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246      THE CRISIS

students to take up social work as a profession.

Including the two students, Miss Nellie M. Quander and Mr. Chandler Owen, studying last year in New York City, four "fellows" have pursued courses of study under the auspices of the league in New York City, three of whom are laboring successfully in some field of social service. The two fellows appointed for the next school year are Mr. Alexander L. Jackson, class orator of Harvard, 1914, and Mr. W. N. Colson, 1914, class leader of Virginia Union University.

VISION OF HUMAN NEED AND EFFICIENCY IN SERVICE.

On these two principles the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negros is Founded. It endeavors to select its workers, raise its budget and direct and extend its work to these guide posts to its way towards the great goal of the real freedom of opportunity to all.

The personnel of the executive board and general membership of the league is a guarantee of its integrity and strength. Its officers are: Mrs. William H. Baldwin, Jr., chairman; Major R. R. Moton, of Hampton Institute, and Prof. Kelly Miller, of Howard University, vice-chairman; Mr. L. Hollingsworth Wood, secretary; Mr. A. S. Frissell, treasurer, and Mr. Victor H. McCutcheon, assistant treasurer.

[[Image - men playing baskerball]]
[[caption]] THE FRESH AIR CAMP OF THE URBAN LEAGUE [[/caption]]

A BOOK AND A PLAY

"In Freedom's Birthplace. A Study of the Boston Negroes. John Daniels. Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1914. 496. Price $1.00 net.

There have been a number of books on the Negroes in northern cities, but Mr. Daniels' study of the Boston Negroes is unique in form. It avoids statistic, save in the appendix, and is written in a loose narrative style admirably adapted to the historical section of the book. Here the writer renders an important service in showing us the part of the Boston Negro played in the abolition movement and in the civil war; and as in DuBois' "John Brown" we learn to know a group of fearless colored Americans who were in the forefront of the long struggle for the freedom of the slave. We also learn in detail of the splendid record of the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth Massachusetts regiments.

After the war we are told of the movement in Boston for and against Booker T. Washington's doctrines, doctrines which Mr.



A BOOK AND A PLAY    247

Daniels whole-heartedly advocates,and of the 1910 meeting in Zion church at which William Monroe Trotter heckled Dr. Washington and for which Mr. Trotter suffered imprisonment. The book then deals with present-day statistical matters, and the style, adapted to narrative, becomes discursive and confused. It is difficult to find facts, mingled as they are on every page with the writer's opinions. Nevertheless, by searching, we do find much data regarding the Negro in his church, in politics, in business—facts that have been carefully gathered and are of importance to the student of the progress of the colored race. In the foot-notes and the appendix are interesting sketches of prominent colored men.

Mr. Daniels presents his opinions by marshalling all the disagreeable characteristics of the Boston Negro at the beginning of each chapter and relating the race's achievements at the close. The method is unfortunate, he assures is that "two inherent characteristics of the Negroes are lack of self-reliance and deficiency in the capacity for social cooperation," that their traits are "irresponsibility, instability and trustworthiness," and that "their present industrial standing is roughly commensurate with their present actual worth." In short, that they lack in "stamina." However, after we have learned this, we are assured that the Boston Negro has little chance to show his ability, that "In low-grade work a Negro finds it twice as hard to obtain employment; in works of intermediary grade, such as the trades and lesser clerical lines, from ten to fifty times harder; and in the work of high-grade, such as that of bank clerks, salaried officials of business houses, and the like, a hundred times harder than the case with applicants of the other race; and that furthermore there are some occupations from which Negroes are practically shut out." And we end the book with the writer's astonishing admission, in view of what has gone before, that "The assertion sometimes heard, indeed, that history affords no other example of a race which has made equal headway in its half-century of independent existence is probably within the truth." It is indeed a bewildering method which the writer pursues.

The book leaves us with one strong impression (an impression which the CRISIS reader must feel increasingly as he studies each month's issue), that even "In Freedom's Birthplace" rights given by those above can be taken away by those above; and that only those rights are permanent that are wrested from the race in power by the race that is oppressed. The battle for the Negro's civil and political rights, therefore, which a few far-seeing agitators and statesmen thought they had won forty-five years ago must be fought all over again by the Negroes themselves when they shall awake to a realization and an understanding of the oppression under which they live.

"The Mob." John Galsworthy. Charles Scribners' Sons.

Galsworthy's latest play is directed against Imperialism. The scene is laid in England on the eve of a war of conquest against a primitive people. The hero, Stephen More, a member of parliament is passionately opposed to the war while the men about him favor it. In the first scene there is much talk of the beneficence of British rule. One of the characters, the Dean of Stour, says: 

"Does our rule bring blessing—or does it not, Stephen?"

Stephen answers: "Sometimes, but with all my soul I deny the fantastic superstition that our rule can benefit a people like this, a nation of one race, as different from ourselves as dark from light—in color, religion, every mortal thing. We can only pervert their natural instincts."

Against the entreaties of his wife, his father, his friends and constituents, More takes a stand against imperialism. He speaks his belief in parliament, on the lecture platform and in the streets. His constituents come to argue with him. The English have lost a battle and he is asked to remember the soldier who died trying to take the Pass. More replies with a picture of the Englishman's wrath should his country be invaded.

"Imagine! Up in our country—the Black Valley—twelve hundred foreign devils dead and dying—the crows busy over them—in our own country, in our valley—ours—ours—violated. Would you care about the poor fellows in that]] Pass? Invading, stealing dog! Kill them—kill them! You would and I would too!

He convinces his hearers for a moment, and then through the open window comes the sound of Highland bag pipes, and of marching soldiers. The soldiers pass and the mob follows, crying: "Give the beggars hell, boys!" "Wipe your feet on their dirty country!" The men, stirred by the soldiery,