I THE MONITOR ...
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
(V THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
S4 _ --------— -- .I-, _•-%- ——-----— -»
$2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy \T OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1923 Whole Number 398 Vol. VIII—No. 34
FEDERAL MEASURE WOULD REMOVE PROTECTION
CLAIM THAT WHITE
CIVILIZATIOH IS
FALLIHG IH RUIHS
Noted English Scholar Takes Bather
Pessimistic View Future of
Warring European
Nations.
WELLS AGREES WITH WALLAS
Kaleidoscopic Poltlral Changes Make
Forecast of What Forces Shall
Rale In Another Year
Impossible.
London, Feb. 23—(Crusader Ser
vice)—Modern civilization is falling in
rums, is urn belief ot Frolessor Gra
ham Wallas, British classical scholar
and economist lecturer at Lonuon uni
versity aul the latest of the intellect
uals to cast a gloomy picture of civ
ilization's future.
Fifteen hundred years ago, says Wul
las, ancient civilization was visibly
falling in ruin. Today history is re
peating itself.
"Alaric had just sacked Rome;
Atilla was a boy of 17, dreaming of
still worse disasters that he was to
iulllct upon the western world, and
the vandals were pressing on toward
the desiruciion of civilization in
North Africa,” Wallas said in speak
ing of tile year 423.
"All the structure of government
on which the ancient world as organ
ized by Rome had depended hail come
to an end. Roman law was no longer
valid. All habits, all loyalties, all
locals, all philosophies, all religions,
of the ancient world were passing
away, and men had asked themselves
at that time if the mind of man was
strong and wise enough to keep the
reconstruction of the world under con
trol or whether disaster must come.”
And then Professor Wallas flicked
through the ages and brought up with
a sharp halt on the threshold of 1923.
"In 1923,” lie declared, "a problem
of moie than equal magnitude is before
us. The material world—the world
that slowly and painfully created it
self upon the fragments of the Roman
civilization—is falling in ruins.
"No one knows what, is government
in China; no one knows wtiat will be
the government a year hence in Rus
sia; no one knows what will be the
/ government in Germany, in Italy or in
1 Spain. Right across, from the Atlantic
* to the Pacific, right across the great
Eurasian continent, the old system has
fallen In ruins, and the danger we have
to face Is greater and more intense
than the danger with which the world
was confronted at the fall of ancient
1 civilization.”
For one reason the danger is greater
today, according to Professor Wallas,
because our social system is definitely
more complex. A few farmers amidst
the clearings of forests, a handful of
shepherds out on the plains, have giv
en way to millions of industrialized
and concentrated factory workers.
The professor continued:
"The very existence of the present
population of the Eurasian continent
depends upon organization means to
reduce the population to something
like what it was at the fail of the
ancient world.”
“BLACK DESPERADO”
PROVES TO BE WHITE
BOV BLACKENED
High School Boy Used Charcoal to
Make Himself Appear Colored
uud Thus Ward Off
Suspicion.
LOOTED GASOLINE STATIONS
Gets Off With $88.0(1 -Battled With
Police Until Shot Bead, When
Ills Identity Is
Diaclosed.
Kansas City, Feb. 23—(Crusader
Service)—His face smeared with char
coal and his body clothed in overalls
and a Jumper, Ray C. Bishop, 19, white,
student and member of the Central
High School Football Squad, turned
bandit here and robbed two gasoline
filling stations of approximately $22,
and was shot to death In a gun battle
with a policeman after wounding the
latter.
Lawrence W. Ferguson, 25, chauf
feur at the Sheffield Police Station,
wounded by the youth, is in the Gen
eral Hospital with a bullet In his groin.
He will recover.
Through tear-dlinmed eyes, the gray
haired mother, Mrs. William H. Bishop,
looked at the black smudged face of
her son two hours after the tragedy.
"I can’t believe it is my boy,” she
said brokenly. "He was too good for
that.” The nows came to Otto Du
bach, principal of Central High School
as a shock. His voice grew husky aB
he narrated the virtues of young Bish
j op, whom he characterized as ”a
splendid type of young manhood, rug
ged, bashful, athletic, studious and
loved by his companions.”
Yet on the desk of the Sergeant at
| the Sheffield Police Station lies a .32
1 calibre revolver taken from the lad’s
j pocket, a Jumper and a pair of over
jalls, the former stained w-ith blood,
which he wore when he fell—and $22
In bills.
And at the General Hospital, Fer
guson, bullet through his right groin
and the red streak of another across
his chest, testifies between groans
that bishop fired first.
COLORED ARMY HAND I'LAYS
FOR MEXICAN CARNIVAL
Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Feb. 23—
(Pacific News Bureau)—The famous
Band of the 25th United States In
fantry was recently chosen to furnish
the music for the great Mardi Gras
carnival, parade and masque ball held
in the Mexican custom house in No
gales, the week of February 11th.
FINDS SPOUSE
IS WHITE; WIFE
ASKS DIVORSE
Didn’t Know It Before, Nays Mrs.
Rickmans of ludutnu, Married
Twelve Years, and Mother
oi Four Children.
HE “PASSED” FOR COLORED
Wilbur Rickman, 31) Years Old, Files
Petition In Court to iluve
Himself Declared
White
Nobleeville, Ind., Feb. 23—(ledger
News Service)—interest In this city is
centered around the domestic affairs ol
the Hickmans, Jennie and Wilbur.
The whole trouble lies in tne fact
that Mrs. Hickman, the wife, discov
ered that her husband is a white man.
She immediately entered suit for di
vorce on the grounds that she wa^ not
aware of his claims to white parentage
until recently. The Hickmans have
been married twelve years and have
three or four children.
Wilbur Hickman has always passed
us a Negro heretofore, but he has a
petition now pending in court to have
himself declared "white." lie is 30
years old and claims that until recently
he has been unable to prove his par
entage, although he has a mother liv
ing in this city married to a colored
man. It is claimed that his mother
denies being a white woman, but it is
generally thought however, that she is
white.
Wilbur Itickmau has a brother in
this city who 1b also married to a col
ored woman.
FILM REFLECTIONS NOT
ALLOWED ACROSS BORDER
Mexico City, Mexico, Feb. 23—(P
cific News Bureau)—Information re
ceived by the Government indicates a
roerudescence of the campaign of mis
representation and defamation of Mex
icans and other dark skinned races by
use of the motion picture.
Among those reflecting directly up
on the Mexicans are the film "Ha Pra
edaro Rajo” (The Red Country) now
showing in France; and “Mexico Uar
baro” (Ifarburlous Mexico) showing in
New York. The scenes In these pro
ductions are calumnious nnd defama
tory, and a libel and slander upon the
Mexican Government and people.
The interior and Treasury Depart
ments have been instructed not to per
mit any pictures or this or similar na
ture to be shown in Mexico.
COLORED COMMANDER
PROMOTED TO GENERAL
Ft Huachuca, Ariz., Feb. 23—(Pa
cific News Service)—Colonel Edwin B.
Winans, commander of the famous
10th United States Cavalry for the
past two years, hus recently been com
missioned a general and transferred
to the Southern District. Col. Mey
ers, who in the early days at the Post
served as Captain, will succeed Colonel
Winans.
With the promotion and transfer of
Col. Winans, and the recent retirement
of IJeut.-Col. (Chaplain) Scott, the
famous Tenth lost two of Its most be
loved commanders.
COTTON FIELD SCENES
FILMED IN CALIFORNIA
Calexico, Cal., Feb. 23—(Pacific
News Bureau—No longer do the motion
picture producers of Hollywood have
to transport their actors to the South
to obtain natural cotton field scenes
for the movies. Pres. R. R. Rockett or
the Rockett Production Company, of
Hollywood, is in the city filming the
scenes In the Imperial Valley Cotton
fields for the Abraham Lincoln photo
play now being produced.
SOLDIER INHERITS $25,000
Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., Feb. 23rd—(Pa
cific News Bureau)—John Paul Jones,
let class private of the 10th United
States Cavalry stationed here, has
been notified by a reliable firm of
New York attornies that he has inher
ited the sum of $26,000, $16,000 in
cash and $9,000 in real estate, from
the estate of a deceased uncle.
Altho but 18 years of age, Private
Jo has considered that the best in
vestment possible with his newly ar
quired wealth, is the acquisition of an
education. Altho his application to
enter Harvard University has been
granted, he has been further Informed
t tae priviliges of the Freshman,
dorhitory will be denied him.
From Nebraska to Arkansas and Back
Experiences and Observations of the Editor on Trip to Southland
Where He Saw Many Things of Interest
MET MANY DELIGHTFUL PEOPLE
An Introduction to Two Hard Work
ing Upllfters of Mankind, Bishop
Denihy of Little Itork and Bish
op Delaney of North Carolina
I left Omaha Thursday morning,
February 1, over the Missouri Pacific
enroute to Arkansas to fill engage
ments which the Rt. Rev. E. Thomas
Demby, D. D., Bishop Suffragan of
Arkansas and the Province of the
Southwest, had made for me at Little
Rock, Hot Springs and Pine Bluff.
These engagements included a ser
mon on the night of the Feast of the
Purification, Friday, February 2, at
St. Philip’s Church, Little Rock;
three services and two sermons at St.
Mary’s Church, Sunday, February 4,
Hot SprlngB, and a week’s Mission at
St. Andrew’s, Pine Bluff.
For the information of the general
reader It may not be amiss to make a
few explanations, for it will naturally
be questioned by some, probably many,
“Who is Bishop Demby?” “What is
a Bishop Suffragan?” “What Is meant
Mrs. E. Thomas Demby
by a Week’s Mission?” This being
true, explanations are in order.
Bishop Demby is one of two men of
our race who have been elected by the
Episcopal Church for work among our
group In certain dioceses of the South.
The other is the Rt. Rev. Henry Beard
Delaney, Bishop Suffragan of South
Carolina. The former lives at Uttle
Rock; the latter at Raleigh, N. C.
Bishop Demby was born in Delaware
and reared in Philadelphia. His lit
erary training was received at. How
ard University and Wilberforce Uni
versify. He taught for some years
in Canada. He was confirmed by the
late Bishop Spaulding of Colorado, and
subsequently went to Tennessee
where he was ordained to the diaconae
and pristhood by Bishop (Jailor. The
greater portion of torn ministry was
spent in Tennessee, although he ful
filled successful pastorates in Illinois,
Missouri and Florida. He was elected
Bishop Suffragan for Colored work by
the Diocesan Council of Arkansas
early In 1918, and his election being
duly confirmed by the Bishops and
Standing Committees of the American
Episcopal Church, as cononically
provided, he was consecrated in All
Saints’ Church, St. Louis, on the Feast
of St. Michael and All Angels, Sep
tember 29, 1918. He Is a scholarly
and Godly man; well poised, wise and
quietly aggressive. He has gone
modestly to work In a particularly
difficult field, where he has had vir
tually to "make bricks without straw”
—for since the Episcopal Church is
comparatively weak among white peo
ple In the South, it goes without say
ing that it is vastly weaker among
Colored peopie. He is laying strong
foundations. His work is pioneer
work, but of the kind that will en
Mire. He is sending up no skyrock
ets. but is working patiently, persist
ently at his God-given task and is
making his influence felt.
Like most men who have wrought
nobly for God and humanity. Bishop
Demby frankly admits that lie owes a
vast deal to his wife, who in every way
is fitted to be and has proven herself
ft most worthy helpmeet. She has
s ood bravely by his side throughout
the years of their married life and
has toiled and sacrificed with him
for the good of her race. Born in
Cleveland, Ohio, a graduate of Oberlin
college and a graduate nurse front
Freedman’s hospital and accustomed
to the freedom of the North, it was no
easy task for this woman of culture
a/ . refinement to submit to the many
humiliating conditions to which our
group are subjected in the South. But
she bravely accepted these conditions
and as teacher and trained nurse, in
school and mission field, she has
worked heart and soul with her hus
band even to the impairment of her
health. As a bishop’s wife, she does
not spare herself, but continues active
n good works.
It was therefore a great privilege
find pleasure for me to be able to keep
a promise made to Ilihsop Demby last
October that I would go to Arkansas
‘sometime before Lent to preach a
Mission” at such place as he deemed
best. And so I went to “Preach a
Week’s Mission”. This brings us to
the question, “What is a week’s Mis
sion?” or “Preaching a Mission?”
Well, it corresponds to what most of
the Christian bodies call a revival.
Call it a revival then, with this per
haps as the chief difference, laying
more emphasis upon tearhing the
fundamental doctrines to which the
Episcopal Church holds, than the ap
peal to the emotions which the aver
age revival stresses. Such a “Mission”
generally runs one or two weeks. The
one I held at St. Andrew’s’ Pine Bluff,
was for one week and consisted of
services daily: Holy Communion at
:30 a. m., special intercessions at
noon, and the evening service, with
sermon and instructions and answer
ing questions at 7:45.
It was then to fill this and other
engagements that I left Omaha for
.. .. .
uEnll.. AJmTbJofilagnirTfi^ {lmnrT3tE2&ff[[r\fiTt1 J(l yr
The lit. Rev. E. Thomas Demby, II. I).
Arkansas February 1, over "The Rain
bow Special”, one of the crack trains
of the Missouri Pacific. I wanted to
tell you of some interesting incidents,
going and coming, before writing of
be interesting things I saw and of
some of the people I met during my
trip to Arkansas, but I deemed it best
" tell you something of the good
friends upon whose invitation I went
to Arkansas. I want you to know
them. You can’t help but like them,
nor refrain from offering up a prayer
that God may give them wisdom, cour
age and strength to carry on the im
portant work they are doing for our
people, who are one wherever they
may dwell. Next week then, my sub
ject will be
‘‘Incidents of the Journey, Going
and Coming.”
Cook for It.
r The First Harbinger of Spring 11~|
i
MRS. CHARLES McCLURE
SHOOTS HER HUSBAND
--
Well Known Business People Engage
In Quarrel Which May Have
Fatal Result.
Mrs. Effie McClure, wife of Charles
McClure, is in custody and her hus
band is in a precarious condition at
the Lord Lister hospital with a bullet
In his chest alleged to have been fired
by Mrs. McClure at their Confectionery
store, 2208 North Twenty-fourth St.,
Thursday afternoon. It is said that
.Mrs. McClure charged her husband
with infidelity and was about to leave
him. An express man had come for
her clothing. It is said a quarrel en
sued when McClure would not permit
her to take her belongings. It is said
that McClure drew a knife on his
wife and she shot him. He was rushed
to Lord Lister hospital where his con
dition Is critical.
The McClures have been industrious
and prominent people in business cir
cles, having conducted for some time
a popular confectionery store on North
Twenty-fourth street. Much of the
success of the business was due to
Mrs. McClure’s untiring efforts. A
large circle of friends keenly regret
' this tragic happening.
DELEGATION SEES
GOVERNOR BRYAR
ABORT BOXING BOUTS
Committee Cordially Received by
State Executive Who Shows Him
self Conversant With Rights
of Citizens.
FAVORS FREE COMPETITION
Bryan Knows Something About Box
ing Himself as Well as Othet
Sports and Says the Best
Man Should Win.
Tuesday a delegation of Omaha citi
zens, consisting of Henry W. Black,
president of the Omaha branch of the
N. A. A. C. I’.; Drs. C. H. and John
A. Singleton, the well-known dentists;
A. Count Wilkinson, editor of The
New Era, and the Rev. John Albert
Williams, rector of St. Philip’s Epis
copal church and editor of The Moni
tor, went to Lincoln, where an inter
view had been arranged by Represen
tative Robert R. Strehlow, with Gov
ernor Bryan to protest against the
unconstitutional and arbitrary rule of!
the Nebraska boxing commission;
against mixed bouts in this state be- j
tween white and colored boxers. The
delegation, accompanied by Mr. Streh
low, was most courteously and cor
dially received by Governor Bryan,
who had had a most strenuous day.
Mr. Black in brief and well-chosen
words placed before the governor the
ground of objection to the ruling as
a violation of both state and federal
constitution and the Civil Rights Bill1
of Nebraska and the limitation of our1
privileges as competitors in this field.
It was made plain to Governor Bryan ;
that the committee was not particular-;
ly interested in boxing bouts, but
vitally concerned in the violation of
the constitutional rights underlying
the ruling. The original petition >
signed by more than 500 represen- 1
tative citizens of Omaha, of both
races, requesting Governor McKelvie
to rescind the ruling, was shown Gov-:
ernor Bryan.
Governor Bryan said there was no j
question in his mind but that the
committee’s contention as to the un
constilutionality of tne ruling was ab
solutely correct and that it violated
both the spirit and the letter of the
Civil Rights Bill. He advised the
committee that he would take suitable
action in the matter. Under his re
commendation that several overlap
ping and unnecessary heads of various
departments saddled upon Nebraska
by Governor MrKelvie’s Code Bill be
discharged and their duties combined
with other departments where they
rightfully belong, the present secretary
of the boxing commission, who has
boasted that as long as he is in charge,
there will be no mixed bouts between
“colored and white boxers” in Nebras
ka, although he has permitted mixed
bouts between Indians and whites,
Japanese and whites and other race
varieties, will doubtless go. This may
relieve the situation without further
action.
Governor Bryan, who by the way
can handle the gloves quite dex
terously himself, told the committee
that a true sportsman bars nobody
and that he was personally in favor
of full and free competition in the
field of sport as elsewhere and let the
best man or the best horse win. The
governor made an excellent impres
sion upon the committee.
WOMEN OPPOSED TO
SENATOR CAPPER’S
MARRIASEMEASIRE
National Federation Presents Solid
Front Against Objectionable
Provision in Proposed
Federal BilL c
PUTS RACE WITH DEFECTIVES
Sweeps Away Legal Kecourse Which:
Colored Women Now Have in
Several States Against
White Seducers.
Jacksonville, Fla., Feb. 23—(By A.
N. P.)—Notwithstanding Senator Cap
per’s declaimer of authorship and
agreement to attend to the withdrawal
of the prohibition of marriage between
blacks and whites in the proposed Na
tional Marriage Law introduced by
him in the United States Senate a
short while since, the colored women
of the country, under the guidance of
the President of the National Associa
tion of Colored Women, Miss Hallie Q.
Brown, have issued a vigorous protest
against the contemplated bit of legis
[ lation.
To Fight it to the Death
This determination was revealed
i here a few days since by Miss
Brown herself who happens to be so
journing in this section since her
summary dismissal from the faculty
staff of Wilberforce University by
Bishop Jones, the connectional head
of that great Negro school. “Let no
woman rest,” declares the militant
president of the women’s national as
sociation, "until we have driven out of
the minds of the American people that
the Negro woman is something less
than human and but little more than
an animal subject to the caluminations
of the evil minded and the abuse of the
Instinctively brutal. We are going to
fight this thing to the death.”
Miss Brown has issued a proclama
tion to the colored women of the coun
try which reads: “To the presidents
of States and officers of the National
Association of Colored Women, Atten
tion :"
Disgrace to Women
There has been introduced in the
Senate by Senator Arthur Capper and
in the House by Congressman Louis
Fairfield, of Indiana, a Federal mar
riage and divorce bill, prohibiting,
among other things, the marriage of
epileptics, insanes, feebleminded, those
afflicted with communicative diseases
and of blacks and whites.
Aside from the fact that the
measure classifies Colored American
Citizens with defectives, such a law
would put government sanction upon
the defenceless position which colored
women are placed by the laws in many
individual states.
The whole race, and especially the
colored women must rise up and pro
test with all their power against the
enactment of such a law. Not upon
the grounds that we are desirous of in
termarriage, but upon the ground that
such a law would sweep away the legal
recourse which tne colored woman still
has In nineteen states against the
white man who seduces her and upon
the ground that the Negro refuses to
be written down in the Federal law
as something less than a human being.
In view’ of these facts, I call upon the
State Presidents, the officers and the
rank and file of our organization to
forward AT ONCE to Senator Capper
and Congressman Fairfield their most
URGENT PROTEST against this pro
posed legislation.
• Ever and anon some un-American
measure is proposed to disparage and
humiliate the womanhood and man
hood of the race. Let NO WOMAN
REST until the desks of these two
lawmakers are buried beneath tele
grams of protest from the woman nood
of this counry.—Hallie Q. Brown, Pres
ident, National Association of Colored
Women, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 1, 1923.
ARCHBISHOPS OF MEXICO
AGAINST KIJ KLITX KLAN
Mexico City, Mexico, Feb. 23—(Pa
cific News Bureau)—The various
Archbishops of Mexico have united in
an open letter to President Obregon
i expressing their gratification at the
! expression of friendship for religion
conveyed in a message to the clergy
and assure his excellency that the aim
and desire of the Church is to cooper
ate with and conform to the constitu
tion and laws of the Republic. At
the same time it deplores the spread
of socialistic, bolshevistic, Ku Klux
and other propaganda in Mexico sub
versive of all social order, law and
property rights which dangerous doc
trines it is the duty and right of the
Church to combat at all times.