t'
The Monitor
A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored
Americans.
Published Every Thursday at Omaha. Nebraska, by The Monitor Pub
lishing Company. \
Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915. at the PostoSlce at
Omaha. Neb., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skaggs Edwards and Madree Penn, Associate Editors.
Fred C. Williams, Business Manager.
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 Douglas 3224.
.-. .J
CjsSSlPfel
*-- '
THE SIN OF SILENCE
T) sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards
out of men. The human race has climbed on protest.
Had no voice been raised against injustice, ignorance and
lust, the inquisition yet would serve the law, and guillotines
decide our least disputes. The few who dare must speak and
speak again to right the wrongs of many.—Ella Wheeler
Wilcox.
L__/
TAFT ON RACE RIOTS
E reprint in this issue an article
contributed to the Chicago Daily
News by ex-President Taft on “The
Causes of Race Riots.” He repeats in
this much that he said in a former ar
ticle which we published a few weeks
ago and upon which we commented
editorially. Our readers will recall Mr.
Taft’s former article and our editorial,
“Radicals and Conservatives,” which
attracted wide attention and most fa
vorable comment.
In his more recent article the emi
nent jurist says many things that the
country would do well to lay to heart.
He has put his finger upon some of
the causes, but not all, nor upon the
chief cause, which is the set and de
termined purpose of a certain class of
southerners, who have a large class of
sympathizers in the north, “to teach
the ‘nigger* his place” and by a cam
paign of slander and vituperation to
embitter the north against him. This
propaganda began before the war.
“The Birth of a Nation” had as its
purpose the stirring up of sentiment
against the Negro throughout the
country. This campaign was inter
rupted by America’s participation in
the war. It has, however, been re
newed with increased vehemence since
the signing of the armistice. There
l’.as been, undeniably, a well-organized
and directed effort to magnify and
give undue prominence to crimes and
rumors of crimes alleged to have been
committed by Negroes. There is a
sinister motive back of this and the
real causes of riots is the stirring up
of this sentiment by a subsidized,
short-sighted or sensational press. In
the face of the attitude of the white
press of the country to publish in
citing articles Mr. Taft's well meant
suggestion that “the editors of the
Colored yress should be reasoned with
to cease publishing articles, however
true, having inciting effect” comes
with very poor grace from a gentle
man of his astuteness and ability.
We would respectfully suggest that
Mr. Taft and other men and women of
influence and ability unitd with the
editors of the Colored press and other
thoughtful leaders of the race in re
questing the editors of the white press
“to cease publishing articles, until
proven true (concerning Negroes),
having an inciting effect.” They and
not: the Colored editors need this ad
\ ice.
We have insisted upon the harm
that is being done by the press in
dwelling upon the race of individuals
charged with crime where the accused
or suspected is a Negro. This fans the
flame of race prejudice; and yet the
white press insists upon doing it. Race
riots are caused by sensational reports
in white newspapers. These should be
stopped. The Colored press will do its
duty; let the white press do the same.
The Colored press is counseling re
straint, self-respect and obedience to
law and good behavior upon the part
of its constituents. Its work is made
tremendously hard by the attitude of
the white press in featuring in scare
cow headlines alleged but unproven
crimes of Negroes.
Mr. Taft’s advice should be directed
first to the white press.
GOOD NATURE AN ANTIDOTE
JUST at this time we need to let our
characteristic good nature have full
sway. It will help matters wonder
fully. Let us not be on the lookout for
insults. Let us ignore them as fre
quently as we can when they are of
fered, thus showing our superiority.
It is a good thing to remember that a
lady or a gentleman will never insult
anybody, and one should be so well
poised that one who is not a gentle
man cannot insult him. Meet boorish
ness and rudeness with gentility and
good nature. Good nature is an anti
dote for much that is unpleasant. Good
nature, too, like ill-temper, is con
tagious.
SEVEN-CENT FARE
OMAHA has now a 7-cent street car
fare. It is said to be only a tem
porary measure. The employes de
manded a wage increase. The street
car company was too poor to grant the
increase unless the dear public chip
ped in to help them. So the powers
that be granted the company author
ity to raise the fare by 40 per cent.
The increase in wages to the employes
is somewhat below this figure. Who
gets the difference? Does it go into
improving the service or to paying
divi 'ends to stockholders ? As usual
the clear public pays the price. Verily
corporations and politicians have pe
culiar ways ana a most effective meth
od of shaking shekels out of the pock
ets of the public.
Those who do not want to pay 7
cents fur a street car ride have the
privilege of indulging in the healthful
exercise of 'walking. *
A MONG many of the weaknesses
-‘f*- that we, as a people, have to over
come is the too prevalent disposition
to permit personal grievances and dif
ficulties to blind us to the ability ard
usefulness of individuals to be of ser
vice to the race. We have got to learn
to submerge and subordinate personal
likes and dislikes for the good of the
race.
There is entirely too much narrow
mindedness in this particular among
many who are supposed to be among
our representative men and women. It
is attributable to conceit, ignorance or
prejudice and we must learn to rise
afcove it. Because one has injured us
or is unfriendly to us is no reason why
we should not be willing to serve with
him in any way we can for the public
good.
THE NEGRO PROBLEM
I N A M ERICA
What the Race Must Do to Solve Its
Own Problems.
By Samuel Barrett.
The part the Negro must play in
the solution of the problem cannot be
accomplished by the white race alone,
no matter how kindly disposed some I
of them may be toward us, and the '
sooner the race learns this the sooner 1
we will be on the road to a real solu
tion. Influential white people in such
organizations as the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People, are in a position to do
much in the way of race amelioration,
but with all their influence and power
they are not able to do for a group
what common sense should teach that
group to do for itself.
And the first thing the Negro must
do to help solve his own race problem
is to organize, co-operate, and unite. |
No matter how much progress wej
have made, or are making, no matter
what our views or opinions may be as
to the solution of the problem, it pales
into insignificance when compared to
the effect anti power of unity on and
in the race.
All races that ever fought a com
mon enemy have seen the necessity of
organization and unity. And no race
who has ever fought a common enemy
as strong as our antagonists, has sur
vived the encounter by being divided.
In union there is strength and power,
in division weakness and inefficiency.
A divided race is always an easy mark
for those who would keep it down. To
our leaders and those who have the
ear of the masses let me say that they
must discourage and suppress all in
fluences either within or without the
race that have a tendency to divide us.
For all such efforts, no matter whence
they spring are instituted by the ene
mies of the race.
Sometimes our foes have attempted
to divide us on the basis of location.
The Negro should be united through
out this country—north, south, east
and west. There must not be any
northern Negro and a southern Negro,
whether we Jive in the cotton fields
of Mississippi or in the great indus
trial centers of Massachusetts and
New York we should feel that all of
us are fighting in one grand common
cause. Sometimes the white man, and
some Negroes as wTell, have attempted
to divide the race on the basis of color
and hair, with emphasis on the super
iority of the mulatto and mixed blood,
and emphasis on the inferiority of the
full blood. And some mulattoes tak
ing their cue from their white fore
bears have gone so far as is the case
in South Carolina today and was the
case in Cleveland, Ohio (until the Hon.
H. S. Smith of the Cleveland Gazette,
himself a mulatto, killed the foolish
ness), to draw' a color line in their
social and domestic life against all
those who were not half or seven
eighths white. This doctrine is as
dangerous as it is silly, malicious and
false, and should be beaten down
whenever it attempts to rise. White
people as a rule do not make discrimi
nations within the race based on color.
A man or woman may be almost w'hite
in color, but if it becomes known that
he has Negro blood in his veins he
is given no more consideration than a
full blood. This fact is borne Qut in
a recent divorce trial that took place
in this city. The husband, a white
man married a woman who looked as
white as he did, but after issue came
it was stated that the child had Negro
blood in its veins. After that dis
covery was made the father applied
for an annulment of the marriage on
the grounds of fraud. Now' this wom
an was white. It was not her color,
it was her identification with the Ne
gro that caused the trouble. Negroes
should draw the color line on the basis
of character and worth on manhood
and womanhood and not on color and
hair.
The race must be united for the
purpose of self-defense. ^ e must de
fend ourselves, our W'omen and our ]
homes against mob violence and lynch
ers. Recent occurrences in Washing
ton, D. C., the capital of the nation
ought to teach the race throughout
America that we must arm ourselves
in times of peace. Foor the same
thing is apt to happen anywhere. If
we don’t hang together in these peril
ous days we certainly will hang sep
arately.
The race should be united to pro
mote, encourage and support business,
and not permit the Jew, the Italian,
the Greek and the white man in gen
era! to get rich from the things we
ought to engage in ourselves.
The race is sadly in need of a strong
economic foundation and this can only
be attained through business. Then
the race has not and cannot make
substantial progress without an in
creasing number of various kinds of
business enterprises run on a progres- ,
sive order. Business is an empire, and*
upon it has been built many mighty
civilizations. When the rank and file
of the race is forced to seek employ
ment from the white man; when we
are continually asking him to aid us
in the support of our churches, our
schools and other public and semi
public institutions, it does look a bit
inconsistent to demand rights. But
when we can support our own insti
tutions like the Jews we can consis
tently demand our rights.
The Negro race in America must be j
united for the social and moral im
provement of our race in the large
cities and towns. Crime, juvenile de
linquency, buffet flats, immorality
and gambling could all be lessened if
the moral, the educational and the so
called religious forces of the race had
sufficient backbone and sand to at
tack it. The majority of us are will
ing to let the race go to hell because
of fear of hurting some one’s feelings.
The destiny of the Negro race ought
to mean more to all thinking race
peojle than regard for the feelings of
some of our acquaintances and friends
who are violating both the law of God
and man.
And finally the Negro race should
be united politically. Taxation with
out representation was tyranny in
1776. It is no less a tyranny today.
To support one’s government as we
have always done in times of war, to
pay taxes on millions of dollars worth
of property and then be denied the
ballot where our votes can count for
something is the rankest fraud wheth
er we identify ourselves with the re
publican party, the democratic party,
the socialist party, or an independ
ent political party we ought to unit*? |
and see to it that we are granted the
suffrage throughout America. This is
a weapon of defense. No man is good
enough to rule another man without
the other man’s consent.
Just think of our political position
in America—twelve million of us, over
a tenth of the total population—not a
man in congress, not a men in the
senate, not a man yanywhere in a
responsible governmental position.
And yet we put white men into of
fice every year. If we cannot get
our own men into office we should not
vote for the other fellow.
These are some of the things the
race must do for itself, things that
white people cannot do for us.
For Monitor office call Doug. 3224.
• ...
I Flashes of
Most Anything
> . . ........ . . .... .............
Oh, where’s my Chicago Defender?
“Bought up,” you say ? All the long
looked for issue of August 2—bought ?
How, bought?
If I alone, of all men, happen to be
so fortunate as to be on the scene
when a great event happens, and far
away, in many cities, anxiously await
thousands of others hungering for the
facts that only I can give them; and i
if I should prepare for each of them a
letter and as it lay before me, ready
to be stamped and mailed and com
mitted to the care of Uncle Sam, in
you walked—you who would not have
those others know—and you looked at
my letters, and you bid for them, and
you got them, while in vain those !
others waited—would it be bought?
Hark! Listen! Methinks I hear;
echo repeat: “Sold. Sold.”
Roosevelt died, and a shocked world
stood grieved and silent, awed at the
departure of a truly great man. A
millionaire dies, but neither his money
nor the philanthropies his money
bought could make his passing more
than a mere detail. Truly the measure
of greatness lies in things more real j
and lasting than the accidents of cir
cumstance.
Nebraska is a pretty good old state.
It called a special session in order to
vote for the woman suffrage constitu
tional amendment and so vcon the
eleventh place on the roll of honor.
And now the government becomes
our grocer. When it took over the rail-:
roads some of us stopped riding. let’s
hope this won’t be true with the eats.!
“Come back home,” says the South.
“Behold Washington and Chicago.
Come on back to Dixie; we understand
each other.”
“Nix,” says Cuffie. “I know you a
dum sight too well.”
THREE HUNDRED YEARS
(Tercentenary, August, 1619-1919)
rREE hundred years! Lord, these
are they—
These toil-worn souls brief-sweet with
play—
These dream-charmed people, vision- ;
eyed,
Whose life-free goal is yet denied.
But these have heard the heavens say,
In answer to the prayer they pray:
‘No Christly cause can perish—nay,
Though men be martyred, crucified—
Three hundred years!”
A thousand years are but a day
In Thy illimitable way,
Father! Thy children who abide
On earth and learn Thy lessons wide
Have kept the faith—on through the
fray—
Three hundred years!
LUCIAN B. WATKINS.
University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.,
August 10, 1919.
PRESS COMMENT
American Atrocities.
We hear so much of Russian atroci
ties and German atrocities it may be
well for us to think a moment of our
own atrocities, which, so far as we
known, in many cases outrank in bru
tality and horror the murders of the
reddest of the red-handed butchers of
any other land. During the past thirty
years in the United States 3,224 peo
ple have been murdered by lynching
mobs. Of this number all but a few
were Colored citizens. It would have
been quite sufficient evidence of the
barbarism of these murderous mobs
had their victims simply been shot or
hanged without due process of law,
but to torture by cruelties too un
speakable for us to describe, as has
been done in instance after instance,
is to sink below the level of savagery.
That these things should be permit
ted in this land and no remedy swiftly
forthcoming would be incredible were
it not true. We have always main
tained that a government which can
compel its citizens, white and black, to
enlist under its flag and defend it in
peril owes to each of these citizens the
guarantee of every right assured him
under the constitution. Where the
state fails the government is under as
sacred an obligation to defend and
protect its humblest citizens from such
outrages as it is its representatives at
the courts of Europe.
Mr. Hughes has well said: “lo the
black man, who in this crisis has
prov«d his bravery, his honor and his
loyalty to our institutions, we cert ain
ly owe the performance of this duty
(of justice), and we should let it be
known from this time on, in recogni
tion of that supreme service, that the
black man shall have the rights guar
anteed to him by the constitution of
the United States.”—Our Dumb Ani
mals.
Dr. J. L. Green, mechano-therapist,
chronic diseases a specialty. Phone
Webster 3694.
The Beautiful Thing |
f About the FORD CAR is its 100% simplicity of operation, 100% per |
f 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 .j.
A all the time, in all ways, in all departments. •{'
•j* We sell Ford Motor Cars and Fordsom Farm Tractors. i
z I
| Sample-Hart Motor Co. |
| Tyler 513. 18th and ®urt Streets, .j.
200,000
Can Take Up DUDLEY’S NINETY DAY OFFER j
X For ninety davs only will ship to all new agents $10.00 worth of .j.
•{• DUDLEY’S FAMOUS POLISH for $5.00. Save time. Just inclose *
X five dollars and your address in full and a shipment will be made the X
A same day we get your order to Live Wire Agents. Hit the iron while >j.
f it is hot. Write for an order. X
Dudley’s Leather and Chemical Works |
$ 116 South Main Street. Muskogee, Okla. •{.
■8E55B5SBS55H5B5555555H5^^^^S........ _
H Classified Directory of Omaha’s
Colored professional and
Business firms
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■j- ALLEN JONES ANDREW T. REED jr
X Res. Phone Web. 204. Res. Phone Red 5210. ,,
JONES & REED
Funeral Parlor
| Parlors 2314 North 24th Street. Phone Webster 1100. .£
Expert Licensed Embalmers and Funeral Directors. Auto and Horse y
J Drawn Vehicles. Lady Attendant. Open Day and Night. .?.
A We are as near to you as your telephone with every convenience at A
\ hand. Calls promptly attended at ail hours. X
vx-^x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-sx-xxx-i-xx-x-i-x-x-x-i-x-x-:'
Telephone Webster 248
Open Day and Night
a a
Silas Johnson
Western Funeral Home;
2518 Lake St.
j; The Place for Quality and Service "
PRICES REASONABLE.
Licensed Embalmer In Attendance £
Lady Attendant If Desired,
a 8
a MUSIC FURNISHED FREE.
_~_B
a f«a |
R. H. Robbins \
\ & Co.
a g
!• GROCERIES AND MEATS e
a 8
:: An Up-to-Date Store.
I I
s ltll North 24th Street. %
I I:
» Prompt Delivery. VY. 241. ~
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Eureka Furniture Store
Complete Line of New and Sec- :
ond Hand Furniture
PRICES REASONABLE
Call Us When You Have Any !
Furniture to Sell
| 1417 N. 24th St. Web. 4206
; GREEN & GREEN J
We Operate the
| One Minute Shining Parlor
Chairs for Ladies.
g Auto Truck and Transfer I
1919 Cuming St.
I Phone Doug. 3167; Web. 2340. |
'"ini'vaTirT'n rin TtiXmr nr " , I'nrair*1”"
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HEINS RESTAURANT
1011 Capitol Ave.
j: Home Cooked Meals Our Spe- \
cialty.
!! SMITH HEINS, Proprietor. g
| OSK-tCH X.XXMXWflfXbDffiCWK BHWKS8HKS g
Mmes. South & Johnson f
Scientific Scalp Specialist*
g Sole Manufacturers of
i* MAGIC HAIR GROWER AND
MAGIC STRAIGHTENING OIL 3
h Vve teach the Art of Hair Dress- o
S Ing. Shampooing. Facial Massage, ©
a Manicuring, Scalp Treatment and y
g" the Making of Hair goods.
"X Hair Grower, per box 50c.
Straightening Oil, per box 35c ::
" For Appointment Call Web. 880. it
y 2416 Blondo St., Omaha, Neb.
3 WWMH8BBSKBt xXXiXStWW.XX'XXK.'WiX'X §
g Repairing and Storing
Orders Promptly Filled *
NORTH SIDE
I SECOND-HAND STORE §
R. ». RHODES
;; 3
Dealer in
k New and Second-Hand Furniture y
and Stoves.
X Household Goods Bought and y
Sold. Rental and Real Estate.
X it
S 2522 Lake St. Webster 908 S
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it South & Thompson’s Cafe
2418 North 24th St. Webster 4566
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i: SPECIAL SUNDAY DINNER -
K it
K Btewed colcken with dumpling’s..40c «
H Roast Prime Beef au jus_40c :i
% Roast Pork, Apple Sauce _40c (l
‘it Roast Domestic Goose, dressing 50c
»«
w Plarly June Peas
Mashed Potatoes JJ
jfiE 8aiad ;*
Coffee Dessert «
g »
We Serve Mexican Chile
^«W3tSflfflK01tWM«WXW it it.lt XX toflwaotsr !!
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EAT AT
WEST CAFE
x Good Cooking, Reasonable Prices x
1712 North 24th St.
T. J. ASHLEY, Prop.
: tefowcxmitWK’MnmtmiMM.mwafiX'x><■«;
S. W. MILLS
FURNITURE CO.
We sell new and second hand H
\ furniture, 1421 North 24th St. £
\ ' Webster 148. 24th and Charles, f
DENTIST
| Tel. Doug. 7150; Web. 3636
220 South 13th St.
Opan for Builne** th*
?0 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
*; HOTEL
Nicely Furnlahad Steam Heated
H Roome, With or Without Board.
B 623 North 19th Et. Omaha, Nab.
Phon* Tylar M7.