Woodrow Wilson Papers Microfilm Reels

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of failure on the part of the other to carry out faithfully its promises and achieve the purposes for which it was placed in power. It is evident, therefore, that only the Republican party or the Progressive party should survive, for the perpetuation of both of them would mean the continuance of minority domination in the United States for an indefinite period, with the disastrous results that minority control, if long continued, inevitably brings about.

[column 2] moral integrity, omitting all reference to its Christian duty, by denying to fellow citizens, or to human beings, because of their color, the right to live, and the right to live is denied if the right to make a living is denied. The racial question can degenerate in that way into a racial crime. _________________________________ WILSON'S DELIBERATE WAY. It is comforting to follow the developments of the so-called war scare

[column 3] Riviera. In some ways it may be positively beneficial. The merchantmen that fly our flag are few and far between; some of the Consuls must be weary of waiting to spy the stars and stripes at a masthead.

It is worth while to suggest, however, that many of our native ports have seldom seen a war vessel. There have been plenty of pictures of them, but battleships themselves are curiosities in dozens of American ports which

[column 4] Hammerstein will continue to produce opera so long as someone else continues to product the wherewithal. _____________________________ A church that turns down a profit of a million dollars because it will not surrender its place in the midst of business is a refreshing novelty, and the fact that it is located on the fashionable thoroughfare of New York adds to the interest. Sometimes it is well to show that money is not everything, or even the largest

[column 5] bunch of Western mining stock as payment for a dept and the supposedly worthless stock turned into a fortune when the mine really developed excellent ore.

Thus it is that the fellow who puts his hand in your pocket sometimes leaves more there than he intended to take away—but I adit that this is an exception rather than the rule. ---------------- You have heard about the girl who had "rings on her fingers and

[column 6] training in foundry work.

When the Tuskegee Institute closes the school term for a short vacation next May I will guarantee to say that there will be many large business concerns that will have their agents on the ground seeking to induce our students to go to various places in the South to labor for these concerns; this includes both common and skilled labor.

It is our experience here at Tuskegee that letters reach us even from the North, asking us to recommend laborers to work in various capacities. During the present week letters have come from Trenton, N. J., asking us to recommend a number of skilled men for a large brick making firm, and from aother asking us to recommend laborers at from $2 to $2.50 per day to work in connection with a Maryland cement company.

COLORED FIREMEN ABOUND.

There is a good deal of talk, from time to time, about the negro being debarred from the railroad service as a fireman; notwithstanding the talk, one who travels in the South, as I do constantlym see negro firemen on the locomotives. I do not know how many negro firemen are employed on the locomotives in the Northern and Western States, but I do know that hundreds and I beleive thousands are employed in this capacity throughout the South.

But my main object in sending this communication is to emphasize the fact that in this part of the country, at least, the negro can find all the work he is willing to perform, and in some cases the pay is disgracefully low, but, on the other hand, the cost of living is much lower than it is in any other part of the world.

My own belief is that the negro in the North will never solve his problem in the labor world until, in a large degree, the negro begins at the bottom and creates industries of a kind that will enable him to give employment to members of his own race. So long as a man, whether he is white or black, has to seek an occupation in an industry that somebody else has created, just so long will that individual or race be placed at a disadvantage BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Tuskegee Institute, Ala., April 18, 1913. ----------------------------------- THE BEREAN INSTITUTE The Splendid Work It Is Doing for the Negro.

To the Editor of the Public Ledger: Sir-I have read with profound interest the four sucessive editorials in the PUBLIC LEDGER this week on the condition of the Philadelphia negro, namely "Race Antagonism," "Idleness and Crime Among Negroes" and "The Church and the Negro." These articles are most excellent and I am sure they will tend to awaken a right public sentiment toward the negro here in Philadelphia and throughout the country among all right-thinking people. The PUBLIC LEDGER is most clear and impartial in its statements of fact, and it is championing the industrial and manhood rights of the negro as no other paper in Philadelphia, for which the more than 100,000 negroes in Greater Philadelphia are most grateful. In my judement, one of the most feasible ways of soiving the industrial and moral problem of the negro is through the church and industrial school. The Berean enterprise, on South College avenue opposite Girard College, consisting of Berean Presbyterian Church, Berean Bullding and Loan Assocation and Berean Manual Training and Industrial School, is doing more toward the general uplift of the negro than any one agency in the North. Through the Berean Building and Loan Association nearly 400 negroes of Philadelphia have secured homes of their own, and the assets of the association are now over $200,000.

Over 3000 young colored men and women have been in attendance for long and short periods at the Berean Manual Training School within the last 13 years, and were made more efficient as servants and workmen. In the meantime over 200 have completed trades.

The one encouraging thing about the Berean enterprise, as has been mentioned by Dr. Talcott Williams in a public address, is that it was the creation of and is being inspired by a negro brain. "MATTHEW ANDERSON. Philadelphia, April 18, 1913. -------------------------------- Race Discrimination. To the Editor of the Public Ledger: Sir—Will you spare me a few moments to express my most sincere appreciation for the series of editorials which you have been running on the very serious "Negro Problem." As a negro I can apprectate what it is to be discriminated against, but I have always endeavored to look at this matter from the point of view of the Caucasian. My early training and associations have made this more possible for me than for some others of my race, and in the last analysis it has always seemed to me that the problem centered around the inability of the negro to secure lucrative employment in the field for which he might be best fitted by nature. The negro, like all other men, must live; and if he cannot live by fair means then he will live by foul means, and when he enters the vicious walks of life he menaces the white people of the community in which he lives even more than he does those of his own race * * * C. Philadelphia, April 21, 1913.

Personal

[stamp: THE WHITE HOUSE APR 29, 1913 RECEIVED

152

April 26, 1913.

Recvd 4/29/13

The Honorable, The Secretary to the President, White House, Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

I[m]have the honor to lay before you the enclosed carbon copy of my letter of even date to Dr. I. W. L. Roundtree. It speaks for itself.

As to whether or not President Wilson will or will not appoint any Negro or Negroes to office is a matter concerning which I have not one word to say. That, of course, is for him to decide and I have no doubt that he will decide it the way it suits him to decide it. But when a member of the Negro race writes to you and tells you that right thinking Negroes agree that it is right to withhold from Negroes a thing which men of all nations celebrate as a sacred gift of freedom, then I feel it is time to let you know that such Negroes do not represent the best and the innermost thought of the Negro race on the subject herein referred to.,

Jean Finot, the distinguished French savant, has given to the world in his "Race Prejudice" the most notable work extant on that terrible subject. In that masterpiece he shows that race prejudice is above all things unreasoning. That being true, it ill behooves a member of a race which notoriously suffers from the injustice of race prejudice to strike a truce with [Molesh?] by admitting that a state of mind which is shown to be devoid of every vestige of reasonableness, is the right state of mind to apply in formulating a policy toward upwards of ten million human beings.

I denonce I. W. L. Roundtree (may his tribe decrease) for the miserable letter he wrote you under date of the 15th inst., and I ask that these papers be filed as a solemn (if also impotent) protest against the destructive doctrine laid down by him. If he does not realise what his letter means then he is an idiot; if he does realise it, then he is a caitiff.

Very respectfully, Your most humble servant, James C. Waters, Jr.. 1339 T Street, N. W.

1 enclosure.

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[152]

April 26, 1913.

Rev. I. W. L. Roundtree, D.D., P. E.. Trenton District, A.M.E. Church, Trenton, N. J.

My dear Dr. Roundtree:

I trust I may attempt to express the very great disgust that overhelms me, and still not [??] offend you.

Your letter to Secretary Tumulty, dated April 15, 1913, as printed in the New York Age of the the 24th inst., is in my humble judgment the meanest, most contemptible thing you ever did. I cannot, to save my life, see why you over thought is wise to [atelly??] yourself by writing such a letter as the thing I refer to--unless, ao the New York Age [supports??], you hoped thereby to curry favor, and eventually to[promote?] in any way (though how, it is hard to understand) yor aspirations to [??] as minister to Haiti. If Secretary Tumulty does not secretly despise you for your traitorous attitude toward your own people, then he is different from other members of the [Tree??] of Robert [Bennett??] whom it has been my pleasure to meet, or know about.

President William H. Taft's "southern policy", announced at the very moment of the beginning of his administration, [???] him to be deemed from one end of the country to the other by all Negroesead and all friends of Negroes except those self-seeking [???] who sought to promote their own interests.

1s it possible that you do not know this? Great scott!!! "The President will [added correction= not] appoint any Negro to office where such appointment will arouse race antagonism." What does that mean? Simply this: that he will appoint a Negro as minister to Liberia, another Negro as minister to Haiti and --that's all. And even then there is reason to believe that [some??] race antagonism will be aroused, for I am told that there are many white men in the Democratic party who are quite willing to accept that $10,000 billet as minister to Haiti, the fact that Haiti is a Negro republic notwithstanding. There is hardly a spot in all this nation where some race antagonism --solely among white people---will not be aroused by the appointment of a Negro to office, and where such a condition does not naturally arise from present day, conditions, it can and will very speedily be made to arise by three who would see in it some profit for themselves. One anti-Negro, [???] head-line article in a yellow journal and the dirty [added correction = work] would be done to a "queen's taste." Of course, no one must mention those portions of the land where Negroes outnumber the whites ten to one. It is all the same---only the whites [??], a Negro in such matters being rated as less than a dog.

Perhaps you wonder why I, an unheard of, (as you might put it) presume to attempt to hand you a "call down" in this case? My answer is ready and it is yours without even the asking. Such [rot?] as you wrote Secertary Tumulty is a stench in the nostrils of most of the older men and ALL the young men of the race, and I am one of the letter. If you could hear the young men talk, day in and day out, and consign men of your ilk to perdition for your palaverings; if you know the bitterness of heart which they feel toward Negroes of your stripe--- men who arm the New York Times and other agencies opposed to a square deal for the Negro with [slabs??] with which to batter us to death---if you

Dr. Roundtree ........2.

knew this (and you can find it out if you are to), I am firmly convinced that you would never have written such stuff as the letter herein referred to. Have you a son? If you have, and he is old enough to understand these things, I would almost bet my hope of heaven that he is having the time of his life trying to keep from obeying an impulse to choke his own daddy. There is alive in many minds in this country the idea (which I am unable to say is shared by me) that a member of the Roman Catholic church ought not to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; that a member of the Roman Catholic church ought not to hold such an important place in the innermost affairs of the nation as the office of Secretary to the President. Do you think the son of Chief Justice White (if he has one) or the son of Secretary Tumulty would approve of the writing of any letter to any person, if such letter purported to command the shutting of the door of hope in the faces of all members of the Roman Catholic church, to the end that they should never hold political office in any place where Roman Catholics were not admired? Pssh[??]---the question needs not answer and especially does it need none from Dr. Roundtree.

Behold here the expressed opinions of white men on the subject of holding office. I quote from the minority report of the Comittee on Elections No. 2, submitted to the House of Representatives August 10, 1912:

"The franchise," the report concludes, "is the most sacred gift of a free government to its people. Next to that franchise, THE MOST PERFECT GIFT OF LIBERTY IS THE RIGHT TO HOLD OFFICE." (Capititalisation is my own.)

Thus the record as written by white men speaks and it speaks for all races and for all time. The right of one sovereign citizen to say to another sovereign citizen "You are not wanted," is limited by the fundamental rights each citizen has in the premises. It goes just that far, and not one whit farther. The Negro citizens of the United States are a part---and a large part ---of the sovereign public in this realm and so long as "truth crushed to earth will rise again," just so long will every man be denied the right under the Constitution to say to his fellow citizen, "You are not to aspire to the higher things of life, because if you do I shall dislike you."

When you send such commications as your letter of the 15th to men high in the affairs of the nation; when you advance your own selfish, niggardly. servile, "hat-in-the-hand", "jim crow" ideas and say "you believe the more thoughtful Negroes throughout the country agree with you in accepting (what you call) the President's (no offices for Negroes) policy as being the proper course to be pursued for the Negro", you perform an overt act toward robbing the young men of the race of their birthright and it marks you as an eneny of your own people, deserving from that peopie, a greater damnation than was visited upon Benedict Arnold.

1 am, with very great sincerity, Your humble servant,

(Signed)

JAMES C. WATERS, JR., 1339 T Street, N. W.

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to democratic progress, sometimes seeming to have as its purpose the apotheosis of proletarianism. Opposition to differentiation of potitical privilege for any reason is as deep-seated, if not so spectacular, as it was in the period of ochlocratic ascendency that followed the achievement of freedom by the American Colonies, the theory of which liberty was largely misinterpreted in France. Russia has partially compromised with this political spirit, which has submerged ancient China and is the crucial issue in Japan.

There is scarcely a spot in the world to which civilization has penetrated that the American idea, generally in a perverted form, has not become the goal, consciously or unconsciously, of the people. That the Socialists and Liberals will eventually win their fight in Begium, if they presently fail, seems to be the logical deduction, for no government in modern times has been able permanently to resist a purely popular demand, and "standpattism," as it is called, has been no more successful in other countries than it has been in America. There is as yet no sign that the flood tide is ready to ebb.

A HALF-CENTURY OF NEGRO FREEDOM. The remarkable sertes of events of in world-wide interest, such as the birth of the Chinese Republic, the downfall of the Turk in Europe, the approaching completion of the Panama Canal, the rapid growth of social democracy at home and abroad, and many other movements of almost equal importance, have accounted in part, probably, for the comparatively little attention thus far shown to the year 1913 as being the semi-centennial of the emancipation of some 4,000,000 of negroes in this Republic. Important as are each and all of the great movements referred to, the PUBLIC LEDGER believes that the American people cannot afford to be indifferent to the claims of the nearly 100,000 colored people in this city of "Brotherly Love," and the more than 10,250,000 persons of negro descent who now reside within the borders of this Republic.

Fifty years ago such noble philan- thropists as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Horace Mann, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks and Bishop Matthew Simpson were pleading the cause of the black man. It required no small degree of courage at that time to espouse so unpopular a cause. But those men believed with Lowell that

"They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three."

Every thoughtful student of the last two decades has been brought face to face with startling facts, so many and so appalling at times as to raise the question whether our country has not been undergoing more or less of a complete revulsion of feeling toward [? - fold in paper] scendants. But however strong may have been that ebbing tide, the splendid careers of such men as Booker T. Washington, Doctor Du Bois and scores of other local leaders in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, together with the cheering facts as to the great decrease of illiteracy, and the steady increase of real estate holdings, sound the true note of hope and good cheer. But why this apparent neglect, on the part of both races, to give some fitting expression to this semi-centennial year. Ought not the more highly favored white race to take the initiative in calling attention to the gains and also to the danger signals which confront the colored people today.

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PRIL 16, 1913 9

[column 1] JURY CENSURES AUTOISTS

Testimony Shows Car Which Killed Girl Was Speeding. [FROM PUBLIC LEDGER BUREAU.]

PRINCETON, N. J., April 15—Censure for the automobile accident of April 6, by which Miss Mae Durea, the 17-year-old Princeton schoolgirl, was killed and left by the roadside, today place on [?] the wealthy Brooklyn

[column 2] DELAWARE Directors Refuse Competitive Lighting Company Permission to Use Streets of City. ------------------- CONVICTS MAY WORK ROADS ----------------------- [SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE PUBLIC LEDGER.] WILMINGTON, Del., April 15.—The directors of the Street and Sewer Department today unanimously refused the application of the People's Light, Heat and Power Company, a subsidiary corporation of the People's Railway Company, for permission to use the streets for the purpose of furnishing light and power in competition with the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Company. Just before the franchise was refused a communication was received from representatives of the National Progressive party in this city asking many questions requesting that the directors delay action on the franchise until those questions had been answered. Some of the questions were replied to by President Sparks, of the board, who stated that some of the others would not be answered, as the board had all the information it desired with respect to the matter.

In declining the franchise the directors of the franchise would be of no permanent benefit to the city. A history was given of other franchises that had been granted the competative purposes with the result that one company is now in control. The directors objected to the duplication of poles and wires that would follow the franchise. They said that lighting rates were as low in Wilmington as in other cities and as low as could be reasonably expected under competition. ----------------------------- It is quite probable that the Levy Court will make an agreement with the trustees of the New Castle County workhouse whereby a corps of convicts will be utilized in the work of maintaining the county roads. Upon invitation of ex-Judge J. Frank Ball and T. Allen Hilles, trustees of the workhouse, the members of the Levy Court will visit Greenbank tomorrow where they can see the work done by the convicts. Mr. Hilles is enthusiastic over the plan to employ the convicts as a patrol force in repairing the roads in all parts of the county, and he says that, while there is plenty of road work to be done near Greenbank, the court later on could secure an automobile truck to carry a force of ten men and material to remote parts of the county. The expense would be less than it is now.

The offer of the trustees to co-operate with the Levy Court presents a feasible solution to the problem of caring for the roads of the county. Mr. Hilles says that the trustees are anxious that the convicts works out of doors.

A lively city campaign is projected by the "Bull Moose" or Original Progressives, and the Republican leaders are alarmed, for they fear that if the "Bull Moosers" poll any considerable number of votes the city will be turned over to the Democrats, as the Progressive strength is drawn almost wholly from the Republicans. Francis I. Du Pont, candidate for Mayor, has been appointed chairman of the committee that is to prepare the platform for the city campaign and municipal problems will be handled without gloves. There may be

[column 3]

of meeting the Progressives on the [?] The campaign will be interesting as disclosing the strength of the Progressives in this city when Colonel Roosevelt is not an issue. ------------------ Some politicians profess to see in the move of the leaders of the "Scales," or National Progressives, today to hold up an action by the street and sewer directors an effort to save the city for the Republicans at the coming city election. Some of the keen ones believe that the refusal of the street and sewer directors to grant the franchise means that the city will be carried by the Democrats, for the Street and Sewer Board is controlled by the Republicans. The Wilmington and Philadelphia company is unpopular because some time ago it withdrew the strip ticket privilege. The National Progressives have been the guardians of the machine Republicans in this state. They saved the county for the Republicans last autmn and hope to show the voters that they are friends of the people. --------------------- Attorney General Wolcott takes exceptions to the allegations of the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church that he is not doing his full duty with regard to prosecutions for the violations of the liquor laws and reminding him that it is his sworn duty to do so. Mr. Wolcott today replied to the resolutions and said that he does not have to be reminded of his oath, for he is not likely to forget it. He assures the women he is not in league with lawbreakers, but that it is his businness to prosecute them as vigorously as he can with the evidence in hand. Mr. Wolcott says that if the liquor laws are being violated in the city it is the duty of the Police Department to attend to that and urges the society to produce any evidence the members may have of violations of the law and urges them to refrain from allowing rumors to condemn him. ---------------------------- When delegates to the Episcopal Sunday school convention in Trinlty Church today attempted to elect a permanent diocese in which the convention is held they found they could not do so because of certain provisions contained in the bylaws. A committee, including the Revs. F. M. Kirkus, L. N. Caley and C. R. Klink, was appointed to revise the bylaws and present them to the next convention for ratification. The convention today adopted a resolution providing for a field secretary who will devote all his time to the Sunday school work and who will receive $2500 a year. ------------------------ Monroe McDaniel, arraigned in the City Court today for failing to support his three small children, whose mother is dead, explained to the Judge that he could not live with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Margaret Edwards, 76 years old, with whom the children make their home, because she talks too much. The Court told the defendant he should take into consideration the woman's extreme age. McDaniel said he was willing to support his children, so he was held in $500 bail for a hearing tomorrow. ------------------------------- Suspecting that the death of Frank Koprowski was due to other than natural causes, Coroner Spring has started a rigid investigation. The young man dropped dead yesterday in the plant of F. Blumenthal & Co., where he was employed. Drs. H. W. Briggs, J. W. Bastian and E. I. Rodgers performed an autopsy and found all the organs of the body normal, but the stomach was sent to Newark for a chemical analysis. Recently Koprowski passed an excellent physical examination in the course of his efforts to be appointed a letter carrier. Coronor Spring would not divulge what information he has to cause him to suspect that Koprowski was poisoned. ------------------------------ Thomas L. Gravell, a pharmacist was painfully burned on the face, hands, neck an arms today by nitric acid. He was carring a bottle of the fluid when it broke and the contents splashed over him. His injuries will not be fatal.

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L 17, 1913. ***9

[column 1] a co-operative beneficial society designed to aid members whose income is cut off on account of sickness, will be formed.

Every employe who has been in the company's service 30 days is eligible to membership in the association. Members pay 25 cents per month dues. In case of illness the association will pay members $1 per day for 100 days. There will be a death benent of $150. The company declares that the cost of maintenance and carrying on the business will not be placed on the employes, but will be borne by the company itself. ---------------------------- PLANS FOR NEW SCHOOL The Goucester City Board of Education yesterday at a meeting held in the

[column 2] DELAWARE Levy Court Decides Route for Proposed Improvements on State Roads. ---------------------------------- PLANS CONTINUOUS HIGHWAY ----------------------------------- [SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]

WILMINGTON, Del., April 18.—Within a few months it is expected that there will be a continuous good road from this city to the Kent County line, as the New Castle County Levy Court at its meeting today decided to take what is known as the western route for the improvement.

As soon as the surveys are made the actual work of the road building will begin following the programme mapped out by County Engineer James Wilson. The project will be carried out under a bond issue of $200,000 for the construction of improved roads in this county, the stipulation being that $100,000 of this amount should be used on the bad stretches of road between this city and the Kent County line so that there wilt be a continuous highway. The route selected is by the way of Glasgow, Summit Bridge Pencader and Mount Pleasant into Middletown, and from there to Blackbird and on to Dutch Creek, where it will strike the Kent line.

In the extreme northern part of the county above Wilmingion there are three short stretches of road to be built in order to connect the good roads of this county with three new ones in Pennsylvania.

It is expected that the Delaware road will be connected with roads in Pennsylvania under the Sproul bill. The Levy Court is also seriously considering the best method of maintaining the roads of the county, and it is probable that the patrol system will be adopted; that is, a force of men will be kept constantly at work on the roads in different parts of the county. ------------------------------------- At a meeting of the members of the Initative and Referendum League there was a lively discussion over the refusal of the street and sewer directors to grant a franchise to the People's Company to operate an electric lighting plant in this city in competition with the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Company. Some of the speakers declared that with the initiative and referendum in force the people would be able to decide the matter, and the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Company would not have a monopoly. Other speakers did not think much of the competition idea in public utilities, but said that the city should own its electric lighting system. The league is planning a campaion of education for the initiative and referendum, and a fund will be raised for the purpose. ---------------------------- The completed hull of the steamship A. Brooke Taylor slipped from the ways in the yards of the American Car and Foundry Company this morning, just as Miss Georgianna Coxe broke a bottle of wine on the bow and gave the craft its name. She is the daughter of William G. Coxe, president of the Harlan & Holingsworth Corporation, at the plant of which the new craft will have the machinery installed. The stearmship, when completed, will be used in the menhaden fisheries business. ------------------------------- Complying with a summons received by them several days ago, the members of the commission that will have charge of the construction of the joint city hall and county court house, today had a conerence with the Judges of the State [urts?] in their parlors in the court house. The commission was appointed by the [dges?]. They took the opportunty to explain to the commissioners the law relative to the act authorising their appointment and the construction of the new buildings and they admonished them not to exceed their appropriation. After the brief conference the commissioners met in the offices of Harlan G. Scott for organization. Mr. Scott was elected chairman and L. Scott Townsend, treasurer. ----------------------------------- In a paper he read before the members of the New Castle County Medical Society, Edgar M. Hoopes, Jr., chief engineer of the Water Department, proved to the satisfaction of the physicians that the danger of typhoid fever in this city has been elminated. This is due, he asserted, to the present system of filtration. _________________________ CHARTERED FOR $95,000.000 Chile Copper Company Incorporated Under Delaware Laws.

The league is planning a campaign of education for the initiative and referendum, and a fund will be raised for the purpose.

The completed hull of the steamship A. Brooke Taylor slipped from the ways in the yards of the American Car and Foundry Company this morning, just as Miss Georgianna Coxe broke a bottle of wine on the bow and gave the craft its name. She is the daughter of William G. Coxe, president of the Harlan & Holingsworth Corporation, at the plant of which the new craft will have the machinery installed. The stearmship, when completed, will be used in the menhaden fisheries business. ------------------------------- Complying with a summons received by them several days ago, the members of the commission that will have charge of the construction of the joint city hall and county court house, today had a conerence with the Judges of the State [urts?] in their parlors in the court house. The commission was appointed by the [dges?]. They took the opportunty to explain to the commissioners the law relative to the act authorising their appointment and the construction of the new buildings and they admonished them not to exceed their appropriation. After the brief conference the commissioners met in the offices of Harlan G. Scott for organization. Mr. Scott was elected chairman and L. Scott Townsend, treasurer. ----------------------------------- In a paper he read before the members of the New Castle County Medical Society, Edgar M. Hoopes, Jr., chief engineer of the Water Department, proved to the satisfaction of the physicians that the danger of typhoid fever in this city has been elminated. This is due, he asserted, to the present system of filtration. _________________________ CHARTERED FOR $95,000.000 Chile Copper Company Incorporated Under Delaware Laws. [SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]

DOVER, Del., April 16.—A spectal messenger from Wilmingion brought to the office of the Secretary of State here late this afternoon a charter for the Chile Copper Company, with a capital stock of $95,000,000, the objects and purposes being to prospect, explore and generally deal in and with minerals and ores of all kind anywhere if the world. The incorporators include local Wilmington men, Herert J. Latter, W. J. Maloney and Oscar J. Reichard. The provisions of the charter allow an office in New York city. The State tax paid with the filing was $4850. ------------------------------------------------- DOVER EDITOR MARRIES [SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]

DOVER., Del, April 16.— Thomas Franes Dunn, publisher and manager of the Dover Index, and Miss Kate Shakespeare Haman, also of Dover, were married here at 1 o'clock today at the home of the bride, on Division street, by the Rev. William L. White, pastor of Wesley, Methodist Episcopal Church, of this town, of which the bride is an active worker and influential member. ---------------------------------------------- SPREAD GOSPEL BY BOAT Baptist Missionary Asks for Money to Buy Launch.

The Rev. Guy C. Lamson begins his administration as missionary and Bible secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society by appealing to the Bapist churches for $1000 with which to complete a chapel launch to operate among the islands of Puget Sound. The launch which will cost something more than $3000, will be christened the Robert C. Seymour, in honor of the Rev. Mr. Lamson's predecessor.

Mr. Lamson's department already has one large colportage cruiser, the "Lifeline" which carries Gospel privileges to 30,000 people.

"There are nearly 100 towns on Puget Sound that can be reached only by boat," said Mr. Lamson yesterday. "More than one-half of these communities have nochurch, Sunday school or religious work of any kind." ------------------------------------------------ COLORED METHODISTS MEET) Bishop Warns Ministers Against Dabbling in Politics.

The 41st session of the Philadelphia and Washington Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was held in Mt. Zion Church, Sharon Hill, yesterday. Bishop C. R. Williams, of Augusta, presided.

The bishop said he was opposed to ministers dabbling in politics. Organization was effected as follows:

L. E. B. Rasser, Washington, D. C. secretary; J. L. Carroll, this city, assistant secretary; A. W. Womack, Washington, D. C., statistician; C. L. Knox. Washington, D. C, reporter.

The conference will continue untll Monday.

10 PUBLIC LEDG [column 1] ESTABLISHED 1836. PUBLIC [image: logo] LEDGER GEORGE W. CHILDS Editor and Proprietor from 1864 to 1894. _____________________ Published every morning at PUBLIC LEDGER Bldg. By PUBLIC LEDGER COMPANY: CYRUS H. K. CURTIS, President John Gribbel, Vice President; George W Ochs, Secretary and Treasurer; Chas H. Ludington, Phillip S. Collins, Directors _______________________ George W. Ochs, Editor and Publisher; Alan Cunningham, Associate Editor: G. Warfield Hobbs, Managing Editor; Milton B. Ochs, Business Manager _______________________ OFFICES: Main Office —Independence Square. CENTRL—Postal Telegraph, 1326 Chestnut St. UPTOWN—Fenner's, Broad & Columbia Ave. HARRISBURG BUREAU—The Patriot Building. WASHINGTON BUREAU—The Post Building. NEW YORK BUREAU—The Times Building. BERLIN—60 Friedrichstrasse. LONDON—2 Pall Mall East, S.W. PARIS—32 Rue Louis le Grand. ________________________________ PRICE: Daily . . . . . One Cent —│ Sunday . . . . Five Cents BY MAIL outside Philadelphia Daily, one month, 25c. One Year $3.00. Daily and Sunday, one mo., 50c. One year $5.30 _______________________________ Telephones: Bell, 3000 Walnut. Keystone, Main 3000 _________________________________ ENTERED AT THE PHILADELPHIA POSTOFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MAIL MATTER. _________________________________ PHILADELPHIA, FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1913. ---------------------------------------------------------- KILL THE MUNICIPAL COURT BILL.

The movement for a municipal court was originally undertaken by disinterested men and business organizations with the intent to relieve congregation and thus expedite the administration of justice. This movement has been perverted by politicians in the Legislature and their henchmen in the city into a noxious spoils scramble until the legislation proposed is farcical and obviously designed to defeat the legitimate purposes of those who aimed to improve conditions. This lamentable result is accompanied by proposals which unreasonably increase the expense to the city.

A municipal court was needed for the purpose of providing an efficient tribunal to do the work which the 28 Magistrates do very badly, and also to handle minor causes to prevent them from choking the five Common Pleas Courts. The intention was to increase the total number of Judges in this county by one compact court of seven or nine Judges sitting in a municipal court and exercising a limited criminal and civil jurisdiction. One of the most cogent arguments for this court was the certainty that the anachronistic Magistrate courts would fall into desuetude, to be eliminated sooner or later by a constitutional amendment.

What has happened is this: The gang Legislature has created five additional Common Pleas Judgeships which were not needed, but were created through a political deal. This bill was enacted by sheer machine force in the Legislature, and the Governor was apparently lulled into weak acquiescence either through fear or the promise of support for his favorite measures coupled with some understanding that the demand for a municipal court would be met.

The machine Proposes to carry out that part of the bargain in a most ludicrously unscrupulous manner. It has saddled five new Common Pleas Judges upon the community and now it proposes to emasculate the municipal court bill in such fashion that it will provide for additional unnecessary Judges under legislation that will actually nuilify the entire purpose of a municipal court and obstruct the administration of the law.

The advocates of a municipal court wished to provide a court that would be more trustworthy and efficient than the Magistrates' courts, and now the machine will amend the municipal court act so that the Magistrates may not be interfered with, but shall receive further legal perpetuation. The municipal court is not to be permitted to handle minor criminal cases; the poor who deal with the Magistrates are still to have their political justice; the Organization is to have its outposts in every part of the city.

The municipal court was to relieve

[Column 2] senting practically all of the Protestant denominations of Philadelphia, in their conference in this city in June of the same year, and the Evangelical Ministrial Alliance of Atlanta, Ga., in September, 1911. The concensus of these conferences was, that there is a universal disposition to exclude negroes from the fields of honest employment and that it is the bounden duty of the Church to secure for that race an equal chance in the struggle for existence.

The most imperative secular problem that confronts the Church today is that of establishing just relationships between man and man. Its very first duty in this connection is to stand between the defenseless negro and the powerful agencies which are rapidly effecting his economic submergence. For example, there has never been an industrial strike in the country which was not dependent upon public sympathy and support for success. With few exceptions, the most relentless of these strikers have been in the interest of workers who have consistently refused to recognize the rights of negro citizens to the opportunities which they themselves employed, while some of them have been directed against negroes in the limited fields where they have found recognition.

What more reasonable or just or equitable proposition could the Church take to all such strikers than that they recognize every other bread-winner as having rights coequal with their own before demanding and expecting the support and sympathy of the Church? When it is considered that neither the masses of thinking workers nor of employers are at heart averse to a just recognition of competent negro labor the comparative ease with which this suggested stand on the part of the churches could adjust this situation at once apparent.

support for his favorable measures, coupled with some understanding that the demand for a municipal court would be met.

The machine proposes to carry out that part of the bargain in a most ludicrously unscrupulous manner. It has saddled five new Common Pleas Judges upon the community and now it proposes to emasculate the municipal court bill in such fashion that it will provide for additional unnecessary Judges under legislation that will actually nuilify the entire purpose of a municipal court and obstruct the administration of the law.

The advocates of a municipal court wished to provide a court that would be more trustworthy and efficient than the Magistrates' courts, and now the machine will amend the municipal court act so that the Magistrates may not be interfered with, but shall receive further legal perpetuation. The municipal court is not to be permitted to handle minor criminal cases; the poor who deal with the Magistrates are still to have their political justice; the Organization is to have its outposts in every part of the city.

The municipal court was to relieve the upper courts; it was to provide for the eventual elimination of 28 Magistrates; there was to be efficiency, and in the end even economy. The plan as the gang now shaped it includes five new Common Please Judges; the addition of nine municipal court Judges, deprived of power to help the city adequately, and the retention of 28 Magistrates. Against nine new Judges which the reformers proposed to take the place of 28 Magistrates the gang proposes 14 new Judges and the perpetuation of the Magistrates. The reformers were to save 19 judicial offices; the Organization proposes to confirm in office 28 and to add 14 more, and so to shape the law that the congestion cannot be remedied by the 42.

It is thus demonstrated how an honorable aspiration to improve the public service may be defeated and perverted to base uses by the political schemers in the Legislature, and it is time for real reformers to wash their hands of the entire proceeding. ________________________________

THE CHURCH AND THE NEGRO.

The series of editorials which the PUBLIC LEDGER has been publishing relative to certain restrictions which are being placed upon the negro race set one to pondering as to how these conditions can best be overcome. No medium suggests itself as being so potent to this end as does the militant Church. Not only is it the duty of the Church, as the highest exponent of Christian civilization, to apply its teachings to the negro problem of his country, but, by virtue of its wide influence and its hold upon society, can perhaps do more than any other agency to establish and maintain whatever standards of relations between the races are found to be just and expedient.

The various religious bodies are gradually awakening to their duty and power as arbiters of social and economic conditions. Not only are they increasingly applying themselves to the everyday problems of the less fortunate of soclety, but many of them have within recent years seriously considered the grave need of creating broader industrial opportunities and more even-handed justice for the colored race.

Notable among such councils were the Presbyterians in their General Assembly in Atlantic City, N. J., in May, 1910; the Home Mission Council, repre-

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