/
i thi . Monitor i ^
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS. %
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor &
-. — -—-———-— *2
$2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAHA. NEBRASKA. FEBRUARY 1. 1919 Vol. IV. No. 31 (\ %olc No. 186)
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Colored Troops in
Togoland Campaign
Interesting Account of the Fighting
Which Ended Germany’s Dream »f
African Empire.
BLACK MAN’S PART IN WAR
Native Author Sends Official Review
of African, British and French Ac
tion Which Rid the Dark Continent
of the Hun.
(Copyright by John E. Bruce.)
Special *to The Monitor:
O' F all the British Possessions the
Gold Coast Colony was the first to
take an active part in the war. With
in a month from the start of hostili
ties it had carried through a cam
paign which compelled the surrender
of 34,000 square miles of territory
under the German flag.
Togoland is a wedge of territory on
the Gulf of Guinea, sandwiched be
tween the British Gold Coast Colony
on the west and French Dahomey on
the east. With only thirty miles of
seaboard, it widens at a short dis
tance from the sea and extends inland
about 350 miles, possessing a total
area of a little less than 34,000 square
miles, slightly larger than Ireland. On
the north it is enclosed by the French
territory. The chief port, Lome, is
only a few miles from the British port
of Kitta, and about 110 miles from
Accra, the seat of the Gold Coast Gov
ernment. Large sums had been ex
pended by the Germans in developing
the Colony, in making the port of
Lome into a depot for trade, and lay
ing down a railway of about 100
miles to the town of Karnina, almost
due north of Lome. They had acted
with their usual cruelty towards the
Natives of the country, whose rights
were totally disregarded, the country
being treated as an appanage of the
J German Empire, whose resources,
' both commercial and human, were to
be employed solely for the advantage
and profit of Germany and the Ger
mans. Many complaints of brutal dis
regard of human life and human
rights, and of scandalous outrages of
decency by the Germans, officials and
others, had issued from the people,
but these had been unheard in Europe
till German arrogance threatened Eu
rope itself, when it was decided that
Germany must be turned out of Af
rica.
There was a special reason for turn
ing them out of Togoland. At Ka
mi na they had erected one of the most
powerful W'ireless installations in the
world, with such secrecy that the
French authorities in Dahomey were
not aware of its existence. It commu
nicated direct with Nauen, near Ber
lin, and with the German Colonies of
Cameron and Southwest Africa, and
was no doubt intended to maintain
communication between Berlin and
German warships and commerce
raiders operating in the Atlantic. The
installation had been completed just
before the outbreak of the war, and
the designer, Baron Codelli, was still
in the Colony and was taken prisoner
by the British forces.
On the declaration of war with
France, Major von Doling, Acting
Governor and Commander-in-Chief in
Togoland, assuming that Great Brit
ain would remain neutral, made prep
arations to seize the French posses
sion of Dahomey, but had not commit
ted any hostile act when Great Britain
entered into the war on the 4th of
August. The German Governor, by in
struction from Berlin, then* cabled to
» the Acting Governor of the Gold Coast
and to the Governor General of French
West Africa, proposing that neutral
ity should be observed between the
European Colonies of the Gold Coast,
Togoland and Dahomey, on grounds of
humanity and the desirability of main
taining the prestige of the White
Races in presence of the Black Races,
who might learn dangerous lessons if
allowed to take part in a campaign
in which White men were opposed to
each other, the hulk of the troops en
gaged being, of necessity, Natives.
The proposition was not even an
swered by the Governor of Dahomey,
and on the fith of August Major von
Doring was informed that the British
/Government could not entertain any
such suggestion. On the same day
French forces entered the German
territory and, meeting with no oppo
sition, occupied the port of Little Pope
(which the German called Anecho),
and on the 8th occupied the town of
Togo, a few miles inland.
On the Gold Coast preparations foi
hostilities had started at 11 p. m. or
(Continued on Page 8)
WESTERN UNION EMPLOYS
NEGRO MESSENGERS
Colored Lads Replace White as Mes
sengers.
Tulsa, Okla., Jan. 23.—The day of
miracles has not passed. As a proof
of this assertion one has only to be
hold the Colored messenger boys dart
ing hither and thither on their wheels,
delivering and receiving telegraph
messages for the Western Union Tel
egraph Company, regaled in the head
gear and other paraphernalia of the
local company. And the messages
coming in contact with their hands do
not seem to be polluted.
At first one doubted the truthful
ness of his eyes, but the more he
looked the more Colored messengers
he saw and now they are common
place. When the first two or three
I Colored boys wore given employment
[ the white lads stated they would not
: work with “niggers” and as fast as
one quit another Race youth was em
ployed, anil thus Colored messengers
are greatly in the majority now, and
from all angles.
FAVOR FEDERAL ACTION
AGAINST LYNCHING
Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 31.—The
Houston Post comes out with the Co
lumbia State in a statement of the
abundant justification for federal ac
tion against lynching in view of the
utter-failure of the state to deal ef
fectively with that persistent evil.
Nothing shows more plainly the de
termination of the best thought of
this section to crush out this disgrace.
TO PROTECT COLORED GIRLS
Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 31.—The as
sociation for the protection of Colored
girls is pushing a vigorous campaign
for $5,000 in the Memphis territory
I to be raised this month. This is a
movement in harmony with similar
plans by the federal government to
safeguard the health and morals of
the cities.
MOTON VISITS NEGRO TROOPS
Head of Tuskegee Institute Kinds Con
ditions Good Abroad.
Paris, Jan. 20.—(By the Associated
Press.)—Dr. Robert R. Moton, head
of the Tuskegee institute, who recent
ly returned from a 1,000-mile motor
trip on a visit to the American Negro
troops .in Alsace-Lorraine and else
where, has reported to the American
peace delegation that the condition of
these soldiers is satisfactory. Dr. Mo
ton addressed many organizations,
urging the Negroes to exercise self
control in France and leave such a
reputation that the allies would re
spect the American Negro because of
his character.
Dr. Moton came to France at the
invitation of President Wilson and
Secretary of War Baker, as adviser
to the American delegates on African
affairs.
RECEIVES $1,500 DIAMOND
New York, Jan. 26.—Joseph L. Ray
of 702 North Linden street, Bethle
hem, Pa., who for more than thirty
years has been private caterer to
Charles M. Schwab, is sporting a
handsome $1,500 diamond, a Christ
was present from the well known
steel magnate. Mr. Ray will be in
charge of Mr. Schwab’s private car,
Loretto, which will convey Andrew
Carnegie’s daughter and her husband
on their honeymoon trip to California
in the near future.
UNION LABOR
FIGHTING NEGROES
Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 30.—White
switchmen employed by three roads
here—the Illinois Central, Yazoo «
Mississippi Valley and St. Louis &
San Francisco—joined in a walkout
to protest against the employment of
Negro switchmen with the white
crews in the local terminals. Union
leaders declared more than 100 men
are on a strike, and it is stated that
others may join in the walkout later.
Railroad officials declare there has
been no serious congestion of freight
or interference with the movement of
trains as yet.
INSPECTOR OK AGRICULTURE
Columbia, S. C.—Mr. J. E. Dicker
son has been appointed inspector of
agriculture. The Race is very proud
of his appointment, as there are only
two inspectors in the state.
THE RT. REV. ARTHUR LLEWELLYN WILLIAMS, S. T. I).
Third Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, Whose Sudden
Death Early Wednesday Morning Has Removed a Lover of
Humanity and One of the Most Loyal Friends of Our Race.
South Carolina’s Brilliant
Galaxy of Colored Leaders
Concluding Article of the Interesting History of the Negro in Na
tional legislative Halls as Recalled in “Random Recollections
of a Half Century,’’ by Col. A. K. McClure, Published
Nearly 20 Years Ago in the Washington Post.
LAST week’s article told the signifi
cant story of the rejection of the
cultured J. Willis Menard, duly elect
ed member from the Second district
of Louisiana, by a Republican Con
gress from his seat in that body, of
Hiram B. Revells’ admission two
years later, or in February 1870, to
the United States Senate and of the
entrance the same year of Rainey,
of South Carolina, and Long, of Geor
gia, to the House of Representatives.
For thirty years, or until 1900, the
race was represented in Congress.
Congressman George H. White, just
deceased, was the last representative.
In his retiring speech he said: “Mark
me, sir, the day will come when the
Negro will return to these legislative
halls and when he returns, he will
come to stay.”
Colonel McClure, when he wrote
the article hero frepublished, could
see no immediate hope of the ful
fillment of Congressman White’s
words. The Monitor, however, ven
tures the prophecy that within the
next five years either Illinois or New
York, probably both, will send a mem
ber of the race to Congress.
In this concluding article we have
the story, as told by Colonel McClure,
of the Negro in Congress from 1870
to 1900:
South Carolina had the most bril
liant galaxy of Colored leaders of any
state in the south, and the Negro
never had such opportunities to prove
his ability to exercise high official
authority and to vindicate his race.
I spent part of the winter of 1870
in Columbia, the capital of the state,
for the purpose of completing an air
railway line to the south, and I was
brought into very close connection
with the authorities of the state. The
governor was a weak white man—
weak in intellect, more than weak in
integrity, and the playing of a coterie
of spoilsmen. Cardosa, a highly edu
cated Negro and long a minister in
Massachusetts, was treasurer of the
state, and certainly he meant to use
all his efforts to maintain a thor
oughly creditable administration, but
he had little encouragement from
either the whites or the blacks around
him. Of all the white state officials
Secretary Chamberlain, afterward
governor, was the only one who
seemed to appreciate the opportunity
and the duty to restore a great com
monwealth to some measure of pros
perity. With Cardosa were Rainey
and Smalls and Nash and Elliott and
Curves, who bore an honored Phila
delphia name, and Whipper, and
Wright, then a supreme judge, and
Delaney and Boneman. I met them
frequently, and several times in gen
eral conference, for every interest
with which I was identified would
be aided, or hindered by good or bad
local government.
The circle of Negro leaders pos
sessed an unusual measure of intel
lectual force. Cardosa was thorough
ly cultured; Rainey served longer in
congress than any other Negro of our
history, and maintained himself cred
itably in point of ability; Elliott was
the most brilliant of all, and later
startled the country bv his reply to
Stephens, ex-vice president of the con
federacy, on the floor of the house,
and proved himself a foeman worthy
of the steel of the able southern lead
er; Delaney won college honors in
Ohio, and boldly struggled for hon
est government until the last hope
perished, and Boseman who wanted
to make a creditable record for his
race, finally gave up the battle and
nestled down as postmaster of
Charleston. True, the environment of
these Negro leaders gave little en
couragement to those who sought
to make the government of South
Carolina distinguished as an illus
tration of the ability and integrity of
a Negro ruler. All of them were
impoverished, and they soon saw only
profligacy and demoralization around
them on every side. One by one they
faltered and fell, with very rare ex
ceptions, and today four of them are
convicts in the criminal records of the
state; convicted in their own courts
by Negro juries, and some of them
are holding department ioffices in
Washington. They escaped sentence
by the peace made in 1877, when the
federal authorities and a number of
South Carolinians convicted as Kuklux
marauders, and one of the United
States senators from the state was a
fugutive from justice. An unwritten
compact was made that the Kuklux
convicts and the criminal convicts in
the state courts should not be called
for sentence, and that Gen. Butler,
the representative of the Hampton
government, whose election to the
senate was then contested, should be
admitted to the senate. Such in brief
is the story of Negro opportunity and
Negro failure in South Carolina.
Three of these South Carolina Ne
groes were elected and promptly ad
mitted to the Forty-second congress, t
viz: Rainey, Elliott and DeLarge. *
Rainey served five terms in con
gress, and Elliott, when in his second
term, resigned his seat to accept a
more lucrative local office. In 1873
John R. Lynch, another prominent ;
Negro, appeared as a member of con
gress from Mississippi, and was one
of seven Negroes in that body. He
was elected for three consecutive
terms, and I saw the rapidly grow
ing tolerance of the republican lead
ers for Negro political fellowship veyy
impressively portrayed at the Chi
cago National convention in 1884.
When the chairman of the national
committee called the body to order
one of the youngest members of the
convention rose, and in a speech of
singular elegance and force nominated
Representative Lynch as temporary
chairman. In presenting this nomi
nation the young orator said that it
was “a fitting thing for us to choose
to preside over the convention one of
that race whose right to sit within
these walls is due to the blood and
treasure so lavishly spent by the
founders of the republican party. Mr.
Lynch was promptly and unanimously
elected, and the young orator who
thus presented the first Negro to
preside over a national convention,
and the only one of his race who has
ever been in charge of such a body,
was Theodore Roosevelt, ex-president
of the United States.
The Forty-fourtn congress brought
two Negroes into the house who be
came conspicuous in the political
movements of their party. They were
Jerry Haroldson, of Alabama, and
Robert Smalls of South Carolina.
Haroldson’s service was brief, but he
was long a potent political factor in
his state, and gained thrift by his
shrewd and always close dealings in
the sale of delegations from his state
in national conventions. Smalls seived
six years in congress, and attracted
much attention because of his heroic
act in the early part of the war, when
he took his family in a boat and sailed
out of Charleston harbor to join our
blockading fleet, after which he ren
dered very important service to the i
Union cause. He was one of the Sea
Island slaves of South Carolina and
very illiterate. He took no part in
congressional debate, but was an ac
tive, energetic, and in some degree an
influential member. He was one of
the principal Negro leaders of the
state, who made a sad record in the
criminal courts, but was saved with
others by the universal amnesfty of
1877, and has since been rewarded
with important federal positions in
his state.
When congress met in 1879 the en
tire Negro population in the house
had been effaced, and Senator Bruce
alone represented his race in the na
tional councils. In the succeeding
congress Smalls and Lynch reappear
ed as representatives, and in the fol
lowing congress James U. O’Harra,
representative from North Carolina,
was the only Negro in either branch
of the national legislature. He was
defeated for re-election to the Fif
tieth congress, and no Negro was
elected to either house or senate from
any other state, thus leaving that
congress without a single Negro rep
resentative in either branch. In the
Fifty-first congress the Negro ap
peared again in Representative John
M. Langston, of Virginia; Thomas F.
Miller, of South Carolina, and Henry
C. Cheatham, of North Carolina. In
the Fifty-second congress Cheatham
was the sole representative of the
race, as was George W. Murray, of
South Carolina, in the Fifty-third and
Fifty-fourth congresses, and George
H. White, of North Carolina, sei-ved
(Continued on Page 8)
WILSON SUMMONS U. S.
CONSUL AT MOROCCO
Paris, Jan. 20.—Maxwell Blake,
American Consul General in Moroc
co, according to the Depeche Maro
caine of Tangier, has been summoned
to Paris by President Wilson, who
wishes to consult him on Moroccan
questions.
The President’s act has brought re
newed hope to those who earnestly
desire universal peace and know that
such a peace is possible only upon the
basis of universal justice.
If a paper is worth reading it is
worth paying for.
tfi -
The Negrc * nd the
South Ai ®rthe War
Emmett J. Scott, Special Assistant to
Secretary of War, Discusses Condi
tions That Should Follow the Re
turn of Honorably Discharged Ne
gro Soldiers.
ENTITLED TO MAN’S CHANCE
Returning Home in No Hostile Spirit,
the Negro Soldier Simply Desires
Fair Treatment Which America
Should Ungrudgingly Grant.
TUSKEGEE Institute, Alabama,
Jan. 23.—The second day’s session
of the annual Tuskegee Negro Confer
ence was devoted • to a discussion of
“Problems Connected with the Demob
ilization of Negro Soldiers.” The
principal address before this session
of the Conference was delivered by
Dr. Emmett J. Scott, Secretary of
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial In
stitute, who has been serving in Wash
ington, D. C., since the outbreak of
the war, as Special Assistant to the
Secretary of War, advising in mat
ters affecting the interests of Colored
soldiers and Colored Americans gen
erally. The Tuskegee Negro Confer
ence, the fame of which is now nation
wide, was inaugurated by the late
Booker T. Washington and meets an
nually at the Tuskegee Normal and
Industrial Institute! Tuskegee, Alaba
ma. The Conference has always
sought to encourage Negro farmers
and the Negro people of the South
generally in forward-looking direc
tions. The same policy of helping
Colored farmers in practical ways and
of seeking to cement friendly relations
between the two races in the South
has been and is being consistently
carried out by Dr. Robert R. Moton,
the present Principal of the Institute.
In discussing the subject, “The Ne
gro and the South After the War,”
Dr. Scott took a broad view of the sit
uation and sought to allay and to dis
sipate the spirit of unrest and appre
hension whjjch seems to obtain in the
South with reference to the return to
this section of discharged Negro sol
diers. Incidentally he revealed the
plan and policy of the War Depart
ment to gradually demobilize the
thousands of Negroes in the Army as
rapidly as suitable civilian employ
ment can be found for them. Extracts
from his address follow: »
“The Negro and the South After the
War.”
“Peace hath her victories no less
renowned than war,” and the fact that
hundreds of thousands if not millions
of soldiers must soon be discharged
from military service and thus be
changed from a military to a civilian
status, presents a problem requiring
the best thought for its proper han
dling and solution, and indeed makes
the problem of Peace equally if not
more complex than the problem of
War. At one time during the war,
German propagandists would have us
believe that the American Negro had
neither the inclination nor the ability
to efficiently fight under the Stars
and Stripes and to fully perform his
share of civilian work and military
service so essential in the support of
| our country’s program at home and
; overseas, but the ready response of
Negro draftees to the Selective Serv
, ;ce call, the splendid record made by
nearly 400,000 Negro soldiers in camps
and cantonments at home as well as in
the war zone and on bloody battle
fields of France, together with the
whole-souled support and numerous
patriotic activities of Negro-Ameri
cans generally, showed how false and
unfounded was that thought.
Negro Loyalty Proved
In this connection, it is both inter
esting and encouraging to note the
testimony by Mr. A. Bruce Bielaski,
Chief of the Bureau of Investigation,
Department of Justice, and by Captain
George B. Lester of the Army Intelli
gence Service, before the United
States Senate Committee, which is in
vestigating the activities of German
propagandists in this country. In re
ferring to the efforts that were re
peatedly made to discourage loyalty
on the part of the Negroes of this
country Captain Lester said:
“This propaganda became so serious
from flic military end that active
measures were taken to suppress it.
The real leaders of the race in this
country were called to a conference
in Washington on June 19, 20, 21,
1918. There was a large number of
these representative men of the Col
ored race present, a list of which I
have. As a result of the conference,
(Continued on Page 2)