LEADING EDITORIALS OF THE DAT
Omaha
Perhaps Italy could be persuaded to
be mandatory for Omaha, suggested a
I'nlted States senator after reading of
the riots in the Nebraska city, in the
course of which citizens set fire to
the jail and court house, attempted
to hang the mayor when he protested
in the name of law and order, and
finally lynched a Negro prisoner, aft
erward dragging his body through the
streets at the end of a rope, and an
eastern cartoonist depicts Lenine read
ing the same news item with a grin
of approval and the comment, “They’re
learning.” Omaha's orgy of mob-mad
ness, as papers of all sections join
with the Milwaukee Journal in re
minding us, is only “a horrible symp
tom of a general spirit of lawlessness.”
What makes the action of the Omaha
mob all the more sinister, remarks the
Indianapolis News, is that “it might
have happened anywhere else in this
country;” and many editors recall the
recent outbreaks of race-rioting in
East St. Louis, Knoxville, Washington
and Chicago. Such crimes against
civilization, says the Boston Tran
script, "puts every American on tine
defensive before the world—the world
which Americans went forth, only a
few months ago, to make safe for de
mocracy.” “Where will Hades break
loose next?” asks the Washington Star,
which sees the mob spirit spreading
and lawlessness putting on an ever
bolder front. “Omaha, Boston, Wash
ington. Chicago with bloody fingers a
warning to the American people,” ex
claims the Chicago Tribune.
In Omaha, on the day after the lynch
ing. the World-Herald said editorially:
“We have felt, however briefly, the
fetid breath of anarchy on our cheeks.
We have experienced the cold chill of
fear which it arouses. We have seen
as in a nightmare its awful possibility.,
We have learned how frail is the bar
rier which divides civilization from
the primal jungle, and we have been
given to see clearly what the barrier
is. It is the law. It is the might of i
the law' wisely and fearlessly admin
istered. It Is the respect for and
obedience to the law on the part of
the members of society. When these
fail us. all things fail. When these
are lost, all will be lost. Should the
day ever come when the rule that was
in Omaha Sunday night became the
dominant rule, the grasses of the
jungle would overspread our civiliza
tion, its wild denizens human and
brute , would make their foul feast
on the ruins, and the God who rules
over us would turn his face in horror
from a world given over to bestiality.
May the lesson of Sunday night sink
deep!”
The feature of the Omaha riot that
somewhat differentiates it from pre
vious crimes of the same nature, while
emphasizing the sinister spirit of
anarchy that inspires them all. Is the
murderous assault upon Mayor E. P
Smith when he attempted to address
the mob. Omaha dispatches report a
recent epidemic of crimes committed
by Negroes in that city, culminating
in an assault upon a nlneteen-year-old
white girl. On Sunday night, Septem
ber 28. the correspondents tell 11s, a
mob of five thousand stormed the
court house where the Negro charged
with this crime was Imprisoned and j
demanded that the authorities hand
him over to them. When this demand
was refused they set five to the court;
house with incendiary bombs, imperil
ing the lives of more than a hundred
prisoners and officials, and turned
upon the building a fusillade of shots.
When the mayor appeared upon the
court house steps and began to ad
dress the mob as "fellow citizens” the
leaders interrupted him with shouts
of ‘ give us that nigger." When he re
plied, “I can’t do that, boys.” he was
seized by the men nearest him and
dragged to a point several blocks j
away. “Lynch him,” shouted some one
in the crowd, and in a moment a rope
was round his neck and he was strung
up to a trolley wire. Somebody cut
him down, but the mob readjusted the
rope and pulled him up again. When
a group of policemen rescued him he
was bleeding at the nose and mouth,
but still conscious. At the hospital
where he was taken his condition was
found to be critical, but he ultimately
rallied. In the meanwhile, the mob
wreaked Its fury on the Negro, Brown,
who had been handed over to it by
his fellow prisoners when they faced |
the alternative of being burned alive
His body was riddled with bullets, par
tially burned and dragged through the
streets behind an automobile. After
ward rioting continued, with threats
against the Negro population, until
federal troops under Gen. I^onard
Wood took charge of the situation.
Behind all these outbreaks, avers
the Rev. John Albert Williams in the
Omaha Monitor, a Negro paper, is ’the |
unexplainable and regrettable race
prejudice which unfortunately looms
large in American life and is latent
or dormant in the most liberal and
broad-minded communities." The
lynching in Omaha, he argues, “is di
rectly traceable to the fanning of race
prejudice by sensational reports in
two of the daily newspapers of this
city of alleged crimes by Negroes:
against white women."
Whatever the provocation may have
been, declares the Omaha News, "it
does not warrant any band of men
taking the law into their own hands
unless they are prepared to face the
judgment of their fellow citizens for
such an act. It is absolutely neces
sary that the men who participated
in the riot should be brought to ac
count to find justification for what
they did." ' The time has come ior
the public authorities to deal with
mob crimes, mercilessly and relent
lessly,” exclaims the Pittsburg Post,
and dispatches indicate that this opin
ion is held also in Omaha, where the
authorities have taken immediate steps
to identify those who took part in the
lynching of Brown and the attack on
Mayor Smith, and to prosecute them.
This vigorous action of the local au
thorities, says the New York Globe
is to no small degree due to pressure
front the war department, which, hav
ing been called upon to restore order,
"is insisting that the job be done thor
oughly and permanently." Further
evidence of federal interest in this
problem is supplied by a resolution in
troduced by Senator Curtis of Kansas,
calling for a senatorial investigation
into recent race riots and lynchings.
—The Literary Digest.
As to Social Equality—From '.lie Negro
Mail's Viewpoint.
To the Kansas City Star: If I so de
sired I could start a race riot. It
would be necessary only to select the
psychological moment to make skillful
use of the term "social equality.”
Jf the wisest and best loved white
man in the United States %vere to an
nounce himself as in favor of social
equality he would at once lose caste
and there are places in this country
where his life would be in danger. If
a Negro were to make verbal insist
ence on social equality anywhere south
of the Mason and Dixon line he would
be lynched.
The influence of this term has sent
representatives and senators to Wash
ington, has elected governors and has
Inspired and promulgated class legis
lation of the most discriminatory type,
it is the gaunt specter which haunts
ihe consciousness of the white people
of America—warping their judgment
blinding tbeir vision, nullifying their
religion, polluting their ethics, dwarf
ing their sense of justice, stultifying
their ideals and shutting out from
their tragic gaze the ligt of love, har
mony and truth.
Wbat is social equality?
One would think that a term having
so much power in our social life easily
would be defined. But not so! When
you try to define social equality you
find that it escapes the utmost mental
concentration—it is as elusive as tne
evanescent cloud shapes that play over
the landscape on a summer day. It is
not the same thing in any two places
or in any two minds. It is the vaguest
sort of an idea; it has no clear force;
it is wholly lacking definiteness, pre
cision and homogeneity.
Strange to say, such definition as
you are able to extract from any per
son is wholly inconsistent with the
circumstances to which the term is
applied. I have asked a great many
white persons to define social equal
ity, A summing up of those defini
tions would be about as follows:
“Social equality is that status in
which Negroes would be received on
terms of intimacy and friendship in
white homes, and permitted to eat at
the table in those homes with white
persons.”
Now, as has been said, while that Is
the definition usually given, it is the
definition which never is applied. It
is plain to be seen that under that
definition the white people of the Unit
ed States surely have no need to fear.
Negro "domination” through social
equality. There is no way possible for
Negroes to force their way into white
homes on terms of intimacy and
friendship, and take seats at the ta
bles of white persons. There is no
case on record where any Negro ever
attempted to do such a thing. No Ne
gro has ever contemplated that. Ne
groes are well satisfied to eat in their
own homes; and 1 do not believe there
is a Negro on earth who would desire
in the least to eat with white persons
in their homes. Does any white per
son seriously believe that the menace
of Negroes forcing themselves into his
home and eating at this table is so
great that "Jim Crow” laws, economic
restrictions, violent race hatreds, class
legislation and frequent bitter de
nunciation of Negroes as desiring so
cial equality are necessary? No one
in his right mind and capable of the
slightest analysis by any possibility
could believe such a thing!
The practical application of the term
social equality never has anything to
do with the above definition. If I were
to apply for a job as conductor on a
local street car I would be refused and
and the ultimate grounds of the re
fusal would be social equality. In fact
there are some fifty-siv occupations in
the United States a white man may
pursue, which I may not pursue, how
ever competent I may be, and in no
way involving entrance to a white
man’s home and eating at his table
Yet the ground of denial always is the
same, social equality. If I desire to
move out of the slum districts—out
where the streets are well kept am
the surroundings clean ad wholesom
—If I do that, my home is dynamited
Why? Social equality! The fact tha
1 do not desire ‘to affiliate with m;
white neighbors in any way, or ever
speak to them, does not modify thi
verdict. The assumption is that
am trying to force social equality.
In some places it is social equalit;
to sit beside a white person on the
street or railway car—and in Kansai
City is is social equality to sit in cer
tain parts of the theater. In som<
places it is social equality for a Negri
to enter the public library, while in
Kansas City it would be social equality
to enter certain churches. Yet noi
any of those things pertain in any
way to entering a white man's home
and eating at his table.
Are the white people dishonest iti
the definition they usually give of so
cial equality? Or have they merely
fallen into the habit of using a term
whose meaning and application they
have not taken trouble to analyze and
define? Certain it is that the term as
applied has no clear and stable defi
tion. It is made to do duty on any
occasion where a Negro seeks to rise
above that condition or status of eco
nomic and political serfdom, which
the nonethical and undisciplined con
sciousness of the American people
have sensed acutely as being ‘his
place." The term is indissolubly in
terwoven with the instinctive emo
tions, and by having no foundation in
either reason or ethics, does not yield
itself to logical definition.
WILLIAM E. GRIFFIN.
4325 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Race Is Greater Thun Law”
The Senators from Nebraska not
having risen to defend lynch law.
Senator John Sharp Williams, of Mis
sissippi. whose knowledge of his own
state should make him an expert on
the subject, appeared as advocate for
the Omaha mob. We quote a striking
bit from his remarks:
"Race is greater than law now and
then, and protection of women tran
scends all law, human and divine."
This is a variation of the excuse
given by the lawless everywhere. The
bolshevlgt pleads that his might is
greater than the law; and he appears
in a better light than Mr. Williams
because bolshevism first goes through
the process of savagely demolishing
the* law.
The exponent of sabotage cries out
that his passion to subvert industry is
greater than the law and he proceeds
along the lines laid down in William
Z. Foster’s red book. He paraphrases
the senior Senator from Mississippi
by remarking that syndicalism tran
scends all law, whether human or di
vine.
Perhaps half the criminals who kill
or steal believe that their particular
causes are greater than the law; but
the law itself, representing the ma
jority of the people, sends the crimi
nal to prison. There he has an op
portunity to explain his social views
to his fellow prisoners. But no re
porter for the Congressional Record
Is at hand to note down his state
ment.
A foreigner unfamiliar with his
country might take it. from Senator
Williams’ remark about the protection
of women, that our laws were de
signed to prevent them from being
protected. The fact is, of course, that
the state of Nebraska has been free
to impose the death penalty for the
unpardonable crime. Itg people, how
ever. set the maximum punishment at
twenty years. In Mr. Williams’ own
state death may be the penalty, yet
there have been eases where the Mis
sissippi criminal, after having been
legally condemned to death, has been
taken by the mob and lynched.
It is not the initial crime that is at
issue, particularly when the people
may inflict death lawfully if they vote
to do so. It Is the crime of the mob;
and the mob kills, not to avenge a
wrong but to vent Its blood luBt. The
worst individual in Omaha on Sunday
was the Negro assailant. Brown. The
best individual wbh Smith, the mayor,
I who tried to fulfill the letter and spirit
• of his oath. But the mob applied its
blind and cowardly rage alike to both j
of these men!
“Race is greater than law now and
then.” It is curious that these words I
should come from a supporter of the
Wilson covenant. Suppose that the,
league should become a fact, and that
some day one of its members, say a
great Oriental nation, should rise in
new found strength, blazing with a
racial pride that had smouldered for
centuries, and say to the council: 'In
ternational law is all very well at
times, but in the words of John Sharp
Williams, race is greater than law
now and then!'" On that (lay, if Mr.
Williams were alive, what could he
say?—New York Snn.
PROMINENT EDUCATOR DIES
Oberlin.—With the passing of Wil
liam Mitchell, age 82, who died re
cently, Oberlin has lost one of its
first citizens. For fifty years he had
been actively engaged in business •
here. His home, only a few blocks
from the college campus, was the
temporary residence of many stu- i
dents who came here from distant
cities. The funeral, held from the
First Presbyterian church, was one
of the largest ever seen in this city.
Mrs. Mitchell had ben ill for over a
1 year suffering from injuries sustain
ed when he fell from his bicycle. He
had been unable to walk since the ac
cident. He is survived by a wife, Mrs.
Edith Mitchell, two sons and two
daughters.
FOURTH ANNUAL SESSION
NATIONAL RACE CONGRESS
(Coninued from Page One!
lessly when 1 say they are of moment
as to well nigh disturb the confidence
with which this great nation of ours
' has marched forward in the progress
of civilization and the triumph of de
mocracy. Even as I utter these
words, my mind runs back to a few
days since, when mob violence in the
I proud city of Omaha, so far despised
1 the law and its chief executive and
its temple of administration that it
, despoiled and burned and attempted
: to destroy them.
It is to the correction and preven
tion of such conditions as those tin,
this congress directs its deliberation
i and its resources.
President Jemagin then gave tin
origin and aims of the National Ru<
1 Congress: How the congress is gov-:
emed; the policies; stating barbarities
i must cease; we must "carry” on t
work of our heroes; a statement oi
his trip abroad under the headings:
My Voyage; Landing on the Conti
nent; My Activities in France; Im
pressions; My Return and Recom
mendations.
The Value of Our Press.
I especially want to commend to
you the splendid services of the Negro
press of this country, which so clear
ly, fearlessly and persistently gives to
us the truth which but for it would
slumber in keeping or be hidden ou
of sight in the hate of our enemies
In the development of this organ
and the arm of defense, God has
surely raised up a set of men who are
worthy followers of the first cham
pion of our liberties, men who spoke
for us when we had no voice of our
own. The Negro press deserves your
greater continued support. As you
regard your liberty, preserve the
spirit and freedom of the press.
A strong memorial was prepare"
and presented to the congress of the
United States which will appear
later.
Executive Secretary’s Report.
' The report of Executive Secretary
John K. Hawkins was complete in
every detail, showing the amount ol
funds collected from every fraternal
association in this city and the j
amount, also money received from
other sources. Secretary Hawkins
deserves high praise for his splendid
report to the congress which included ;
a number of recommendations all of
which were adopted by the congress.
Among those who delivered ad
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dresses were Mrs. Mary Church Ter
rell, who gave a very interesting
story of her trip with a party of
twelve to the Intel-national Congress
of Women held in Switzerland.
The Rev. H. N. Jetter, R. I., on
“Migration of the Colored People and
Our Duty to It." The Rev. W. F. Gra
heai. Philadelphia. Pa., on “Political
Training,” and the “Present Need of
the American Negro and How We
Can Secure It.”
Illustrated lecture by Mr. Edward
L. Snyder, Philadelphia, Pa., “Our
Soldiers in France.”
Lawyer William Harrison, Chicago;
Mr. John Mitchell. Jr., of Richmond.
Va., Mr. John W. Lewis of Washing
ton, D. C.
The Pittsburgh delegation was the
largest in atendance from any city or
state among them being: The Rev.
P. A. Scott. Rev. O. S. Sims, Rev. J.
C. Austin, Rev. J. H. Burks, Rev J
I). Bushell, the great chorister who
led the singing; Mr S. A. Davenport,
P. J. Clyde Randall, Esq., attorney at
law, and Mr. Robert L. Vann, editor
The Pittsbourgh Courier.
a a a a a. a a a. • • • * • ♦ a .t. a • a a • • .a. * i
The greatest gathering of men and f
! women from the states in the history ®
1 of Washington came to a close after
' a most harmonious session of four
I days. Every man and woman repre
[ senting their constituents had his day
1 in court, and all left the city believing
they had accomplished a great gooo
for humanity.
The following officers were elected:
Rev. W. H. Jemagin, president.
Washington, D. C.; Bishop I. N. Ross, *
i vice-president, Washington, D. C.;
Rev. C. H. Stepteau, i-ecording secre
tary, Baltimore, Md.; Rev. W. A. Tay
lor, corresponding secretary, Wash
1 ington. D. C.; J. R. Hawkins, exec
utive secretary, Bureau of Informa
tion and Defense Fund. Rev. W. H.
Dean, treasurer, Washington. D. C.;
Rev. E. A. P. Chek. chaplain. Newark,
N. J.; Rev. J. G. Austin, national or
ganizer, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mr. J. J.
Nickerson, sergeant-at-arms, Hinton.
W. Va.; Mr. William Harrison, na
tional lecturer, Chicago, 111.; Rev. J.
Milton Waldlron, secretary Haitian
committee; musical director, J. D.
Bushnell of Pittsburgh. Pa.
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% OFFICERS BOARD OF DIRECTORS A
X D. G. Russell, President. H. Hamler, Chairman. i
X Anderson Hamler, Treasurer. D. G. Russell. X
^ N. W. Ware, Sec. and Gen. Mpr. N. W. Ware. ’)•
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Mr. Advertiser:
The Monitor is read in prac
tically every Colored family j
I in Omaha, Council Bluffs and
Lincoln. j
It has also a wide circulation §
in Nebraska and other states. I
Do You Want This Trade9 I
