The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests
of the Colored People of Omaha and vicinity, with the desire to contribute
something to the general good and upbuilding of the community.
Published Every Saturday._
Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915, 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 Editors
George Wells Parker, Contributing Editor and Business Manager
Joseph LaCour, Jr., Lincoln Representative, 821 S St., Lincoln
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, 51.50 PER YEAR
Advertising Rates, 50 cents an inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha.
Telephone Webster 4243._
PROHIBITION NOT TEMPERANCE
Intemperance in drink is one of
the great evils of our time. Not the
only evil or the chief evil, as many
well-meaning and zealous people
would have us believe. But it is ad
mittedly one of the great evils de
manding eradication. And yet we
venture the assertion that there is
less drunkenness in the United States
today than there was two or three
generations ago.
Bibulous social customs which were
tolerated a few generations ago are
looked upon with decided disfavor to
day. There has been a steady advance
towards personal moderation and
practical abstinence in the past few
years which has undoubtedly lessened
drunkenness. This is no doubt largely
due to a wise educational process
which has resulted in a keener ap
preciation of the evils and dangers
physical, spiritual, moral, mental and
economic of alcoholism. We believe j
that all who view this subject dis- ]
passionately will be compelled to ad
mit that this country has made meas
urable progress towards temperance
and sobriety.
Now, we believe that this progress j
is due to the slow, sane, patient, per- j
sistent propaganda for temperance
which has been prosecuted by sincere
and unselfish men and women who
have laid stress not upon the outlaw
ing of the drink-seller and the drink
manufacturer, but upon the appeal to
the individual for personal abstinence.
A very different thing and a very dif
ferent method from that employed
and advocated by prohibitionists.
Compulsory prohibition trains its
batteries upon the brewer, the distil
ler and the saloon-keeper and seems
to entirely overlook the fact that the
fire should be directed toward the
consumer in an effort to gain his
surrender to personal abstinence. If
men can be won to personal abstinence
then the demand for the breweries
and distillers’ business will corre
spondingly decrease. “Where there is
no fuel, fire soon burns itself out.”
Prohibition relies upon law to ef
fect a moral change in the individual
and here is just where it fundamen
tally fails, and makes against tem
perance rather than for it; and this
is one of the reasons why we are op
posed to prohibition.
And here it may not be amiss to
call attention to the fact that between
the years 1850 and 1890 no less than
seventeen states declared for prohi
bition. Of the seventeen only three,
Maine, Kansas and North Dakota, re
main firm. The other fourteen, after
trying it for terms of years varying
from twenty years downward, gave it
up. Why? Is it not fair to assume
either “that the majorities behind the
law were more or less of a ficticious
character, or that the benefits prom
ised did not materialize?” Would
these fourteen states have gone back
to license and regulation if prohibi
tion had proven effective in suppress
ing the liquor traffic ? This is a fair
question.
Intemperance in drink is a great
evil. How shall it be eradicated?
Certain maintain by enacting prohibi
tory laws. They point with pride to
the increasing area of “dry” territory
in which the sale of alcoholic liquors
as beverages is forbidden by law and
vainly dream that so-called “dry ter
ritory” spells temperance. And yet
in “dry territory” the consumption of
liquor, as statistics prove, is not de
creased. We do not believe that pro
hibition is the remedy. We do not
believe that Nebraska “dry” will be
morally as good as Nebraska “wet,”
because there will be an increase of
evasion, hypocrisy and deceit, with no
lessening of the evils of drink. We
believe the better way is an earnest
and sincere campaign to win the in
dividual to personal abstinence.
Prohibition, in our judgment, is fun
damentally wrong as a corrective of
the drink-evil because it relies upon
law to effect the change in an indi
vidual that can only be wrought by
an appeal to conscience and the moral
sense. Moral suasion is mightier than
mere brute force in accomplishing
permanent reform in any man. Tem
perance, yes! Prohibition, no! For
prohibition is not temperance.
THE NEW EXODUS
Much food for thought will be found
in the article from last week’s issue
of The Literary Digest which we re
print on our first page. It is a re
sume in the Digest’s inimitable style
of representative current press opin
ion on the new exodus northward of
large numbers of our race from the
Southland, a movement which is not
only startlingly significant as a pro
test against race proscription and in
justice which has long marred that
fair section of our good land, but also
in the tremendous and far-reaching
social, political and economic changes
it foretells.
The Negro is not migratory in his
habits. He is warm hearted, affec
tionate and home loving. The blood
of the tropics is in his veins. Nat
urally, then, he loves the sunny South.
Ordinarily he has no desire to leave it.
The older folk will probably remain
where the magnolias perfume Jthe
air and the mocking bird lilts to her
mate. But not so the younger gener
ation. There has arisen “a genera
tion that knew not Joseph.” This
generation chafes under fconditions
which are manifestly unjust. They
are animated with the same spirit
which is manifesting itself through
out the world of dissatisfaction with
social and economic injustice which
appears in different forms in differ
ent sections. And so, though loving
the South, the land of their birth, their
ear is attent to catch the call of larg
er opportunities. And -the call is
sounding in their ears. Were con
ditions more favorable in the South
we do not believe that any inducement
could be given to call the race away.
This new exodus has come because
a new generation is ready for it. And
the exodus will have a tremendous
•
influence on political, social and eco
nomic conditions throughout the coun
try. The Negro will find a worthy
place in this new evolution of a higher
democracy which must surely come.
WOODY, THE WON
DERFUL WIZARD
Once upon a time there was a won
derful wizard named Woody, who had
the science of political trickery work
ed down to a frazzle and a fare-you
well. By a direful fluke he was elect
ed to the presidency of a great coun
try and calling his court, which in his
country was called Congress, together
he advised them after this fashion.
“It has been a long time, my gallant
lads, since we democrats have been
on the inside looking out instead of
the outside looking in, and it might
be a long time before we get the
chance again. Therefore it behooves
us to get busy and take time by the
topknot. Now, I shall be lord high
instigator extraordinary and hell
raiser plenipotentiary of this national
circus. I shall keep the eyes of the
“dear peepul” riveted upon me and
my timely stunts and whenever one
line of dope gives out I’ll manufac
ture another brand just as good. I’ll
razzle dazzle the press so that even
the republican editor will scratch off
a column of praiseful noise and then
kick himself the next day for being
such a chump. I’ll wreck the G. O. P.
platform and steal the planks until
there will be only four stumps in the
ground. I’ll create more scares than
you can find in a Nick Carter library
gem and smother them so deftly that
the “dear peepul” will shout with
wonder. I mean to stunt such a spec
tacular administration that the “Per
ils of Pauline” will look as interest
ing as a telephone directory.”
“And you, my gallant lads, just
gather all the vans and auto trucks
and back them up against the national
treasury building and get busy.”
And you think the democratic ad
ministration didn’t do it?
A PROHIBITION STORY
A few years ago some residents of
Red Wing, Minn., received a circular
letter from a certain firm of distil
lers in Kentucky stating that they
would ship their goods to customers
in plain packages. A blank form was
included for a list of names of people
who might be interested in any of
their line of goods, with the state
ment that if any sales were made aB
a result of the names sent in the send
er of the names would receive a com
mission.
A well-known wag of the town, out
of sheer mischief, sent the names of
fifteen or twenty of Red Wing’s most
enthusiastic and rabid prohibitionists.
The incident had passed out of his
mind when a few weeks thereafter
he received a letter from the distil
lers thanking him for the list of
names he had sent in and inclosing a
check for $19.30 for his commission
on the sales.
This is an absolutely true story.
SONGS OF SOLOMON
Affinities
1. Hearken to my voice, O ye
married man, and give much heed to
the limpid meter of my song.
2. Thou hast heard of the word
“affinity” and I warn thee that it is
the synonym for dynamite.
3. If thou glimmest a silk stock
ing with shapely contents or an eye
that would tease thee with the flirt
flirt, hie thee to an optical shop and
buy thyself smoked glasses.
4. It is better that thou shouldst
spend two bits than wreck thy ex
chequer beyond reckoning.
5. An affinity costeth more than a
regiment of chug wagons, yet that is
but the title page of what cometh
after.
6. Thou experienceth the sweets
of Elysium until thy real mate halteth
a heliogram and then thy dreams of
Hades cometh multiplied seventy
times seven.
7. It doeth thee no good to try to
explain, for thou art caught with the
goods. Thy name is Dennis.
8. The dynamic duets are frilled
with tobasco, tears and terrible things
of which I wot not.
9. If thou lookest not up the time
table to Reno, thy home life is nix
and the kibosh is on thy happiness
lorever.
10. Therefore, heed thou my caru
soing so that thy feet may paddle in
the ways of peace.
OBVIOUS OBSERVATIONS.
Last week Kilpatrick, Brandeis,
Burgess-Nash, Thompson and Belden
and the World-Herald made requests
by phone that the Colored band play
“Walkin’ the Dog,” when they passed
their places of business. They did,
and if every man, woman, boy, girl,
and street hound doesn’t know “Walk
in’ the Dog” forwards, backwards and
in the middle, it isn’t the fault of our
bund boys.
l.ots of Colored men say Dan But
ler is not our friend. We have known
Dan for a good many years and have
always thought him “on the square,"
and if the fight he put up for the
Colored firemen doesn’t justify our
opinion of him, we don't know what
will.
Bead our advertisements. It’s dol
lars to doughnuts that our advertisers
are selling the very thing you want.
J. Silas Harris, a nationally known
Colored orator, is here for some fast
campaign work. We have met the
gentleman and we think he has all
his twin-six cylinders oiled for action.
During the next thirty days there
will be enough eloquence around
Omaha to stir the soul of a Bismarck
herring. The dictionary, grammar and
rhetoric may get through it alive, but
we don’t think they will ever look the
same.
When did you say you last took
home a box of candy for mother, wife,
sister or sweetheart? Take her
O’Brien’s, because that is what she
wants.
Did you like The Monitor last week?
We will try to keep it up.
The Crisis says that the Negro
should have a lily black republican
party of his own, or something like
that, but it fails to mention some sub
stantial planks. Ten million Negroes
can’t afford to climb on a platform
that will fall and make them break
their necks.
As a work of art a newspaper is
either a monument or a tombstone.
We don’t want to be a tombstone, so
visit our advertisers.
We hear that there are a few Col
ored men going around telling people
that they are not going to vote for
Will N. Johnson. Of course, every
man’s vote is his own, but we wish
they would ask themselves this ques
tion: "Can I afford to lose this op
portunity of helping my race to a
viitory worth while?"