The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Thousand Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the Community
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, March 18, 1916 Volume I. Number 38
Will White Dominion
Laft in Ea& Africa
Dark Continent May Yet Play Impor
tant Part In Determining Issue
of European War.
AFRICAN TRIBES BEING ARMED
May Be Fraught With Danger To
White Supremacy—A Former Boer
Leader In Command.
A writer signing himself “Ex-At
tache” contributes the following in
teresting and suggestive article to the
Chicago Tribune of March 12:
What with the controversies in con
nection with submarine warfare and
armed merchantmen, the holocaust of
slaughter around Verdun, the victor
ies of Grand Duke Nicholas and of his
Russian armies in Asia Minor, the
fighting between the British and the
Turks along the banks of the Tigris
and the Euphrates, ,in Mesopotamia,
and the crisis in the Balkans, people
here have had but little time to accord
any attention to the war now in prog
ress in East Africa.
It started eighteen months or more
ago, on a relatively small scale, but
has by degrees developed into a big
war, the fortunes of which are likely
to effect the whole dark continent for
at least a century to come.
This is due to the arming of the
blacks. What I mean by the “blacks”
are not those oft admirably disciplined
native troops commanded by white of
ficers, but various Negro and Negroid
tribes, who, entirely barbarous and
with no instruction whatsoever, are
left free to use arms and ammunition
wholly without control.
Long Regarded as Peril.
The blacks outnumber the whites in
all parts of Africa in such overwhelm
ing fashion that the danger of their
rising against the Europeans has al
ways been regarded as a growing per
il, full of menace to the cause of civ
ilization. To avert it all sorts of
treaties have been made, prohibiting
the importation of arms and ammuni
tion into Africa for sale to the na
> tives, and careful watch has been
maintained by all those powers pos
sessed of colonies in the dark conii
nent. In the South African fighting
of sixteen years ago, as in all pre
vious campaigns in that part of the
world between the Afrikanders and
the British, the Boers, as well as the
English, invarably rejected the offers
of the Basutos, of the Zulus, of the
Matabeles, and of othei warlike tribes
to give them armed assistance, no
matter how badly it was sometimes
needed. They appreciated full well
the danger of any such policy to the
white man’s cause in the dark con
tinent, for ages to come.
Believe in German Success.
Unfortunately for the allies, and al
so for the white man’s supremacy, the
blacks have seen that German raids
(Continued on eighth page)
Use the Monitor to Reach the
Colored People of Nebraska.
It’s their Only Newspaper.
MAJOR CHARLES H. YOUNG, IT. S. A.
Graduate West Point Military Academy, Class of 1889, Who Was Recently
Awarded The Spingarn Medal.
A Sketch of His Career Appeared in The Monitor of March 4.
Something to Make You Think
IS “PREPAREDNESS ’ POSSIBLE?
Editorial Pittsburg Courier.
The agitation of the question of “preparedness” naturally makes one who
is and yet isn’t “on the inside” stop and attempt at least to solve the merits of
the question from the various angles of its presentation. And when you really
stop and give the matter serious consideration you become aware of the ex
istence of conditions of which the average citizen is wholly, yet unfortunately,
unaware.
From a rough guess there are in America, meaning the United States, at
least four million of people from overseas who have never foresworn their
allegiance and who, naturally, could not be counted upon to render effective
service in behalf of the United States in the event of war with what is to
them the Mother Country. These people are among us yet not of us. They
come to our shores bent only on escape from intolerable conditions abroad, and
yet with that filial tendency which every man has for home. They earn and
hoard our money and resources, and at some appointed time return hither to
enjoy the declining years of life amidst the scenes of their early childhood,
their birth. In the event of war what surety would the United States have
that these people would take up arms in her behalf?
On the other hand the army and navy of the United States is composed
to an alarming extent of young men who have leanings toward the various
(Continued on t'.ilrd page)
From Nebraska
to Tennessee
Incidents of the Trip and Impressions
Received by Editor on First Visit
to the Southland.
ABOUT HOLDING A MISSION.
An Explanation of What Such Services
Mean and the Small Leisure Al
lowed for Sight-Seeing.
In our last article we closed with
our arrival in Memphis and our most
hospitable welcome to Emmanuel rec
tory, where we were made to feel ab
solutely at home during our sojourn in
the city, where we saw and learned
many things, met and made many
warm friends, were the recipient of
many appreciated and memory-re
tained kindnesses and were privileged
to minister in things spiritual to a
warm-hearted and responsive congre
gation, for whom we held a ten-day
mission.
What “Holding” or “Preaching a Mis
sion” Means.
Several have asked “What is meant
by preaching or holding a mission?
What is it like?”
So many have asked me this, that
I think I had better explain it here at
the very outset. Don’t you?
And I’m going to let you into a
secret, if you will promise me, honor
bright, that you won’t tell. Well, the
secret is this, a good many who have
asked me this question are “even
Episcopalians,” who really ought to
know, but didn’t; and so they did the
very wise and proper thing, that we
all should do when we are not quite
sure of a thing, and that is ask about
it. And do you know that that is
just what lots of us fail to do? We
want to be considered wise or learned,
and pretend to know things of which
we are ignorant. If we don’t know a
thing we ought never be ashamed to
confess it and ask questions about it.
“Even Episcopalians!”
Speaking of “even Episcopalians,”
which you will notice has been put in
quotation marks, recalls what Booker
T. Washington said in the last speech
which he delivered in Omaha. That
was in the Auditorium a few years
ago. He was speaking about the ver
satility of our people in adopting the
customs, social, political, religious and
other, of the people among whom we
dwell. He said:
“Look at the religious life of our
people. Once it was rare to find a
Negro who was anything else but a
Baptist or Methodist. But how is it
now? Why, we have Methodists and
Baptists and Congregationalists and
Quakers and Presbyterians, and Ro
man Catholics,” and then with an im
pressive pause to lend emphasis to
his words, and a mischievous twinkle
in his eye, he added, “and EVEN
EPISCOPALIANS.”
The Bishop of Nebraska who with
(Continued on seventh page.)