San Francisco I had planned to stop at Eugene and see +the State University, but I found that I could not do so without very +much delay, and also because the weather conditions were bad. It is a +railway center of considerable importance. Passing Cottage Grove we +crossed the Umpqua River and went up the valley some distance, and +up the Rogue Valley close by the river of the same name into Grant’s +Pass. Here I preferred to stay all night so as not to miss any view or +things of interest. We were never out of sight of picturesque scenery +and mountains of great height and beauty. Orchards and fine gardens of +vegetables were ever in sight. Our train has taken us into Cow Creek +Canyon, beautiful and picturesque. Grant’s Pass is the fruit shipping +center for this part of the state, and I saw many packing houses. On to +Ashland at the foothills of the Siskiyou, where the lythia water and +mineral springs attract your attention as you pull into the station, +and all get out to try the water as it comes fresh up into the glass +receptacles for you to drink. Ahead and around you on every side +nothing but mountains towering a mile high. You wonder how you are to +scale that tower in your front. Your train takes on another engine, +possibly two, and off you go up the Rogue Valley till the Rogue River +is lost in the mountain stream. When you can go no further your train +cuts across the head of the valley on a high bridge and climbs the +opposite mountain parallel to the track you have just come on the other +side, going directly north, exactly reversing your course. We zig-zag +up that mountain for an hour till we reach an elevation of nearly ten +thousand feet. All this time we are in sight of Ashland, fourteen miles +below, lying placid, warm and quiet. The snow plows are busy keeping +away the snow and the men are clad in the warmest sheep skins from head +to foot. A mile off to the left, a thousand feet higher, is “Pilot +Rock,” lying as if it had been hurled by some powerful giant. This is +the landmark that guided the early pioneers and Indians in their early +explorations through that unknown country. Freeing our train from her +extra engines, we sped off at a tangent through a fine growth of timber +and cut over land. This is the Shasta route, and we have just scaled +the Siskiyou Mountains. Now we start down the slope, entering the +Cantara Loop and crossing at the very head of the Sacramento River. + +Now we have crossed the line into California. Mount Shasta, the most +majestic peak of the western continent, fourteen thousand feet and +more, towers above us, and off at some distance. We enter Sacramento +River Canyon and stop at Shasta Springs, which is a source of this +river. There we got off the train and drank the finest water that ever +came from the earth. This is probably the greatest summer resort on the +Pacific Coast. I saw one rabbit sitting in his burrow on the side of +the hill. The snow was falling terrifically. + +Miles and miles down this canyon we go, passing ferns and moss hanging +from a thousand crags. We pass Castle Crags away to the west like +sentinels guarding our entrance. More than four hundred miles we go, +following this tortuous river valley until it spreads out into San +Francisco Bay. We pass Chico, a community of fruit interest and great +vineyards. If one will look at the map of the state of California +he will see that almost all the state is included in two great +valleys, especially in the northern part of the state called Northern +California. These valleys lie north of the Sierra Madre Mountains, +which form the natural divide between Northern and Southern California. +These are the valleys of Sacramento adjacent to the Sacramento River, +which runs the entire length of the valley and into the Straits of +Carquinez and into the San Francisco Bay. The other valley is San +Joaquin. In the first of these is located Sacramento, the capital of +the state, and in the second valley is Fresno, near the southern part +of the valley, and also Bakersfield. + +We are told that about half of the cultivated land in California, or +that which may be cultivated, is in the valleys. They form more than +fourteen million acres. They are about four hundred and fifty miles +long and more than forty miles wide. The Sacramento and San Joaquin +rivers are the drainage for this great basin. These two great rivers +come together near Walnut Grove, one from the south and one from the +north. I traveled the entire valleys of both these rivers. There are +almost three millions of acres in the Sacramento Valley alone, and from +my observation not more than half of it seems to be in cultivation. +Thousands of acres of it are in citrous fruits and other fruits and +walnuts. At the same time of my visit large areas of the two valleys +were under water. The lands are rich and yield readily to various kinds +of cultivation. + +When the overflow from the rivers during the rainy season is +controlled, there is no reason why these lands should not be more +valuable to the state. Large areas are still in the formation, and look +as if they might make great rice plantations. I heard while out there +that something was being done to get Japanese farmers to work these low +areas into rice farms. + +I stopped one night at Redding. This is only a few miles inside of the +state line. It was here that the “Gold Rush” was made in 1849. Some of +the old settlers are still here and remember the “rush.” I was told +that two per cent of our gold still comes from this community. It was +here that I really saw the first sign of California. The next morning +after my arrival, while waiting for my train, I saw oranges in the +parks and about the homes near the central part of the town. Magnolia +trees and palm trees showed that we were in a new and strange country. +Tropical plants of one sort or another can be grown from one end of the +state to the other. One man said that he could pick oranges at the same +time watch the melting snow on the nearby mountains. + +The rainfall varies from fifteen to thirty inches, whether in the +lower or upper part of the state. Irrigation projects are on foot, and +furnish all the water needed for the crops. As the acreage increases +these projects will grow. Sacramento River and Feather River are the +main sources of water for this upper country. I traveled through both +of these valleys and to the very mouth of the rivers. + +We arrived at Benecia late in the afternoon, and the entire train is +put aboard the largest ferry boat in the world, and carried across +four miles to Port Costa, across the Strait of Carquinez. We pass +Richmond, Berkley, Oakland. At Oakland we pull into the Oakland ferry +and disembark again to a large ferry boat, and in twenty minutes we are +in the city of San Francisco. We are here for only a few days, then we +leave for the southern part of the state. We reserve our impressions of +the city till our return. + +The other valley further south is supposed to be eleven thousand +square miles, and has about seven million acres of arable land. It is +a boundless area and productive of the greatest quantity of oranges, +olives, grapes, etc. We spent a part of two days at Fresno, and +addressed the colored Baptist Church at night. There are some colored +farmers in that section who are doing well on their farms. We regretted +very much that we could not count them by the thousand. They are +altogether too few. + +Bakersfield, which is in the southern part of this valley, is a great +oil section of the state. There are four such centers in this state. +Their combined output a few years ago was ninety-two million barrels. +Oil has taken the place of coal in almost all the industries of the +state. The refineries are seen almost everywhere. Stock raising, +grapes, orange orchards, peach orchards, olive orchards, fig orchards +border every road. I saw at least one flock of sheep numbering more +than three thousand. + +We crossed the Sierra Madre over the Tehachapi loop at an elevation of +more than seven thousand feet. Going down the mountain we passed into +the great Mojave Desert. Death Valley, 290 feet below sea level, forms +a part of this desert. There must be several thousand square miles of +country in this area, and I would not give fifty cents for the whole of +it. The discovery of oil may give value or the irrigation projects may +save it for farm developments. Yucca, sage and sand seemed to be its +chief products at present. Mojave, Lancaster and San Fernando are our +next stop. A few hours later we are in Los Angeles. + +The object of my trip West was to study farming conditions with +reference to the colored people and to acquaint myself with living +conditions in that part of the country. + +There is little that I can say about Southern California, and Los +Angeles especially, that the world does not know. It is separated +from the northern part of the state by the range of mountains already +referred to, known as the Tehachapi Mountains, which are a part of the +Sierra Madre. There are seven counties south of this mountain divide. +It has a reputed population of more than six hundred thousand people. +They represent every nationality. There are forty-five thousand colored +people in the city. The state as a whole is the most cosmopolitan I +ever saw. + +I wanted to take some data from the printed matter sent out from the +Chamber of Commerce. The products of the county must measure in a very +large way the industry and happiness of the citizens. + +It is the leading county in the United States in the value of all +crops. It ranks first in the value of farm property, in the value +of all farm crops, in the value of fruits and nuts, hay and forage, +dairy products, bearing lemon trees, beet sugar production, and in +bearing olive trees. It ranks second in poultry, bearing orange trees, +irrigation enterprise, and walnuts products. + +The conduit which brings the city water for more than two hundred +miles was built at a cost of twenty-five million dollars. There are +four trans-continental railways that enter the city of Los Angeles, +and probably a dozen other smaller lines. They have more than twelve +hundred miles of improved streets and more than nine miles of sewer. +There are twenty-five public parks. I visited a number of them. They +have more than five hundred miles of electrical car lines and more +than a thousand miles of electrical lines running to all parts of the +county. Their schools are the best in the whole country. They have +hundreds of churches that are well attended. + +I took daily tours to many of the suburban towns in twenty and thirty +miles radius. Culver City, Santa Monica, Venice, Beverly, Hollywood, +Long Beach, Redondo, Pasadena, Pomona, Claremont, Ontario, San Gabriel, +Burbank, etc. These are all beautiful spots. Some of them are real +little cities with every modern facility. I thought at the time of +my visit that if people who live under such an environment as I saw +were not happy, they have no need to go to heaven when they die. They +told me that I ought to have made my trip in the summer when I could +see the country in its glory. I went in an auto bus to San Bernardino +seventy miles through the country to the orange show. It is called the +Gate City to Southern California. The county itself is a wonder in +its output of fruits and walnuts, oranges especially. I saw millions +of bushels of the yellow fruit everywhere for miles and miles till +the eye tired of seeing what I called an awful waste of nature’s +products. The city is called the commercial center of the orange belt. +It is a beautifully laid out city with semi-tropical plants growing +everywhere, luxuriantly beautiful. The show takes up more than an +acre of ground, and oranges were blended in the most gorgeous display +in every conceivable figure. Oranges, lemons, grape fruit and their +by-products by the millions. + +The trip through the valley took me over the finest roads in the world. +They could not be finer. I was more than interested to pass “Garrett +and Company’s” vineyards, one of the homes of the Virginia Dare +products. Mr. Garrett himself is an Enfield, N. C., man. The extracts +are bound to be right if it is “Virginia Dare.” + +What is said of any one of the southern counties may be well said of +any other, except perhaps the “Imperial Valley County.” I did not go to +that county, but from what I heard about the county it looks as if a +special edict was issued from the maker of all the counties to do some +special work on that county alone. It was the last county formed in the +state, and its area is more than four thousand square miles. It is in +the extreme southwest part of the state. The lay of the land, the soil +itself, the climate, location, altitude make it the best place in the +world for stock raising and fruit production. There are more turkeys +grown in this one county than in other similar sections in the world. + +I was very much impressed with the fine school houses and churches. +No money or care seemed to be lacking in the construction of these +important centers. Every one I saw in the country or city was decked +with profusive growths of shrubbery and flowers. While I was in +Spokane, the city claimed the lowest death rate per thousand of its +populations. When I was in Seattle that city claimed the same thing. +When I was in Tacoma they claimed they had the lowest death rate; +when in Sacramento they claimed to have the lowest death rate. In San +Francisco they claimed the lowest death rate; Oakland claimed the +same; Los Angeles claimed the lowest also. When we were crossing the +Tehachapi Mountains ten thousand feet elevation I saw a fine graveyard +up further on the side of the hill, and I was surprised. They might +have been soldiers killed in the war. One almost wonders why folks +should ever die in such a beautiful country. Conditions are so good for +living right along. Good churches, excellent schools, clean cities, +perfect climate, all must contribute greatly to long life. They +ought to be happy, but happiness cannot be bought with luxuries; it +contributes more than anything else to long life when other conditions +are good. + +The city of Los Angeles is twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean, and I +venture to predict that in less than twenty years the city will extend +and include Venice, Santa Monica, Long Beach and all the little coast +towns along the water front, and the largest ocean vessels will be +doing business in the heart of the business section as they are in +Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland. Their population +will soon be in the millions. It is growing by leaps and bounds every +day, every week and every month. Fourteen thousand people come there +every year. The people are busy everywhere. They have the secret of +getting a larger population. Create industrial interests and the folks +follow. Good schools and good churches; a community in which there is +compatibility between all classes and not hatred. These are the best +drawing cards. + +One does not travel many miles in California without asking questions. +Many of the questions will have to be answered by history. Cortez, Juan +Rodriguez, Cabrillo, Don Gasper de Portola, Fray Junipero Serre are +familiar names in its early history. The country was known as Alta and +Baja, which was upper and lower California. It began in the extreme +southern part of the state and went as far north as the foot of man +could tread. The old maps show the southern part of the state as being +a part of Mexico. It was sometimes called the land of the Heart’s +Desire. To use the words of another it was in 1769, “That destiny +marked Southern California for its own, ordering the fig and the vine +to make soft the dessert wastes, lemon and orange bloom for the upland +slopes, herds for a thousand hills, living water to make green the +sun-browned land; and, last, not the dream of seven mythical cities of +gold, but the bright reality of thrice seven times seven golden cities +that now throb with the tides of commerce and the tread of countless +feet.” + +At the beginning of its history the King of Spain ordered that in order +to make the country safe for Spain and its religion, that missions +should be established. Under the orders of the great Catholic church +fifteen or more missions were established—fifteen of them along the +coast. My trip back to San Francisco, five hundred miles north, took me +along the Pacific Coast in sight of many of these missions. We follow +what was called the “Highway of the King.” Those we passed were San +Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, San Miguel, and Santa Clara. The southern +part of the state especially owes a lot to these early missionaries. +They gave harbor to the traveler, irrigated the land and started the +early settlers and Indians to farming. + +From San Francisco to Los Angeles along the coast is a country backed +by mountains of great height and beauty with slopes and valleys +surpassing any description. For hundreds of miles our train slipped +right along the edge of the Pacific waters, sometimes forty or a +hundred feet above these waters, sometimes nearer, then off on a hill +top, then across an arm of the sea, then headlong toward the water as +if to go right into it, only to swerve around some high hill and then +out into some beautiful valley. You have to see it to appreciate it. + +Passing San Fernando, Oxnard, Ventura, we come to Santa Barbara in +Santa Barbara County. The county is mountainous and has four large +valleys. The valleys are the Santa Ynez, Los Alamos, Lompoc, and Santa +Maria. The last named valley is said to have four hundred square miles, +and can support ten times its population. Mustard seed is the leading +agricultural product in the county. The whole county is well adapted +to all vegetables and fruits that are common to that part of the +state. I saw many orchards of great size. It is said that three-fifths +of the prunes and three-fourths of the apples grown in the state +grow in these valleys adjacent to the coast. This is due to the fact +that perhaps the rainfalls is greater than further inland. Printed +matter on this section tell us that the products of this coast range +are the following: beet sugar, wheat, barley, hay, garden seed, oil, +coal, asphaltum, cement, lime, live stock, butter and cheese, fruits, +berries, vegetables, olive oil, walnuts. + +I saw great flocks of sheep, cattle and horses. Millions of wild ducks, +and we were never out of sight of sea gulls. They are the scavengers on +land and water. I was fortunate in meeting people here and there who +could give me lots of the sort of information I wanted. + +As our train rounded the coast of Santa Barbara we caught sight of +the Islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel. They may have been +thirty miles to our left. + +Passing Point Conception, a lighthouse here and there, a large open +field in the actual making, or a sandhill thrown up in the past few +months, crossing Santa Maria River, leaving Lompoc and Ynez Valleys +behind, we came to San Louis Obispo. Great quantities of oil are +delivered to this port for shipment. It is also the seat of the state +polytechnic school. The rainfall here is very light, so that farming +is not profitable. The western slopes of the mountains for nearly a +hundred miles afford good grazing for cattle and sheep. The water +is largely mist from the Pacific Ocean with a very low rainfall. At +this point our train leaves the sight of the coast and we climb the +Coastal Range, being pulled by three powerful steam engines up an +elevation of great height, more than seven thousand feet, and head +into the Salinas and Santa Clara Valley. Salinas Valley has an area of +500,000 acres and the two valleys are almost 150 miles in length and +fifty miles wide. We head toward “Bishop Peak” no less than four times +climbing this mountain. We go down into Monterey County and follow the +Salina River till we get to Monterey Bay near Del Monte. Santa Cruz +is our next stop. We pass the Lick Observatory. We enter Santa Clara +Valley crossing the mountains by the same name. We also pass Stanford +University. We leave San Mateo County on the left and we speed along. +We pass San Jose. Dark covers us, but at Redwood City we come into +sight of San Francisco Bay and thirty miles further we are in San +Francisco again. + +Five hundred miles are covered in about fourteen hours. The mountain +ranges on both sides for several hundred miles, and the mountain on +one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other for several more hundred +miles with an ever changing view of mountain inclines, rivers, valleys, +irrigation projects here and there, the excitement of high elevation, +crossing some divide, farming operations throughout the entire course, +fruit orchards, vineyards, gardens, great flocks of sheep, cattle, +etc., chateaux, villages, mining operations and oil wells. This is the +panorama that simply bewitches the brain. It was such as this that the +old colored preacher saw when he could no longer contain his emotions +when he said, “My God, look at that Glory.” It is glory, and the man +whose soul does not feel it is dead. Add to this the ocean scene with +every angle the train makes, the steamers away out, the sunset behind +these beautiful waters, and do you wonder that I have been dreaming +this thing every night since I had the experience of it. It gets into +your soul in some way. Some one has said, “Its all California from east +to west, from north to south.” I traveled two thousand miles in the +state alone in every direction. The inspiration is the same. + +I spoke in one of the largest churches out there, heard some of the +finest speakers in the world, saw some of the best shows, tramped over +some of the orange, apple, fig, prune and berry orchards, bee and +poultry yards. I visited soldiers’ homes, city parks, city museums and +farms in the country. I visited some of the best schools in the West +and Northwest, including the state universities where they are really +doing things. + +Our eyes are now set toward the east and home. We are at San Francisco. +Before we leave here we must revert to the lower part of the state +again. The city of Los Angeles gets its water from a distance of more +than two hundred miles from the snow-capped slope of Mount Whitney. +They are the highest mountains in the United States, except in Alaska. +The aqueduct is the largest in the world. The reservoirs are located in +the San Fernando Valley. The pipes taking this water from its source to +its outlet are eight to ten feet in diameter. Forty miles of this water +is run in open lined canals. The line was pointed out to me many miles +out of Los Angeles by a fellow traveler who knew the history of its +construction. + +As one travels from north to south in this state and from east to west +he is very much impressed with the great network of wires stretched +everywhere, apparently reaching every farmhouse and factory. These are +high-powered electric wires carrying power to the industrial centers +and to the farms for light and power—for power more than light. Water +has to be supplied to all the farms by irrigation. Where gravity does +not do the work they must depend on pumps. The electric power is used +to run the pumps. This power is generated by the mountain streams +hundreds of miles away. The great power plants are largely owned by +companies in the East. The irrigation projects, I presume, are the most +wonderful in the world. I was advised that it cost about eight dollars +an acre to get the canals into operation. + +Another interest of great importance in the growth of a country is +the public roads. The roads were universally good. I traveled several +hundred miles over the public roads in Los Angeles and San Bernardino +counties, and for the long stretches I never saw better roads. + +Hollywood, which is really a part of the larger city, is a very pretty +place. The streets are paved and there was not a shoddy nor a cheaply +constructed house to be seen. I counted seven moving picture studios. +I had no idea that these studios were built on so vast a scale. It +seems that all the stars in the moving picture world have their studios +here, and their fine homes—Charlie Chaplin, Douglass Fairbanks, Mary +Pickford, and others. Many of the great meat packers of Chicago, Omaha +and Denver have million-dollar homes in or near this little suburb. The +south side of Beverly Hills is covered with these expensive homes. + +There are a number of these studios in Culver City. This is a small +place about fifteen miles toward the Pacific from Los Angeles. The +dominating genius of it is Mr. Harry Culver. Ten years ago it was not +born, and today it has a population of about two thousand people. The +little railroad station, the little homes, the well paved streets and +business houses, all show signs of taste and industry. Here is where +“Fatty Arbuckle” got his start, and his studio is still there as a +reminder. Several boulevards and electric lines pass through the town +from Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean, which is only five miles away. +Venice, with a dozen other settlements along the coast for ten or more +miles, is the Coney Island of Southern California. Street cars and +boulevards give one ready access to every part of the beach. They have +all the eating houses, cheap shows, swindling games and junk shops for +the attractions. + +The building lots in some of these little villages are sold under +restrictions. I was curious to know the restrictions. Houses that are +put on them must not cost less than twenty-five hundred dollars, +and no lot shall be sold to any one except purely Anglo-Saxon—a fine +opportunity for unanimity of spirit and exclusiveness if not tested +under the state law by some ubiquitous spirit. + +The problem of racial identity is a complex one in that country. I saw +Mexicans who looked all the world like Negroes, and Negroes who looked +all the world like Mexicans. Their language was the only distinguishing +features, and in many cases the Negroes were better clad and better +groomed. Negroes spoke the unadulterated English language. Their +Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana or Texas previous environment +may have given them more of the Southern brogue. The Mexicans have +clung to their Spanish tongue or some broken dialect. Japanese, +Chinese, Filipinos, Porto Ricans and others form another group. Then +there is another group from northern Europe and southern Europe +belonging to the white races, and all these units speak a language of +their own and follow largely the customs of their country. I wondered +who was _fit_ and who could _qualify_ under “The Restrictions.” + +I will say nothing about Chicago, but let me start at Butte, Montana. +From Butte, Montana, to Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San +Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, Los Angeles to the least city in the West +there are all sorts of secret organizations and labor unions, selfish +and otherwise, cliques and clans, to whom you must pay obeisance. Add +to this the rankest Bolsheviki spirit, from the four ends of the earth, +and you have a problem worth the attention of our best statesmen. + +I have been trying to get away from San Francisco, but it is hard to +leave a community of so inviting environment. I can only name a few +places now that are strikingly full of interest. Here is the Golden +Gate Park, over yonder a short distance the Presidio, a little further +around on the bay the Art Palace. Here is where the exposition was +held. Down on the beach are the Sutro baths and cliff houses. From this +fine eminence I saw seven seals, some sleeping, some bathing, some +growling. They were on the rock a few hundred feet off the beach. Rural +paintings in the museums, depicting wild animal life in their natural +setting with the mountain background, etc., were very real. + +The Southern Pacific station, located between Third and Fourth streets, +and the ferry at the foot of Market Street, or at the head possibly, +are works of art. They are the last word on station building. Market +Street has four electric lines, and it is the leading thoroughfare of +the city. Practically all the other streets of the city run into it at +some angle. Sixteen blocks from the ferry is the civic center. Here are +located the city auditorium, which seats ten or twelve thousand people, +the courthouse, one of the finest buildings in the state next to the +capitol itself, the city library, and one of the high schools. These +are circled about a square which has a large fountain of flowing water. +A very large area of the city was burned when the earthquake was some +years ago, but this has been rebuilt so well and completely that one +would never know it. I went over most of this area. + +I visited the University of California, which is located in Berkley, +and had only time to go through the library and agricultural building. +They have a campus of 264 acres and an enrollment of ten thousand +students. They have a theater that seats ten thousand people. They +have a tower 302 feet high built of white granite. In this tower is +located the clock and chimes. They have in mind a large project for an +athletic field and stadium. This will be located back of the college +in the hills, which is the property of the college. Oakland is the San +Francisco terminal of three trans-continental railroads. They are the +Southern Pacific, the Western Pacific, and the Santa Fe. + +We take the Western Pacific for Sacramento at 9 o’clock in the morning. +At 2 o’clock in the afternoon we have made the trip of more than a +hundred miles through the San Joaquin Valley and again into Sacramento +Valley. We spend a part of two days here. The state capitol is a very +fine building. The ground adjoining the building forms the finest park +in the world. They have searched all the world to find trees and rare +plants for this wonderful park. They have them from every known country +and from every accessible community. Many of these trees were in full +bloom the 28th of February when I was there. An officer of the grounds +told me to find the keeper and he would give me all the cuttings I +wanted, but unfortunately I could not find him. + +The city is located in rather a flat country. It has not been a great +many years, geologically, since this was all under water and a part +of San Francisco Bay. The two large rivers intersecting this valley +have done their work in transporting silt, sand and debris from +the mountains so well that most of the community is inhabited. The +periodical overflow of these rivers still gives the traveler an idea +that it is a part of the bay. I saw nearly a hundred miles of it under +water, when I wondered how the farmers got from the house to the barn. + +We leave Sacramento at midnight on the Western Pacific Railroad for +Salt Lake City, Utah. We pass Marysville, which we have already seen on +our southern journey, Oroville a little further north, and we follow +the Feather River and the Feather River Canyon. At daylight we find +ourselves climbing the mountains again in snow several feet deep. The +canyons are narrow and deep. The mountains above are beautiful, rugged. +Vegetation and all sorts of timber come into sight again. The mountain +streams are beautiful and clear. We arrive at Reno Junction about 10 +o’clock in the morning. At Paxton we pass the little narrow gauge road +leading into Indian Valley. The canyons look too narrow for another +railroad, but just below us clinging to the rocks and the mountains the +little road leads off into another mining section and through gorges +that look impassable. + +Of the more than two hundred stations along the way a great many of +them are scarcely stopping places. A few are only places for the train +crew to examine the cars. At Reno Junction, Nevada, we come into a +country that is more open, and where the population is larger. + +We cross Honey Valley, Winnemucca Valley, scale the Virginia Range, and +come into Smoke Creek Desert, pass to the right of Granite Peak, and we +come into Black Rock Desert. We pass what is called the Alkali Flats. +This is a vast area of country with no vegetable growth of any sort. +Nothing can grow on it. This reminds one of a very large bowl. We are +moving along with great speed through the valley with the side of the +bowl towering up at a tremendous height. We cross the Antelope Range +in the northern part of Granite Spring Valley. A few miles further we +come into the little town of Winnemucca. This is a railroad center and +a cattle country. + +We are in Humboldt County and follow Humbolt River. We have passed +Winnemucca Peak, Black Butte, the Eugene Mountains, and other points +of interest and beauty. It would tire the reader to follow us for the +next several hundred miles through this tortuous river course, through +large and small valleys, through mountain gorges, up the side of +mountain ranges, over some of the highest peaks, under the tunnels and +through great banks of snow. At Sulphur we passed several men and their +horses with a big mountain lion they had just killed. The government +pays twenty-five dollars for each lion killed. They are destructive +to sheep. The Denver Sunday papers had the incident written up in the +papers Sunday following the killing. + +We cross the Desert Range at Wendover, Utah, and strike out for +forty-eight miles through the Great Salt Lake Desert, leaving Grass +Mountain Summit to our left, we enter another range of mountains to +emerge near the south end of Salt Lake. I do not know the area of the +Great Salt Lake Desert, but it is a very large area numbering perhaps +several thousand square miles of country. Water and irrigation would do +it no good. It looks like desolation carried to the nth degree. It must +have been at some time a part of the Salt Lake. It supports absolutely +no vegetation of any sort. It is a barren waste. + +There is no other place in the world exactly like Salt Lake and Salt +Lake City. The city is eighteen miles from the Lake. One cannot drown +in the water of this lake because of the density of the water. + +The city is one of the best laid out in the world. The mentioning of +Salt Lake City suggests to you at once the Mormon Church. This church +was organized in 1830 in the state of New York. The Mormons located +later in Kirkland, Ohio, and there erected a temple which is said to +be standing today. The church was persecuted, and Joseph Smith was +martyred. It was moved from place to place, and finally Brigham Young, +its President, had a vision. He saw a land in the far west, and was +directed to go to this remote country, far away from persecutions, +where the colony might worship in their own way. They started out for +this far country, and were many months making the trip. The party was +composed of 143 men, three women and two children, and three colored +servants. The names of all are on the fine monument at the head of the +principal street of the city. + +When they had reached the place the President said, “This is the place +I saw in the vision.” The men were advised to go to work at once on +small farms. The first year they grew a good crop by irrigation, but +about the time the crops matured the cricket’s came and almost ate the +crops. The sea gulls from the lake eighteen miles away came and ate up +the crickets. This saved the pioneers. They have in the sacred square +a monument to the sea gulls. It is known as the Temple Square. The +temple is the most unique building in the world. It was forty years in +construction, and it cost a million dollars. It is built of native gray +granite which was hauled by teams for more than twenty miles away. + +The Tabernacle standing in the same square is also a unique +construction. It will seat ten thousand people and has in it one of the +best organs made. The building is a “long, oval shape, dome top. The +hearing qualities are perfect. One may drop a pin in a hat or on the +floor, and two hundred feet away, at the other end of the auditorium, +hear it fall.” No nails are used in its construction. Pillows support +the arches, while wooden pegs tied with raw hide support the individual +pieces. + +The gray stone Assembly Hall, where relics and art collections are +kept, is also in the same square. + +One should visit the state capital. It is located on one of the +nearby mountains. This mountain is at the head of several streets and +had an electric line running around it and to the top. The building +itself is one of the finest in the country. It has large granite +supports measuring three or four feet in diameter, twenty or more feet +in length, of Georgia marble, polished to a finish, each weighing +twenty-five thousand pounds. These great pillows were brought from +Georgia on forty-six cars. + +One could spend weeks in this fine building studying the art of it and +the great display of relics of the early pioneer life. Several Mormon +sisters have charge of the collections, and they are very interesting +as well as very entertaining. + +We leave Salt Lake City, and forty miles east we come to Provo. We are +more than four thousand feet in elevation. It is called the “Garden +City.” It is near the Wasatch Mountains. We pass through the Provo +Canyons. This is unlike anything else we have seen. We climb the +mountains overlooking a most beautiful valley off to the left with +a very fine stream said to contain trout. There are fine homes and +orchards and many flocks of sheep and cattle. There is some mining a +few miles across the valley on the opposite mountain side. + +A railroad stretches across the valley to connect with this mine from +the main line. A few apple orchards. Some fine red barns. The meadows +evidently afford a great deal of hay. Hundreds of stacks of hay, as +green as if just cut, dotted the valley. We are in several feet of snow +and being drawn by several massive steam engines. Up, up, up we go till +we reach Soldiers’ Summit, seven thousand and four hundred feet high. +Your heart begins to beat a little faster, some one has the headache, +another has bleeding of the nose. If you have slept all the way through +the valley and up the mountains you will begin to wake up when you +reach this high elevation. Unless your heart is seriously affected you +do not need to worry, for you are in this elevation only a few minutes, +when you begin to drop to normal altitude for these parts. The snow is +about six feet deep and sparkling. The air is fine and pure, and your +mouth grows dry for some of the crystal liquid you have just passed. +It comes from crags and crevices for more than a half mile above you, +scarcely missing the sides of your train as it passes its narrow +channel. + +A crowd of a dozen or more school girls get on the train. They are +all the world like our own girls, only they were white, every one of +them. They sang songs, made speeches, moved from place to place on the +train, recited their lessons, talked kindly of their teachers and their +fellows, of the loved ones they have left behind for a few months—they +were just school girls, that was all. The tourists, including my lonely +self, were glad to have this merry bunch—this innovation to break the +monotony. They leave us at Green River, and we settle down again to our +usual repose when we are soon disturbed by the news butcher saying, +“The mountain ahead is one-half mile high, the canyon ten feet wide, +just wide enough for the train to pass.” “It is Castle Gate.” The walls +of the red stone stand up like the walls of a sixty-story sky-scraper. +On both sides these walls tower up till your neck tires looking up at +them. + +Here the engineers have defied nature. You follow the river and the +canyon, sometimes on this side, sometimes on that side, rising and +falling in elevation till you reach Mack, near the state line of +Colorado at an elevation of four thousand and five feet. You pass +through a valley widening out from a ten-foot gorge to forty or fifty +miles, and absolutely fenced all around by these massive walls for +fifty or more miles as effectively as if done by the master hand of +some giant. We follow Hog Back Canyon and a tributary of the Colorado +River. We arrive at Glenwood Hot Springs at 10:30 at night, four +hundred miles from Salt Lake City in an elevation of five thousand and +seven hundred feet. We stop here for the night and take the 6 a. m. +train the next morning for Denver. + +We are on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. We pass up the Colorado +River Canyon. The road is tortuous, the stream abounds like the waters +of “Galore,” the mountain crags are high and precipitous, every foot +has tested the skill of the engineer. It is wonderful. We go through +Tennessee Pass, sight Mount Jackson toward the west. Mount Elbert +to the left more than fourteen thousand feet high is seen. We leave +Readville to the left and pass through the richest mining region in +the world. Georgetown, Red Cliff, Fair Play, Platt Ranch, Buena Vista, +Cripple Creek, Anaconda Goldfield. All these are centers of mining +interests. They abound in gold, silver, lead, copper, zinc, etc. We +come south from Glenwood Springs to Salida nearly a hundred miles and +into the Arkansas River Valley and follow this river to Florence and +Pueblo. + +It will be remembered that in the summer of 1921 there was a cloudburst +in that section of the country, and Pueblo was in the midst of the +washout. Hundreds of lives and millions of dollars worth of property +were lost. The valley still shows great evidence of that destruction +everywhere you look. This was particularly true of the city itself. I +stood under the pier of their fine station, and the high water mark +was two feet above my head. We are seven hundred miles from Salt Lake +City and still seventy-five miles from Denver. We are at Colorado +Springs. Denver is our destination for the night. As we leave Cannon +City and Florence we sight to our north perhaps a hundred miles Pike’s +Peak. This is early in the afternoon, and we do not lose sight of that +majestic wonder of the world until we have passed Denver for almost +another hundred miles. + +We spend four days in Denver very pleasantly and profitably. It is the +“Mile High City.” We have left all the mountains behind. The community, +including Colorado Hot Springs and Denver and Pike’s Peak need no +description from me. They are too well known. It is the healthiest +place in all the world. I saw no graveyards, and I presume they are few +and very far between. The elevation is more than five thousand feet. We +are now seven hundred and fifty miles east of Salt Lake City. Denver is +a fine place in which to live. I am not so sure about the conditions of +earning a living. + +We leave Denver at 10 in the morning and stop for the night at +Phillipsburg in Kansas. The country is practically all prairie land +suited for cattle, horses and sheep, corn, wheat, and the grasses. It +is an open country with few trees excepting the low sections and river +bottoms. + +We pass Lincoln City in Nebraska and later the city of Omaha. We have +already crossed the La Platte River and now at Omaha we cross the +Missouri River. Passing Council Bluffs in Iowa we speed along to Des +Moines, Iowa, where we plan to spend the next night. We arrived late in +the evening and left early the next morning for Chicago. The country +was largely given to farming and stock raising. + +We were in Chicago about two weeks, and were then off for Washington +City, where we spent another week, then we came home, arriving here at +Bricks the 22nd of March. A most cordial reception awaited me here. +I was met at the station by teachers, students and friends of the +community, all led by the school band. + +Not many colored people on the Pacific Coast as compared with our +eastern country. They are scattered here and there throughout the +middle west. Most of those I saw looked as if they had good jobs and +were busy. I saw a great many very nice homes of our colored people. I +visited a great many places of business entirely colored. The colored +ministers were all educated men. The colored churches were up to date. +I spoke in a number of them, and the audience looked well groomed and +happy. I quizzed the professional men, and they advised me that the +outlook for the colored people generally was good. All advised that +colored men going west ought to have some money to start a business. + +If colored men would go west and enter farming their opportunities +would be unlimited. They ought to have money enough to carry them till +their crops come to maturity. If they grow fruit it takes the young +trees five years to come into bearing, and they must have something +to depend upon during that time. At the same time there is no time of +the year in California when a farmer cannot grow vegetables. There are +fruit growers’ associations that take care of everything the farmer +grows. He can become a member of any of them irrespective of his color. +He must have some money and some farming sense. There are forty-five +thousand colored people in Los Angeles. Only a few are farming. There +are not enough farmers to attract any attention. I am always sorry +to see so many of our folks flock to the cities when the farms are +offering so many opportunities for independence and a better living. + +There is nothing needed in the west so much as water and people—_water +and people_. If they get the people the irrigation projects will soon +give the water. They need not only people who are not dependent upon +others for every move they make, but people who are industrious and who +have the brain. + +We hear in the East a great deal about the Japanese. I hear more about +them here than I heard on the coast. Out there they have the reputation +of being industrious, smart and great organizers. I do not think those +are bad qualities. They are qualities that we have been taught to +prize. There is no reason why we should prize them in one race and +despise them in another. They are universally courteous. Some Northern +people think they will get all the land. I saw millions and millions of +acres of land in California alone that somebody needs to get and put to +use. Then I saw other millions stretched four thousand miles and more +across the American continent that will feed all the world when brought +under cultivation and development. + +They tell us out West that all the mountains in that country are full +of minerals. If that is true we have not touched the world’s supply. +From the unoccupied land I saw there must be enough to feed a hundred +times our present population. In some of these states one can travel +almost a hundred miles and not see a sign of human life except the +little station settlements. New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and +a few other cities are too congested for healthy environment, and some +propaganda ought to be started by some organization or somebody to +popularize the country and the farms. + +The spirit of competition in our large cities in any occupation is +virulent. It is not worth the struggle. Manhood and womanhood is +stagnant. It is truly the survival of the fittest. I never saw a Negro +farmer in the South begging bread. Vast areas of our best farming land +ought to be bought by this congested crowd filling our large cities. + +Our people go to the city because of the lack of compatibility of +people in the community where they want to live. They may not like the +other races out West, but there was great silence and a unanimity of +opinion relative to an open expression of their hatred. Poor execution +of the laws, open expressions of hatred, fear of personal molestation. +These were the expressions I met in Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago. + +Norman Angell expresses it in his book, “The Fruits of Victory,” when +he gives the cause of the world’s restlessness and war. He says they +have resulted from our wrong thinking. We have got to be big enough +to forget some things and start off right. Correct our thinking. I +attended a Christian Science Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and one of +the tenets of their church is that if you have a pain just forget about +it and it goes. It seems to work, for that church is doing a great +business all over the country. That is what we have got to do in the +political world and in the world where our relations interlock. We do +not get anywhere by hatred and fighting. + +Every city and every town I visited from Spokane to Seattle to San +Bernardino, seventeen hundred miles south is on a boom and every one +you meet is a boomer. That is the way to build up a community or a city +or a town, or anything else. I was not supposed to give any addresses +while on this trip, unless there was some fine opportunity to make +friends for the American Missionary Association and for Brick School. +I could not afford to let such opportunities pass even though I was +out seeking recreation and rest and change. This opportunity came to +me at least twenty-eight times. I was invited to speak twice in Dr. +H. H. Proctor’s Church in Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. Proctor was a classmate +of the writer at Fisk University. He had one of the largest churches +in all the South, the First Congregational Church in Atlanta. When +the migration of colored people began to be a problem in the Northern +centers, Dr. Proctor was called to Brooklyn to meet the impending +onrush. He has projected one of the largest church enterprise in +Greater New York, and his bringing the enterprise to a successful +fruition will mean great things for New York and for the colored people +generally. + +Dr. Proctor is a large man, mentally and physically, and he has a large +vision. His vision is not larger than the times are demanding. Our +church people are demanding a larger programme. Some of our churches, +perhaps all of them, have been too reticent and conservative, holding +on to the dead past and lost prestige with the masses. Dr. Proctor is +planning a progressive and constructive programme. I could not lose +the opportunity which his kind invitation gave me to tell our Northern +friends what our Southern brethren are doing along many lines. I also +had the invitation to address a large Baptist Church in Brooklyn where +more than a third of its membership of more than three hundred members +were from Gloucester County in Virginia. A former Brick School boy was +the shepherd of this flock. + +Out on Long Island we had the pleasure of addressing a small +Congregational Church under the leadership of Rev. G. W. Hinton. We +found here a goodly number of our North Carolina friends, and they were +glad to hear from their friends here in North Carolina. + +Later the Fisk University singers from Nashville, Tenn., met with the +Greater New York Fisk Club at the Y. W. C. A. in a Harlem Cafeteria, +and a fine programme was given. I was invited to speak at the Baptist +Ministers’ meeting in New York in one of the largest churches in +the city. If the size of the church, the furnishings, etc., and the +appearance of the men meant anything it certainly looked as if our +friends in New York City were very prosperous. The young lady who +directs all the work of the Y. W. C. A. on 137th Street is a Brick +School girl who later graduated from Pratt, and we have every evidence +that she is making good in that great city. + +At Springfield in Massachusetts we had the pleasure of speaking three +times for Rev. William N. DeBerry. Dr. DeBerry is a product of Fisk +University and Oberlin Theological School. He has the finest work of +any of our men. His church organization is unique; he is progressive +and constructive, at the same time scholarly and conservative. He is +the most aristocratic Negro preacher we have today. His spirit is +contagious, and he has the finest coöperation of his members from the +oldest to the youngest. + +At Rochester we had the invitation to address a very fine gathering +of friends who had met at a reception to the teacher of their +Sunday-school class and to the minister of their church. + +At Buffalo we also gave an address at another Baptist Church. In all of +these places we met scores of people from North Carolina. + +In Cleveland, Ohio, I had the invitation to speak several times at the +Mount Zion Congregational Church. Rev. Harold Kingsley is the present +pastor. Rev. Kingsley is a product of Talladega College, Ala. His wife +was a former teacher here at Bricks. We had a most cordial reception at +his church and at his home. + +It was in this church where I read my first essay nearly forty years +ago. Its pastor at that time was Rev. Dr. S. N. Brown, who is now Dean +of Theology at Howard University. The church has had a great history. +The former pastor was Rev. George V. Clark, of Charlotte, N. C. Dr. +Clark was a Liberty County (Georgia) boy and a product of Atlanta +University. The church is now in the most congested Negro section of +Cleveland and has before it a great destiny and future. The present +minister is a young man of great enthusiasm and well prepared to meet +its growth. The city of Cleveland has a congested Negro population: I +saw a statement in the Cleveland papers from the head of the Cleveland +“Community Chest” that of all racial groups in the city the colored +people had more than done their part with the least expenditure of +effort. + +I visited several of the larger churches—Baptist and Methodist +churches. All the Cleveland churches seem to be in the most progressive +state. Their church buildings are among the very best in the country. +Their membership and attendance are very large. + +In Detroit we attended Rev. Dr. Bradby’s church, which is said to +have a membership of four thousand people. I also spoke at one of +the services. They had four services going at the same time. About a +third of these people held up their hands indicating that they were +from North Carolina. The day was very cold, but their spirits were +very warm. Dr. Bradby is a Canadian, but understands thoroughly the +Negro temperament, and gives them exactly what is best fitted to that +temperament. He speaks with authority. + +At night I attended one of our churches ministered to by Rev. Brooks. +The church has some institutional feature and is doing excellent +service for the community. Mrs. E. E. Scott, of Montgomery, Ala., is +assistant in these civic service features. + +In Kalamazoo, Mich., we attended a revival meeting in the Methodist +Church. The temperature outside did not disturb the emotional elements +the least when the several ministers put on the “arousements.” I had to +wonder whether I was in northern Michigan or in North Carolina. + +I spoke in a Baptist Church in Chicago where they are said to have a +membership of ten thousand people. Several services were going on at +the same time. I also addressed a congregational audience in Chicago +presided over by Rev. Dr. C. W. Burton. Dr. Burton is a product of +Talladega College, and Yale Theological School. He is a fine type of +minister and is doing great good. + +In Butte, Montana, I was told there are about five hundred colored +people and three colored churches. These churches had no regular +ministers at the time of my visit. The colored men work as porters and +miners. They have mixed schools. They have several social clubs and +secret orders, such as the Masons and Odd Fellows. + +In almost all of the cities I visited mixed schools are the rule, +and many of them have a percentage of colored teachers. In Cleveland +especially I was told that the colored teachers are liked very much by +their students and parents of the opposite races. In many places it +would be most difficult to tell who are colored and who are white. Most +of the teachers I met are very efficient and alive to their job. + +In Tacoma I spoke to the Sunday-school in the morning and in the +evening I spoke at the evening services of the First Congregational +Church, Rev. Dr. Edgar C. Wheeler, minister. Prof. Oliver H. +Richardson, of the University of Washington, followed me with an +address on the “Study of International Relations.” The subject of my +address might have been “Inter-Racial Relations.” At the close of this +address I visited the colored Methodist Church, and also spoke there. +The church was well filled, and the services were full of interest. The +minister was a well trained man, and had the best order and system in +the church. + +In Portland I attended a meeting of a select group of ladies and +gentlemen of the Theosophical Society. I did not speak, but went +primarily to hear an old friend speak on the subject of “Racial +Unity.” His lectures covered a number of cities on the coast, and his +subjects, “The Unity of Religions,” “Seven Valleys,” “Inter-racial +Amity,” “Harmony Between Religion and Science,” “The Mashrak; Ulkar or +Universal Science,” “What is a Bahai?” “Four Stages in Man’s Growth.” +All of these different lectures are summed up in the one though, “The +Fundamental Unity of Races and Religion.” The object of the lectures +are the promotion of universal brotherhood, international coöperation, +universal education, the abandonment of prejudices. The lecturer was +a colored man, a product of Fisk University, and of the law school +of Howard University. He has traveled through Europe, Egypt, and +Palestine. His thought and language is clear and convincing. Our friend +Dr. Gregory proved himself a master with these subjects. + +The subjects above are very suggestive. There is nothing else to be +said when the speaker has finished his address. What does it mean? In +New York, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, and all our +large centers there are the finest temples and edifices built to the +new cult, new thought, new religion. Many of our traditional churches +in these large centers have a hard fight to get a hearing. I attended +one of these new thought churches in St. Paul where the interest was at +white heat with an attendance of more than seven hundred people. The +temperature outside was fourteen degrees below zero. This was at night. +All these cults are based in one way or another on the Bible, but we +seem to have adapted for our own spiritual edification and practice +that which fits our own mind and temperament. We then argue that +everybody else is dead wrong. Some of the finest minds I know are lined +up with these new cults. Surely they must have some basis for their +mental attitude. + +I was asked by the Secretary, Rev. Dr. George Hinman, of the American +Missionary Association office in San Francisco, to fill an appointment +for him in Berkley, Cal., February 26th. This was at the North +Congregational Church at Berkley. This church was right under the +shadow of the University of California, and I counted it a great +honor to be asked to speak there. The minister of the church was Rev. +Mr. Ralph Baxter Larkin. He was sick the day of my visit, and I was +introduced by Rev. Dr. Sargent. The printed programme announcing the +service for the day with my address had this on the first page, “A +Church of Reverent Worship, open mind, intellectual freedom, social +conscience, spiritual aspiration and human sympathy. It seeks to +discover and interpret the meaning of life in the life of the eternal.” +This expression gave me great poise for what I had to say. I was at +once at ease. + +It is fine to speak to people who have a sympathetic spirit especially +when you have a feeling that you have an unpopular subject. My racial +identity was not clear in the mind of the gentleman who introduced me. +He said something like this: “Professor Steiner, of the University of +California said somewhere that if he had to be born again he would +like to be born a colored man, so that he might be able to study the +colored problem from the inside. We have with us today a gentleman +who understands the colored problem, and who did not have to be born +colored either.” These may not be the exact words, but it is the +thought. The first thing that I had to do was to dispel the mind of my +audience of the fact or statement just made, that I did not have to be +born a colored man, and that I wanted them to know that the traditions +of our country and the laws in many, if not all the states, had said +that any man is colored who has one iota of Negro blood in his veins. +“I am glad to have the honor to address you as a colored man.” Those +who know me best tell me that I do not have many stopping places. So I +fore-warned my friends in the front of me that sometimes my address was +three in one and sometimes one in three. Three in one when I have only +one hour in which to speak and one in three when I have three hours +in which to speak. Speaking to a Congregational Church, and a white +church, too, one has to observe the traditions very closely. These +traditions limit us to about thirty minutes, and unless one is very +interesting he had better stop in twenty-five minutes. So my address +had to be three in thirty. + +The audience was scarcely dismissed when a large crowd gathered at +the corner of the church to ask more about certain topics which I had +only the time to touch. They were seeking to discover and to interpret +the meaning of life. I was invited to go home with many friends, but +I could not go with all, so a compromise was effected, and several +families joined, and I was the guest for the afternoon of these +families. One of these families had been missionaries in China. Others +had worked among the Japanese. There we were exchanging our experiences +each for the edification of the other. We were all happy that our lot +had been cast in these divergent directions. + +I cannot continue this without becoming monotonous. I was most happily +received in a great many other churches, colored as well as white. +My message was generally, “The Amistad,” “The American Missionary +Association,” “General O. O. Howard and Reconstruction,” “The Schools +of the American Missionary Association,” “The Progress of the Colored +People,” “Inter-Racial Relations,” etc. One can see a wide latitude in +these subjects. + +At the theaters we saw several colored stars. In Buffalo Charles Gilpin +in “Emperor Jones.” Gilpin is an artist of the first magnitude, but +I did not like his selection. I am not a critic of such matters, but +it did seem to me that his piece was coarse. It was very popular. One +could hardly find seating room in the large house where the play was +given. + +In New York “Shuffle ’Long” was exciting great interest. There must +have been twenty or more taking part in the play, and every character +was an artist. I never saw anything finer. These people played in New +York in one house for nearly a year, and while the entrance fees were +high the house was packed every night. + +In Chicago Bert Williams was the whole attraction. I saw him at the +Studebaker in “The Loop” just before his breakdown. I was told that +after his death the company broke up. They could not find another “Bert +Williams.” In his death the race has lost one of the greatest stars in +the theatrical world, irrespective of color. It is an awful tragedy of +our times that racial prejudice is blind to art when the artist happens +to be colored. It is no fault of the artist that he was born colored. +The theatrical field has been rather restricted so far as our colored +artists are concerned, but wherever they have had the opportunity they +have not been found wanting. + +“Broadway Rastus and Sambo” are in a class by themselves. The play is +clean and fine, every whit of it. It will cure the blues. The singers +are the best on the American stage. The vaudeville is equal to any I +have seen in the best white theaters. + +Every place visited we met very prominent colored men and women who +were formerly from North Carolina. We are compiling some interesting +data on them which we hope to give to the public later. + +In Cleveland we met our old friend Lawyer J. P. Green. He has been a +lawyer there for forty years. He has written a splendid book of his +life. He has been Recorder of Deeds in Washington, and for several +terms member of the Ohio Legislature. + +Mr. Charles Smith, whose parents were North Carolina people, has served +on the Cleveland police force twenty-five years, and is now retired. +His parents lived at Chapel Hill this state, and migrated to Oberlin +where he, with several other brothers and sisters, were educated. + +Mrs. Mary Talbert, of Buffalo, is President of the Negro Women’s +League, which is a national organization of women. She was educated +in Oberlin. Her parents migrated there before the Civil War from this +state. It would take a chapter to tell what great things she has done +for the colored women and what she is now doing. She is a traveler, +lecturer and scholar. She has recently raised the money to have the +Fred Douglass Home in Washington City as a Memorial to the greatest +Negro who ever lived. It will be dedicated the 12th of August, 1922. +Her husband, Mr. William Talbert, is a city official in the treasurer’s +office, of Buffalo, New York. + +Mrs. Clara Hardy, of St. Paul, Minnesota, a sister of Mrs. Talbert, is +also a graduate of Oberlin College. She has held many places of honor +in her adopted city. She is now Court Bailiff. She is a writer and +speaker of no mean ability. Her home was a perfect model. + +In California it was my pleasure to stop with Dr. R. R. Robinson. He +is a Halifax County man. He was a student here for a number of years +working his way with his hands. He laid out our walks, planted many of +our older trees and helped to “Start Bricks.” He took an agricultural +course at the A. and T. College in this state and went to Tuskegee, +where he taught several years. He married a North Carolina girl from +Bethel, who was a trained nurse. Later he went to Nashville, Tennessee, +and took a course in medicine. After graduating he practiced medicine +in Brunswick, Ga., through the flue, and was very successful. After +the world war he went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was there when the riot +broke out. He saved his life by hiding in the woods three days, he and +his wife. He lost all his office fixtures and medical instruments, +and every remnant of personal apparel. He is now a very successful +physician in Los Angeles, California. + +I have given only an outline of some impressions of my trip to +California with the hope that it may inspire some reader to know, to +go, and to acquire a larger vision of the world and of life. + + + + +FARM LIFE + + +For many years the farmer has been the laughing stock of the country. +The conduct of his farm and his business methods have brought him more +gibes and thrusts than are brought to any other professional class. The +late Booker T. Washington described the characteristics of his class +many years ago. The poor old mule or horse and often the ox, hitched +to a single plow, scratching the earth with as much effectiveness as +an old Plymouth Rock rooster would scratch for newly planted oats. The +farmer follows behind this slow plodding plow in tatters and rags, illy +fed, too often diseased with hook worm or some other infectious malady. + +His road sides and ditch banks for ten or twenty feet back are filled +with weeds and shrubby growth to sap the vitality from the growing +crops in their proximity. He has stagnant pools all over his patch in +wet weather to further deplete the growth of his crops that may be left +from the weeds by the roadside and ditch banks. + +His home, the home of the old farmer, is the last thing to which any +attention need be given. He has followed his methods for “Fifty years +or more.” He has cotton right up to the door, potatoes, peanuts or corn +filling the yard. No place is left for flowers or ornamentation of any +sort. The old log house, just a place in which to sleep and in which to +hide when it storms outside. It has only two rooms for a large family. +The old man is in tatters, the wife is in tatters and the children are +in tatters, I have seen many, the least of the little ones, as naked as +they came into the world. + +The implements of such a farmer never saw shelter or protection from +the weather from the time they were bought from the store until they +had been disintegrated by rust and rot and had gone back into the +original mother earth to rest forevermore. + +The farmer himself had a personality that was uninviting and dirty. +He thought the good Lord had created him for just the sort of life he +was eking out, and he eschewed all progress. Good roads and decent +schools were things he never needed and he would not consent for such +improvements if they cost him anything. The old mongrel hen was good +enough because she could roost in the trees and lay at the same time. +The pinewood rooters were all right because they could make their +living by eating pine roots and other people’s crops. A half dozen dogs +were useful to feed. The old cow was still kept in the family because +of the ancestral history and not because of her utility. + +Slipshod methods in business have been the handicap of more farmers +than all the evils attending them. We very often receive congratulatory +letters from business men on our farmers’ programme and at the same +time these business men lament the fact that our farmers’ business +methods are so poorly managed. + +Not long ago we received notice that two of the wealthiest farmers, +Negro farmers, in Georgia had died. They were reputed to be worth more +than a hundred thousand dollars in cash besides the great land holdings +and other property they owned. Later when their estates were settled +up their business was in such a tangled condition, all interwoven with +that of their neighbors’, that there was nothing left for the wife and +children. I hope that we do not have in North Carolina such tangles as +the above. Whatever else the farmer does he ought to keep his business +straight. We have found out through our Federal Farm Loan Organization +that many farmers have bought and paid for farms and have paid taxes on +these farms for twenty years, but it would take a “Philadelphia Lawyer” +to find out whether the legal owner was the farmer, the banker, or +the land company, or the merchant. That is bad business. Any man who +mortgages his farm after he has paid for it seriously jeopardizes his +future as far as his farm is concerned. If you have debts that must +be met you had better sell a portion of your farm outright and keep +the other clean and clear. The mortgage business is a bad business for +the average farmer to take into his partnership. The merchants, the +business men, the state government and national government, are all +emphasizing every movement tending to the exit of this mortgage system. +The farmer, first of all, should give it a hard kick. + +It is a matter of education first. These farmers’ meetings give us +an opportunity to inform ourselves. Our schools and our colleges are +helping us to get informed. The local conferences have no other purpose +than to help you to be informed on farm and business matters relative +to your farm. Bulletins sent out by the State and National governments +are among the greatest educational agencies. They are all practically +free. The farmer _who does not and will not_ take advantage of such +agencies of information is certainly destined to be at the foot of the +ladder; and there is where he belongs. The farmer who is given all the +agencies and says he will not pull himself up ought to go down. The +sooner he goes with that spirit the better, so that some other man can +take his place and make good. I still see some of these old timers +carrying water across the field a half mile away, still taking care of +the family wash down by the river side, still holding on to the old +ash pile. These relics have been heirlooms in the family and we are +reluctant to let them go. It takes some spirit, some purpose and a +great will to tear away from these old traditions. It must be done if +we are going to advance. We must learn the lessons of experience. They +have been sad lessons to many farmers. These farmers’ conferences are +bringing to you lessons of scientific farming. Let the traditions go to +the wind and take hold of the new problems in your farming and farming +business that will bring success, happiness and a life. + +Today as never before the farmer is coming into his own. Watch the +agricultural papers and magazines. Visit our county and state fairs. +See the interest and note the comparisons in our community fairs. +Progress is in the air. If there are those who do not believe it, they +will believe it, and feel the impress of the upward move, or they must +get out of the business. Any farmer, white or colored, who does not +line up with the best farming methods of the community is bound to lose +out on his farm. The lessons may be hard, but as a class of farmers you +must get these lessons. + +The first lesson that must come to every farmer is that he must line +up or unite with other farmers in the prosecution of his work. Every +industry is organized except that of farming. The farmer produces his +crops, and, unorganized, sells them to any bidder who comes along and +takes his price or nothing. Organization will help the farmer to get +the best price for his products. No man works very long by himself at +anything. You cannot make it alone. Coöperation is the word. You get +coöperation by organization. Every industry that is worth the name is +organized. + +Organization helps you to buy as well as it helps you to sell. It will +get you the lowest prices for what you have to buy, and the highest +prices for what you have to sell. Single handed you pay what is charged +and sell it for what you can get, much or little. The government is +fostering the Federal Farm Loan Organization in order to put the +farmer on his feet. Are you using that organization? The state is +encouraging farm unions. They can be formed in every community where +you can find ten men, _ten real men_. Are you using this organization? +Some communities are using them very effectively. Our own Federal Farm +Loan Organization, the Tri-County Federal Farm Loan Organization, of +Bricks, N. C., has put into Negro farms and farm improvements about +seventy-five thousand dollars and has applications for nearly as much +more. Do we have your application? + +Let us illustrate what we want to impress relative to coöperation and +organization. A few years ago two renters came to the Brick School +farm. Each had one horse. The wives had a lot of small children and +could not be expected to do very much on the farm. One day I saw a team +of two horses plowing. The two men had united their horses and were +plowing their ground with a double team. One was plowing and the other +man was clearing up the ditch banks. They worked tandem all summer and +seemed to get fine results. They were happy in their work and each was +company for the other. + +A few years ago we needed here on the Brick School farm a peanut +thresher. No one could get the thresher alone, so an organization +was perfected and a peanut thresher was bought for two hundred +dollars. This thresher did fine work for many years, and brought the +stockholders a nice little revenue as long as it was in service. I +cannot see why a few men in every community cannot unite their efforts +and get everything they need on their farms. + +Every time I go to Rocky Mount I see scores and scores of wagons on the +road hauling tobacco to market. These wagons go in groups for company +and mutual help. I have counted as many as twenty in one group, and +I am sure the different groups represent a certain community. These +communities of small farmers ought to unite and buy jointly a truck. +Some of these grouped teams travel, to my personal knowledge, thirty +miles with their tobacco. This trip takes two days and one night to +land the sale. The teams and the men alike are unfit for work for +several days thereafter. Count the cost of man, wagon and animals. The +automobile will do the same work in a few hours and be ready instantly +for other work. If the farmer drives his wagon half of his time on the +road is lost driving this way and that getting out of the road for +trucks and automobiles. If you cannot put your products on the market +as fast as your neighbor you cannot compete with him. That is all. If +you cannot do it single handed unite your forces. That is the commonest +of common sense. + +Farmers cannot hire ditching done any more. Ditching with pick and +shovel is a past art. You cannot pay the price, and you cannot find +the ditcher. Ditching is now a profession. The last time we had our +work done by hand the gentleman came in a large Buick, worked a few +hours for a few days and the job was done. The element of drudgery is +too great. We are living in an age of steam and gas and power. Why +strain the muscles when you can turn the throttle with the weight of +one finger and the work is done? You can buy a machine ditcher, drawn +by horse power, for as little as forty dollars. If done with hired help +it does not take but a few yards to cost forty dollars. Two mules and a +machine ditcher will make more ditches in a day than ten men can make +in a week. Here the drudgery is eliminated. Any boy can drive the team. +Why not join your forces and buy a ditcher or buy it by yourself? A +dozen peanut growers will pay more to thresh their peanuts in one year +than a whole peanut outfit will cost. At the same time it is yours and +you can thresh your peanuts when you please to do it. You will have +the outfit for many years, depending upon the care you give it. We +are paying now around ten dollars a cord for cutting wood. The best +woodcutters cannot cut more than two cords of wood in the woods a day. +Do you know that you can buy a wood saw that will fell the tree and cut +up the wood, and that one man can cut as much as fifteen cords in one +day? Muscular strength and drudgery are again eliminated. Why not a +few of you unite your forces and buy a machine, and in a few days lay +in all the wood you need for the winter and summer use? Do you like to +trudge along the old way because it is traditional? I do not know of +anything more annoying than to have to run to the woods or wood pile +morning, noon and night, to cut wood for the preparation of the meal. +To me it would be enough to spoil the temper of a saint. + +Here is a fine proposition suggested to me by a former Brickite. I am +not sure that it is original with him, but it is a fine proposition and +I am passing it along: + +The average farmer who is working on his own farm or farming on his +own account must grow not less than four or five hundred bushels of +peanuts yearly or more. Some, to my knowledge, grow eight hundred +and a thousand bushels. It usually costs twenty-five cents a sack +to thresh this amount. One sack holds about four bushels. It will +cost twenty-five dollars to thresh one hundred sacks or four hundred +bushels. Form a company of sufficient numbers and let them pay for +their stock exactly what they would pay to an outsider for threshing +their peanuts. If properly handled it would pay for itself in one year +and after that it ought to clear a dividend. + +There is one outstanding difficulty in this as in nearly everything in +which we engage in coöperative manner. That one man who will take the +leadership. Where is he? He must be unselfish, honest and level-headed. + +I am speaking especially with reference to farmers who have limited +means and not much help. Coöperation and organization ought to mean +more than a little partnership. To organize and coöperate for community +uplift and progress takes a lot of intelligence and honesty. I would +not impugn your citizenship and standing in the community to say that +you lacked either as farmers. It is a fact that most of us as farmers +are hard to understand some of the simplest business relations. When +the business demands that we shall pay our bills by a bank check and +require a receipt, and that all these operations should be booked, and +when an auditor is called in to balance our accounts and check up our +mistakes we are too quick to think that our honesty is questioned. +There is no other way to do business when others are involved in that +business. _The honest man wants to be checked up._ It gives him a +standing that nothing else will. Treasurers and secretaries of any +organization, whether churches, Sunday Schools, secret orders, debating +societies, or what not, have no business keeping other people’s money +in their personal possession. The banks are the national depositories +for all such organizations and other people’s money ought to be kept +there. + +It should not only be put in the bank, but it ought to be put there +to the credit of the institution to which it belongs. This may not be +good farming, but it is good business. I know of at least one man who +went to the penitentiary for using other people’s money for only a +few days and could not replace it. Organizations and companies should +demand cancelled checks and receipts for all expenses every so often +in a joint meeting. If officers count this an infringement upon their +personal integrity dismiss them and get officers who do not so regard +it. It is the only way to do business. + +We do not organize more and do not succeed better because we lack +faith in each other. This is perfectly natural. The Negroes have been +schooled in credulousness for a great many years. The encumbrance of +so long an inheritance cannot be so easily thrown off. Expect the +best that is in your neighbor and your neighbor will prove up to your +highest expectation. You not only make your neighbor better by your +good thoughts of him, but you add to your own spiritual and mental +growth incalculably. You grow yourself. + +Farmers must buy modern machinery for their farm. It is the best +investment you can make. Corn planters, cotton planters, gang plows, +and machinery of every sort that will save you worry and steps should +be bought. You cannot afford to farm without these implements. If you +do you must be left behind in the occupation of farming. You can not +make it. I think a farmer who can buy an automobile ought to be able +to buy a tractor engine. With a tractor engine you can plow, harrow, +and plant your ground while your neighbor is breaking his ground, and +you have beaten him a hundred miles in the manner in which you have +prepared the soil. At the close of the day you are not too tired to +go with your family to the moving picture show or to some community +entertainment where you may get an inspirational uplift for the next +day’s work. Look at your neighbors. That is what they do and keep ahead +of you. + +I think the farmer who is making good ought to buy a Ford car. I saw +a big farmer the other day who lived out about eight miles from Rocky +Mount. He was driving a horse and buggy. I asked him how much money +he had cleared the year before on his farm and he said that he had +cleared over and above all expenses about three thousand dollars. It +took him a good half day to drive to Rocky Mount for his plow point. +He might have saved the trip or run over there in twenty minutes and +made his purchase and had the rest of the day for work on his farm if +he had owned a Ford car. I am not arguing that one should purchase +modern machinery with which to facilitate his work in order to give him +more time to be idle. It will give him more time to do the things that +machinery cannot do. The good farmer never has idle time. Time spent +at a farmers’ conference is not idle time. The matter of getting the +latest and best information on farming methods is the most important +thing that a farmer can do. One cannot put into practice on his farm or +anywhere else what he does not know. + +Improved machinery means more intelligence on the farm. Farming is the +most complicated and diversified occupation there is in the world. +It takes a horticulturist to grow apples to perfection. It takes a +dairyman of the best type to put milk and butter on the market to meet +state and county inspection and public approval. It takes a mechanic of +the highest quality to keep up repair on the farm of fences, houses and +machinery. It takes a bookkeeper to keep farm accounts and records. He +must be something of a Wall Street broker to keep up with market prices +so that he will know how and when to sell his farm products. He must be +an electrician and an engineer as well if he is going to compete with +his neighbor who lights his house with a Delco light and runs all of +his machinery with power. + +When you come to live stock you have a world without end of necessary +information for your success. Cattle, cows, sheep, hogs, horses, +poultry, bees, and scores of special strains of each, every one of them +requiring special treatment and expert knowledge. If the farmer has +the inclination and the will he can become specialist in any one of +these lines. There are men who do nothing but breed the special brands +of high bred stock. There are those who breed bees and who supply the +world’s demands of purebred queen bees. The higher you go in this +specialization the more you become the world’s greatest benefactor. + +I have been studying about the value of limes upon the soils. To be a +first-class farmer you must be a chemist of the first magnitude. You +as farmers, have no idea of the part that chemicals must play in the +production of your crops. The fertilizer that will bring to perfection +one crop will kill another. You must know the fertilizer and know the +nature of the soil on which this fertilizer is to be used and you must +know how well a certain grade of fertilizer is adapted to the seed you +want to produce. Every first-class farm is a chemical laboratory and +the farmer is a chemist. Every first-class farmer must be something +of a physicist as well. Every first-class farmer must be something of +a doctor as well for all animals are subject to bodily disorders that +must be corrected by medical advice. He must also be a weather prophet. +You cut your hay and let the storm come on it and see where your +profits go. You must be able to read the signs in the heavens and the +published directions. Your job is a big one requiring as you go up the +most complicated knowledge about every thing under the sun. I have said +nothing about plant diseases and insect life affecting the success of +the farmer nor that world or destruction hid in the unseen bacteria. As +farmers you may be sluggards moving along on the lowest possible level +of life or you may be a prince living in a palace. There are a lot of +us on the lower levels who ought to move up to the higher gradations. +You can get more out of your farm life but you must _know how_. + +If you expect to work simply as a hireling you will not need this +information to any great extent. You only have to do as you are told +to do as a hireling. You may never as a hireling be asked to use even +your own initiative in an emergency. If you expect to manage a farm you +must have initiative and some executive ability. Twenty acres or more +constitute a farm. If you have that much land you are a farmer and you +must move on your own initiative. + +The days of ignorant farming are passing. The government cannot and +does not encourage ignorant farming. The times are demanding better +schools and better roads. These two improvements are here and the +farmers must pay the bills. Your farm must make you a living and +enough more to meet these public expenses. If your intelligence will +not make the ends meet, then before a great while the taxes will eat +you up and your land will go into the ownership of men who have the +intelligence to make the land meet the bills for public improvements. +As farmers you must subscribe to every public improvement that comes +into your community. You must buy stocks, bonds and meet public taxes. +These improvements all increase the value of your farm. Selfishness +and personal ends must not hold back community progress in any line. +You are a part of the community and when you hold back its progress +you defeat yourself. Not to know is no longer an excuse. _You must +know._ You cannot stay at home and pride yourself that you never go to +a farmers’ meeting and expect to know. Wherever people are gathered +together to discuss public problems there you may go to learn. There +is where you get in the spirit of things. There is where you get +knowledge. There is where you get the inspiration. The spirit of +rivalry and competition will go a long way to help us in our farm +operations. There is a farmer in Nash County who thinks he can beat +every one else in the county growing watermelons. There is a score of +farmers in his community quietly trying to beat _him_. The result is +that there are better watermelons grown in that community than in any +other community in the county. + + + + + RURAL LIFE + (continued) + +FARMERS’ CONGRESS, AUGUST 16, 17, 1921 + + +It is worth very much to any man who is interested in agricultural +operations to take a leisurely trip four hundred miles through North +Carolina in an automobile. A party of us left Bricks July 11th and +joined Rev. P. R. DeBerry in Raleigh. Taking his big Studebaker car, we +were off the 12th for a two days trip among the colored farmers of the +central and western part of the state. + +We were not touring, nor sightseeing, nor joy riding. Our one purpose +was to study the land, the people and the conditions under which our +colored farmers were living. We wanted to see what conditions were +compatible and what were not compatible. The trip took us through about +eighteen counties. + +We started our study in Edgecombe County. This is the county in which +Brick School is located. This county should be the first in all of its +operations because of its educational advantages and the inspiration it +ought to receive from this institution. + +There are in the county now about 25,000 Negroes. These Negroes own +4,000 farms and homes, numbering about 17,000 acres of land. Some +individuals own as much as 500 acres. We are sorry to say that most +of this land is not under the most improved condition. We have not +been able to have in this county a full time farm demonstration agent. +The Brick School and our farm meetings have given very much impulse +to farm operations, but even this has not reached all the farmers in +ways to stimulate them to their greatest efforts. We lack time, money +and authority that ought to come directly from the state. It has +been demonstrated in other counties that nothing is so valuable in +stimulating the farmers as a real, live, wide-a-wake farm demonstration +agent who lives and works among the farmers every day. A farm not half +developed and not improved is not an asset to the state nor to the +owner. It ought to come into the highest state of production, then only +does it become wealth. + +The school population of this county is about 7,000 children with +an enrollment of about 5,000 children, whose average attendance is +about 3,000 under the compulsory law. The county has a colored school +supervisor who gives the work all of her time. Mrs. Carrie Battle has +revolutionized the school work under her charge. She is insistent and +tireless. Every one knows her and respects her. Her office is in the +courthouse at Tarboro. The white county officials hold her in the +highest esteem. The teachers and schoolhouses rank among the best in +the state for colored people. + +I do not know anything that affects public improvements and progress +more than good roads. The farmers are generally slow to vote for good +roads, but no class of people appreciate them more than the farmer +when they are built. The area of the county is 515 square miles, and +yet I have traveled over every part of the county and over some of the +best roads in the state. The local papers tell us that a cement road +leading across the county is now in process of construction. This road +will eventually lead into Raleigh, some fifty miles away. + +Halifax County has an area of 681 square miles, with a colored +population of nearly 30,000 souls. They own 70,000 acres of land. +Their school population is around 10,000, with an enrollment of about +7,000, and an average attendance of about 3,000 children. This county +has a colored school supervisor who has done a very fine work among +the colored people. The colored people meet every condition set by the +state and county for the erection of colored schoolhouses. A few months +ago they had raised their part for twelve Rosenwald schoolhouses, +and had to wait on the county and state to recoupe their part. They +will meet any condition set for them. The colored population is not +congested in any one part of the county. They are located in every +section of the county and about evenly distributed. Their homes, for +the most part, are clean, and their houses are well constructed and +show signs of thrift and happiness. Very few colored farmers have +migrated from this section of the state. Those who have gone from +Halifax County can hardly be missed. This in itself shows that the +racial equilibrium is not much disturbed. + +Nash County, which joins us on the west, is one of our best farming +communities. The fifteen thousand Negroes in the county own more than +25,000 acres of land and more than 2,000 farms. They are a progressive +lot of colored people. They have a number of independent schools aside +from the public schools. They have excellent churches, and their homes +are being built on modern lines. This county has twelve miles of +cement road running from Rocky Mount to Nashville, the county seat. +The contour of the county is rolling and red clay. The important towns +are Nashville, Spring Hope, Middlesex, and let us say a part of Rocky +Mount. There is a great deal of the land in this county uncultivated +and developed. It waits only for the man who has the brain and the +energy. The county has no county farm demonstration agent nor colored +school supervisor. I do not know what can be more advantageous to +the success of the colored farmer than the addition of a colored +farm demonstration agent and a colored school supervisor. While the +preachers are ministering to the spiritual needs of our folks and the +teachers are directing their intellectual life, and the state and +county health offices are looking after the health of the masses, the +farm demonstration agents and the colored school supervisors are daily +giving inspiration and purpose to rural life everywhere. The state and +county are the direct beneficiaries of the work of these two agents. +Having five children go to school every day from one family where +formerly only three went means very much for the literacy of the state. + +Teaching boys how to grow forty bushels of corn on the same acreage +where their fathers could grow only ten is adding very much to the +wealth of the state. The community which does not appreciate and +recognize this truth is impervious to eternal values. Every farmers’ +conference tells how much increase there has been in corn, peas, +cotton, peanuts, oats, rye, tobacco, and other things under the +direction of our farm demonstration agents. + +We pass through Franklin County into Wake. Every one knows that Raleigh +is in Wake County. As soon as you arrive in Wakefield or Zebulon, both +small country hamlets, you know that you must be about fifteen miles +from the capital city. Hard-surfaced roads present such a temptation +to touch the accelerator just a little, and little, and again a little +more, and again, if you do not happen to see any motorcycles lurking +about. The colored population of this county is less than 30,000, and +they own less than 6,000 farms. They own about 60,000 acres of land. +Their school population is about 10,000, with an enrollment of about +7,000, and an average daily attendance of about 4,000 children. We +ought to expect the school average to be higher, of course, being +adjacent to the seat of state authority. Wake County has had for a +number of years two colored agents, in the person of Miss Delany for +the schools, and Professor Roberts for the farmers. They have gone in +and out of the farm homes daily carrying inspiration and encouragement +and inspiring hope. The daily contact with these personalities has +been the leavening power in the county. We have seen for a number of +years the finest products that could be produced on exhibition in our +colored State Fair. In the city market in Raleigh every day in the year +one will see these same fine farm products. They will do justice to +any racial group. Here one will see what the agents are doing to help +the farmers to conserve and preserve their products. The homes of the +farmers show neatness and cleanliness. We have been greatly surprised +to see how far some of our farmers have gone in beautifying their homes +and premises. _This is as it should be._ + +The excellent public schools of Raleigh, the fine institutions +represented by St. Augustine School and Shaw University have given the +colored rural population a great inspiration. The well ordered homes of +some of their city cousins have also been an inspiration to the colored +rural population. + +There are so many opportunities, educational and inspirational, about +the state capitol, that it is almost like living under the shadows +of a great university. Then the main thoroughfares are so fine that +those living in the most remote parts of the county ought to have no +difficulty or count it no hardship to go to the city for lectures, +recitals, conventions, conferences, and for general consultation with +those under state authority. These opportunities are the best sort of +unearned increment. + +We pass from Wake County to Chatham County. There are no less than +8,000 colored people in Chatham County. They own about 2,000 farms and +homes, and about 30,000 acres of land. The two small towns, Moncure +and Haywood, have quite a settlement of colored people. At Haywood +they seem rather isolated and some of the homes had a progressive +appearance. The disadvantages under which we started, the social, +industrial, business and educational status, in which we find ourselves +should not be allowed to differentiate from other people who live in +the same community and in the same environment. + +If other racial groups living in the same community have their homes +painted, flowers in their gardens and other ornaments that add to +home life and beauty, it is perfectly right that we should catch the +inspiration. If we cannot be leaders in these matters, we ought to +be good followers. We have the labor, and a gallon of paint and a +paint brush will work wonders in a few hours. If we cannot keep the +yard fence looking decent and in repair let us move it. We must take +personal pride in the community in which we live. It is the best sort +of civic pride. In this community we ought to prove our best selves. +Chatham County has disgraced itself recently with a lynching bee. + +Crossing the river into Lee County we were very much impressed with +the sign, “You are welcome to Lee County.” This large sign was in a +most conspicuous place and we interpreted it to mean what it said, and +that we were included in the invitation. We stopped to ponder and to +contrast the difference. We have been in parts of our country where +the overhead signs read, “Nigers and dogs not wanted.” We have seen in +other parts where land was advertised for sale and the biggest asset in +the advertisement was the absence of Negroes from the community. + +There are less than 4,000 colored people in Lee County. They own about +700 farms and about 8,000 acres of land. The area of the county is very +small, and the entire population less than 15,000. + +I have been for several years on a local inter-racial committee. Since +the world war it has been necessary to have such a committee in the +South on inter-racial relations. I am also on the state inter-racial +committee. That means that I am always looking out for the small things +and the larger things, too, as we make our daily rounds, that count for +good will and peace between the two racial groups. At Sanford we saw +a large number of colored men at work as carpenters and bricklayers +on some of the finest buildings going up in the city. I was shown +others and advised that they were the work of colored carpenters, under +colored contractors. A former Brick School boy was foreman on one of +the jobs. These contractors and workmen were personal friends of mine, +and later I had the pleasure of seeing some of their own homes and +business. They were among the best in the community. Broadway, Cumnock, +and Jonesboro are progressive communities in which the colored people +are doing well. I was advised that only a few of the colored people had +migrated from this part of the state. It means that they are happy and +that they can buy homes in communities that are compatible. After all, +we must have compatibility in our homes and in our neighborhood, in our +community, in our relations with the outside world. I would not live a +week in a community that was not compatible. To receive a gibe and a +thrust every time one steps on the street, or into a corner grocery, +or on the public highway, by other racial groups is contemptible, and +especially so when one knows that there is absolutely no redress for +that sort of contempt. One wonders what the preachers are preaching or +what the schools are teaching. Patriotism, love of community, social +and personal progress are of slow growth in such communities where +there is so much incompatibility. + +All the world has heard of Moore County. It is an area of 798 square +miles. The main line of the Seaboard railroad crosses it from north to +south. It is crossed and recrossed by Page’s railroad. Here is Southern +Pines, Pinehurst, Jackson Springs, Carthage, and scores of other +smaller towns. The names are common to the resorter and tourist. It has +a population of less than 6,000 Negroes, who own about 16,000 acres of +land. Excluding the villages and towns, twenty-five years ago I would +not have paid the taxes for all the rest of the land. Twenty-five +years ago I went all over the county, and one could scarcely get +anywhere for the sand and roads were practically unknown. Sand, sand, +sand—everywhere sand. + +Moore County is now the veritable garden spot of the state. The local +intersecting railroads have changed hands. Fine public highways have +been built in every direction. The tourist and capitalist, making +their annual visits to this section, have discovered in that vast land +undiscovered possibilities of wealth. Thousands and thousands of acres +of this waste have been converted into peach orchards. Peach packing +stations have been built all along the track for the convenience of +the peach shippers. I was told that several trains of peaches were +shipped daily to the Northern market. Where the land was not already +planted I saw the Fordson tractors getting it ready for fall planting. +Most of this undeveloped land was what is called cut-over land. It +is absolutely barren except for a lot of shrubby pines, shrubby oaks +and some native tough grasses and wild composite flowers. Tupelle and +poplar may be found in the swamps and lowlands. + +I wondered as I passed along to get a bit of information here and +there, if our colored people were learning to do by doing. I wondered +if they were getting the inspiration. Sixteen thousand acres of land +ought to be the nucleus of an industry. A hundred acres ought to make a +good peach farm. What an opportunity for the colored man who has brain +and industry and some little money and a great ambition. We have not +the faintest idea of the wonderful opportunities in the millions of +acres of the waste lands of our southern country. These lands are just +begging the capitalist to come and invest in the undeveloped resources +of its bosom. It is there, but it just needs the brain and some +little money. The brawn is there, too; it just needs the intelligent +direction. Compatible conditions will keep it there. + +The land in Moore County will never again sell for one dollar an acre +while peaches are selling for three dollars a bushel at the tree. Most +of the trees bear from two to five bushels of peaches. They are planted +about fifteen feet apart. It takes about 150 trees to the acre. Any +one can figure the income at that rate. These peaches ought to begin +bearing in three years. There is nothing so fabulous as the income per +acre from such an investment. There is nothing so sure. Some of the +rows as we viewed them seemed endless. Greensboro, sixty miles away, +was sending trucks to the peach area daily for loads of peaches for the +local market, in Greensboro. A little while back one of these peach +orchards sold for $85,000. + +The business of supervision has become so important that many of the +growers combine and employ an expert from the State Department of +Agriculture. They can pay more than the state can pay for such expert +supervision. The work is as yet in its infancy. We are advising our +Negro boys to go to our best agricultural schools and specialize in +this department of fruit cultivation so that they can manage such +enterprises as these large fruit farms. They do not seem to get the +vision. As long as our folks are buying farms, and they are increasing +their holdings every year, there are vast opportunities for their +services as horticulturists. Ten Negro farmers in Moore County, North +Carolina, ought to be able to get together and make peach-growing worth +while to the group. Their traditions and the local environment have +taken away their inspiration. They also lack knowledge. They have not +been schooled in initiative of this sort. Coöperation with most of us +has been a doubtful experiment. We must learn and grow more before we +can take hold of the larger industries that require large coöperation. +Experience and knowledge are vital to the success of any enterprise. +The great enterprises of the North have been growing coöperatively +since the country was discovered. The South has been giving its time +to matters of social adjustments. The adjustment of its racial groups +has been its nightmare by day as well as by night. Hatreds, jealousies, +prejudices, have entered too much into our daily contact and relations +to allow us to grow nationally. The conditions of all progress are in +education, industry, compatibility. + +I read somewhere that the conscious mind may not get a true perspective +and may error. Still it is conscious. When I read in the papers every +day and note all the deviltries perpetrated here and there all over +the South, I wonder that we have all gotten along as well as we have, +and especially do I wonder how the Negro has made such progress. Then +I hear that the subconscious mind never errors. The conscious mind +would have me riled and leaving the country, boot and baggage, when I +read what is happening somewhere else outside of North Carolina. The +subconscious mind comes in and says to me, when I am quiet and alone +and perhaps when I am half asleep, “No, do not get discouraged.” The +South is the garden spot of the world. It has the prettiest moons, the +brightest days, its florescence on a thousand hills and in as many +vales scatters its fragrance and beauty three hundred and sixty-five +days in the year. Its cataracts, rills, and springs sparkle with +diamonds of beauty and health. The woods and swamps are filled with +every sort of game, her rivers and lakes abound with every known fish +for the sportsmen, her climate is the most equitable in the world, +the rainfall the most evenly distributed, the storms not so awfully +destructive, the exotic population the least of that of any other +similar area, with an adapted vegetation from the highest altitudes to +the equator. The contour of the surface is high or low as one likes +it. Smooth or rough. The Blue Ridge Mountains afford a retreat from +the Northern winters as well as a retreat from the Southern sun. Her +altitude, pine forest and splendid waters are an asset that no other +country in the world can equal. In the next few years more than fifty +millions of dollars will be spent in North Carolina alone for public +roads. Steam roads and electric cars will soon intersect every nook +and corner of the state. The most inaccessible parts of the state and +the South will become the public highways. Automobiles and trucks will +bring the most remote farms to the city markets daily. The telephone +and radio are already available in our country homes. + +In the next two years North Carolina will spend four millions of +dollars for Negro health and education. This has already been passed by +state Legislature. This amount of money put into health and education +in any community will make a change. It shows an enlightenment of +public sentiment and a change of attitude on the part of the citizens +of the state. Progress cannot and will not be thwarted. Education, +enlightenment, Christianity—this trio is the saving grace of any +community. I do not know of any place better than North Carolina. _This +is my subconscious mind._ It never errors. + +We leave Moore County and cross into Montgomery County. This is what +we call a hickory country. The land is rocky and red with hills almost +precipitous. We could not visit many of the colored people because of +the inaccessibility of most of the rural homes. The colored population +is about 4,000, and they pay taxes on about 8,000 acres of land. They +are engaged in general agriculture, corn, tobacco and cotton being +their prevailing crops. They have a few cotton factories in the town +of Troy and more in the county, and many lumber mills. The Pedee River +and its tributaries furnish a large part of the power for the factory +work. The county has a real gold mine which was profitably worked a few +years ago. It was my pleasure to visit it some years ago when it was in +operation. It has been abandoned, and the machinery and buildings show +signs of a past prosperity. + +The town of Troy has one of the two wooden courthouses left in the +state. It was being replaced by a modern stone structure. It will +cost when finished about $200,000. I am told that the stone in the +construction of this building was taken from the site on which the +building stands. It rather reminds one of our Northern centers in that +it stands at the juncture of a number of the public roads leading into +the town. + +The Peabody School, under the auspices of the American Missionary +Association of New York, is the only institution in all of that part of +the country giving anything like a high school education to the colored +people in all of that section of the country. The school is beautiful +for its location just out of the city. It fronts a public road and is +on high ground with splendid drainage. Several of their buildings are +new and up-to-date for school purposes. + +A hard-surfaced road is in construction from Charlotte to Raleigh. The +distance is nearly two hundred miles. It will probably pass through +nine counties. It will open up a country of immense possibilities. A +cement bridge connecting up this road is already in construction across +the Yadkin River. This bridge will be nearly or quite 2,000 feet long. +It would ornament the approach to any Northern city. + +From Troy we went to Biscoe, Star and Ashboro in Randolph County. This +is also an oak and hickory county. The roads took us through a very +fine section of the country. The country looks very undeveloped. The +roads were very fine. The rural homes appeared rather small. Many of +the women along the roads were seen bottoming chairs. Chair-making +seemed to be one of the main industries in that section. The frames of +the chairs were made at the factories and sent out to the country women +to have the bottoms put in them. These bottoms were made of white oak +splits. The absence of colored people engaged in this business seemed +very noticeable. + +The town of Ashboro had all the appearances of being a hustling town. +More than a half dozen buildings were going up. We saw no colored +carpenters or bricklayers on the job anywhere. We were advised that +no colored men were allowed to work at their trade in the town. We +saw several colored mechanics with their kit of tools packed, leaving +the town. Some of them we knew to be the equal of any mechanics in +any other group of workers. Still their mechanical efficiency counted +nothing. It was their unfortunate tradition, and their black faces +which counted them out. Here my conscious mind came up again. We did +not have the feeling that we had when we left Lee County. A man ought +to be passed on his merits and not on his color. They wanted mechanics, +but not black mechanics. These men would do well to migrate. Wherever +they went I know they were in the frame of mind to swear vengeance +against any community that would tolerate that sort of condition. That +is what makes socialists, bolsheviks, and Catholics out of us. + +We soon find ourselves in Guilford County. We arrive in High Point and +remain long enough to see friends and inquire about the conditions of +our farmers. + +I think it true that there are more manufacturers of furniture in +this county than in any other county in the state. The Brick School +has bought furniture in New York only to await shipment from High +Point. Later we have gone to High Point and seen this furniture in +the making. These two cities are in the oak and hickory section of +the state. I have seen its street cars in Philadelphia, New York, +Baltimore, Washington, Asheville, Atlanta, Ga., Birmingham, Ala. Of +course a business of this size will give work of one sort or another to +a great many of our colored laborers. There are 15,000 of our people +in Guilford County. They own 3,000 homes and farms. They are paying +taxes on 17,000 acres of land. The Negroes in Guilford County have +the inspiration of one of the best state colleges for Negroes to be +found in the South. The college ought to be the center of all the best +influence for farming in a hundred miles about it. If they are found +to be using poor farming methods they ought to be fined. Alamance, +Orange and Durham counties are rather small counties, but they have +some of the best farms and form some of the best farming and industrial +communities to be found in the state. Durham is really the emporium +for Negro enterprise and thrift. Tobacco, cotton and corn, and some +wheat are the leading farm products in this section of the state. +Gibsonville, Burlington, Graham and Hillsboro are thriving towns. They +are centers of cotton and furniture manufacturing interests. + +This study took us through about fifteen counties. We were not +investigating the town and city conditions, but the farming interests. +In counties where they had rural supervisors there was a marked +difference in the attitude and progress of the farmers. Their outward +appearance was different from what we saw several years ago. The +farmers were better clad; their work animals were in better condition; +their teams were not all dilapidated; many of them are using improved +machinery; their barns and houses were more orderly built and better +maintained; the houses in which they live are a decided improvement +over the old houses we usually see along the railroad. They are giving +more care to their wells and pumps. They are learning to screen their +windows. The ancestral waste barrel in many cases are being removed +from their kitchen windows. They are using more paint not only to save +their houses, but because it adds beauty to their premises. They are +planting flowers. They are putting out fruit trees and investing in +thoroughbred chickens, hogs and cows. These are all good signs. They +are really coming. Some have had to come from so far down the road that +it may appear that they have not made any progress. They are coming +nevertheless. At no place where we stopped did we have to confine our +diet to sweet potatoes and boiled eggs in order to preserve our health +by the osmosis process. + +We saw in many places attempts made to improve the soil. We found +alfalfa, red clover and crimson clover in the red clay sections. Peas +were grown generally. The farm demonstration agents and the farmers’ +conferences have been an inspiration to the farmers to grow legumes to +help the land to bring forth its fruit. They are learning that they +cannot use up the fertility of the soil and still have it. They are +learning that an investment in legumes is one of the best they can make +for crop productions. + +The papers have been saying that one man in four in the American army +is uneducated. If that is true it is a sad comment on the conditions +of this country. There is no power in the world to equal that of +education. We cannot exaggerate its power and its importance. A trained +mind, a trained hand and a trained heart are indomitable. An unlettered +man lives in isolation. He cannot appreciate the creation of nature. +There is no progress in isolation and a static mind atrophies. Whatever +be the proportion of illiteracy, those of us who move about among +the masses know that notwithstanding our private schools and public +schools, ignorance and superstition are simply appalling. It is not +only appalling, but it is dangerous to any environment. It is a menace +to the state and government. + + + + +BRICK SCHOOL IN PERSPECTIVE + + +Work began at the Brick School in 1895 under the auspices of the +American Missionary Association. The “Estes Farm,” named after the +owner, General Estes of the Civil War, came into the possession of Mrs. +Julia E. Brewster Brick, of Brooklyn, New York, who found it a burden +on her hands. Mrs. Brick had visited the community, and her heart had +been made sad by the sights which greeted her on every side. The sad +faces and depressed spirits in a large environment of Negro congestion +appealed to her heart. She was responsive to this appeal. It was the +voice of God which she did not mistake. + +Her life and thoughts and heart had been attuned to this appeal, and so +she sought how best she might help the situation. The advice of General +Oliver O. Howard was sought. He introduced Secretary A. F. Beard and +Mr. H. W. Hubbard, at the time Treasurer of the American Missionary +Association. The result of this counsel was that a large farm of 1,129½ +acres of land in North Carolina three miles from the town of Enfield +was given to the American Missionary Association for Negro education. +With the gift came also from the same source $5,000 for the first +building. + +There followed other gifts from Mrs. Brick and from the American +Missionary Association, so that the farm was soon stocked with hogs, +horses, mules, cows and farm implements. Houses of various sorts, +including school buildings, dormitories, teachers’ cottages, tenant +houses and barns have been put up, valued at several hundred thousand +dollars. This beautiful munificence has been our saving grace during +the last twenty-seven years of stress and strain in the financial world. + +We began work with the modest number of five teachers. We now have +about twenty teachers and a few less than 400 students. The students +come from a dozen states and from nearly all the counties in North +Carolina. The larger number of them comes from a radius of fifty miles. + +The purpose of the institution is to teach the students to do the +things the best way in the community where they may live. Being rurally +situated, the first and greatest appeal must be made along the line of +an agricultural education. The knowledge of how to extract from the +soil the largest and best products which the community may need for +its consumption is an asset in which any group of people may well take +pride. Most town and city boys coming to us have an aversion to this +form of education, and especially to the strenuousness necessary to an +efficient application of the most vital principles of agriculture. + +Horses have to be shod, and farmers have to have houses in which to +live and under which to shelter their stock. So we have to teach the +boys to work in iron and wood. Along with this goes some drawing and +planning. Tools and wagons must be kept in repair. Boys going back to +their communities ought to be later the real leaders in the community. +In many instances they are the leaders. + +While the boys are investing their time in the farm crafts and the shop +crafts the girls are learning to do needlework and house cleaning, +washing and sewing. They learn the home life by getting some of the +conventionalities of it here in the classroom under teachers who get +from Pratt and Columbia and other good schools the best they have +to offer. These teachers are themselves largely the products of our +American Missionary Association Schools. They have not been satisfied +to “graduate and quit,” but they have continued to study. In addition +to giving the boys work on the farm and in the shop, and the girls work +in the kitchen, laundry, dining-room and sewing-room, and general house +cleaning, all are offered a first-class high school course covering six +years, preceded by six years of elementary education. + +The writer of these notes is himself a product of Oberlin and Fisk +University. He knows how to do a great many things, including +typesetting, printing, farming, plumbing, some work in wood, +poultry-raising and agriculture, stock husbandry. He lectures, preaches +sometimes, and writes for newspapers. He counts himself a fair judge of +artistic values wherever they are on exhibition. He knows how utterly +impossible it is to try to do any one of the above things with any +degree of efficiency or even ordinary skill without mental training. +The mind is the master, and unless that has training and poise the hand +fails. The academic course is to meet this condition. Many of the boys +and girls stay to finish it, but the bulk never finish. Many of them +do not stay for the full course—not that they do not have the money +in many cases—but because education among the masses it not popular. +They have had a propaganda for many years that a little learning is a +dangerous thing. They have been advised that they belong to a subject +group, and that they need only the rudimentary necessaries of life. A +fine horse and buggy or a car and nice clothes make an appeal above any +sacrifice for study. It is the appeal for the glitter and the glare. +This false notion comes to the half grown youth because they got a +bad start. They were neglected in the public schools—parents ignorant +of the necessity of education on the one hand, and poorly prepared +teachers on the other hand, and poorly furnished and constructed +schoolhouses. The whole school environment has not been psychological. +It has rather been repulsive. + +Some who return to their homes are making good farmers, as evidenced by +their better crops, better fertility of their soil, better kept work +animals, better kept machinery, better homes, yards, and community life. + +Many of those who finish the high school course attend other schools +and later enter the ministry, dentistry, or become physicians, +teachers, Y. M. C. A. or Y. W. C. A. workers, or instructors in +agriculture either in our schools or as county farm demonstration +agents. The best examples are Isaac Bunn, farmer, and owns his own +farm of 250 acres bought and paid for in Halifax County; Benjamin +Bullock, under the Smith-Lever Fund, in charge of agriculture in the +colored state college in Texas; Rev. A. S. Croom, Baptist minister, +Salisbury, N. C.; Dr. Joseph Harrison, physician, Kinston, N. C.; +Dr. Willie Sessoms, dentist, Rocky Mount, N. C.; Dr. R. R. Robinson, +physician, Los Angeles, Cal.; Miss Hattie Green, Miss Lucy Richmond +McCoy, Miss Susie Adams, Young Women’s Christian Association work, +New York; Miss Annie Rhodes, teacher in the city schools of Chicago; +Miss Lula Bullock, teacher in city schools, Louisville, Ky.; George +Bullock, manual training in city schools of Louisville, Ky.; Joseph +Bullock, a captain in the army, and now a student of dentistry. More +than a hundred have gone out as graduates, and all are a leavening in +the community in which they live. The influence of the Brick School +has counted in the community life of the masses more than any other +agency in operation. We mean by “Community” the area of a circle of +which the school is the center and whose radius is twenty-five miles. +We have three counties virtually inside of this circle whose Negro +population is more than 60,000. The circle cuts into six other counties +whose combined population is more than 148,000 Negroes. The nearest +institution under private auspices doing anything like high school work +is exactly sixty-three miles away. We have a field all our own. The +area in this circle is “our community.” + +We have sought all these years to better the community life by reaching +the farmers directly. To this end we have annually and semi-annually +farmers’ meetings. They come and spend one or two days at our expense +for entertainment, where they have contact with our teachers and with +men and women sent by the State Department of Agriculture at Raleigh, +who lecture on the best methods of farm and home life. + +We must do more than talk. We must help them. We have here a local +Federal Farm Loan Organization, and this organization in the last three +years has put into Negro farms more than $130,000. This money is let by +the United States government and on conditions that can be met without +hardship to the borrower. Titles are investigated, deeds are properly +made, and a new spirit is put into the farmers of the community. We +are encouraging our colored men to buy small farms of twenty-five and +fifty acres and build for themselves modest homes near their public +schools as far as they can, and not too far from their local churches. +We advise them to patronize these institutions freely and to build up +their community life. + +The vision has been a long ways off, like the rainbow, but they +have begun to catch it. In these three counties they are paying +taxes on more than 100,000 acres of land. Their homes are very much +improved. Their churches are excellent for rural communities. They +are contributing largely for the Rosenwald schools. In Halifax County +they have twelve, and more are now in construction, the colored people +paying one-third of the cost. + +They have helped us generously to erect several teachers’ cottages here +at Bricks, and $5,000 is now pledged for further improvements, which +will be paid as soon as farming conditions and prices enable them to do +so. + +Righteous public sentiment is of slow growth, and one cannot expect to +change traditions quickly whose roots have penetrated every strata of +society. It takes sympathy, patience, years, work, and some money. + + T. S. INBORDEN. + +May 17, 18, 1922. + + +_The_ JOSEPH K. BRICK SCHOOL + +BRICKS, N. C. + + +was organized twenty-seven years ago under the general supervision +of the American Missionary Association. It offers a first-class High +School Course, including Domestic Science, Domestic Art, Agriculture, +Work in Iron and Steel, Mechanical Drawing, Instrumental and Vocal +Music. + +Board, lodging, light, heat, and laundering cost per calendar month, +$14.00. Tuition $2.00 and $2.50. Poor boys over sixteen years of age +may work out a part or all of this amount. + +The School Farm contains 1,129½ acres. + +There are 23 school buildings and cottages. + +The postoffice handles four mails each day, giving money order, +registered mail, parcel post service. + +The telegraph and telephone connections are through Enfield, N. C. + +Atlantic Coast Line Trains 33 and 34 stop at Bricks on signal. + +Prepaid freight may be sent direct to Bricks, N. C. Express may be sent +to Enfield, N. C. + +The enrollment for last year was 385 students, under the leadership of +22 teachers and officers. + +The students maintain religious, musical, and athletic organizations. + +There is a student brass band to enliven outdoor sports. + +For Catalogue and other information, write + + +T. S. INBORDEN, _Principal_ + +MITCHELL PRINTING CO., RALEIGH + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + pg 3 Changed: Mojave Desert into Death Valley and to Sanfenando + To: Mojave Desert into Death Valley and to San Fernando + + pg 3 Changed: Santa Barbarbara, Ventura, Gaudaloupe, San Lois Obispo + To: Santa Barbara, Ventura, Guadaloupe, San Luis Obispo + + pg 6 Changed: Minnesota is the synonym for “Gold Metal” + To: Minnesota is the synonym for “Gold Medal” + + pg 6 Changed: To the unitiated it might seem + To: To the uninitiated it might seem + + pg 12 Changed: the towering snow-capped mountins + To: the towering snow-capped mountains + + pg 14 Changed: try the water as it somes fresh + To: try the water as it comes fresh + + pg 15 Changed: southern part of the valley, and also Bakerfield. + To: southern part of the valley, and also Bakersfield. + + pg 16 Changed: largest ferry boat in the forld + To: largest ferry boat in the world + + pg 16 Changed: We crossed the Sierra Madre over the Tehachepi + To: We crossed the Sierra Madre over the Tehachapi + + pg 17 Changed: known as the Tehachepi Mountains + To: known as the Tehachapi Mountains + + pg 17 Changed: fruits and nuts, hay and forage, dairy prducts + To: fruits and nuts, hay and forage, dairy products + + pg 17 Changed: daily tours to many of the surburban towns + To: daily tours to many of the suburban towns + + pg 18 Changed: When we were crossing the Techachepi Mountains + To: When we were crossing the Tehachapi Mountains + + pg 19 Changed: Rodrigeez, Cabrillo, Don Gasper de protola + To: Rodriguez, Cabrillo, Don Gasper de Portola + + pg 19 Changed: said to have four hundred squire miles + To: said to have four hundred square miles + + pg 20 Changed: We also pass Stamford University. + To: We also pass Stanford University. + + pg 21 Changed: public roads in Los Angeles and San Barnardino + To: public roads in Los Angeles and San Bernardino + + pg 24 Changed: We are in Humbolt County + To: We are in Humboldt County + + pg 24 Changed: several hundred miles through this tortious + To: several hundred miles through this tortuous + + pg 26 Changed: The road is tortious, + To: The road is tortuous, + + pg 27 Changed: Passing Council Bull in Iowa + To: Passing Council Bluffs in Iowa + + pg 28 Changed: from Spokane to Seattle to San Barnardino + To: from Spokane to Seattle to San Bernardino + + pg 30 Changed: Dr. Burton is a product of Taladega College + To: Dr. Burton is a product of Talladega College + + pg 32 Changed: I never say anything finer. + To: I never saw anything finer. + + pg 32 Changed: has lost one the greatest stars + To: has lost one of the greatest stars + + pg 32 Changed: but whereever they have had the opportunity + To: but wherever they have had the opportunity + + pg 33 Changed: After the world war he went to Tusla, Oklahoma + To: After the world war he went to Tulsa, Oklahoma + + pg 35 Changed: average farmer to take into his parnership + To: average farmer to take into his partnership + + pg 42 Changed: school poulation is around 10,000 + To: school population is around 10,000 + + pg 43 Changed: the main thoroughfares ars so fine + To: the main thoroughfares are so fine + + pg 48 Changed: there are more manfacturers of furniture + To: there are more manufacturers of furniture + + pg 48 Changed: college ought to be the certer of all + To: college ought to be the center of all + + pg 48 Changed: preserve our health by the osmos process + To: preserve our health by the osmosis process + + pg 50 Changed: school buildings, domitories, teachers’ cottages + To: school buildings, dormitories, teachers’ cottages + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78199 *** |