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This may be our last battle. We believe that it is the beginning of out ftnaUriumph.^ MAY 17.1923 ■’ • --— * “ PRICE. FIVE CENTS VOLUME XLI.NO. 26 . RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. _____ . . ,"T' | ' A. M. E. CONFERENCE AT LOUISVILLE, KY. LARGE DELEGATION PRESENT—"fHE VETERAN BISHOP, B. F. LEE, AGED 84 YEARS, ASKp FOR RETIREMENT. Gratifying Reports Made-John R. Hfwkins Receives Ovation-Harmony Prevaiies—Threatened Split Fails to Materialize.__ ——, ^ « (By Charles Stewart) LOUISVILLE, KY., May 14.—The first week o£ the General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was freighted with interest ing events, and at the same time full of business. There are many new delegates, some have never seen a General Conference, yet they have fallen in line in helping to do the work for the Church. It is a bus iness organization, and some import ant legislation has been pushed thru while the rest will get thru next week. BISHOP LEE ASKS FOR RETIREMENT. Immediately following the adopt ion of -tfce minutes Tuesday, and in turning over the gavel to Bishop Levi J. Coppin, Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee, senior bishop of the Church, spoke of his work in the Church, he having reached his 84th ^ anniversary, and served the Church pver half a century. He was ele vated to the episcopacy in 1892, de voting his time and energy to the betterment of his Church and peo ple. He felt that he had reached the place where he could no longer render the service which the Church needed, therefore he askeni to be superannuated. REQUEST GRANTED. By unanimous vote his request was granted, and the Church thru k Bishop Coppin, expressed regrets. j In retiring, the venerable offered some fatherly ad/ice to the young men and others in whose hands the Church of today is placed. He brought tears to many eyes. He is one of the best trained, best edu cated men in the Episcopal Church and while he is superannuated, he will still remain the active senior bishop, thereby giving the Church the benefit of his long experience. 1 In appreciation of his long serv ice, the Church voted him a purse of one thousand dollars. It is, perhaps, the first time in the history of the Church, that a bishop has been superannuated on his own re quest. At the time of Bishop Lee’s retirement, he was in charge of the work of his Church in California. f BISHOP CONNER RELIEVED. This was followed on Monday prior to the report of the Episcopal Committee, by Bishop James Myers Conner of Little Rock, who referred to his own physical condition, stat ing that he felt within a year he would be fully recovered, therefore ' asked the General Conference to grant him one year’s retirement to recuperate. This was voted him im mediately. PROF. HAWKINS’ ORATION. That Prof. John 'Ri. Hawkins is one of the strongest men in the A. M. E. Church and heads the laymen was demonstrated by the ovation which was given to his report made before the General Conference. He had guarded every interest of his Church, especially the finance. He showed that he ha«d carefully stud ied the system in details, and such was his report. He pointed out how the Church could do more and better work. He had discovered that some provision should be made for the General Officers whose con nection with an annual conference came to an end so to speak when he was made general officer: OTHERS BROKEN DOWN. "During this quadrennium we have had two General Officers to become practically incapacitated from service, thereby making it ne cessary to make special provision for meeting the emergency arising. I refer to the cases of the Secretary of Church Extension and the Secre tary of Missions. In one case, that of the Church Extension, Dr. "Wat son had served faithfully in that office for twenty-three years. He practically broke down in the office and finally died. In the other case, Dr. Rankins, though sadly incapac itated, still lingers in a suffering condition. I think General Confer ence Officers should be encouraged to concentrate themselves to the work of their respective departments and kept in these departments on the merits of their work so that there wi(ll be some real development of the work committed to them. HALF SALARY RECOMMENDED.^ “Having done this, when a Gen eral Officer breaks down, under the stress and strain of his office and becomes unable to serve, provision should be made for his retirement on the basis of half of the salary received ?.t the time of such retire ment. And in case of the death of a General Officer who has served as such for a period of twelve years or more, his widow should be pensioned commensurate with the standard of the office he held at the time of his death. INCREASE IN OUR BUDGET SYSTEM. “That we are progressing cannot be denied. We have advanced year by year, but we must take still higher ground. We have made a big program. To carry this out our whole financial scheme needs revis-1 ion. “We should standardize our reg ular Theological seminaries man them with the best and strongest professors obtainable. Our schools and colleges should be classified and equipped for the work they adver tise to do and be provided for doing tise to do and be provided with xhe best qualified instructors for doing do with poor material and Aieap instructors. — ! SALARIES RECOMMENDED. “The Deans of our regular Sem inaries and Presidents of our Col leges should be paid at least $3,000 a year with commensurate provis ion for professors and instructors in harmony with the schedule of sal aries paid in the best regulated school systems throughout the coun try. “The vocation of the ministry should be made more attractive from a financial standpoint by fixing a higher rate as the standard of the Presiding Elders and Pastors. There should be a reserve fund out of which we could make better provis ion for preachers serving on mission points. INCREASED PENSION FUND. “To provide a pension for 500 Superannuated Ministers even at the modest allowance of $50 a quarter or $200 a year would require $100, 000 a year. For 1200 widows at $2 5 a quarter or $100 a year will take $120,000 a year For 500 or phans at $25 a year will take $12, 500 a year W)e should pay our Bishops at least $4,000 a year and our 'General Officers at least $3,000. “In making our budget to carry out a program of this magnitude we need to set the mark for our General Fund or Dollar Money alone at.. I 500,000 For Education .1,000,000 For Missions . 500,000 Totaling for these 3 Items $2,000,000 This should be supplement e«l by a Special Endow ment Relief Fund of. .$1,000,000 A total of. $3,000,000 which would mean but an average of $5 a year per member on the basis of 600,000. SPECIFIC REPORTS. Prof. Hawkins reported the amount of money handled by each financial se ru'ary from 1872 to the present, as follows: J. H. Burley, $95,554.11; J. C. Embry, $9*,925. 68; B. W. Arnett, $368,903.85; Jas. Anderson Handy, $313,341.44; J. H. Armstrong $351,942.09; M. M. Moore, $406,074.26; P. A. Hubbard, $22 9,417.38; Edward W. Larapton, $1,199,488.48; John Hurst, $790, 088.50; John R. Hawkins, $3,274, 991.30, making a total Qf $6*900, 301.63 Ho made it clear that this-amount was in dollar money alone and did net include the monejy raised by local churches, for church work, pastors’ and presiding elders’ salar ies, and other things. The report received the approval of the General Conference Of course, he will he re-elected. He is the first layman to hold such a Position, and it will be observed that with but two ex ceptions, all the other (Secretaries stepped into the episcopal office from the secretaryship. INCREASE IN BUSINESS. All the reports made to the Gen eral Conference showred an increase in business. Progress along all ilincs reported, and the report of Ira T. Bryant, Secretary of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union was an eye opener. Many had thought that because of a fight, Bryant would tie up the property due to what is con sidered a flaw in the charter, but he had it all straightened out, and pre sented the African Methodist Epis copal Church deeds to all the pro perty of the Sunday School Union in fee simple absolute. He won many friends by this act, many declared that he would succeed himself. FIRST LAY S. S. U. SECRETARY. Prof. Bryant Is the first layman to be secretary of the Sunday School Union, and in his method in what to him was defending the Church and guarding its interests, he has not had the approval of many. He declared that he could sleep w'ell each night because he felt that he discharged his duty to his God, his Church and his fellows, “The Feast of the Lord’s Supper” an oratorio, was presented Friday night of last week by Hiram Sim mons of Portsmouth, Va. It was listened to by fully 5,000 people. ALL SUPPLIED. All of the Methodist Churches of Louisville were supplied with a preacher from the Conference last Sunday, and some of them had Bishops, while a few of the Baptist Churches had Ministers. A great impression has been made here dur ing this session. The report of the Episcopal Com mittee was made Monday morning. They recommended the election ot three Bishops, also reported on epis copal districts. They also recom mended that Bishop Conner he tem porarily retired. They fixed the time for election to Tuesday morning, 11 o’clock and continue until all Bisli* ops and General Officers were elected COMING!! SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING* DIFFERENT, SOMETHING CAPTIVATING, Health Education Department pre sents First Public Demonstration of HEALTH EDUCATION CLASSES, Armstrong Auditorium, Monday, May 26, 1924, at 7:46 P. M. M*ses Lucille Lewis and Hallie Edmunds, Instructors. Mrs. Alice S, Bowser, Chairman Health Education Com mittee. PORO COLLEGE HE^JP& MAKE 925,000 GIFT TO THE Y. M C. A. MR. and MRS A. B. MALONE. J . • iMBB i' • The largest gift ever-made by Ne-j groes to auy social or philanthropic work was the $25,000 just made by; Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Malone in the I $3,000,000 Building Campaign of. the Y. M. C. A. of St. Louis. When 1 this gift was announced to the Cen- j tral Campaign Committee, the Me- J tropolitan Y. M. C A. Director stated . that no single gift in the campaign ] so far would be as productive of results in securing large gifts from ] the white people as this of Mr. and . Mrs, Malone. A special committee composed of the following men visited Poro Col lege and expressed to Mrs. Malone (Mr. Malone was absent from the city) the appreciation of the entire campaign organization: Byron W. Moser, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Y# M. C. A. of the city; L. C. Haworth, general sec retary; Frank L. Williams, chairman of the Committee of Management of the Pine Street Department and principal of Sumner High School; Dr. *J. E Mooreland, who was large ly instrumental in securing the gift; H. C. Craft, Executive Secretary of Pine Street Department; R. B. De Frantz, Campaign Director and C. H. Tobias, Senior Secretary Colored Men’s Department of the Y. M. C. A In response to the words of appre ciation as expressed by the several members of 4he committee, Mrs. Malone stated that she did not re gard their money as belonging to herself and husband, but as belong ing to God, and that instead of see (Continued on page 8) TO LAUNCH $100,000 CAMPAIGN IN MONTH? OF JUNE. The plans for the campaign are very near completed), which is to be one of the greatest campaigns to he held in the city of Richmond among colored people. Every prominent colored wo 1 man of the city has promised to lend a hand in this audible movement. The committee has just received 10 000 hut tons which are to be sold at a $1.00 a piece for the adults and 25 cents for the children. It is believed that every well thinking colored woman and man in tihe city will wear one of these but tons. The buttons bearing this read ing: “A Memorial Button,” will he worn for the remembrance of some dead relative or friend. The committee in charge hopes to sell 50,000 buttons in order that the cash will be in hand so that the work of the new hospital will go on at once. i ThB campaign appeals to every well thinking man and woman in every walk of life. The hospital campaign will begin its work Mondlay morning May 19th, 1924 at nine o’clock with 6ix stenographers at the Richmond Hospi tal 406 East Baker Street. We are ask ing for volunteer workers In this cam paigning. Weep not for ourselves ns our days are swiftly gliding by, but for our children. Let us help one another In this campaign. We do ask you fo. your prayers that this will be a great and grand success. Every church and every business in the city is asked, to give a donation in the month of June. God is with us, will you be also? We are going to have a colored upi-to-date hospital where colored physicians can care for their patients, we feel that we can get this with your support. The (committee is now planning a great get together meeting which will be held very soon at one of the churches 01 halls. This campaign appeals to every society in the State of Virginia. Those who already volunteered to help in this campaign, we are thanking you with our hearts. Twenty-five prominent young men of the city of Richmond have volunteered to make this cam paign a success which their names will be mentioned later. Rev. W. H. Stokes, president; Rev. W. T. Johnson, treasurer; Mr. B. L. Jordan, treasurer; Messrs. Jas. FraiB er and" Clarence Griffith, campaign managers. IDEAL. NURSERIES OF N I. B. S. HOLD ANNIVERSARY. The Ideal Nurseries of the West End will hold their Anniversary Exercises on Sunday May 25th at 3:30 P. M. The children with their guardians will meet at the Ideal Hall at 2 P. M. and march to the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, where the exercises will be held. A rare treat is in store for all who attend |. Tbe children of Fulton will hold thetr exerciser at the Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church on the same day at 3:30 P. M-.The committee is sparing no pains to make tlhese exercises the best ever held. The public is cordially invit ed to be present. —MrS. Robinetta Cogbill is serious ly ill at her homey 1017 Hull street So. Richmond, Va. Mrs. S. Lt M. Scott, after spending tbe Winter -in Richmond, left Thurs day of this week for Monticlair, N. J. NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS AT FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. Dr W. T. Johnson, Pastor.—Sunday May 25th, 3:30 P. M. All of Richmond and vicinity are most cordially invited and urged to be present at the First Baptist Church, Sunday, May 25th, 3:30 P. M. to hear Miss Nannie Helen Burroughs, presi dent of the National Training School of Washington, D. C., president of the National Wage Earners Association of America • (Miss Burroughs easily ranks fore most on the list as one of the country’s leading educators ajML lecturers. A great advbeator of the highest develop ment of Christian Womanhood. Her ■valuable work for her race speaks vol umes for her as a wonderful woman. We feel -that we need only to make the anouncement that Miss Burroughs will appear on the above mentioned date and Richmonds’ pub'ic will be present to hear Miss Burroughs “the eloquent” in a special address to wo men; men, boys and girls especially to women. • Music will be rendered by some of Richmonds’ best musical talent. An offering will be asked for the support of the great work which Miss Bur roughs represents. THE MECHANICS SAVINGS BANJK. The final, detailed report on The Mechanics Savings Bank up to the pres ent time was delivered to John Mitch ell, Jr., Wednesday, May 14th by the certified public accountants' and by him turned over to the chairman o* the Bankers’ Committee having the matter in charge. —Rev A. W. Brown, pastor of the Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church left Sunday night for Belton, S. Ca to at tend the funeral of Mrs. Jane Ellis who had been a foster mother to him. He is expected back here today. SCHOOL LEAGUE MAKING FINAL DRIVE FOR LIBRARY. The City-Wide School Improvement League requests all Churches, Organi zations and public-spirited citizens who have not as yet given anything toward the purchase of reference volumes for the new Armstrong High School Library to send such immed iately to the Chairman of the Finance Committee Mr. John T. Tay lor, Second Street Savings Bank, or Mr. J. Henry Peters, Jr., Treasurer Commercial Bank and Trust Company or Mr. George N. Branch, Secretary. St. Luke Bank and Trust Company. The officers of the League are very anxious to secure and present these books before the closing of this term of the school. If the amount received will permit it, they will provide, in ad dition to the books heretofore agreed upon, a thrift banner to he presented to the coloredi school which has made the best record for the term for nv lngs. The officers feel that the colored citizens should take advantage of sucn efforts to demonstrate to the future men and women of the race and the general public that our group is inter ested in the morte serious and enduri lg things affecting the future well-bearing of the race. The following contributions have been received since the last publica tion : Total previously reported. $211. 50; Rising Mount Zlon Baptist Church $5.00; First Baptist Church So. Richv mond, $5.00; Dr. J. H. Blackwell Jr., $3.00; Mr. W. R. Allen, $1.00; Total $225.50. City-Wide School Improvement Leag ue, Dr. W. H. Stokes, president. IDA ANDERSON AND LAFAYETTE PLAYERS BACK AT THE RAYO Commencing next Monday matinee, and every night next week, with mati nees Monday. Thursday, Saturday, Ida Anderson and her most excellent com pany of Lafayette players will be tye attraction at the Rayo. Such favorites as Chas. Olden, Rupert Marks. Hilda. Thompson, Louis Taylor, Babe Towns end and Theresa Brooks are too well known to the lovers of the drama to need any introduction. Suffice to say that all the old favorites and several new players will be ru the cast. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, ,‘Twin Beds'* will be ttote play. This is a screamingly funny farce and will show the players in light roles. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday they have consented to present again, ,*Why Wives Go Wrong,’* the powerful •Drama of Home Life of Today; this play made such a hit here in March, that due to the many requests Miss Anderson has consented to repeat it next week. Feature Pictures from 7 to 8:30 and the Lafayette Players will start their performance at 8:30 every night and at 4 at the matinees. Come early and. get the best seats. —Mr. Paul GreenhlU of Blackstone, Va., who has been undergoing treat ment here for Injury received by ma chinery has returned home. —Mrs. Bettie Fowlkes of N. 30th Street has returned to the city after spending some time with h— sister, Mrs. Sallie Ford in Baltimore, Md. —Dr. D. A. Ellett of Excelsior Springs, Missouri sends help to the Planet. He conducts the Star Bath House there where salt sulphur water is used on the patrons seeking recuper at Ion and relief. —A telegram from Mr. Mose Rison at Danville, Va* dated May 13, 1924 re ported the well-known citizen, some times dubbed, “the black Mayor of Danville’’ as being at the point of death. His sister-in-law, Mrs. Ellen N\ Jones left post-haste for his bed-side. He has been ailing for a long time. —Mrs. Lucie E. C. Scott, funeral di rectress and embalmer was stricken suddenly at her residence, 1015 St. James Street last Sunday auernoon. She has improved somewhat and her speedy recovery is expected. Dr. Al bert A. Tennant is attending her. In Memorlam. In memory of our father Mr. Dan iel Walker, who departed this life the 13th day of May 1922. Resting in thy love Lord Jesus I am blessed— Leaning on thy loving bosom this is rest; Peace which passeth understanding on thy breast, Occupied with thee Lord Jesus keep thou me; Finding satisfaction no where but in thee; Thou of Joy and stream offountain unto me. Walking in thy steps Lord Jesus I would be, In the path of separation unto thee; That thy Joy may flow unhindered— thus in me; Giving Joy to thee Lord Jesus every day. Doing what shall please thee Jesus loving to obey. (MRS.) SARAH J. WALKER, Wife. Children: - _ GEO. T. WALKER, ESTHER • BULLOCK, MARY HAITH. NATHANIEL WALKER WALTER. ZAOCARIAH aad / DAVID F. WALKER.