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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1919)
■,l" .. THE MONITOR A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans. Published Every Thursday at Omaha, Nebraska, by The Monitor Pub lishing Company. Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2. 1915, at the Postofflce at Omaha, Neb., under the Act of March 3, 1879. THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor and Publisher. Lucille Skaggs Edwards and Madree Penn, Associate Editors. Fred C. Williams, Business Manager. SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $2.00 A YEAR; $1.00 6 MONTHS; 60c 3 MONTHS Advertising Rates, 60 cents an Inch per issue. Address, The Monitor, 304 Crounse Block, Omaha, Neb. Telephone Douglas 3224. > _■—____ cgf fe> ^OISUSSS' f——-- s For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, Round the earth’s electric circle the swift flush of right or wrong; Whether conscious or unconscious, yet humanity’s vast frame Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame; In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim. —James Russell Lowell. SAFEGUARD THE FAMILY /■'HE homes of any land or people A determine what the future of that ~ country or people is to be. The strength of a nation or people depends upon the moral character of those who compose its families. The progress of a race is correctly measured by the morality and sanctity of its home life. Domestic life—that is to say the home life, or, in other words, the family— forms the foundation of civil society. No nation, no race, can rise above the moral or intellectual standards of its component families. Since this is true it must be plain that no pains should be spared to make the family all that it should be and that every evil or. agency which imperils the purity and sanctity of the family should be most vigorously opposed. One of the greatest evils threaten ing the American home today is di vorce. And one of the chief causes of divorce, which is fast becoming a na tional sin, if, indeed, it has not already reached that point, is the lightness and thoughtlessness with which men and women enter the married state. And this thoughtlessness upon the part of young men and women is largely traceable to the attitude and tone assumed by older people—yes, even by fathers and mothers—in dis cussing this sacred ordinance. Many, unfortunately, talk of it too frequent ly only in jest or discuss it in the spirit of levity. This, of course, has its baneful effect upon the minds of the young and they are lead to look upon marriage lightly. If, then, every thing does not go just as either the one or the other thinks it should the divorce court is speedily sought and a family is torn asunder. There is therefore need of serious thought and sound teaching upon the subject of marriage, which is the foundation of the family and the home. It is the fundamental social ordinance and the most important of human institutions. It is an ordinance instituted of God for the perpetuity of the human race and the moral and spiritual welfare of mankind. Normal young men and women should be taught to look forward to the honorable estate of matrimony and should be taught to prepare them selves for its duties and obligations. They should be taught to look forward to the establishment of homes and the rearing of families “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” They should be taught that marriage is a school of virtue where self-restraint must be constantly exercised and where, amid many cares and worries, harmony and concord should ever pre vail and that therefore, along with af fection, there is needed sympathy in moral aims and spiritual and religious ideals. If our nation is to endure the homes of our people, the family, must be safeguarded, and one of the safe guards must be a truer conception of marriage, which is the very founda tion of the family, and this will in turn lessen that great menace of the American home today,—one of our greatest national sins,—divorce, which all right-thinking people must deplore. Speaking of this evil a few years ago, Mr. Roosevelt said: “The census of i American divorce is appalling. Easy > divorce is a bane to any nation. It is a curse to society and a menace to the home and an incitement to married unhappiness and immorality, an evil thing for men and a still more hideous evil for women." Let all who would see our nation, our people, truly great, righteous and strong, realize the importance of doing everything possible to safe guard the family. BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE TIE United States Department of Justice has been investigating Colored newspapers to ascertain if they are publishing articles tending to stir up strife between the races. The watchfulness and zeal of the govern ment to suppress the publication of any articles that may have a tendency to cause bitterness and stir up strife upon racial, religious, class or any other grounds between citizens of this country is to be commended and would be most commendable if it were honest and sincere. But we regret to say frankly that this apparent vigilance impresses us as being transparently INSINCERE. In almost every city in the country the dailies are permitted to “play up big,” in glaring and sensational head lines, the vaguest rumors of crimes alleged to have been committed by Negroes. Particularly is this the case if the alleged offense is against one of the white race. Here are some ex amples of what we mean: “Negro Brute Attacks White Woman,’’“Negro Ties White Girl to Tree and Assaults Her,” “Negro Highwayman Murders Man and Rapes Companion,” “Negro Bandits Shoot and Kill Groceryman,” “Negroes Continue to Attack White Women,” “Negroes Again Riot in Washington, Killing White Men.” These are only a few of the head lines which have appeared in dailies in Washington, D. C.; New York City; Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha, Neb., and elsewhere within the last few weeks. In Omaha, for example, it has become almost a daily event for the pink sheet of the Omaha Daily News and the Omaha Bee, until quite recently above this reprehensible custom, to carry screaming, scarecrow head lines of an alleged crime by some Negro. Most of this scarecrow propaganda busi ness in Omaha is “pure, dirty poli tics,” to use an Irish bull. Neverthe less it damages, offends and wounds self-respecting and law-abiding citi zens, and if persisted in will inevitably lead to regrettable results. Were these reports of crime true it would be bad enough, but when the large proportion of them is abso lutely false and the papers fail to fea ture or even publish the denial, the in justice of this must be plain to all. Now, if the United States Depart ment of Justice is really sincere and in earnest about the suppression of the publication of articles that may tend to engender bitterness and stir up strife between the races The Monitoi respectfully suggests that it turn its , attention to the dailies of the country which persist in playing up head lines about alleged crimes by Negroes. Let the department see to it that refer ence to race is at least omitted from the head lines. Scrutinize the white press and compel it to publish truth, not fiction; facts, not vague rumors, and pleasant and helpful relationship will exist between all classes of Amer ican citizens. Investigation of the colored press for causes of ill-feeling and race friction is simply barking up the wrong tree. NOT SATISFIED THE MONITOR is by no means sat isfied with the retention of the two indicted officers on the police force. They should be suspended until their case is disposed of in the courts. Mr. Ringer insists that it would bf adding injustice to injustice to sus- i pend them. We insist that he is add ing injustice to injustice so far as the public is concerned and they ought to have some consideration in retaining these men who have shown them selves so reckless with firearms and illgovemed and unguarded in their j language. Of course we don’t expect to have saints on the police force, but we ought to have men who can make ' arrests or attempt to make arrests I without using vile epithets. KEEP YOUR CHILDREN OFF THE STREET r’ is a crying shame and disgrace that children of tender years are permitted to roam the streets of our ! city up to a late hour of night wholly unattended by their parents. This is a serious matter. It is fraught with great moral danger. Boys and girls, and we have in mind now particularly i the children of our own racial group, because we are striving to serve pri marily our own people, from 10 years old and upward, some apparently | younger, are seen parading up and down North Twenty-foutrh street at almost any hour of the night, even as late as 11 and sometimes 12 o’clock.: Parents are to blame for this laxity.j Most of us err on the side of leniency with our children. In this we are mak ing a grave mistake. Keep your chil dren off the streets at night, unless you can be with them. f- - • • .. ..>i i r i Flashes of Most Anything ; Vir"HITKS in Galveston, Tex., are W perfectly willing that “Cuffie” take first place when the way leads into eternity. During the recent storm there, the slogan was: Whites—first chance on rescue trains. Negroes— first chance to heaven. In the lan guage of Robert Bums, “the best laid plans o’ mice and men gae aft aglee.” MIGRANTS from the south are one in shouting, “the south surely is a good place—from which to come.” TI77E have an overwhelming, ir W resistible impulse towardpoetry this week. Don’t be alarmed we’ll not punish you with our own spasms, but will give you some of the othei ■ fellows. SAND [OBSERVED a locomotive in the railroad yards one day, It was waiting in the roundhouse where the locomtives stay; It was panting for its journey, it was coaled and fully manned, And it had a box the fireman was filling full of sand. It appears that locomotives cannot al ways get a grip On their slender iron pavements, cause the wheels are apt to slip, And when they reach the slippery spot, their tactics they com mand, And to get a grip upon the rail they sprinkle it with sand. If your track is steep and hilly, and you have a heavy grade, And if those who’ve gone before you have the rails quite slip pery made; If you ever reach the summit of the | upper tableland, You'll find you’ll have to do it with I a liberal use of sand. If you strike some frigid weather and discover to your cost, That you’re liable to slip on a heavy coat of frost, Then some prompt decided action will be called into demand; And you’ll slide clear to the bot tom if you haven’t any sand. You can get to any station that is on life’s schedule seen, If there’s fire beneath the boiler of ( ambition’s strong machine; And you’ll reach the place called! Richtown at a rate of speed that’s grand, If for all the slippery places you’ve a good supply of sand. —S. E. J. C. LEADING EDITORIALS OF THE D A Y i I he New Negro and New White Man. PRESIDENT W. S. SCARBOR OUGH, D. D., of Wilberforce uni versity, writing for the New York In-. dependent, says that “the spirit of the ' Negro who went across the sea, who was in action and who went over the top, is by no means the spirit of the j Negro before the war. He is altogeth- I er a new man with new ideas, new | hopes, new aspirations and new de- j sires. . . . It is a new Negro that j we have with us now; may we not also | hope that we have a new' white man?’’ Dr. Scarborough faces a new racial I situation and describes it accurately if j tersely. Our government, when war ; was declared, made no discrimination ; i i>etween the white man and the black; it called upon both alike for service. It assumed that both were loyal citi zens, both ready to defend their coun try, its rights and its honor. The Col ored soldier made a good record. Con ■ sidering his natural equipment, he made a record which he need not hesi tate to compare with soldiers of other races. The performance of the American ; white soldier is a source of pride to his i people at home. His devotion to the principles of our government, to the spirit of our institutions, is in keeping with the privileges which they confer upon him. That they are conferred upon him in a higher degree than upon the colored soldier requires no demon stration. Failure on the part of the latter to respond willingly and to per ! form faithfully the duties imposed might have been excused in some 1 measure on account of the discrimina tion against the colored man political ly and in other ways. But he has not taken advantage of that situation, anti in not doing so he has imposed a heavier obligation upon the white man to render to him justice and to have rcgai d for his political rights than has been recognized heretofore. Two things, in fair proportion, have been denied the colored man—educa tion and political rights. The latter he is doubtless prepared to assert more boldly than heretofore on account of his recent experiences in the war; the other—the right to fair and equitable provision for his education—he will also insist upon. But others should unite with him, earnestly, in demand ing a fair share of the educational ad vantages provided. The duties of the citizen in a demo cratic form of government cannot be discharged satisfactorily or even with safety to the community at large with out an educated, intelligent citizen ship. Although the rate of Negro literacy in Alabama, according to fed eral statistics, is 40% per cent, the Young Men’s Christian association found that, of the 3,600 Negro con scripts from that state at Camp Dodge, over 75 per cent were unable to read or write effectively. But what is to be expected from educational facilities which involve an expenditure in Alabama of $1.78 per capita per annum for each Negro child, $1.76 in Georgia and $1.31 in Louisiana. These states, it is said, ex pend from five to six times this amount per capita for the schooling of white children; but a more striking comparison is that with our own city, where it appears from recent compu tations that the annual expenditure per capita for children in the public schools of Minneapolis, regardless of race, is $52.51 per annum. If we are going to have, as Dr. Scar borough says, "a new Negro as the re sult of the war” and he is to be an as set rather than a liability, a useful citizen rather than a source of peril to the state, we will have to give him a better proportion of the educational facilities provided at public expense. And this is the duty of the new white man—to realize that he has no right to assume that the colored man w’ill be able to exercise his rights of citizenship with safety to the state if a more equitable distribution of funds for education is not made. So long as he is denied to this extent the oppor tunity to equip himself for the duties of the citizen, we have no right to ex pect from the colored man a right ap preciation of his civic duties. To do so would be to assume him to be equipped with natural qualities of both heart and mind superior to those of the white man.—Minneapolis Sunday T ribune. THE PERISCOPE fBy Associated Negro Press.) Piffle! Piffle! What’s in a Name? IV J H Y do we keep on talking and W bothering about a name? It’s a contention as old as Hector’s pup, and it "ain’t settled yet,’’ and never will be, that’s certain. The Portland Advo cate recently had a scholarly written | editorial decrying the use of the term | “Negro.” Followed a brief editorial in the Portland Times denouncing the term “Colored.” Both arguments are food, as such arguments go, but it im presses us as a foolish waste of valu able energy. There was once a scholarly and ex perienced man who stated that none of the terms, including Afro-Amer ican, should be used, but that we should always refer to ourselves as "this division of mankind,” and his as sertion was applauded. Any term may be dignified by the proper effort. “Methodist” was once as derisive as "bolshevik" or "Hun.” But is it not respected everywhere today? As a *•--‘t'• of fact, “use is the law of lan- j guage” and that is determined by the j leading thinkers and writers and in our instance the majority use “Negro” while many just as able use "Colored,” , and a diminishing few' use the hyphen ated “Afro-American.” But what’s the difference? It’s like a fellow who said: j “Sometimes I call my wife sweetheart, other times sweets, and then at times ‘Babe,’ and again by her first name,” and, in the language of Bert Williams’ latest song, he might have added, “It’s nobody’s business but my own.” If we would spend as much time in construc tive discussion as we do over non-es sentials, it would not be long before our GROUP—how’s that?—would get somewhere. Let's Classify Them. It is high time in this adjustment of human relations to classify individ uals. It is just as manifestly unfair for us to say, “I hate white people,” as it is for them to say, "I hate black people.” The meanest white people we know all have some individuals among us whom they would stand by until the last ditch is reached, and it is very evident that there are some of our own kindred who disgust one’s very soul. The thing to do is cease using general terms. Give credit to whom credit is due and "call” those who really deserve it. Progress has been made n this direction, but there is a long road yet to travel. Let’s classify all the people and be fair about it. A Negro's Good Example. The first bale of cotton for the sea son to be ginned in Harris county, Georgia, was grown by a Negro living on a rented farm near Houston. The producer of the cotton, William Whit ing, worked hard to make this record. After getting the bale picked he haul ed it to the city during the night, ar riving at 2 o’clock in the morning, for fear that some one else would beat him to the honor of selling the first bale of Harris county cotton this year. He was rewarded for his labor, for, in addition to receiving a good price for his product, he was given a premium of $25 by cotton men. The interest this man has shown in his work on the farm is to be com mended. He is the type that is a credit to his race. What the country needs ib producers. There is a place in the south for the Negro who takes a pride in producing and the farm offers him his best opportunity to become eco nomically independent. Old Man “Killjoy.” Every community has its “Old Man Killjoy.” He secs life through blue glasses only; the world is getting worse and there’s nothing to hope for. His laugh is a pain, both to him and to those about him. He has a head full of destructive ideas, but never a con structive suggestion. He grows en thusiastic in discussing scandal and the things that tear down one’s good name, but is blind to the virtues and ^ good deeds of life. Such individuals / are a pest worse than plague, and a menace to progress. It is to be re gretted that they did not all have first class jobs, with their backs turned, in the front line trenches. They arc tak ing up good, valuable space in the world that could better be utilized by a well fed mule. ~ --1 Dental Hygiene and Care of the Teeth By Dr. W. W. Peebles By Dr. Peebles. PREVENTATIVE MEASIRES f^OR many years the main object of medical science and its close asso ciate, dental surgery, was along cura tive lines; in other words, the greatest efforts were made to combat disease and sickness, or to cure the patient, while little thought was given to the prevention of these morbid conditions. Gradually there entered the field of science many men of profound learn ing and keen vision, whose prophetic eye early discerned the wisdom of doing something to prevent sickness, to close the door before the trouble even commenced; hence, birth was given to that most beneficial science, the science of hygiene and sanitation. Now, after many years of experimen tation, many methods and substances have been evolved and found which, when properly employed, greatly les sen the susceptibility of the human system to disease. As these articles will be almost ex clusively devoted to the method to be observed for the prevention of disease it may not be amiss to refer briefly to a few of the most prevalent diseases and the recent advances made in the stamping out of said disease. Statistics from the medical depart ment of the United States army show (strict adherence being observed In wc. the relative numbers) that the rate of deaths from typhoid fever was almost .350 times as large during the civil war than in the war we have just passed through. In malaria and dysentery we find the proportion even greater. Nu merous similar instances could be cited, but sufficient has been said to substantiate the most optimistic claims made by medical men of today concerning the benefits received by mankind from the observance of sani tation. Just as the principles of hygiene, when rigidly adhered to, have rid the system of the possibility of many mor bid conditions—or, in other words, rendered the system immune to cer tain diseases—so a like observance of hygiene ami sanitation in the oral cavity will render our mouths immune to many teeth troubles. The groat blood system, like a mighty stream 't, coursing throughout the whole sys tem, not only gives to the various structures its very life, but also car ries along in its wake all the impuri ties found along its course. Hence oui efforts to impress upon our readers the great necessity of preventing these noxious products from entering the body. And from now on these methods, particularly those which have been adopted for the mouth, will be elaborated upon. The Beautiful Thing !•! About the FORD CAR is its 100% simplicity of operation, 100% per X A cent economy, and 100% service. That’s why we’ve adopted the y y slogan 100% Ford Service. We strive to maintain the Ford standard "t* * all the time, in all ways, in all departments. A A y y We sell Ford Motor Cars and Fordsom Farm Tractors. y A A | Sample-Hart Motor Co. | Tyler 513. 18th and Hurt Street*. .;. ,;*v,X-X'*X*v,»vv'»*X**X*vv*X">X"X**X*v*X'vvv,X,v*X‘V‘X-X*vv*X,,X"!* X"X":-!"XXXX*<“X“X"XXXX"X“XXX“X":"XXX',;"XXXXW"XX“X“:“X"X":"> 25th Year of f AK-SAR-BEN FALL FESTIVAL Y y y Omaha Y { Sept. 24th to Oet. 1th, 1919 * I ? — ! $ (IRANI) ELECTRIC PARADE | ? Wednesday Night, Oct. 1 ;!; GRAND AUTO-FLOWER PARADE ;{; ;{; Thursday Afternoon, Oct, 2 & { CORONATION HALL | I Friday Night, Oct. 3 X X - X V X A CON. T. KENNEDY’S SHOWS £ £ 25 Shows :ind Rides 25 £f j ON THE CARNIVAL GROUNDS $ £ Every Afterntwm and Evening £ 15th and Capitol Avenue <£