The Monitor
A National Weekly Newspa' voted to the Interests of the Colored
America V* Nebraska and the West
TP* ,*JHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
_-—---“
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy O.^aha, Nebraska, June 30, 1917 Vol. II. No. 52 (Whole No. 104)
Bishop-Eled Russell
Declines Episcopate
Writes Illuminating and Instructive
Letter Giving Cogent Reasons
For His Decision.
GREAT EDUCATIONAL CENTER
St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial In
stitute Grows Under His Admin
istration.
Under date of June 20 Archdeacon
Russell has written Bishop Winchester
of the Diocese of Arkansas a most in
teresting letter setting forth his rea
sons for declining his election as
Bishop-Suffragan of that Diocese.
The fact that Archdeacon Russell was
-the first Negro to be honored by the
Episcopal Church by an election to
the Episcopate for service in this
country marks it as an event of un
usual moment. Two other members
of this race have been consecrated
hishops, James Theodore Holly, late
Bishop of Haiti; and Samuel D. Fer
guson, late Bishop of Liberia. None,
however, has before been chosen for
work in the United States.
Archdeacon Russell’s letter is as
follows:
My Dear Bishop Winchester:
Your letters under date of May 12,
May 18th, June 7th, June 10th and
June 16th are all before me. These
letters have received my most care
ful consideration, and notwithstanding
my telegraphic message to you under
date of June 16th, declining my elec
tion to the Suffragan Bishopric of
your Diocese, I want to tell you how
keenly I appreciate your letters and
the many nice things you have writ
ten me of your opinion of my fitness
and temperament for the special work
to which your dmcese has seen fit to
call me.
words are uiieriy inaaequiM« 10 ex
press my gratitude and deep appre
ciation for your many offers of kind
ness. I have, from the time I re
ceived Archdeacon Johnson’s tele
gram informing me of my election as
Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of
Arkansas, given this whole matter my
most prayerful and serious consider
ation. Hence, I assure you, I have
not hastily arrived at my decision.
I have labored in this one field dur
ing my whole ministry of thirty-five
years and three months. Twenty-nine
years of my ministry have been spent
in building up the SA. Paul Normal
and Industrial School. This institu
tion was founded on faith in God and
the generosity of its friends; for at
i the time when the task was under
taken there was not a foot of ground
nor a penny in sight for its support,
yet through the providence of God
the work has gone forward steadily
each day from its founding, July 2nd,
1888, until now it is the largest in
stitution of the Protestant Episcopal
Church for the moral, spiritual, intel
lectual and industrial training of Col
ored boys and girls; and visitors from
the Slater and Phelps-Stokes Funds,
and the General Education Board
WE THANK YOU MOST SINCERELY
This number closes the second year of the publication of The
Monitor. We are gratified to know that we have lived up to the
promise made in our first editorial to stand for the rights of our
people, chronicle events that make for progress, publish special
articles of an instructive nature, and contribute to the welfare of
the community and the race. '
The Monitor has made a place for itself among the weekly
neswpapers of the country. It has won a place in the hearts of
a large and increasing number of readers. For the service we
have been able to render we are grateful. We thank our sub
scribers and advertisers for their patronage. With continued
support we hope to be of greater service in the future. We con
fidently look for the prompt renewal of hundreds of subscriptions
which have now expired and the securing through the assistance
of our many friends hundreds of new ones. If this is done we
shall be able to serve you better.
We thank all who have in any way contributed to the success
of The Monitor hitherto, and respectfully solicit their continued
interest and support. We thank you most sincerely.
place it third in size of the great
schools in the South for Negro edu
cation and training.
From its very insignificant begin
ning, the School owns 1600 acres of
valuable land, over forty buildings,
large and small, with a property value
acording to the report of our auditors,
The Jones Audit Company, of New
York City—June 30, 1916—of $272,
873.62. This of course puts the
School well beyond its experimental
stage.
Aside from the property value of
the institution, there have come to us
for the training of the head, the hand
and the heart, pretty close to 5,000
boys and girls, and nearly one-fifth
of these have completed their educa
tion in books and some useful trades
and are now devoting their lives to
the uplift of their less fortunate
' brethren. These are the school’s
living epistles, ministers and mes
sengers, known and read by the
thousands with whom they come in
contact. Among this great army
of workers are nearly twenty of the
very successful clergymen in our
Church.
Now, my dear Bishop, 1 have cited
the above simply to give you some
further idea of the many ties which
bind me so closely to the work which
has claimed the best and largest num
ber of the years of my l’fe.
Then, too, my friends of both races
are here by the thousands, and while
they have not directly persuaded me
not to leave St. Paul’s, they have ad
vanced almost every conceivable rea
son why I should remain. The rela
tions between the races are no where
I think, so cordial as here in Bruns
wick county, just thirty miles from
my birthplace.
Apart from the educational work to
which I have referred, I should men
tion the further fact that I have had
the pleasure of seeing the Church
•work among my people grow from
one congregation and less than two
hundred cojnmunicants to thirty-seven
churches and organized Missions and
over two thousand communicants, and
a band of twelve faithful, consecrated
Colored clergymen giving their whole
time to this work, together with the
aid of four devoted white priests, to
say nothing of Bishop Randolph and
Bishop Tucker, whose hearts are
J. ANDREW SINGLETON
Tenor Soloist—July 6th
wrapped up with this work. These
ties are very close and my heart is
bound up with them and my friends,
cf both races, whom I know and love
most dearly.
Notwithstanding all of the above,
which in no sense is simple sentimen
talism, I have tried very hard not to
be swayed by my friends, my family,
nor even my love for the great work
which has grown up under my eyes,
but L be guided by the Spirit of the
Master in my final decision in re
sponse to the action of your Diocesan
Council in electing me to the Suffra
gan Bishopric of the Diocese of Ar
kansas.
I am sorry, finally, that I could not
see my way clear to accept the gra
cious call from your diocese, to serve
my people in the great Southwest.
I pray that God may raise up the
right man to carry forward this work
among my brethren in your diocese.
Again thanking you and your Coun
cil from the depth of my heart for
the honor that you and they have
conferred upon me.
Believe me, my dear Bishop,
Your humble and most grateful
servant,
JAMES S. RUSSELL,
Archdeacon for Colored Work, Dio
cese of Southern Virginia.
Military Demands
Opening Doors
The Baltimore Afro-American Opti
mistic Over Opportunities Of
fered to Race.
SURGEONS NEEDED FOR ARMY
Artillery, Aviation Corps and Other
Arms of Service Will Eventually
Admit Negroes.
The opening of the camp for the
training of Colored officers at Fort
Des Moines, Iowa, apepars to be the
first step in utilizing Colored men for
the war. The registration of all citi
zens of whatever race for conscription
is an indication that a proportionate
number of men from 21 to 31 will
comprise the Army sent to France.
During the past week, a third step
growing out of the former two, was
inaugurated by the Medical Society,
(white) of the District of Columbia.
At a meeting held at the Central
High School under the auspices of
this society, to which Colored members
are not eligible, Colored physicians
were invited. Speakers included Vice
President Marshall, Representative
Kahn, of California, author of the
draft bill, and Col. T. J. Godwin, of the
English Royal Medical Corps. Ap
plication cards for commissions in the
Medical Reserve Corps of the United
States were handed out and both
white and Colored urged to sign them
and return them to the War Depart
ment. Those accepted will be com
missioned first lieutenants in the serv
ice with a salary of $2,000 per year.
An unofficial word from the War De
partment states that two hundred Col
ored physicians will be needed to ac
company the Colored troops.
Until this year there have been no
Colored surgeons commissioned in the
United States Army. The reason
therefore has been purely social. Some
statistics of the British physicians ac
tivity in the war as given by Colonel
Godwin at the meeting above referred
to are enlightening as to the present
anxiety to push the social bar aside
and accept Colored doctors.
According to the Colonel, 60,000
medical officers have been lost by
Great Britain since the war began.
Twelve per cent of those who left
England have been killed. There is
now in England only one doctor for
every 5,000 of population. Both Eng
land and France are seriously embar
rassed in their care of the sick and
wounded, and would be in an even
more critical situation were it not
for the surgical units that the Ameri
can Red Cross has been sending the
Allies since the beginning of the war.
The Allies are looking to America to
furnish her quota of medical men as
well as soldiers for cannon fodder.
So it goes. The artillery corps and
the aeroplane corps are yet closed to
Colored applicants. As the war goes
on and losses begin to increase, these
branches will fall into line and start
recruiting in the Colored sections.—
Baltimore Afro-American.
