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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1932)
Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant Street by THE OMAHA GUIDE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Incorporated Phone WEbster 1750 Ail News i opy must be in our office not later than Monday at 5 p. m.. and all Advertising Copy or Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday at Noon. 1 Eat-red a* a : ( a*- mail matter. March 15, 1927, at the Post eft «e at > *mar;a. Nebraska, under the act of Congress of Mar. 3, 1879 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Strictly in Advance) One Year. $2.60 Six Months . 1-25 Three Months. 1.00 TERM- OF SUBSCRIPTION—The Omaha Guide is issued weekly an: v> be aent to any part of the United States for $2.00 per year ta advance. I anauan subscriptions (including postage' $2.50 in ad' n. e F -• g:. -abeerspuons .deluding postage $3.00 in ad van - Tr.j - x months sur-scnptions, $1.25. Trial Three months' tab*, npuon $100. Single copy, 5 cents. 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We spend hundreds of mil ' f d‘ .iar.- a year for the enforcement of the 18th amezulme ot a dime for the 13th. 14th and 15th amendments.. One. to keep people from drinking what t - it.:, thr other to protect human life, justice and liberty. The Negro must think of the man and not the parr . If it is p< ssible for you to find his heart, Find It. St a ;. t ie man w ho is to run your state and government. A~ an American citizen the Negro has shown his loyalty thr ragh the annals of history. He has fought side by side the other races, and shed blood for the freedom of De ri ••.■racy. Tne Negro is tired of being called the “Timid N *tc "—r e is not going to listen to these old worn out pr raises any linger. He is going to ask himself these qur-tions w hen he goes to the polls Nov. 8. Aren’t you tired of sw allowing all these 11th hour promises? Aren’t v *u tired of being segregated all over this country7? Aren't on tired of the burning and lynching of Negroes? Aren’t you tired of the harassing indignities heaped upon Negroes? Aren’t you tired of these last minute conver >r.s made by two tongued politicians? Aren’t you tired of being a dog catcher, of rights and equal opportunities? You can only judge the future by the past You only know men by the record made in the cool of the day and not by w hat they say in the heat of a campaign. A BRAVE FIGHT SUCCEEDS The United States supreme court decided some time ago that the primary of the Democratic party in Texas, like the general election could not be treated as a private arrangement into which only those could come who were wanted. A vote on public matters is a right inherent in the citizen, not to be abridged because of race or color, it held. Now comes the working out of that decision, in the form of a judgment awarded Dr. Nixon of El Paso, the Negro physician who claimed he was damaged when the election officials of his city refused to permit him to vote in the Democratic primary. Money damages for barring Negroes from primar ies and elections means the end of disfranchisement It took very rare courage for Dr. Nixon to fight for his righ is and live and work where he was blasting away at old customs maintained by the dominant majority. When the history of Negro enfranchisement is written, the win ning of this suit will be called momentuous, even though Dr. Nixon will have been forgotten. Negro participation in Democratic primaries in Texas i reshadows the passing of the white man’s party in the South. Both races will be the gainers thereby. Live i«acs will take the place of the dead past. Race antagon isms v, ill be dulled. The personal ties which are the boast of r.ite and black southerners will bear fruit in public tolerance. NEGRO REGISTRATION -According to the recent report from the Election Commissioner, there are more than forty-six thousand Negroes registered and who are eligible to vote in the city of Si. Louis. As we look upon this number, we can’t but man. h. at the potential strength with which the Negro has to belt condition, politically, in this state. We mar vel as we are brought face to face with the little use which w e make of this vote, so far as helping ourselves political ly in this state. The registration report shows that the Negro vot ers outnumber the whites in the Fourth, Fifth. Sixth and Nineteenth wards, and the question naturally arises— "hat are we going to do with this vote? Will we use it wiser. Will we use it to the best interest of the Negroes as a whole or will weuse it to satisfy the selfish ambitions of a few? Of course w e have committeewomen in the Fourth, Fifth. Sixth. Sixteenth, Nineteenth and Twenty-third w ards. This does fairly well, but there is no reason why there should not be Negro men eommittmen in these wards as well If there w ere just a few more Negro com mitteemen, our political position in St. Louis would be greatly strengthened. In the Sixth ward, for instance, we ave a committeeman, R. W. Kent. Mr. Kent is a power in local politics. What he has done is a clear demonstra tion of what we might expect if we had two or more men like himself sitting in party councils. We hope that the committeewomen will, as far as possible, cooperate with Mr. Kent and help to better our condition as a race. In the meanwhile, we cannot forget that there ought to be one or two Negro men and women members of the Democratic City Central committee. This, we think, would also help the Negro politically. Because in a democratic form of government like this of ours with two major parties vieing with each other for place and power, it is fitting and proper for the Negro to function in both parties just as other men and women do. With this large registration in the city of St. Louis, it is up to the Negro to make the best use of it, based upon a logical study and analysis of our present condition. AN EDITORIAL For the sake of experimenting with a change in the administration of national affairs— Can We Afford To Waste A Year? The news of the outcome in Maine immediately re sulted in a loss through lowered commodity prices, of $100,009,000 to the farmers of the United States. A simi lar reaction on the stock exxchange cost the security own ers of the country $500,000,000. That is only symptomatic of what would happen if on Nov. 8 the country determined to change political leaders at a time when the economic depression had spent itself and unmistakable signs of re covery were on the horizon. Gov. Roosevelt has declared that the present pro tective tariff is a Ghastly fraud. If he means what he says, his statements can only foreshadow prompt revision of the tariff. It does not require a long memory to recall what Always has happened to business and to employment when revision of the tariff was undertaken. It is Inevi table that under such conditions every form of business affected in any way by the policy of protection should cur tail to the utmost until it knows definitely what the future tariff policy is going to be. No human reaction could be predicted with greater assurance than this. With the money panic phase of the depression past and more banks reopening than are closing, with the evil of money-hoarding stopped, the outflow of gold trans formed to an inflow of the precious metal, with bank de posits going up instead of down, with the price of all sound securities increasing and commodity prices on a slow up ward trend, there remain two chief objectives to be at tained in the struggle back to prosperity. The first of these is reemployment of the idle by industry, and the sec ond is the restoration of prosperity on the farms. Al though the latter is immediately and tremendously affect ed by the accomplishment of the first of these two pur poses, the farm problem is less directly affected by tariff revision than are industry and the men and women em ployed by industry. bhali the millions of men and women now out of work and suffering acute privations because of lack of in come be compelled to wait another twelve months while the country experiments with a new leader who thus far has shown neither an adequate understanding of the mag nitude of the problems to be met nor anything that re motely approaches a program for meeting* them ? That is the question which both the leaders in in dustry and business and those employed, or seeking em pl<*yment by business and industry, must ask themselves. The policies of the Hoover administration designed to meet the present crises are known. Most of them have been given effect in legislation, and are now in operation. There is not the slightest vestige of doubt in the* mind of any man or woman as to what the Hoover administra tion, if retained in power, will do with regard to commerce and industry. No man can safely predict what the oppo sition would do if given power. * We do know*, although the election is only forty-nine days off, that Gov. Roose velt has not yet enunciated a program of economic recov ery. We do know that under the leadership of Garner there was proposed the enactment of a bonus bill which w*ould have cost in immediate cash $2,300,000,000. We do know that Garner tried to put over a huge pork-barrel bill, also requiring billions of dollars of additional taxes. We do know that ever}* fantastic project which attempted inflation of the currency and cheapening of the dollar had the support of a majority of Garner’s followers in that branch of congress which in the last session was controlled by Mr. Garner. Under such circumstances how* can any thoughtful man or woman fail to recognize that a change in the po-1 litical and economic leadership this fall would mean not less than a year's postponement of the return to normal conditions of business and employment ? --- TWO WAYS OF MEETING DIFFICULTY From the Kansas City Call In the height of his favor as a lyceum speaker, Booker T. Washington used to tell a story about two frogs. His theme was the Negro and his struggles. He wished to create a favorable atmosphere for his people,' and at the same time he wanted his people to understand what they must do to win favor. The frog story runs thus: At milking time one evening two frogs hopped into a milk can. The farmer, not noticing them, put the lid on the can. The frogs faced disaster. One of them, willing to make a quick end to what he thought was a hopeless undertaking, gave up and let himself drown. The other, believing that as long as there was life there was hope, determined t odo all he could as long as he could. He did just that. The next morning when the farmer uncovered his milk, a very deserving little striver hopped off the chunk of butter which his struggles had made during the night, and escaped with his life. We tell this story to illustrate two different meth-! ods of facing life. In the coming winter, no situation will be so bad but it can be made better by the resolute person. Only the stupid, the cowardly give up the battle without a struggle. “DIRT” We cannot help having sympathy for the Negro cooks, waiters and porters, arrested by the prohibition en forcement officers in the raids upon white liquor joints last week. We do not mean to defend law breaking. Our reasoning would soon lead to absurdities if we did. We presume that work which is perfectly legitimate else where, is a violation of law in these places, nonetheless, we sympathize with these employes. A job is so hard to get nowadays. Where some are willing to do nothing and subsist on bounty, these men and women were hewers of wood and drawers of water, with no hope of anything except the small wage. At least theirs was a proper way, if not a proper place to earn a living. We are reminded of the definition of “dirt” given by a man who had the knack of saying much in a few words. He said “Dirt is matter out of place.” The grain of sand so useful in concrete, becomes dirt under your eyelid. The frying pan, tray and broom so honorable to their users generally, apparently have no place in a speak easy. BE CRY BABIES OR MEN! (From the Kansas City Call) If Negroes registered for the November election in the same proportion as whites, then the 38,800 of us who live here in Kansas City, Mo., according to the U. S. cen sus, furnished more than 20,000 possible voters. Certain ly we did that since the 400,000 population has in it 230,000 persons registered. Of old, 20,000 votes was the number that always came tripping from the tongue of the Negro leader who went about peddling his influence for cash. Now for the first time there is good reason to believe we actually have that much leverage to be applied at the next election. 20,000 votes! Election after election in this community turns upon a smaller majority than that! Now that 20,000 have registered, the big problem from the Negro viewpoint is getting that vote cast in No vember. Mere registration is the preparation. The vot ing is the race where the prizes are to be won. If we cast our full vote in this election,—NO MATTER FOR WHAT PARTY’ W E CAST IT—we are made! For years to come politicians of all parties will be making overtures to get us on their side. Every' election there is a lot of nonsense peddled by selfish, designing know-it-alls to the effect that if we would cast our vote one way, we could get what we want. Since it is obvious that all will never be of one mind, their talk is nonsense. Further-more all do not have to cast their vote one way for the influence of our total vote to count. Politicians know' that future victories depend up on new friends made. They make overtures to whites who voted against them, and they will make overtures to Ne groes too. If all Negroes registered will vote, they will be like so many soldiers in the field, armed and ready. Every party will w*ant them. What they can do, will make them desirable regardless of what they have done. It is non-voting that imperils our race’s standing in the community. A man who has a vote and does not prize it enough to use it, is not w'orth a politician’s time and attention. What general ever counted the unarmed in finding his available battle strength ? We say as we have said a hundred times before, put your vote in the ballot box. Grumbling about rights, or jobs, or unfair officials is “cry baby” stuff. Be men! Put your brains to work! Back your thinking with every' ounce of power you have! Vote as you please, but vote! * THE NATION’S DOUBLE STANDARD (From the Kansas City Call) A Denver judge, after rendering his decision that Negroes have a legal right to all public accommodations, added as his personal opinion that such a case would not reach a court in Mississippi, and therefore Negroes in their demands should take into account the prevailing public opinion. Very true! Public opinion is at variance with the law as to the rights of Negroes. In this Denver case the law was fol lowed. In Mississippi Negroes would not even go to law, just as the judge said. These are the two extremes. It is for the citizens, black as well as white, to say which way the nation shall face. The Mississippi method of handling the two races is an inheritance from slavery days. To some degree it is the system of most white people. The Negro has a soul, they admit, and so they give to foreign missions and to the Negro church in the Negro quarter. The Negro is a good laborer in their opinion, one who is to be given employ ment—provided he is satisfied to remain on a dead level, asking no promotion, and accepting a wage smaller than is paid whites for the same work. They will even con cede that Negroes have some usefulness: an easy vote to handle, good customers within limitations, a*dmirable cannon fodder. The Mississippi system is generally un derstood. The equality for all which the law provides, is also generally understood, but not generally practiced. To es cape it, the courts and legislative bodies of the South do all kinds of trickery. Negroes put no dependence in the law in southern states, and whites have no regard for what it says are the Negroes’ rights. The philosophy which underlies the republic, namely, all men have inalien able rights, cannot muster a corporal’s guard of suppor ters in the section where the bulk of the Negro popula tion is found, and the rest of the country twiddles its thumbs in complacency while real democracy is lynched. The American people cannot keep a good conscience and practice this double standard of relations between citizens. One or the other goal must be their choice. If the right one, it will prosper. If the wrong one, it must pay the price. The responsibility for the nation’s attitude does not rest entirely upon white people. Negroes must bear a share. It is our custom to talk as if we are passive vic tims, with no part in fixing race relations. Yet every community, South and North, has in it Negroes who are counted better by whites than are other Negroes. In oth er words, it is within our power to create a better rather than a worse white opinion. We are foolish to refuse to gain an inch toward our hopes because we do not yet see how to gain a yeard. The truth is that for every bit of progress we make, there will be an increase i nthe number of whites who are willing to give us a trial at larger opportunity. o - o STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS 0 - 0 Democrats are proud of Governor Bryan for be is the only governor in the memory of the present generation who has actually reduced state taxes. More strength to his arm. Earl Danker, down at Riverton re mains to his republican faith. He told the republican candidate for gov ernor who visited his town recently, that there were “only two republicans left in the town—himself and the postmaster.” President Hoover traveled from Washington to Des Moines to tell the j farmer what a friend he had been to them—and the price of farm products fell rapidly for the following three days, and reaches new low for all times. Evidently the farmer does not like Hoover friendship. National bankers in session at Loo Angeles last week, told the world that the cost of government must coroe down. State taxes in Nebraska have already been reduced 25 pier cent, Certainly the hankers are not leaders in this movement to protect property owners from the pax burden. An Omaha business man. when ask ed why he was supporting Governor Bryan for re-election so enthusiasti cally, said: “I have lived in Nebraska twenty years and in all that time Bry an is the only governor who has been strong enough and resourceful enough to actually lower the cost of state gov ernment and reduce state taxes.” “This fight in the present campaign said a former prominent republican farmer of Hayes Center, “is my light I have finally got my eyes open to the fact that it is up to me as a farmer to save myself and that is why I am here at this Roosevelt rally at McCook to do my duty to myself and family m trying to save our heritage. Only by defeating Mr. Hoover at the coming election will it be possible for me to save that heritage.” In a speech at Central City Gov ernor Bryan analyzed the proposed police patrol system, proposed by At torney General Sorenson, from its in ception to the time it was quickly placed in a position to be submitted to the voters this fall, he tore the mantle of secrecy from the interests backing and paying for the expense of circu lating the petitions, and branded the whole scheme as an attempt to shift the governing of the people from the local sheriff to a centralized force far removed from the people. He pointed out that differing from your local of ficers. who know you and the lives you live, your little trips on the state highway* will be questioned by a pat rol that considers you from the first as suspicious characters. He pointed out that the proposed venture would deplete the gas fund by at least 1750, 000, which when matched as at pres ent with federal funds, would mean the road building fund of $1,500,000. He said to use this money for pur poses other than that for which the gas tax was enacted would be pleasing to some interests, but the simple logic from the taxpayer's standpoint would be, in case we have too much money in the gas fund, to reduce the tax. The Governor insisted that Nebraska citi zens are pretty well behaved, and that he would rather continue the road building to the extent now possible than to have such construction re stricted by using the money for the proposed police patrol. A normal mind in a nealthy body will work at need; and the best way to get the desired mood is to go to work. Mind alone can unlock the meaning of the world, for the foundations of the universe is laid in spirit. The intellectual road to success is longer and more roundabout than any other, bat they who are strong and willing for the climbing are brought to higher levels of achievement than they could possibly have attained had they gone straight forward in the pathway of quick returns. WEAKNESS OF WEALTH (By R. A. Adams) (The Literary Service Bureau) As a general thing people believe that wealth can supply to them the superlative in all that humanity needs even all it wants. But recent events attest the fallacy of this belief. The collapse of the Insull Utilities Corporations, the Kruger syndicates, snd the failure of so many other great business institutions give evidence of the instability and insecurity of wealth. The suicide of George East man, the kodak magnate, the recent death of Smith Reynolds, heir to the “tobacco millions”, and other like tragedies remind of the inaduacy of wealth to afford happiness and con tentment—the emptiness of riches. Crimea committed in attempts to get money dishonestly and the pun ishment for such crimes afford les sons as to the temptations and con sequences when the desire for gain leads to unlawful acts bringing merit ed penalties. These tragic consequences verify the contention that “The love of mon ey is the root of all eviL” and they give force to the Bible injunction, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth end rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” The weakness of wealth is resul tant from the fact that its accumula tion preservation, and retention are dependent on unstable, vacillating, human agencies. That, at best, it is temporal and transitory. GUESSING. NOT THINKING Both candidates for the presidency have spoken. Neither has given liquor the prominence it occupies in some voters’ minds. Those persons who will cast their vote wholly to express a stand on prohibition, disregarding all other issues, remind ns that the supply of folly has not run out. If we cannot find a solution of finance and employment, liquor on no liquor, the nation will be in a fix. FIFTY NEWSBOYS TO DELIVER The OMAHA GUIDE TO YOUR DOOR