COMMENCEMENT NUMBER
The University Student
Vol. 5. Ino. 7.
LUX ET VERITAS
JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY, CHARLOTTE, N. C., MAY, 1929.
Price 10 Cents.
NOTABLE OF U. S. DE- NATIONAL SECRETARY
PARTMENT OF COM- Y. M. C. A. ADDRESSES
MERGE SMITH UNIVERSITY
RETIRED DEAN SPEAKS OXLEY TELLS OF CONDI
TIONS IN OLD NORTH
STATE
Before an appreciative assembly of fac
ulty and students, Mr. A. B. Jackson, of the
United States Department of Commerce,
delivered an appealing lecture. Himself a
fair representative of what can be done if
one only strives to succeed, he impressed
upon us the fact that the time has come
when the Negro must realize that he has
grown up. However, it is regretful that we
are not up to the standard of the leading
races of the world in mercantile maneuvers.
Yet, it is with hope and some degree of
satisfaction that we view the steady up
ward trend along this line.
The need of more business for Negroes
was felt when Booker T. Washington help
ed to organize the National Negro Business
League in Boston, in 1900. This organiza
tion has aided tremendously in the foster
ing of leading Negro business projects.
Yet, more wholesale and retail businesses
must be established in order to use those
men who are being trained now. Big busi
ness will come only as a result of the
merger of the total group or a majority
of the total Negro business men and their
capital. On the other hand, the success of
banks, commerce, etc., is determined largely
by the success of smaller business concerns.
Realizing this, the heads of the United
States Department of Commerce co-operate
with the small business concerns by main
taining a library complete with information
on any phase of business development, and
also by publishing free literature on var
ious problems that may confront the srnall
business enterprise. In spite of these con
veniences for obtaining needed information,
statistics show that of 17,000 inquiries re
ceived 1., Ikt p€pa.t..icnt of Coy^merce in
1928 only 200 were from Negroes, 19 were
from Colleges, and none were from Negro
Colleges.
The individual independent merchant
need not fear the chain stores. He can
get closer to the public and supply needs
that chain stores would find unprofitable
to handle. On entering business, the Negro
youth should carefully select one for which
he has the natural inclination, competent
training, and sufficient capital, remember
ing that business built up on usable pro
ducts, and that business only, is sound.
On Friday morning, April 19, Johnson C.
Smith University was favored with the
presence of Mr. Frank T. Wilson, National
Secretary of the Y. M. C. A., who delivered
a very inspiring address in Chapel.
Mr. Wilson has returned from India as
a representative of the Y. M. C. A. of
America at the World Student Christian
Federation. This federation meets bien-
nually at various places throughout the
world. It is a courageously strong organi
zation which seeks to create harmonious re
lations between the Christian Intelligentsia
of the world. At the last session held in
India, Max Yergen was present, represent
ing the Student Movement of South Africa.
Also, there were representatives from China,
Czecho Slovakia, Japan, Germany, Great
Britain, and other leading countries of the
world.
In the discourse it was pointed out that
each V. M. C. A. should set about to create
a little personal group in which the interest
and enthusiasm is so great that others will
be influenced to join it. This is Mr. Wilson’s
idea of improving the ever important
“status quo”. If the Y. M. C. A. develops
intense interest and faithful comradeship
among a small percentage of the students,
then the whole student-body will become
conscious of it, and the influence will
radiate. His message was to go forth
courageously and sacrificially bearing the
cross.
Retired Dean Geo. Wm. Cook, of the
School of Commerce and Finance, Howard
University, left a thought with the repres
entatives of Johnson C. Smith University
in his message on April 1. Mr. Cook, for
a number of years Professor of Commercial
I^aw and International Law at Howard, is
a loyal supporter of his Alma Mater. He
has been connected with the institution for
more than half a century.
He comes from the Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia, and remembers vividly the days
of the Reconstruction. He has viewed the
wonderful strides made by education since
1864 and states that America is growing
tremendously. Just as we are unable to
see the growth of a tree from day to day,
but after a period of years we can contrast
its present size with its size when we first
saw it, so it is with education. We cannot
hope to see many immediate marked
changes, nevertheless, education is slowly
and surely evolving to a higher plane.
SMITH OilSES SUCCESS-
FUL DEBATING SEASON
Fine Cooperation and Improving Attitudes
Reported As Result of Progressive
Policies
NOTED WOMAN EDUCA
TOR LCTURES
N. A. A. C. P. LEADER VIS
ITS JOHNSON C. SMITH
The Natinal Asoc'ation for the Advance
ment of Colored People could not have
chosen a more efficient and eloquent
speaker, nor a more dynamic personality
than Mr. Robert W. Bagnall, its Director
of Branches. He has held this position
since 1921, Mr. Bagnall, a member of the
American Negro Academy and also the
Civic Club of New York City, is a native
of Vii'ginia. He has pastored churches in
Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and Michigan,
and has contributed to The Survey, The
Nation, The World Tomorrow, Opportunity,
The Crisis, The Southern Workman, and
The Messenger Magazine.
In his brilliant lecture Mr. Bagnall de
voted much time to the discussing of revo
lution of thought in regard to hte Negro
in America. The race has advanced from
a thing incapable, to a necessary factor in
the political, soc’al and economical worlds.
In the schools of higher education and in
dustrial education the Negro is making
rapid strides, and becoming more self- sup
porting, and independent. History has
shown that the modern way to maintain
rights is to develop power—intellectural
and organizational power.
It has been said that we will have a
true democracy when and only when con
ditions are abrogated regarding the social
inequality of the Negro, and efficiency,
rather than race, becomes the keystone to
a place of pre-eminence among the political
social, and economical leaders of Amer’ca.
Because of some misunderstanding as to
date, the white men delegates to the Inter
racial Conference held r.t Greensboro, N.
Carolina, failed to be present. However,
the Negro men and white women were
rresent. On one occasion, during the con
ference, one of the women asked why the
young men would not accompany them about
On Friday morning, March 29, during the
meeting of the North Carolina Teachers’
Association which convened in Charlotte,
the faculty, visitors and students of John
son C. Smith University had the unique
pleasure of hearing one of the leading
women educators of the race.
Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder and
president of Bethune-Cookman College,
Daytona Beach, Florida, held the interest
of the audience as she masterfully related
the thrilling story of her life. She clearly
stated that she did not come at this time
to represent the little school of 1904 in a
Pttle rented cabin, with one teacher, $1.50
in capital and an enrollment of five little
girls, but rather that she was representing
the Bethune-Cookman College, with a fac
ulty of twenty-five teachers, fourteen
modern, splendidly equipped buildings,
and with an enrollment of over two hundred
twenty-five students. This school has sent
out more than two thousand graduates who
are capably holding their own in the world
of affairs.
The last challenge of Mrs. Bethune to
the students was to prepare themselves well,
because it is no longer possible for one to
bluff h’s way in the world. Today calls for
well framed and well prepared young
women and men.
Smith’s Varsity Debating team has closed
its second season as a member of the Pen
tagonal Debating League. The team lost
its first debate to Atlanta University’s
negative team, won from Morehouse’s nega
tive team and debated Fisk’s affirmative
team with no decision.
Smith University Varsity Debating team
bowed to the superior experience and tech
nique of Atlanta University’s Debating
team, when Atlanta University’s team con
tending the negative side of the question
“Resolved: That the United States Should
Rpcogmze the Present Soviet Government
of Russia,” met in Joint debate in Biddle
Memorial Hall, April 5, 1929, at 8:30
o’clock. Atlanta University’s team was
composed of Myron Bumstead Towns, ’30,
and Frank L. Stanley ’29, and Smith was
ably defended by Edw. W. Jones ’31, and
A. J. Clement, Jr., ’30.
Although the youngest member of the
Pentagonal League, Johnson C. Smith won
a unanimous decision and made a successful
come back over the veteran Morehouse
College team at Charlotte, April 12. Edw.
W. Jones, E. C. Grigg and A. J. Clement,
Jr., convincingly presented the arguments
for Smith while Jas. L. Lewis, Robert B.
Stewart, and Henry L. Jerkins battled
against odds for Morehouse.
At Fisk, Smith successfully defeated the"
arguments of the Fisk team, and by popular
vote was declared winner. Smith was
lepresented by Geo. F. Newell and S. H.
Travis, Fisk by Jeremiah Moore and Edw.
T. Pierce. Due to the fact that the Fisk
authorities could not secure competent
judges, the debate was without a decision.
THE NATIONAL CONFEDERATION
OF CANADIAN STUDENTS.
the city. Mr. Bagnall answered her in this
manner: “If you see a mad dog rushing
down, the street, you will invariably step
aside to safety unt’l the dog has passed.
If a man of my race is seen in public with
a white woman m this city, why, all of
the white men who are stewed up in hat
red and ignorance will pounce upon him
much the same as a pack of mad dogs.
Thus, it behooves him to step aside, though
his companionship may be desired, until
such conditions as now prevail have been
effaced by a better existence.”
Mr. Bagnall’s final challenge to the
audience was this- “We are Rip Van
W'nkle’s, and fast asleep, if we go out
from school saying that we dare not be
men; it will hurt us economically in Ameri
ca. Science knows no traditional view
points. Young men, go out with true manly
courage and use cooperatively the facts you
gather in cePege, wi h a greater vision to
the unlift of. the race. Then ovill we be
justified in snend'ng our tim.e and efforts
ip getting a higher education.”
New York, N. Y. (By New Student Ser
vice)—In December, 1926, the National Con
federation of Canadian University Students
was formed one year after a similar organi
zation appeared in the United States. Judg
ing from the official report that has just
been published, the organization already
has to its credit some important accom
plishments. It has organized several na
tional debate, tours, perfected a “clearing
house” for the assembling of information
on student problems and promoted student
travel abroad. In add'tion it has formed
an Exchange System whereby Canadian
students may without extra expense, spend
one year of study in a university in an
other part of Canada and it has promoted
a co-operative book-purchasing scheme
which is said to effect a saving of ten
thousand dollars annually to Canadian
students.
Atlanta, Ga., April —. —Negroes in
twenty-six North Carolina counties have
united their efforts to improve social and
educational conditions and are paying in
whole or in part the salaries of twenty-one
social workers, according to LieuteKaiih
Lawrence A. Oxley, Director of the Division^
of Negro Work of the North Carolina Board
of Charities and Public Welfare, who deliv
ered a series of three lectures on ruraP
community work at the Atlanta School of
Social Work. During the last two years
colored people have raised for this purpose
more than $25,000 to supplement funds ap
propriated by the counties. This has de
veloped a new attitude on the part of white
people and has resulted in fine interracial
cooperation.
“Representatives of both races meet to
gether to discuss the problems of the color
ed people and to plan for their solution,”
said Mr. Oxley. “It marks a new departure
for colored people to send a delegation of
leaders to the county superintendent of
public welfare to ask what the colored
people can do to assist him—a marked
change from the days when Negroes went to
the court house only when summoned as
prisoners or witnesses. In one county they
raised $1,600 and sent a delegation to pre
sent it to the county board, with the re
quest that it be used for the good of the
county. The impression made in all of
these counties is that the Negroes are no
longer content to remain neglected and out
side the benefits of the c 'mmunity, but
tnat they are willing to shoulder their shave
of responsibility for community develop
ment. In consequence, the relationships
between the races have been markedly im
proved.”
Mr. Oxley made it clear that the colored
group cannot know what it can get till it
makes its needs known to the proper auth
orities. Among many such gains in North
Carolina, he said, have been the organiza
tion of Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls and
American Legion posts, adjusted compens: -
tion policies, free transportation to r'd.
veterans, mother’s aid pensions and t’-e
like. The state conducts numerous clinirs
and colored children are admitted to all o;
them, while the provisions for color d
children at the county homes are the same
as those for the whites.
SMITH PLAYERS
A STUDENT CO.MMITTEE FOR
MOONEY AND BILLINGS
Madison, Wise. (By New Student Service)
The University of Wisconsin Liberal Club
has issued a call to all students interested
in freeing the two labor leaders Mooney
and Billings, who were convicted on per
jured testimony of placing the bomb which
ki’l'd ten and injured forty persons in San
(Continued' on page 5)
Since April 10th the Smith Players
have been traveling about North Carolina
presenting the two plays on its list this
year: “Sugar Cane,” and “In Abraham’s
Bosom.”
Beginning the season with a very pleas
ant presentation to the students of Bricks
Junior College, the Smith Players have
shown in Nashville, Gastonia, Charlotte
and Winston-Salem. At Nashville, the
next engagement following that of Bricks,
a large audience of both races, witnessed
the presentationn and from the laudatory
remarks made by both, it is to be assumed
that the evening was enjoyed by all pres
ent.
The Charlotte performance was wit
nessed by a very appreciative audience.
Winston-Salem gave The Players their
biggest audience which filed into the
spacious Lincoln Theater on the evening
of May 14th to witness for the last time-
this season these plays by the Smith-
Players. An added feature in the Win-.
stcn-Salem presentation w-as the 'Vaude
ville done by Messrs. Dud’ey, Mebane and
Fitch.
Mi-s Muriel McCrorey. the lovable daugh-
t"r of President H. L. McCrorev. v.-as ivith
hor rarents dur'ng the Ea=ter season. The
entire camnus was- delighted to have her
here among u.s.