Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1928-03-24
in dealing with the National Train
inp School of the National Baptist

this remarkable woman in the Dis
trict of Columbia.
In her communication, which con-
stitutes one of the ablest defenses OF
her position that we have up to this
time read, she says much that she
had better left unsaid. We can in
q measure understand this-she is a
woman, and some men are possessed
of this failing to remarkable de-
oree. We think we understand the
situation to some extent and it is
closely analogous to the unfortunate
condition, which resulted in a costly
litigation between this Sarae National
Convention and the Boyds Publish
ING House in Nashville, Tenn.
Miss Burroughs has needed money
to operate this school and could not
find it in the Golfers of the National
Baptist Convention. This necessitated
her making sacrifices, of which the
public will never know or be fully
able to appreciate. In doing this, she
had to sacrifice her home, comforts,
salary and what-not, travelling night
and day for cause which she loved
so well. She now sees, or thinks that
she sees, an effort to dispessess her,
to take over an institute that she
has been mainly instrumental in
keeping alive.
The question arises as to whether
in doing this she will be safeguarded
in old age as a result of life's
work, or whether "a new king will
arise that knew net Joseph"
AS in the case of the Boyds at
Nashville, we sympathize with her
and believe that some way should be
found, some agreement reached with
out a resort to abuse or passion, to
the end that the Williams plan may
be put into operation. We see, OF
think that we see, and understand
the purpose of this great Baptist di-
vine at Chicago, who is endeavoring
to make a gigantic operating finan-
cial machine, and to run it along the
lines of some of the great white
commercial bodies, which hav e
achieved success in this country.
Still, it will not DO to arbitrarily
or summarily crush workers OF the
kind and type Of Mamie H. Bur
roughs. She is a strong-minded wo-
man, but we believe that her motives
are pure. There is some sinister sig
nifcance in her statement that she
has kept the three wings of the de-
nomination, Lott Carey Convention,
unincorporated Convention and the
Incorporated Convention, together on
the Training School question. This
means that, even though one of these
has marked time, she still has the
encouragement and support OF the
other two.
Last, but not least, she announces
that the trustees of the school are
not going to change the charter to
have it conform to the wishes and
desires of the National Baptist Con-
vention, over which President L. X.
Williams presides, until the Woman's
Convention and the National Bap-
fist so DEGREES, but she nullifies this
in a further statement, which specl-
fes that even this action must be
supplemented by an order from the
Supreme Court of the United States
The logical deduction is that she
had a second thought coming after
she had made up her mind and Is
now determined to fght even this
in the courts after she has been safe
guarded and paid past due salary OF
sixteen thousand dollars. If Miss
Burroughs does not mean this, what
deductions are we to draw from the
language used by her! We are OF
the opinion that this singing reply
of this brilliant woman was made IN
the heat of passion and was not
culled and "blue penciled" after this
state of affairs had subsidized.
She has many friends in this
country. She should not estrange
them. Far better would it be for the
National Baptist Convention to or
ganize its own training school at
some other point, following the pol
icy adopted at the publishing house
in Nashville, than to have to our
credit another iong-drawn fight with
brilliant female leader crushed IN
an effort to continue TO maintain
the control of her iife's work. Evi-
IDENTIFY, the National Baptist Conven-
ton leaders are not trusted by her,
and she is not fully trusted by the
National Baptist Convention leaders.
1t may be that we shall have more
to say upon this all important sub
ject. Let abuse and determinations
be avoided.