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