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38 THE CRISIS

New York National Guard, a Negro regiment, as an integral part of the state troops to be sworn into federal service.
The first Pennsylvania colored regiment at Pittsburgh has offered its services to the United States. On account of legal technicalities the regiment has not yet been made part of the National Guard.
The Rev. W. A. White, a colored man of Truro, Nova Scotia, has been commissioned chaplain of the second construction battalion with the rank of captain. Another colored man, C. C. Ligoure, is medical officer.
The First Separate Battalion, District of Columbia National Guard, composed of colored men, has been mobilized to protect the national capitol.
Francis Cain, an American Negro, has been recently decorated for bravery by the French. He has been wounded five times and has three colonial medals for distinguished conduct.
EDUCATION.
INTERCOLLEGIATE debates have been held between various Southern institutions on the question of government ownership of railroads. Virginia Union University won over Wilberforce University and Lincoln over Virginia Union.
At a meeting held in New York a committee was organized to be known as "The Durham Commission to Study the American Negro." This commission grew out of the educational conference called by Dr. J. E. Shepard at the National Training School, Durham, N. C., last fall. The commission at present consists of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, chairman; Dr. Shepard, Mr. William C. Pearson of the Durham Public School, President W. J. Hale of the Tennessee Normal School, President W. A. Scarborough of Wilberforce University, Mr. J. A. Cotton of Henderson (N. C. )Institute, President Rendall of Lincoln University and Dr. J. W. E. Bowen of Gammon Seminary. 
The commission decided to undertake a survey of secondary schools for the education of the Negroes in the United States, with the idea of ascertaining the number and distribution of these schools, their equipment and efficiency, their attendance and teaching force, their income and expenditure, and the extent to which they are filling the demand for secondary education among colored people.
The 300 schools which are to be studied are divided into three districts of about 100 schools each and a year is to be devoted to the study of each district. It is proposed that after this survey of education the commission turn its attention to other fields of investigation concerning the American Negro, with the idea of establishing, in connection with the National Training School and in co-operation with other institutions and organizations, a systematic series of surveys into the social condition of the American Negro.
Far from abolishing the Western University at Quindaro, Kans., the recent Legislature appropriated $78,850 for its work.
Some comment has been made on the work of churches of German origin among American Negroes. The excellent work of the Lutherans antedates the present war by many years and deserves all praise.
The Synodical Conference, the largest Lutheran body, spends $60,000 a year for Negro education. It has two secondary schools, Luther College at New Orleans, with thirty-five students, and Emanuel College, at Greensboro, N. C., with sixty-five students. Besides these, thirty-one day schools take care of 2,500 students. The superintendent of the work is a colored man, the Rev. Dr. Christopher F. Drewes, of St. Louis.
The Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Church, which will soon celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, maintains twenty-one schools, with 370 teachers and 5,279 students. In the last fifty years it has trained over 200,000 students.
We learn with some surprise but great pleasure that the Sophoclean Dramatic Club, a student organization of Hampton Institute, has given a Greek play, "Oedipus at Colonus,"for the benefit of the work of a Hampton graduate in South Africa. Last year the same organization gave "Antigone."
Dr. W. N. Atkins, medical director of schools of Atlanta, Ga., after examining 14,561 white pupils and 4,453 colored pupils found 74.6 per cent of the whites physically defected and only 36.6 per cent of the Negroes defective. The Board of Education received this information "with great surprise."

THE HORIZON  39
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MISS WHITBY. MISS POWELL. MISS SPARKS. MISS MASON. MISS TRULEAR.
Recent Graduates of Philadelphia High and Normal Schools

Atlanta University has raised $56,000 toward the half million dollar endowment fund for which it is working. 
The General Education Board and the Carnegie Foundation have contributed $100,000 toward a total sim of $150,000 to be used for the physical rehabilitation of the plant of Fisk University. It is hoping to raise the remainder in 30 days.
The colored people of Nashville, Tenn., put 59 of their own automobiles at the disposal of the state legislature for a visit to the A. & I. State Normal School for Negroes.
The city of Petersburg, Va., has appropriated $100,000 for three new school houses for colored children. The money was provided for in a bond issue two years ago but held up on account of the usual strife among the white people as to the location of the schools.
Dr. S. M. Newman, president of Howard University, has handed in his resignation to take effect at the close of the school year June, 1918. Advancing years and failing health are given as the reasons. Dr. Newman has been president of Howard five years and the trustees now have a year to look for his successor.
The colored people of North Carolina have raised over $3,000 during the last year to supplement the rural school funds. 
A new $22,000 colored school building has been finished and accepted at Sapulpa, Okla.
At Louisville, Ky., the new Central Colored High School has been dedicated. It was formerly the white boys high school that has been remodeled at a cost of $75,000. It will have an attendance of over 400 and has laboratories, domestic science department, industrial shops and gymnasium beside the regular class rooms. 
Mrs. Margaret M. Barber has given the Barber Memorial Seminary at Anniston, Ala., $50,000 in securities.
During the past year Alabama Negroes in twenty-three counties have contributed $47,451 for the improvement of their schools. The white people have added $1,368. Of the money raised $21,121 was put in new buildings. In addition to this the Negro patrons contributed hauling and labor. To increase salaries, $19,726 was raised. Home makers clubs have a total membership of 9,728 and canned 247,040 quarts of fruit and vegetables. 
In Virginia the colored people raised $8,109 to extend the school term and $25,579 for new buildings, repairs and materials. Home makers clubs put up 86,000 quarts of vegetables and fruits.
A colored public school in Waco, Tex., has been destroyed by fire.
The origin of the Washington Education Fund which has been mentioned in THE CRISIS is thus explained by the chairman of the board of trustees in a letter to Mr. J. D. Alston: "Dr. Silas Hamilton, while riding through the mountains of Virginia a few years after 1800, en route from his boyhood home to his plantation in Natchez County, Mississippi, met a slave trader riding and leading by a string around his wrist and over the pommel of his saddle a young colored boy. George was then a boy perhaps 8 or 9 years old. He could keep up with the horse well enough when was walking, but when it trotted or galloped, it practically dragged George along