We had something which they wanted; they had something which we wanted.

This, in a large measure, helped to lay the foundation for the pleasant relations that have continued to exist between us and the white people in that section, and which now extend throughout the South.
Wherever one of our brickmakers has gone in the South, we find that he has something to contribute to the well-being of the community into which he has gone; something that has made the community feel that, in a degree, it is indebted to him, and perhaps, to a certain extent, dependent upon him.

In this way pleasant relations between the races have been simulated.
My experience is that there is something in human nature which always makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what colour of skin merit is found.

I have found, too, that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long ways in softening prejudices.
The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.
The same principle of industrial education has been carried out in the building of our own wagons, carts, and buggies, from the first.

We now own and use on our farm and about the school dozens of these vehicles, and every one of them has been built by the hands of the students.