THE MONITOR A Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests of the Colored People of Nebraska and the West, with the desire to con tribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the community and of the race. Published Every Saturday. Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1916, 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. SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $1.50 PER YEAR Advertising Rates, 50 cents an Inch per Issue. Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha. Telephone Webster 4243. WE DO NT ACCEPT DONATIONS, THANK YOUl We were soliciting advertisements. The head of a certain firm, who is a roost affable gentleman, greeted us most kindly, but said: “We are con fining our advertising to the dailies ana two or three weeklies. Anything we might give you would be in the way of a donation. We would be will-' ing to do that.” “We don’t accept donations, thank you!” was our reply. “We sell ad vertising space on a strictly business basis, because we believe we are able to give value received. Here’s our mailing list, which we happen to have with us. That will show you our cir culation. If you think that it is a good business proposition to advertise with us, we’ll be glad to sell you advertis ing space, for we are out after busi ness, just like you are; but The Moni tor is not asking for or accepting donations, thank you.” He seemed not a little amused and surprised, but he looked over the mailing list and said: “You do have quite a circulation, don’t you? It looks like you reach nearly all the Colored people in Omaha. And you have a good many out of town sub scribers, too. Yes, sir, YOU SEEM 10 BE REACHING YOUR PEOPLE ALL RIGHT. I’ll take ten inches as a starter. Then come in again next week. Here’s the copy for ten inches.” “Thank you!” we replied. There are at least 8,000 Colored people in Omaha, the great majority of Whom read The Monitor. And yet there are business men, like this gen tleman, who patronizingly would give “a donation.” WE DON’T ACCEPT DONA TIONS, THANK YOU. BUT SELL ADVERTISING SPACE. That The Monitor is one of the best advertising mediums in the city is at tested by our well pleased advertising patronage. AN EXPLANATION We try as far as possible to publish each week all local items which are sent to us in time. Now and then de mand for advertising space compels us either to condense or leave out local and general items, even after they are set up. It sometimes hap pens that we have several galleys or columns of what is known as “over set.” This is matter which is set up or in type and has to be held over. As linotype composition costs lots of money, we have to work in these “oversets” as soon as possible before they become too old or stale. If news j items become too stale to use they j have to be thrown down and not pub- j lished, which is, of course, a loss. Last week, by an oversight, two or three j important local items were left out, j much to our regret—and loss. THE SHAME OF ILLINOIS St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The events in East St. Louis Mon day night were a disgrace to that city, a disgrace to Ililnois, a disgrace to America, a disgrace to humanity. We can recall no event in the history of this country so utterly and unre lievably shameful. There have been mobs, many of them, there have been riots not a few, to stain our civiliza tion, but never a one that carried to such an extent the unreasoning bru tality of mobocracy, never a one that so tortured and killed and burned without discrimination of innocence or guilt, that spared neither sex nor age in its violence. The often con demned mobs of the South have al ways had as their purpose the quick and effective punishment of crime. They have been, almost without ex ception, composed of determined men who felt that the law was too slow and too uncertain, and who, having found the ones they believed to be guilty, executed them and dispersed. Such acts are in violation of the fun damental principles of orderly gov ernment and as such should not be tolerated, but in comparison with the unspeakable outrages in East St. Louis they are righteousness itself. No attempt was there made to punish crime by striking at the criminal. Scores were tortured or killed against whom no charge of wrong w'as made, whose only offense was their color. Men, women, children went down be fore the insatiate blood lust of this worst and most cruel of mobs. And this in the state of Abraham Lincoln! This in the great state whose sons poured out their blood on many battlefields that all men with in this Union should be free! At the 1 heart of the country which prides it self upon its liberty and humanity, within a hundred miles of the home and tomb of the great liberator, men of the race he saved from slavery are massacred by a lawless mob unre strained by any authority. At a time when we are entering a tremendous war to make, as we say, the world safe for democracy, our own people have given democracy a blow that well may stagger it. For if democ racy is. not the right of every individ ual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then in heaven’s name what is it? How can we decently and honestly proclaim the superiority of American government and Amer ican principles when such a crime against liberty as that of Monday night in East St. Louis is permitted! Yes, permitted! It was a prevent able crime. There had been ample warning. There was'a large and com petent force on hand to maintain or der. Yet the rioters were permitted to gather and go on their way of de struction. Eight companies of the state militia were there, but appar ently no serious effort was made either to prevent the formation of the mob or to stop its work after it was formed. Reports of eye-witnesses agree as to the inaction of the militia. Some feeble attempts were made to protect the objects of the mob’s fury, but there seems to have been no at tempt whatever to maintain order. We do not know* who is responsible for this most disgraceful and lament able failure of authority and power. But we do know that some one is, or some ones are, responsible, and the state of Illinois cannot rest until that responsibility is fixed. Punishment of rioters alone will not wipe away the shame. The blunder that per mitted the riot must be accounted for. And, finally, the federal government should refuse to take into its service any officer or private who is found to have been derelict in his duty in this crisis. The people of Illinois must insist, and the people of America will insist, that this thing be probed to the bottom, for it is not only state honor but national honor hat is in volved. GOVERNMENT CONTROL The most pressing need of America today is the government control of all markets and food supplies so that prices and distribution may be taken entirely out of the hands of selfish speculators who would enrich them selves at the expense of the people’s woes, and so that all the people may have a fair chance to supply their needs. Unless this is done the move ment to cause greater production of foodstuffs on farms and city lots will only enslave and impoverish the peo ple more than ever. The next vital necessity is for the government to take over the railroads and all other means of transporting so that food, clothing, war materials and all other needful things may reach the people and the soldiers promptly and without graft. The big agitation should be concern ing public ownership and control of markets, mines, factories and rail roads. The war is on. We Socialists could not, we can not help it. We must each do all he or she can to arouse the peo ple NOW to the extreme necessity of nationalizing all resources and making the most rapid strides possible toward industrial and political democracy. Now is the time to cry aloud every where for public ownership.—The Christian Socialist. RIGHT CANNOT DIE By Rev. G. D. Brooks Wrong cannot live, Right cannot die— O man, Think not to foil the gerat Jehovah’s plan: Thy business here is business of a day One moment here, and then the next away. Look around thee, see, the earth is strewn with dead, Whose bodies slumber in a cheerless bed. Thou, too, with all thy prowess, powei and skill, Shalt soon be numbered with them cold and still; And o’er thy grave the winds will softly sigh, And airy tongues repeat along th< sky— Wrong cannot live—Right cannot die John RuSkin Cigar, 5 cents. Biggest and Best Obvious Observations The editor of these nifty observs made a flying trip down to old St. Louis to look over the field and the effects oi the riot knocked his sense of humor into a thousand pieces. The papers say that Russia has Germany saying her prayers. The pa per also said that only 37 black and 3 white people were killed in the East St. Louis riot. Our advice is, don’t believe everything you read in the paper. We thought that government food control was a big bluff. Prices haven’t become a bit nervous and coal, the most essential of products, is not to be bothered at all. Can the south stop migration? Say, Irene, can the old reb states stop the sun from shining? The four men from Birmingham have been trying to tell us all about the Grum trial. Monitor printed mat ter was greatly in evidence and the prosecuting lawyer roared like a lion until he reached the part where we said we will try to have every Col ored man out of the south in five years. It was then that he grew faint and fell up against the rail. When it comes to writing editorials we have to hand Mr. Newbranch, of j the World-Herald, the palm. He is a ! wang as long a she isn’t expounding j administrative policies. Where is the little country girl who used to wear gingham and pigtails? I went through forty-eleven country burgs last w^ek and could ■ not find one with a periscope. An Omaha man met a southern man last week on the streets. The south i era man just came and was broke, I but when he left the other he had money. Neither had ever seen the other before. Two little gold emblems of cross and crescent was what brought them together. SKITS OF SOLOMON — Savages Nappy, the little sawed-off, ham ir.ered-down emperor of France, bet ter known as Napoleon, once mur mured, “Scratch the skin and you get the savage.” Nappy was right. He knew what he was talking about. He had the English in mind most partic ularly when he said it. The white race never has gotten very far away from savagery. As late as the tenth century A. D. they snoozed in caves and wore animal hides. It is just lately that they have varnished over the hard places. Very true is this of the U. S. A. If a wild man of the stone age should have dropped in on East St. Louis last Monday he would have fallen on the necks of the riot ers and cried, “Hello, brother! Glad I'm home." It’s in the breed. The present war in Europe is just the la tent brute being tired of civilized ef fort and going back to the smell of blood and the touch of iron. As far as they are concerned, civilization means something to fill their hungry stomachs. In the frenzy of fight the only thing that will cool them is a collection of Winchesters. The man who is civilized or tries to be has no better protection against a veneered brute than the possession of a shooter that 3hoots. Buy one, because, as the scout of the plains once said, maybe you might never need one, but if you do need one you will need it mighty much. Mighty much is right. Self protection crowds every other consid eration off the bench of life, and it is not an end seat hog, either. Invest, brother; invest. LABOR NOTES Mr. Parker is in St. Louis assisting as many victims of the riot as possi ble to find employment. Many of them are being shipped to different points because East St. Louis will be no longer safe for them. Now that the southern roads have refused to honor prepaid transporta tion the only step left is to persuade companies to advance cash. One com pany has already decided to do this and everything will be arranged as quickly as possible. Other companies will follow as soon as they are per suaded that the risk is not great. Peter McCann, L. T. Jones and John Robinson were sent cash fares to Mo bile where they had come from Pen sacola and all three arrived in Omaha Saturday. Four men reached here Friday from Birmingham. A. Grum, who was arrested in Bir mingham for “recruiting,” has been released. He will be in Omaha in about thirty days. More than 100 tickets sent by the Monitor before July 1, in order to es cape the new order were cancelled on all the roads before the date set for the order to become effective. The M. and O. was the only road delivering transportation up to midnight, June 30. One firm in Omaha has announced that it will need about 200 Colored la borers in about 60 days for a large contract job lasting a year or more. The packing houses in and around Omaha have become filled and now refuse the promised raise to 30 cents ! per hour made the men a short time ago. All men wishing to apply for work ! at any firms listed in The Monitor should address Mr. Parker, in care of The Monitor, and not write firms di rectly because their letters are simply handed over to us. Mr. Parker asissted Mr. James Tay lor and Mr. James Woods to get chaf fcur jobs last week. Mr. Taylor is with a wealthy private family, while Mr. W'oods is working in a large gar age. Both have given fine service. Mr. Fred Williams, partner to Mr. Parker, went to Mobile to meet the party of forty men to come from that point. The order from the M. and O., ! however, forced a cancellation of the tickets and Mr. Williams was forced to return. Mobile, however, is under consideration as the probable future base for bringing all Monitor appli- | cants from the south. LABOR LETTERS Erie, Pa., May 28, 1917. Mr. George Wells Parker, Business Manager The Monitor, Omaha, Nebr. Dear Mr. Parker: We are in re- ! ceipt of your of May 26th regarding | Colored labor and desire to say that j the attached has been forwarded to each member of our association and undoubtedly you will hear direct from such members as desire labor. Very truly yours, MANUFACTURERS ASSN. OF ERIE, David E. Jones, Secretary. Manufacturers Association of Erie Office of the Secretary. May 26, 1917. BULLETIN The following letter from George Wells Parker, 1119 North 21st St., Omaha, Nebraska, will be of interest to members seeking Negro labor. Mr. Parker, who is business manager of “The Monitor, a paper for Negroes, says: "For the past nine months, The Monitor has been making a thorough and systematic campaign in the South to get into touch with the very best labor and we believe that we can sup ; ply more first class labor than any j other management in the United ! States. Of our companies that have advanced transportation, and that is the most important matter with these [poor people, NOT A SINGLE ONE j PAS HAD A DESERTER. Our en | closed literature will give you some j idea of the way we are handling the j , matter. We are at your service and trust I that we may be of service to you. j The fact that we are a distance from Erie does not matter in the matter of i our furnishing good labor.” Respectfully, (Signed) George Wells Parker. For further information, please i communicate direct with Mr. Parker. Manufacturers Association of Erie. Buffalo, N. Y., May 29, 1917. I Mr. George Wells Parker, 1119 North 21st St., Omaha, Nebr. Dear Sir: Replying to your favor cf May 26th, relating to opportuni ties for Negroes in Buffalo, I will an ! swer your inquiries in their order, as follows: (1) Does you locality offer any opportunities for industrious Negro labor? Yes. (2) Is your locality overcrowded j with such labor? No. (3 Firms that may want, or prob- | ably will consider, Negro labor in- i elude: Gould Coupler Company, De pew, N. Y.; American Malleables Company, Lancaster, N. Y.; Atlas Crucible Steel Company, Strong Steel Foundry Company, Buffalo Forge ! Company, Jewell Steel and Malleable Company of Buffalo; Buffalo General Electric Company, Wickwire Steel ! Company and the Semet Solvay Com pany of Tonawanda, New York. Wages are as good here as any where and range from 27% to 36 cents i per hour for common labor. Skilled j men can, of course, earn much higher wages. Very truly yours, HENRY B. SAUNDERS, Industrial Commissioner. ! Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, A letter received from the Minne sota Steel Mills this week says the 200 industrious Colored men are want ed. Wages 27% cents per hour, full time at ten hours, and all year work. A letter this week from the Cham bei of Commerce, Buffalo, gives the names of many firms wanting Col ored labor at wages from 27% to 36 cents per hour for unskilled workmen, higher wages for skilled. The Mon itor has sent letters to all the firms. A bulletin has been made of The . Monitor circular and mailed to all members of the Manufacturers Asso ! ciation j>f Erie, Pa. The Montana Mining Companies want Colored labor. Negotiations are now under way to supply the same. Albion, Mich., June 27, 1917. Mr, George Wells Parker, Omaha, Neb. My Dear Sir: By some means, the ! registered letter did not reach me. I i I J received notice of same yesterday, and went to the office here for same. I am, indeed, sorry for this misfor tune, as I am not pleased with work, hours, money or situation. But, how ever, I am going to get straight, save a few dollars and come to Omaha. In the first place too many of my people have come here for accommodations needed, and sentiment is not the best. 1 get this from refusal of vacant houses offered for rent, and where there is property for sale the terms are too dear for any of my race to buy. The Hah Price Sale 1 Choice of Any Spring and Summer Suit in House j >/2 Former Price IIIU REDUCTIONS IN MEN’S FURNISHINGS PANTS AND SHOES 150 Dozen Men’s Straw Hats 50 Cents Apiece. Palace Clothing Co. 11th and Douglas Sts. * AMUSEMENTS * The Alhambra 24th and Parker SUNDAY Bessie Love in CHEEKFUL GIVERS HAM AND BUD COMEDY Jimmie Dale in THE GRAY SEAL Vaudeville THE MITCHELL TRIO MONDAY Chas. Ray in THE PINCH HITTER This is one of the best baseball stories of the season. Don’t miss this. TUESDAY ^ Vitagraph Night Lucille Stewart in HIS WIFE’S GOOD NAME Comedy, JONES’ FINISH WEDNESDAY Molly King in THE DOUBLE CROSS Hearst-Pathe News True Boardman in The further scries of "STINGA REE” ’Triangle Comedy "DOG’S OWN TAIL” THURSDAY Maurice Costello in THE CRIMSON STAIN MYSTERY Black Cat Feature Triangle Comedy SKIRT TRAGEDY FRIDAY Metro Night SATURDAY Clara Kimball Young Hearst-Pathe News Jerry Comedy II kUn DeLUXE ICE ALAmU CREAM GARDEN SPECIAL ATTRACTION! Cabaret entertainment every evening from 7:30 to 11:30. Don't forget the De Luxe Matinee every Thuruda> and Sunday afternoon from 3:30 to 6:30. No dancing on Sunday. ICE CREAM DELIVERED FREE Herrington & Killingsworth. Phone W. 2861. ....— .... i - i Rex Theatre <