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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1918)
THE MONITOR A Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests of the Colored People of Nebraska and the West, with the desire to con tribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the community and of the race. Published Every Saturday. Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 1, 1916. at the Post Office at Omaha. Neb., under the act of March 3, 1879 THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor and Publisher. Lucille Skaggs Edwards and William Garnett Haynes, Associate Editor*. George Wells Parker. Contributing Editor. Bert Patrick, Business Manager. Fred C. Williams, Traveling Representative SUBSCRIPTION RATES, 81.90 PER YEAR Advertising Rates, 60 cents an Inch per Issue. Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha. Telephone Webster 4243. LET THE PRESIDENT SPEAK MANY are trying to lay the crime of lynching of Colored Americans to German propaganda. We are told that the alarming growth in mob murders of Negroes must be part of Germany’s plan to sway Colored Americans from their loyalty to the United States and break the morale of the Colored troops. Well, we desire to sound the note of warning that if the government of the United States does not do something to stop the murdering of Colored Americans, not by GERMANS, but bv AMERICAN mobs, the result will be just what Germany desires. The claim that Germans are respon sible for these frequent lync rings is absurd. This sport and pastime, so popular in certain sections of this country, began many years aeo, vhen America was on most friendly terms with Germany. It has been permitted to continue until the present. No, these lynchers are not Germans, but Americans. During the last few months lynch ing has risen to the high water-mark. Within one week Georgia alone mur dered eight Colored American citi zens, accused of crime, one of the number being a woman who “made in ■ iscreet remarks” about the murder ing of her husband. Because of this she was hanged by a mob of white* Christians (?) in Georgia and her body riddled with bullets. And yet not one word of protest falls from the lips of those in authority; nor is any sin cere effort made to bring these en lightened savages of “the superior race” to justice. “Bleeding Belgium” justly awakens our sympathy, albeit suffering for the sins of their fathers, who had no pity upon the people of the Congo, and the president of the United States is right in his appeal for the amelioration of conditions there. But why is he so silent about the sufferings, injustices and mob murders against the black people of America? If Germany be attempting to alien ate Colored Americans from their al legiance to their country there is the greater reason for President Wilson speaking out in trumpet tonfes that he disapproves of the violence against Colored citizens of America and will recommend such legislation as will eradicate this evil. There is a large number in the South who believe that when the dem ccrats are in power they have license to do what they please. If you would seek the real cause of the increase in Negro lynchings in the South today you will find it in this sentiment which prevails among the ignorant white rabble of that section. This sentiment must be changed. The only way in which it can be changed is by the president of the United States and those in authority with him speaking out in no uncertain tones. But so long as he and others persist in their si lence it will be taken for granted b> the rabble that he does not condemn but condones, and mob violence will increase until it invites disaster to our nation. Let the president speak out as bold ly against American atrocities as he has against Armenian, Turkish and Hun atrocities, and America’s re proach will be rolled away. VICE IS VICE, DOCTOR DR. MANNING, the new' health commissioner, has been quoted twice recently in the public press as drawing an invidious distinction be tween white prostitutes and Colored prostitutes. From his alleged remarks it would seem that white prostitutes are superior to their sinning sisters in black. This is the viewpoint, of course, of the average white man. He rea sons that somehow even in vice there i. a wonderful distinction between the two races. But prostitution is pros titution. A white prostitute is just as much of a menace to the health and morals of a community as a black prostitute. One is as bad as the other or as good as the other. Each should be dealt with after the same manner. Every effort should be made to re claim both. Dr. Manning is in mighty poor business when he attempts to imply that “Negro prostitutes” are a menace to the “morality” of white women and girls of the same class. Omaha’s new health commissioner wants to cut this kind of stuff out. Vice is vice. Dr. Manning. AVOIDING BITTERNESS TE have a constant fear that our people will lose what we con sider one of our chief glories, the power of bearing suffering patiently and without emhitterment. Many, of course, regard this as an element of weakness, but it is not. It is an element of strength. The mani festation of patience is always the mark of a strong character. It shows will and self-restraint. The man who can suffer wrong without becoming embittered is in finitely superior to him who yields to hate and will in the end triumph over him who manifests hatred. This does not mean that one must not resent wrong, nor contend for his rights. But it does mean that one should always be such a master of himself that he does not permit the latred and ill-will of another to beget l;ke sentiments in his own breast. no Y0l’R BEST “ O YOL’R BEST. LET NO ONE DO BETTER WORK THAN YOU” was the motto which the late Booker T. Washington always kept before his students. This accounts for the spirit of thoroughness and effi ciency which characterizes the grad uates of Tuskegee. And this is the spirit which will make our people or any people forge to the front. Thoroughness is a mark of efficiency, and the world demands efficiency today. Too many of us are too easily satisfied in doing our work simply suffioiently well enough “to get by." This is the wrong spirit. We should all take pride in whatever work we are called upon to do and go at it with the determination that there shall be no one wlA> will do better work than we. Our ambition should be to be the best in our class. WELCOME. SIMMONS 0~ MAHA is to entertain on Monday another distinguished Americar in the person of Colonel Roscoe Conk lin Simmons, one of America’s great est orators. The Auditorium should be crowded to its capacity by mem bers of both races. Wherever Colonel Simmons has appeared he has pro- i foundly moved his' vast audiences by his eloquence. Omaha is to be con- i gratulated upon the opportunity of hearing him and should turn out en masse. Welcome, Colonel Simmons. WELCOME, TEDDY TODAY Omaha welcomes that stal wart American, the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, affectionately known as “Teddy.” Welcome, Teddy! thrice welcome to our city! You have no more true or loyal admirers than the j Colored Americans of Omaha, who lcok upon you as a friend. SKITS OF SOLOMON Rain. Rain is water and water is a com bination of two atoms of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen, said com bination forming in such a manner ae to produce a very wet substance. "ftfc \:> * , ■/ IEiiiiJt:-‘-.‘ .•: The Children of the Sun By George Wells Parker In the days gone by when you and I were children, books used to tell us that God had made of one blood all the nations of men and had marked the bounds of their habitations. Un der the influence of this pronounce ment, Africa was given to the blacks, Asia to the yellows and Europe to the whites. Students know better now. The idea still holds that all races may have sprung from one original race, but their habitations were never cir cumscribed. Long before the yellow, or Semetic races, ever reached Asia, the blacks were there before them and founded great civilizations, civ ilizatiors which have contributed im measurably to the intellects of the world. When other races invaded these parts they met the blacks, fought them and, if they did not con quer them, remained there to mingle and form a new type. It is to this mergence that Frederick Ratzel in his History of Mankind, refers when he says, “What further contributes to make the Negro physiognomy less strange, and to bring it nearer to our wonted conceptions, is that in many of its manifestations, an approach to the Semetic type unmistakably pre vails, such as one may often call Jew ish in character. There is some foun dation for the view that in the Sem etic type of Jew, the Arab, the Syrian, and so on, there is also an underly ing Mulatto type. There is a germ of truth in it.” This germ of truth springs ft-om the fact that originally Asia hvas peopled with black races. In the great Mesopotamian Valley where ex isted the great civilizations of Baby lon and Chaldea, and also in Persia and Assyria, we find evidences of a great prehistoric race known as Su merian and Elamite. While it ap pears that their cultures were a little different, they were both black races. They created the civilizations of these regions. Scholars are just beginning tc explore the ancient homes of these peoples and the more they explore the more they begin to realize that what once was the glory- of the Semite is now the glory of the African. Science and the knowledge of the stars, the great mystic religions, the art of writ ing, the beginnings of philosophy, and > the development of art, all had their beginnings in Asia and in Africa. In one of my preceding articles I told you about the discovery of the famous Tel-el Amama Letters discov ered at Memphis in 1871. In these letters it was discovered that Egypt held communication with these Asiatic powers, formed treaties, intermar riages. and all other formalities which naturally leads one to two conclusions; first, that these nations must have been of kindred blood, and, secondly, that they were civilized and powerful. No nation forms treaties with a weak nation. They conquer them. Among scientists it has been the habit to accept religion as a test of race. This habit has been responsible i for the classification of nearly all the great races of antiquity as Semetic. They argue that because all these na tions worshipped similar deities, they must have all been kin. Today the er ror of this method is becoming clear. The more we study Asia and the more we dig among her ruins, the more we become convinced that the Semetic peoples are largely mulatto peoples, peoples who are the result of black races blending with lighter ones. One noted authority boldly denies the au thority of religion as a test of race in the following forceful words: “From the many chants from the services of Nippur which are known to have been borrowed by the Semites, not one has been changed by Semitic schoolmen, so far as the words are concerned. And not only did the Sumerian create these chants and fix the forms of the. services, but they originated every great theological doctrine which the Semites themselves confessed. In thi matter of public services Babylonian religion cannot be regarded as Se metic in any sense. I have no doubt but that in the excavations in Semetic centers such as Nippur, Ashur, Ar bela and Ninevah, may yield many more texts of this kind, but they, like those we already know, are sure to be composed in sacred Sumerian. In a measure this is unfortunate for it if gradually removing Assyria from the discipline of Semetic studies. Only let us recognize the Babylonian re ligion in all its essential literary forms and doctrines is decidedly anti semetic and we shall avoid much mis understanding among ourselves." I want you, reader, to read again , these lines and let the truth sink into your minds. We have no American books and journals to herald these facts abroad. The American white man is still tied to the idea that the | dark races are inferior and capable j of little culture. He docs not welcome j any news that will conflict with this j opinion. We must secure the truth ■ ourselves and the truth is always somewhere for us to find. Before I shall have finished these articles, 1 shall bring you many surprises. The Babylonians, Assyrians, Jews, Hindu" Hittites and Persians, were all either African or of African descent. We will find too, that it appears that the African blood has always been the ferment that has raised savage tribes into civilized nations. There are no pure races that have ever amounted to anything in human history. You will find, too, that every great religion the world has ever known was birthed by peoples of African blood. Christianity, Buddhism, Mohammed hm, all trace their beginnings back to founders of African blood and mor'1 deeply true is this of all ancient re ligions. No race can lay claim to i such glory as can the African race and when the truth is known, as it must be known some day, all other races will bow to it, not because they wish, but because truth is a tyrant that admits of no falsity. « Water can also form snow, ice. hail,; and help out the milkman and boot- j Itgger on sundry occasions. Like all the other good things of life, there are [ times when we need rain and times when we don’t need it. When we need it we need it muchly and when we don’t need it we don’t need it in the tame degree of muchliness. The only trouble with the meteorological con ditions manufacturing rain is that they are likely to slip us a bunch any old time. Just now we are getting j about as much rain as did Mr. Noah j when he started out on his famous cruise. A month ago the farmerr ; claimed that if they didn't get some : rain their crops were gone; now they claim that if the clouds don’t stop weeping the crops are going anyway. Between farmers and rain and crops you will worry’ yourself into the bug- , house, if you are a grain broker or , if you pay any attention to them. The best thing to do is to let it rain. You have to do it anyway, because no one has yet invented a way to reg- I ulate the rainfall as you regulate the shower bath. When rain makes up its mind to come down it comes down and doesn’t come up. Rain has a very urgent attraction for straw hats, tem porary dyes in ladies’ dresses and hand-me-down suits. Weeds, also, have a very deep appreciation of rain. If flowers cared as much for rain as weeds do, then every woman would see her rose bush grow’ as big as a maple tree in a few weeks’ time. Rain is also good to clean streets when the city forgets it. Rain is also a good things for concerts, picnics and out ings when your wife wants to go and you don’t, but it is heaven’s opponent when you want to see that ball game. MONEY Someone once said that money w-at the root of all evil, but he forgot to add that it is also the root of mo.^t good. Civilization could not exist without money. The socialists claim that it can and under their guidance Russia tried it. Russia is almost a ruin. The value of money depend, upon the mind that manages it. If you wish money for money’s sake, if you wish money so that you may laud K over your less fortunate brother, if you want money so that j ou may j 1 ope to gain power and influence, it is best that you never have it. But i) you want money to help yourself and your loved ones on to increased happiness, money to beautify and make lovelier your home, money to bring pleasure into your life and the i dull lives of others, then it is meet | and right that you should strive to make it. Most things in this world are right or wrong only by reason of the psychology that lies behind the motive of securing it. America is called a money mad country, but sift everything down and one will find that this statement is untrue. The American lives better than any other citizen in the world and it is because he has a keener sense of values, a neeper appreciation of the meaning of life. He believes in happiness and U attain happiness he must have some thing to help happiness. This dors not mean that money is absolutely es sential to happiness. Happiness is a condition of the mind, but one of the essentials of a calm mind is to be be yond the pinch of necessity and the harrowing cry of want. Labor is necessary to happiness and labor de mands compensation. Labor deserves reward and its greatest reward is ir the realization of some of the com forts of life. oS do not be afraid to want money in order that you may at tain the better things of life that money will bring. In this there is no sordidness, no greed, no evil. It is an aspiration that should live in the heart of every honest man and woman. Patronize those who advertise with us and tell them you saw their ad in The Monitor. Our advertisers arc your best friends. Let’s all pull to gether. ! _ Obvious Observations ■ ■ — ■" ■ i The only thing we don’t like about this war is that we talk about win ning it in periods of years and Ger many talks in periods of months. Have you seen anything of the sun lately? The South is still lynching and shooting Colored people so that th< world may be safe for democracy. Mr. Fred Williams, the hustling traveling correspondent for The Mon itor, writes that he is getting well and fat and ready to travel again It’s a great advertisement for a news paper to have a fat agent. Most newsnaper agents are lean and hun gry. It was good of The Bee to tell the public so much about our bo>s. Most I other papers cultivate the science of silence when it conies to giving the Colored boys a few posies. Clear the track for Roscoe Conkl'n R'mmons! He is the word-jugi'ling est guy that ever stood up beside a table with a pitcher of ice water and a glass on it. Omaha’s citizens are expecting a cyclone to emit from the city hall almost any time. Have you paid your taxes yet? When you start, be sure to have some cr.e help you tote your pocket book. Taxes are aviating in the same ship with Mr. Eats. June always has been a nice month to pay up your subscription. Thanking you for your most gen erous attention, we will now mop our Jovian brow and trot around the cor ner for 4 bucket of near beer. ~- - We appreciatecvour trade and our prices please you! Decorated with the Croix du Guerre for bravery in the trenches and winning the International Prize for the World’s Record in ship riveting, the Colored American has reason to feel proud of his part in the great world war. And this is but the beginning. PURCHASE WISELY Thomas Kilpatrick & Co. _* _ Join the Colored Liberty Drive , Under the auspices of the National Colored Liberty Conference, a Na tional Colored Committee formed in Boston, June 13, 1917, a NATIONAL COLORED LIBERTY CONGRESS FOR A SHARE IN THE WORLD DEMOCRACY will be held at WASHINGTON, I). C., JFNE 21-27, 1918 Permanent Organization Will Be June 24th. In John Wesley Zion Church, 14th and Corcoran St., N. W. THE OBJECT To present to the U. S. Congress and the National Government the claim of Colored Americans to share in the World Democracy, and to seek guarantees of abolition of civil and political disabilities. DELEGATES Every Colored American in accord with THE OBJECT is eligible. 1 Colored churches and fraternal, civic, business, literary and other organizations are invited to send special delegates. ESPECIALLY are citizens, ministers and laymen urged to form a Liberty and Equal Bights Committee, to send delegates through mass meetings or city elections. Delegate fee, one dollar. ACCOMMODATIONS Address Maurice W. Spencer, Chairman Local Committee of Ar rangements, 1005 Thirteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C., or Rev. W. C. Brown, Chairman Entertainment Committee, Pastor John Wesley Church. N ATI O N A L HE A DCJI A RT ERS Further information can he secured from Itev. A. C. Powell, Pres ident, 227 W. 136th St., New York City, or from the National Ex ecutive Headquarters, 34 Cornhill, Boston, Mass. Send donations for expenses of convention to Rev. D. S, Klugn, Treasurer. Send officers of Liberty Committees and names of Dele gates to Win. Monroe Trotter Exec. Secretary; for speaking dates address Prof. Allen W. Whaley, National Organizer, 34 Cornhill, Boston. LEST WE FORGET Colored Americans are the only rare-group in any country fight ing Germany who are now proscribed. They are the only race-group which has not made united and formal demand for full rights. “Ask and it shall be given unto you,” saith th(* Scriptures. On to Washington, Colored Americans, while our boys are dying in Flanders and our women are being lynched in the U. S. A. I • i 4— « » .. Trade at the Washington Market The Most Sanitary and Up-to-Date Market in the Middle West. Visit Our Branch at the McCrory 5c and 10c Store in the Basement. Washington Market 1407 DOUGLAS STREET Star Furniture Co. Sacrifice prices on («as Stoves and Ice Boxes. Furniture at very low prices. Very easy terms. Cash or Terms. H. NICHOLS, Prop. WEBSTER 3fi61 1504 NORTH 24TH ST. Warden Hotel On Sixteenth Street at Cuming. STEAM HEATED ROOMS—HOT AND COLD RUNNINQ WATER—BATHS By Day for One.50c, 75c, $1.00 By Day for Two. .$1.00. $1.25, $1.50 By Week .$2.00 to $4.50 BILLIARD PARLOR IN CONNECTION FOR GENTLEMEN WHO CARE EASY WALKING DISTANCE TO HEART OF CITY Douglas 6332. Charles H. Warden, Proprietor. -BUY THRIFT STAMPS