r THE MONITOR A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans. Published Every Saturday at Omaha, Nebraska, by The Monitor Pub lishing Company. Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915, at the Postofflce 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. Fred C. Williams. Traveling Representative. SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $2.00 A YEAR; $1.00 6 MONTHS: 60c 3 MONTHS Advertising Rates. 60 cents an Inch per issue. Address, The Monitor. 304 Crounse Block, Omaha, Neb. Telephone Webster 4243. I » « > > « ... T^OR anything worth having, one must pay the price, and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice— no paper currency, no promises to pay, hut the gold of real service.—John Burrows. ' ...__ _ THE CRISIS UNDER THE BAN HE postal authorities in New York held from the mails the May issue of the Crisis. As we go to press we have not learned whether it has been released or not. We hope it has. Jus tice has nothing to fear from the truth. Dr. Dubois has returned from France with his soul burning with in dignation at the treatment accorded our brave Colored soldiers at the hands of some American officers, and he has told the story. Perhaps his language in reporting the truth, and he has but reported the truth, as the stories of returning men verify, might be considered intemperate. He has dared to call a spade a spade. This seems to have brought down upon him the wrath of those in authority and the Crisis has been placed under the ban. His language has not been as tem perate as that of Dr. Moton, whom the administration sent over to France to investigate certain rumors that had been set afloat to discredit our sol diers. But, surely, Dr. Moton’s allu sion to “the whispering gallery” breathes the same righteous indigna tion which Dr. Dubois more vehement ly expresses. If Dr. Dubois has misrepresented the facts, the administration ought to be able to disprove them. The May Crisis simply tells the truth and all efforts to suppress it will prove futile. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY THAT the democratic party has made a mess of everything that it has touched is becoming the opin ion, not only of men of other parties, but among many of the leading demo crats themselves. That this party will be overwhelmingly defeated at the next national election is a fore gone conclusion, and there is a feeling that its death will be final. We do not believe, however, that the fault lays with democracy in the north. It is really the south that has muddled things. That they would muddle things was to be expected. The south ern men into whose hands came the control of the government knew noth ing at all about government. They were recruited from the clay banks, the backwoods and plantations, and were ignorant at their very best. The height of their experience, as a gen eral rule, was limited by handling country political newspapers, work ing convicts and trading cotton. They never had the chance to learn anything about political economy and when they were suddenly thrust into power, they lost their puny mental balances. The south has been in the saddle and for the last time. It has shown itself criminal, ignorant and vicious, and the north will not forgot. The country is doing the best possible to tolerate a sitaution that cannot be bettered, but when the chance comes again to vote we venture the guess that there will be even states in the south that will repudiate the rule of such men as now attempt to run such a country as the United States. CONGRATULATIONS, CHESTER THE MONITOR has just received the initial number of the Call, an attractive, well-edited weekly news paper published at Kansas City, Mo. Chester A. Franklin, a brilliant, well trained newspaper man, and a prac tical printer, is the editor. Moreover, he is fearless, honest, level-headed and sincere. We predict for the Call a well merited, successful and influential career. Its first editorial, captioned, “Leadership Is Judged by Results, Not by Intentions," shows that the publica tion has a definite message for its readers and knows how to deliver it. Congratulations, Chester, on the Call, and may abundant success at tend it. THE PEACE CONFERENCE—SO FAR THE peace conference assembled at Versailles would be a comedy, were it not so tragic. A year ago the allies heralded across the world a multitude of ideals for which they said they were fighting and now that the war is over, all are forgotten. The promised “freedom of the seas” slum bers beneath the waves and Britannia has made more secure her hold upon them; “open covenants of peace open ly arrived at” were strangled the mo ment the doors of the conference opened; “economic equality” has been made to mean that each nation may do as she pleases in the grab for world trade and commerce; the “mandatory system” is but a camoflage to se cure the spoilers in their colonial greed; the rights of nearly all nation alities have been violated and buried in the dust of injustices; the voices of the wronged, who shed their blood and gave their treasure in the dream that their wrongs might be righted, are forgotten and each nation is permitted to continue injustice as it may desire. But why enumerate? Can Wilson, Lloyd George and Cle- . menceau, look on Flanders fields and tell the dead that they have kept the faith ? Can they go home and tell their peoples that their ideals are real ized? Can they hope to have his tory record their names as men of honor? But the masses are always fools! They seem content to be driven like cattle and die like cattle—for what ? They know not; neither do they care. They are charmed with a bauble and tickled with a straw. They are the dupes of privilege—the toys of greed. Will they never leant that theirs is the earth and theirs to rule it? LIBERIA'S MESSAGE THE Rev. N. H. B. Cassell has de livered Liberia’s message to the Afro-American people of Omaha, and we can say with one accord that this little country of our brothers across the seas has certainly sent us a gen tleman eminently fitted to present it. We have found Rev. Dr. Cassell a scholar, a thinker and an ideal Chris tian gentleman, and it will cause many a man and woman to have a higher appreciation of Africa which can pro duce men of such caliber. Long ago was the statement made that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is,” and to understand his mes sage one must be able to appreciate ■ the Liberian point of view. In America we are trained in the Anglo-Saxon method of thinking and the basis of this thought is that the white race is the superior and all others inferior. Liberia has a different orientation. The Liberian holds that the African race is the superior race and their j vision of the future is an African i vision. In that country a black man ' may aspire to the highest honors of 1 statehood. He knows no color preju dice, no proscription, no disfranchise ment, no lynching. He has every op- j portunity to hold and appreciate an ideal, and no ideal can ever be a com plete ideal that is hedged about with limitations. This is why Rev. Dr. Cassell's ad dresses are so stimulating to the Afro American. It brings him into touch j with a new spirit and a new hope. It ! causes him to realize that there is at j least one spot on earth where the man j with a black skin can work out his own destiny and work it out with a pride i in the realization that he can write a lie to the assertion of the Anglo-Sancon that he is an inferior. We are glad to have heard Liberia’s [ message. We shall consider it deeply and, in time, we believe that Liberia will find that this message has not | been delivered in vain. GOING INTO BUSINESS /"\UITE often of late we have heard i Y several persons say that they ^ c saved a little money and are looking around for chances to go into \ some kind of business. The idea is a fine one and we encourage it- There are plenty of avenues open for new business and now is the time to take advantage of them. But in starting t a new business, start something where competition ft not keen. For instance, a men’s haberdashery would be a most promising venture. Or why not a notion store, a butcher shop, a shoe store, a ladies’ tailoring establishment, a millinery shop, a mu sic store? These are businesses that would pay and pay well. Consider them? Obvious Observations note that Japan got Ky Choo without any trouble. Well, we opine that the allies didn’t want to take a chance on her picking up her bonnet and going home. Burleson sure played a mean trick by holding The Crisis up in jtfew York. Old Burly made all his dough working convict Negro labor in the state of Texas and he should at least have a streak of gratitude instead of a streak of yellow. The bomb plot certainly woke up the country to the fact that there are a lot of dissatisfied folk up New York way. Mr. Woody says he is going to keep both his big feet on the fourteen points, but when the allies get through with them( we mean the points) they will be as blunt as the end of a broken chisel. We certainly were glad to see the sun and hope it will decide to stick around indefinitely. If the allies don’t adopt the League of Nations and Germany doesn’t sign the peace treaty, who will the joke be on? If there is a single Colored citizen in this burg who doesn’t know plenty about Liberia, it isn’t our fault. The World-Herald says that Fiume is the only port the Jugo-Slavs have on the coast, while the New York Tribune and the geography say that there are plenty of other ports run ning around loose. Whose right? Thanking you for this evidence of kind appreciation and interest, we will now oil up the typewriter so it will make less noise. WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH I* A TRICK ? /-HIGH Patrick ? Judge Robert W. Patrick of the municipal court. He rendered a most astounding de cision the other day that does him no credit. Nor do we believe his decision will stand either the test of law or of common sense. A woman was denied ice cream in a drug store upon the ground that Col ored people were not served in that place. She was refused solely on the ground of color. Judge Patrick de rided that because the law does not specifically specify drug stores there fore the law was not violated. He held that refusal by a restaurant, cafe, etc., came within the provision of the law, but not by a drug store. What a de testible quibble! No one could have made us believe that Robert W. Pat rick could be induced to stoop to such quackery and pettifogging as this. The revelation fills us with the keenest re gret. A LITTLE QUEER THE St. Paul Appeal significantly asks why when American Negroes asked passports to attend a Pan-Afri can'congress in France our state de partment refused them; but when Irish-Americans requested passports to attend a meeting to demand Irish rights, the request was readily grant ed, although the Irish question is en trenching upon Britain’s domestic policy? This does look a little queer, doesn’t it? And yet people wonder why American Negroes claim that now and then they are handed a raw deal. Never mind, keep your head, for right will ultimately triumph. HOW ABOUT THAT PLAYGROUND N are we going to have that , hlic playground in Omaha’s most congested neighborhood ? Locate it where it may serve the children of Kellom school district. If this is done it will remove one of our city’s blight ed spots within less than a mile of the heart of the city and provide a recrea tional center which is much needed. Commissioners, how about that play ground ? THE MAY CRISIS The May Crisis is First War His tory number, with an edition of 100, 000 copies. The cover is I>orenzo Har ris’ drawing of the Negro soldier’s valor, done in colors. The leading ar ticle is "Documents of the War,” col lected by Dr. W. E. Burghardt DuBois, in France. There is also h circum stantial account of the lynchings at Shubata, Miss. There are pictures of the Pan-African congress, Red Cross, nurses at Camp Grant and of Need ham Roberts. The June Crisis will contain a sup plement with a complete history of the Negro soldier in the world war. WOMEN RAISE $1,650 The lieutenants in the V victory loan with Mrs. Isaac Bailey as cap tain. did faithful work and secured in all $1,650 worth of bonds. Miss Made line Roberts leads with $1,000 worth. Mrs. F. J. Smith secured $400, Mrs. J. A. Williams $100, and Mesdames R. T. Walker, W. Bridges and E. R. West $50 each. In their canvass of the dis tricts assigned they found many had subscribed through their places of business or employment. SKITS OF SOLOMON The Chin THAT projecting piece of scenery on the human facial map known as the chin is a symbol of civilization, that is, it is supposed to be. When the hefty spade artists dug up the Heidelburg and Piltown jaws it was discovered that the bones forming the chin then and now have changed much considerable and that it apparently decided to change as man has tried to climb up the ladder of refinement. Several other vertebrates have chins, for example, the elephant, but they are not such apparent chins as should make them proud and anxious to enter any chinery contests. Today the chin has become the sine qua non of human beauty, whatever that means, and the Beau Brummel cold cream doll who is short on chin specifications doesn’t have much chance for competition with Apollo Belvidere and Veny of Milos. There was a time when a man thought more of a lot of alfalfa grow ing over his mug and streaming down his frontal fortifications than he did of his chin, but somehow whiskers have gone out of style around urban centers. Scientists say that the chin never got a start in the world until man lost his huge lower canine teeth, although the world isn’t quite satisfied yet that man had these dental addi tions. None have ever been found who ' ad. except made up wild men who travel with circuses. The chin is much sought after by prize fighters and if it receives a good right swing its possessor is apt to take a visit into the stellar world and see more stars than are named and numbered in a book of astronomy. For this reason scientists also asservate that the guy with the least chin is the one most apt to cop the belt. It is also whis pered that the more perfect the jaw the more perfect the speech and that this is the reason why the French, Italian and Irish talk better than Englishman and Germans. RETURNING SOLDIERS We are returning from the war! The Crisis and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America •tnd her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant south ern oligarchy entrenched in Wash ington, we fought in bitter- resigna tion. For the America that repre sents and gloats in lynching, disfran chisement, caste, brutality and dev ilish insult—-for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight, also. Rut today we return! We return from the slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sine; This country of ours, de spite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land. It lynches. * "d bombing is barbarism of a de gre of contemptible nastiness un paralleled in human history. Yet for fifty years we have lynched two Ne groes a week, and we have kept this up right through the war. It disfranchises its own citizens. Disfranchisement is the deliberate tbeft and robbery of the only pro tection of poor against rich and black against white. The land that disfran chises its citziens and calls itself a democracy lies and knows it lies. It encourages ignorance. It has never really tried to educate the Negro. A dominant minoritv does not want Negroes educated. It wants servants, dogs, prostitutes and mon keys. And when this land allows a reactionary group by its stolen poli tical power to force as many black folk into these categories as it pos sibly can, it cries in contemptible hypocrisy: "They threaten us with degeneracy; they cannot be educated.” It steals from us. It organizes industry to cheat us. It cheats us «ut of our land; it cheats us out of our labor. It confiscates our savings. It reduces our wages. It raises our rent. It steals our profit. It taxes us without representation. It keeps up consistently and univer sally poor, and then feeds us on char ity and dreides our poverty. It insults us. It has organized a nation-wide and latterly a world-wide propaganda of deliberate and continuous insult and defamation of black blood wherever found. It decrees that it shall not be nossible in travel nor residence, work nor play, education nor instruction for a black man to exist without tacit or open acknowledgment of his inferior ity to the lowest white. And it looks upon any attempt to question or even discuss this dogma as arrogance, un warranted assumption and treason. This is the country to which we soldiers of democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. Under similar cir cumstances we would fight again. But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that that war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land. We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.—Dr. DeBois in May Crisis. CHEROKEE FREEDMEN SUING GOVERNMENT FOR $3,000,000 (By Associated Negro Press.) Tahlequah, Okla., May 8.—Cherokee Indians have entered suits to recover from the government $3,000,000, said to be due as interest on an old claim adjudicated some years ago, and in the matter of compensation of lands of their race alloted to the Cherokee freedmen. This land was turned over to Negroes by the government, and is said to be worth $30,000,000. The Beautiful Thing X About the FORD CAR is its 100% simplicity of operation, 100% per X ¥ cent economy, and 100% service. That’s why we’ve adopted the v X slogan 100% Ford Service. We strive to maintain the Ford standard .1. | all the time, in all ways, in all departments. ? •{• We sell Ford Motor Cars and Fordsom Farm Tractors. X | $ ! Sample-Hart Motor Co. | X Tyler 513. 18th and Hurt Streets. .j. _ _ iiwiw in -rrnr ill.min - I........ ••«».«««. jtiinil IIII11 --------.. | H Classified Directory of Omaha’s Colored professional and Business firms ¥ ALLEN JONES ANDREW T. REED * Y Res. Rhone Web. 204. Res. Rhone Red 5210. ,j. JONES & REED Funeral Parlor ¥ Parlors 2314 North 24th Street. Rhone Webster 1100. ¥ ¥ Expert Licensed Embalmers and Funeral Directors. Auto and Horse v £ Drawn Vehicles. Lady Attendant. Open Day and Night. .j. £ NOTE 3. We back up our service with every bit of our expen- £ X ence and every' ounce of our determination to make it of utmost artis- X ¥ tic value and do so at the lowest possible cost. £ HHKIHHI8KTSIEBt5raaCg'WWa8B^5fl>SSlSI8ISKBKIhi>C>C« x a XK')i x x jt-’xrx.X.'x.x x 'xyCtflXDffi IE. A. Williamson \ X X DRUGGIST X X X g " Competent and Reliable " 2306 North 21th St. X X ;; ~ Webster 444:]. s 2 £ x * x xxx x x it x X a x X'i x x Telephone Webster 248 Open Day and Night x Jr Silas Johnson 1 Western Funeral Home f 2518 Lake St. F P x The Place for Quality and Service £ PRICES REASONABLE. x X 2 Licensed Embalmer In Attendance £ Lady Attendant If Desired. j§ MUSIC FURNISHED FREE. X iBBHRHHRStSDOOOl xxrxrm'XixX'x 30fx g g I R. H. Robbins f | & Co. | | GROCERIES AND MEATS | An Up-to-Date Store. 1411 North 24th Street. X jH ;; Prompt Delivery. W. 241. | | msmswiQmrmmtwmiKmwwmmt x Maceo T. 1 WILLIAMS ! I Concert Violinist | and Teacher X STUDIO, 2416 BINNEY ST. X Webster 3028. X XCO?IX3{KM)v>:iX'XiX£>CXMX9©| Furniture to Sell 1413 N. 24th St. Web. 4206. j; [f«:x XX X X X X.X «a « i! «•«•>( X X x i THE i WASHINGTON - DOUGLAS | INVESTMENT CO. BONDS, INVESTMENTS, | RENTALS AND FARM | LANDS s Phone Webster 4206. |j 1413 North 24th St. S J. H. HOLMES j TAILOR § All work Guaranteed. La- § 4 dies’ and Gents’ Suits Re- 4 % modeled, Cleaned, Pressed £ « and Repaired. New Hoff- | 4 man Press. i H 4 * 2022 N. 21th SI. Web. 3.320 3 « g £ XTX.X.X «•» x x x X'X x:x'x'x ?! x'x'xarx ! A. F. PEOPLES I % fij £ Painting i - ■ Paperhnnging and Decorating | w 1 § Estimates Furnished Free, g :• All Work Guaranteed. I! 1827 Erskine Street. Phone Walnut 2111. ?• xm'mx&wxximmxxxmcKwmifflM 4 South & Thompson's Cafe 4 p 2418 North 24th St. Webster 4566 4 j§ SPECIAL SUNDAY DINNER « Stewed cnicken with dumplings..40c £. Roaat Prime Beef au Ju»_40c ?\ Q Boast Pork, Appie Sauce _40c *; g Roast Domestic Gooae, dressing 50c Early June Peas Mashed Potatoes '* M Salad Coffee Dessert ft . g w We Serve Mexican Chile 1 s* V X x X'X'K-XXX)! >: X II ).'■>: x « n x x XT x | Little King Hotel : 2615 N Street 5 Steam Heated. Open All Night. 'i x Room by Day or Week. Meals « at All Hours. X MRS. ELIZABETH HIM., l*rop. 4 Phone South 3195. g *_ a ?! wj»«oiw»{()