The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Thousand Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the Community
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.00 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, October 2, 1915 Volume I. Number 14
Announces Candidacy
For Senatorial Toga
One of Nebraska's Foremost Citizens
and Omaha’s Most Public-Spirited
Men Would Serve in Senate.
JOHN LAUDERDALE KENNEDY
*
Ex-Congressman, Able Lawyer and
Conversant with Public Affairs
Well Qualified for Office.
Nebraska, since statehood, has
justly prided herself upon the men of
high character and efficiency who,
with one or two exceptions, have
been her representatives in congress
and senate. Her senators have been
men of ability from the Hon. Phineas
Hitchcock, a loyal republican of the
old school and at a day when repub
licanism meant much, who was her
first choice, to his illustrious son, the
Hon. Gilbert M. Hitchcock, a liberal
minded and progressing democrat, of
presidential timber—although Mr.
, Bryan might dispute it -who now' so
creditably fills this high oflice.
In Nebraska’s succession of able
and Influential senators it is confi
dentially believed by all republicans
and conceded by many friends and
admirers in all parties that the Hon.
John L. Kennedy of Omaha will soon
take his well-merited place.
Mr. Kennedy is an ex-congressman,
of a brief but distinguished career in
the house of representatives; a law
yer of ability; a close student of pub
lic affairs; a convincing and persua
sive speaker; a successful business
man; a liberal-minded, justice-loving
and public-spirited citizen; a man
"with an opinion and a will,” who by
dint of application and hard work,
has risen from the ranks of the lowly
to a position of eminence and wealth,
and yet is one of the “common peo
ple,” afTable, sympathetic and ap
proachable; a cultured, courteous,
high-class Christian gentleman.
John Lauderdale Kennedy comes of
sterling Scotch parentage. He was
born in Ayrshire, Scotland, not far
from the birthplace of Robert Burns,
one of the world’s greatest poets. His
early education was acquired in the
thorough public schools of Scotland.
IBs schoolmaster hated slavery and
inculcated his pupils with his prin
ciples, telling them of the horrors of
American slavery. Naturally a Scot j
believes in human freedom| Young
Kennedy came to America when sev
enteen years old. The West attract
ed him. He went to LaSalle county,
Illinois, and for four years worked on
a farm. Being ambitious for a better
education, he enrolled as a student at
Knox college, Galesburg, where ho
worked his way through. He did not
take his degree in course, because,
just before his graduation, he rebelled
against what he believed to be an art
of injustice against a fellow student
and left the college. Subsequently
Knox college gave him his bachelor’s
(Continued on eighth page)
Think On These Things
“What is worth much is sure to cost much. The perfection of
your life is to you the most precious of all goods. It will cost much
self-control, much self-denial, much self-sacrifice, but it is worth it all.”
THE HON. JOHN L. KENNEDY
Candidate for Republican Nomination for United States Senator.
Retires After Thirty’,
Years Army Service
Seattle, Wash., Oct. 1.—Only 45
years of age, William A. Vrooman,
regimental quartermaster sergeant of
the Ninth cavalry, retired on Septem
ber 12 after thirty years continuous
service, with pay amounting to $67.50
per month. His entire service was
with the Ninth.
Vrooman enlisted in 1886 at Buffalo,
N. Y., when only 16 years old. He
served in the Indian campaign of
1890-1891, was at Santiago in the bat
tle of San Juan Hill, and was in the
Philippine campaign of 1900-’02. He
qualified in 1894 as distinguished
marksman, the highest qualification
in the army.
Sergeant Vrooman received his re
tirement papers at Douglas, Ariz.,
where the Ninth is stationed, on Sep
tember 12, and the next day he was
escorted by the regimental band and
a large number of his comrades when
he took the train for Cheyenne, where
he visited before coming on to Seattle.
He will make his future home in this
city.
Ejected From
Ohio Playhouse
Cincinnati, O., Sept. 24.—A flag
rant case of race persecution was
that of Luke Prowd, son of the Rev.
H. D. Prowd, pastor of Mount Street
church, who was forcibly ejected from
a moving picture theater on upper
Central avenue, after he had purchas
ed his ticket and secured a seat.
Young Prowd was first ordered out
by an usher, then the proprietor in
formed him that colored people were
not allowed in that theater. A police
man was called, and when Prowd per
sisted in retaining his seat, he was
forcibly removed.
Dr. Prowd took the case up with
Mayor Spiegel and Chief of Police
Copelan, and the action of the police
man was investigated. He plead ig
norance of his limitations as an offi
cer, and was allowed to apologize to
young Prowd, and to publis his ap
ology in the daily papers. This he
| did. Dr. Prowd and his son will push
j the case against the proprietor of
the theater.
Owns Ten Thousand
Acres and Syrup Mill
Cabin Boy at Fourteen, With Monthly
Wages of Fifteen Dollars, Be
comes Capitalist at Forty.
—
BARTON FRANKLIN POWELL
Raises Hundreds of Bales of Cotton
and Ships Products From Farm
and Refinery All Over U. S.
Albany, Ga., Oct. 1.—Forced by
lack of mpans to leave school when
only fourteen years of age, to take a
job as cabin boy on government sur
vey boats improving Flint river, which
job carried wages of $15 per month,
ten years later Barton Franklin Pow
ell was superintendent of the river
improvement work as successor to the
man who had given him employment
as a cabin boy. Holding this position
for twenty-four years, saving and in
vesting his money in farming and
timber lands, Powell today owns 10.
000 acres of land in Baker and Dough
erty counties, Ga., 100 mules, 15
horses, 100 head of Jersey cattle, 200
head of Berkshire hogs, with all the
machinery and equipment necessary
to operate his plantation.
Raising 900 to 1,000 bales of cotton
yearly Is only a part of the results
achieved by Powell, for he also raise#
large quantities of grain and cereals,
runs a well-equipped ginnery, buying
about as much as he raises, is a large
cotton buyer, providing a home mar
ket for the tenants and small farmers
of the community, buys and sells cot
ton seed, and to cap it all, Powell
owns and runs a syrup refinery, man
ufacturing pure Georgia cane syrup,
for which he has created so great a
demand that his shipments are made
to points in all the territory from
Maine to California.
$35,000 for Last Year’s Cotton.
Outgoing and incoming shipments
by water are handled at Powell’s
Landing, a private dock on Powell’s
land, where the Flint river steamers
tie up. Ninety families have homes
on the plantation, and with an average
of five to a family there are 450 peo
ple on Powell’s land. F. B. Priestly,
Powell’s nephew, the oldest son of
his youngest sister, is chief overseer
of the plantation’s activities.
A recent transaction involved the
sales of 865 bales of cotton held over
from the 1914 crop. This cotton
brought 8 cents a pound, the total sum
received being more than $35,000.
Mr. Powell was married in 1890 to
Miss Nancy E. White of Albany,
and of eight children born to that
union seven are living, five boys and
two girls. That the children might
have the advantages offered by the
city schools, Mr. Powell acquired a
handsome residence in Albany, and
Mrs. Powell and the children occupy
this home during the school term. Mr.
Powell is now 49 years of age and a
conservative estimate of his wealth
puts it at about $300,000.