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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1917)
jj=nn " —liai =nr=ii==iKin~ tr=ii --==imr==^=il=|j i General Race News J II—II— -Jl SOCIALIST ASSAILS RACE PREJUDICES Philadelphia, Pa.—Charles Edward Russell, author and Socialist, praises France, because “the narrow, blind hatred of race prejudice is unkno.vn there.” Mr. Russell spoke on “Race Prejudices” in the Broad Street Theatre under the auspices of the Socialist Literary Society. The speaker declared race preju dices were rampant in this country and decried the tendency of the white X’ace to consider itself superior to other races of the world. This country, he said, was con stantly bungling the Negro problem. He denounced the lynchings in the southern States, and added: “Unless race prejudices ai*e elim inated in this country the crust of the volcano on which we are sitting will give way very soon.” “France,” con tinued Mr. Russell, “has given the Negro true citizenship. In Finance liberty, equality and fraternity are not hollow mockeries and empty dreams. In the Chamber of Depu ties black men sit side by side with whites. France has never deigned to draw a color line. “The Negroes rallied to France’s colors when she was threatened. But what if we had a war here and needed our Negro citizens? What if, when we called for them, they answered truthfully enough: ‘You have op pressed us; you have killed our men and women and children; you have shown us no justice in your couits; you have trampled us down. We will not fight for you!’ Would not the Negro be justified? But we know the Negro in his loyalty will fight for us despite our great injustice to him. There is no national safety for this country except in strict adherence to ‘liberty, equality and fraternity.’ SEGREGATION FAILS. Jamestown, N. Y.—An attempt was made recently to have the Common Council pass a segregation law. A number of Colored people recently came here to take positions with the Gurney Ball Bearing company, and took up quarters on Briggs street. Thomas Mahoney and others did not like their presence, and went be fore the Council to tell that body that Jamestowm ought to prohibit Colored people from coming here to live. Corporation Counsel Price in formed the segregationists that he doubted both the wisdom and legality of such action. According to Arthur Kettle, a di rector in the Gurney Ball Bearing company, the Colored men were recommended by Tuskegee Institute. NO DISLOYALTY THERE. Washington, April -2—In a call on Secretary of War Baker Wednesday, Governor Stuart, of Virginita, told of the offer of Benjamin Braxton, of Norfolk, to raise a complete regiment of Colored troops for the war writh Germany. The Colored people said Mr. Brax ton, “never have and never will be traitors to ‘Old Glory.’ ” Governor Stuart mentioned the proposal of Mr. Braxton as the an swer of the Colored people of Vir ginia to the efforts of the Germans to incite the Colored people to traitor out conduct against the United States. 31 —II ■■ ■ " OMAHA DAILY WRITES ON NEGRO LOYALTY — It is true that this the land that held him in bondage, but it is also the land that gave him his freedom— this Afro-American whom Germany has been plotting to incite to rebel lion against the government of the United States. The American Negro, on account of the prejudice due to his former servile state and to his race still lacks the full protection of the laws and is circumscribed in privileges in some parts of the country. But he has himself suggested that his full deliverance will not come and cannot come from influences outside of America, and he has no reason to be come disloyal to a government de voted to the ideals and instructed by the example of Abraham Lincoln to serve the interest of a government which William of Hohenzollem claims to hold as a fief from the Almighty. In spite of the many stupid things that German diplomacy and cunning have conceived and attempted since the beginning of the war, one must stand in new amazement that any circle or group of men anywhere on earth, rated intelligent, should have considered it among the possible things to cause by extraneous insti gation an insurrection of the Negroes of the United States. It only show's once again what fantastic deductions German statesmen draw from frag mentary and ill-digested data. The Germans knew' about African slavery in America, they knew' about lynchings, they had heard about spo radic race wars in localities, they had been informed of social discrimina tion against the black man. They put all these things together, had no understanding whatever of many other things connected wdth the re lations of the white and black races in this country, and concluded the black w'as politically inflammable. Why, they might with more chance of success tried to array an equal number of native American white people against the government. It is doubtful if any element of the American population would more w'armly resent the implications in this undei-taking. The Negro is of old American stock. He loves the land, notwithstanding all he has borne and all he bears, as some white men do not. It is his country and his government, and often have the Negroes, individually and in masses, touchingly exhibited their loyalty.—Omaha Sunday World-Her ald. “CAPTURED” GERMAN SHIPS (Baltimore, Md.) When the Customhouse officials, employes, United States Marshal Stockham and the police seized the three interned German steamships at Locust Point early Friday of last week, a few of the Colored employes of the customs service accompanied them. It was a novel experience for the men, but each did his duty in a manner that was praiseworthy. The Colored men in the seizin? party included: Wilbert James Henry, William Adams, William 0. Wilson, Walter Green, James B. Briscoe, Thos. Tinsley, Albert Ross, Thomas Wheat ley and Cornelius Burton. W'ill N. Johnson, Lawyer, 109 So. 14th Street. Douglas 5841. [amusing the COLORED BROTHER (Desert News.) It is not at all a perverted impulse, indeed it is one that is quite human, to desire to do that particular thing which the law may have forbidden when the conscience tells one that the act itself is not wrong. The mere fact that the law assumes to apply coercion and punishment in a matter where the person feels him self clearly within his rights, natur ally stimulates him to increased ac tivity in defying it. Had the right never been assailed or called in question, the probability is that in many cases it would never have been exercised. The attempt to enforce a question able statute in South Carolina is producing exactly the results above suggested, in the case of the exodus of numbers of Negroes to the North. This movement in several of the Southern States has been previously noted and commented upon in these columns, and it takes on a new in terest by reason of the attempt now being made to invoke the law’s aid to limit it, so far as the state named is not in itself forbidden or inter fered with, but there is a provision under which those who solicit them to leave the state are punishable. Two Negroes have recently been arrested for the “offense” of persuading about 60 of their race to move out of the state; and the result is, as any one might have anticipated, that the emi gration has at once assumed larger proportions than ever. Besides the feeling that there is something thrill ing in defeating the intent of a re strictive law and getting away with it, there is the perfectly natural re belliousness against being restrained in freedom of proper action. The more determined the officials to com pel the would-be travelers to stay at home, the more keenly resolved they are to go when they please. It is improbable that such a law can ever be sustained if brought in a test case before the country’s high courts. The Constitution guaran tees certain individual rights among which may be considered the right of the citizen to contract wherever he pleases for his own labor, and to the citizen of each state all the priv ileges and immunities of the several states. The sooner the South Caro lina officials take cognizance of the fact, and either repeal or forget the existence of their remarkable statute, the less trouble they will make for their commonwealth and the fewer the halos of heroism with which the escaping “undergrounders” will glee fully adorn themselves withal. TWO NEW NEGRO REGIMENTS Word reached the war department at Omaha last week that two new Negro regiments will be formed, one cavalry and one infantry, and that recruiting for said new regiments begins at once. NATIONAL NEGRO HEALTH WEEK Next Sunday is Negro Health Sun day and with it Negro Health Week begins. The National Negro Business league and the Tuskegee Negro Con ference for 1917 are jointly respon sible for Negro Health Week. The 1917 Negro Conference specialized in discussion of Negro health and got squarely behind the proposal for Negro Health Week previously made by the business league. The Colored people all over the na* tion are asked to unite in observing National Health Week in the belief that in carrying out the suggestions outlined in a booklet issued by the committee which is managing the week they wil be doing the best pos sible service to themselves and to the race. The program is as follows: 1. Move out and burn up all un necessary rubbish, unused old cloth ing, and waste. Take all the fumish ngs out of the house and sun them for a day. 2. Brush down the walls and ceil ings. Scrub the floors and unpainted woodwork with strong lye and hot water. 3. Paint or whitewash. Sun well. 4. Clean up the yards. Whitewash the fences. Add one quart of salt to five gallons of whitewash. 5. Repair the stable, barn and hen house. Whitewash. Clean out all filth. 6. Look after the ceilings and wells and make sanitary the toilets at the school houses and churches. TO BEGIN ON $150,000 BUILDING St. Louis, Mo.—Work will soon be gin on a $150,000 building for the Colored Y. M. C. A. It will be four stories high, contain one hundred bedrooms, gymnasium, baths, read ing rooms, cafeteria and recreation quarters. One of the largest Col ored contributors to the project are Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Malone, who have paid in a 5,000 contribution. This is believed to be the largest single subscription ever contributed by a member of the race for a Col ored institution. PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD PROVIDES COMFORTABLY FOR NEGRO LABOR Houses Over Some 200 Colored La borers From the South. Jersey City, N. J.—The old Penn sylvania railroad station in Jersey City has been turned into a dormitory to house some 200 laborers of that company. Comfortable beds have i been supplied, together with shower | baths and other facilities for the com fort and health of the workers. The men are said to be contented with their surroundings and are pro nounced by the railroad officials to be of unusually good character and to be giving satisfactory results. They are paid from $12 to $15 per week. *••••♦• • .— * >v _4 White Borax. Beat for the Will Not Laundry UmmUmLm!JKnrtJji Injure ~9 9mCumh/ SctpCaOmtluim* or Hands or Kitchen. Clothes. ktowtowimcYSoKP.