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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 1924)
I ^fu..]V1 ONITOR f NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS » THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor H_'< _ __.. - —. ■ -- ■ ■ —- 11 1 ~ '■ ■■■■■ .... i." ■ in' lnr ibh—BBacsSBy ! $2 00 a Year—5c a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1924 Whole Number 494 Vol. X—No. 26 NASHVILLE SEEKS AFPREHENSIOH OF RECEHT LVHCHERS Southern City Feels Keenly Disgrace of Murder of Fifteen-Year-Old Boy by Blood-Thirsty Mob CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTS Reward of $6,500 Is Offered for the Arrest and Conviction of Wounded Youth’s Slayers. (N. A. A. C. P. Press Service) Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 26.—Unlike Chicago, which permitted a Negro to be lynched and then allowed the alleged slayer to go free on a paltry $10,000 bond, the better-minded cit izens of this community, southern though they are, have banded them selves together and put a price on the heads of the masked murderers who took 15-year-old Sam Smith from his bed in the General hospital, hanged him to a tree and riddled his body with bullets. The boy had been wounded by Ike Eastman, white grocer, after he is | alleged to have shot the latter during | a robbery of the grocery. Eastman was only slightly wounded. Practically every organization in this city has condemned the murder of Smith. Six thousand five hundred dollars was pledged as a reward for the capture of the slayers within two days after the crime had been com mitted. Public-spirited citizens and lovers of law and order stood for $5,000 of this amount and the state offered the other. Public officials have been unani mous in their denunciation of the per petrators of the deed. Mayor Hilary E. Howse, Sheriff Briley of Davidson county, and past and present law of ficials of the county are as one in their effort to see that the criminals are brought to justice. Nashville is pround of its good name. Only four Negroes have been lynched in or near the city since the Civil war. The case of Snath is the first for nearly thirty years. The people of the city have a pride in boasting of their fairness and they are also afraid of the effect such crimes may exert on the Negro resi dents of the city and county who, by migrating to the north, can produce as hurtful results as they might be fighting back and seeking reprisals. The chamber of commerce passed the following resolution: “The board of governors of the chamber of commerce of the city of Nashville, having met on this, the 16th day of December, 1924, for the purpose of considering conditions that exist in the county of Davidson and the city of Nashville in the observ ance of tfte law, express our unqual ified condemnation of the act of lynching which took place on the night of December 15, when the Negro, Samuel Smith, was taken from the city hospital in Nashville by an armed mob and hanged. “This act was done in defiance of the law, without any measure of Jus tification, and its perpetrators were guilty of murder and are answerable to the law as murderers. The Negro lynched was in the custody of the law, and while he had committed a grave offense and deserved the limit of the law in punishment, the law should have been enforced against him by its regular processes and not by mob which acted in disregard and defiance of all law. “We pledge ourselves to assist in every honorable way to bring to trial the parties guilty of the murder of this Negro, and believe that the ma jesty of the law must and should be upheld, and in no other way than by the trial and conviction of the perpe trators of this crime can the law be vindicated. “We, therefore, pledge ourselves to raise a fund of at least $5,000, to be used by the chamber of commerce for the purposes (1) of offering a reward for the arrest and conviction of tne criminals, and (2) of employing de tectives and attorneys for that pur pose.” COLORED EMPLOYEES SAVE BANK DURING FIRE Clarksville, Tenn., Dec. 26.—(By the Associated Negro Press.)—Colored workers employed on a tie boat at Cumberland City were responsible for the saving of the vault and much of the furniture of the Cumberland City bank and the Hatfield hotel Sunday night during a fire which broke out in the kitchen of the hostelry. The Rev. J. W. Samuels was severely in jured fighting the fire. Damages amount to (7,000. C. L. Curry, Sr., cobbler. Shop In rear of 1630 North Twenty-sixth street Work called for and delivered. WDbster 3793. SOUTH AFRICAN WHITES ON QUI VIVE Capetown, South Africa, Dec. 26.— (By the Associated Negro Press.?— Native protests against the annexation of Premier Herzog, Unios of South Africa, have reached the point where they are viewed with much alarm. It is said that the premier has his eyes on Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Southwest Africa. The first two pre fer to live under British rule and in the last-named on'e of the largest native tribes, the Rebobths, is report ed on the verge of rebellion. LOOKS FOR GREAT BLACK REPUBLIC TO ARISE II AFRICA Sir Harry Johnston, Explorer and Empire Builder, Sees White Control Imperilled On Continent. (N. A. A. C. P. Press Service) London, England, Dec. 26.—In an interview here recently, Sir Harry Johnston, the empire builder who carved out Rhodesia, Uganda and Nyasa for Great Britian during his forty years in Africa, told a corres pondent for the Chicago Daily News, that he visioned a vast republic of tne colored races playing its part in the balance of world power. In the com ing clash of color which he envisions, white control in Africa will be im periled and the heart of the dark con tinent will again belong to its own. “I don't expect to see a black Af rica in my time,” said Sir Henry who is 66. “However, it is entirely pos sible that within half a century all of Africa from the Zambezi to the Great Sahara may be one great black republic.” Points to Liberia as Example “Many considerations go to indicate the eventual success of a Iblack do main throughout Africa. The deadly climate in the central portions—the Congo and the Cameroons—a climate absolutely fatal to whites, is one fac tor. The encouraging success of Li beria in being able to maintain its identity is another. The rising desire for independence—the flowing tide of color—is yet another. Many of the Negro and Negroid tribes in Africa are fully capable of independence and unless their political instincts are de praved by the ingress of whites they should be able to take care of them selves. The African type at its best is a fine type of manhood.” Sir Harry is usually considered the greatest living authority on Africa. He went out to the Congo in 1880, worked with Stanley. His scientific descoveries and researches have made him even more signally known, hor two decades he collected fauna, flora, geology and made an especial study of its language. He is the author of the only available work in English on the Bantu tongues. KIHTOIt OF CENTURY MAGAZINE ATTACKS K. K. K. AS FANATICISM (By N. A. A. C. P. PreBs Service.) Glenn Frank, editor of the Century Magazine (353 Fourth avenue, New York City), in the December number attacks the Ku Klux Klan as an at tempt to “unite in one crusade Pro testant Christiani’y and the cult of racialism, welding the two together in the fires of fanaticism.’’ After pointing out that the Klan is anti-Negro, anti-Catholic and anti Jew, Mr. Frank gays: “One of the dis tinctive contributions Jesus made to the spiritual future of mankind lay in the fact that, in the higher realms of the spirit, he wiped out the fron tiers that divide races.’’ Mr. Frank states that the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of racial ism are opposed, and that “The Ku Klux Klan has no right to celebrate Christmas as long as it holds to its dogma of racialism.’’ “The favored flaunting of the dogma of race inferiority and race superior ity,” he continues, “can have no other end than a world staggering from one blood-letting to another until civiliza i tion itself goes down in a red sun set. “Here, as I see it, is the internation al mission of modern biology. There are superior and inferior men in all races. Civilization will advance at the rate we are able, throughout the world and in all races, to breed away from the inferior and toward the su perior. The problem of modem states manship and of modern science is not to classify the races into defensive groups. The problem of * ”*dern statesmanship and of modem science is this: To bring together the su perior men of all races in a vast in ternational conspiracy to breed all races to a higher level.’’ Mias Lucile Bivens is home tor the Christmas holidays from the Univer sity of Nebraska. -—----\ A Bright and Happy New Year V______ OMAHA-* EAST MEETS WEST By Montagu A. Tancock, Manager Publicity Bureau, Omaha Chamber of Commerce. _ t “What was it the engines said Pilots touching head to head, Facing on a single track Half a world behind each back.” —Bret Harte. Fifty-five years ago those engines met. It was the end of one of the most exciting races ever staged. Abraham Lincoln was the starter, the whole nation waited breathlessly for the result and the prize was empire. It was a race that brought the noise of i«»n and steel and steam to deserts that knew only the creaking of covered wagons. It was a race that joined East and West and out of that race sprung one of America’s fairest cities, gateway to East and West —Omaha. President Lincoln fired the gun that started the race, July 3, 1866, when he signed an act authorizing the Central Pacific Railroad to build eastward from California and the Union Pacific Railroad to build westward from the site of Omaha, until a junction of the two roads should be effected and America’s first transcontinental service established. The act guaranteed to each railroad the stretch of right-of-way that it should build upon until the two roads met. Naturally each railroad desired to have as long a right of way as possible. So the race started. The enthusiasm of the contestants was proved by the fact that they met and passed—paralleling more than 200 miles of grading before officials of the two companies agreed upon a point of union, at Promotory, Utah. At that point on May 10, 1860, was driven the spike that welded together the East and West. It was a golden spike. It marked the end of the race and the blows of the descending sledge that drove it were reported by telegraph to all parts of the United States. It was there that the engines met symbolizing the joining of the East and West and at that moment Omaha ceased to be the terminal of covered wagon trains and became the central point on America’s trans continental railroad highway. At that date, fifty-five years ago, Omaha’s population was 14,000. Es tablishment of the Eastern Terminal of the Union Pacific at Omaha brought additional railroads to Oma ha to connect with the transcontinen tal line. Population and agriculture followed; industrial development kept pace with railroad development; edu cational and cultural growth advanced with industrial growth until Omaha today is fourth railroad center in the nation, where manufactured products are valued at $1,000,000 a day, where distributing totals $1,310,000 a day and where 60,000 children attend pub lic schools. Founded upon its railroads, Omaha has developed primarily as a receiv ing, distributing and manufacturing center. Such development is natural ly postulated upon the existence of a desirable trade territory. Given a strategic location and ample trans portation advantages, commerce de velops in proportion to the productive ness of the territory. In this respect Omaha is most fortunate. States directly tributary to Omaha represent one-fourth of the total farm wealth of the United States. This great region extends from a point some 200 miles east of Omaha, westward for 1,000 miles and takes in a great oval shaped area including western Iowa, Nebraska, southern / South Dakota, Wyoming, southern Montana, eastern Idaho, northern Utah, northern Colorado, northern Kansas, northwestern Missouri and Nevada. There are about 1,500 towns in this territory and 310,000 farms averaging 390 acres each. The population of this area is made up of the most desirable of native American and foreign stock. The high standard of education of this population is shown by its extremely low illiteracy rate. Less than two people in one hundred are illiterate. The average illiteracy in the United States is six people in one hundred. The population of the area is 66% rural. Its percentage of foreign bom is 11. The latest national census estimat ed the crop production of this terri tory at about $2,000,000,000 and live stock on farms as worth about $1,000, 000,000. There are 3,400 national and state banks with deposits averaging approximately $400 for each person. Ten trunk and twenty-two branch railroad lines, thirteen national and interstate highways now lead from Omaha into this territory. Hundreds of interconnecting lines from a net work of communication. From this territory and beyond it, Omaha receives annually approxim ately 8,000,000 head of live stock and 68.000. 000 bushels of grain, in addi tion to cream, poultry and other prod ucts of the farm. The Omaha live stock market, which is the third larg est in the United States* pays ap proximately $800,000 a day to stock raisers for live stock received at Omaha. Omaha’s packing plants in turn produce food products valued at $600,000 a day. Omaha manufactures more butter than any other city in the world. The value of this product manufactured in 1923 was $23,000,000 and represented 65.000. 000 pounds of butter. Flour and mill products produced in Omaha annually are valued at more than $12,000,000; alfalfa products add an other $8,000,000 a year. Omaha’s manufacturing, however, is not by any means confined solely to agricul tural products. In addition to fabri cation of the products of the soil, there are more than fifty manufac tured articles which Omaha produces on a scale of a million dollars a year or more. Omaha refines more pig lead than any other city in the United States. Smelter production during the past year totaled approximately $40,000,000. The fabrication of auto mobiles, trucks and accessories total ed another $20,000,000. Omaha wholesale houses distribute throughout the United States and to many foreign countries. However, a large percentage of this distribution is naturally absorbed in the territory Dutlined above. Omaha’s 500 whole <ale establishments distribute an average of $1,300,000 worth of pred icts every day of the year, totaling 5434.000. 000 annually. Among lead ng products distributed from Omaha ire groceries and provisions, oil, lum ser, automobiles and trucks, commis sion and produce and building ma terial. Omaha’s growth in manufacturing ind wholesaling is evidenced by the Fact that manufacturing increased From $193,000,000 in 1913 to $382, 100,000 in 1923 and wholesaling from( 5161.000. 000 in 1913 to $484,000,000 in L923. During the same period bank ■learings increased from $908,000,000 to approximately $2,000,000,000. Oma la’s population as shown by the latest government estimate is 204,000. With in a fifty-mile radius of the city, Omaha’s retail establishments trans act a business of $150,000,000 annual ly. Leading from Omaha into this area are two interurban lines, fifteen bus lines and the railroad lines al ready mentioned. Mail is dispatched from Omaha to points in this area on an average of three times a day. The high standard of living that main tains among these 500,000 people is shown by the fact that 118,000 tele phones are in use and 122 newspapers are published among them. Omaha is the second city in the world ini the number of telephones in use in pro portion to population and third in use of electric lights. Indications of Omaha’s commercial well being and development are am ply furnished in the statement that while Omaha has attained thirty fourth place in population among ci ties of the United States, it ranks seventeenth in business as shown by bank clearings. Omaha insurance companies have a total premium in come of $38,000,000 a year. Omaha is the home of the largest building and loan association in the United States. Savings in banks and loan companies average more than $800 for each res ident. Omaha is headquarters for the Federal Land Bank covering Nebras ka, Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming. It has a branch bank of the federal reserve system, twenty-three state and national banks and ten building and loan associations. Keeping pace with commercial growth, Omaha has concentrated upon the health, happiness, education and general well being of its citizens. En rolled among the healthiest cities in the United States, Omaha maintains an efficient and effective Public Health Department. The extent of recreational facilities afforded by the city is shown in the fact that Omaha is third city in the United States in park area in proportion to its popula tion. Thirteen supervised public play grounds are maintained at municipal expense for Omaha children. Omaha’s leading parks provide municipal golf links where thousands indulge in this healthful sport. There is also a municipal bathing beach. Omaha has twenty-three parks connected by thir ty-five miles of boulevard and cover ing 1,400 acres. Omaha has fifty-six public grade schools and five high schools. A re cently completed Technical High School is valued at $3,000,000 and is considered the most modem school of its kind in the United States. In the Manual Training Department of this great building it is possible to build a six room house, which upon com pletion can be moved bodily through the main portal of the work room and so transported from the building (Continued on Page 2) AUTHORITIES EXONERATE NEGRO MAGISTRATE Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 26.— (By the Associated Negro Press.)—Magistrate Amos Scott, the first colored magis trate of this city, whom some prej udiced whites tried to get something against several times, appeared before the district attorney with hig books for an investigation. After several weeks he was given a clean bill of health. It was found that he had been conducting his office to the satisfac tion of the police department and the district attorney. RACE ARCHITECT WILL COMPETE FOR $300,000 PRIZE All California Architects to Enter Contest—Race Enrtant Has Been Successful Prize Winner (Pacific Coast News Service) Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 26.—Over a quarter of a million dollars is the price to be paid the successful archi tect who is awarded the contract for drawing up the plans for the new $5, 000,000 city hall. With the assistance of an advising architect, not residing in the state and whose salary will be $5,000 plus expenses, the city will select four architects, not connected with the con test, as jurors. They will each re ceive a fee of $1,000, plus expenses. All the architects of the state will be invited to compete and the winning architect will receive a contract on a percentage basis estimated to be worth $300,000. Only Negro Member Paul R. Williams, winner of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design medal for 1912 and the only Negro member of the American Institute of Archi tects, is one of the contestants. Wil liams entry into the contest has created great concern among his many white competitors due to the fact that he has a reputation of win ning all competitions in which he en ters. He has won three national and four western architectural competi tions; and recently his design for a civic center was accepted by a west ern city of 30,000 inhabitants. TWENTY HOUSTON MARTYRS RELEASED THIS YEAR BY N. A. A. C. P. CAMPAIGN The National Assocation for the Advancement of Colored People an nounces that four Houston martyrs released on Sunday, December 14, moda a total of 20 released from the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth during the year. The list of men released is as fol lows: Issac A. Deyo, Ben McDaniel, Reuben W. Baxter, Douglas T. Bold en, Gerald Dixon, Roy Tyler, Jos. Williams, Jr., Albert T. Hunter, John Ranier, Jas, E. Woodruff, J. H. Hud son, Jr., John Geter, John H. Gould, Jas. H. Mitchell, Edward Porter, Jr., Grant Anderson, William Burnett, Chas. J. Hatton, Robert Tillman, Hez ekiah J. Turner. The reductions of sentence making possible the release of the twenty men paroled this year and the last of the Houston martyrs by 1928, were made as a result of an examination of the men’s records by a board of officers of the war department this spring. At that time Secretary Weeks informed the N. A. A. C. P. that 18 men would be eligible for parole during this year, but in addi tion to that eighteen two more have , been paroled. SHOT DOWN IN COLD BLOOD Franklin, Tenn., Dec. 26.—(By the Associated Negro Press.—Geo. Hunt er, 60, well-to-do owner of a barbecue Btand in the public square of this town, was called to the door of his home recently by a group of white men and shot before he could seek cover. He died while being taken to Nashville for aid. His assailants drove off in an automobile. He had had his business for more than 20 years. GOES TO COURT AT 106 YEARS Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 26.—(By the Associated Negro Press.)—Mrs. Maria Baker, 106 years old, who says she was once employed by Gen. Andrew Jackson, was oalled to Circuit court here last week as one of the witnesses In a will case. Monitor—SIX.... JUMPS FROM HOSPITAL WINDOW Baltimore, Md., Dec. 26.—(By the! Associated Negro Press.)—Visualising himself being cut and sawed, and de ciding that the hospital wag no place for him, Waverly Purnell, a patient in the John Hopkins Hospital, wrap ped himself in a red blanket and Jumped out a second stflry window. FAKE CO 1 FILM ECT FLEECES VICTIMS Sfick Scamp Promises to Star Colored Investors in Movies and Rakes In Considerable Cash. LEAVES IMPERTINENT NOTE Film Organizations and California State Bnrean of Labor Warn Public of Fakers. (Pacific Coast News Service) St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 26.—Visions of moyie careers in which 400 colored in vestors of St. Louis pictured them selves riding in limousines and chat ting intimately with the famous stars of Hollywood, vanished recently when Al. Edwards, a fake Negro promoter, departed for parts unknown, leaving his future movie stars the following note: “To all my movie stars and my many colored friends of this most splendid city, St. Louis, I wish to thank you one and all, for generous contributions. My only regret is that I cannot appear before you each and every one and thank you personally. I couni, but I can’t, because I am gone, just gone. You may sing this to ‘He Come and Stole My Confidence, etc.’ ” According to “Variety” Edwards arrived in the Black Belt and an nounced he was general manager of the greatest Negro moving picture company in the world. Edwards backed up his announcement with loud clothes and a smooth tongue. He opened up an office and sent out word he needed 100 “beautiful Negroes” for a film entitled “Jingle of the Jungles.” A day or two later his of fice was crowded with applicants. Special Train for Hollywood Edwards explained it would be ne cessary to charge each $1.50 to as sure their sincerity and that they would show up when the special train pulled out for Hollywood, California. More money rolled in until Edwards finally left word he would be waiting for his future movie stars on the spe cial train which departed at 7:16. On his desk in the office he left the above note for his secretary. War On Fake Promoters Enraged at the increased stock sell ing activities of various fake pro moters throughout the country, the various film organizations, the Cal ifornia state bureau of labor and the Hollywood chamber of commerce are continually sending out warnings to the public. Last week Deputy Labor Commissioner of California ordered the Klan Kid Kodemy Co. to pay wage claims of 212.50 for services of child ren whose parents had bought stock in the organization under an agree ment that their little ones would be employed. Of the 25,000 persons who are listed at the various studio employment agencies in Los Angeles, only one out of every 600 has a possible chance of steady employment as a movie act or. And out of this 25,000 there are only 45 colored film actors who make their entire living from employment in pictures, and not one of them was asked to invest in or own a single share of stock in the companies in which he is employed. NEW EXTENSION SECRETARY WITH THE URBAN LEAGUE Harriet Shadd Butcher, Who Has Had Successful Career as a Teacher, Takes New Post New York, Dec. 26.—The National Urban League announces that Mrs. Harriet Shadd Butcher, employed for one year at Howard University and for seventeen and a half years as teacher in the Dunbar High School, Washington, D. C., assumed her du ties on December first as extension secretary for the National Urban League with headquarters at 127 East 23rd street, New York City. Mrs. Butcher is the daughter of the late Dr. Furmann J. Shadd, Wash ington physician who was for many years secretary-treasurer of the How ard University medical school, and of Mrs. Alice Parke Shadd, formerly a teacher in the public schools of Wash ington. Mrs. Butcher is a graduate of Smith college, A. B., 1906, and has studied as a graduate student in the Harvard Graduate School of Educa tion. She has travelled extensively in Europe, the West Indies and Amer ica. Mrs. Butcher will carry on an ed ucational program in connection with the League's activities for improving the living and working conditions of Negroes in cities and will assist in spreading the Urban League idea by personal interviews, in conferences and at public meetings.