The monitor n^n
A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans ^
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WIIXIAMS, Editor
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy _OMAHA, NEBRASKA, AUGUST 4, 1917_ Vol. 111. No. 5 % role No. 109)
“Law of Nature”
Scores Success
Hundreds View the Third Release of
The Lincoln Motion Picture Com
pany at the Alhambra.
AUDIENCES WELL PLEASED
The Alhambra Theatre, the house of
courtesy, which is justly popular with
movie patrons, was filled at every
performance last Saturday when the
special attraction was “The Law of
Nature,” starring Noble M. Johnson
and Albertine Pickens, and presented
hy a full cast of Negro actors. This
m the thin! film to be released by the
Lincoln Motion Picture Company (In
corporated) of Los Angeles, Cal., an
ambitious and progressive race enter
prise featuring race plays, and this
W'as the first presentation in Omaha.
The audiences, for there were several,
and the number who witnessed it, ran
up into the hundreds, were delighted.
The Monitor congratulates the Lin
coln Company on the progress it has
made.
It does this most sincerely, because
it alway pleases a critic more to ap
prove a thing than to disapprove.
This is especially so when the object
of criticism is struggling to attain
the perfection of real art.
What was said in this paper about
“The Trooper of Troop K,” the second
release of the Lincoln Company, was
not pleasing to those interested in the
film because it was held that unmer
ited praise should have been given on
the grounds that it was a race enter
prise struggling to win a place in a
new and difficult field. The Monitor
could have done so, but to have done
so would not have been justice to
either the readers or the film. Just
criticism is that which best furnishes
energy for labor and improvement.
Between the second release and the
third, “The Law of Nature," there is
no comparison. One was crude in all
but action; the latter is crude in noth
ing. The one merely attempted to
preserve a striking historical event,
while the other wrests from human
life itself a story worth telling. It
is the old triangle plot woven again
of the material furnished in the Gar
den of Eden when Adam and Eve and
the Serpent made their debut upon the
human stage. It is interesting be
cause rare men and women take part
and because it spells out a lesson that
touches our race as closely as it
touches any other, the law of retribu
tion. The picture would be more com
plete did it show that the man had
to pay for his fun as the woman did
for her folly.
“The Law of Nature” is a most ex
cellent picture, the western scenery
being truly magnificent, and one that
every race man and woman should see
because it is inspiring, and makes one
f really proud that our people can ap
pear on the screen in real drama. The
acting is natural and because natural,
fine. “The Law of Nature” is the best
yet and shows not only the progress
made, but the possibilities before our
people in the silent drama, in which
field the Lincoln company is pioneer
and Noble M. Johnson the chief lumi
nary in lighting the way.
MADAM ANITA PATTI BROWN
CAPTIVATES AUDIENCE
_
M '.sic lovers of Omaha enjoyed a
rare treat Tuesday evening when
Anita Patti Brown, the famous Chi
cago singer, made her initial appear
ance before a local audience at the
Grove M. E. Church. Her charming I
stage presence, fascinating person
ality and rich, cultivated voice capti- |
vated her audience from the start, j
Her first number, which was the fa
mous Jewel song from “Faust,” by I
Gounod, proclaimed her as an artist, i
Her second number was the mad i
scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor,” !
and this was most sympathetically
interpreted. Her third number con
sisted of a quintette of songs, which
showed great variety. They were:
“O liete suol della Turcna,” by Meyer
berg; "Deep River,” by Burleigh;
“Four Leaf Clover,” by Brownell;
“Hush-a-Bye,” by Bond, and “Wake
Up,” by Phillips. Mrs. Florentine F.
Pinkston was fortunately secured as
the accompanist and her skill at the
piano won the unstinted praise and
admiration of all. Miss Mattie Childs
played most acceptably a brilliant
piano solo; Mrs. Silas Johnson ren
dered as a piano solo Mozart's diffi
cult “Fantasia in I) minor,” and Mrs.
Maude Brown pleased the audience
with her rendition of “How Lucy
Blackslid,” by Dunbar, and a witty
encore. Miss Mary A. Logan, man
ager of the delightful affair, in a
neat, brief speech told of the church's
aim to bring cultivated members of
the race before Omaha audiences.
Should Anita Patti Brown ever
! visit Omaha again she can confident
ly count upon a crowded house.
Dl NBAR'S GRAVE NOW
MARKED BY PLATE
Dayton, Ohio.—The birthday of the
lute Paul Laurence Dunbar, June 27,
was marked by the announcement of
the reorganization of the commission
which has in hand the establishment
of a series of scholarships to bear his
name. Vacancies have been filled and
the following officers elected: Brand
Whitlock, president; Dr. W. S. Scar
borough, v>ce president; the Rev. Da
vis W. Oa k, 31 West Cedar street,
Boston, Mass., corresponding secre
tary; vVil'iam R. Craven, vice presi
dent; Dayton Savings and Trust Com
pany. treasurer.
The commission brought a central
lot in a Dayton cemetery and trans
ferred Dunbar’s remains to it, mark
ing the grave with a natural boulder
and bronze plate. The first scholar
ship has been assigned to Wilberforee,
in Dunbar’s native state. Paul Lau
rence Dunbar Murphy, the poet’s
nephew, whom he intended to educate,
is to be the first incumbent.
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niHmmiiiiiiimiiiimiiiimiiiiiiimmmimiiiiiiimmmiiiMiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiii:
The Attitude of the
American Negro-1917
Williams Pickens, Dean of Morgan College, Contrib
utes Thought-Compelling Article to South
western Christian Recorder.
There is no question as to the Ne
gro’s patriotism or loyalty. But the
mistake is being made by a misrepre
sentation of the mind of the Negro
which is back of this patriotism. The
last year or two of the great war has
discovered an unprecedented thing—
unprecedented except by the spirit of
the Negro himself during the Civil
War; namely, that America’s least
privileged and most persecuted class
proves to be in a critical time its
most dependable citizenship. For sev
eral seasons now every white man in
America has been watching every
other white man—but nobody has felt
the need of watching the American
Negro. To be sure, a false alarm
was recently started in the S-. ith
about German plotting among Ne
groes, but those of us who know the
South knew at once what that alarm
meant. It signified, not a fear of
Negro disloyalty, but a real and gen
uine fear of the Negro’s growing in
dustrial and economic opportunities
which the great war has brought him.
This alarm, which is the most treach
erous thrust that has been made at
the Negro in recent years failed—it
failed against the solid fact of the
Negro’s loyalty, past and present. The
South, which has fooled the world
about the Negro in almost every other
particular, which has made the North
believe that he is a characteristic
rapist, that he is unprofitable labor,
that he is unreliable as a machine op
erator and that he is an undesirable
in almost every other capacity—this
historic traducer of its helpless Ne
groes, after being backed even by
high official “confirmation,” failed ut
terly to stir the blood of the nation
with the scare-crow Negro disloyalty.
Such is the universal and unconscious
ly acquired confidence in the Negro as
an American!
Needs No Watching.
But singularly enough, the peoples
who have been highly favored above
the Negro are the classes who are
now deemed worthy of suspicion—
those who have been permitted to buy
a house on any corner, who have been
permitted to live in any part of oui
cities, who have been admitted to work
in any business or industry, who have
not been disfranchised but who have
been jubilantly naturalized as fresh
recruits, for the ghost or fetish
called “white civilization,” the people
who have not been “Jim-Crowed” or
hanged without trial or burned at the
state (behold ye gods!), these are the
peoples whom the nation watches
when the nation’s security is threat
ened. But the Negro, whose ancestry,
by the way, was American long before
that of the great majority of our
white people and whose record of loyal
service has been uniform and unvary
ing, is the only class upon whom all
of these abuses have been heaped—
and yet, by the reluctant confession of
his worst enemies, he is the class ot
all classes not needing to be watched.
The Anomaly.
The anomaly: Although the Ne
gro’s dependableness is the best at
tested fact in America today, he is
the one man not enthusiastically wel
comed in our preparations for war.
We wish to get along without him if
we possibly can. To be sure we have
left the door ajar so that the Colored
brother can be called, as usual, when
sorely needed. Meanwhile some of us
are between the devil and the deep
blue sea; we must either send the Ne
gro to the glory of the trenches of
France, or we must permit him the
gain of becoming further intrenched in
our home industries—and we feel that
either trench will have a mighty ele
vating influence on the American Ne
gro’s status. Whi t could be more ef
fective than the Negro in Europe,
freeing big-souled France, glorifying
America and establishing democracy
in the world ? On the other hand,
what could be of more solid gain to
the Negro raee in the United States
than to be permitted by the incident
of war and the iron law of necessity
to work in the great industries of
America and pcove that he can do
satisfactorily the very things which
his enemies have for fifty years
shouted and maintained that he could
never be relied upon to do? For the
Negro it is a case of “heads, I win!
tails, you lose!” What the Negro’s
real enemy really fears is not the |
race’s fondly catalogued vices, but its
virtue.
Not Unthinking Docility.
We repeat that although there is
no question as to the Negro’s loyalty (
in the preesnt crisis, those are in wide
error who are taking his loyalty for
blind impulse or unthinking docility,
like the loyalty of the dog or the
horse. The masses of the race are
thinking as they never thought before
and they are loyal only for the same
reason that any other group of men
in the world is loyal to anything; be- !
cause they think that their best group
interests are bound up in the thing to |
which they are loyal. As to whether '
the Negro would be loyal if he were ,
absolutely convinced to the contrary :
must be answered in hypothesis by the ;
same answer which would be given
for any other group of normal beings |
on earth. He is certainly not loyal to
disfranchisement, “Jim-Crowism” and
lynch law, but he follows the star of
America in spite of those evils and i
with the deliberate intention and fond
hope of overthrowing them. In such a
situation the Negro must, of course,
continually face dilemnas; he has had
to be a strike-breaker to get a job,
he has had to go to a separate and in- |
ferior school system to escape igno
rance, and he has had to dissect the {
body of Christ in order to enter the J
church and the kingdom of heaven; j
in the same spirit he would accept a
separate military training camp, that
some of his college-trained men might
get commissions in the army and
serve their country more effectively
than as mere “cannon fodder.” It is
not strange that in the last named
dilemna the majority of his leaders
and friends endorsed the camp idea;
but it is significant that, while some
of his leaders and friends conscien
tiously opposed it, all of his worst
enemies consistently opposed it. Those
who favored it do not favor discrim
ination, but they seized that horn of
the dilemna which lends a future ad
vantage—to gain a height from which
they could deal segregation a heavier
blow’. His enemies also saw’ this and
opposed it unanimously.
Aims One; Methods Differ.
This explains the frequent appear- i
ance of a lack of union among Amer- j
ican Negroes. It is plain to an in
sider; they are perfectly united in
aim and ambition, and they differ only
in method and policy. The difference
is due to their peculiar situation; no
other group of people in the round
world is brought oftener face to face
W’ith a dilemma, where the choice is,
not between an evil and a good, but
betw’een two evils. A choice between
evils is a more disintegrating ques
tion than any choice between unmixed
evil and a definite good. “Which is
the lesser evil ?” This puzzling dilem
ma is at the bottom of many of the
apparent differences among Negro
leaders, whose hearts and souls are
perfectly united in ambition and aim
and object. The only solution of this
difficulty is conference, frequent and
widely representing conference—a
periodic congress of the American Ne
gro. As a matter of group interests,
the conclusions of these conferences
should be loyally supported and in
dividual opinion submerged. This is
the meaning of efficiency. The best
prepared agency to take this lead is
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People.
What He Will Do.
What will the Negro do in the pres
ent war? As a people he will not
make profuse professions of loyalty,
but he woll stand wholeheartedly by
the American Union, as he has always
stood by it—if it were attacked by
a foreign foe or if it were assailed by
rebellion. He will not forget his
wrongs, but he will also not over
value them against his faith in the
future; he will fight for America in
order to fight better and more con
1 sistentl_y for his share in America.
Of course some of his leaders, who
have a personal and, perhaps, an oth
erwise legitimate interest in pleasing
the public, may sometimes speak as
if the Negro is possessed of uncondi
tional and unthinking loyalty; but,
after all, the clean truth is the only
safe and permanent basis of peace and
understanding and co-operation be
tween races. If the Negro is willing
to fight and die, you may be sure that
it is not with the intention of strength
enink the arm of oppression. The
American Negro is a normal human
being like other men; the Irish will
fight our battles and seek thereby to
enlist our influence in behalf of chas
tised Ireland; the Russian people died
in the snowy trenches under the stand
ard of autocracy, but hailed with de
light the opportunity to hoist above
it the standard of democracy.
Furthermore, this is the American
Negro’s home; all that he has, all that
he hopes, is here. And if his house
gets afire, he will help to extinguish
the flames even if they were started
by thieves. In the present situation
he is faced not only by a dilemma
but by an embarrassment. His saner
and safer leadership cannot be pro
fuse and loud in professions of loyalty
and support, because there is a con
sciousness of the fact that he will be
summoned to arms only by necessity,
and even then reluctantly. Self-re
spect makes his loyalty dumb but does
not destroy it. He hates war, too,
on its own horrible account, and de
plores the present blood sacrifice in
Europe, although he knows that it has
given him a better chance to work
and earn his bread in the United
States than he would otherwise have
gotten in a hundred years. And in
the present struggle he will prove to
be the finest asset of our nation,
whether at work or at war.
What the Sphinx Would Say.
If this sphinx of an American Ne
gro spoke and dared to speak, this is
what he would say: Let our country
get into sincere harmony with the
great spirit of democracy which she
professes to defend; let her avoid the
mistakes of some of her allies and
begin by self-purgation, and not find
the expulsion of evil geniuses neces
sary amid the trenches and the flames
of war. Let the Congress of the
United States set the example for all
the States by not only ceasing to agi
tate for “Jim-Crowism” and segrega
tion, but also by the repeal of all laws
whose intent or effect is to restrict
the freedom of and to discriminate
against any class or group of Ameri
can citizens. Let the laws be enforced
alike for all who obey them and alike
against any who violates them. Let
the President and Congress of the
United States enforce the Constitution
by supervising interracial relation;
which is, after all, not a State or lo
cal matter like the transfer of proper
ty and the enforcement of contracts
between individuals, but is one of the
larger national matters, like interest,
commerce and the mails. Let fear
subside and reason rule. And if any
timid soul fears that such a state of
civilization and equality may tend
to force upon anydoby amalgamation
or any other such non-desideratum, let
the Congress make for that soul’s sakp
a law to this effect: That every per
son in these United States is forbid
den to marry any other person without
that other person’s consent; for the
only just ground for marriage is the
consent of the married—and no one is
fit to marry another one without that
other one’s consent.
A Nobler America Will Emerge.
Out of the struggle America should
come forth nobler and freer, else the
discipline of Providence is vain. She
should gain as much as Ireland or
France or Russia. We wish not that
our country should fight the battles
of democracy and yet fail to purge
her own life and to raise the estate of
her loyal citizens. The Negro is r
man, a real normal man, and is con
trolled by the motives which control
men. He will not fail to sense an ad
vantage, and will act upon it. And
if the forward march of democracy is
to include him, America can count
forever on the loyalty of his legious.
If he is given a man’s chance in this
country and is offered a soldier’s
chance in this war, we will meet again
in 1918, or 1919, or both, to present
to a black hero, returning from some
quarter of the world, the Spingam
medal for having advanced the stand
ard and defended the honor of the
Star-Spangled Banner.
STUDENTS TO HELP
IN RELIEF WORK
Washington, D. C.—The students of
Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes, re
siding in Washington and vicinity, are
to lend a helping hand in the relief
work made necessary by the war.
Eloquent L*jnt
Protect Parade
Fifteen Thousand Negroes March
Through Streets of New York to
Sound of Muffled Drums.
A MUTE APPEAL FOR JUSTICE
New York, July 30.—As a protest
against the lynching of Negroes and
the burning of their homes in East St.
Louis, Waco, Tex., and Memphis,
Tenn., 15,000 Negroes, walking to the
beat of muffled drums, paraded in
Fifth avenue from Fifty-seventh
street to Madison square yesterday
afternoon. It was a silent protest,
the men, women and children in the
procession having been instructed to
march without talking. Their mes
sages were conveyed on banners.
Some of them read:
"So Treat Us That We May Love
Our Country; Give Us a Chance to
Live; Thou Shalt Not Kill; Repelled
by the Unions, We Are Called Scabs;
Race Prejudice Is the Offspring of
Ignorance and the Mother of Lynch
ing; The Great Contradiction—Love
of God and Hatred of Man; We Are
Maligned as Lazy and Murdered
When We Work; Pray for the Lady
Macbeth of East St. Louis.”
Heading the parade were Sergeant
Thomas Byrnes and an escort of
mounted policemen of Traffic Squad
C. Captain W. H. Jackson was mar
shall and with him were the Rev. Dr.
Hutchins Bishop, the Rev. F. Cullen,
J. W. Johnson, the Rev. Dr. Charles
D. Martin, F. Mottley, J. S. Nail and
Rev. E. S. Daniel, the executive com
mitte of the parade organization.
A delegation of Negro Boy Scouts
formed part of the children’s section.
They carried banners. Following
them was an emergency ambulance
corps with trained Negro nurses in at
tendance.
Many of the men marchers were in
the khaki uniform of the United
States army and walking among them
were a few gray-haired soldiers of
civil war days. In this section were
banners calling attention to some of
the race’s accomplishments.
“The first blood for American inde
pendence was shed by a Negro” one
banner read. “We are first in France
—ask Pershing" was another. And
“Ten thousand of us fought in the
Spanish-American war.”
The silent protest parade made a
profound impression upon New York.
CHEERFULNESS, KINDNESS
AND COURTESY
Little as one may think so, gloomi
ness and grouchiness are terrible
handicaps. We owe it to ourselves
and others to cultivate cheerfulness,
kindness and courtesy. There's
grouchiness enough in the world with
out your being a grouch. Cut it out.
Substitute cheerfulness, which will of
necessity beget kindness, and that in
its turn must breed courtesy.
EIGHTH REGIMENT CALLED
TO FEDERAL SERVICE
Chicago, 111.—The Eighth regiment,
Illinois infantry, Col. Franklin A.
Denison, has mobilized with the other
Illinois national guard troops on July
25 by orders of President Wilson.
This regiment is the only one of its
kind in the United States with mem
bers of the race from colonel to pri
vate.
GOOD SAMARITANS
DEDICATE BUILDING
Athens, Ga.—The Improved Order
of Good Samaritans dedicated their
new building a few days ago, which
cost $35,000, all of which is paid. The
building dedicated is a brick structure
with two large stores on the first
floor, and twelve suites of offices on
the second floor, with a spacious au
ditorium on the third floor.
BUY HOMES
Have you carried out that often
thought of intention to begin buying
a home? Don’t keep putting it off.
Start buying now. It is cheaper than
paying rent and will compel you to
save. A warranty deed to a little
home has a bunch of rent receipts
beaten to a frazzle. Buy homes!
RECEIVED COMMISSION
Dr. U. F. Bass, Colored, of this city,
has received his commission as first
Lieutenant in the Officers Medical
Reserve Corps. Dr. Bass expects to
be assigned to a division at an early
date.—Fredericksburg Star.
