_ ™r"; i tthe Monitor i_
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor
$2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, JANUARY 22, 1920 Vol. V. No. 29 (Whole No. 238)
Black Star Line Steamship Reported Sinking
BLACK STAR LINE SHIP
COMPLETES FIRST TRIP
Steamship Yartn Owned and Of
ficered by Color* ?j\, Makes Suc
cessful Maiden Trip 'panama and
Returns—Captain Co. ''ten, Offi
cers and Crew Are (live*. '*yal Re
ception at Panama City. \
DOCKED VT NORTH
RIVER PIER TUESDAY
Brings Back Assorted Cargo and
Thirty-nine Passengers—Returns in
Good Seaworthy Condition—Anoth
er Vessel to Be Added to the Line
Soon—An Important Venture in
Commercial World.
EW YORK, Jan. 20.—The steam
hip Yarmouth, to he rertamed
the Frederick Douglass, first of a
fleet to he known as the Black Star
Line Steamship Corporation, owned
exclusively by men and women of Af
rican descent in the United States,
Africa, the British West Indies and
the canal zone, completed her maiden
trip last Wednesday when she was
moored to her dock in the North river.
She brought bark 08 passengers in
addition to a valuable miscellaneous
cargo and returned in a good sea
worthy condition. The Yarmouth ar
rived Tues< y night, but Captain
Cockbum was forced to remain out
side the harbor entrance on account
of the ice flows.
The Yarmouth, which is a British
built steamship, with a length of 220
feet and 1,200 tonnage, was purchased
by the Black Star Line, sailed from
New York Sunday afternoon, Novem
ber 20, bound for the British West
Indies. This event was one of pro
found historical significance for it
marked the entrance of the Negro
race into the maritime field. For the
first time in history a steamship
>v.7 '■d nr.d officered, from captain
down, by Negroes steamed out of New
York harbor. She landed at Sagua le
Grande, Cuba, December 3, where she
discharged a cargo of cement. Leav
ing that port December 7 she pro
ceeded on her voyage and arrived at
Kingston, Jamaica, where she was
given a gala reception December 10.
, Thousands of cheering people lined
the waterfront as the ship headed to
her berth alongside the pier of Leon
ard de Cordova. During the Yar
mouths’ stay in port she was visited
by thousands of proud and enthusi
astic Jamaicans.
Leaving Kingston she proceeded to
Colon, where she docked at pier No.
10 at Cristobal, Canal Zone, Wednes
day, December 17, discharging passen
gers and cargo. On her return voyage
she stopped at Kingston and other
ports and arrived in New York last
Wednesday.
In the Canal Zone the colored citi
zens took a holiday in honor of the
ship's arrival. Captain Cockbum, his
officers and crew were feted and lion
ized. At a reception tendered him at
Panama City, Captain Cockbum, who
is a native of Nassau, made an ad
dress in which he said that it was an
honor to bring the Yarmouth to Colon,
not because it wyas the first ship which
he had commander!, but because it was
the first of the Black Star Steamship
corporation which marks an era in the
history of the Negro race and means
that Negroes have entered the com
mercial field and are out to win.
The Black Star Line Steamship
Corporation owes its origin to Marcus
Garvey, founder of the Universal Ne
gro Improvement Association and Af
rican Communities’ league of the
World, which has as its object the
consolidation of the sentiment and as
pirations of the Negro race through
out the world, for racial progress in
dustrially, commercially, educationally
and politically.
Its first work commercially on a
large scale is to be the establishment
of a steamship line plying between
New York, Cuba and the West Indies.
The Yarmouth or the Frederick Doug
lass is the first of the line and it is
proposed to put on the Phyllis Wheat
ley soon. The steamship line has
opened. A big undertaking has been
successfully launched.
FOUND GUILTY OF
CONSPIRACY TO MURDER
A. Novak was found guilty of con
spiracy to murder in district court
last Thursday in connection with the
l.-nrhdnrr of Will Drown. This is the
first conviction on this charge.
I
POPULATION ONE-EIGHTH
OF A MILLION NOW
Chicago Has Jumped From Fifth
Place to Second Within the Last
Decade With Upwards of 125,000
Colored Residents.
URBAN LEAGUE REPORT
GIVES IMPORTANT FACTS
(CHICAGO, Jan. 21.—Chicago is the
.J second largest city in the United
States in Negro population. The dis
trict known as “the black belt” con
tains a larger number of colored peo
ple than any similar area in the coun
try. These are the findings of the
Urban League as stated in its annual
report by the secretary, T. Arnold
Hill. A noticeable increase in em
ployment of colored girls and women
is pointed to.
“Since 1915 Chicago has added ap
proximately 75,000 people to its col
ored population,” the report says.
“This is true of no other city. De
troit and Newark have increased their
Negro population between 300 and
400 per cent during the last four
| years. But neither of these cities has
! a Negro population half as large as
large as Chicago’s, now a total of
125,000.
Ranked Fifth in 1910.
“In 1910 Chicago ranked fifth
among the cities of the north having
large colored populations. Today she
is second only to New York, and this,
by the way, only because New York
includes the population of Manhat
tan Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx and
certain other Long Island towns.
The greater part of Chicago’s in
1 creased Negro population had ar
ribed at the close of 1918. While
we have had a steady increase of
population since January 1, 1919, the
new arrivals have come in smaller
numbers and with less confusion,
thus permitting us to give more per
sonal supervision, to spend more time
with individuals.
Fimploy Many Colored Girls.
Since November 1 of last year,
20,315 separate individuals used our
office for a total of approximately
37,350 different times. Most of them
were people looking for work, and
most of them who were in earnest
received it. Many needed vocational
guidance, a friendly hand, a construc
; tive suggestion.”
Mention is made of the employment
by Sears-Roebuek & Company of
1,400 colored girls at 310 West Wash
ington street. At the same place there
were employed last year 600 colored
girls, and the company said it was
j willing to again employ during this
I holiday period 575 of the same girls.
| It was found, however, that less than
half of these were available, although
wages were $2.00 a week higher than
last year.
“This was due to the fact that the
others were employed,” the report
states, "the labor field for colored
girls having expanded beyond all cal
culations.”
TEN-CENT STORES IN LIBERIA.
Native African Student in Yale Theo
logical School to Start Business.
Three native Africans, in Des
Moines to attend the student volunteer
Convention, were speakers at an Af
rican conference in St. Paul’s Afri
can Methodist church.
The Rev. Isaac Steady, jr., student
in the theological school of Yale uni
versity, declared that Africa needed
Negro business enterprises as well as
churches and that he already had
plans under way for the opening of a
5 and 10-cent store when he returns to
his home at Sierra Leone Liberia,
which he says is a town of 150,000
people, 145,000 Negroes and 5,000
whites.
Africa needs expei-t fanners, Wil
liam Masumma of Capetown, South
Africa, told the conference. Masum
rna is taking a course in agriculture
at the University of Minnesota, from
which he will graduate in 1020.
The third speaker was a young Af
rican girl, Amanda Mason, who is a
student in Wilberforce university, the
leading school of the African Metho
dist church at Wilberforce, O. She
made a strong appeal for American
Negroes of character and education
to come to Africa to teach their breth
ren anything and everything that
tends toward civilization.—Des
Moines Register.
JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY, POET
PATRIOT, ON POSSIBILITIES
OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO
“No Man Ever Came Into the World With so Great an Oppor
tunity as the American Negro. He is Like New Metal Dug
Out of the Mine. He Stands on the Threshold of History,
With Everything to Learn and Less to Unlearn Than Any
Civilized Man in the World.”
TTHIRTY-FOUR years ago, in 1886, John Boyle O’Reilly, the fa
A mous Irish poet and patriot, delivered a notable address to
the colored citizens of Boston, in which he paid high tribute to
the intellectual and spiritual endowments of the colored race and
pointed out the wonderful possibilities, because of these endow
ments and other characteristics, lying before our people. The
truths he then stressed will bear repetition now. In this mate
rialistic age it cannot be too frequently repeated that true great
ness is greatness of soul, and that individual, race or nation who
possesses this will unquestionably find and hold his place in the
sun.
Before and since O’Reilly gave his address the Negro “has
given the world proof of the truth and beauty and heroism and
iwwer that are in his soul.” This, it cannot be doubted, he will
continue to do. He has given not only the “one poet (who) will
be worth one hundred bankers and brokers,” but several, Paul
Laurence Dunbar, Stanley C. Braithwaite and James Weldon
Johnson, to mention no others. He has given great musicians to
the world like Harry T. Burleigh in America, and S. Coleridge
Taylor in England, and great painters like Henry M. Tanner, and
sculpti esses like Edmonia Lewis and Meta Warrick Fuller. With
enlarging opportunities the Negro will continue to develop great
men and women.
This is what John Boyle O’Reilly said over three decades ago
land his words are applicable to the present day and generation:
j Know noming and care nommg
about your politics or party prefer
ences, but I know that if I were a
colored man I should use political
parties, as I would a club or a hatchet,
to smash the prejudice that dared to
exclude my children from a public
school, or myself from a public hall,
theater, or hotel. The interest you
have to protect and defend is not that
of a party, but of your own manhood.
Use party as they use you—for your
own best interests.
Politics No Panacea.
Put the thing that most deeply af
flicts the colored American is not go
ing to be cured by politics. You
have received from politics already
•’bout all it can give you. You may
change the law by politics; but it is
not the law that is going to insult
and outrage and excommunicate every
colored American for generations to
come. You can’t cure the conceit of
the white people that they are bet
ter than you by politics, nor their
ignorance, nor their prejudice, nor
their bigotry, nor any of the inso
lences which they cherish against
their colored fellow-citizens.
Basis of Social Equity.
Politics is the snare and delusion of
white men as well as black. Politics
tickles the skin of the social order;
but the disease lies deep in the in
ternal organs. Social equity is based
on justice; politics change on the
opinion of the time. The black man’s
skin will be a mark of social infe
riority so long as white men are con
ceited, ignorant, unjust and preju
diced. You cannot legislate these
qualities out of the white—you must
steal them out by teaching, illustra
tion and example.
Like New Metal.
No man ever came into the world
with so grand an opportunity as the
American Negro. He is like new
metal dug out of the mine. He stands
on the threshold of history, with
everything to learn and less to un
learn than any civilized man in the
world. In his heart still ring the free
sounds of the desert. In his mind he
carries the traditions of Africa. The
songs with which he charms Ameri
cans ears are refrains from the trop- ;
ical deserts, from the inland seas and
rivers of the dark continent.
Music and Color-Loving.
At worst, the colored American has
only a century of degrading civilized
tradition, habit and inferiority to for
get and unlearn. His nature has only
been injured on the outside by these |
late circumstances. Inside he is a.
new man, fresh from nature—a color- ;
lover, an enthusiast, a believer by the
heart, a philosopher, a cheerful, nat- j
ural, good-natured man. He has all
the qualities that fit him to be a good
Christian citizen of any country; he
does not worry his soul today with
the fear of next week or next year.
He has feelings and convictions, and
he loves to show them. He sees no
reason why he should hide them.
The Negro is the only graceful, j
musical, color-loving American. He
is the only American who has writ
ten new songs and composed new
music. He is the most spiritual of
Americans, for he worships with his j
soul and not with his narrow mind.
For him religion is to be believed, ac
cepted, like the very voice of God,
ami not invented, contrived, reasoned
-d at. shaded, altered and made fash
ionably lucrative and marketable, as !
it is made by too many white Amen- j
cans. As Mr. Downing, who preceded j
me, has referred to the Catholic re- \
ligion, I may be pardoned for saying
that there is one religion that knows
neither race, nor class, nor color; that j
offers God unstintedly the riches and !
glories of this world in architecture, i
in painting, in marble and in music
and in grand ceremony. There is no
other way to worship God with the
whole soul; though there are many
other ways of worshipping Him with
the intellect at so many dollars an
hour, in an economical church, a
hand-organ in the gallery, and a
careful committee to keep down the
expenses. The Negro is a new man,
a free man, a spiritual man, a hearty
man; and he can be a great man if
he will avoid modeling himself on the
whites. No race or nation is great
or illustrious except by one test—the
breeding of great men. Not great |
merchants or traders, not rich men,
bankers, insurance mongers, or di
'•ectors of gas companies. But great
thinkers, great seers of the world j
through their own eyes, great tellers
of the truth and beauties and colors
and equities as they alone see them.
C-eat poets—ah! Great poets above
all—and their brothers, great paint
ers and musicians and fashioners of |
God’s beautiful shapes in clay and
marble and bronze.
The Negro will never take his
stand beside or ahove the white man
till he has given the world proof of
the truth and beauty and heroism and
power that are in his soul. And only
by the organs of the soul are these
delivered; by the self-respect and
self-reflection, by philosophy, religion,
poetry, art, sacrifice, and love. One
poet will be worth a hundred bank
ers and brokers, worth ten presidents j
of the United States to the Negro
race. One great musician will speak
to the world for the black man as no
thousand editors or politicians can.
NOT OUR WAY.
AN advertisement for waiters and
bus boys was inserted in last
week's Monitor. We now understand,
or have reason to believe, that its
purpose is to find men to take the
place of waiters who refuse to have
their wages cut. The Monitor will
not knowingly lend itself to any
scheme to undercut the wages of anv
class of working men. We therefore
withdraw the advertisement from our
columns. The Monitor is not in that
kind of husiness.
ORGANIZE TO MAINTAIN
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Chicagoans Form Aggressive Organ
ization to Combat by Legal and
Educational Methods Efforts to Re
strict Them to Certain Districts.
CHICAGO, Jan. 21.—The Protective
Circle of Chicago is the name of
an aggressive organization that has
been established for the purpose of
combating by legal and educational
methods the efforts to prevent colored
people from living in the Kenwood
and Hyde Park district. Particular
attention will also be given to the |
mysterious series of bombing of prop- 1
erty on the south side and which, up |
to the present time, has been unsolved j
by the Chicago police.
The preamble of the very brief but
comprehensive constitution of the
Protective Circle states:
“This organization is committed
solely to the policy of offsetting and
suppressing in every legitimate and
legal way lawlessness that has recent
ly been evidenced in intimidation,
bombing, threatening and coercion of
colored and white citizens of Chicago. '
“We propose to rest upon our con- !
stitutional rights enunciated in the re
cent decision of the supreme court of j
the United States, which in substance
affirms the right of any person to
buy or sell wherever one is willing to
buy and the other to sell.”
A Militant Slogan.
The Protective Circle has a militant !
slogan: “No backward step. Any- !
where, providing it be forward!” The
work of the organization is vested in
an executive committee and four
standing committees. The president i
of the organization is Rev. Dr. J. W. 1
Robinson; secretary, Charles S. Duke;
treasurer, Anthony Overton. The ,
chairmen of the committees are: In
vestigation, A. Clement McNeal; pub- i
licity, Nahum Daniel Brascher; legal
procedure, Oscar De Priest; propa
ganda, Jesse Binga.
STEAMSHIP YARMOUTH
REPORTED SINKING
Wireless Messages Brought Relief to
the Black Star Line Freighter
Carrying Valuable Cargo of Liquor.
New York, Jan. 18.—The British
freighter Yarmouth, which left New
York for Havana yesterday with a
cargo of liquor, reported in radio mes
sages today that she was isnking.
She gave her position as latitude 39
north, longtitude 74 west, and said
she was “twenty-four miles northeast
of Light Vessel, No. 3.” The message
said:
“Forward ballast tank leaking into
engine room.”
A heavy mist prevailed. The Yar
mouth registers 725 tons.
Loaded Too Swiftly.
New York, Jan. 18.—The cargo of
liquor carried by the freight steam
ship Yarmouth, consisted of whisky,
gin and champagne, is valued at $2,
000,000. She left this port yester
day for Havana, with a heavy list to
starboard, owing to the haste with j
which longshoremen loaded her in an
effort to get her away before prohi
bition became effective at midnight
Friday.
The Yarmouth flies the colors of
the Black Star Line Steamship corp
oration, the first company of its kind
to be owned entirely by Negroes. The
officers and crew are of that race.
On the Way Back.
Philadelphia, Fa., Jan. 18.—A wire
less report received late tonight at
the navy yard said that the coast
guard cutter, Itasca, had taken the
Yarmouth in tow and was proceeding
with her to New York.
APPOINT EASTERN MANAGER
OF GEN. WOOD CAMPAIGN
New York, Jan. 20.—Representative
Norman J. Gould of Seneca Falls, N.
Y., has accepted appointment as east
ern manager of the Leonard Wood
national campaign committee, it was
announced here by Colonel William C.
Proctor, national chairman. The na
tional committee now includes, it was
'fated. Colonel Proctor, chairman; J.
T. Me G raw of Oklahoma, vice chair
man; Governors Allen of Kansas.
Pnrnquist of Minnesota. Stmnn of
Colorado and Norbeck of Smith Da
kota and former Governor Stokes and
Senator Runyon of New Jersey.
REDS STIR UP RACE
RIOTS IS ALLEGATION
Department of Justice Report Shows
Radical Agitators in Various States.
FINANCED FROM MEXICO CITY
Article Designed to Rouse Negroes
Paid for by Linn A. E. Gale, Senate
Committee is Told—Colored Organ
ization Asks Federal Anti-Lynching
Law.
(Special to Tlie Monitor, by Walter J.
Singleton. Staff Correspondent.)
W^ASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 15.—
W Enactment of federal legisla
tion to prevent lynchings and race
rioting was urged at the initial hear
ing yesterday of a senate judiciary
subcommittee conducted under the
resolution providing for investigation
into recent riots and submission of a
report to the senate suggesting means
of nreventing recurrence of the dis
orders. Yesterday’s session was de
voted entirely to the question of fed
eral jurisdiction.
Senator Curtis of Kansas, author of
the resolution, presented to the sub
committee a copy of a report of the
department of Justice showing the ac
tivity of radical agitators among the
Negroes in various cities where riot
ing has occurred in the last six years
and describing the manner in which
these agitators have conducted a
propaganda among Negroes for the
purpose of arousing unrest.
Blames Radical Agitators.
The report outlined an article by
Frederick A. Blossom, secretary of the
T. W. W. local of Paterson, N. J„ tex
tile w-orkers, designed to arouse Ne
groes. This article, the report said,
was printed in the offices of the Gary
(Tnd.) Post at the expense of Linn A.
E. Gale, of Mexico City, who, the re
port said, was believed to be a Ger
man agent.
"It seems to me.” said Senator Fpr
tis in presenting the report, "that
there is a very strong reason why
the general government should take
hold of this question and make a thor
ough investigation of it and into the
activity of the radical element in this
country in working up race riots.”
TT. S. Bratton, a white attorney of
Little Rock, Ark., who said his son
narrowly escaped lynching during the *
recent race riots in that state, argued
in favor of federal legislation, declar
ing the federal constitution guaran
tees all citizens an impartial trial,
which mob rule denies. He declared,
however, that the recent trouble in
Arkansas was not due to racial agi
tators, but to the system of peonage
which he alleged prevailed in Ar
kansas.
Tells of 3fi Lynchings.
James Weldon Johnson, former
United States consul in Nicaragua,
but now field secretary of the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, told the com
mittee that there recently had been
suggestions that the United States in
tervene in Mexico because about, six
Americans had been killed, while dur
ing the same period 36 Negroes had
been lynched in this country.
Legislation to prevent race riots and
lynchigns clearly comes within the
constitutional powers of congress,
said Mr. Johnson, who added that it
has taken no radical action to make
the Negroes feel they were being op
pressed.
The Rev. J. G. Robinson of Phila
delphia, national organizer for the
Equal Rights League of America, told
the subcommittee that he had been
driven from his home because of his
work on behalf of the Negro. Other
witnesses were John R. Shlllady, sec
retary of the National Association for
the Advancement of the Colored Peo
ple, and Archibald TT. Orlmke, presi
dent of the Washington branch of the
organization.
PRIVATE SECRETARY
TO LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Harrisburg, Pa., Jan. 21.—W. Jus
tin Carter of Harrisburg, Pa., bar,
has just been appointed as private
secretary to Lieutenant Governor Bie
delman of Pennsylvania, in recogni
tion of bis splendid services in the po
litical successes which have marked
the career of Mr. Biedelman, who was
formerly a state senator and who is
i mnn with a political future. Mr.
Carter succeeds Harry F. Oves.