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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1926)
s2S The Monitor mi NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS __ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor. $2.00 a Year- g Cents a CopyOMAHA, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 17, 1926 Vol. XII—No. 25 Whole Number 595 “Rice Sinks To Lowest Level In The Political Equation.” —Kelly Miller President Coolidge’s message has been presnted to Congress and to the country. It covers the field of national interests in a comprehensive way and gives satisfaction to those who like it and arouses criticism on the part of those who do not. The document is carefully, if not craft ily drawn, in view of the enusing national election. The president is the head of his party, and is always supposed to keep one eye upon its political advantage, while watching the welfare of the> nation with the other. This is allowable and ex pected. The fate of the republican party is In the balance. Is Coolidge to be, or not to be the next candi date? He himself probably does not know. But no word will escape the presidential lips for the next twelve months which will not have this con tingency in view. The New York Times believes that his references to prohibition and his remarks on the Negro question had reference ulteriorly to his own self succession. However this may be, we find that these items are of great est special importance to the Negro race. The President discloses no conviction on the moral quality of the Eighteenth Amendment. One does not learn from this disclosure whether he is wet or dry by private conviction. But he does declare in terms unmistakably for the enforce ment of the amendment because it is the law. His position is much broad er than the moral question Involved in prohibition. It strikes at the very vitals of lawlessness, of which viola tion of the Eighteenth Amendment is but a single form in which its brazen audacity asserts itself. These are his words—“Some people do not like the (18th) Amendment, some do not like other parts of the Con stitution, some do not like any of it, but for any of our inhabitants to observe such parts of the Consti tution as they like, while disregard ing others, is a doctrine that would break down all protection of life and property and destroy the Amer ican system of ordered government.” President Coolidge is a man of even temperament and cool spirit. Like Tennyson's linnet, he is void of noble rage. One could wish that Theodore Roosevelt might have ex pressed the same sentiment with his dynamic personality and vehement righteousness. The president induges in polite form of speech when he says that this practice would destroy ordered form of government. The case calls for the indicative, not the subjunctive mood. This widespread practice is destroying orderly gov ernment and is breaking down pro tection of life and property. Mis sissippi elects to ignore the Four teenth and Fifteenth Amendments, while adhering to the rest of the Constitution. New York disregards the Eighteenth Amendment, but swears undeviating allegiance to the rest. They both equally undermine the foundation of government and bring our boasted institutions to naught. America is the most law less nation among civilized people. This nation flouts with impunity its own fundamental law. The presi dent says that those entrusted with the enforcement of the law ought not to violate it. This is a high aad holy sentiment, expressed with ser monic impotence. Mr. Coolidge is responsible for the enforcement of federal law. Every office holder is responsible to him. Sermonizing is not enough. Roosevelt would have said that any office holder found violating the prohibition law would be summarily dismissed. The nation would have approved the drastic pronouncement. Gloved hands will not do the work of the bare fist. Let the South heed the wisdom of the President’s wise words. Let the “wets” heed it. They are both un dermining the foundation of free in stitutions which they so fervently avow to uphold. But above all, let the Negro heed these words. He is the chief suf ferer from violated law. He must uphold the Constitution in its in tegrity. He can not pick out the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend ments and insist upon their enforce ment, while flagrantly violating the Eighteenth Amendment to appease his degraded appetite or to swell his evilly made fortune. The conscience of the nation must be aroused upon the moral integrity of the law. Massachusetts cannot point the fin ger of scorn at Georgia, nor the Ne gro at the white man. We all fall too far short of respect and rever ence for law. The Negro should give the nation a model lesson in obedience to the Eighteenth Ameitil ment. When the President engages to deal with the Negro question per se, he becomes more tenuous, less logi ! cal and less convincing. His refer ence is entirely well meant and kindly. The fact that he would step aside and mention the Negro in his annual message serves to bring the question before public attention. I The general tendency is to let the is j sue pass by default. It is no long . er considered good form to mention the Negro issue in public discussion. On more than one occasion Mr. Coolidge has condescended, if it be 9 condescension, to make reference to this disagreeable topic. For this he is due our racial thanks. We have been so far degraded in the public equation, that the smallest favor is thankfully received. If the Presi dent’s reference to prohibition was a sermon, his mention of the Negro was in the nature of a prayer. But when all other modes of procedure fail, the prayer may be the last re sort. The American people are besought to treat the Negro kindly, even fair ly. The American people ought not to lynch the colored people for the Lord will not hold them guiltless for lynching the helpless victim. There is no indication of declarative in tention or affirmative purpose, but an appeal to conscience instead of to the law. It may be that this is the only form of appeal that the Amer ican people will hear in their stiff necked attitude of law defiance. Will they heed a prayer, though it comes from the President of the United States? “Our duty to ourselves under our claim that we are an enlightened people requires us to use all our pow er to protect them from the crime of lynching.” These be heavily fraughted words. Though kindly in tended, nevertheless, they are po tential with untold mischief for the Negro race. I believe that this is the first time in the history of the government that the President of the United States has identified himself with one element of the American people as contra-distinguished from another. He is supposed to be the president of all the people, and of ficially to make no discrimination on account of race, color or previous condition. The Negro does not ex pect to be relieved from the crime of lynching as a supercilious duty that the white race owes him on the basis of racial difference, but be cause he is an American citizen en titled like the rest to the equal en forcement of the law. But after all, lynching is not wholly a racial evil. Although the Negro for the time and in certain localities bears the chief brunt of the heinous practice, yet white men, and even white women have fallen victims of the mobbish wrath. Since the record has been kept, not a single year has passed that has not recorded white victims. No remedy for lynching or for any other form of lawlessness is going to be effective where the Negro is sin gled out as the sole beneficiary. Any such attempt is defeated at the start. The great defect of the Dyer bill was that it became interpreted as a Negro measure. Lawlessness knows no race; the law should be color blind. An effective law against lynching would be of greater na tional advantage than all of the pro posed legislation of the present ses sion of Congress. But it must be nationwide in its purpose and pur port. If Congress should pass an anti-lynching measure based on race, it could not be enforced. The presi dent does not even suggest the en forcement of the Fifteenth Amend ment, and if he did it would fall on deaf ears and dead hearts, because the Negro is the sole beneficiary. We want no class legislation for the simple reason that it would be fu tile. One lays down the president’s mes sage with a sense of gratitude for a well meant, kindly word, but with the reflection that the race has sunk en to the zero level in the political equation. The President speaks without any sense of political obli gation. Whatever he does or says grows out of his own gratis, grace and goodness. We seem to have lost all power to demand, which the bal lot confers. Let us reflect as to how long this political imbecility will continue. Will it still be so after the next administration, whether the present incumbent succeeds himself or not? It all depends upon the po litical sagacity of the race. If we use wisely the residue of political power which we now have, the next administration will regard the race as a worth while factor and not as a helpless mendicant. Let the political tocsin for nine teen twenty-eight be—“The full en forcement of the Constitution in cluding the fourteenth, fifteenth and eighteenth amendments.” —KELLY MILLER. ART CLASS HAS BEAUTIFUL EXHIBITION AT "Y” Many Viaitora Delighted With Varied Diaplay of Exquiaite Needle and Handicraft Work The ladies who were members of tha first Art class this fall, were “at home” Sunday, December 12, from 4 to 7 p. m. at the North Side Branch of the Young Women’s Christian As sociation, 22nd and Grant streets. The many friends, who came and went during the afternoon, were per fectly charmed with the splendor of the occasion. From every corner, one could hear echoes of congratula tions, satisfaction and appreciation for the many beautiful pieces of art that were displayed by the class. There were roses, tulips, lilies, and other flowers, some of the plain crepe paper, others were waxed, sev eral pieces of the plastic art done with jesso and clay; any number of pieces of the Egyptian cone embroi dery—p r e 11 y silk handkerchief holders; many beautiful Glassine lamp shades in every style; lovely silk pillows, and various other pieces. Delightful music furnished by Messrs. Overtree and Hunter was en joyed. Even the delicious and daintily decorated sandwiches and «al«g Ctrved with tea and coffee add ed t^xhe artistic atmosphere of the affair. Among the special guests were Mrs. A. Jeffers and her husband of Council Bluffs, Iowa, the proud teacher of the class; Mrs. Jas. M. Patton, president of the Central Branch, Y. W. C. A.; Mrs. J. H. Vance, chairman of the committee on colored work; Mrs. Carrie Ada Campbell, general secretary of the Y. W. C. A., and other secretaries and friends from the Central associ ation. The committee on arrangements for this occasion was Mrs. Jessica Wright, chairman; Mrs. Allie Jones, Mrs. Harry Leland, assisted by the branch secretary, Miss Edna M. Stratton. Other members of the class were MeBdames Louvinia Green, Hattie Hawkins, Bessie Kir by, Mabel Lecoq, Marie McDaniels, A. 0. McGee, Anna Phoenix, Ger trude Shackleford, Hattie Smith, Rachel Woods and Mias Cuma Wat aon. BISHOP CLEMENT DEFENDS AL SMITH Monroe, N. C.—Official note by the church was taken of the spread of the spirit of the Ku Klux Klan among Protestant religious bodies. Bishop George C. Clement of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, speaking here at the sixteenth annu al session of the West Central North Carolina conference of the church, declared that he would advise Ne groes a thousand times “to vote wet, Catholic, Democratic, A1 Smith be fore you cast one vote for a dry, Protestant, Ku Klux Klan Republi can like Jim Watson of Indiana.” “No true American,” he asserted, “can oppose a man because of his religious belief, for the very corner stone of American democracy is re ligious tolerance. But even to im agine voting for a Ku Klux Klans man, no matter what his party affil iations, is an absurdity.” SESQUI-CENTENNIAL AWARDS HOWARD UNI GOLD MEDAL Washington, D. C.—A letter has just been received by Emory B. Smith, alumni and field secretary of Howard university, from the jury of awards of the Sesqucentennial expo sition, notifying that the internation jury of awards of the Scsquicenten nial Exposition has awarded How ard a gold medal for promoting the higher education of the Negro. HAYES TO SING AT TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE Tuskegee Institute, Ala.—Roland Hayes, internationally famous tenor, will appear in recital here Saturday night, December 18. It will be his first appearance in this state since his rise to fame in European music circles. HAMPTON DEFEATES UNION FOR THE C. I. A. A. TITLE Hampton Institute, Va. — Five thousand people saw Hampton defeat Union, on Armstrong Field, in their traditional battle of the C. I. A. A. The Seasiders’ 12 to 0 victory over the Blue and Steel eleven, thereby brought them the C. I. A. A. cham pionship, the Frank A. Young trophy and the Slaughter trophy. NEGRO VILLAGE DRAWS MANY FRENCH VISITORS Marseille, France, Nov. 30.— (By The Associated Negro Press) — Among the curious things at the Foire Exposition, the Negro village is in the first rank. It is a true Negro village and not a pale copy of the African reality, Situated between the Grand Palace and the Palace of Machines, this ex hibit from the Sahara presents a picturesque appearance. About twenty huts and a hundred Negroes make up the village. There is a chief, speaking the purest French, tall, a fine type of Negro. There is a spot of red on his breast: the cross of the Legion of Honor. There are shops; jewelers who work in metal on the anvil; a kitchen, cooks carrying children on their backs while they prepare food for the tribe; a checker player—and a good one—who takes on all comers; a maker of tiny canoes; a school, where children learn to read from tablets; and in the center of the Monitor—Five village, n mosque. There is music for all tastes—ex pert players of the banjo, the violin and the mandolin, with less than twenty-nine strings; and the balafon, a sort of rudimentary xylophone which Maria Valente has demon strated at the Alcazar. A spacious round hut with a coni cal roof is the dance hall, where, are shown the dances which will be fashioned in France next year. The Negro village is full of life, of reality, of local color. “Visit it," advises a writer for the "Radical,” a Marseilles newspaper. “It will spare you a long trip to the Sahara. And you won’t be shot.” ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY CLAIMS MUSICAL HONORS Washington, D. C.—Washington music lovers were delighted last Sun day when Mme. Lillian Evanti, Wash ington’s own, assisted by Miss Lydia Mason, presented their brilliant pro gram at the Belasco Theatre, but the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority to which both young women belog, took the oc casion to express satisfaction with their pre-eminent position in musical circles. “We are more proud of our artists who are recognized wherever they go as most successful in voice or instru ment. Some of them are Josephine Muse of Washington, D. C., who is a graduate of Yale School of Music with honors, Columbia University, and a pupil of Mme. Cecile Ritter Ciampi of Paris during the summer of 1926. Miss Muse is a teacher in the Conservatory of Music, Washing ton, D. C., but plans to study again in Paris after April, 1927. “Lillian Evanti, Washington, D. C., is a graduate of Howard University Conservatory of Music, a pupil of Mr. Frank La Forge of New York City, and Mme. C. Ritter Ciampi of Paris. Now engaged in grand opera work in Europe and America. “Lydia Mason of New York, who is a graduate of Fiske University Mu sic Department, and who has won the Julliard Scholarship of $1,000. “Rnola Miller, Washington, D. C., is a graduate of Howard Conserva tory of Music, won the 1926 Julliard Scholarshin of $1,000 and the $500 Scholarship fund of the I. B. 0. P. Elks. “Andrades Lindsley of New York, who also won the Julliard Scholar ship of $1,000 at one time.” “VAMPS OF 1827” When the last analysis is made of the season’s successes, it will be a great surprise to local playgoers if the “Vamps of 1927” are not in cluded in the list, if the local engage ment measures up to one-half the good things that are promised from Phil Peters and Rose Bernard ac cording to the reports received from their receptions elsewhere. The “Vamps of 1927” is tabulated to oc cupy the stage at the Gayety The atre, on Sunday, December 19, with the aforesaid Peters and Bernard as the principal farceurs of that oc casion. Phil Peters is no stranger in these parts and Rose Bernard is just as favorably remembered; both have at various times demonstrated their abilities to arouse laughter and sustain it during the evening, and as that is evidently the mission of their present concoction, there ought to be no apprehension as to their ef forts not being successful upon this occasion. The reports about this show are said to be most encourag ing. Capital is timid until it gets a mortgage on you. So is a woman. SHOT WHILE BURGLARIZING Little Rock, Ark.—Tom McDow ell, 36, with an alleged long police record, was killed here Thursday at midnight when he was caught bur glarizing the Reavis Mercantile store by H. W. Warner, white. Warner operates a restaurant on the oppo site side of the street from the Rea vis store and heard McDowell break ing a glass to get in. BISHOP GREGG DEDICATES CHURCH IN SOUTH AFRICA Cape Town, South Africa—Born in 1898, Bethel Memorial African Methodist Church was dedicated re cently by the Rt. Rev. James A. Gregg, presiding bishop of the Sev enteenth district of his church. Bish op Gregg was assisted at the dedica tory services by the Rev. E. M. Gow, and members of the African Meth odist Episcopal Church from all over the Union of South Africa. CHURCH OF ST. PHILIP, THE DEACON The services last Sunday were well attended at 11 o’clock after which the Every Member Canvass was made under the chairmanship of Mr. B. B. Cowan. The service next Sunday will be Holy Communion at 7:30 a. m.; ma tins, 8:30; Church school, 10; sung eucharist with sermon, 11; evensong with sermon at 8. Christmas services will be mid night night Mass, Christmas Eve; holy communion 8:a. m; and 10:30 a. m. Christmas Day. OLD FOLKS HOME The Christmas tree for the in mates of the Home will be held on Christmas Eve. Persons desiring to give presents will kindly see that they are sent in by December 24. Services were held Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Mr. Stell. Open doors will be held New Year’s day. The public is invited. The following do xi at Ion a are acknowledged with thanks: Half peck of potatoes, Mrs. J. H.; one trunk of clothing, Mrs. J. M. Goff; two jars of fruit, Mrs. Alice Harding, Lincoln. MRS. BROOMFIELD, Superintendent. FATHER FLANAGAN'S HOME MAKING GOOD AMERICANS An Institution Which Exemplifies True Christianity by Talcing Care of Boys Irrespective of Race, Creed or Color A new record for visitors has been set at Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home this year. More than 3,000 have in spected the Home during the last eleven months, according to the Rev. E. J. Flanagan. The Home is always open to visit ors. The boys have a smile of wel come for everyone and are anxious to show the visitors the dining room, sleeping quarters, recreation grounds, classrooms, work shops and other places of interest. This Christmas the homeless lads of Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Home are planning to have their annual Christmas party, providing the friends of the Home are loyal. Many gifts and offerings have been sent to the Home, but not enough to as sure the homeless lads of a real Christmas party. “Christmas is the time when we exchange gifts,” said Father Flana gan. “For the gifts of the public, we are offering good American citi zens. Our job is to make good citi zens out of poor homeless boys.” Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home is non-sectarian. It provides for boys of all races, colors and creeds. It gets no support from the Community Chest, Church, city or state. » Good Fellow For Half Century Mobile, Ala., Dec.2.—(By The Associated Negra Press). While serving as a member of the county grand jury forty-five years ago, the Rev. M. F. Owens was delegated by members of that body to collect money and food to give the inmates of the county poor asylum, detention homes and homes for the aged, a Thanksgiving dinner. Year by year without interruption, Rev. Owens has gone among the merchants, bakeries, and stores and collected the funds and supplies necessary. This year a bountiful dinner was served to white and colored alike. Although moving to Solma, Ala., several years ago, where he is now connected with the Selma University, he made the an nual pilgrimage.