If the above is not actually too dark a picture, the evil is certainly one which a great Republic need not regard as an evil incapable of correction. Booker Washington himself is not so sanguine as to ignore difficulties; he foresees clearly enough that the earlier half of this present century must needs be a time of much rough pioneering service on the part of those who are the most earnest friends of the negro race. As lookers-on from afar on the European side of the broad Atlantic, we are able to descry many reassuring signs. Both in the North and the South, Booker Washington has met with abundance of sympathy, and a good deal of honest, practical help. When Harvard University bestowed on him the degree of Master of Arts, he was the first negro who had ever received that distinction. That good Christian man and enlightened politician, the late President M'Kinley, paid a visit to Tuskegee at the end of 1899, and on behalf of the nation he was thankful for what was being done. His successor, President Roosevelt, entertained Booker Washington at dinner at the White House, thus showing that he was of the same mind as his predecessor. Thus the great work goes on from the beginning to the end of each year, the aim of the continued and far-reaching effort being to bring two races together, one being able to help the other because both have interests in common. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES | | | | General: Changes to punctuation and formatting not individually | | documented | | | | Page 21: Nothwithstanding corrected to Notwithstanding | | | | Page 39: Removed duplicate as | | | | Page 50: every-day standardised to everyday | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+