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
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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The eighteenth amendment was not repealed in order to provide the
means for a legal national drunk—it was repealed because the great bulk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
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Guide