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.