f =■ i The Monitor i ~
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy_OMAHA, NEBRASKA. FEBRUARY 8, 1919 Vol. IV. No. 32 \ ' ole No. 187)
A Lovely Corner
In Paradise
s, A -
What the United States May Get
From France as Part Payment of
the Immense Debt Incurred by the
War.
A BLACK MAN’S COUNTRY
Grace Phelps, in the New York Tri
bune, Gives Long and Interesting
Account of Islands and Its People.
IN the Sunday New York Tribune
of January 26, a long article ap
pears concerning the Island of Mar
tinque, which it is reported, may be
ceded to the United States as part
payment of France’s war debt. Ex
cerpts of the interesting review ap
pear here and will prove enlightening
to those unacquainted with this beau
tiful little island of the West In
dies.
Martinique, the best known of the
French West Indies, may soon belong
>-» to the United States, if the proposed
plan to cede it as part payment of
the war debt of France to us is car
ried out.
Whether the inhabitants of the isl
and would be as enthusiastic over the
idea of becoming Americans as were
the natives of the Danish West Indies
nearly two years ago, is a moot ques
tion. The fact remains that the plan
is being seriously made abroad and
as seriously considered here, espe
cially by a pan-American group anx
ious to extend our influence over the
entire West Indian group of Islands.
Birthplace of Josephine.
Josephine, ill-starred wife of Na
poleon, was bom in Martinique, and
her statue, splendid and melancholy,
dominates the public plaza, or Sa
vanne, near the center of Fort de
France. Here, too, was worn Mme. de
Maintenon, the beautiful courtesan,
whose influence on Ixiuis XIV was
responsible for one of the religious
massacres during his reign.
The French have no such race pre
judice as we have here in the United
States, and both within and without
the law intermarriage has been the
custom. It is this crossing, together
with the original Carib Indian strain,
which produced the beautiful, supple,
colored Creole, who proved so fascin
ating to Lafcadio Hearn in his two
years in Martinique.
Color, however, and a tropical lan
guor always had a fascination for
Lafcadio Hearn far exceeding that of
the white and pink beauties of north
ern climes. He might therefore be
accused of prejudice if it were not for
the testimony of other visitors, to
Martinique, not to mention the living
proofs visible to present day trav
elers.
Martinique’s Great Figure.
By far the most interesting fig
ure in the history of Martinique is
that of Pere Labat, a Dominician fa
ther, who lived in the island in the
early part of the seventeenth cen
tury. Methods of distilling, sugar
can raising and even engineering pro
jects instituted by Pere Labat re
main in Martinique today. Yet all
that is remembered of the stern fight
er, priest and layman, is a legend
which the Creoles use to frighten their
children into good behavior.
Slavery was introduced into Mar
tinique before Pere Labat’s time, yet
it is always associated with him be
cause of his cruelties toward the Ne
groes, whom he believed literally to
be “limbs of Satan.” And when at
night a light is seen twinkling on
M an inaccessible mountainside, it is be
lieved to be the lantern of Pere Labat,
condemned to wander thus as a pen
ance for his cruelties. Slavery was
abolished in 1848. Many Creoles, es
pecially among the women, were freed
voluntarily years before, yet Pere
Labat’s lantern still twinkles in Mar
tinique.
Social, Political Equality.
Socially there is little distinction
today between the races in Martini
que, and politically thpre is none
whatever. It is the color problem,
therefore, with our less liberal social
and political attitude, which this coun
try will have to face if the island
should be ceded to us. It is the
same problem which faces us in the
Virgin Islands, formerly the Danish
West Indies, where class and not color
was the dividing line under Danish
rule. In Martinique there is also the
barrier of language, for where Eng
lish is understood and spoken in the
Virgin Islands, only the French patois
is to be heard in Martinique.
Judging from reports that have
reached me from St. Thomas since
WHERE THE AMERICAN DELEGATES ARE RESIDING
The handsome Hotel Crillon on the Place de la Concorde, Paris, where tlie American delegates to the peace congress
are housed.
the American occupation, the color
problem is not being met very hap
pily there. That we would be more
successful with the Creoles of Mar
tinique, who enjoy far greater eco
nomic and political freedom than did
the natives of the Danish West In
dies, is unlikely. Trade, too, is bound
up more closely with the mother coun
try than was the case with the Danish
West Indies. The white rum which
is distilled in •Martinique forms the
basis of the fine French perfumes.
Furthermore, Martinique is only
one of the French West Indies. Its
population of 185,000 slightly exceeds
that of Guadeloupe, the second island
of importance in the group.
Besides Guadeloupe there are four
other islands belonging to France in
the West Indies, all closely connected
with the mother country, and in all of
which the population is 95 per cent
black or Colored.
LYNCHERS BROUGHT TO TRIAL
Tuseumbia, Ala.-—The special teim
of the Colbert county circuit court,
called by Judge Charles Almon, for
the purpose of trying the men charged
with participating in the lynching of
two Colored men in Sheffield last
November, convened at the Colbert
county court house Monday, January
6. Judge J. J. Curtis of Jasper, who
is presiding in the absence of Judge
Almon, found that none of the cases
against the men who were under ar
rest had been set and only three of
the fifteen or sixteen men who had
been sent to other jails throughout
the state had teen brought back to
Colbert county jail for trial. As a
consequence he issued an order di
recting the sheriff of Colbert county
to bring all of the accused men back
to Colbert county immediately and
ordered their cases set for the week
beginning January 20. Court will be
in session meanwhile awaiting the
final report of the grand jury, which
is in session making further inves
tigation of the lynching and other
alleged law violators in Colbert coun
ty.
In the habeas corpus trial before
Judge Pride Tompkins Monday, Ralph
Owen, one of the alleged members of
the lynching tee was freed under
bond. The trial deyeloped that there
was no evidence at all against the
young man and his acquittal is indi
cated when he comes up for trial with
the rest of the men later this month.
Hon. H. H. Carmichael, well-known
criminal lawyer of Tuseumbia, has
teen employed as counsel by nearly
all of the accused men.
ENGRAVER ACCUSED OF THEFT
Washington, D. C.—Malcom Boone,
Colored, seventeen years old, 1907
Second street, was arrested in con
nection with the theft of $15,000 in
unfinished notes from the bureau of
engraving and printing. William
Tate, one of the Colored messengers
under arrest for alleged participa
tion in the thefts, resides in the Sec
ond street house, and it is charged
that he had the boy put a number of
the notes in circulation.
Attempt Fails to Oust
Colored Switchmen
Memphis, Tenn.—All of the white
switchmen on the Illinois Central,
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, Frisco
and Union Railway lines in this city,
went on strike because the compa
nies refused to dismiss the Colored
switchmen. The strikers in no way
hampered the traffic very seriously.
When they waited on Mr. Edward
Rodamer, terminal superintendent, he
positively refused their demands and
told the men that the company had no
contract with the individuals but with
the brotherhoods. Then the whites
tried to point out that the company
had no contract with the Colored
switchmen, but saw fit to see and en
tertain a delegation of them who pre
sented their grievances regarding pro
motions and seniority. After further
argument Mr. Rodamer told them
they could quit if they did not like
their jobs but this they declined to do.
In stating their complaints against
the Colored workers, they said the
men were carrying firearms and quite
frequently they were arrested and
would be back at work within two
hours. “We don’t know who bailed
them out,” the white men are law
abiding men, and don’t want to be
forced to carry arms to protect them
selves.
After being told that the elimina
tion of the Colored switchmen on the
Memphis terminals cannot be settled
by the railway officials, that it was
a matter of policy that could only
be settled by the railway administra
tion in Washington, the strikers be
gan to return to work Friday morn
ing. The fallacy of such a strike
gained for the men no friends what
ever.
JAPANESE OBJECT TO
LEAGUE OF NATIONS PLAN
Tokio, Feb. 1.— (By the Associated
Tress-./.—The opposition in the lower
ho ise of the Japanese parliament is
continuing its heckling of the govern
ment. Keisuke Mochizuki and others
have charged the government with
placing the Siberian interests of
Japan under American control and
have argued that the projected league
of nations would prove futile. The un
equal treatment of Japanese by the
United States has been likewise point
ed to, as has the probability of Amer
ican naval expansion.
The government declined to reply to
the interpellations.
RALPH W. TYLER RETURNS
New York City, N. Y., Feb. 4.—
Relph W. Tyler, ex-auditor of the
navy, who went to France in Septem
ber as the official war correspondent
of the government returned last Sat
urday morning on the steamship Pres
ident Grant. Mr. Tyler w'ent at once
to the Union Square hotel. Most of
our troops, he said, were now billeted
in Le Mans, about 200 miles from
Brest, in France, awaiting ships to
bring them home. Mr. Tyler left New
York for his home town, Columbus,
Ohio, Sunday.
STRANGE WHITE TRIBE
FOUND IN CHINA HILLS
New York, Feb. 4.—A tribe of white
men whose chief characteristic is their
ferocious courage has been found in
the western mountains of China by
Dr. Joseph Beech, president of the
West China Union university, at
Changta.
Dr. Beech, who recently arrived in
this country to aid in the Methodist
Episcopal centenary campaign for
$85,000,000 for missionary work at
home and abroad, tells also of anoth
er race of white men, who greatly re
semble Bohemians, to be found in
the great hills.
‘‘There are forty or fifty different
tribes,” Dr. Beech said, “all speaking
different languages and all different
in physical appearance in the moun
tains of west and southwest Szechuen.
On our maps these tribes are called a
part of China, but they are really
independent, and have fought the Chi
1 nese from time immemorial.
“This tribe, resembling Anglo-Sax
ons, lives in the district of Sung Pan.
It is described to me as consisting
of large men whose bravery is con
i sidered a marvel by Chinese. They
never run away, a Chinese friend told
| me. They love to fight.”
U. S. NEGRO SOLDIERS
CURIOSITY TO GERMANS
(Correspondence of the Associated
Press.)
With the American Army of Oc
cupation. Feb. 4.—Wherever Ameri
can Negroes have appeared in the
area occupied by the Americans, they
have attracted great attention among
the civilians.
In Treves, Coblenz and other
places, during the early days of the
occupation, crowds assembled whore
over any Negro soldiers stopped in
the streets and it was necessary for
[ the military police to enforce the
orders prohibiting gatherings in the
public thoroughfares. Even now in
Coblenz and Treves where there are
a number of Negro soldiers, they at
tract crowds of German children ev
ery time they appear in the streets.
The German soldier also regards
the Negro with great curiosity. Ac
cording to a discharged German sol
dier in Rongsdorf, the German army,
early in the war, offered a reward of
400 marks for the capture alive of
each Negro. The discharged German
soldier said that throughout the war
German soldiers lived in great fear
and even terror of the Negroes, and
it was in order to overcome this fear
that rewards were offered.
MEMORIAL FOR ROOSEVELT
AND DUNBAR SAME DATE
Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 4.—Sunday,
j February 9 has been set aside as the
annual date on which a national me
morial service will be held for the
late Col. Theodore Roosevelt. This
date also marks the 13th anniversary
of the late Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an
intimate friend of Colonel Roosevelt.
Efforts are being put forth here to
have the race honor the two great
men on the same date. Every lyceum,
literary and forum is urged to use
this date to emulate the characters of
the two great Americans.
AN AFRICAN STATE
LEADS PROHIBITION
Ordinance Against the Introduction
and Sale of Spirituous Liquors in
Basutoland.
Thaba Rosigo, Africa.—As evidence
of the determination of the people of
Basutoland to wipe out the liquor
traffic, which was introduced here by
the whites, Chief Moshesh has issued
the following important official edict:
“Whereas the spirituous liquors of
the whites were unknown to former
generations of our tribe, Mattie and
Motlomi until Bomonageng and our
father Makhachane now very ad
vanced in age, has never used any
other drink than water and milk, and
whereas we deem that a good Chief
and Judge cannot claim to be compe
tent to execute his duties if he makes
use of anything of an intoxicating na
ture, and whereas spirituous liquors
create quarreling and strife and pave
the way to the destruction of society
(for surely the spirituous liquors of
the whites are nothing else than fire):
“It is therefore hereby made known
to all that the introduction and sale
of said spirituous liquor within Basu
toland is henceforth prohibited and
provided any person, whether white or
Colored, contravene this order, the
spirits shall be taken from him and
poured out on the ground, without ex
cuse or indemnification.
“And this order shall be printed in
the Sesuto and Dutch languages and
posted up at the places of public meet
ings and in the villages of the Basuto.
“Given with the advice and concur
rence of the great men of our tribe,
by us, the Chief of the Basutos, at
Thaba Rosigo, the 8th of November,
1854.
“(Signed) MOSHESH, Chief.”
i -
SECRETARY LANE SPEAKS
AT HAMPTON INSTITUTE
Hampton, Va.—Hon. Franklin K.
Lane, secretary of the interior, was
at Hampton institute on Sunday, Jan
uary 26, and delivered the annual
Founders’ day address at the morning
service.
Since the death in 1893 of Gen.
Samuel Chapman Armstrong, who
founded the Hampton school in 1868,
it has been customary for the trus
tees to invite each year to Hampton
as the chief speaker on Founders’
day some prominent man who has
made a definite contribution to na
tional progress.
Among the honored speakers of the
past at the Hampton Founder’s day
services have been Woodrow Wilson,
Lyman Abbott, Francis G. Peabody,
Booker T. Washington. Rabbi Stephen
S. Wise, Talcott Williams, Robert R.
Moton and Wi"iam H. Taft.
RIOT VICTIM GETS JUDGMENT
St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 4.—Thursday,
January 16, Mrs. Carrie Redmond
Williams, Madison, 111., was awarded
a judgment of $2,000 against the E.
St. Louis and Suburban Railway Co.
The charges grew out of an assault
upon Mrs. Williams on one of the
company’s cars during the riot of July
2, 1917. There are a number of cases
filed against the company.
Ku Klux Kla»%/5, ived
Through S(nnd
Infamous Organization Which Reveled
in Deeds of Arson and Klood and
Terrorized Helpless Victims in Re
construction Days Revived.
SECRET ORDER TO OPPOSE RACE
Believed to Be Plan to Cower and
Break Spirit of Returning Soldiers
and Make Them Submissive to
Southern Methods of Oppression.
Columbus, Ga., Feb. 7.—A society
to be known as the Ku Klux Klan has
been secretly organized in this city,
and literature stating the purpose of
the society is being distributed broad
cast over the state. A charter has
been granted for the operation of this
organization by the state department
at Atlanta, and workers of the Klan
are busy establishing lodges through
out the smaller communities. The
headquarters of the order are only
exposed by the address given in the
daily papers, which reads: “Address
all communications to Til Bo-Him,
Box 943, Columbus, Ga. Other than
this address nothing is known of the
permanent quarters from which the
vile society is fomenting its plans.
Agents Are Active.
Agents of the organization are ad
vised to “pick” the men who are to
compose the society, the heads of the
organization declaring that it is of
great importance that those identified
with the secrets be careful in disclos
ing the main object and purport of
the organizations. A pamphlet issued
reads: “The spirit of the old Ku Klux
Klan still lives, and, while conditions
are different, there exists those sacred
principles against Negro invasion; to
forever maintain white supremacy; to
shield the sanctity of the home and
virtue of womanhood.”
Other States Invaded.
The spirit of the Ku Klux Klan is
establishing itself throughout the en
tire southland. At Nashville and
Chattanooga, Tenn., the organization
is being viewed with favor, and has
collected together white citizens who
have pledged themselves to support
its principles and to adhere to its
early traditions. In speaking of the
operations of the Ku Klux Klan a
prominent white merchant of Colum
bus said: “Its noble work was, indeed,
well done. The noblest heroes of his
tory of any nation were its members,
who aided greatly in driving the Ne
groes from politics in this state. Our
order can do even more than this.”
PLAN TO HUMILIATE
NEGRO SOLDIERS
Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 7.—There is
a concerted determined effort down
here to make the Negro feel and be
lieve every minute in the day that he
is an inferior and that he can do no
more than his oppressors desire him
to do. They are also preparing 'to
inaugurate a system of crime and
persecution in an attempt to take the
heart 'out of the returned Negro sol
diers and reduce him to the same
status that he occupied before the
war. An advertisement in a daily
here warns the Klans to “Awaken.”
The following is an exact copy
made from the 1918 city directory of
Atlanta, Ga.:
“Ku Klux Klan.”
“Invisible Empire, Ku Klux Klan—
Wm. J. Simmons, imperial wizard, At
lanta,” Nathan B. Frost, Klan No. 1
—meets first and third Thursdays, 86
Central avenue, H. W. Hucks, Kli
graph.”
There are lots of these organiza
tions all over Georgia. In Tennessee
they call it the Columbian Union, but
in Georgia it is the plain Ku Klux
Klan that vaunts its face in public.
STEEL CO. HEAD GIVES $500
TO THE Y. M. C. A. FUND
St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 7.—Clarence
Howard, president of the Common
wealth Steel company, one of the
largest employers of labor, in making
a gift of $500 towards the Furnishing
Fund of the Pine street Y. M. C. A.,
wrote as follows: “As another evi
dence of my continued personal in
terest in you and your good work it
gives me great pleasure to send you
the enclosed $500 Liberty bond as a
special contribution to commemorate
the association of our Colored men’s
Fellowship club with the Y. M. C. A.
I know that this association is to re
sult in great common benefits and
increase your sphere and opportuni
ties for doing good among your peo
ple.”