* * * * *
In the January number of the _South Atlantic Quarterly_ Gilbert T.
Stephenson, Judge of the Municipal Court of Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, writes on the subject, "_Education and Crime among
Negroes_." Although he accepts as facts certain unreliable statistics
concerning the criminality of Negroes, he nevertheless presents the
subject in a liberal manner. His following conclusion is interesting.
"All the available statistics and the unanimous opinion of men in
a position to know the facts would seem to be proof that
education--elementary or advanced, industrial or
literary--diminishes crime among Negroes. The alarming high rate
of Negro criminality is as much a condemnation of the community
in which it exists as of the offending Negroes themselves. Having
discovered that the Negro school is, at least, one institution
which successfully combats crime, the community cannot afford to
withhold its active interest in and generous support of its Negro
school. The more money spent in making such schools responsive to
the special needs of the race, the less will have to be spent on
crime, and if it comes to a question of cost, it is cheaper in
the long run to maintain and equip schools--Negro schools,
even--than police departments, courts, jails, penitentiaries, and
reformatories; for the school, properly conducted, makes the
Negro a greater asset, while the court finds him a liability, and
nearly always leaves him a greater liability to the community."
* * * * *
Some interesting articles in various publications are: "Problems of
Race Assimilation," by Arthur C. Parker, in the January number of _The
American Indian Magazine_; The Cavalry Fight at Carrizal, by Louis S.
Morey, in _The Journal of the United States Cavalry_ _Association_;
The Present Labor Situation, in the January number of _The Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences_; Physic Factors
in the New American Race Situation, in _The Journal of Race
Development_, by George W. Ellis; and La Independencia de Tejas y la
Esclavitud, by Senor V. Salado Alvarez, in the Cuban journal _La
Reforma Social_.
Other such articles in this field are: Germany's Ambition in Central
Africa, by Emile Cammaerts, in the October number of _The National
Review_; The Present System of Education in Uganda, in the July number
of _Uganda Notes_; The Gold Coast: Some Consideration of its
Structures, People, and Natural History, by A. E. Kitson, in the July
number of the _Geographic Journal_.
* * * * *
The arrangements for the biennial meeting of the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History have been almost completed. A majority
of the members of the Executive Council desire that it be held on
Wednesday, the twenty-ninth of August, and have so ordered it. The
program has not yet been made up, but several persons of prominence
have promised to attend and speak. Among these are Mrs. Mary Church
Terrell, Dean Kelly Miller, Professor George E. Haynes, Dr. R. R.
Wright, Jr., Mr. Monroe N. Work, and Dr. Thomas J. Jones. Two of the
important topics will be _Some Values of Negro History_ and _The Negro
in the World War_.