AND YE IhALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE
tY, MAY 16, 1935,
VOL. LVI.
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY -
CINCINNATI, OHIO, MAY 24.
(Report made up from The General Assembly Daily News,
and other sources.)
Wuh the dignity and im
pressiveness tnat have cnarac
ieuze<i the opening of the •t'res
oylenan uneeral Assembly eacn
year ior nearly a century anu
ft naif, tne i4/tn general as
sembly began its sessions at
iu:ou o ciocic yesterday morn
ing, May 23, in the Taft Audi
torium, Cincinnati, me open
ing session was a service of wor
ship, of communion and of tne
pl eaching of the Word.
The delegates and the visitors
began to arrive early at Tafi.
Auditorium and by 9:00 A. M.
the looby was jammed. Slowly
vney filtered into the auditori
um and when Ur. Covert opened
tne Assembly at i0:30 A. M.,
there was scarcely an available
seat.
The delegates have come from
all parts of the United States
and from foreign countries.
There are missionaries from
Yucatan and the Near and Far
East, nurses and doctors from
India and other parts )of ,the
world.
preceding a celebration of
the Lord’s Supper marked by a
silence that in itself was an in
spiration to the 920 commission
ers and the hundreds of visitors,
the opening’ sermon was
preached by the retiring Mod
erator, the Rev. Dr. William
Chalmers Covert of the Presby
tery of Chicago. Dr. Covert’?
subject was: “Apostolic Re^ui
a’tes for . a Prevailing Churcn,
and the Scripture texts were:
“The Word of Cod grew and
multiplied” (Acts 12:24); “And
(Acts 2:47.)
sacrament s«rv*a
On the stage as the Assem
bly opened, were 80 elders of
the Church and almost as many
ministers to aid in the solemn
Sacrament of the Lord’s Sup
per, which followed Dr. Cov
ert’s sermon.
At the front of the platform,
flanking the speaker’s stand,
were long tables, glistening m
white napery and with the sil
very service of the Sacrament.
The Sacrament was served to
the approximately 2,400 persons
in the auditorium in half an
hour by means of the well
drilled corps of elders. They
were stationed at various parts
of the auditorium and carried
the Sacrament to the commun
icants.
The audience stilled to an in
tense quietude as Dr. Covert be
gan his address.
Obstacles Compared
The obstacles faced by the
Church today were compared
by Dr. Covert with thos? faced
nearly 2,000 years ago by the
Apostles. If they triumphed
over their far greater difficul
ties, he said, there was no ex
cuse for failure of the present
Church.
“Why,” Dr. Covert asked, “do
we see the Church hesitant
while millions of unsaved men
and women are all around us
and unbelief, immorality and in
temperance are honeycombing
society and undermining the
stability and progress of the
Church?”
He told his audience to hark
back to the methods used by
the Apostles if they would over
come these conditions.
“It is in us, not in the Gospel
message that we shall find the
explanation of that slackness
and incompetency and lack of
converting power that marks
our preaching,” he said.
“The secrets of the successes
of the early church are far re
moved from mechanism and
programs and budgets. They
were not related to fine-spun
theories of faith. The Christian
movement was the overflow and
! contagion of lives saturated with
a vital believing in the fact of
Christ as a personal Saviour..
—__God’s Word for it—when
there comes upon our Church in
newness of power these apostol
ic gifts, then will come an apos
tolic blessing.”
Points to Labor of Old
Today the Church has no
right to claim that it faces un
conquerable difficulties in the
world Dr. Covert indicate!.
Preachers never since have met
such obstacles as the Apostles
vanquished.
“The message never faced a
more impenetrable mass of self
complacency and pride than
then. It never was heaped upon
with such such bitter contempt.
Socially) it was never so despi
cable and mockingly regarded
by the elite. It never met, such
depths of poverty nor such
meagerness of personnel and
provisions.
‘‘It was hated as blasphemy
by the most religiously endowed
race the world ever knew, out
of whose prophetic hopes and
promises it had come. The
gr eatest, body of noble literature
the pagan world ever produced
ignored it. Prom its spirituality
and ideals a haughty world
turned to gross sins that, dark
ened the mind, corrupted the
heart and marred the manhood
of the race. Yet in the face of
all this, ‘The Word of God grew
and multiplied/ ”
The Moderator described five
characteristics for the Church
of 1985 to resurrect in its life
today. He outlined them as fol
lows* »
1. There was singing, The
dreary world was waiting to be
lifted on wings of song to levels
of cheer and joy. Here is a great
evangelistic potency that the
present-day Church, facing a
bitter, disillusioned generation,
must invoke.
“2. There was sharing. These
apostolic men and women never
lost their contact with the mis
ery and misfortune around
them. It was the moving power
of a brotherhood—not the the
ory or the mode of the code—
that made the Apostolic Church
the most magnetic unit of hu
man living the world ever saw.
This is an hour of strange need
in our nation’s life. The nobler
instincts of our brotherhood ne
ver before have had such a
chance to convince a desperate
world of the sincerity of our
faith.
“3. There was healing. It was
their sympathies for the sick and
suffering that drew to those be
lieving apostolic men and wom
en an unbelieving world. The
Master waits to endow with
spiritual blessings His people
when they lift the falling, sup
port the faint, soothe the suf
fering and lighten with love and
hope the hour of death.
“4. There was corporate pray
er. There was an oneness ol
spirit in that early corporate
praying in which apostolic dif
ferences were submerged in the
great unity of desire for the
saving of the world through the
power of the risen Christ. The
Church today, on her knees in
corporate prayer for the saving
of the world, must find that
same apostolic oneness of spir
it.
“5. There was preaching. Such
earnest apologetics and passion
ate pleading men never heard.
The fearlessness and joy with
which they swept across all the
frontiers of a selfish world with
the gospel left men dumbfound
ed.”
“Will the Presbyterian Church
through this significant gather
ing; of her servants here,” con
cluded the retiring Moderator
(Continued on page 2)
DESEGREGATION
Br Dr. K«Jly MOer
Dr. Benjamin Stolberg in a
striking contribution to '"Rmi
Nation” of May 15th, boldly de
clares “our first duty is to fight
for the complete economic, so
cial and spiritual de-segregation
of the American Negro.” These
are fine words inspired by a no
ble purpose. Dr. Stolberg is a
Jew and belongs to a minority
group whose circumscription is
pomewhat similar, though infi
nitely less galling, than that of
the Negro. He indulges in the
counsel of perfection with no
means of putting his counsel
into effect. He might as well ad
vise the Germans that their
first duty is to de-segregate the
Jew. This counsel would but
make the “Hitlerites” laugh.
From the beginning of the
segregation movement until now,
the Negro has been the help
less victim with little more re
sistive power than the Jew had
against, the Grotto of former
days. The dominant white
group, consciously or uncon
sciously, came to the mind that
segregation should be the policy
of dealing with the Negro in
matters of social or semi-social
relationship. The attitude is all
but universal with but a few
daring individual exceptions.
The Negro is merely the re
cipient with little or no power
to determine or resist the nature
of the treatment which he is
to receive. In this respect, he is
befitted precisely as the Jew
in Germany under the im
perial decree of Hitler. All
Negroes want de-segregation jas
described by Stolberg but 'Sge
painfully conscious of their flP
ble resistive capacity against
Some Negroes of the more cau
tious or conservative tempera
ment, have sought to make a vir
tual necessity and have advocat
ed the acceptance of segregation
as the only practical method
of racial adjustment under the
prevailing circumstances. This
is but a modem instance of the
fox denouncing the too hign
hanging grapes as sour. If the
race must needs worship in sep
arate churches, why not regard
such churches as the ideal place
to develop and practice the
beauty of holiness? Theoretical
ly, the Negro has denounced
segregation from its incipiency
with a bitter, though impotent
denunciation. The late William
Monroe Trotter, the uncompro
mising champion of Negro
equality, nailed to his mast the
motto, “Segregation for Colored
is the Real Permanent Damning
Degradation in the U. s. A.—
Fight It.” He lived, fought and
died under the inspiration of
this standard. The National As
sociation for the Advancement
of Colored People for a number
cf years devoted its chief ener
gies against segregation and
won a signal victory in the Su
preme Court of the United
States. Flushed with this legal
victory, and with an optimism
bom of zeal rather than dispas
sionate understanding, this mil
itant organization declared that
if given two million dollars it
would destroy segregation com
pletely. possessing what 1 re
garded as a clearer understand
ing of the deep-seated forces
which lay behind segregation, 1
at the time declared that this
objective could not be accom
plished with ten million or even
a hundred million dollars. My
judgment proved the wiser as
revealed by subsequent events.
All of the commendable efforts
put forth have nqt made a sin
gle deep dent in tne side of seg
regation, the N. A. A. C. P. has
desisted from its dramatic op
position and turned its energies
into combatting other forms oi
race prej’udice. Dr. W. E. B. Du
Bois, who did more than anj
single agency in creating th<
' spirit upon which the N. A. A
(J. P. was founded, has at last
convinced himself of the nope
lessness of the fight and would
sensibly utilize segregation since
he finite he can not destroy it.
Afterporty years of strenuous
endeavor he has given up the
quest ;for the absolute and now
seeksf more immediate and
practical aim. But neither the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
riot* ijjr. DuBois nor myself, nor
even <Negroes of more timid
principles can ever surrender to
segregation in its principle. The
lamb|; segregate themselves
fromjthe wolves by a cautionary
salutary instinct.
TheTCommunists, as a militant
but impotent minority, are dram
atizihg the evils of segregation
in order to win the Negroes to
thein support. But if by any bad
chaise this radical minority
should find itself in a controll
ing position, what assurance is
there that it would or could as
suage the rancor of race prej
udice? *
Ali Honors to Dr. stoioerg
for lis noble declaration as tc
the ae-segregation of the M e
gro. This appeal, however, if it
is tp^ he of any effectiveness
whatever, must be directed to
the-Iwhite race which is in the
controlling position. The Negro
hears these things gladly out
powerlessly. It is ideally self-ev
ident that if democracy is ever
to come to the fulfillment of its
high pretensions every vestige
of segregation on account
of creed, race or color must be
done away with. When this na
with or without law, seg
e NegV; i, it belies the
prki&fe
mocracy. But this is the white
man’s burden, albeit the Ne
gro bears the hnviest brunt.
Dr. Stolberg advises the
.American people that, unless
they de-segregate the Negro
he will become a counter-revo
lutionary force in the class
struggle with which America is
threatened. Herein Dr. Stolberg
gives away the secret of the
who is so solicitous
~’s welfare.
HAYNES SAYS INTEGRA
TION OF GROUPS
IS WAY OUT
Washington, D. C., May 20—
There closed here today at How
ard University a significant Na
tional Conference on “The Po
sition of the'Negro in our Na
tional Economic Crisis,” held
under the auspices of the Joint
Committee on National Recov
ery, Dr. Geo. Edmund Haynes,
chairman, and John P. Davis, ex
ecutive secretary, and the Social
Science Division of Howard Uni
versity with direction of Dr
Ralph J. Bunce, of the Depart
ment of Political Science. Pre
siding over the sessions were
Dr. Haynes, who gave the wel
come address; Miss Nannie H
Burroughs, of Washington; Dr
A. Howard Long, Dr. Alain
Locke and President Mordeca
Johnson, of Howard University
and Miss Elizabeth Eastman, o1
the National Board of the Y. W
C. A.
The program comprised pa
pers and addresses surveyinj
the problems of Negroes unde]
the NRA and their relationshi]
to the trade and labor unioi
movements in industry, ant
three sessions given to discus
sion of Negroes in the presen
farming situations especially i]
the cotton States of th
South. An array of fact
was presented on farm tenan
| conditions in the cotton belt b;
i Miss Olive Stone of the Univei
I 3ity of North Carolina and b
representatives of the Feden
; Government’s Departments dea
, ing with subsistence, hom<
(Continued on page 4)
CATAWBA PRISBYTERIAl
By Mrs. R. Z. Beatty, Recording Secretary
Theme: “Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as
it is in Heaven.”
The annual meeting of the
Women’s Plresbyterial Society
for National and Foreign Mis
sions in the FTesbytery of Ca
tawba met with the Mt. Olive
Fresbyterian church, R. F. O.,
near Charlotte, N. C., May 52,
1935. The worship period, led
by Mrs. A. L. Shute, was the
first order. This service was very
inspiring. Mrs, Shute stressed
the need of a closer relationship
with the Heavenly Father, more
conscientious songs and prayers
that we might gam the needed
strength and courage to do the
work of the Master. Presbyieri
al delegates took an active part.
The closing prayer was offered
by Rev. 0. E. Sanders.
The next order of Dues ness
was called by Mrs. Hallie W
Mayberry, the Fresident. This
was the registration of delegates
by the Recording Secretary,
Mrs. R. Z. Beatty. Seventy-two
delegates were registered at this
time.
Hearty greetings from the
hostess church were given by
Mrs, J. Viola Grier. Response
was made by Mrs. P. W. Rus
s'ell. of Johnson C. Smith Uni
versity church.
Memories of the 1934 meet
ing were given by Fresbyteriai
Recording Secretary, Mrs. Beat
ty. Goals achieved were related
by the Corresponding Secretary,
Mrs. J. H. Gamble. The goal of
the year had been reached.
Many had reported as recom
mended by the Recording Sec
retry, yet others had not. Send
your repo^ Jo the^ Secretary
apportionment quarterly anc
promptly is the recommenda
tion.
Working With Our Hands.
Mrs. Carrie Henry, Secretary of
jNational Missions ana uve.
Sea Sewing, said much had been
done towards the support ot
Brainerd institute during the
past year, and for the year 1935
we are to support our own Bar
ber-Scotia in a tangible way.
“Go ye, and whatever your
hands find to do, do with all
your might” was the admoni
tion of Mrs. Floretta Johnson,
Social Service Secretary.
It makes the Secretary of Lit
erature happy when there is an
increase in the purchasing of
literature. The societies are do
ing better in this respect, and
yet there is much room for im
provement.
Mrs. H. L. McCrorey, the
Stewardship Secretary, was pre
sented to the Presbyterial. Mrs.
McCrorey said that something
definite was being done as touch
ing stewardship, as it deals witfi
money and possessions. Many,
said she, are sacrificing ant
giving of their meagre incomes
for the furthering of God’s king
dom.
The Group Conferences oj
30 minutes were led by th<
; Young People’s Secretaries
, Mrs. 0. E. Sanders, Intermedi
! ates; Mrs. F. C. Shirley, Chil
dren’s Secretary; Miss Annii
Chresfield, Young People’s Sec
. retary; Mrs. A. H. Prince, Sec
P retary of Missionary Education
1 Each group was well instructs
, by the leaders and much inter
l est was manifested by individ
l uals.
Mrs. Prince’s report on Mis
t sionary Education and Studyinj
j and Reading Missionary Liters
, ture gave us new ideas an
j courage to work harder. Let th
t study be a means of prayei
Prayer helps us to grow. Sh
[ reported forty adult readin
classes. Let us have more reac
J ing campaigns.
_ Miss Chresfield, in speakin
‘ for Young People's Work, aske
1 the questions : Are we doing on
bit by the young people? Ai
we giving them the opportunity
to show to the world that they
can put the job over in a bigj.
fine way? Many, churches are
failing in this great task.
Mrs. 0. £. Sanders made a
fine report for the Intermediates
and at the same time offered her
resignation as Secretary as she
is to go to a new field soon. Her
resignation was accepted witn
much regret as she is a very
splendid and efficient worker,
and Catawba t'resbyterial was
loath to give her up. Hut with
the best wishes and prayers of
the body, we surrendered her to
Cape Fear fresbyterial.
Mrs. F. C. Shirley made a
fine report on Children’s Work,
This report will be printed in
the Africa
The next order was the ap
pointment of committees on
next place of meeting, on me
morial and on nomination of of
ficers.
Visitors were introduced. Dr.
H. L. McCrorey was presented.
As he had not' been with us in
several years, he could readily
see the progress made by the
Presbyterial and spoke in' glow
ing terms of the work and its
workers. He also spoke of the
growth of Mt. Olive Church. He
is one of the former supplies of
Mt. Olive church.
Dr. L. B. West spoke in be
half of the ministers, and Mrs. *
Mary M. Jones for the visiting
latUea.
Adjournment for dinner.
Thursday afternoon at 1:30
o’clock was the worship period.
Reports of local societies were
heard. Twenty-two societies re
ported by delegates or letters
$4&25> fifteen- Yoang Heoeptea
organizations reported $16.75;
Biennial fee, $12.50; public of
fering, $6.50. Total collection,
$84.50.
Mrs. W. R. Mayberry was
unanimously elected by the ex
ecutive body to represent Ca
tawba Presbyterial which meets
at Ashevlile.
Working Through Our Gifts
of Money. The Treasurer’s re
port by Mrs. H. Wilson was sat
isfactory in every way and was
readily adopted.
The President did not deliver
her annual address as per sched
ule. This was missed very much.
The Committee on Next Place
of Meeting accepted the invita
tion from Love’s Chapel Society
to meet with them next year.
Mrs. N. Bell and Mrs. Esther
B. White, who had served long
and well as Presbyterial offi
cers until their demise in March,
were memorialized in a brief
service led by Mrs. R. L. Moore.
The Nominating Committee
recommended all officers for re
election with few exceptions.
Mrs. Alexander was elected as
Secretary of the Division of Mis
sions with Mrs. R. L. Moore as
Assistant Secretary. Mrs. Ber
nice Richardson succeeded Mrs.
: O. E. Sanders as Secretary of
s Intermediates. Dr. Wilson, in an
: impressive way, installed the
. officers. After this there was
I1 adjournment for supper.
Presbyterial Officers
<D N O-W!
Honorary President — Mrs.
■ G. E. Davis.
j President—Mrs. Hallie Q.
1 Mayberry.
1st Vice-President — Mrs.
P. W. Russell.
2nd Vice-President — Mrs.
" M. L. Harrison.
? 3rd Vice-President — Mrs.
' F. L. Brodie.
4th Vice-President — Mrs.
? M. J. Phifer.
* 5th Vice-President — Mrs.
Irma Grier.
F 6th Vice-President — Mrs.
Chas. H. Shute.
Treasurer—Mrs. H. Wilson.
Recording Secretary — Mrs.
R. Z. Beatty.
(Continued on page 4)