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About The voice. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1946-195? | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1953)
George Randol Homes Open For Inspection - IMKITTiiitiffiPii - This beautiful ranch-type dwell-, ing with picture windows is one of i the houses located at 10th & Park Streets that will be formally opened for showing on Sunday,1 May 17th through the 22nd. This is one of many units con-j templated for Lincoln during the next several months that will; come into being as a direct result' of planning, pressure and activities' of the NORTHSIDE IMPROVE MENT ASSOCIATION. Built by Bartlett and Company, this fine dwelling is not a cheap house but a small better home.; Workmanship and finishing are of j the same quality that you will find in homes located in the Country' Club District. Every detail is taken care of that will make the home more comfortable. This particular house has three bedrooms, large living-dining room, full bath and large kitchen with plenty of utility space, built-in cabinets, plenty of closets, plaster walls, hardwood floors, expertly laid linoleum in bathroom and kitchen. Double sink in kitchen. Full basement with showerhead, gas furnace, floor drain, large guaranteed hot water heater, all so located to leave plenty of room for storm windows and screens, and any ap pliances such as washers and iron ers. Xet, there is ample space lor finishing a recreation room. Large lot, sodded lawn. “Property Is The Fruit Of Labor” Every left-winger is adept in catch phrases. One standard ex ample is the cry that “human rights” must be superior to “prop erty rights.” This appeal to the unthinking evades the fact that the right to own property is one of the most basic and important of the human rights. That idea was powerfully expressed by Abraham Lincoln, as great a humanitarian as ever lived, in these words: “Property is the fruit of labor; property is desir able; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encourage ment to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is homeless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” What Does “Liberalism” Mean ? “Liberalism implies freedom and individualism,” writes Bob Munger in the American Student, official publication of Students for America.” “. . . true liberal ism stresses the dignity of the in dividual rather than the omnipo tence of the state.” Keep that in mind next time you hear the term “liberalism” applied, as it usually is, to some plan for giving government more and more power over the indi vidual citizen, at the expense of our rights, responsibilities and freedoms. No word has been more mis Butler Urges Approval Of Land Legislature Senator Hugh Butler (R-Neb) has urged the United States Con gress to give final approval of proposed'submerged lands legisla tion, recognizing title of the states to a narrow belt along the coast, “as the only means of compromis ing a difficult controversy which has stalemated oil and gas devel opment.” Under this proposal, Butler pointed out, the Federal Govern ment retains about nine-tenths of the mineral resources under the water surrounding our coasts, while state titles of long-standing within a three-mile belt are rec ognized. “Many people do not seem to realize that this legislation af fects a great many other things besides oil,” Butler said. “Thou sands of people have invested money in wharves and docks ex tending out into the ocean; in buildings, including hotels built on made land along the ocean shore; and in many other ways. If the Federal Government had tried to seize title to all these waters along the coast, it would have been the same as confiscating the proper ties of all these people who in vested in good faith.” “Furthermore, this bill gives a clear title to Nebraska for all of our inland waterways and lakes, [including any wharves that may be built in them. I do not thhink we could afford to let the Federal Government take title to our in land waters away from our state,” he concluded. | used in recent years—none has been more distorted. The true liberal philosophy holds that gov ernment is the servant of the people, not the master. The U.S. Negro, 1953 | A decade of progress has wrought a revolution in his life, brought him more prosperity and freedom—and problems Editor s Note (Taken from ad vance proof sent to The Voice fr^ra James A. Linen, Publisher of Time Magazine, that appeared in the May 11th, issue of Time). “Tell me,” asked the Br;tish visitor, “do your Negroes day Memphis Cancer Tests May Cover V.S. MEMPHIS, Term.—A vast ex-; periment in mass cancer detec-, tion, already saving many lives; here, may expand into a nation-: wide project equal in scope to the TB X-ray program. Dr. C. C. Erickson, co-ordinator of the project, says the Memphis Cancer Survey, which he reports is the first program of its type in the country, has “fulfilled all hopes and expectations at this level.” The Memphis survey expects to screen 125,000 women for cancer of the uterus in the next two years. Since the survey started last July, 28,000 have been examined and more than 100 women are being treated who never dreamed they had cancer. “By far the majority of these women will be completely cured and continue to lead normal, use ful lives because their cases were discovered early,” said Dr. Erick son. The cost-free detection process is quick, simple and painless. Fluid is removed from the vagina with an instrument similar to a medicine dropper. The specimen is studied under a miscroscope. If cancer cells or other sus picious looking cells are seen, a confirming surface biopsy (small slice of tissue) is taken from the cervix (mouth of the womb). The vaginal fluid technique, which weeds out noncancerous patients, is primarily an aid to diagnosis. Final diagnosis of all suspicious cases is made by ex amination of the surgically re moved tissue. The Memphis experiment is expected to answer two big questions: 1. Will the cost of a nation wide program be prohibitive? 2. Will public response war rant a nation-wide program? A test for uterus cancer normally costs from $3.50 to $7.50. Officialls have not yet made an estimate of cost under the mass survey experiment. Response has been excellent,” says Dr. Erickson. “The women, physicians, head of industries and department stores — all have shown co-operation.” The tests, which take less than five minutes, are being made by private physicians and hospital clinics and at large plants and stores. The survey is financed by the U.S. Public Health Service. Facil ities and personnel are provided by the University of Tennessee Medical School here and the Memphis health department. The survey has confirmed that uterus cancer, which can prove fatal in one to five yars, occurs in three women out of a thou sand. It kills about 14,000 a year. golf?!’ The question, pul to a U.S. busi-l nessman, brought a stammering ■ answer. * j Yes, said the businessman, he supposed that U.S. Negroes played j golf, but he had never seen one with a club in his hand. Come to think of it, he’d seen a picture of Joe Louis on a golf course, but he had no idea at what club Joe could play. The incident illustrates how lit tle white Americans generally know about their colored fellow; citizens. Negroes, in the phrase of[ the sociologists, have “high social visibility.” But their lives are in effect invisible to most Americans,1 who rarely bother to look behind [ the Color Curtain at the Negroes’ homes, their places of work or worship, or their spirit. There is, as a matter of fatt, some news about Negro golfing. Atlanta and New Orleans re cently opened golf courses for Negroes. In Seattle, Negroes are now free to play on all public' golfj courses (but they still may not take part in tournaments played on the same courses). In Chicago, where they play on public courses without restriction, the number of Negro golfers has gone up from 25, a few years ago, to more than 2,000. In New York there are no re strictions on public courses, and Negroes do play in tournaments. These facts and figures, modest' in themselves, are symptoms of a major revolution in the life of the U.S. Negro—only half-noticed by the rest of the nation. It is a revo lution which, although still far from overthrowing segregation, amounts to the biggest, most hope ful change in Negro history since j Abraham Lincoln, just 90 years ago, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Says Negro Pub lisher (Ebony Jet) John H. John son: “Every Negro is a Horatio Alger . . . His hfek up from slavery is the greatest success story the world has ever known.” Marks of Progress One of the great facts of U.S. history is that the Negro, no mat ter how ill used, has remained deeply loyal to the U.S., always hoping for the “Year of Jubilo,” stubbornly telling himself The very time I thought I was lost The dungeon shook and the chains fell off . . . You got a right, I got a right, We all got a right to the tree of life . . . The fruit from tlfe tree of life is still rationed, and often bit ter. The U.S.’s 15 million Negroes are still denied the right to the pursuit of happiness on equal terms with whites. Negroes still do the meanest jobs and get the lowest pay; they must slowly wrest from their white fellows a table in a restaurant, a desk In a school, a smile, the privilege of praying in a white church or using a white swimming pool. This is true on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line. While the Negro 1s generally better off, economically and socially, in the North (as is shown by the fact that thousands [of Southern Negroes still move north every year), the North has no cause to feel superior. The [chains of prejudice can He a* heavy in New York’s Harlem or in Chicago’s South Side as any where in the South. Yet North & South, the Year of Jubilo seems a little closer. In 1942, in a brilliant study of the American Negro, Swedish Economist Gunnar Myrdal re ported: “Negroes ai*e in des perate need of jobs and bread, even more so than of justice in the courts and of the vote.” This definition of the Negro’s needs is today strikingly out of date. For most Negroes, the problem is no longer bread, but cake. The Negro wage earner today makes four times as much as in 1940 (compared to the white wage earner’s 2l/z times as much). The Negro’s average yearly income is still only a little more than half of the white average, but ten years ago it was about 35%. The forces that kept the South rn Negro from voting—intimida tion and the poll tax—are largely beaten. The South has more than 1,000,000 registered Negro voters (compared to 300,000 in 1938), and there could be half a million more if Southern Negroes were politi cally less apathetic. The Negro gets justice in the courts, although in some South ern courts he still has to fight for his right (affirmed by the Su preme Court) to be held by mixed juries. The big issue today is no longer justice in the courts, but justice in daily life, i.e., the fight against segregation. Negro college enrollment is up 2,500% over 1930. The life expectancy of the male Negro has gone up from 47 years in 1920 to 59 years. In the same period, the white’s life expectancy has risen more slowly, from 56 to 66 years. With improving living standards, the gap between the white man’s and the Negro’s life span is closing. Prosperity: Cadillacs St Babbitts The signs of Negro prosperity are everywhere. On the rooftops of Manhattan’s Harlem grows that bare, ugly forest of TV an tennae which as become a new symbol of middle-class achieve ment. On the outskirts of Atlanta are shiny new Negro housing de velopments (financed by South ern whites), with built-in wash ing machines. Yet the streets of Harlem are still largely slum streets, and a few blocks from the Atlanta apartments stand the old clapboard huts with outdoor privies. Where should one look for the real direction of the Ne gro economy? U.S. business, for one, has its eyes fixed eagerly on the TV an tennae and the washing machines. U.S. Negroes today have an an nual income of $15 billion a year —almost as much as the national income of Canada, or more than the value of all U.S. export trade. Negro publications, whose adver tising columns were until recently dominated by hair-straighteners and skin-bleachers, are now agleam with four-color ads of all national brands—a dUsky glamour girl smiling above a pack of Luckies, Negro men if distinction sipping Calvert, a Negro executive praising Remington typewriters. (Most advertising agencies now have specie Negro market con (Continued on Page 2)
