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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1919)
[ — i The Monitor i —■ i A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS. *'<>, & THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor -------—---- *'// $2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy _OMAHA. NEBRASKA. AUGUST 14, 1919_Vol. V. No ’^holc No. 215) v Pioneer Infantry Bury 21,000 U. S. Soldiers Rumored Ragsdale Was Riot Leader South Carolina Congressman Was Un friendly to Race; Lost Life Leading Washington Riot Is Report From Xatiouul Capital. OPPOSED EDUCATION OF COLORED FOLK One of His Latest Acts in Congress Was to Have Provision For Howard University Stricken From Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill. (Special to The Monitor.) WrASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 13.— Vl While there is some mystery sur rounding the death here of Congress man J. Willard Ragsdale of South ■' Carolina, who died during the recent race riots, there are persistent rumors that will not down that he owes his death to participating as a leader in the riots. It is positively stated by those in a position to know that Con gressman Ragsdale was wounded when leading a mob and subsequently died from his wounds. One report was that he died with heart failure in the house office building; another that he died at his residence. One fact is indis putable, he is dead, and there seems to be a disposition to surround his death with a veil of mystery. He was noted for his unfriendly at titude toward the Colored race and was an outspoken opponent of higher education for this people, maintaining that education was not the solution of the race problem, but only intensified it. Among his last acts in congress was the raising of a point of order on Howard university appropriation bill, which caused it to be stricken from the sundry civil appropriation bill. GOVERNMENT TO DETERMINE CAUSE OF RECENT RACE TROUBLE \T7TASHINGTON, Aug. 13. —The YV widespread race riots in various parts of the United States are under investigation by the United States government. Trusted agents of the Department of Justice and other governmental or ganizations are endeavoring to deter mine exactly what is behind the spread of assault and murder throughout the northern states. The situation admittedly is very' serious. Starting here in Washington there have been race clashes in a dozen other localities, culminating in the present rioting in Chicago. Scope of Inquiry The inquiry now under foot is de signed to determine these facts: First—Whether there actually exists a regularly organized body whose ob ject is to stir up racial hatred in order to emphasize apparent unrest in the United States. Second—Whether there is any con nection between the present series of race riots and the pro-German propa ganda that immediately preceded the entrance of the United States in the war. Third—Whether there is any actual conection between the present race disturbance and the activities of the I. W. W , a score of whose leaders now are under severe prison sentences. Naturally, the officers concerned in the investigation arc not talking for publication. Privately they declare the less said about their work the easier it will be. However, it is generally ac cepted that steps are being taken to combat further spread of the disturb ances. In this connection it is known that the authorities have secured pos session of much important informa tion as the result of the arrest of lead ers of the recent rioting here in Wash ington. YOUNGSTOWN SOLDIERS TAKE OUT CHARTER Install Local Post of Grand Army of Americans With Charter List of Fifty. Youngstown, O., Aug. 13.—A num ber of local Colored men in this city who saw' service in the United States army during the war with Germany took out a charter in the Grand Army of America at a meeting recently. The charter was signed by fifty former soldiers. BISBEE RIOT FOMENTED BY LOC \l OFFICIALS SAYS LIEUT.-COL. SNYDER Responsibility for Trouble Does Not Rest on Tenth Cavalry. NEW YORK, Aug. 10.—A denial that troopers of the Tenth cavalry started a riot in Bisbee, Ariz., on July 3, has been sent by Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Snyder, commanding the regi ment. Colonel Snyder wrote that, after full investigation, he had concluded that local officials had planned de liberately to aggravate the troopers so that they would furnish an excuse for police and deputy sheriffs to shoot them down. He charges that members of the I. W. W. had influence in this plot. According to Colonel Snyder’s ac count the troopers did take a pistol away from a provost guard of the Nineteenth infantry after he had taken a pistol away from a trooper without cause. He says the troopers were culpable in this instance, but in no other. In the confusion that fol lowed, the account says, the civilian officials “then started to take pistols away from the cavalrymen and to as sault and ‘shoot-up’ the soldiers as soon as they disarmed them.” The ac count says that the soldiers gave up their weapons without filing a shot. Colonel Snyder declared that the civilians fired upon soldiers who were riding in automobiles and wounded some of them. He says that affidavits show that civilians made at least four unprovoked assaults on individual troopers, attempted to kill nine by shooting, and robbed one. Several af - davits are cited, one charging that a Mexican woman was shot by a civilian and not by a trooper. There was a de liberate effort to “hunt down the troopers” and kill them, Colonel Sny der charges. The members of the Tenth cavalry had been invited to Bis l>ee to take part in the Fourth of July celebrations. REWARDS OFFERED FOR CONVICTION OF LYNCHERS (By Associated Negro Press.) Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 13.—Rewards ag gregating $1,500 were offered here to day for arrest and conviction of the persons who lynched Bony Washing ton, a 72-year-old Negro, near Milan, Ga., May 26 last. Governor Dorsey offered $1,000 re ward and to this Dr. Floyd McRae, an Atlanta physician, whose family home was in Telfair county, in Vhich Milan is situated, added $500. The governor’s reward provides $500 for the first ar rest and conviction in the case and $100 each for the next five. RACE MAN ONE AMONG SEVENTY-SEVEN TO WIN HIGH HONOR Alston Burleigh, Howard University Student, Holds Ow'd at |{. O. T. C. Camp Devens, Mass.—The com manding officer of the recently held Camp Devens It. O. T. C. infantry camp, Camp Devens, Mass., announces in an official communication the names of certain students from the various colleges and universities of the country who have won approval by exceptional zeal, enthusiasm and apti tude displayed by them in their work at the camp. Out of a list of seventy seven men, representing such institu tions as the University of Maine, St. joiin’s school, Clason Military acad emy, New Bedford High school, New Britain High school, Harvard univer sity, Yale university, New York Mili tary academy, Cornell university, Syracuse university and institutions of that character, the name of Alston Burleigh, a Howard university stu dent, appears. Howard is the only one of the Colored schools whose represen tative won this exceptional mark of approval at Camp Devens. LIEUT. JAMES REESE EUROPE’S SISTER DEAD New York, Aug. 13.—Ida Europe, sister of Lieutenant J imes Reese Eu rope, died July 16 in Lellevue hospital. Her remains were shipped to Wash ington, D. C., for burial in Harmony cemetery. It is a wise policy to remain true and loyal to old friends. j^pHESE riots have a lesson which the whites should take to ^ their souls. It is that each one of us has a responsibility to the community in dealing with our Colored fellow citizens. Every time a white man insults a Negro, every time he con veys by his conduct an overweening sense of his race su periority, he contributes to the cause out of which these race riots have sprung. No race responds so to sympathetic aid as the Negro. No race can lie made as easily to forget or forgive past wrongs by sincere cooperation and protection. William Howard Taft. Lessons from Chicago Race Riots Ex-President Taft Expresses Opinion of Causes Contributing to the Serious Conflict in Illinois Metropolis and Urges Sympa thetic and Intelligent Cooperation; Disapproves Attitude of “Educated Extremists.” _ (From the Chicago Daily News.) The migration of southern Negroes I to northern cities, induced by the pros pect of high wages and stimulated by i southern discrimination in educational facilities and the administration of; justice, has created a congestion and a lack of proper housing in such cities. Then the stories of the treatment of the Colored troops in France, some of them unfortunately tine, have been ! given wide publicity among Negroes in this country. Editorials dwelt on the heartlessness of race antagonisms that were active even when Negroes were shedding their life’s blood for tlieir country. Negro leaders are divided into two c lasses. There are those who feel as deeply as they can the injustice and heart misery arising from race preju dice, and they would restrain as far, | as possible by legisation and executive | action such injustice. But they be-1 lieve that the real way to ameliorate j conditions is to educate the Negro for life by vocational and character train j ing, and by thus increasing his value to his community and himself to mod erate and neutralize the prejudice. They deprecate much the inflaming of the souls of Colored men against the white race, even when there are facts justifying indignation and a deep sense of wrong. There are other Negroes, educated men, who with no restraint have pour ed out their agony of soul and sense of outrage in addresses and editorials and roused fellow Negroes as they never have been roused before. The hnchings, those horrible exhibitions of blood lust against which all good peo ple are joihing in apparently hopeless protest, have led to desperation among the blacks. The retired Negro soldier, used to arms, returning from the war environment, resenting the ingratitude he sees in all of this, is prompted to “direct action” to remedy his wrongs. On the other side, among white peo ple, we have those who look with sus picion on any source from which tin supply of labor can be increased. The lower in the scale of intelligence the stronger their feeling against a race they glory in calling inferior. The minute there is an outbreak, the law less and the criminals, coming out into the open like cockroaches at night, join in the quarrel with avidity and divide by color. Thus the riot begin ning in a single quarrel develops for midable proportions. Innocent people of both races, frightened by reports, arm themselves for protection, and we have a situation deplorable, indeed. The evidence seems to show, as is usually the case, that in Chicago the whites were the aggressors in stoning a Negro lad into a watery grave be cause he had passed a supposed line of segregation between white and Negro bathers on a city beach. Soon, how ever, both sides were guilty of lawless assaults and murder. As always, the Negroes suffered most. Dr. Moton, the wise and able head of Tuskegee, anticipating the possibility of such distressing outbreaks, de scribed in a commencement address at Hampton last May a state of things at Birmingham some weeks before. He said that rumors spread that the Ne groes of the neighborhood were get ting aims and drilling with the pur pose of attacking the whites on a cer tain Saturday night. It gave him and others great con cern. They investigated. They could find no basis for the report of such a plan. But they did find that Negroes and white men alike, stirred by the re ports, were arming themselves and that the supply of small arms and ammunition in the shops in Birming ham had been completely exhausted. A committee of leading white men and Colored men met and did everything possible to allay alarm, and the dread ed Saturday night passed without inci dent or outbreak. The number of the dead and wound ed in Chicago should lead the authori ties of every city with congested Ne gro quarters and population to call to gether leaders of both races, who, act ing jointly, should take appropriate measures to stop hysteria, to allay alarm and to arrest loud-mouthed agi tators and criminals before trouble be gins. The editors of the Colored press should be reasoned with to cease pub lishing articles, however true, having inciting effect. The educated extremists among the Negro leaders must certainly see that however great the injustice done to their race through blind prejudice, “direct action” is the worst possible remedy. The more white victims the greater the Colored victims will be, and in the end the feeling out of which this evil has come will be increased and the slow and steady improvement in the agricultural and industrial status of the Negro shown by statis tics will bo obstructed. Such leaders should use every argument to quiet their followers and to condemn fur ther lawlessness as an offset to white outrage. Those who suffer from such riots are often, one might almost say usually, not participants in the fight ing, but bystanders who happen to be in the line of fire, either through un wise curiosity or because they can’t help it. These riots have a lesson which the whites should take to their souls. It is that each one of us has a responsi bility to the community in dealing with our Colored fellow citizens. Every time a white man insults a Ne gro, ever}' time he conveys by his con duct an overweening sense of his race superiority, he contributes to the cause out of which these race riots have come. No race responds so quickly to sympathetic aid as the Negro. No race can be made as easily to forget or for give past wrongs by sincere coopera tion and protection. If this trouble spreads to all the large cities, the' authorities and the prominent and trusted leading citi zens of these cities must have fore sight and take quick action. No doubt must be left of the intention of the city and state to suppress lawlessness. Troops in impressive and overwhelm ing force must be summoned at once. Meantime the joint measures of wise and leading whites and Negroes to give the Negroes to know that the state will protect them and that they are not to be abandoned to the mercy of hoodlums and gunmen will do much by way of prevention. Another lesson of the Chicago riots is in making clear the responsibility of the large employers of labor who in vite southern Negroes into their plants for their proper housing. They owe it to the community in which they live to see to it that they are not thus sowing seed plots of riots and lawless ness in their quest for labor. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 13.—The biennial session of the Supreme Lodge of Knights of Pythias and the Su preme Court of Calanthe, eastern and western hemispheres, will be held here the week beginning August 25. Preaches at Union Vesper Services The Rev. Thomas A. 1 aggart, Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Delivered Admirable Address to Hundreds at Syndicate Park Last Sunday. AN UNUSUAL BUT MERITED DISTINCTION □ANY hundreds of people of both races crowded Sunday evening around the grandstand at Syndicate park. Twenty-first and F streets, to listen to one of the most timely and remarkable addresses ever delivered to an audience of such a character. During the summer months all the various denominations of white churches on the South Side have been holding, instead of their usual serv ices, a vesper service Sunday evenings at Syndicate park. Rev. C. F. Holler, chairman of the committee of ar rangements, announced the services for August 10 in the following man ner: “South Omaha people will reflect credit on themselves by being present on this occasion to hear Rev. Thomas A. Taggart, who has accomplished wonderful things in the building and equipment of the fine Bethel Baptist church, and has gathered into the kingdom of Christ over 800 Negroes. The entire congregations of the vari ous churches are requested to note the change of time to 7:45 sharp and be on time.” The congregations of these various churches were out, and in addition all the members and friends of Bethel Baptist church. The weather was ideal. Underneath the sky and trees the peo ple, with bared heads, worshipped to gether. In the midst of hundreds of both races Rev. Mr. Taggart spoke on the theme, “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” This he handled in his own inimitable fashion. He said: “God made of one flesh all the na tions of the earth to dwell in unity and harmony on the face of His earth, helping each the other as brethren and glorifying Him as Father. It is the thoughts of self that create trouble in the world. The mad, insane rush for money, place and fame that ma)ces us go to any end to get ahead and create false boundaries to aggrandize our selves. “Love of self, self-worship, has caused all the hellishness we have ever known or shall ever know. Let us stop our foolishness and learn to live to gether in unity and peace. Christianity of the head that never reaches the heart is vain, a snare and a pit to him who so deludes himself.” He struck the keynote when, in his message, he mentioned the propa ganda of the press, which keeps stir ring strife among the blacks and whites, by putting out false news and then, after finding the truth, they fail to publish it and keep the public blind. He continued: “We should live as Christians and pray and reason things out without getting our innocent sons and daughters killed while the press which stirred the strife (and those be hind who pay it) sit off and laugh.” He urged his white hearers, who could get nearer the press, to see to it such practice should be stopped. He did not fail to tell his people to put away nonsense and use their brains. Some who heard the sermon came ‘away, saying that they felt that God had sent the message to awaken them to the real tioith of Christian service. Nearly 21,000 Bodies of American Soldiers Were Gathered at the Ar gonne and Buried by the 816th Pio neer Infantry in Largest Military Cemetery in the World. NOT ON THE FIRING LINE, BUT GAVE GOOD SERVICE Composed of September Draftees, This Was One of the “Minute” Trained and Equipped Organiza tions Which Arrived Overseas Shortly Before Armistice Was Signed—Built Railroads and Buried the Dead—Many Nebraskans and W'estern Men in Regiment. BREST, France.—By the time this reaches you the boys are hoping they will be on the seas en route for the United States, for all are anxious to be home again. The 816th Pioneer Infantry is composed largely of west ern men. Several Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota men are in our outfit and all pine for the ozone of our western prairies. Among the Nebraska men are Letcher of Nebraska City; Frank Blackwell, Rufus Long, Cecil Wilkes, Shelley Cook and others from Omaha. What we have been doing is told in the following article from the local press: Dame Fortune did not destine the 816th Pioneer infantry to be a fight ing outfit to come to France to wins its spurs amid shot, shell and machine gun bullets, nor did as much as offer the privilege to members of this or ganization to witness the big game from a distance when the war was on. Afterward, however, the regiment had the opportunity to see the afterglow quite fully and completely. Minute Trained Outfit The 816th, like many of its sister outfits, was one of the “Minute” trained and equipped organizations and was brought up in the states un der the command of Colonel L. A. I. Chapman, formerly of the cavalry, regular army. The men were selected from the September draft, half of which reported for duty to the regi ment two days before October 2, 1918, the time of departure from Camp Funston. Arriving in Camp Upton on October 5, the mad rush for equip ment, inspection and squads east was finally ended and on October 12 the regiment embarked. Life on the rolling sea was none of the expected pleasures of a sea-going voyage, and after 13 days and nights the Ceramic, Baltic and Talthibius, carrying the regiment finally dis charged its cargo in Liverpool on Oc tober 24. Railroad Work. Resting a few days at Camp Knotty Ash, they crossed England and left for France via Le Havre arriving, finally, at Foulain (Meuse). The 816th was attached to the first army and with its sister outfit, the 815th, was almost forgotten in the city of Ver dun after the armistice. Several days later it was assigned to railway work to open the Eix tunnel and rebuild the line from Verdun to Audun, and the line from Verdun to Sedan. February 1 saw the end of railway construction in this area and the regi ment was split, six companies under the command of Major Robert Blaine leaving for the intermediate section. In March the 1st battalion was moved from Verdun to Romagne to work in the cemetery. Argonne Cemetery. When this job was finished the or ganization moved to Romagne and established headquarters, Camp Ro magne. The 816th in company with other organizations, making a total strength of approximately 10,000 men, holds the reputation of being members of the largest undertaking establish ment in the world. To June 30, 20,890 bodies of Amer ican soldiers were gathered from the trees and brush of the Argonne and concentrated in the Argonne cemetery, the largest military cemetery in the world. Will Soon Go Home. While the 816th Pioneer infantry did not appear in action, or even reach the zone of advance until the war was over, it still prides itself on many accomplishments with the pick ami shovel that will last in the memories of the folks at home. It performed a great and important work in the Argonne cemetery, and arriving in Brest on July 6, it hopes to soon say good-bye to France, feeling that it has really done something worth while overseas.