254 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
the blacks immediately after the war, but it was too short-lived and too much occupied with pressing material needs to make a very deep impression upon the future of the race, or even to counterbalance subsequent discriminations.
It is now too late for the government to establish schools for the negroes alone, for they are no longer the special wards of the nation, but full-fledged citizens ; but it may very well pro- vide for schools which shall be open to all without distinction of color, and in such schools the students would be chiefly of the darker race. Let the government establish at least one such school, in the District of Columbia a training school for teach- ers of every race, whether they intend to teach negroes or Indians or Filipinos, in the South or in Alaska, in Puerto Rico or in Hawaii. Under the direct supervision of the Bureau of Education, such a school would maintain a high standard of excel- lence ; and it would help to solve the problems arising from expan- sion, as well as those growing out of emancipation, for to it the most promising young colored men and women of the South and the brightest natives of our new possessions would resort for pedagogical training, and then return to teach among their own peoples. A beginning in this direction has already been made in the normal department of Howard University, which receives direct aid from the national treasury and makes no distinction of color. This might be made the nucleus of a great school of pedagogy which might fitly form part of a national university. Who can foretell the extent of the transformation which may be wrought in the negro race by education ? Certainly it is too early for discouragement concerning the future of that race, for serious and judicious attempts at education have only just begun ; and the first results are far from discouraging.
MAX WEST. WASHINGTON, D. C.
