• i =■ i The Monitor l^j
. /lio
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS. %0j
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor '
_____
$2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, MARCH 8, 1919 Vol. IV. No. 36 (Whole No! lb*)
“Jim-Crowed On
X^ Ship” Says Officer
The Treatment Accorded Brave Black
Heroes on Their Return to the Land
Which Went Into War lor an Ideal.
IS THIS TO BE REWARD?
Segregated on the Olympia by "South
ern Commander,” Who Dodges Is
sue When Men Make Manly Pro
test—Colors Lost, the Charge.
By Philip A. Payne.
NEW YORK.—Negro officers of
the 366th infantry, Chicago’s Ne
gro draft regiment, who returned
from France today, charged they had
been “Jim Crowed” on the transport
Olympic and that a brigadier general
and colonel, ranking officers aboard
the ship, had refused to rescind an
order segregating them • from the
white officers.
Their charges, made in writing and
presented to newspaper men by a
Negro Y. M. C. A. secretary, acting
__« •on behalf of the officers, were sub
stantiated by Negro officers of the
360th Field Artillery, the 367th In
fantry and the 317th Sanitary Train,
the other Negro units on the trans
port.
Officers Refused Justice.
They said Brig. Gen. Charles Gaer
hardt, commanding all troops on the
Olympic, and Col. George H. McMas
ter of the 365th Infantry, were
“southerners of the old school, with
all the old traditions, and refused to
see justice done the Negro officers.”
British naval officers commanding
the Olympic, told a delegation of the
protesting Negro officers the segre
gation order had been issued to them
by their white commander.
Twelve Negro officers of the 365th
and the other organizations gath
ered in the cabin of the regimental
chaplain while the Y. M. C. A. secre
tary gave a copy of the charges to
reporters. The “Y.” man said he was
acting for the officers who feared
court-martial proceedings if their i
names were used. They substantiated
his statement.
“Fair Play Denied.”
Their specific charges were:
That Negro officers of the 365th in
fantry, 317th Sanitary Train, 367th
Infantry and 350th F. A. were
grouped together, irrespective of
rank, in a separate dining room on
board the Olympic, while white lieu
tenants, captains and field officers
of the same organization, with nurses
of enlisted men’s rank, Y. M. C. A.
secretaries and field clerks were
seated in the main dining room with
passengers.
That the demand of the Negro offi
cers for fair play in letters to Com
mander General Charles Gearhardt
resulted in his dodging the issue by
saying the Negro officers go the
same service as was given in the
main dining room.
That feeling among the officers is
aggravated by the fact that the regi
mental flag and colors of the 365th
Infantry were lost. The Negro offi
cers say this is the result of negli
gence and lack of regard for their
flag.
Negro Captain in Tears.
With tears rolling down his cheeks,
a Negro captain said if the regiment
paraded in Chicago it would march
without its colors.
• “These colors which were paid for
by the pennies of little Negro children
in Chicago and formally presented to
the regiment at the Coliseum, were
taken away from us after hostilities
ended to be ..alvaged,” he said.
Every Negro officer and enlisted
man in this regiment—and many of
them have been cited for bravery—
bums with indignation because of
this added insult.”
Scores of enlisted men verified the
statement made by the captain.—Chi
cago Herald-Examiner.
MRS. ASTOR THROWS KISSES
TO NEW YORK’S FIFTEENTH
New York.—Bullet-dented “tin”
helmets crowned the woolly heads of
Col. Bill Hayward’s “hell fighters,”
New York’s old Fifteenth (Colored)
regiment, as they marched up Fifth
avenue the other day amid the plaud
its of great throngs of white and Col
ored people.
Mrs. Vincent Astor thrust her head
through a window of her home and
treated all and sundry who might care
to look to the sight of the wife of
one of the world’s richest men show
ering kisses with both hands to the
dusky heroes who had done so much to
uphold the honor of America and the
freedom of the world.
SEEKING TO SAVE
SNOWDEN’S LIFE
_
Remarkable Effort Being Exerted hy
Members of Both Races in Mary
land to Save Convicted Negro
From Execution.
(By Associated Negro Press.)
Baltimore, Md., March 6.—The city
and the whole state are aroused over
the refusal of Governor Harrington
to commute the sentence of John
Snowden to life imprisonment.
Snowden was convicted of the mur- i
rler of Lottie Brandon, white, a year
ago. The case was appealed and the
decision of the lower court sustained.
Final appeal was made to the United
States supreme court this week, on
the ground that Snowden was not
tried by a “jury of his peers,” that
is that there were no colored men on
the gl and jury or the trial jury.
It is also alleged in the appeal to |
the highest court of the land, that j
excitement and race prejudice were so j
rampant, at the trial that the proper j
form of indictment and passing of j
sentence were not gone through by the j
court.
Should this case be passed favorab
ly by the supreme court, Colored peo
ple will no longer be barred from
service on coroner’s and petit juries in
the state.
Late Monday the governor was vis
ited by representatives from the jury,
which passed sentence on Snowden,
and presented a petition signed by
eleven of them praying commutation
of the sentence to life imprisonment.
Petition was also presented by sixty
white business men of Annapolis
where the crime was committed. Four
hundred persons, mostly white, filled
every available space in the govern
or’s private office and urged that
Snowden's life be spared.
No such demonstration in behalf
of a Colored man convicted of crime
has been witnessed before in the his
tory o,f the state.
The governor remained obdurate in
his refusal to commute the sentence,
and it is said that he is influenced in
his decision by his southern wife.
White and Colored people so far
have raised more than $3,000 in fight
ing this case through the supreme
court. The conviction is state wide
that the woman’s husband committed
the crime.
TO PROTECT COLORED GIRLS
Memphis, Term.—'The association
for the protection of Colored girls is
pushing a vigorous campaign for $5,
000 in the Memphis territory to be
raised this month. This is a move
ment in harmony with similar plans
by the federal government to safe
guard the health and morals of the
cities.
ONE REAL GEN. IN DEMOCRACY
Washington, D. C.—Gen. H. L. Scott
must be given credit for recommend
ing to the war department the ad
mission of Colored women into the
Red Cross as nurses, both at home
and abroad.
Under General Scott a number of
military officers in command of Col
ored troops w'ere court-martialed for
calling soldiers “N-.”
UNION PACIFIC PRAISES
COLORED OPERATOR
Omaha, Neb.—Alexander Travis,
employed recently as an operator by
the Union Pacific and placed in charge
of the Lane Cut-Off station, is re
ported by the railroad to be a most
efficient man Mr Travis came Oma
ha several months ago, having been
employed on the Big Four as operator
for several years.
FIRST NEGRO TO SIT ON JURY
Milwaukee, Wis.—The first case of
a Colored man sitting on a jury in
Milwaukee circuit court occurred re
cently when Lawson Forde, 724 Win
nebago street, was selected as a ve
nireman in a case being tried in Judge
Turner’s court. According to the dep
uties and judges of the court it was
the first time to their knowledge that
a Colored man had sat in a jury box
in that city.
COLORED GIRL APPOINTED
For the first time in the history of
Illinois a young Colored woman, Miss
Lillian M. Hunt of Chicago, has been
appointed one of the clerks and sten
ographers of the Fifty-first General
Assembly of Illinois. There are about
seven other ladies holding such posi
tions, but they are white.
LEADERSHIP AND
RACE BUILDING
College and University Training Eloquently Urged by
Head of Howard University as an Essentail for
the Important Task of Efficient
Leadership Among Race.
MUST GUIDE OWN PEOPLE
President Durkee Outlines a Broad Program for Higher
Culture for Negro Race—Essence of His Progres
sive Program ior a “Greater Howard Univer
sity”—Thoughtful Men Approve Policy.
(Special to The Monitor by It. W. |
Thompson.)
WASHINGTON, D. C.—At the ses- !
sion of the Conference on War
Problems of Negro Labor, held last j
Monday at Carnegie Public Library, I
under call of Dr. George E. Haynes, |
director of Negro Economics, Dr. J.
Stanley Durkee, the new ami forward
looking president of Howard Univer
sity, in discussing the general topic
of “Education and Negro Workers,"
delivered the following address, which
has been generally accepted and in
dorsed as the essence of the progres
sive program adopted by Dr. Durkee
in his announced plan for a "Greater
Howard University.”
Dr. Durkee, being introduced, spoke
in part as follows:
If a pure heart he the portal of
vision, then surely a cultivated mind
is the compendium of wisdom. When
I try, as I often do, to come into that
state of vacuity possessed by those
who have no education whatever, or
that state possessed by those who
have just learning enough to make
them egostistical, then I realize, as in
no other way, what a college and uni
versity training really means. Not
that I would declare all those people,
or only those people, educated who
pass through the courses offered by
our higher institutions of learning.
Many a father and mother, receiving
a boy back from graduation, has been
forced to say with sadness of Aaron,
“I put in my gold and there came
out this calf!” All I am saying is
that for one to have an increasing
appreciation of his world, of his place
in that world, and how to make that
world yield him health, happiness and
peace, he must have a brain and a
soul ever enlarging by the acquiring
of knowledge gained by others and
by exploration into that great un
known mental world which stretches
away beyond us to measureless hori
zons.
You will see at once that by edu
cation I mean not certain acquired
facts, but a continually enriched mind
fed by constant streams of incoming
truth. I am not, therefore, thinking
of a mere human animal simply
taught how to gain its food, clothing
and shelter in an easier way, but
of an immortal being growing into
larger immortality while that being
eats and drinks and wears clothing
and lives in a house of greater com
forts and conveniences than did those
of the generation before him. The
first kind of being is of the earth,
earthy. The second possesses both
earth and heaven.
“That has the world here,
Should he need the next?
Let the world mind him.
This throws himself on God
And unperplexed,
Seeking shall find Him.”
Such trained men have, through all
history, been the leaders of the human
race. The heights we have climbed
have been climbed because such a
leader has gone before crying, "Ex
selsior, Excelsior.” The battles we
have won have been won because such
a leader has shouted “The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon.” The salva
tions we have gained have been gained
because such a leader has "given his
life a ransom for many.”
Let us make no mistake in this late
date of history. Every race that ful
fills its destiny must be led to that
destiny by its own leaders who can
see. Such is the word of history! Who
disputes it?
Today we are talking of the Negro
race and its leaders. Who are they?
The ignorant, the stultified, the half
trained? To ask is answer. Who
are the white people who give their
lives to assist the Colored people to
advance? The ignorant, the stunted,
the half-trained? To ask is to an
swer. If the white raec is led by its
most highly trained, so will the Col
ored race be led. Who shall the eco
nomic leaders of the Colored race be?
Why, the most highly trained men and
woinen of the Colored race. I resent
more keenly than my words may ex
press, the assumption that trained
white men must always lead untrained I
Colored men. The assumption is a
base travesty on facts. Why, we have \
at Howard University a dozen Colored
educators who are the peers of any :
white educators in America, and the
only reason they are not drawing ]
the large salaries their genius en- j
titled them to, is merely because they \
are Colored men and thus have not i
the wide field for advancement.
First, I take it, a leader must know j
what his task is. A real leader has
a definite job. God save us from
more of this pretended, aimless lead
ership. The university trained Col
ored man knows what his job is, bet
ter than does the university trained
white man. His is the task of build
ing a race. I marvel what these
leaders have done in fifty years—
these preachers, teachers, business
men, seers. Fred Douglass shouted
loud as he took the road of the new
freedom. Coleridge Taylor played the
marching song. Paul Laurence Dun
bar sang to cheer the weary road.
Tanner painted the glories which all
eyes should see, and the whole race
has saved itself by its laughter and its
singing. Not just to teach his people
to eat and drink and be merry and
save some money is the task of the
Colored leader of today, but to love
righteousness and hate iniquity and
to do unto others as he would have
them do to him.
Then, the leader must possess the
necessary knowledge and skill to ac
complish his task. Only a banker can
successfully run a bank. A blacksmith
cannot do it. Train Colored men for
blacksmiths only, and where shall
their bankers be? One of the alarm
ing things about the race today is that
their savings have outgrown their
banking facilities. Here are, for in
stance, in Washington, 100,000 Col
ored people, but they are not living
like 100,000. Where are the Colored
colleges which are teaching them in
commerce and finance? Not one in
this great race of nearly thirty mil
lion! Only last week did the trus
tees of Howard University vote to
take up their eighth grade commer
cial school into a university course of
commerce and finance. If the race
shall come to its rightful place in
American and world democracy, it
must have its broad-visioned econom
ic leaders. I notice that the Colored
men of refinement and wealth have
no serious complaints against their
white neighbors of refinement and
wealth.
Again, the leader must have the
view-point and spirit and blood of
those he leads. I never can be a
Frenchman even though I live in
France all the rest of my days. I
haven’t the French blood, the French
nervous system, the French outlook
on life. The Anglo-Saxon is funda
mentally different from the French
man. I never can fully appreciate a
woman’s standpoint of life. I have
lived with a lady for these many years,
now, but I do not know a woman!
Of course I am more and more con
vinced that a woman does not and
cannot know a man!
Hut there is more to the thought
than the laughter. Man will ever
look out on life from the masculine
standpoint and because he never can
be a woman, he, therefore, can never
see through a woman’s eyes.
The same is true of a white man
and a Colored man. God made the
difference for His own purpose and
(Continued on Page 2)
RACE CONGRESS A FLUKE
Monitor Receives Direct Word From
Paris That the Pan-African Con
gress Is Failure.
Paris, France.—(Special to The
Monitor by Paris Correspondent.)—
There has been held here a sort of
gathering calling itself the Pan-Afri
can congress, but the remarkable part
of the congress is to Ire found in the
fact that these people are talking
about Africa, of which they know
nothing whatever and they have never
tried to get into touch with those
people who really have some informa
tion to give them.
In the session there sits a delegate
from Hayti (her minister to Paris),
a Liberian, a few West Indians and
Dr. DuBois of United States. Africa
is wholly unrepresented and the real
grievances of the Africans are not
even known, let alone being discussed.
The native races of South and West
Africa have sent a memorial to the
colonial office praying that the Brit
ish plenipotontionaries at the peace
congress may be pleased to support
any resolution having for its object
the removal of race restrictions, while
Monsieur Diagne, the black French
deputy, is looking after the interests
of the French African colonies. Oth
erwise there is no body or congress
concerning itself with the African
questions.
“MAKE AMERICA SAFE
FOR DEMOCRACY”
This Will Be Slogan of Race for Po
litical AspirantA at Next
National Election.
(By Associated Negro Press.)
Chicago, 111., March 6.—Two years
from the fourth of March, the next
president of the United States will be
inaugurated, who will he be? That’s
the question everyone is beginning to
ask. Senator Cummings of Iowa;
Senator Harding of Ohio; Senator
Watson of Indiana; Gov. Lowden of
Illinois, and former Gov. Whitman
of New York, are among the repub
licans who have been mentioned. One
of the great slogans of the coming
campaign is to be: “Make America
Safe for Democracy,” and the 12,000,
000 Negroes of the country are keen
ly on the alert to see that real busi
ness, and not sidestepping, will lie
the order of the day, if the activities
of organizations and returned soldiers
may be taken as a criterion.
APPOINTED TO STATE AUDITOR
Denver, Colo.—Elbert Robinson,
popularly known and highly respected
citizen, graduate of East Denver high
and Denver university, received an
appointment last Monday to the state
auditor’s department. Mr. Robinson,
one of our deserving young men, is a
Denverite with a pleasing and attrac
tive personality, and his educational
accomplishments, backed up by the
environment in which he moves will,
we hope, help to establish that pres
tige on his chief that may tend to the
opening of other positions for our peo
ple.
EL PASO, TEX., DAILY
AGAINST LYNCHING
Houston, Tex., March 6.—The bet
ter element of people in Texas are
beginning to take note of the infamy
attached to this state by the lynch
ing records of recent years. The El
Paso Times, white, in a lengthy edi
torial deplores the condition of things,
and says the “legislature should sub
mit to the people a proposition so
to amend the constitution that a
lyncher shall be debarred from hold
ing any public office of honor, trust
or profit.” This state, with others,
is very much alarmed at the Negro
migration that is starting this spring
from the south.
OMAHA OVERSEAS
OFFICERS ARRIVE
New York, Feb. 28.—(Associated
Press.)—Several Colored overseas of
ficers belonging to Omaha arrived
in New York today. The list includes
Lieutenants Madison, Johnson and
Pinkett.
ALBANY N. Y. TO PRESENT
FINE HOME TO JOHNSON
Albany, N. Y.—An appeal, backed
by the leading Colored residents of
Albany, was made Tuesday for funds
to erect a home.in Albany for Private
Henry Johnson, hero of the world
war, and Mrs. Johnson.
Thompson Renom
inated at Primary
Chicago Mayor, Who Was Criticized
and Opposed by Influential News
papers for Alleged Lukewarm Pa
triotism, Receives 59,000 Majority.
POLITICAL CONTEST PRESAGED
Chicago Tribune Concedes That the
Determining Factor in Future Elec
tions Will Be the Negro Vote—The
Second Ward Controls Absolutely
City Elections.
(By the Associated Negro Press.)
CHICAGO, ILL., March 6.—The pri
mary election in Chicago, result
ing in the nomination of Mayor Wil
liam Hale Thompson, on the republic
an ticket, and Robert M. Sweitzer, on
the democratic ticket, promises Chi
cagoans, and the nation, the most in
teresting political contest ever held in
an American municipality.
It is a well known fact that the
republicans of Chicago are placed in
a rather embarrassing position, par
ticularly that group who have fought
the present mayor and his administra
tion. All through the campaign it
was publicly stated that the nation
al republican committee, through
Chas. Will Hays, of Indiana, desired
to have Judge Olson nominated as the
harmony candidate, particularly be
cause, it was stated, that Mayor
Thompson had been lukewarm in his
demonstration of patriotism during
the war. All the great daily news
papers opposed Thompson, and par
ticularly the Tribune and the Daily
News, which are Chicago’s chief
dailies. Notwithstanding, Thompson
won out by more than 59,000 votes.
Even now there is no general disposi
tion to “bury the hatchet” and support
him, and there is expected to be “big
doings” politically within the next
week.
In it all, the Negro voters of Chi
cago are “regardless of how distaste
ful it may seem to some,” quoting the
Tribune—the “ace in the hole,” speak
ing in one figure; and the "stellar at
traction” admits that the nationally
famous Second ward, in Chicago con
trols absolutely city elections. There
is more politics to the square inch
played in that ward, than in any other
section of the city. Every candidate
gives the most respectful considera
tion to the voters therein, and the
next mayor, will have to thank the
voters of that ward for his election.
But there is going to be something
doing in Negro politics in Chicago,
henceforward. The nomination of Al
derman Louis B. Anderson, present
official, for a second term, defeating
former Aldreman Oscar DePriest,
who was ousted from the council on
bribery charges, afterward cleared in
one trial, but still under pending in
dictments, has only served to stir up
interest among the younger genera
tion of voters, returned soldiers and
women. The returned soldiers, who
seem to have selected as spokesman
Capt. Lewis E. Johnson, a hero of the
French battlefields, declare that the
time has come for the men who “bared
their breasts to the enemy fire should
have some say in political matters,
and that those who have been living
at the public trough for years and
years, and enriching themselves, must
step down and out.”
The boys have all been demobilized,
and they have had several confer
ences regarding their plans for the
future, and it is certain that their
decisions will have wonderful effect on
results.
NOT A BLACK NURSE IN FRANCE
Don’t let it be said by the great
American historians in the coming
years that only the American white
women served as nurses in the great
conflict. Put in a paragraph that the
Colored woman wanted to go, but we
wouldn’t let her.
But, thank God, she was there, any
how; over 300 went as white, and our
historians will give their names and
photos after the war is over.
SENTENCE 15 WHO TRIED
TO LYNCH NEGRO IN JAIL
Winston-Salem, N. C.—Fifteen of
the sixteen men tried for breaking
into the city jail November 17 and
atempting to seize Russell High, a
Negro, who had attacked a white
woman, were found guilty today by
a jury in the Surrey county court
and sentenced to terms ranging from
fourteen months to six years on the
county roads.
