When this is not done, I have them meet me in
the chapel for a heart-to-heart talk about the conduct of the
school. There are no meetings with our students that I enjoy more
than these, and none are more helpful to me in planning for the
future. These meetings, it seems to me, enable me to get at the
very heart of all that concerns the school. Few things help an
individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let
him know that you trust him. When I have read of labour troubles
between employers and employees, I have often thought that many
strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if the
employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their
employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them
feel that the interests of the two are the same. Every individual
responds to confidence, and this is not more true of any race
than of the Negroes. Let them once understand that you are
unselfishly interested in them, and you can lead them to any
extent.
It was my aim from the first at Tuskegee to not only have the
buildings erected by the students themselves, but to have them
make their own furniture as far as was possible. I now marvel at
the patience of the students while sleeping upon the floor while
waiting for some kind of a bedstead to be constructed, or at
their sleeping without any kind of a mattress while waiting for
something that looked like a mattress to be made.
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