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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1916)
The Monitor ..a„os A National Weel _ .,*paper Devoted to the Interests of the Colored Americans of Nebraska and the Northwest THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor $1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy Omaha, Nebraska, Nov. 4, 1916 Vol. II. No. 19 (Whole No. 71) General Convention Ends Its Sessions Pastoral Letter Lays Stress Upon Na tional Righteousness and Inveighs Against All Racial Prejudice. LIBERIAN EPISCOPATE VACANT — ■Commission! Appointed to Visit Li beria. Election of Ferguson’s Suc cessor Awaits Report. Canon on Suffragans Passes. (Special to The Monitor) St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 28.—With the reading of the bishop’s pastoral let ter, which will be subsequently read in all Episcopal churches of the coun try, at St. Peter’s Church, before a large congregation and a chancel full of vested bishops the General Con vention of the Episcopal Church end ed here today. The pastoral letter recognizes America’s place as a world power and frankly states that the country can only fulfill its duty by manifesting true righteousness which transcends all the divisions of nation ality or race.” As a nation “no self isolation on our part is possible. The fortunes of the nations of the world are interwoven as the threads of a tapestry. To ignore this fact is folly; to reckon with it frankly is to give due recognition to the fundamental unity of the human race and to hasten the dawn of that day in which the armaments of war shall be beaten in to the implements of peace.” It warns against a “nationalism” which too often assumes the ugly role of group selfishness or false patriotism.” Pres ent day social evils and injustices are noted and Churchmen are urged to ameliorate these by the application of the ideals and principles of the Christian religion. Prayer Book Revision. The convention spent much time on Prayer Book revision and enrich ment which must go over for comple tion to the next general convention which meets in Detroit in 1919. No Election for Liberia. A successor to Bishop Ferguson was not chosen at this convention. Polit ical conditions in Liberia and other exigencies arising out of the war ne cessitated the appointing of a com mission to investigate and report on the situation, not only as touching Liberia, but adjacent territory which has petitioned for missionary work. When this commission makes its re port a special meeting of the house of bishops will be called to elect a bishop for Liberia. The Racial Episcopate. The convention adopted the minor ity report on the racial episcopate, which provides for the election of suf fragan bishops for work among the Colored people wherever it may be deemed advisable. Suffragans so chosen will have the same status as other suffragan of which there are already eight in the American Epis copal Church. The majority report recommended a separate missionary district. It was urged that this would lead to separation instead of unifica tion of the work of the Church and for that reason it was rejected. The vestrymen of All Saints’ Church of this city circulated a memorial pro testing against any provision for a racial episcopate, fearing that it would widen the ecclesiastic breach between the races. PROHIBITION SHOWS ITS HAND Prohibition has shown its hand with unmistakable emphasis relative to its attitude toward our people. We thought its promoters would be adept enough to hide their prejudices while trying to flim flam some of our un thinking men to their standard, but they had to crop out. One of the stock arguments of pro hibitionists has always been that “dry statistics would show up better, ex cept for the Negro.” It is a base lie and no one knows it better than the prohibitionists themselves. This ar gument is only used when considering prohibition in the South. Conditions are just as bad in Maine, Iowa, and the far western states, but the Colored population is so small in those places that the failure of prohibition cannot be laid upon the Negro. This is one of the arguments being put up to “white men only” by Nebras ka prohibitionists. It is a slur that is not to be forgiven. What has our Colored Dry Committee to say to it? Speak up! We Colored citizens want to know why you are espousing a cause that reflects discredit upon our race? Are you sincere, or are you trying to sell us for a price? We have a right to know. NEW WORK FOR COLORED GIRLS Last week the Tremont Silk Mills, if New York, opened a branch factory it 51 West 140th' street, and employed forty Colored girls. It is a new de larture and is hailed by The New York Age as a most promising open ng. The present work consists of labeling rolls of ribbon and repacking or the trade. As soon as new machin ery is installed the girls will be taught -,o roll ribbon on spools. The mini mum wage is $4.50 per week. The •ompany promises that if the girls make good they will open new branch es and give employment to a large number, and will pay them good wages as they become efficient. “GEE WHIZZ, LOOK AT THE ADS!” Yes, that’s what they are for. What does that show? Live merchants don’t advertise in dead newspapers. The Monitor is a “live wire” in get ting results. When you go to the polls next Tues day, watch your step. There will be vorkers there who will talk you deaf, dumb and blind, and who will give you enough paper to start a paper mill. Study our pages and vote for the men we mention. These men and The Monitor are on the square and won’t hand you the double-cross. Women can vote for the school board. Get out and vote. A Barrier to Pan-Americanism Roland G. Usher in The Independent Author of “Pan-Germanism,” “Pan Ameicanism.” The European War has made clear as crystal the vital importance of race and blood in all of the closer admin istrative and political relations be tween large bodies of men. It has shown that there are inherited un conscious stimuli to action, unexprest impulses toward union or antagonism into which men are born and which do govern their concerted action and which, in a large measure, geographi cal barriers and time are not capable of erasing. Whatever “race” may be, whatever part the physical and chem ical constituents in the blood play in it, by it the British Empire has been held together and by it the Germans have been united thruout the world n one common bond of sympathy. Without this tie or something closely resembling it, an entire harmony be tween large bodies of men has ordinar ily not resulted. Constitutions and courts, the pressure of armies, com mon economic interests have in such cases as Ireland, Poland, Finland and Lorraine proved entirely inadequate to supply its lack. Whatever it is, race is unquestionably one of the most potent impulses governing the affiliations of large bodies of men. One of the most persistent nations championed in the United States to day by a considerable body of ideal ists, sanctioned by the President, fa vored by commercial interests, is Pan-Americanism. No two men seem to agree in their use of the word and the type and closeness of the end it denotes vary from an increase of diplomatic friendship to a definite Federal Government of all the Amer ican republics. Nevertheless, it must always include a greater sympathy and comity between citizens of the twenty-one -republics in the western hemisphere (Canada always exclud ed). It tends to an implication at least of the exclusion of Europe and its affairs from this hemisphere and of a desirability and possibility of greater sympathy between inhabi tants of tse western hemisphere than they have with Europeans. This is the least which the idea can predi cate. It must rest upon the definite possibility of an increase in friendly feelings between individuals in the various republics or it will have no democratic basis. Yet the diference in race be tween the Latin-Americans and ourselves is an issue of which its advocates are unconscious or which they choose to neglect. Compared to the difference between the Latin Americans and the great majority of people of the United States, there are no racial differences in many states illegal; thruout the lishman, the Pole, the German, and the Russian, the Bavarian, and the Alsatian are in comparison identical in race. The vast majority of citi zens in the Uiited States are white, and they look upon the Negro and Indian strains as undesirable con stituents to be segregated and mini mized. The slightest trace of Negro or Indian blood is sufficient to create a social stigma in most parts of the country and makes impossible social life on an equality with white people. In Latin-America these very strains which we thus stigmatize are present n nearly all of the population. Pure white blood is rare. Many full-blood ed Indians have attaiied prominent political offices; a good many full blooded Negroes have in some repub ics done significant work; while the great majority of the population who are neither Negro nor Indian are a mixt race in which the white blood is the least prominent element. In such countries the question of blood loes not arise; a man’s education and ability are of greater conse quence than his parentage; they live n accordance with those precepts which we proclaim. Of this ancestry of theirs and its difference from ours, advocates of Pan-Americanism seem scarcely conscious. Of the treatment which we have advisedly accorded the Negro and Indian in this country hey are discreetly silent. Here is the true obstacle in the way of Pan-Americanism. Brother hood, social equality, a friendly in tercourse between the countries is im possible at present on account of the race feeling in the United States be tween the white and Colored races. The Iidian, as such, has never been accorded legal status or irivilege in the United States. A ward of the nation, he can neither own property, sue in the courts, nor become a citizen. This stigma on In dian blood must be washed off by naturalization precisely as if he were m alien, as if he had been bom in Europe. As some of the better In dians have bitterly said, the scum of Europe are received with open amis, while the lords of the New World are thrust from their own firesides. While the Negro has technically had legal and civil equality for more han one-half century, a strenuous tnd successful fight has been waged in all those parts of the country where the Negro is a significant sec tion of the population to deny him all he outward appearance of social equality. He must ride in a separate itreet-car, sleen in different hotels, sit in different parts of the theatre; intermarriage with the whites is in Europe; the Irishman and the Eng Southem states the Negro has been practcally disfranchised; and when he commits a violent crime he is only too likely to be dealt with by a mob instead of by the courts. A sharp, definite line has been drawn between him and the white man. The difficulty would be less acute so far as Pan-Americanism is con cerned if only we could discern some tendencies to soften this line, some probability that the determination of the white race to shove the Negro to one side was becoming less out spoken. Unfortunately the trend of events is to deepen the line between (Continued on Page 13.)