Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1924)
< The Monitor "* A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor $2.00 a Year—5c a Copy o OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1924 Whole Number 490 Vol. X—No. 22 ' OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT SHOULD BE GREATER The Russell Sage Foundation Issues Illuminating Report Concerning Employment Problems In Nation RECOMMENDS UNITED ACTION Recognizes Limitations Which Handi cap Colored Workmen and Cause Economic Loss New York City, Nov. 28.—A re port which points the way to greater employment opportunities for col ored people, which throws light on their difficulties in securing jobs, and which suggests possible means of lessening these difficulties has just been issued by the Russell Sage Foundation under the title, “Public Employment Offices—Their Purpose, Structure and Methods.” While the study on which this report is based was not confined to the employment problems of any one race, there is much of interest to students of race relations in the findings and recom mendations of the Foundation with respect to employment problems af fecting the country generally, and an entire chapter in the report is given over to the problems of colored work ers. The report recommends the estab lishment cf a nation-wide system of free public employment offices, to be operated jointly by the federal, state and local governments, with the state government as the chief unit of ad ministration. In the section discuss ing the management of local employ ment rffices, the point is made that placement work for colored people car. be done best by members of their own race. The Foundation’s investigators studied employment conditions in the north and in the south, in large cities and in agricultural sections through out the country. They find that race prejudice is limiting very much the occupations open to colored people; until comparatively recently almost the only lines of work to which they were admitted have been farm and plantation labor, personal service and common labor. This range of employ ment should and can be greatly in creased through intelligent and per sistent educational work among em ployers as to the suitability of colored workers for certain other kinds of work, together with discriminating placement. “If a colored man with good train ing and ability is held down to a com Imon laborer’s job because of preju dice, he, industry and the community all suffer an economic loss,” says the report. The report declares that southern stole-., in an effort to restrict the em igration of colored labor to the north, are tl rough legislation and license I fees making it increasingly difficult and in some states impossible, for pri vate agencies to send workers out of the state. There are numerous in stances, also, says the report, "of the efforts of citizens to prevent the re cruiting of colored people for work in other localities or states, some of these even going bo far as threats of violence to the recruiting agent.” This opposition can be removed thru intelligent operation of public em ployment bureaus, whose object is ad justment, not mere shifting of men, and whose tendency is to place work ers as near home as possible. Referring to migratory labor in general, without special reference to the colored race, the report says: “The transfer from one section of the country to another of workers in in creasing numbers Is an uprooting of home and community relationships that must be looked upon with con cern. In the past we in the United States have talked very loosely about shipping men from one part of the country to another, as though the de sirability of shipment from an indus trial and social point of view were un questioned.” That race prejudice has handi capped the colored worker by limit ing his choice of occupation is recogn ized by the Foundation’s investiga tors. "The first step in reducing this race prejudice,’’ says the report, "is a knowledge of the facts regarding the requirements of particular jobs and the ability of individual workers. When the specific qualifications of a worker are known—what he can do ard how well he cpn do it—it is pos sible for r.n employment office to rec ommend him for a particular job. What is needed is intelligent and per sistent educational work among em ployers as to the suitability of colored workers for certain kinds of work— many more kinds than have hereto fore been acknowledged—and their capacity for discharging new respon sibilities not only to the advantage of employer and workman but also to the advantage of the community as a vhole and of our developing indus trial life." Copies of the report, a volume of some 600 pages, may be secured at the headquarters of the Russell Sage Foundation, 130 East 22d street, New York City. ATTENTION, EX-SERVICE MEN! The Roosevelt Post No. 30, Ameri can Legion, will hold their annual election of officers at the Colored Commercial Club, 1514% North Twen ty-fourth street, Friday, November 28, at 8:30 p. m Every ex-service man should feel It a sense of duty to Join the American legion. The Post under the leader ship of Dr. W. W. Peebles haB accom plished a great deal this year by giv ing relief and locating Jobs for ex service men. Judging by the large at tendance at their meetings and the in terest expressed by ex-service men, 1925 should be a banner year. Come—cast your vote! Lunch will be served. W. W. Peebles, Commander. J. F. Faucett, Acting Adjutant ....LiLIONAIRE'S WIFE SAID TO BE COLORED New York, Nov. 28.—New York City, especially that part of the popu lation which is pleased to calf itself "society” is much agitated because a well known member of that “society” has just married a young woman al leged to have “colored blood" in her veins. Leonard Kip Rhinelander, scion of one of New York’s oldest families, is the husband, and the bride was Alice Beatrice Jones, the beautiful daughter of a taxicab driver. The girl’s sister married a Negro butler and her father is a native of the West Indies. The young man in the case, of the ninth, generation in a straight line going back to the old Dutch settlers of New York, when it was New Am sterdam, is rich. It is his family that the other day sold a little piece of New York’s water front for more than a million. His father, Philip Rhinelander, prominent socially, is said to have known fir a long time of his son’s attachment for Miss Jones and to have endeavored in numerous ways to discourage the affair. Three times, the young man’s friends say, he was sent out to the coast, in the hope that with propln nuinty destroyed the romance would disintegrate. The latest newspaper report is that Rhinelander has begun action to have the marriage annuled upon the ground that he was deceived as to his bride’s racial identity. SATED FROM LYNCHING (By the Associated Negro Press.) Memphis, Tenn., Nov. 28.—Only the timely and unusual arrival of police officers saved from lynching Ree Ran kin, a truck driver, after he had run down three white persons in an un avoidable collision. The crowd was threatening to visit summary punish ment upon him when the police ar rived. A; a hearing at the police sta tion he was released, it being shown that he had been forced to hit the people to avoid another car being hit. WHITE KILLED l«Y OWN GUN WHILE MinRDERING NEGRO (Preston News Service) Florence, Ala., Nov. 28.—Not sat isfied with having attacked and shot to death Jerre Williams, an aged Ne gro, Early Hale, a young white man, is said to have used the butt end of his shotgun to club the lifeless body of Williams and while in the act of clubbing the lifeless form, Hale’s gun discharged and instantly killed Hale. Hale, who is said to have been drinking for several days past, and for no reason, shot and killed the aged Negro who was gathering corn at the time of the attack. It is alleged that Hale yelled at the man who started to run. Hale took out after him and fired one barrel of shot into the old man’s body, the man dying instantly. Then Hale ran up to the body and be gan clubbing him over the head with the butt end of a double-barreled shot gun. The other barrel was accidently fired when Hale hit the old man over the head and he was also instantly killed. Hale was unmarried and lived with his parents near the scene of the heinous crime. NEGRO HATER RETIRES Aiken, S. C., Nov. 28.—By the Asso ciated Negro Press.)—Negroes of this city fere not welcoming with any brass band the return of the Representative James P. Byrnes, who after fourteen years’ service in the United States congress, has retired and come home to practice law. During his period of service, Byrnes was one of the South’s most consistent Negro haters in the national legislative body. It was he during the World war who started the agitation against Negro newspapers and magazines and who, last year, came near preventing Howard univer sity from getting its appropriations. j Congress Convenes J WE MUST MAKE LITERATURE TO MAKE IMPRESSIOI Announcement has been made that young Countee P. Cullen of New York, who is still a student in a New York school, has had accepted and published poems in four of the lead ing magazines for November. This is a remarkable showing, and would be for a veteran author. The magazines that have accepted his poems for No vember issues are The American Mer cury, which publishes his prize-wfh ning poem; Harper’s Magazine, The Century and The Bookman. It will be remembered that young Mr. Cullen has won two prizes in con tests for the best poetry of late, and he has now won an entrance into the highest and most exclusive maga zines. It is a great gain for him and for the race. It is good to remember, as Daniel Wpibster once told a young aspirant for honors at the American bar, that there is always room on the top. And Dr. Washington, who was a philos opher of common sense, once said that if you have something others want they will not be bothered by the color of you but by the price of what you have, and that they would seek you By T. Thomas Fortune, in The Negro World. has no color. If it is defective in sub rather than you seek them. It ap pears to be that way in literature. Young Mr. Cullen has just gone in and offered his poetic wares, and, having been accepted, the best pub lications of the nation invite him to contribute to their pages, and pay him handsomely for so doing. As in the case of Roland Hayes, the premier lyric songster of the race, and of Harry Burleigh, the premier composer of the race, Mr. Cullen has not conquered the outworks by sud den onslaught; he has had to plod up wards, as all have to who succeed. The thing is to have the knack of plodding. So many refuse to accept the drudgery of preparing themselves for the work they want to do and are offended when their work is not ac cepted, with all of its imperfections. The editor is not worried about your race, color or previous condition; what he considers is the work you submit to him for consideration. It ject and treatment he rejects it. It is your fault and not his. We must make our own way in lit erature. If we leave it to others to write about us and what we think and say and do, they will color it from their racial viewpoint, and it will not always flatter us, nor tell the unvar nished truth about us. To get that we must write the story ourselves. When I write about white people I always do it from the Negro view point. I can't help it. The white man judges me by his viewpoint and I judge him hy mine. I prefer my judgment to his. So would you. If he writes his viewpoint of me and I do not write mine of him, he has the advantage of me in the high court of public opinion, which, in the last an alysis, rules the roost. We are fortunate at this time in having a small group of men and wo men who are writing from the race viewpoint what the race hopes and aspires to who have the ear of the publishers and of the public, and we owe them much, for they interpret us for those who do not know us and our hopes and aspirations. NEGROES AID IN “CHEST” DRIVE (By the Associated Negro Press.) Richmond, Va., Nov. 28.—At one of the greatest mass meetings ever held here, the city auditorium, which seats about five thousand people, was crowded to the doors with a mixed gathering recently when this city launched a $400,000 drive for a com munity chest fund to be devlded among its thirty-six charities. Among this number five are colored institu tions. “One Cause”, "One Inspiration”, “One Appeal", “One Enthusiasm”, “OnePeople" were the subjects chosen by the various speakers, among them; A Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi, a Methodist minister and two Baptist ministers, one colored and one white. Dr. W. T. Johnson, pastor of the First African Baptist church brought down the house with the stirring address on “One People”. NEGRO ACTORS CONDUCT ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS New York, N. Y., Nov. 28.—(By the Associated Negro Press.)—The color ed actors' union has determined to conduct a big advertising campaign for members and is negotiating for space in the papers that are important to the colored performers. The union officials have decided to use large spaces in the Billboard, the Chicago Defender, the Indianapolis Freeman, and the Baltimore Afro-American Christmas numbers in which the com plete list of their members will be published. This will be the first time that any professional Negro organization has ever gone so extensively into the press to demonstrate its strength. The pa pers selected are those that maintain large theatrical departments and that have become generally known as hav ing some degree of authority in the profession. All are colored publica tions except, the Billboard, the largest amusement publication in the world, which is favored for its broad edi torial policy toward the race. It is the only generally known and dis tributed publication in the world whose staff includes a Negro In its staff of editors. James A. Jackson heads a department of the Billboard. FINANCIAL HELP FOR DEVELOPING RACE ENTERPRISES Large Million Dollar National Fi nance Corporation Is Formally Launched in South ern City MAJOR MOTON IS PRESIDENT Organization Provides Needed Work ing Capital for Individuals, Corporations and • Firms (By Associated Negro Press) Durham, N. C. Nov. 28.—Dedicat ing their efforts to the motto, "Ser vice to the Race, rather than the mak ing of money”, and declaring that, "The future of the Race depends up on our ability to develop business, solve our economic problems and take our places in the commercial world along with other peoples,” more than fifty leading business men from var ious sections of the country, met here recently to consider plans to stabilize, strengthen and protect Negro busi ness. The occasion was the formal launching of the new million dollar National Negro Finance Corporation. The group of earnest, capable men of affairs representing in themselves and their institutions resources run ning into millions, who sat in con ference all day studying the plan and program proposed, expressed the un animous opinion that a step had been taken which means a new era in the commercial life of the Negro and therefore by natural sequence in his social and civic life as well. It was freely admitted that the corporation was destined to be very profitable, but the idea of service is ever to be held uppermost. The organization of the National Negro Finance Corporation was an nounced at the Chicago session of the National Negro Business League last August. Dr. Robert R. Moton, who originally proposed the idea, is its president. Mr. C. C. Spaulding, pres ident of the North Carolina Mutual, is chairman of the Executive Board, while W. Gomez of the Bankers’ Fire Insurance Company of Durham, who is now recognized as one of the or ganizing geniuses of the Hace and under whose direction the plan was finally whipped into workable form, is Secretary-Manager. The purpose of the finance corpor ation is “Service and Conservation”. Its program is to provide working capital for individuals, firms, corpora tions, to seek and point out new op portunities for profitable efforts; to create and develop a market for list ing, exchanging, buying and selling Negro securities; to organize our in dividual and corporate interests so that they will function in such a way as to bring about a new birth of con fidence and assured economic inde pendence; to create and propagate a nation wide spirit of (fco-operation, coordination and consolidation; to give the largest possible opportunities for participation in directing, man aging and controlling corporate in vestments, as well as sharing fully in their profits; and to foster and ad vance by every legitimate means con sistent with good business, the finan cial and commercial development of Negroes. PREDICTS CONFLICT OF RACES (By the Associated Negro Press.) New York, N. Y., Nov. 28.—Sir Hen ry Lunn, editor of the Review of the Churches and leader in the church unity movement, described the pos sibility of a war between the white race of Europe and the colored races of Asia and Africa in an address at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He urged Christian unity as a prevent ive of a conflict that would make the recent world war small by com parison. “In a possible great war that may come between Europe on the one hand and Asia and Africa on the other, we might have hundreds of millions of combatants.” He further stated, that the great war had been the final blow in an attenmpt to impose upon others the domination of one culture and one race. It has left us fonfronted with the grave situation1 that white races and their war on each other have rais ed a sense of power in the onlooker. “COLOR LINE” GIRL FINDS REFUGE IN QUAKER CITY Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 28.—(By the Associated Negro Press.)—After hav ing been refused admission, because of her race, in a Y. W. C. A. school in New York, Lydia Gardine, twenty, of East Orange, N. J., was admitted at Temple University, this city. “I hold no resentment against the school,” she said. ‘‘I am taking a course in physical education and when I am through, I hope to teach what I have learned to other girls of my race, preferably in a colored Y. W. C. A.” The girl’s father is dead. Her mother has been a cook in the home of a wealthy East Orange woman. The girl wrote to the Central School of Hygiene and Physical Education, of the New York Y. W. C. A., and was encouraged to apply for admission, un til she revealed that she was an "American Negro”. The director re plied that “We are by the terms of our agreement with the Central branch, not allowed to admit colored girls to the school.’’ It will take her three years to finish. IN CONFIDENCE Anita—"Bess, I’ve never told you; but do you know that my grand mother was a squalid, squatter In dian squaw?" Bess—“No, indeed, I didn’t; but since you have spoken of it, I had noticed your raven black hair and high cheek bones, but I never thought of your having Indian blood in your veins. You are one of the prettiest girls in school and too vivacious for an’ Injun’”. Anita—“Yes, I have and I am rather proud of it, altho I don’t talk about it. But talking about pretty girls, none of us has a thing on you. Your rich olive complexion, your pret ty curling hair and your beautiful eyes, would make us girls all envious, if we could be envious of you. Some of your ancestors must have been Spanish or Italian.” Bess—“Neither, so far as I know. But let me tell you my secret, which you could never guess: My great, great grandmother was the daughter of an African chief of the Vey tribe who was stolen from Africa and taken to the British West Indies about the middle of th© seventeenth century, and— Anita—“Oh, Bess, don’t tell me that, for that makes you a nig—Ne gro, I mean, and if the girls knew that you know what would happen.” Bess—“Why should I be any more ashamed of my African ancestors, several generations removed, than you are of your Indian ancestors?” Anita—“You shouldn’t be, if peo ple had any sense, but somehow I don’t know why, people do make a difference. To be ‘of Indian extrac tion’ is one thing, and of ‘Negro des cent’ quite another. But since I’m ‘red’ and your are ‘black’, although we both are really ‘white’, let us still be friends and chums and keep our secret to ourselves. You call me Princess Poco, short for Pochohantas; and I’ll call you Princess Tuta, lineal descentant of old King Tut. “RACE PURITY” LOSES CASE By the Associated Negro Press. Richmond, Va., Nov. 28.—Judge Hy. W. Holt at Staunton in this state, has ruled against the new purity of blood law in the first case to come up since the measure passed. Legal provisions have been made to determine Just who are the white and who are the colored people in the state. This is to be shown by blood tests and records. Robert Painter, white, made appli cation to marry Atha Sorrels. The registrar of vital statutes looked up the records and discovered that the grandmother of Miss Sorrels was born in 1856 and was registered as a col lored person, free born. For that rea son Miss Sorrels’ marriage to Painter was held illegal. Judge Holt held that this evidence was insufficient to prove that the wo man was colored, and, although he be lieves in the state’s new law, issued the license. “OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES AND SUCKLINGS’ (Send us short original guyings by children for this department.) "They Won’t Be There’ Two little girls were reading a news item about drawing “the color line” in' the Treasury department at Washington, D. C., where it was pro posed to have the names of the col ored employees and white, who had lost their lives in the late World Wfer, placed on separate tablets. One little miss shook her head and said sagely, “I wonder what’ll hap pen when some of these white people get to heaven and find they can’t draw no color line there, and you know they can’t.” “That’s easy to answer”, replied her pert little chum. “They won’t be there. Them kind o’ people won’t never get near heaven.” CARVER CREDITS HIS DISCOVERY TO ALMIGHTY GOB Famous and Pious Scientist Develops Hundreds of Products From Sweet Potatoes and Peanuts ACKNOWLEDGES DIVINE AID Large Audience Amazed With Fas cinating Wonders Wrought By Tuskegee Chemist New York, Nov. 28.—Dr. George W. Carver, head of Tuskegee’s scien tific research and experiment station, spoke before an audience of over 500 persons Tuesday in the Marble Col legiate church for the anniversary of the Woman’s Board of Domestic Mis sions of the Reformed Church in America, and explained how he ac complished his famous discoveries from experiments in creative chemis try with pecans, peanuts, sweet po tatoes and red brick clay, which won him a fellowship in the Royal So ciety of Great Britian and the 1921 Spingarn medal. Things Revealed The noted scientist declared that he was inspired and guided by divine revelation in all of his research work. His working knowledge of chemistry he spoke of as a mere collection of facts which furnished him the re sources for carrying out God’s bid dings. “The things I am to do and the way I am to do them, are re vealed to me,” he stated. “I seldom refer to books in performing any of my experiments. Everything is clear to me the minute I undertake any thing new,” he further affirmed. Led By Strange Impulses Dr. Carver attributed the beginning of his miraculous exploits with ordi nary old American spuds, humble pea nuts, pecans and common clay to a story which he heard a holy man tell of the death of a heathen girl from under-nourishment which devoloped into a miserable lung trouble. He was struck with a strange notion that somehow or other such unfortunate cases could be prevented by the plen tiful peanuts, which had many excel lent medical properties and rich food values. Thus, led by a strong im pulse, he began his remarkable re search which resulted in the discov ery of a cure for the obnoxious dis ease, and his further work with the above mentioned products which re sulted in his obtainance of 679 com mercial products—85 from the pecan, 118 from the sweet potato, 176 from the peanut and 300 from clay. Audience Lost In Wonder Five hundred wonder-struck listen ers remained almost breathless while the colored scientist related the un dreamed of line of things he had made from plain and unimportant plants and even the soil under his feet. He spoke of the magic-like possibilities of the yam that affords better bread, than any grain, vinegar, molasses, coffee, instant coffee, tapioca and breakfast food, starch and face pow der, ink and shoe polish, paints and dyes. Will Exhibit In Gotham The audience showed signs of great sorrow when the speaker was forced to come to an abrupt conclusion at the end of his allotted twenty min utes. However, he gave them great satisfaction when he stated that he would be in New York next January with his entire exhibit for the South ern Industrial Exhibition. FARM CHILDREN MAKE GOOD IN HIGH SCHOOLS (By the Associated Negro Press.) Washington, D. C., Nov. 28.—Ac cording to a survey made by the bu reau of education of the department of the interior farm children make better progress through high school than other children. In making tests 20,000 children from every state in the union were used. The report states that this is true because of the unusually good progress of farm girls. The facts show that a higher percent age of farm girls than of other girls ' are enrolled and that the percentage of elimination from high school is lower. SUBSCRIBERS AND ADVERTISERS, ! ATTENTION, PLEASE! t - Edward J. Green, an ambi - tious young man who is working 1 His way through Creighton Uni ’ versity, is collecting and solicit I ing subscriptions and advertls . ing for The Monitor. Patrons of s The Monitor will be helping a 1 worthy young man by paying 1 their subscriptions promptly and , giving their advertising to Mr. t Green, who is working on eoro t mission. Please pay him prompt ly when he calls.