The monitor
A National Weekly Newpaper Devoted Primarily to the Interests
of Colored Americans.
Published Every Friday at Omaha. Nebraska, by the
Monitor Publishing Company._t
Entered^ as S'oond-Class Mail Matter July 2. 1915, at the Postofflce at
Omaha. Nebraska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
W. W. MOSELY, Associate Editor, Lincoln, Neb.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, *2.00 A YEAR; *1.25 6 MONTHS; 75c 3 MONTHS
Advertising Rates Furnished Upon Appllcaton.
Address The Monitor, Postoffice Box 1204, Omaha, Neb,
Telephone Atlantic 1322, Webster 4243
> ■ ■
ARTICLE XIV. CONSTITUTION OF THE \;
UNITED STATES. <•
I > * >
Citizenship Rights Not to Be Abridged.
(i * »
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the j
’ United States and of the State wherein they reside. No .,
state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor ;;
shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- jj
erty without due process of law, nor deny to any person «.
! within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. !
( i * *
H******************»*»»**»*»»»«»»«»W^^«>->-VW,^»H"
y ACTION WANTED—NOT INVESTI
' GATION.
TT seems incredulous that any man
with the supposed intelligence of a
United States Senator would have the
temerity to suggest at this particular
time the institution of “a commission
to investigate lynching.” Incredulous
at it may seem this is the proposal of
our sapient republican friends. Sen
ator Frellnighuysen is the author of a
joint resolution proposing the creation
of such a commission. With volumes
of facts before them, in the name of
high heaven what further “investiga-:
tion” do they need? Facts in great]
array have been collected, tabulated,
classified, presented, discussed, print
td in separate reports and in the Con
gressional Record, and are not omy
well known and accessible to every
member of congress, but to the world, |
and so when the Republican senators
propose a “commission to investigate
lynching,” they are simply making
themselves absurd or disclosing traits
of conduct which crowd rather closely
to insincerity and very transparent
hypocrisy. Every intelligent Amer
ican citizen knows that for the past]
thirty-three years KNOWN lynchings
in the United States have averaged
about 110 a year or almost one for
every third day in the year. That
this evil does not seem to abate and
that the states in which this crime is
most rampant either lack the ability
or the disposition to adequately deal
with it; and that while members of the
black race have been, and are, most
largely the victims, the evil is grow
ing so apace that men and women of
other race groups are becoming vic
tims. We have had enough “investi
gation;” what we want is action. The
people of the country are gettiing very
tired of congressional investigations
which simply cost hundreds of thous
ands of dollars and give no results
or simply issue in the application of
beautiful coats of whitewash. A
lynching investigation commission
would simply mean a needless expen
diture of public money without ade
quate results. Give us action, and by
action we mean a federal law, such as
the Dyer Bill. Congress has the
FACTS. Act upon them. Action,
gentlemen, not bluff.
A NOBLE WOMAN
F. the death of Emma Azalia Hack
ley at the home of her Bister in.
Detroit, Michigan, the place of her
birth and rearing, the race has lost,
humanly speaking, a noble and most
useful woman. We say lost, but we
are not so sure of that, since death is
only the removal of an immortal soul
from earthly sight, and while the
earthly career is ended, who can say
what wonderful things for the loved
ones who still remain on their earthly
pilgrimage can still be wrought by
those who have been called into the
Nearer Presence of Him they loved
and strove to serve? And then, too,
do we not live on here in the good
deeds we have done in the lives that
we have influenced ? Judged by either
of these standards, those who lived
their lives well here are not lost to us.
The musical and literary world for
many years knew this talented singer
and composer as Madame E. Azalia
Hackley. We knew her in out early
childhood, for we were children to
gether, as Azalia Smith. She was a
beautiful girl in feature and charac
. ter. We know how hard she worked
and studied during school days, and
how at the age of eighteen she became
a teacher in the Clinton street school,
where she was most popular with pu
pils of all classes as well as her col
leagues; of her subsequent marriage
to Edwin H. Hackley of Denver, and
her brilliant career in music there and
In teaching others; of their removal to
Philadelphia, where she deeply in
fluenced those with whom she came in
contact; of her studying in Paris, all
meaning struggle and sacrifice, ana
then her final triumph in her chosen
saner. The dominant note of Azalia
Hackley's life was unselfishness and a
desire to help her race. "Fair enough
to pan," die scorned to do so. She
was offered the position of prima
donna for one of America’s leading
orchestras at an almost fabulous sal
ary,if she would pass for white, but
this she declined. The hundreds of
young people whom she has helped
and trained and encouraged in useful
careers rise up and call her blessed.
A noble woman, who wrought nobly
for God and her race of which she was
proud, and whose possibilities for the
highest advancement, usefulness and
service she never doubted, entered into
well-earned rest when Azalia Hackley
“crossed the bar.” May light per
petual shine upon her.
THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW
year with all its experiences,
tts joys and sorrows, its lights and
shadows, is fast drawing to a close.
There is always something pathetic in
the passing of the Old Year. It brings
to even the most thoughtless an oppor
tunity for at least some serious
thought and reflection. The year is
regarded as a period of opportunity
for doing something worthwhile, and
looking back one sees that he has not
made the most of his opportunities.
He looks forward hopefully to the
dawning of the New Year with the
resolution, sometimes unvoiced, of
trying to improve upon the past. If
this be the fruit of one’s reflection as
the year closes he has made a sub
stantial gain, for the wish, passing to
the desire and issuing in the determin
ation to improve oneself leaves a
worthwhile impression, even though it
may be faintly outlined, upon the soul.
May the unrealized aspirations and
ideals of the year which is closing
move all of us to continue to struggle
for their realization in that which is
about to dawn. With graitude for the
past, let us move onward and upward
during the New Year, resolved to do
our best, acting well and faithfully
our part in that station of life to
which we may be called, proving our
selves to be men and women of noble
mould, despite whatever the future
may have in store for us.
“With grateful hearts the past we
own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to Thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before Thy feet.”
BIT HOW ABOUT THE JEWS?
JJENRY Ford recently published a
notable article in The Dearborn In
dependent in which he takes .high
ground for the rights of the Colored
American. In this we rejoice. But
we would feel much better about Mr.
Ford’s sincerity of utterance If he took
the same position for all persecuted
races. The bitter anti-aemitic posi
tion of The Dearborn Independent
makes us a little suspicious of its atti
tude on our special race problem. Our
own feeling is that a person who is
deeply prejudiced against one race is
prejudiced against another. We are
of the opinion that race prejudice,
against whomsoever directed, warps
one’s sense of justice and dims his
moral vision.
ENDRES KEEPS FAITH
'J'HE Monitor notes with pleasure
that Sheriff-Elect Endres, who
takes office January 1st, has appointed
a member of our race as deputy sher
iff. Dudley i Wright’s experience on
the police force should qualify him for
the position to which he has been ap
pointed. Mr. Endres received a good
vote from our people and we are glad
he has given our group this recog
nition. The Monitor wishes him suc
cess in the enforcement of law in this
county.
TENTH CAVALRY COMBS
ARIZONA MOUNTAINS
San Antonio, Texas, Dec. 29—The
Tenth United States Cavalry and the
Twenty-fifth Infantry are scouring
the hills of Arizona in search of Col.
Frances R. Marshall and Lieutenant
Charles L. Webber, the two aviators
who have now been missing almost
two weeks.
In Ait Anthfacif e
Slate Picker* at Work.
(Prepared by the National Ge*»irrnphlc So
ciety. Wa*hlnat« n. D C\)
Coal Is one of the vital factors In
modern civilization thin ts taken for
grunted. It is only when the priceless
black stream that flows to our cities
and factories threatens to dry up that
the average person gives thought to
the Importance, muguitude and com
plexity of the coal Industry.
The first thing that Impresses one
who studies the coal situation in Amer
ica is the well-nigh inconceivable pro
portions of the nation’s demands for
fuel. The highest point In coal produc
tion was reached in 1918, the last year
of the World war. when slightly more
than 600,000,000 tons were mined. But
in the year immediately preceding and
in 1920 the production whs little short
of that amount. So huge Is this figure
that it were almost as futile to use
tons as units hs to measure the di*
tance around the earth in inches.
About the only way in which one can
visualize this demand Is to build a
mental bln capable of holding enough
to meet the national need. If this bln
were made with each of Its four sides
measuring a thousand feet. It would
have to be more than 27,000 feet high—
almost twice as high as Bikes Beuk.
Or, If the fuel were put Into a coal
pile of normal slope, with a base of
20 feet, that pile would have to be
nearly 80,000 miles long—nwr^ than
three times around the earth.
A visit to a modern colliery In the
anthracite region is an Impressive ex
perience. Depending on Its size and
the labor available, it will bring from
one to two full trainloads of coal up
out of the bowels of the earth every
day. put the coal through the breaker,
where the sheep of fuel are separated
from the goats of slate and culm, and
load It Into the cars ready for market.
Colliery in Anthracite Region.
We shall be safe even If we go down
a thousand feet into the earth and
roam about In an underground planta
tion whose area may be judged by the
fact that there are 85 miles of railroad
track In It.
There are some things on top of the
ground that will be even more Inter
esting to us when we go below—par
ticularly the hoisting engine and the
ventilating fan, for without the one we
would not be able to ride back to day
light, and without the other we would
stand a chance of being •‘gassed" In
times of peace.
The giant fans fly around with a
rim speed of a mile a minute, two of
them, with a third in reserve for emer
gencies. If It were not for those fans
the air In the mine would become so
laden with gas and dust that If It did
not explode and transform the whole
mine Into a charnel house. It would
develop choke-damp and suffocate us.
Every mine has two shafts—the
hoisting shaft and the air shaft. In
order to keep the air In the mine free
enough from gas to permit miners to
work In BHfety, enormous quantities
of fresh air must be sent down the
one shaft and corresponding quantities,
gas-laden, drawn out of the other.
It may very well be Imagined that a
mine with enough tunneling to call
for 85 miles of railroad track needs
a great deal of air, and that this air,
to reach every part, must cross Its own
path many times, just hs a man, cover
ing all four sides of every block In a
city, would have to cross his own
tracks. In the mines this Is accom
plished like a railroad crossing by
bridge Instead of at grade. When a
crossing point Is reached, there is a
tunnel opened up through the solid
rock above the roof of the mine, and
through this the air rushes at right
angles to lta former direction.
To get the air properly distributed,
It is necessary to make apllts, so that
the current can be divided and sent In
to different sections of the mine. These
air splits are doors which permit only
half of the air coming their way to
pass. The remainder must find some
other way through.
We step on the “cage" or lift, the
mine superintendent presses a button,
and the hoisting engineer Is notified
that we are ready to go down. Sud
denly the cage seems to drop; then It
seems to stop, and the walls of the
shaft appear fairly to fly upward past
uk. Up, up, up they fly, disclosing
this stratum of rock and then that.
Planned Like a City.
Arriving at the bottom, we soon find
thnt a coul mine is planned like a city.
There Is one main street, or entry, and
It has been laid out with the nicety of
a grand boulevard. Parallel with this
are the other entries, and across these
entries run other streets, at right an
gles usunlly, which are called headings.
Lining all these headings as houses line
the streets are the chambers, or rooms,
In which the miners work.
When we top at the bottom we feel
ourselves in a small-sized hurricane.
It Is the air rushing down the shaft
and starting through the mine on Its
mission of purification. Setting out
down the main entry, along a railroad
track, we soon hear a clanging bell
and a whistle, and presently there
looms out of the darkness a yellow
light. As It approaches, we see the
outlines of what appears to be a long,
round holler creeping along the rails;
but In reality It Is a compressed-air
engine—for compressed air, rather
than electricity, is the haulage power
In this mine.
When the miners go down to their
work In the morning they are checked
In by the "fire boss.” He Is a foreman
who has charge of fire prevention and
of the safety of the miners while at
their several tasks. Thiring the night
every section of the mine has been In
spected to see whether there Is gas
anywhere. If there should be an entry,
a heading, or a room that Is laden with
gas, the fact Is noted on a slate which
Is shown to the men as they file past.
The brass check of every miner who
enters the workings Is taken and hung
up on a board, opposite the number of
the room In which he Is digging coal.
If he has a helper, his check—some
what different—goes up, too; and If
there are two men working as pnrt
nears, that the fact Is shown also.
We walk and walk until we begin
to feel as though we might be coming
out over In China or France, and then
we come to the rooms or chambers—
for all the coal in the neighborhood of
the hoisting shaft has gone up In heat
and smoke long before now and this
mine Is far-flung.
Where the Miner Works.
These rooms or chambers might be
monks' cells In some catacombs for the
living. Here the miner bores and
blasts and digs away the coal and
loads It Into the mine cars. If he has
a helper he does not need to do the
loading himself. The car holds about
6,000 pounds of run-of-the-mlne coal,
and a miner Is supposed to fill two of
them a day.
When the car is loaded the miner
puts hts number on It, and presently,
with much ado, there comes up the
heeding and Into the passageway lead
| lng to the chumber a string of mules
walking tandem, or single file, and
dragging an empty car behind. They
pull out the louded car, set the empty
one where the miner wants It, and go
back with the load of coal.
There are other strings of mules,
also, and they distribute the empties
and mobilize the louded cars from and
at given points. Then the compressed
air engine comes along and makes up
a train of loaded cars after dropping
one of empties ready for distribution.
The coal trains are pulled down to tbs
hoisting shaft, und one by one the cars
go to the surface, an empty coming
down as a loaded one goes up.
When we reueh the top again, we
note the layout of the breaker plant,
where the coal Is cleaned and sorted
Into the several commercial sizes.
The first thing that Impresses us is
that the mine owners are almost as
careful In saving coal as a miser Is In
hoarding his gold.
doing up to ibe t >p of the breaker,
we see the coal as It comes from the
mine with all Its slate and culm, me
chanically dumped, a carload at a time,
upon the oscillating bars, which begin
the process of separating the coal from
the worthless material and the assort
ing of the former Into groups accord
ing to size.
— i-1 - —. —
BEARS FIVE CHILDREN
WITHIN EIGHT HOURS
Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 29—The
local Health Board announced what is
termed the strangest case known to
medical science. It is the birth to a
62-year-old woman of mixed Negro
and Spanish blood of five normal chil
dren within eight hours. The mother
is 6 feet 4 inches tall and worked as
a laborer in a mine until two hours
before the births.
i
LYNCH MAN WHO WAS
RESISTING ARREST
Morrillton, Ark., Dec. 29.—Breaking
Into the county jail here, a mob of sev
eral hundred men too out and lynched
Lester Smith. Smith shot and wound
ed a white deputy sheriff who went
to arrest him.
First-Class Modern Furnished Rooms
—170* No. 20th St. Wob. 470*. Mrs.
L. M. Bentley Erwin.
I LEWIS TALBOT Presents
“WINE,
WOMAN
& SONG”
With BERT BERTRAND
AND
40 - OTHERS - 40
BIG SPECIAL FEATURE
“PLANTATION
DAYS” «•
A GALAXY OF ELECTRIC
CAKE WALKERS
A Southern Jubilee, with the most convincing
Plea AGAINST LYNCHING ever presented
to the public. <*> *
uAfip The management of the GAY
allir LTV THEATRE Guarantees
■■V ■ k this t0 ^ the GREATEST
SHOW seen here thus far this season.
V—-•
GERTRUDE RALSTON
I’rima donna with “Wine, Woman and Song” at the popular Gayety
FOB BENT— Furnished room for
gentleman In strictly modern home.
2310 North 22nd street. Webster 1105.
MRS. H. J. CRAWFORD
& SON
Popular Department Store
1712 North 24th St.
Wish their patrons and
friends a Happy and Pros
perous New Year and thank
them for their generous
patronage in the past and
bespeak its continuance in
the future.
Central Cuming Mkt.
HIGHEST QUALITY
GROCERIES and MEATS
All Kinds of Fruit and i
Vegetables in Season
Open Until 9 P. M. Every
Evening. All Day Sunday.
282ft Cuming Street
PHONE HARNEY 4515
W9a*SKnwBt*
- ' — .
WAITS 57 YEARS TO
RECEIVE U. S. PENSION
Parkersburg, W. Va., Dec. 29—An- Wait for the Big Dance I
drew Clarke Mellentree, a former
slave, is awaiting receipt of a check of Dances I
for $3,212 from the Federal govern
ment, which has finally recognized his
claim for a pension for the services
he rendered the Union Army during i ■ N • £
«».c“ss, £ ’i" r“e,v' colored r iremen s
ENTERTAIN OFFICE FORCE A £1 £111 Q ]
The office force of the Peters Trust M. ££££ iYllllll dl
Company entertained a party of four
teen at the Sugar Bow] Candy Kitchen, ^ M A T h % ■ M <4 ■ II
December 28th, in honor of Mrs. M 1/ /A I ■ f\ J £
s“re“' MrB‘d*y- VJIaAIi \l) dall
NOAH D. WAKE, ATT’Y. .
NOTICE OF PROBATE WILL 2il tile
In the County Court of Douglas Coun
ty, Nebraska, In the matter of the I . #
estate of John H. Costello, Deceased, j g' . 4-rr A -■ -■ ■* 4- an -» -m
All persons interested in saiii estate 1 i I | \/ /A I I I 1 1 1 | )[ 1 | k I j (
are hereby notified that a petition has *■■*■■*■
been filed in said Court, praying for ;
the probate of a certain Instrument, MM 4 "M T • . T
now on file In said Court, purporting m/ £ fl Ck W J |M| |TA | Q fl V
to be the last will and testament of If £ III lll/l V If I I t”, , .MIL Cl
said deceased, and that a hearing will i X N A ^ VV41M VA
be had on said petition before said ■ j
Court on the 20th day of January,1
1923, and that if they fail to appear at
said Court on the said 20th day of TURNER’S ORCHESTRA - PLENTY HEAT
January, 1923, at 9 oclock A. M., to
contest the probate of said will, the
Court may allow and probate said will! Drew Harrold, Floor Manager.
and grant administration of said es- ,
tate to Delila Costello or some other i
suitable person, enter a decree of ■ -ADMISSION FIFTY CF.NTS -
heirship, and proceed to a settlement
threof. bryce crawfrd, Benefit O. F. D. Relief Association li
County Judge. _
Western Funeral Home
Established by the late Silas Johnson
2518 Lake Street
Continuing the same considerate
efficient service
1 ■ fj.
I John Albert Williams, Executor 8
I Webster 0248 I