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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1918)
I 1 'ill * «, TT WHAT IS MOTON’S MISSION?] AMONG the news items released last week for the Negro press was one which, to us, should merit [ a little more than passing notice. The one in question refers to Dr. Rob ert R. Moton’s departure for France to do “morale work over there.” It is specifically stated that Dr. Moton is to visit all of the centers where num bers of supply troops, stevedore regi ments, depot brigades, labor battal ions and combat troops are located, speaking to them and urging in every way that they preserve the good name they have won on the battlefields and in the service in France, that they may not furnish the slightest cause for unfavorable comment or ad verse criticism before they return to | America.” By the way, have any white com missions been sent over to France to bolster up the morale of the white troops and request them to preserve their good name? Knowing the Col ored troops as we do, we can safely say that the Negro never abuses hos pitality and especially such hospitality as the French have shown. We know for a fact that every Colored officer has continually preached to his men from the time they left these shores till now, to preserve their good ndme, their honor and the honor of their race. We know, too, that the men have done so and are doing so new. We see absolutely no necessity for Dr. Moton or any other Negro to g© to France for such a purpose. If the administration deems it an honor to send such a commission, we would like to know wherein the honor lies when the purposes of such a mission are those set out above. To us it appears an insult to the character of I our boys over there and needs some ' explaining. We have a suspicion that the real purpose is to prepare the boys for the change they will en counter when they return from the glorious and hospitable France to the shores of unjust and prejudiced Amer ica. We do not say this is true, but we do have some suspicions about the mission. The morale of our boys is i as high as the morale of the whites ] and doesn’t need the kind of boosting which t]je news item says they are In line for. “AMERICANS OR NOTHING”' UNDER the above caption the Pittsburg Courier, one of the ablest of our many excellent ex changes, publishes a sensible editorial concerning the ill-advised suggestion of sending a Colored American rep resentative to the peace conference. We agree fully with our contempor ary in the position which it takes and states so clearly in the following words: We are hearing a great deal about sending delegates to the peace con ference to present some claims for the American Negro. At one time, it was thought that we should have a spokesman at the conference. That thought died its natural death long ago. And why should we send delegates to the world’s peace conference? We are citizens of the United States. We are American citizens, or nothing. We have been so by constitutional amendments. Our position was made j all the more secure by the recent se lective draft law which included us among all other Americans made sub ject to its provisions. We are sim ply Americans. When our country entered the war, we entered it. When our country be came a member of the allies, we be came a member of the allied forces. We simply follow our government. What else can we do ? Peace for our country means peace for us. As a member of the allies, our gov ernment will sit at the peace confer ence. When our government takes its seat at the peace table, it will do so fo» every American. Our country’s representation is our representation at the conference. We can have no other; and we should ask no other. To ask any other representation is to denounce our citizenship. Who ever speaks for America, speaks for us. Whatever is granted America is granted us. It is impossible to be considered as a separate people as long as we are citizens of these United States. We are either a part of the country, we are either citizens— American citizens, or we are nothing. Those who desire to send a dele gation to the peace conference have not stopped to consider in what ca paeity delegates would go. What could they represent? Our country is already represented. What are we going for? Save the money for home consumption; we shall have need for it here. PREPARE YOURSELF TVTE take this occasion to call upon VT all our readers and friends to prepare themselves for the industrial crisis which seems about to overtake this country. A year ago we were told that the various war industries were so built that when the war was over, their vast number of employees would be kept busy in the manufac ture of other commercial lines. Now we are brought suddenly fact to face with the problem that this is imprac ticable and that something like $,000, 000 men will be thrown out of em ployment. Couple with this the Tact that we have .*2,000,000 soldiers who will return to civil life, and you will readily understand that America is facing the greatest labor problem in its entire history. Already the por tents looming above the industrial j horizon are not favorable. An over-j supply of labor means cheap labor j and the attitude of labor in the Unit- i ed States is that it will not stand for i cheaper labor unless the cost of liv- j ing is materially decreased. Hence! we must understand that we face a' real menace. In most industrial readjustments of this kind the Negro always suffers and we cannot be too insistent when j we warn our men to make the best; of present conditions so that any j change?will not find them helpless and penniless. Save your money and pre-! pare for whatever is to come. We j trust that coming conditions will not work us harm-, but there is nothing like being prepared for them. That is why we bring this matter to your notice. THE STREET CAR STRIKE OMAHA is experiencing the un pleasantness and inconvenience of a street car strike. The people so far as taking it patiently and good naturedly. It is the wise thing to do; but patience, we take it, will soon cease to be a virtue. The strike should be settled and the public relieved from the hardships it is enduring. These hardships press hardest upon the working classes. While our sympathy generally goes out to the workers rather than to the corporations, in the present case it seems to us that the street car com pany has more of right on its side than have the striking car men, whose chief grievance, according to their ac credited spokesmen, seems to be the refusal of the company to recognize the union. It is claimed by the com pany that this demand is a violation of the agreement entered into a few months ago on the award of the war board. This agreement was to con tinue until the end of the war. The war is not yet over and will not be over >ntil the peace treaty is signed. Whatever grievance the car men may have against the company could Ire and should be settled by arbitra tion. We think the strikers are at this time in the wrong. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT HE MONITOR announces with pleasure that the talented news paper writer, a former Omahan, Wal ter J. Singleton, has consented to be our Washington correspondent. Read ers of The Monitor will enjoy Mr. Singleton’s weekly letters from the national capital. Look for the first one next week. FOR JUSTICE TO AFRICA IN a small quarterly leaflet issued by the Church Prayer League of the American Episcopal church, we note parts of two prayers which are encouraging and very suggestive of the broad spirit of Christian fellow ship pervading the great American church. They are as follows: “Let us [fray earnestly that the German colonies of Africa may not be used merely as pawns in the set tlement of peace. Let us pray that the true welfare of Africa and the Africans may be considered.” “Let us pray that we may strive to know in practice as well as in theory the meaning of true democ racy.* The leaflet is issued by the worn an’s auxiliary and it goes to prove that not only we, but others are thor oughly alive to the probable destiny of Africa and that it is desired that its exploitation cease and the na tives be given a chance in the world. GETTING THE MOST Ol’T OF LIFE SOMEONE has said that a happy home is the most that one can get out of life. Isn’t that enough? Could one wash for more? Hardly. A happy home cannot be anything but a reflection of the success one is having outside the home. It is the most that one can get out of life and it should be. Strive to make home happy and the rest will be easy. No man or woman or child ever loved an unhappy home. It is not human to do so. Home should be where the heart is and ever let your heart be there. If your home is not as happy as you would like it, make it so. You will always find wife and chil dren anxoius and willing to help in the readjustment of home so as to make it a pleasant place to live in. You ened only prove that your sin cerity is real and all will help. A smile, kind words, gentle remon strance for the things that might be done better, praise for the things well done, helpful advice for greater things to be done, and the way is cleared. Make your home happy, because it is true that most any of us can get out of this life is a happy home. WYOMI NG’S IG NOMINY WYOMING has had another lynch ing. This time the victim was a Negro, who had killed a switch man and wounded another railroad man. For this crime a mob of 500 took the prisoner and hanged him. In other words, instead of there be ing one murderer in Green River, Wyoming, who should have and would have been punished for his crime, now there are 500; for every one who participated in the lynching is as red-handed a murderer as was Woodson. It is to be regretted that the south’s favorite sport is finding favor in Wyoming. HEAD OF THE RED CROSS THE local chapter of the Red Cross is to be congratulated upon hav ing as its head Robert Cowell, who has the confidence, esteem and affec tion of all who know him. In civic spirit, catholic sympathies, marked ability and broad-mindedness, Robert Cowell is easily Omaha’s first citizen. Whatever hjs band finds to do he does it with all his might. THE CHRISTMAS ROLL CALL THE Christmas roll call is on. Our people covered themselves with glory in Red Cross membership last Christmas. Let every one renew his membership. SKITS OF SOLOMON The Street Car Strike THE citizens of Omaha, U. S. A., woke up Wednesday about work time to find that they had to go back to their old reliable dogs for transportation to their places of coin grabbing. The street car nestled in the barns and refused to budge. The taxi drivers grabbed opportunity by the nose and began shaking the shekal tree. There’s nothing dramat ic about a street car strike, except the crying of your dogs and then that isn’t drama. It's tragedy. Nobody cares two whoops in the hereafter whose fault it is that the juice won’t carry the cars: what they want to do is to see them running. The shrimps that brought on the transpor tation quietude ought to be tarred and feathered, because shoes cost more than car fare. This labor agi tation is getting on our nerves and if it keeps up it is only greasing the chute the chutes for old muny owner ship, the friend of the peepul and nightmare of the corporations. Con sidering that walking develops the muscles and frightens the flu, wo ought to be sort of prayerful that the strike is dn, but too much per ambulating on the city streets is sort of monotonous. We don’t want this strike to become a high tension per formance and as dangerous as cyan ide solutions, but we do wish that labor would suffer a fatty degenera tion of ideals. Mr. Public Peepul is the guy that gets it in the neck and our neck is getting tender. Hurry up with the S. O. S. f Obvious Observations 1 OH! Oh! these dogs of mine. They certainly do worry me all the time! Don’t you wish you owned seven taxis? That League of Nations proposi tion is getting some terribul jolts, ain’t it, Mabul ? Why doesn’t somebody suggest a peace conference at the city hall? Mighty fine weather for old Decern. Just hope winter will dis appoint us and keep it up. Are you looking over The Monitor advertisers for Xmas buying? It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good. The car strike has got the .■d oemaker smiling. The papers are saying that Eng land doesn't love us so much after all. We told you so. Never thought there were so many buzz wagons in Otnyhaw, did yuh? Have you paid for your paper, Genevieve? We don’t like to ask you for the money, but we need it muchly. What is egg-nog without the kick ? Dam a dry town! Thanking you kindly for your close attention to this nothing in partic ular, we will now proceed to blow our the gas and climb into the hay. IE YOl RUN RISKS, TAKE THEM A Bit of African Folklore A sheep and a dog were in the con stant habit of stealing into a man’s yard and feasting themselves on what they could find there. Occosionally the n.an saw them, and then he fell upon them with a stick. On these occasions the sheep would only grunt quietly and move slowly' off, but the dog would run off yelping vigorously. So the sheep said to the dog, “If ymu can’t stand a blow or two why do you come into the yard at all ? What is the good of shouting bow-wow-wow! just because you are receiving the penalty which you knew was to be expected? If you cannot accept the punishment why do you run the risk of it?”—Bruce Grit. NOTICE FROM THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD CO. i The Union Pacific railroad has re quested The Monitor to inform all families who have relatives in the war, j that should they need any assistance during the winter to bring the mat ter immediately to the notice of Mr. ■ H. A. Hanson, superintendent of the commissary' department. The Union i Pacific has opened this relief depart- ! ment especially for families of its i former employees who are now serv- ! ing in behalf of the nation, and does not want these families to feel that assistance is mere charity. It is an obligation which the company wishes to assume in view of the faithful serv ice rendered them by men who are now over there. LLOYD GEORGE ON GER MANY’S AFRICAN COLONIES “When you come to settle who shall ! be the future trustees of these un civilized lands (the German colonies) you must take into account the senti ments of the peoples themselves. What confidence has been inspired in their untutored minds by the German rule of which they have had an ex perience, whether they are anxious to secure the return of their former masters, or whether they would rather trust their destinies to other and juster, and, may I confidently say, ; gentler, hands than those who have had the governing of them up to the present time. The wishes, the desires, j and the interests of the people of 1 these countries themselves must be ; the dominant factor in settling their j future government. That is the prin ciple upon which we are proceeding.’’ j DON’T FORGET! In his proclamation announ cing the signing of the armistice President Wilson said: “My Fellow Countrymen: The armistice was signed this morn ing. Everything forwhich Amer ica fought has been accomplish ed. It will now be our fortunate | duty to assist BY EXAMPLE, ! by sober, friendly counsel, and by neutral aid in the establish ment of just democracy through ! out the world.” Fine words, Mr. President. Don’t forget US and AFRICA! LAST CALL! Uncle Sam says: CONSERVE PAPER and quit sending papers to people who won’t pay. We agree with Uncle Sam and since we have a few deadheads who think The Monitor is as free as air, we are giving them the LAST CALL. Come across with your subscrip tions and if you don’t, don’t worry the telephone by asking why the faithful old postman didn’t bring your Monitor this morning. Uncle Sam means business and so do we! 11 ■ . v • , !! *****-----—....... Simmons Thrills Immense Audience Delivers Eloquent Masterpiece Defin ing Hopes of the Race. Continued From Last Week - I United Stales Leader of World. In less than a century and a half, as a country, and in less than a century as a nation, the United States assumes the leadership of the world. Washington is now capital not alone of the Western Hemisphere, but of the continents of men. The robes of justice have been placed by the unerring hand of fate in ■ our keeping. From embittered empires across the | sea peace fled to these shores like a ' wounded and weary dove seeking rest in the shade of a great rock in a ' strange land. But a decade ago we bore the scorn ' of titled paupers, who lacked both the 1 gold that springs from honest toil, the imagination that creates a civilization and the character that sustains the purpose of the human mind. Unmortgaged to a Throne. Two thousand years from Nazareth, and countless seasons from the courts | of human wisdom, and yet humanity, \ feasting on the delights of my native land, gaze for the first time on a home of liberty unmortgaged to a throne. “Step by step since time began We see the steady gain of man.” And so it is with us, for step by step we have advanced from an anxious re public resting on the foundations of human bondage to a nation of almost universal brotherhood. And not one of our valleys is hiding place for a slave. "When Freedom on her natal day, Within her war-rocked cradle lay, An iron lace around her stood; Baptized her infant brow in blood, And through the storm which round her swept. Their constant ward and watching kept.” Fought for the Land of Freedom. The American white man may boast J that he returns victor from the field 1 upon which he fought for the land of I freedom. I will listen to his story, and, ! if needs be, I will tell it for him in my i feeble way. And yet I must answer for the bet ter part. Mine are returning from the same field, no less victors, and with a brighter story’ to tell, for while the chief of Americans fought for the land ' of freedom, mine were alone in the fight for the land that gave them free lish, to the latest, in which the gallant dom. I will not speak of others, but of mine only at this moment. I will speak words of patience, for patience has not yet murmured that her work is done. I will not be bitter. I will not play the braggart with a record of gold. I will counsel the sons of all my hopes returning to the bosom of worn fathers and the tears of weary moth ers to use soft and not grievous words. Knock, I will say to them, not on his great falling-down, but on the golden heart of the chieftain. Case for the Negro. I appear for the reckoning. Lot me state my case, while the courts of men are open. I will wait on the verdict. Is not my title clear? Are not my hands clean ? Whatever I have been told to do, I have done. Whenever I have been called, ask the timekeeper if I have answered or sulked. While in chains Washington called to me. I came to him on the run, with bloodhounds at my heels. Search the records. Washington took the sword and opened the fur rows. With trembling hand I dropped the seed of liberty. My tears watered the land; time worked the crop; Lin coln laid it by. Let me inquire, under God, what of the harvest ? Are the exhibits demanded? I will speak on. Exhibits In the Case. ' We can read and write, and cipher, too. We can sing both native and songs of Zion, and when we sing there is no other music. Note cur wealth. It mounts to the mark of the billion. I urge all to con sider that it grew not by eagles, but by pennies that were moulded to suit the need of poverty. See the spires on my church, humble temples of faith, and note that re ligion always feels at home in the presence of the American Negro. Examine the tax books. The names of a million Negroes will be found there. Do I understand that the ver dict may be that the fathers'may bear the burden of government, but the children may not share in the honors of government? Then search the records of all the wars, from the first in which the American white man refused the sword as he had the letter of the Eng (Continued on Page 8) NORTH SIDE BOOSTERS Chairs Sergt.-Major E. W. Killingsworth R. C. Price At 0. T. Camp Pike, Ark. At Home on the Job The Aiaino Barber Shop and Pocket Billiard Parlor The best equipped shop in the state. Leading shop of the city. Baths, plain and shower. Cultured barbers. KILLINGSWORTH & PRICE, Props. R. I). Jackson, Foreman. Phone Webster 5784. 2416 North 24th Street. X UNCLE SAM NEEDS OUR MEN. LET THE j PORO SYSTEM ? X TAKE CARE OF YOU * r ti X % PBM SJJireM | IPORO SYSTEM COMPANY f SAINT LOUIS, MO. | Dept. U | GOOD GROCEBIES ALWAYS. “» C. P. 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