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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1917)
The Monitor i ..- .. . —-- ' 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, 11.50 PER YEAR Advertising Rates. 50 cents an Inch per issue. Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha. Telephone Webster 4243. SANE BUT AGGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP OF CLERGY Some years ago we received a let ter from the late Fred L. McGhee, the well known and influential attorney of St. Paul, Minn., one of the prime movers of the “Niagara Movement,” out of which, if we are not mistaken, that splendid and much-needed organ ization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, issued into being. Mr. McGhee wrote urging us to attend the meeting. His letter contained this, to us, signifi cant expression: “I do nope you can attend, for the success of our race in securing our just rights in this country depends very largely upon the sane but ag gressive leadership of the Colored ministers of the Episcopal Church.” The significance of this remark be comes more apparent when it is re called that Mr. McGhee, a man not given to flattery, was a loyal and de voted son of the Roman Catholic Church. His opinion of this “sane but aggressive leadership” was, no doubt, influenced by his association and work with such men as Fathers Bennett, Cartier, Daniels and Lealtad, all priests of the Episcopal Church, who with him went to the fore for the rights of the race in St. Paul. Be that as it may, it is worth while calling attention to the fact that in every community where ministers of the Episcopal Church are found they have had placed upon them the re sponsibility of this "sane but aggres- 1 sive leadership,” and it can be said to their credit that they have measured 1 up to the responsibility. In the recent great New York “silent protest parade” among the moving spirits were the Rev. Hutch ens C. Bishop, rector of St. Philip’s Church, New York; the Rev. E. S. Daniels, and the Rev. George Frazier Miller, rector of St. Augustine’s, Brooklyn. A few days ago in Cam bridge, Mass., the Rev. Walter D. Mc Clane, rector of St. Bartholomew’s, had his congressman introduce a reso lution for investigation of the East St. Louis massacre, and was spokes man before the Cambridge mayor when a committee, by its manly and courteous appeal, secured the correc tion of an erroneous and highly-color ed “race riot” story published in the Cambridge Standard. These are but two recent examples from scores that might be cited from all sections of this country, which il lustrate how this “sane but aggres sive leadership” in matters vitally af fecting the race is being exercised by the Colored clergy of the Episcopal Church. None of them make any noise about it. They seek no praise or com mendation for it. They are happy to be of service. But the fact that they do effective service for their people, irrespective of denominational or re ligious lines, deserves to be more widely known and recognized. A GOOD INVESTMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE It has been our misfortune hitherto to be restricted in our opportunities for investment. Opportunities, how ever, are enlarging. We ought to take advantage of them wherever and whenever possible. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that we invite our readers’ attention to the splendid op portunity of becoming stockholders in the Nebraska Power company, the successor company to the Omaha Electric Light and Power company. This company is as sound as the United States government. The local directors are men whose names spell financial success, ability and in tegrity. The shares sell for $100. They can be bought for cash or on time. They pay 7 per cent interest. It is not only a sound saving proposition, but als* an earning proposition. Hundreds of our people in this city use electric light and current. It will be to their advantage to become stock holders in this company. If you want a safe, sound, paying proposition, earning higher interest than you can get from any savings bank, invest in as many shares as you can afford of Nebraska Power com pany 7 per cent cumulative preferred stock. Their offer holds good only until August 31. The Monitor would be pleased to re ceive a list of our people who have taken advantage of this good invest ment. The Monitor Is growing. Help us grow. “PATRICIA NEWCOMB” TELLS THE TRUTH Richard L. Metcalfe is going after Frank L. Haller, president of the Board of Regents of the Nebraska State University, for his alleged pro German sympathies and utterances. He accuses Mr. Haller of being the author of the “Patricia Newcomb” letters which have been published from time to time in the Public Pulse column of the World-Herald. We are not particularly concerned with the identity of “Patricia New comb,” but we were and are wholly in accord with everything that “Patricia Newcomb” has written about the law lessness and disrespect for law which prevails in the United States. There is no need to try to blink the facts. We are notoriously lawless. That we i re open to the charge of hypocrisy is also true. And it is up to Americans, all Americans, frankly to admit these facts, confess our sins in this regard and do all in our power to roll away this just reproach. “Patricia” was also right when she said that until the South makes an earnest effort to stop her pastime of lynching and burning Negroes at the stake Northern audiences should not applaud but hiss “Dixie” whenever they hear it played, as a protest against mob violence. “Patricia” may have pro-German sympathies, but much that she, or he, has written is the absolute truth about our country which we should i take to heart and profit thereby. “A friendly eye would never see such faults; A FLATTER’S would not, though they do appear as high as huge Olympus.” DECLINES INVITATION William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian, in his usually j manly way, courteously but firmly declined the invitation extended to him by the governor of Massachusetts to serve on the committee of arrange ments for the reception of the Royal Belgian Commission, now visiting in the United States, upon its visit to Boston. His declination to serve is upon the ground of the unforgotten atrocities committed by Leopold of Belgium upon the natives of the Congo. Bleeding Belgium is paying the penalty for her unspeakable crimes against the helpless black men of Africa. We commend Mr. Trot- i ter’s stand. ! BUY HOMES Buy homes. Begin to buy now. Find some suitable place within your means and make a first payment and then keep up your monthly payments and before you know it you will be a home owner. BUY A HOME! — SKIT OF SOLOMON Cornbread. Cornbread, my son, is a nifty dish I which the gods of Olympus forgot to put on the menu. The classics say that they had nectar, fluff fluff, creme de boil Ion, bonbons, rare roast beef, choice chicken, and so forth, but all the translators and book bugs in the world have been unable to find a line where it says they ever had cornbread. It was a shame, too. If any poor mutt whom the gods decided to post mortem had ever slipped the boss god or god dess a hunk of cornbread, Mercury wouldn't have been able to deliver the pardon quick enough. Com bread has it on every other kind of bread that ever hit a baker shop, and isn’t it funny why no baker shop ever sold hoe cake, cracklin comers and pone over the counter ? The man or woman that will specialize in com bread will make John D. and Pierpont look like cold storage poultry fruit. The man who won’t spend his last thin dime for a hunk of the hot, buttered and gritty yellow, hasn’t yet slipped by the stork. Then, too, com bread gives a solar plexus blow to the H. C. L. Wheat can go to forty bones per bu. if com will stick around a dollar per. A man can whip forty Germans if he is fed on com bread, in fact, the quickest way to end the war would be to tell ten thousand Colored men that Berlin was filled with cabbage, com bread and pork chops. Thereupon steel and concrete walls and forty cen timeter guns would become a mere item. French pastry, chocolate cake and pie are all very nifty, but when it comes to a sure enough treat,Corn bread. Obvious Observations Where’s all that gushing American patriotism we’ve heard so much about? When it comes down to the pure dee genuine gaff it looks like j most of the gushers have accumulated ' a mes sof cold feet. "Allies Getting Ready for a Big Drive!” Gosh, they’ve been getting ready for three years. Why don’t they drive? War fame lasts about as long as a scared pigeon on an auto speedway. If one were to try and call the names of all the guys who jump into undying fame and fell right on through, he would need a carburetor to keep his jaws moving. What’s going to happen to the high cost of food? Nothing, Cecil, noth ing. Bad dogs, rain and hot weather never did go together somehow. Green apples—little boys—stomach ache—colic—undertaker. Omah is waking up to the fact that there are a few Colored song birds around who are really worth listening to, am it not? Get ready to ask that favor of the coal man and ask it in time. By the way, Clarice, do you ever patronize the public library ? No, it j doesn’t cost anything, honestly. When you can eat tomatoes off your own vine; dig spuds from your own I back yard; and pull okra off your own i trees, you should worry. Millions of aliens aer going to stick i around and make money while the | white and black Americans are fight i ing in the trenches. Isn’t that lovely ? Ihunkink you for your patient pa ! tience, we will now light up the briar j .-.nd clear the room of loungers. — For real estate, loans, insurance and investments, see Eugene Thomas first. Rooms 413-14 Karbach Block, 15th and Douglas. Phone Douglas 3607.—Adv. - - Keep Books and Papers Away from the Telephone Don’t pile books or maga zines around the telephone. They may be pushed under the receiver and put the ser vice out of order on your line. If the receiver Is raised so that Its weight does not hold the hook down the sig nal Is flushed In front of the operator the same as when you make a call. Failing to get an answer to her repeated requests of “Number, please," the opera tor supervising your line concludes that your tele phone Is “out of order." To the other operators trying to get your telephone It Is “busy” because your re ceiver Is off the hook. If you keep books and papers away from the tele phone they will not he crowd ed under the receiver and cut off your telephone ser vice. _ J I I I I I I I I 1 ' Our Women and, Children Conducted by Lucille Skaggs Edwards SUMMER FURS The Youth’s Companion in an edi torial entitled, “Summer Furs,” com ments facetiously upon women’s styles. The latter part of the article is as follows: “We used to believe that a little clique of French dressmakers design ed every summer the fashions that the western world received docilely from its hands; but now that France is battling for its life there is the same rapid and meaningless change of styles. Women are still sharply reminded that the hat and the skirt of 1916 are not the hat and the skirt of 1917, and that they must remodel or replenish their wardrobes. “The fluctuations of fashion have their charm. Sometimes they betray a fine quality of taste, a high and delicate standard of distinction. The long, flowing, inevitable lines of the Gainsborough costumes are a case in point. Sometimes the styles robustly asBert the triumph of common sense. The lifting of women’s skirts out of the dirt and foulness of the streets on which they used to trail exemplifies that spirit of reform. Always we are disposed to tolerate new fashions, be cause our eyes quickly accustom themselves to change. It is only when a spirit of freakishness runs riot in dress, as it runs riot in art and let ters, that we ask ourselves grimly, not where is the taste of the world, but where is its sanity ? Certain prin ciples of propriety, rock foundations of fitness, have dominated the cos tumes of civilization. The Greeks wore sheer fabrics because they lived in a warm climate. The Russians wore furs because they lived in a cold one. It seemed, and seems, reason able and right. But that American women who have been baring their throats and chests to the blasts of winter and thus presenting an ap pearance of great misery should swathe themselves in fur under our fierce summer sun gives us good cause to doubt their rationality. Alienists tell us that the number of abnormal people in the world vastly exceeds our computation. Perhaps this is one of the ways in which wo men otherwise sane betray their ab normality. "One sultry day in July two sweat ing postmen stopped to stare at a young woman who was walking a New York street wrapped in furs that would have defied an Arctic winter. She wore a deep stole, decorated with : waggling tails and paws; and she | panted, crimson but defiant, in the pitiless heat. The men, fanning them selves with their straw hats, stood smitten by the sight. Then one ot them, with eyes full of pity and con cern, solemnly wagged a commiser ating head. ‘Who let her out?’ he asked.” THE ALAMO POOL AND BILLIARD PARLOR Mr. E. W. Kiilingsworth and Mr. R. C. Price are to be congratulated upon their venture into business at 241t> North 24th street. They have opened a really first class establishment and in connection a barber shop with all latest improvements in service. Both gentlemen are excellent tonsorialists, ranking with the very best. They are in a most excellent location and are bidding for the most exclusive trade— people who are particular and people who care. Their place is genteel and quiet and any woman may feel safe to visit there and have her shoes shined or to send her little boy or girl to have his or her hair trimmed. Baths will be installed soon and the purpose of the proprietors is to make their establishment second to none in the west as respects equipment. The building has been completely | remodeled, repapered and redecorated, the color harmony having been work ed out with taste and artistic ability. The place is most inviting and the highest standard will be maintained, j No gambling of any sort is permitted ! and the pool tables are for the gen teel only. One notable things about j the popol tables is that they are lev l oled every morning in order to keep ; them in first class condition for the players. A full line of cigars, can j dies and soft drinks are to be had and the indications are that it will become | the mecca for north side trade. While j we are patriotic, we trust that Mr. ! Kiilingsworth will not have to go to war, but will be able, in company with his partner, Mr. Price, to realize the ! plans which the two have formulated i to make their place of business second I to none. CRONSTROM’S PANTALORIUM LADIES’ AND GENTLEMEN’S TAILORING CLEANING PRESSING ALTERING There’s a difference. All work done by tailors who know how to keep garments shaped and in condition, something unattain- , able by pressing machines. lx»ok over your wardrobe and then call Douglas 5407 Room 8, Patterson Block 17th and Farnam Streets 1 ..—...»— We Have a Complete Line of FLOWER,GRASS S****r1« AND GARDEN ^CCU3 Bulbs, Hardy Perennials, Poultry Supplies Fresh cut flowers always on hand Stewart’s Seed Store 119 N. 16th St. Opp. Post Office Phone Douglas 977 i.... ...... . . For dressmaking, call Miss Alexan der. 2413 N. 29th st. Web. 3927. Our Interests—Your Interests In a previous article we asserted that it is our plan to become YOUR ELECTRIC SERVICE COMPANY in fact as well as in name. This was no business-seeking moonshine—no airy persiflage. We meant exactly what we said and the time has now arrived to prove it. We said we want to take you into partnership to make OUR INTER ESTS, YOUR INTERESTS—OUR PROBLEMS, YOUR PROBLEMS. We meant all that, too. Before the appearance of this article users of electric service will be in possession of a descriptive circular and letter inviting them to pur chase Nebraska Power Company 7 per cent cumulative preferred stock at par, dividends quarterly. This is not a stock jobbing campaign. It is the desire of the Ne braska Power Company to make financial partners of its patrons by en abling them to invest as little or as much as they see fit in its business. For those with small capital this is indeed a splendid opportunity to se cure a liberal interest thereupon. It is to these that this offer should | prove particularly attractive, since the stock will be ready for disposal in small denominations. That the most modest stockholder and the propri etor of the largest industry shall be equal partners in our concern is the earnest wish of YOUR ELECTRIC SERVICE COMPANY. When you are financially interested in a proposition you are likely to feel a proprietary interest also—likely to feel that you and other per sons similarly interested are co-workers to a common end—that you will rise or fall together. If that is not PARTNERSHIP IN FACT, then we have need of a dictionary. You will discover a genuineness and frankness of this offer upon con sulting the officers of the Nebraska Power Company or Bums, Brinker & Company, 449 Omaha National Bank Building, who will be glad to ac quaint you with full particulars of the plan. You will also find that you are regarded as a partner in spirit before you actually Income a partner in fact. This should interest you. j ; Electricity is a very essential factor in our daily lives nowadays, and its fullest advantages are certain to redound from this new partnership, into which we trust you will see fit to enter. Nebraska Power Company “YOUR ELECTRIC SERVICE COMPANY” !