ThcMonitor
A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Colored
Americans of Nebraska and the West
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy Omaha, Nebraska, March 3, 1917 Vol. II. No. 35 (Whole No. 88)
Bruce Chosen to
Head Club
The Members Fee! Confident Former
High School Teacher Is Ablest
Man in State.
IS SUPERIOR TO WASHINGTON
Once Successful St. Joseph Principal,
Now Superintendent of Bartlett
Farming School.
St. Joseph, Mo., Feb. 26.—Prof. N.
C. Bruce, former principal of tihe
Rartlett high school of this city, now
head of the Bartlett Agricultural and
Industrial school of Dalton, Charlton
county, Missouri, known also as the
"Missouri—West” and “Country Life”
school, has been chosen leader of the
Negro Freedom Progressive Colored
Men’s club of Missouri.
The school at Dalton was made
possible through the generosity of the
Bartletts, Judge and Mrs. W. K.
James and other white people of St.
Joseph and other cities. It is almost
in the center of twenty-seven south
and north Missouri river bottom
counties, the black belt of Missouri,
and was established in a small way in
1909, and since has grown into one of
the leading Negro educational centers
of the United States. The school is
planned “to help the Negro people get
hack to the. land and to their best
place for desirable, useful, productive
citizenship.”
Judge W. K. James is president of
the board of control, Herschel Bart
lett is treasurer. Charles Nagle, for
mer United States secretary of com
merce and labor, Clarence H. How
ard, president of the Commonwealth
Steel company; William B. Litner, ar
chitect, and Judge Joseph Wheless,
all of St. Louis; George D. Dayton,
Minneapolis; Huston Wyeth, St. Jo
seph; Alexander Massey, Kansas City;
Prof. Joseph D. Elliff, educational
commissioner of the University of
Missouri, are on the board of trustees
and have given time and money to
the work.
School Well Equipped;
The school now has 180 acres, a
boys’ building, girls’ dormitory, mod
ern stock bam, repair and manual
training barracks, several cottages
for housing students, a good start in
stocks, teams and farm tools, vehicles
and implements worth some $50,000.
The school stresses farming and do
mestic service training. It is sup
plying competent, educated farm
workers and domestic servants. The
students lead in com raising and
acreage crop yields and are good
spellers, readers and figurers and ex
cel as cooks, laundry and sewing
workers and in field, kitchen, shop
and bam work. The school needs
more land, tools and equipment and
is trying to deserve these by making
proper use of what little it now has.
Negroes Make Appeal.
In the following article Dr. William
J. Thompkins of Kansas City, a lead
Honor Frederick Douglas
The Frederick Douglas Memorial
held at Zion Baptist Church is the
one gathering together by Omaha Col
ored citizens that has spelled the
word excellence in every respect. Only
a few speakers were absent, but in
the flood of eloquence, music, humor,
and reminiscences, they were not
missed. All the speakers were in
prime condition and each left the au
dience pleased and unwearied. The
most appreciated talk of the evening
was by a gentleman who was not nam
ed upon the program, the Hon. R. L.
Desdunes. Mr. Desdunes reviewed the
career of Frederick Douglass, relative
to the little county of Hayti and show
ed how, through his moral courage and
uncompromising honor, he forced the
United States to end the intended dis
memberment of the black replblic. In
appreciation of this service Hayti af
terwards made Douglass their com
missioner at the Columbia Exposition.
The vocal duet by Misses Cochran
and Stewart was beautifully rendered
and the vocal solo by Mrs. Dewey Al
len, “Dear Lord, Remember Me,” more
than thrilled with her sweet, well
modulated and well controlled voice,
"lhe Mandolin Club was decidedly one
of the supreme treats of the evening.
Mrs. Alphonso Wilson and Mrs. J.
Alice St2wart, the only lady speakers,
acquitted themselves finely and show
ed their deep acquaintance, not only
with the history of the man whose
memorial was being celebrated, but
with the world forces of right and
wrong and their inevitable conse
quences .
The committee which had this af
fair under control deserves the utmost
praise for the intellectual treat fur
nished last Tuesday night. Dr. W. W.
Peebles and Rev. W. F. Botts labored
unceasingly to make this affair worth
while and it undoubtedly surpassed
the expectations of these gentlemen,
as it certainly surpassed the expecta
tions of the audience that crowded the
church. A liberal sum of money was
collected for the memorial and the
same was sent Wednesday to The
Crisis to become a part of the fund
to lift the mortgage from the home
of Douglass. The cause was a worthy
one and worthily supported by Oma
hans, and it is to be hoped that all
may one day visit Anacostia and tread
the beautiful lawn, wander through
the spacious rooms and commune with
the courageous spirit of the race’s
greatest leader, Frederick Douglass,
whose memory they have commemor
ated so lovingly.
ing Negro surgeon, gives an account
of a recent meeting in Jefferson City
of the forward movement for the Ne
gro people of Missouri, and of what
the governor and some leading educa
tors and statesmen think of the work
of Principal Bruce:
“A score of trained solid, capable,
colored men, real, educational, re
ligious and industrial leaders among
their race in’Missouri, met in Jeffer
son City to present an appeal on be
half of Missouri rural life Negro peo
ple to the especially called joint ses
sion of the senate and house appro
priating committees.
“These men were met in a most
decent and respectable manner by
the governor and freely expressed
themselves and were seriously spoken
to by the governor.
Favored by Both Houses.
“The senate and house committee
gave their chairman and several of
them a careful hearing and expressed
their appreciation, approval and sym
pathy with the appeal for the aid to
the “back to the land” movement of
the Negro Farmers’ Business and Pro
fessional Men’s association, whose
headquarters are at the “Country
Life” school for Missouri colored peo
ple, which Principal N. C. Bruce so
successfully heads in Charlton county,
the central county of the Missouri Ne
gro black belt, agricultural counties.
In making the presentatin of the dele
gation to Gov. Gardner in the exe
cutive guest chamber, Principal Bruce
showed all the finese, simplicity and
skill of a Booker Washington.
Surprised Best Friends.
“He surprised even his best friends
in his consummate poise, tact and
master of pertinent figures and facts.
He seems experienced as a veteran
successful educator, a nation s crown
ed and champion farmer and a leader
of hitherto divided and discordant fac
tions of Missouri colored politicians,
orators, and leaders.
“Like Booker T. Washington, prin
cipal Bruce is modest, practical, com
prehensive, deep, thoorughly in earn
est, unselfish and yet is one of the
best speakers in the state when arous
ed Unlike Booker Washington he is
a thorough collegian, graduate of a
leading New England college, a pro
merito A. M., man by a thesis contest
after seven years post graduate and
educational work and studies.
Held in Esteem.
“He has stamped his leadership fav
orably upon southern, northern, and
western Colored people’s hearts and
minds and at the same time has the
friendship of the best white people
of all sections of the country. Pres
ident Chase of Bates college, Maine,
recently wrote: ‘Principal N. C. Bruce
for his achievements since graduation
is our most distinguished alumnus.’
Attorney General Scott Wilson of
Maine says: ‘N. C. Bruce was my
wisest and truest adviser and was
the best speaker and debater we had
in college, yet one would never even
guess it when he was seen, so quiet
and modest and inobstructive was he.
Secretary Daniels of the U. S. navy
said in St. Joseph last October:
‘There is nothing that N. C. Bruce
would tell me but that I would be
lieve. For twenty years he and I
haven’t failed in our mutual belief
and friendship—The wisest Negro I
know and the most retiring in his ef
forts and work for his race.’
(Contlnuel on Page 8)
Colored Youths
Win Signal Honors
They Are Paid High Tribute by
Newspaper Correspondents and
Critics.
SELECT PRACTICAL SUBJECTS.
Morris of Norfolk, Va., and Lane of
Bowdoin College Chosen to Rep
resent Their Respective Schools.
Boston, Mass. — Throughout the
country the race is being ably repre
sented in oratorical contests. Among
those attracting considerable attention
are Charles S. Morris, Jr., aged 17
years, of Norfolk, Va., who was chosen
to represent his school, the Wilson
Academy, of Nyack, N. Y., on March
2 in the oratorical contest at Colum
bia University, and David A. Lane,
Jr.
One of the large daily papers here
had the following comment, anent Mr.
Lane's selection to represent his
school:
“That the prize for the best origi
nal oration delivered by a Bowdoin
College senior should this year have
gone to David A. Lane, Jr., a Negro,
will not surprise those who have ob
served the recent achievements of this
race.
“What is particularly noteworthy
about the incident mentioned, and no
doubt contributed to the Winer’s suc
cess, was the fact that he chose no
irrelevant and high-sounding subject,
but a practical topic appropriate to
the times and to himself, namely, ‘The
Task of the College-Trained Negro.’
“Were all orators as careful to
choose common-sense subjects, on
which they are able to speak with
some authority, their audiences would
oftener find it worth while to listen.”
COLORED OR CREOLE?
WOMAN WORTH $40,000
St, Louis Judge Takes Peculiar Case
Under Advisement As To Mary
Simpson’s Racial Identity.
St. Louis.—Circuit Judge Henings
last week took under advisement the
question whether Elizabeth Mary
Simpson, who died sixteen years ago,
leaving an estate of $40,000, was a
Coolred woman or a Creole.
Elizabeth Simpson was the house
keeper for Peter Lehman, who at his
death left her the Lehman homestead,
worth $40,000. When the housekeep
er died she willed the property to
Lehman’s cousin, Eugene Lehman.
Six Mississippi Colored citizens who
claim to be heirs of Elizabeth Simp
son brought suit against Eugene Leh
man to contest the will. Lehman and
his wife and several white witnesess
testified today that they believed
Mary Simpson was white.
The Negroes, headed by Saulsbury
Simpson, who claims to be a nephew
of the deceased housekeeper, testified
that she was Colored—a slave in
Mississippi who was set free by her
master, Peter Lehman, just before
the Civil War.