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68 THE CRISIS

make the principal address at the joint half-centennial celebration of Federal and Confederate veterans at Gettysburg next month.  Heflin's contribution to the peace of the country is his advocacy of "Jim Crow" cars for Washington, D.C. He won special distinction two years ago by firing at a Negro passenger who, he thought, was not quite respectful enough to white people in public conveyances.  A white man was wounded.  The Negro was unhurt.

Mr. J. A. Mercier, a millionaire financier of New Orleans, died recently.  "M. Mercier was a Negro," says L'Ami des Noirs, the staunch friend of colored folk, published by the Canadian missionaries at Palmetto, La., "but the newspapers have been very careful to conceal the fact.  On the other hand, in the same paper which announced the news of his death, they did not fail to credit this persecuted race with all the crimes, real or imaginary, committed in the preceding twenty-four hours in Louisiana or Mississippi, Florida or Arkansas.  This is the justice of 'Jim Crow.'"

Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois has been received with great ovations everywhere in the West.  Some of the Negro newspapers have published "Du Bois Editions."

CRIME.

Negroes have been flogged by a mob in Rochelle, Ga., for alleged complicity in the intimidation of a white farmer by Enoch McElmore, also white and a friend of this farmer, who had some difficulty with him.

At Florence, S.C., two policemen prevented a mob of 200 from lynching a Negro.

Lynchings are expected at Louisville, Ga., and at Hampton, S. C., in each case for the murder of white men.

At New Orleans, La., at Augusta, Ga., and in other places Negroes have been shot by policemen.

W.G. Baldwin, a white man of Wilmington, N.C., has been sentenced to three years in the State penitentiary for shooting a colored woman and necessitating the amputation of one of her legs.

The colored people of Louisville, Ky., are prosecuting a married white man for the abuse of a young colored girl in his employ.

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Mullins McDowell, aged 11, and Arnie Ruth, aged 13, members of a gang of youthful white outlaws, have been indicted for the murder of Lindsay Smith, a Negro, of Raleigh, N.C.

Two Negroes saved a white man from rough treatment at the hands of Negroes after having assaulted a colored girl at Wadesboro, N. C.

Nellie Busch, a 14-year-old white girl of Kansas City, spent $5 which her parents had given her to pay a gas bill in treating a friend to candy.  The children then rolled in the mud, tore their clothes and ran down an alley, screaming that they had been attacked by a Negro. The girls later confessed they had lied in order to save Nellie from punishment.

At Bolton, Vt., a Negro youth was drowned by a party of white workmen who had accused him of stealing their lunch.  Kennison, one of the men, reported the tragedy, saying they had driven the Negro, protesting his innocence, into the whirlpool in a spirit of playfulness.

COURTS.

A JURY at Louisville, Ky., have acquitted Richard Dancy, a Negro, of the charge of murder of Robert B. Fontelroy, a white man.  

Halbert Grant, a Negro pianist, and his white wife, were released from custody after having been arrested in Minneapolis on a false charge of violation of the Mann act. They had been married a number of years and had lived respectably in Detroit.

Nine Negroes have been awarded damages of $10 each against the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad Company for having refused to allow them to board one of its passenger trains.

At Birmingham, Ala., a criminal court dismissed a charge of vagrancy against Annie Williams, a Negro woman, and administered a severe rebuke to the white man, McWilliams, who had brought the charge.  McWilliams had to pay the costs.

A Mississippi court has awarded a judgment for $300 against the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad to Pope Swint, a Negro, for discomfort on an excursion train.

A jury at Portland, Ore., awarded $20,000 to John Matthews, a Negro, for 

ALONG THE COLOR LINE 69

personal injuries caused by the Oregon Independent Paving Company.  The company will appeal.

Horace R. Cayton, a Negro editor of Seattle, has lost a  suit for $15,000 against a restaurant proprietor who asked him not to patronize his place.  Superior Judge Ronald upheld the contention of the defense that Cayton had not been deprived of his civil rights.

The following item appears in the Railroad Record of April 26: 
"If the decision of the Supreme Court of Mississippi stands, it behooves railway officials to exercise great care as to watchmen employed.  In a case at Vicksburg, Miss., a watchman in the employ of the Y. & M. V., shot and killed a Negro. He was tried for murder and acquitted. But the Y. & M. V., when sued for damages by the widow, was penalized a large sum. 'Not that the watchman was hired to kill men, but he was working for the railroad and acting within the scope of his authority when he fired the shot,' said the chief justice in the decision."

MEETINGS.

AT Muskogee, Okla., the National Baptist Sunday School Congress meets June 4. 

Dr. Burt G. Wilder delivered an address on the Massachusetts 55th in the Civil War before the teachers of the colored schools of Washington at the M Street high school.  Dr. Wilder was surgeon of the 55th.

The emancipation proclamation commission of Pennsylvania announces: 
"There will be, in connection with the exposition, a religious congress, an educational congress and a sociological congress, each of which is in the hands of able men.
"The commission also offers the following prizes:
"Prize for the best emancipation ode, $50.
"Prize for the best drama, three acts or more, entitled 'Fifty Years of Freedom,' $50.
"Prize for the best emancipation hymn, set to music, $50.
"The committee is making accommodations for the entertainment of strangers."

The Mississippi valley conference of women's suffrage admitted a Negro delegate, Mrs. Victoria Haley, despite the protests of management of the hotel where the sessions were being held.

Several colored delegates attended the Southern Sociological Congress at Atlanta, notably Dr. C. V. Roman, of Nashville.  The following are some of the addresses bearing on the Negro problem:
"The White Man's Task in the Uplift of the Negro," Dr. A. J. Barton, Waco, Tex.
"The Efficiency Test in Negro Progress," Miss Julia Lathrop, Washington, D. C.
"The Demand for Co-operation Between the White and Negro Churches in Efforts for Social Betterment," Dr. J. E. White, Atlanta, Ga.
"Publicity in Social Work," H. W. Steele, Baltimore, Md.
"The Work of the Southern Commission on the Race Problem," Prof. C. H. Brough, University of Arkansas.
"The Economic Status of the Negro," Prof. W. M. Hunley, University of Virginia.
"The Negro Working Out His Own Salvation," Prof. E. C. Branson, Athens, Ga.
"Rural Education and Social Efficiency," Jackson Davis, Richmond.
"The Negro as a Farmer," Dr. J. H. DeLoach, University of Georgia.
"Land Ownership and Efficiency of Negro Farmers," T. C. Walker, Glocester, Va.
"The Religious Condition of the Negro," C. T. Walker, Augusta, Ga.
"Open Church Work for the Negro," Rev. John Little, Louisville, Ky.
"Desirable Civic Reforms in the Treatment of the Negro," Prof. W. O. Scroggs, University of Louisiana.
"The Jeanes and Slater Funds and What They Are Accomplishing," Dr. J. H. Dillard, New Orleans, La.
"The Prevalence of Contagious and Infectious Diseases Among Negroes and the Necessity of Preventive Measures," Dr. Geo. W. Hubbard, Nashville, Tenn.
"Problems of Race Adjustment," Prof. James M. Farr, University of Florida.
"The Social and Hygienic Conditions of the Negro and Needed Reforms," Prof. Josiah Morse, University of South Carolina.
"How to Enlist Welfare Agencies of the South for Improvement of Civic Conditions Among Negroes," Dr. W. D. Weatherford, Nashville, Tenn.
"The White Man's Debt to the Negro," Mrs. J. D. Hammond, Augusta, Ga.
"Racial Self-respect and Racial Antagonism," Dr. C. V. Roman, Nashville, Tenn.