Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / Feb. 19, 1931, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE 16TH ANNUAL PRESBYTERIAN WORKERS’ CONFERENCE HELD AT JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY, FEB. 10-13. B|r Rev. L. B. West, D. D. The Sixteenth Annual Work ers’ Conference of the Division of Missions for Colored People of the Board of National Mis sions of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., was held at Johnson C. Smith University, February 10-13. The sessions were held in the beautiful church which adorns the en trance to the campus. The Rev. John M. Gaston, D. D., LL. D., presided with ease and digni ty. The Conference was well at tended. The weather was clear and cold. Music Music occupied a large place on the program. The congre gational singing was very in spiring with Dr. T. A. Long at the pipe organ. At the piano from time to time were: Prof. T. B. Faulkner, Mrs. R. 'W. Boulware. Mrs. Edna Mason and Prof. W. Astor Morgan. Special numbers were ren dered by a Quintette and Quar tette from Johnson C. Smith University; A Sextette from Selden Institute, Brunswick, Ga.; Quartettes from Swift Memorial College, Rogersville, Tenn., and Barber-Scotia Col lege, Concord; and Mrs. Edna Mason, of South Boston, Va. All of the singing was good, showing that the students were Well trained. Special mention should be made of Mrs. Mason who captivated the Conference with her rendition of soul-stir ring classical as well *s evan gelistic numbers. Dr. Long gave a special organ number at one of the popular meetings. Devotional Hour The devotional hours were seasons of spiritual refresh ing. They were conducted by the Rev. Wm. L. McEwan, D. D., LL. D., pastor of Third Presbyterian church, Pitts burgh, Pa. Dr. McEwan's mes sages burned their way into the hearts of his hearers and lifted them to a high spiritual level. In his first address he spoke from the text: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our in firmities : for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh in tercession for us with groan ings which can not be uttered.” (Romans 8:26.) He spoke of the infirmities of man, his helplessness, and showed how necessary it was for him to look to God for help. He said that the Spirit of God is within us and He helps us. to bear our in firmities and prompts and helps us to pray and to aspire for the higher life. He emphasized how necessarv it was for us to pray. In his second address, Dr. McEwan spoke from the text: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scrip ture, and preached unto him Jesus.” (Acts 8:35). The sub ject was divided as follows. 1. The Preacher. Philip was a spiritually-minded man. An obedient man. An eager man to speak -for God. A man that knew his Bible. 2. The congre gation. Just one man, the Ethi opian eunuch. But he was sin-{ cere and teachable. He was a convinced hearer and became a courageous believer. 3. The Sermon. It was saturated with Jesus. 4. The Results. The man was gloriously converted. ^Dr. McEwan in his closing ad dress spoke from the text: “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming nut of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.” (Luke 23:26.) He said that in compelling Si Hon to bear the cross of Jesus ■e sea: 1. The providence of BodJn bringing the man to that spot at that hour. There are no accidents in life 2. Simon helped Christ in his hour of need. 3. Simon got great re ward for bearing the cross. He called attention to the fact that we will have burdens to bear/, but if we bear them patiently; God will richly bless us. Dr. McEwan was glad to be at the Conference and the Con ference was greatly benefited by his presence. The School The work of the school was viewed from several angles. The papers, addresses, and dis cussions were thoughtful, in forming and inspiring. Miss Marjorie E. Wellborn Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Division, informed the Con ference of a survey that had been conducted by the Board, with a view of working a uni fied program of Religious Edu cation for the mission schools. She1 emphasized the big place that religion should have in our schools. Dr. M. J. Jackson, of Dalzell, S. C., made a forceful plea for “A Recreation Program for tne Community, Fostered by the Church.” He called attention to the fact that recreation occu pies a big part of our lives. He cited the evils of the wrong sort of recreation, and declared that it was absolutely necessa ry that the church guard the morals of our young people as they engage in athletic feats and amusements. In a beautiful way he told of the park and play ground fostered by his church. “The Dining Room—A Vital Agency in Character” was the interesting subject handled in an interesting way by Mrs. J. D. Martin, of Brainerd Insti tute, Chester, S. C. She said that the dining room should be one of the most attractive plac es at any school. She named the essentials for the up-to-date dining room in a boarding school, and showed clearly how these elements play a vital part in character building. The Rev. W. G. Anderson, of Mary Potter School, Oxford, gave a clear-cut definition of “The Functions of Clubs in Schools.” He showed the neces sity of clubs. No one who is abreast with the modern sci ence of education will deny that clubs are a very vital factor in the whole life and program of the progressive school. He named a variety of clubs. He called attention to the evils of clubs, which he thought were by-products rather than re sults. He was of the opinion that the problem of the schools is to eradicate the sore spots from clubs and through wise sponsoring and sound organiza tion keep the best clubs as safe ty valves and training grounds for the youth of today. The subject, “Contrasting Methods of Discipline,” was very ably and profoundly dis cussed by the Rev. S. Q. Mitch ell, Principal of Selden Instil tute, Brunswick, Ga. Rev. Mitchell said discipline is a problem which has gravity and universality. He showed the necessity for discipline, and de clared that we cannot lay down immutable laws governing dis cipline. Laws must be made to meet the exigencies that may arise in the individual school. After treating his subject in an exhaustive manner as to the disciplinarian and those disci-’ plined, he declared that disci pline is building, and the. build ing which it is erecting will out last the pyramids of Egypt. Discipline is preaching and the echo of its voice will be sound . (Continued on page 2) MORI PROPAGANDA EXPOSED BY DR: WOODSON ‘‘My » corworker, Frederick McCoy, of Columbus,’’ says Dr. C. C. Woodson, “has just writ ten! me expressing his indigna tion on hearing Herbert A. Mil ler, iof Ohio State Univ., recently sayt that-slavery . was a good thing. Miller is regarded by many Negroes and whites- as one; of . the staunchest friends the| race has ever had, but Mc Coy believes with George Schuyler that “we need to watch our. friends as well as our' enemies.” 'There is no J>et-. ter illustration of the need for such vigilance than in theca.se of 'Thomas Jesse Jones’s clan destine hamstringing method of attack on Negroes of back bone. Anson Phelps Stokes in sists that Jones is a friend of the ! race, and some Negroes with their hands out for any thing which may drop into them agree with Stokes; but thinking Negroes of this coun try ;daily join with me in pray er to God to deliver the race from the curse of his friend ship. “Thos'e who defend slavery as a good thing and would like to segregate and subject the race to outside control believe without reason that the Ne groes in Africa are naturally lazy and that it was a good thing that they were brought here and ‘broken in’ to work. Some of these misinformants refer to the Negroes of today as being 'lazy, although they see them doing all of the drudg ery in the South; and such crit ics never take into account the fact -vNegroer are barred from work by trades’ unions. “Investigation has shown that the Negroes in Africa are in dustrious. They were brought here to do the work which the shiftless whites would not do. Slavery itself developed in the Negroes what inertia they later manifested. A man forced to labor will naturally follow the line of least resistance and will loaf on the job as much as pos sible because he knows he is giving something for nothing. The slaves as a rule had no such incentives as increased compen sation, reward for efficiency, or promotion to the highest posi tion in the service. Negroes as ‘free laborers’ today do not have all of these stimuli. “The defenders of slavery as a benevolent institution, how ever, merely show by such as sertions that they are ignorant of the fact of history. Unin formed men like Prof. Miller should keep their mouths shut until they learn something about the Negro. They should read; the recent works of Miss Elizabeth Donnan, Mrs. H. T. Catterall, and Dr. Frederic Bancroft, who have spent years investigating slavery and slave trading. These are scientific productions with the stamp of the best scholarship in Ameri ca; treatises produced from such genuine documents as the court records of the slave-hold ing section itself. “In his ‘Slave-Trading in the Old South,’ which has recently come from the press, Dr. Fred eric Bancroft has rendered the public a valuable sevice in re moving the whitewash which pseudo historians have been giving to slavery. Writing of this book in the Herald-Tribune of the 20th of January, Lewis Gannett said: “ ‘The State Department is horrified to discover evidence that human slavery still exists in Liberia: and we all agree. It is a little difficult to twist our minds back to the realization tliat seventy years ago slaves were openly marketed by God fearing men in a large section i of the United States and the (Continued on page 4) atom: FORMA By Mrs. J. D. Martin at the Presbyterian Workers* Conference. The one of places we go t roundi thihg t self, at tentmen enjoy: food i ... 2nd. those where nO tables* useiin ea of the h Ralphs said: “W1 loudly ti you say day publii tion to re: tion: and regarded The r training home, t boarding room should be most attractive any school. First, eat, and the sur ild suggest every ippeals to the finer (and produces con thereby furnishing while taking the system. tg . is given to come from homes wn is set aside, nor and adorned for t the prepared food Emerson once « you are speaks so cannot hear a word the common, every hool, the contribu ment, habit forma racter building is only incidental, ibilrty of such its mainly upon the church and the ool. In the board ing schoo there is a close co operation between parent and teacher, l bause the child has been turn d over to that insti tution tw< Sty-four hours in the day, seve • days in the week, four weel i in the month, and nine mont $ in the year. There fore* it s in the boarding school tl at the development along line i of character build ing, habit ^formation and moral education Is the real equipment for life. The dbYfk>pment of character through education should be the aim .of- a^siheote, but ^special Iy the boarding schools. Chil dren should be taught to love and desire as well as to know. Training should not be of the intellect alone; there must be added that of the emotions, taste and ethical nature. Character building makes its impress, and habit formations can but be given through con crete examples in the home, the church and the boarding school. The boys and girls in the' adolescent age cannot be taught effectively in the abstract. Teaching must be made a part of their life. The boarding school furnishes an opportuni ty to bring out the practical in a child and instill habits that will go through life. The boarding school comes next to the home,—and in some instances before the home, when that home is of an infe rior and low type,—in shaping habits and determining the fu ture character of a child. Character, after all, may be considered as nothing more than a combination of habits. It does not require training for a child to learn how to sleep • he comes into the world with that characteristic and needs no training in the matter of sleep ing; but to eat the child has to be trained. He possesses the ! inborn instinct of eating, just as of sleeping, but to sit at a ta ble and use a knife and fork cor rectly requires training, habit formation that goes toward making character later in life. The school dining room plays a very important part in the life of the young boy or girl. Under our observation, a boy once came into the dining room and he was wholly non-phissed. He acted as though he had never seen inside a dining room before. He was given a seat at a table, but for several days he came and went without tasting a morsel of food. Finally, he absented himself from the din ing rbom. After being absent two aaya'he was called to the of fie/of the President. When questioned as to why he 4did not come to the dining room for meals it was found that he was (timid and lacked table man ners-training in his home life /. I —and with that timidity he was always fearful of making mistakes and that he would be laughed at by the other stu dents. This kept him away. Af ter'much persuasion and kind words he came back into the dining room, but it was some timte before he could appear natural. Hew to Make the Dining Room Attractive 1st. Cleanliness is the first essential. Insist on clean linen, promote among those who set up the tables rivalry in keeping linen clean. If necessary, change linen every other day. In a school whore there are girls, this is not a very hard thing to do. Appoint a certain num ber of girls for each month to see after the table linen. Give them that for thieir specific work and see that they do it. Keep clean linen also for the serving table, buffets, etc., every day, and all the time ready for inspection from the most critical eye. Offer a prize for the best kept table during the school year. When flowers are in bloom, provide each ta ble with a vase, or if a vase can not be had, then use fruit jars, and give those in charge the privilege of gathering flowers from the1 garden each day for the tables. During5 the winter months when flbwers are not in bloom, artificial flowers may be used and these eatT be made by the girls themselves. TaM* Manners ' Good'tafble^manners should be -the slogan fo«r’ every one. And when' it is found in the school that a pupil1 does not use them, tranfer him or her to a table where table manners come nat urally and are used regularly by the occupants of said table, and in a short time improve ment invariably will be seen in the pupil formerly deficient in this particular. Not to pour cof fee into the saucer or to carry food to the mouth with a knife will soon be learned without be ing told-it is wrdrtg. It is al ways better to find out one’s wrongs through-1 observation, than to have to continually be told. So many “don’ts” will not agree wtih any one, and very often the best good is not ac complished. Good table man ners come from continual practice of the right way of do ing things.* Table Co-operation Encourage co-operation at each table, co-operating the one with the other in table deport ment, keeping the table linen clean, seeing that all are served equitably with an outward dis play of refinement and no one being loud or boisterous. Insist on all coming to the1 table neat in appearance. No one’s appetite is improved by looking at un combed hair, soiled dresses or shirts. Clothes should not only be clean but neat. Where con venient and practical allow stu dents to sit by classes, or with their special friends at the ta ble. Through co-operation happi ness conies; The persons of cheerful dispositions, and! un selfish in spirit should be placed at* the' head and foot of the table, who will be kind, thoughtful*1 considerate and tol erant of all those about them. Their cheerfulness1 wilt make those about them happy. Their consideration of others will in turn make others considerate of each other. How io1 Develop Wide in* the Dining Room (1). Developing pride in the dining room on the part of the students is brought about largely by students and teach ers occupying the same dining room. The teachers' attitude of human sympathy toward the pupils will make them observ ant and will give encourage ment in developing that pride and conduct so necessary. (2) In a co-educational board ing school a certain pride is de veloped that may be lacking in other schools. The sexes attract each other, and the student takes more pride in his or her personal appearance, conduct, etc., toward the other in their meetings at meal time. The meals furnish the occasion for the social time of the day, and it is quite natural for the girl to look and act her best in the presence of her male school mates, and the same is true of the young man. School Spirit The school spirit is brought out in the dining room through the school colors, school yells, and school entertainments, sometimes entered into on spe cial occasions. Make the best of what you have in bringing out the school colors and decorat ing your dining room, by utiliz ing the things at hand. Many things of minor cost can be made that will add to the at tractiveness of the dining room. Harmonize your school colors as near as possible in your din ing room decorations. I know of a dining room where the cur tains for the windows are made of flour sacks and sugar sacks, with blue borders, and the table cloths and table napkins are embroidered in blue. The wait resses, as fast as material can be secured, are provided with white Hoover aprons trimmed in blue. White and blue are the school colors. Celebration of Special Days in the Dining Room Special day celebrations add to the attractiveness of the. dining room as well as create school pride on the'part of the students: new students’ recep tions (using school colors), Hallowe’en (using Hallowe’en colors), Thanksgiving, Christ mas, senior class receptions, etc. At the beginning of the school year a social for the new stu dents should be given, putting the responsibility of prepara tion for the reception entirely upon the old students, the teachers acting in an advisory capacity. Let the students dec orate the- dining room in the school colors. During the school year in selecting the time for socials among students, have them use certain days, and have the colors for those days carried out in their decorations, so as to impress upon them the signifi cance of the day and why it is celebrated. During the closing days of school have students give a senior reception for the seniors, using class colors, class mottoes, etc., thereby encour aging class spirit, class co-oper ation, and class unity one with the other, impressing upon the students the greait place the dining room holds in the form ation of habits, and that the daily lessons imparted in silence and by example should not be treated cursorily or thoughtless ly. Chester, S. C. GETTING INTEREST “I can’t get interested in mis sions!” exclaimed a young girl petulantly, and, if truth must be told, a bit superciliously, as she left a thrilling missionary meet ing in company with an older lady. “No, dear,” came the pity ing response; “ ’tisn’t to be ex actly expected you should—yet awhile. It’s just like getting in terest in a bank; you have to put in a little something first; and the more you put in, the more interest you get. Time, or money, or praying, it doesn’t matter which—but something you have to put in, or you never will have any interest. Try it, dear—just put in a little some thing, and you’re sure of the interest.”—The King’s Own.
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 19, 1931, edition 1
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