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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 1933)
GUIDE flflf fflMI f 1 f OMAHA . The eye of a Master will 1.1 ■■ ■ ||| I g g J I j 1 | “No Man was ever do more work than his M 1 I I I I I I B^ B ■ * I ____ Glorious who was not hand~ - March ot Events' AU1 1 U H 1 A ■ ana Nat’1 Llte ---r°US” OMAHA, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 23, 1933 4 t THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant Street by THE OMAHA GUIDE PUBL. CO., Incorporated All News Copy 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. Entered as Second class mail matter, March 15. 1927 at the Post office at Omaha, Nebraska, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUSCRIPTrON RATES (Strictly in Advance) One Years ..$2.00 Six Months. ... $1.25 Three Months $1.00 TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION—The Omaha Guide is issued weekly and will be sent to any part' <Jf the Uni- * - • tod States for $2.00 per year in advance. Foreign luhpcriptions (including postage) $3.-00 in advance. 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EDITORIAL ~ ■ I NATION NEEDS REAL TEMPERANCE In a recent Statement to the press, Seton Porter, President of National Distillers’ Products Corporation, said that his organization would stand for temperance as opposed to excess, and added, “We clearly recognize that the American people are not voting liquor in; they are voting prohibition omL” The eighteenth amendment was not repealed in order to provide the means for a legal national drunk—it was repealed because the great bulk of American citizens had come to believe that it was inimical to the cause of temperance. They had seen political corruption arise under it, which was as bad and often worse than that of the old days. They had seen an un precedented increase in crime, made possible by the vast amounts of money that illegal liquor brought into underworld pockets. They had seen the speakeasy flourish, to the poin| where, in most large cities, it ran almost as openly as the'legal saloon once did, and was even less subject to social coatroL The National Distillers have been rnnning newspaper advertisements asking the public to cooperate with the manufacturers and sellers of liquor to prevent rowdyism and to promote common sense. If the public fails in that, or if the liquor manufacturers and sellers fail in their duty of keeping the goal of temperance everlastingly in mind, repeal of prohibition will be a poor victory indeed. The solid citizens of this country demand that tfce age-old alliance between politics and liquor be broken, that the law con trol the liquor business and not the liquor business the law. Every patriotic and thoughtful manufacturer should be the first to echo those demands— CTei7 retailer should work to keep his end of the business above reproach. The United States has tried “wide open’’ liquor policies, and they have failed. It has tried absolute prohibition, an it has failed. Now it is at tempting to atieer a middle course that avoids excess on the one hand and fanaticism on the other. Whether it is to fail or succeed depends on the public, which decides all great questions. VOTERS SHOW CONSERVATISM The recent municipal elections settled one question that has been ex tensively debated of late—whether there was overwhelming public senti ment in favor of government owned and operated electric plants. And the answer was No. In brief, the result was very much as it had been in similar elections for many years—each town has its own ideas on the matter, and nothing that can be described as a national wave of enthusiasm for public power developed where the voters had a chance to express themselves. The American people have grown weary of municipal waste, graft and inefficiency. The Mayorality elections, in which long-seated, once powerful political machines were overthrown, are proof of that. The voters demand honest, effective and economical government. And it’s been the fruit of ex perience that the best way to get away from fhat is to put the city govern ment into business—any kind of business. Waste almost inevitably results. W hile there may be no graft, the red tape of bureaucracy stifles progress, pours money to the winds and hands the taxpayers a heavy deficit to pay out of taxes. The American people, as a whole, realize that this is a very poor time indeed to tamper with the springs whence come jobs, salaries, dividends and taxes. A HEALTHY TREND Daring October, according to the Life Insurance Sales Research Bureau, the general trend of life insurance sales was upward. In every section of file country the monthly experience was better than the average for the year np to that time. Where, in the first ten months of 1933, sales averaged 85 per cent of those in the same period last yeaij, October sales were 94 per cent of the record for October, 1932. It would be interesting to chart life insurance sales in relation to gen eral purchasing power and the various business indexes. It is likely that past experience would pretty closely follow rises and falls in the business cycle, while now it would probably be discovered that life insurance has the better of it. October business conditions, for example, were somewhat worse than those obtaining during the summer, yet life insurance sales were more favorable. This can best be explained by a change in the public’s ideas about sys tematic saving and investment security—a trend that has been gradually making itself felt. There is an increasing respect for the merits of life insurance by the average person—and an increasing knowledge of what it can do for him. Thousands of people who carried none in the past are mak ing a place for it In their budgets—thousands of others are using a large! share of the family income to bay more of it That’s an excellent augery for the future. It has been wisely said that • completely insured people would be virtually a depression-proof people. — WINTER BUILDING—A TONIC FOR BUSINESS The Administration’s objective to place 4,000,000 additional men at Urork this winter, insofar as construction is concerned, is entirely in keep ing with engineering possibilities, according to Edward J. Mehren, President of the Portland Cement Association. "Building in winter is definitely practicable,” said Mr. Mehren. “Some years ago construction engineers and builders exploded the centuries-old myth that construction, like the bear, should go into hiding with the first nip of fall. Methods have been in common use for years which permit of building in winder with rapidity and safety. “A survey recently conducted by the CConstruction League of the United States revealed that normally one of every ten workers in the coun try has a job in construction or in an industry dependent upon construc tion. Further, one of every five loaded railroad cars contains materials or equipment for constuction. Therefore, when construction hits a snag such as winter, all industry ar.d business, and practically alL people, suffer a drop in income and many workers get no income at all.” The Federal government and many of the states, are doig all that is in their power to live up to the pledge that thre shall not be another win ter like the last. To produce the greatest results-their eflforjs must have the cooperation of the private citizen. By building and repairing this win ter he will get bargains in construction values—and he will be demonstrating his faith in the axiom that investment and employment are better and cheap er than charity. - I Once when Henry Ward Beecher was told that he used bad grammar in a sermon, he said: “Did I; Well, all I have to say is-God help grammar if it gets in my way when I’m preaching.” VISION PLUS CONTINUITY EQUALS RESULTS The difficulties experienced by the government in formulating various agricultural codes—such as that which is designed 4o control the dairy busi ness in the New York milkshed—are having one very interesting result. They are demonstrating to the farmer that government aid, no matter how well intentioned or how expertly administered, can be of but limited and temporary benefit, and that for a solution to most of his problems he is best able to work through farm cooperative organizations. The cooperatives have the great virtue of permanence. They are there 1 10 st*y and are undisturbed by shifts in national, state or local administra tions. They are immune to the usual red-tape and log-rolling of political [ parties. They are free from diverse sectional influences. They are able to r devote their every effort to forwarding the interests of the farmers who t make up their membership. i Government experiments in farm relief, even when the best of motives lie behind them, are very apt to be influenced by partisan politcs. They are . influenced as well by a multitude of different warring viwpoints, and by t the exigencies of the hour. Of necessity, they depend mainly on getting ira y mediate results, rather than on building a sound foundation for ^he future. i And most of them, in the past, for such reasons, have ended in whole or . partial failure. f Cooperatives are going forward and doing more for agriculture than . most farmers realize. Fruit of their work appears now, but their full i achievement belongs to the future. 1 -- TAXES KEEP THE RATES UP The November Index, a publication of the New York Trust Company, contains an interesting table on the relation of taxes to gross revenue of the electric industry. Few industries have ever had so difficult a time with the tax collector. In 1902, the electric utilities paid 3.4 cents out of each dollar of consumer revenue for taxes. In 1922, they paid 8.4 cents. In 1929, when business of all kinds were at their peak, they paid 9.7 cents. In 1932, when the abso lute bottom of the depression was touched, they paid 11.8. All during de pression taxes rose constantly, exactly as they did in normal times. The Index did not show relation of taxes to net income. However, the Edison Electric Institute estimates ^hat total taxes for 1933 will equal 25 per cent of the net before deduction of taxes, interest and amortization, as compared with 19.6 per cent 1929. In the case of individual electric com panies, taxes often run far beyond this proportion, and leave hardly any net income at all. In spite of such taxation, electric rates have gone down steadily since before the war. But greater reductions, which could be made because of constantly increasing efficiency, are prevented by ever rising taxes. Tax free publicly-owned electric plants, subsidized by public “debt certificates” (commonly called bonds), occasionally offer rates below the private utility level, but at what a price to the taxpayer. If the average private utility were suddenly made tax-free, it would be able to make drastic cuts in rates, but what would happen to the public treasuries? The hunreds of millions in utility taxes they would lose would have to be replaced through higher' taxes on other property. These are facts that those who continually attack the electric industry’s rate structure usually fail to mention. BUILT TO BURN It is pobable that thousands of rural and agricultural communities in which the fire loss is extremely high because of lack of adequate protection, do not remedy the matter because they believe they can’t afford to. They feel they are unable to make the appropriations that would build and main tain a good fire department, situated at a central point where it could serve a wide surrounding area. As a matter of fact, they can t afford not to. Farm fire loss is a nation al disgrace. On a proportionate basis, it is a great deal larger, so far as j both lives and commodities are concerned, than in cities. Crops and live stock and other property, valued at millions, go up in smoke each year—be cause the nearest fire department is too far away, because it is inefficient, or because there is no fire department at all within calling distance, and be cause farm buildings are built to burn. A number of states, notably Wisconsin, have showed how rural fire pre vention may be achieved. They have developed first-class departments, with the best of apparatus and equipment, manned by a trained personnel under the command of an experienced marshal. They have put money in *he pockets of all the home owners and farmers they serve—they are helping keep taxes and insurance rates down, and are saving irreplaceable lives and property. Their example should be followed. LEVEL HEADS IN AN EMERGENCY Of late, an interesting change is noted in the editorial comment in thousands of American newspapers, particularly country weeklies and small er city dailies. Editors are questioning and opposing radical and experimental changes in our social and industrial structure. An excellent example is aflforeed by their remarks on the many proposals designed to hamper private develop aeat of electric utilities, and to start subsidized public plants to compete with them. Editors are observing that the dangers inherent in such a program are greater than promised benefits. The utility industry has provided the public with excellent service at a very reasonabe price under public regulation. Hundreds of editors are out spoken in saying the Industry is entitled to a fair deal, as distinct from po litical hamstringing. The editors do not offer these opinions because of any mere desire to favor private utility companies or other interests. They have a belief, born of observation and analysis, that the old American system in which private initiative and enterprise has always been of paramount importance, is the best, the soundest and the most workable system to encourage individual am bition and service, the world has yet known. They feel that changes in it should be made gradually, and only after a great deal of careful investiga tion—and that the changes, when made, should deal with details, and not with funamental principles. ' The future safety and protection of American institutions rests on the ability of American editors to maintain level heads in a time of stress and excitement. NOT SPECIAL PRIVILEGE—JUST EQUAL RIGHTS The position of the railroad industry on transport legislation might be expressed thus: “We want no special favors—we do want equal rights.” The strength of that stand is that it is so perfectly in accord with the public interest. Eew industries have so direct an influence on business and agriculture, as transportation. None are more vital to the national economic | and social welfare. They have been plagued, on the one hand, by stern governmental regu lation, which permitted them almost no leeway in making changes and in meeting competition, and on the other by the usurpation of much of their business by carriers which escaped Federal regulation and, in some instances, actually received governmental subsidies. The railroads survived only by cutting costs ruthlessly—by achieving higher standards of efficiency than any country’s railroad system had ever known before. And, even then, they watched their profits drop and finally touch the vanishing point. Today an army of- railroad champions has sprung up, consisting of business men, large and small, of newspapers, of public officials ranging from representatives to President Roosevelt, of public service commission ers, and so on. The Federal Co-ordinator of Transportation, Mr. Eastman, has spoken persuasively in their behalf. There is a universal demand that Congress, when it convenes, pass necessary measures to equalize transport regulation, and make possible a balanced, economically run system in which each type of carrier performs the service to which it is best adapted. If that is done, it will mean not only better transportation for goods and persons—it will mean the creation of thousands of new jobs and the unleashing of tremendous sums of money into the channels of trade and industry. Guide Platform Local (1) We must have our pro-rata of employment in businesses to which we give our patronage, such as groc ery stores, laundries, furniture stores, department stores and coal companies, in fact* every concern which we sup port We must give our citizens the chance to lire res pectably. We are tired of educating our children and permitting them to remain economic slaves and enter in to lives of shame. (2) Our pro-rata of employment for the patronage to our public corporations such as railroad companies, the street car company, the Nebraska Power Company, the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company and other establishments which we are forced to support by right of franchise. Also our pro-rata of employment in re turn for the taxes we pay in our city, county state and federal government. (4) A one hundred per cent deportment of our cit Seasons Greetings To Our Many Friends OMAHA POULTRY MARKET LIVE OR DRESSED POULTRY FRESH COUNTRY EGGS Phone We. llOO 1114 No. 54th A CASE OF v GOOD CHEER jfjft ^ 'i Storz^Old Saxon'Beer'is 'the perfect refreshment ' Eje /or thc holiday season. ^Its delicious "old country V ${ (flavor dclights’evcryonc^Ordcr a case today^and, [be prepared when friends come to call/ ©la^mfon BEER , 'ACE^nmvr^snuiCTu: ___^ CONFER ON FIRST DRAFT OF FEDERAL ANTI-LYNCHING BILL New York, Dec. 8.—The first draft of the federal anti-lynching bill which Senator Edward P. Costigan of Colorado has consented t ointroduce when congress meets next-month was completed today and a . conference upon it will be held next week by leading white and colored lawyers in cluding nationally known experts in constitutional law, according to an nouncement of the National Associa tion for the Advancement of Colored People. So many individuals and organiza tions have indicated their desire, for a federal bill that the conference-next week will endeavor not only to draft finally the strongest possible bill, but to co-ordinate all efforts behind a single bill so that there will be no confusion and division of action in the hard fight ahead in congress. The bill now drafted will be scrut inized by the whole legal committee of the N A A C P and the general counsel of American Civil Liberties Union as well as by eminent attor neys known to both organizations. Former Congressman L. C. Dyer of Missouri, father of the Dyer anti lynching bill, has written Walter White, N A A C P secretary, offering to aid the new effort in any way, even to coming to New York and speaking and conferring on the new bill at his own expense. The N A A C P asks all individuals clubs, churches, lodges and organiza tions to begin at once questioning all their congressmen and senators, seek ing their support of the new federal bill. “Voters should catch their repre sentatives and senators now, BE FORE they leave for Washington,” said Mr. White. “Wait upon them with small committees, write them or telegraph them, asking for a written statement of their position on a fed eral anti-lynching bill. “This fight to get such a bill through the next congress will be a difficult one and will require a united and unceasing campaign. A greatly | aroused public opinion is with ua, but } only by sustained effort in coopera tion with other national groups who want such a bill can we finally put it through. I do not need to say that such a fight costs money. Colored people should be wiling to put more money behind an anti-lynching fight than anyone else because they are the chief victims of lynch law. Contri butions may be sent to 69 Fifth ave nue, New York City.” Sweetheart’ Testimony Deals Craw ford Defense Body Blow— Convicted To Die. Leesburg, Va. — (CNS) — George Crawford, on trial for the murder of Mrs. Agnes V. Ilsley, wealthy sports woman, is being hurried along the road to conviction by the testimony of Bertie DeNeal his sweetheart, and other Negroes. Over the vigorous objection of Dean Charles H. Hous ton, defensee counsel, the unsigned confession of George Crawford, made in a cell in Boston, to John Galleher, Loudoun county attorney, was admit ted into the record by Judge J. L. McLemore, December 15. Convicted and sentenced to die. At 11 A. M. next Sunday morning, Dec. 24. Rev. E. W. Anthony, pastor of Salem Baptist Church will preach his Christmas sermon, subject ‘THE BELLS OF BETHLEHEM.” Come one, come all and hear this wonderful sermon. CERTAIN NEGROES ON EASTERM SHORE BLAME BERNARD ADES FOR RIOTS Has a Rabbit’s Foot But good luck follows the lad around like a faithful and devoted dog. In Tampa, Florida, Charle* Legters, wealthy insurance broker, in whose employ Stepin’s mother has been for years, gave him a lift, only recently—an old automobile and funds with which to get to New York. In New York, so the story goes, Stepin ran into Winfield Sheehan on Broadway—Broadway runs all the way up to Harlem, although it is not Read The Guide