FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.S.R. Scottron Addresses the Students' Club on theProblem of Education.

ARGUES FOR MANUAL TRAINING.For Thirty Years the Negro Has Been Trying to Begin at the Top.

At the regular monthly meeting of the Students' Club of Brooklyn, held last night at its rooms, 184 Adelphi street, an important and interesting paper was read by President Samuel R. Scottron on "Education, its Relation to our Future," which was attentively listened to by the members and guests, who gave many expressions of approval of what the speaker said. Prominent among those present were the Rev. George Frazier Miller, Lewis H. Latimer, Professor William L. Bulkley, Dr. P. W. Ray, D. Macon Webster, the Rev. A. J. Henry, W. R. Lawton and Dr. William M. Lively.

The Students' Club is composed entirely of colored men, who give their best efforts toward the elevation of their fellows. Their object is the general discussion of questions of timely interest, science, social and political economy, pedagogy, history and questions affecting the colored American.

President Scottron's paper dealt with the proposition of educating the colored people along the lines of manual training courses and in the trades, thus lifting them from the lowly level of much of their labor, bringing them into a condition to better meet competition in the world and thus to elevate their race. In this direction Mr. Scottron said:

"I am deeply sensible of the importance of the subject which I have undertaken to present for your consideration, so much so, that I am doubtful of my ability to present it in that orderly manner that shall prove interesting, and a fair and truthful presentment of what I deem the paramount subject, above all other affecting our future. The particular lines we have followed in the past thirty-five years, in educational pursuits and the result, seems to be a legitimate subject for thought and discussion; the paramount question, including all others. Indeed, that education occupies the first place seems to have been proven by many acts of several state legislatures recently, which have made the exercise of the suffrage dependent upon educational qualification.

"Education is at the basis of advancement in every avenue that leads to development greatness, equality. A proper education will open every door, many of which we have hitherto regarded as closed. It will open the door of trade and manufacture, which I regard as far and above all; the door that shall lead our perfect equality with other citizens of the country. Whatever inequality may exist to-day, I am sure, may be entirely balanced by a wider diffusion of business knowledge and acquirements, because in only one avenue of life, in my experience, is the effect of the color of a man's skin reduced to zero.

"What I have always said, then, is a sufficient indication of what shall be my treatment of the subject of education, insisting that it shall be such as shall afford us the greatest development along business lines, in trade and manufactures, having full faith in the schools for manual training.

"My observation of the past leads me to the opinion that to a large extent our efforts have been misdirected in the line of educational pursuits; fitting ourselves disproportionately for what may be termed the top round of the ladder, rather than for the beginning round, that we may ascend in an orderly firm manner, with that knowledge and experience of every successive round that shall enable us to sustain our balance when we have reached the top.

"I think I do not misrepresent our people when I say that at the hour of liberation from slavery it was the general opinion that the elevation of the race would be quickest. 00032accomplished by the multiplication of scientists, lawyers, doctors and professionals generally; that we might prove to the world the negro's ability to comprehend, to teach and to practice in all the advanced lines of thought. That much proven, that the doors would open freely, admitting him to a high place in the society and councils of the nation. Each family, possibly, has striven to fit at least one of its members to gain that scientific, or professional knowledge, that should entitle that particular member to wear the distinguishing title usually accompanying scientific and professional pursuits. Elementary schools, colleges and universities have been quite freely established, generously patronized and well attended; and we have succeeded in the brief space of thirty-five years in producing, at least, our proportion of the titled community. Still, many, very many, groan despairingly when, measuring the result of so much energy, they note that caste prejudice seems so slightly dissipated. Nevertheless, progress has been made. The progress of a race may be likened to the character and progress of the sea, showing great waves upon the surface at times that beat high with corresponding lower troughs first high, then low, as the fierce tempest blows; then for a space of time presenting comparative tranquillity, rising and ebbing only, seemingly, eternally. But there are currents, streams, where progress is made, moving on and on and ever discernible: and, in We may as well attempt to arrest the progress of these ocean streams as to arrest the progress of a race with its face set toward the sunlight.

"Mankind learns by experience, and it is that that distinguishes man from the lower order of creation. If we make mistakes we correct them. Whole peoples, nations as well as individuals, make mistakes, but there being a law of motion governing bodies in proportion to their weight and dimensions, it follows that the mistakes of a nation are slower of correction than the mistakes of individuals. We are progressing, growing. We do not recognize the progress or growth of a people any more readily than we recognize the growth of vegetation. If we look at the grass upon our lawn, or the trees in our fields, never so steadily, we cannot discern growth, and yet we know that they are growing every moment. If we leave them for a while and then return we can even measure the growth. Just so with our own growth; it is only by looking back over long spaces of time that we can measure the growth of the race and its progress along the lines which must eventually lead to the goal of its ambition.

"Certain distinguished educators of colored youth, with whom my own observation leads me to quite agree, have said that we have made the mistake of concentrating our efforts in educating children, too many of them, in lines of study that can give them no hope for future remunerative employment. We have been grinding out reverends, right reverends, doctors of divinity, professors, doctors of law, bachelors of art, medical doctors, counselors and the whole line of titled professions, when good farmers or tradesmen would have satisfied an urgent want and employment, and have proved a more powerful lifting force.

"My own observation assures me of the truth of the statement that we have multiplied in these professions and have graduated so many scientists that now it is quite rarely the case that a Pullman train passes through this city that isn't dignified by the employment of one or more of them. We have kept many a boy in school studying Latin, Greek and the higher mathematics only to find him in a few months after graduation making beds upon a sleeper, running an elevator or waiting upon tables in one of our large hotels. Now, it appears to me that you cannot disagree with me when I say that it indicates a waste of energy and, possibly of time and money, that might have been better spent--that is, with more satisfactory results.

"But do not for a moment think that I am opposed to the higher education of our youth because so many fail to reach the desired plane. I would, however, have you impressed with the thought that we have and do lay too much stress upon the idea that only scholastic study may be regarded as education; that education is confined to books, forgetting that the workshops, foundries, fields and trade marts also furnish education of a kind most productive, and leading to the attainment of the highest development in a people's life. Under no circumstances, however, is the scholarship attained in our schools, colleges or universities lost.

"When Peter Johnson, now bent for college, had left the little cluster of huts that had gathered about on the ruins of the old plantation, where in days 'befo' de wa'' 'ole marsa' commanded the respectful bow of all the colored folks around, he left 'Mommy Johnson and his little sisters and brothers, unkempt and uncleanly, but all striving to help 'Pap' in his earnest endeavor to eke out a scanty subsistence, and to help pay Peter's expenses in the new school for the coming four years; he left a little community, a type of thousands in that land. He left a community not specially careful of its appearances, where 'biled' shirts and white, clean skirts were only holiday attire; shoes almost unknown; hats only of the homemade kind, straw, plaited by the hands of the girls, with no sign of ribbon nor adornment, possibly in that little community. No sign of boughten furniture anywhere about, no picture upon any wall, no carpet upon any floor, table without a cloth, no sign of stove. An open hearth where alone glowed the embers that served both for light and heat in the colder season of the year; the library consisting of a single copy of the Bible which not one could read, but which all, nevertheless, revered as a sacred thing. The openings in the little cabin for light, without glass; the cabin without partition, male and female huddled together in one room. Outside stood the old horse, harnessed with rope to the homemade vehicle, which is to carry young Peter to the depot. If Peter has any special leaning toward any bright eyed girl, she is there, too. She, as well as all others assembled there, have but scant attire, the only change from the every day of their lives being, possibly, an unusually good wash of exposed parts and a smoothing out of front locks.

"Peter, now sitting behind the iron smoke horse which in a few hours shall drop him at the college gates, when the hand shakes and the laughter which were so much in evidence at the depot, have worn away, indulges in a flight of fancy, and many scenes pass before 00043his vision. In the first he sits in the inner room of his law offices, while a long line of clients wait their turn for admission to the learned counselor In the next, he is addressing audiences that are drinking eagerly his wisdom as he tells them how to solve the race problem. In the next, he is master of a great school of learning, having been especially recognized as a man of superior merit. Next, he is crossing the ocean to a distant point to represent his government as minister or consul. These visions are his constant attendants through the four or more years that it may take to get his diploma. He fails through all these years to perceive how the crudity of the old home comes before him until the memory of home becomes positively shocking. Every letter shows how little of the knowledge of men and things is possessed at home; how bad the grammar; how little of orthography, etymology and syntax is possessed by his little town. Pictures which 'Pap," "Mommy' and the girls 'had took' at the last fair in the county on purpose to send to Peter, confident of his pleasure on receiving them, he is ashamed of, and, instead of exhibiting them with pleasure, as he would have done two or three years ago, he hides them away in the bottom of his trunk. Peter's four years at college have done one thing positive for him; they have destroyed all the old love of home and kindred. He has been educated on a line leading him from home. The old farm of forty acres and the thousands of acres of waste land in his home country are as nothing to him; all have faded away in his pursuit of Caesar and Horace. Shall he who has burned the midnight oil over the glories of Carthage, Egypt, Greece and the Roman empire; who has an intimate knowledge of the Latin races, of the Frank, the Gaul, the Briton; who can so graphically describe the motion of the spheres; can quote you by the hour from Shakespeare, Byron, Moore, Burns, Whittier, Poe--shall he descend from the upper ether to be a simple aid to "Pap' on the old farm, in learning the composition of the soil and how best to develop it, and live an obscure and honest life, respected by all to the end? Not if Peter can help it.

"Well, what becomes of him? you ask. Does he serve any good purpose whatsoever? Yes.

"The family that has kept itself hard at work and impoverished for all these years, in order to turn out Peter, the Great (?) and for the purpose of showing to the rest of the world the quality of the Johnson family stock, and thence afterward shining by reflected light, the family that has done all this; Peter Johnson, jr., is ashamed of the day he leaves college, so ashamed, that Peter omits to invite any ever to call upon him at home, whom he has the slightest reason to suppose might visit him. But, 'Pap' has gone to the length of his string, and Peter must come back home; and having stocked himself with a knowledge of the law or of medicine, or the arts and sciences, and there being in his county no litigious persons, nor sick that could pay a physician, nor any high school where he might astonish the classes, he necessarily 'sits around.' Ruined! You might say. Useless? no, neither. Think of the picture of home when Peter left four years ago.

"When a few days ago it was learned at home that Peter had 'passed' the examination at college, and that he would be home soon, the whole cluster of families became excited. The sisters and the particular girl whose bright eyes held Peter captive before left home, are each four years older now. Peter's letters have acquainted them with the fact that he is changed now in every respect. He now wears laced, polished shoes, colored stockings, white alpine hat, polished shirt front, rainbow cravat, cuffs, cuff buttons, cane, and wears the latest cut in clothes. He has a trunk now, also. In anticipation of these wonderful changes in Peter, 'pop' now has on a 'biled' shirt, collar, cravat, better outer garments and shoes. 'Mommy' is bedecked in neat fitting calico, a handkerchief about her shoulders and one about her head; the girls have somehow or other got gowns that look like store clothes, pretty and well fitting, and the younger brothers, how changed; they have managed to get shoes, although without socks, greased and rubbed well, in place of blacking, straw hats, cheap but new. The inside of the cabin shows many changes; there is a table and rocking chair, the floor has a home-made rug upon it, a corn-husk mat by the door; the table bears a white cloth and a few real china dishes, gotten purposely for Peter. The walls are adorned with a fresh coat of whitewash, pictures of Lincoln and Grant have been tacked upon the wall; 'Pop' has built with his own hands an addition, extension of one room, for Peter to occupy, and has a curtain so arranged across the old cabin that the girls and boys may be separated at bedtime. A stove now sits where once was an open fireplace, and upon it tea for Peter and the little company that will assemble the night of his arrival. What a change! Peter's bright-eyed girl of years past is even more beautifully arrayed than his sisters; in fact, Peter's eye readily detects that every one of his old acquaintances has changed for the better, in looks, anyhow. When the old horse came to the old harness of clothes line had been exchanged for a harness of leather, and that the wagon used now is one made by a tradesman, and not the one bearing the sawed wheels of four years ago.

"Notwithstanding the fact that Peter see the glaring faults in grammar made by all about him, and is, on that account, dissatisfied with his bright-eyed lass of former days, and corresponds with several of his girl acquaintances at college, his hope of deliverance from the life at Clusterville fades away, slower, but as surely as the visions of former days. Well, what has happened I'll tell you.

"Clusterville now wears better clothing than ever before, every house has improved in appearance, every man, woman and child is now particular as to clothing. They go to church to show themselves. Peter has helped many of those ambitious to learn. He lectures in the meeting house sometimes, and increases the stock of knowledge in the community. He can't help Pap much with the farm, to be sure; nor does Pap insist that his bright son shall get down to the soil, for he, too, has an idea that farming is a kind of low down business anyhow, and is always grieved to think that he hasn't the cash necessary to set Peter up in a big city. Clusterville will never go as low in the scale of 00054human development as it was the day Peter set out for college; nor will Peter ever occupy the dizzy height again that he reached at graduation; the village of Clusterville and Peter are fast approaching each other; they are establishing an equilibrium, obeying that law.

"We have seen then that the result has not been failure, not by any means entirely bad; only that our expectations have not been realized. When a boy has been selected from a certain plantation. Community or family, to be thus distinguished, if, after the polish which he receives at college, on his return, there seems to be no demand for his professional services, he at least has contracted the habit of clean skin, clean shirt and polished boots, which, thereafter, become contagious in his little sphere--its pride is stimulated. And I am sure that whatever may be the prejudice of the American people toward the negro, it cannot live in the face of clean shirts. polished boots and well combed hair. The power of comb and brush and soap and clean shirts is incalculable, and can be multiplied until absolutely irresistible. Could every one of the ten million negroes in the United States be induced to put on each day a clean shirt and appear with well combed hair, polish boots and a clean skin, there would be no 'negro problem.'

"But in tracing the life of Peter Johnson we have simply shown that it has not been a failure. We have stopped far, though, of showing it to have been a success, by any means commensurate with the expenditure of time and money. Pride and miscalculation as to results have been us fail to use wisely and economically the means at our command. In every city we are advancing many of our girls and boys in scholarship to a point that I hold to be positively damaging to the greater number. Why? because it can be shown that not over one-fifth ever reach the places they aim to reach. The city of Washington is turning out about one hundred and twenty-five graduates from the high school per year, and only a fifth part can be provided for. The schools take up that fifth, but the stores and factories do not take up any appreciable part of the other four-fifths. A colored boy graduate of one of our high schools or colleges seems to be educated just enough to show to him that he has the ability to occupy a higher place in life than he is ever likely to reach. He gets a false notion of the relation between himself and society. He becomes proud, too proud in fact to enable him to enter the wide open door to success. He makes many unsuccessful efforts to find employment commensurate with his learning, and finally gives up in despair claiming that his want of success is owing to prejudice.

"Educated in any well conducted manual training school, that boy would recognize the open door to wealth and prosperity; the door that is not guarded by any Genii, but bears the inscription: 'Welcome to all.' That more have not entered by that door I attribute, first, to a habit born of years of servitude; and, secondly, to being educated improperly; that is, unevenly, unbalanced, making too many major generals when privates are more needed. Every family is engaged in turning out a commander of something, who later on expects a position, either at the hands of state or nation, or high employment by somebody. Turning out children, all adapted to commence at the top rather than at the bottom, young men who can talk intelligently upon the state of the stock market, can stand at the head of any kind of store or manufacturing business, young men looking for an opportunity to start a bank or a system of banks, stores or a system of store, railroad or railroad system, young men who talk as freely of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars as of seventy-five dollars, engaged in big calculations, great expectations that are never realized, simply because they look for a beginning at the top. Their education and race habit together seem to make it impossible for them to enter the open door to all, that is so desirable to all American citizens.

"Before telling you where that door is I will make a statement that I deem incontrovertible beyond question and agreeing with my personal experience of above thirty years; reasonable and self-evident. It is this. In the ordinary avenues of trade, no man, black or white, has ever had anything to sell that its sale did not depend upon its price and quality rather than upon the color or station of the seller.

"If that proposition is true, then it is also true that the mercantile and trading field is wide open to us all, and I shall show you or at least hope to do so, that that door is wide open to us, in fact, never has been closed, although completely neglected by our people; possibly through some race characteristic or acquired habit.

"If you will station yourself at the Battery, in the City of New York, upon any day of the week that is devoted to business, and look seaward, you will note a constant stream of immigrants from all quarters of the earth, stopping only long enough at Ellis Island to give a good account of themselves. England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales are therein very largely respresented Germany, Austria, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Roumania Persia, Egypt, Morocco, India, China, Japan,m all South America, Mexico, Central America, the islands of the Caribbean Sea and those too numerous to mention in the South Pacific Ocean. All quarters of the earth are represented in the brief space of time that you are looking seaward over the bay. All leaving their old homes, where life has been unbearable. Many have crossed thousands of miles by land and other thousands by water, over lofty and rugged peaks, sealing high mountains; on the edge of steep cliffs, across sandy deserts, and packed in the bowels of great ships for days and months; every possible hardship borne that each might at last reach this fair haven of rest, peace and prosperity.

"Without shifting your position, turn your eyes westward and note the constant line of boats ferrying across the river that other stream of human souls, wearing a skin of darker hue. These have come up from a sunnier and more welcome crime, to combat the rigours of our Northern winters, solely that they might experience the real feelings of equality and manhood. This stream of darker hue is neither poorer nor better clothed than the first, with a capital at its command fully as great as the first, has also. I assure you that there is a door open equally 00065wide to both, that leads to wealth and prosperity, and I shall show you what each of you may have seen, but unconsciously, that those people from abroad promptly enter it, while our own people pass it by, and I will assert, in addition, that until we make free use of that door and the road it leads to, we will never reach the common platform of mankind in America.

"What becomes of that crowd that we saw on Ellis Island? I'll tell you. The very next week, possibly, you will meet the Italian at the Brooklyn Bridge entrance, or upon one of the side streets, with a well laden push cart, filled with fruit or merchandise, or, possibly at some corner, or in one of the thousands of basements or little 4 by 10 rooms that are to be found the city over, selling either fruit or merchandise. Go to the seaside resort, and you will see him carrying a basket along the beach filled with fruit or candies, pop corn, hot corn, pails for children to carry sand in, toy balloons and trinkets, soda water and the thousand things sold by the merchant who begins at the beginning, the very A, B, C of trade. Another year will find him advanced in his line; he will be found keeping a little store, with wife and family in the rear room, all as helpers. He may be the owner of the carousal that you ride on and waste your nickels upon. He, possibly, keeps the restaurant and ice cream saloon where you are refreshed; he is always the seller, and you the buyer, from the penny glass of lemonade or ice cream through the whole long length upward to opulence and power, and finally he becomes your landlord. You know that this is nothing but an every-day picture, that every observe can testify to the truth of.

"Now, what has become of our colored brother whom we saw cross the ferry on that self same day? Well, having a nickel to spare on reaching the city, he exchanged it with the Italian at the first or second corner for fruit, he who has exposed these tempting fruits knowing full well that our brother would soon come long and pay his 5 cents for what has possibly cost him but 1 or 2. It never dawned upon the mind of our colored brother to go and buy a basket of that fruit at wholesale and peddle it at the ferry entrance himself; no, not he. He pushes his way uptown, looking for a friend who has kindly secured him a place at service long before he ventured to leave home. If I meet him again, however, it will be almost impossible to recognize him in the new suit of livery or regimental advertising clothes that he wears: or, possibly, as a waiter, hall boy, or elevator boy, in one of the hotels. If it should happen that our colored friend who crossed in that stream of souls, of which we have spoken, is a graduate of a university or school of highest learning, that man will surely never be found among the small traders . He will look first for employment suitable to his learning, failing that he is willing "just for a short time, you know." and accepts a place in the Pullman service, or in one of the large hotels, preferably a summer resort; failing in that, he will run an elevator, become a private waiter, hall boy or any possible job that will furnish a full stomach, tan shoes, alpine hat, the newest cut in clothes, with immense polished shirt front and collar. He will show his love of liberty to go and to do as he likes by going and doing as he likes, casting his nickels about freely upon the just and the unjust. On Sunday, should you walk up Fifth avenue and see the backs of the two men, you wouldn't know which one is young Vanderbilt. Will this specimen of humanity ever stoop to sell shoe strings, buttons, soaps, apples, pears, peanuts, candy or soda water? Will this gentlemen ever keep a 4x10 foot fruit store, or newstand or buy an old horse and wagon and peddle fruit, vegetables, oysters or clams? No; never! He is a buyer, a consumer, he produces nothing, and you may make up your mind to it that the world will look upon him with scorn until he has mended his ways. You may multiply the titled gentry, the professionals, by the thousands, but you will never greatly affect the question of liberty and equality until you increase and multiply your merchants and small traders by many degrees. There is no bar to that door; every man is free to buy and sell, for upon that plane is perfect equality. No man who can place his order, be it ever so small, for merchandise, and pay his bills, is disrespected. A thousand negroes buying and selling small wares in this vicinity will have a great lifting force than the combined titles of the States.

"If this be true, then, the educational line that we should follow is the manual training and trades and commerce schools. It is a question as to whether or not the more than two centuries of bondage have not unfitted us for this very necessary condition by, in a measure, destroying the quality of self-reliance; ready and willing always and under all circumstances to accept monthly stipends rather than risk a penny in contact with the world.

"Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, China, Japan, the Indies, are all interesting to the American, simply because they have something to sell, and because they buy; and we shall be equally as interesting when we have adopted the right means.

"Education in its relation to our future then shall have been properly adjusted, when regulated or governed by those principles of economy without which success must be long deferred. Principles of economy are as applicable to this question as to any other question of state. It is thought, however, that such questions settle themselves in the ordinary course of supply and demand. To a large extent this is true, but our o'erweening desire to render conspicuous every family, and the conviction that by so doing we are raising the race to a more prosperous plane, has closed the eyes of the people to the truth, and they persist in efforts which finally bring ruin, financially, to many families. What if there be fifty lawyers among us without clients, or fifty doctors without patients, or fifty teachers without positions, grammar schools oversupplied, music teachers on every block, orators sufficient to fill the whole government service with political aspirants, we in the vain belief that our child will prove an exception to the rule.Barbers, janitors, caterers, waiters, successful in business, but underrating the dignity of their calling, finally dissipate their wealth in an endeavor to carry their children to what they regard as a more exalted place in life, but, I'll tell you, my friends, that the world will ever prefer a rich janitor to a poor professional gentleman.

"Education, scholastic, is necessary for all, without it life is uphill work, danger is multiplied. The common school affords sufficient for the ten thousand, and too much for any whose pride is so increased that he can not become a small trader or merchant, living within his means. The state is not safe without a general diffusion of knowledge. So necessary, indeed, is it that none of us cavil at any proposition to restrict the right of suffrage to those who can read and write and who hold property. We only cavil at the proposition to apply the rule to one class and color of citizens. The school house insures the life of the republic. Education starts the wheels of progress in motion; it stimulates pride, begets competition; it is the very center of motion that finally builds up the state. That is the lesson the South has yet to learn. When she has learned it there will never come another proposition to close a school house, or to confine school privileges to those who are direct taxpayers. As we have said, a negro upon a plantation, without the education of the schools, has few more wants than the mule he drives; he needs neither hat, shoes nor clothes, and so with his children. Educate them, however, and ad in Peter Johnson's case, polished shoes become a necessity, cotton or silk stockings, under clothing, polished shirt front and collar, the latest cut in clothing, cane, umbrella and the latest style in hats, a gold ring, a breast pin and cuff-buttons, and a watch to tell the time, become necessary to his happiness.

"The same with his sisters and brothers. The old but of a house gives way to a neat one story clapboarded house, with windows set with glass, furnished with articles from the store, carpet even, in time, bedstead, chairs, table, table cloth, dishes, pictures, lamps, crockery, books-all these become necessary to the educated man and woman, and to none other; hence education, the school house, is at the base of all commercial prosperity, the only branch of the city government that gives immediate results. What has made this prosperous North? Its school houses. What keeps the South behind in all things? The want of them. If she closes the negro schools she will buy less collars, cuffs, shoes, hats, clothing, furniture, crockery, carpet. She will manufacture less lumber, less nails, less of all things that go to make a country progressive and prosperous. She has fed so long upon hatred, that it has distorted her vision; she has at her doors a mine of wealth, a people docile, trusting, easily led, thoroughly American, wanting all that an American citizen wants for personal comfort, lacking only that common school education that stimulates pride, which increases industry, and the South sees it not. She is blind. but let us hope that this present gathered and deeper darkness is but that darkest hour which it is said always precedes the dawn."