Nebraska Newspapers

    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©<!XMf<IJ©f!): X
I UREKA |
1 Furniture Store
g x
Complete Line of New and Sec- £
ond Hand Furniture
PRICES REASONABLE
X
Call l7a When You Have Any >|
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.
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4 S. W. MILLS FURNITURE CO. I
B 9j
g We sell new and second hand "
.3 furniture, 1421 North 24th St. 3
| Webster 148. 24th and Charles. 4
0 &
DR. P W. SAWYER
DENTIST
» K
» Tel. Doug. 7150; Web. 3636 3
220 South 13th St.
I! X00XK»axa<;?^XiX'x.!!;i!.K;!< xy! x xMW?X;Kix]
1 JOHN HALl!
PROGRESSIVE TAILOR
1614 N. 24th St. Web. 875.
iaafittM&WWCrtu x x x-xkkm meh: XMiotoi; I
Open for Buelnees the
I BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
HOTEL
Nicely Furnlehed Steam Heated i
Rooms, With or Without Board. I
623 North 15th St. Omaha. Neb.
Phone Tyler 897.