Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1934)
GUIDE T OMAHA The eye of a Master will -== do more work than his 1 I “No Man "as c v *r llBII»_____ | - _1 Glorious who was not — March of Events Jj City, ana Nat’l ~UtT - ■ • Lab°r°US".— ____OMAHA, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1934 page 7 TH E 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 Sum ,and all Advertising Copy, or Paid Articles, mt later than Wednesday at Noon. Entered as Second class mail matter, March 15, 192 at the Post office at Omaha, Nebraska, under the act of Congress of March 3, 18/9. SUSCRIPTION RATES (Strictly in Advance) One Years ..$2.00 Six Months . $1.25 Three Months. . $1.00 TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION—The Omaha Guid.- ia issued weekly and will be sent to any part of the Uni 1 d State? for $2A0 per year in advance. Foreign mbs<riptions (including postage) $3.00 in advance. Triai six months’ subscriptions. $1.25. Trial Three Months’ • ub.-.eription $1.00. Single copy, 5 cents. RENEWALS- In renewing, give the name lust as it appears on the label unless it be incorrect, in which case please call our attention to the mistake; and al ways give the full address to which your paper has betn sent 1 CHANGE OF ADDRESS- Th ordering a change of address, always give both old and new addresses. If five paper does not reach you regularly, please notify us at once • ADVERTISING RATES—Given upon application. REMITTANCES—Send payment by postal or express money order, cash in registered letter, bank check or i stamps. • OUR ADDRESS Send all communications to The Omaha Guide Publishing Company. Incorporated, 2418.20 Grant St., Omaha, Nehr] EDITORIAL 1 TAXES STAND IN THE WAY The weight of taxattion is likely to be the most defi nite barrier to speedy and complete recovery. At the mo ment, according to the New York Times, the national debt is $23,000,000,000—an almost inconceivable sum, that must eventually be paid from the earnings of business and individuals. Recent appropriations, a detailed report of the Na tional Industrial Conference Board points out, may amount to more than half of the indebtedness now out standing. This is not a criticism—it is simply a fact. The public works bill embraces appropriations totaling $3,150, 000,000. The agriculturol act will cost $1,100,000,000; farm credits, $2,485,000,000 and home loans, $2,200,000, 000. It is estimated that the bank deposit guarantee law involves a total federal obligation of $2,000,000,000. Not all of this money is lost to the taxpayers, of course. Some consists of loans which wrill be repaid, and in the case of the banking law the expense is entirely de pendent upon future events—it may cost the taxpayers nothing and it may cost them the entire potential obliga tion, Again, in times of emergency, there may be reasons for spending at o rate that would be considered insanely prodigal in more ordinary times. But there is ample evi dence here pointing to the need for extreme care in future expenditures and, as the New York Times observes, the critical importance of maintaining confidence in Federal credit. In brief—it would be possible to spend so much in seeking to bring recovery that the weigdit of taxation would make that achievement impossible. — COOPERATIVES AS EDUCATORS In the past few years, much of the most important! work of farm cooperative organizations has been in the field of education. J ' I KiJr . .1 Only part of this educational activity has been direct ed at their members and other farmers. The public has I shared in it. So have government officials. So have busi ness men. Progressive cooperatives are making the de sires and needs of the farmer understood by the urban and political worlds. The full effect of that work has not been seen yet, but it is not difficult to grasp its importance. At the moment the general public is probably better informed on the farm situation, and is more sympathetically minded to-1 ward agriculture, than it ever has been before—largely because of the cooperatives. And there has never been a time when representatives of the organized farmers j found so ready a welcome at Washington, and so eager an audience to listen to the advice they have to offer. The hand of the cooperatives is aparent in some of the most important paragraphs of the recent agricultural act. The work of the cooperatives is never-ending—j they’re meeting new problems daily, battling them, and winning. They’re laying the soundest foundation on which to build, that agriculture ever had. They’re getting rid of old ideas, outmoded methods, lethargic and igno rant attitudes of mind. They’re deserving of the utmost success. ANOTHER SIDE OF ELECTRIC RATE PROBLEMS Much of the excitement over the supposed high price of electric power is the direct result of a misunderstand ing of the costs the producing utility must pa,y before it can have an abundant supply of energy ready for the cus tomer’s beck and call. * A good example of this occurred some time ago in Massachusetts. Customers of the Cambridge utitlity ap plied to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities for a decrease in rates. Existing rates for domestic use were five cents for the first 200 kilowatt hours, and fou^ C cents for the balance, with no minimum charge. In denying the petition, the utilities department pointed out that the average customer of the Cambridge concern used less than 40 k. w. h. per month, for which he paid just under $2.00. It then said that the expense to the company for furnishing domestic power was $1.20 per month per customer, entirely apart from energy cost. In other words, the cost of maintining facilities for trans mitting power to the home, paying taxes, and so on, came to $1.20 before a single kilowatt hour of power was used. The customer pitying $2.00 per month was in reality paying 80 cents for the power he used—bringing his kilo watt hour cost down to two cents. In cases where con sumption was still smaller, the kilowatt hour cost dropped to as Jittie as two mills—much less than the energy actual ly cost the company. In conclusion, the utilities depart ment said that many of the company’s customers returned it no profit whatsoever, and that many more caused it a loss. Here is a phase of power service that applies to every utility, public or private, and to every ccimmimitJtv. It’s one of the many answers to ili-consiuei ea ac-umius for unjustified rate reductions. MAKE THE POLICY FIT THE FACTS It has long been one of the principal arguments of those opposed to government owned electric develop ments, that the nation is already over-powered with facilities offered by private plants. This argument was used in the debate over what to do with Muscle Shoals— statistics demonstrated that private utilities serving the area which could be reached from plants at the Shoais, had potential power supplies in excess of what the most optimistic authorities thought demand might become in twenty or thirty years. Now, strangely enough, David Li'lientthal, principal spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, says that the nation possesses a tremendous surplus supply of elec tricity, and that within the Tennessee Valley itself the privately owned companies have generating and trans mission facilities which can care for between 30 and 40 per cent more demand than is now made. The cure for \ this, Mr. Lilienthal also says, is to stimulate, in various j ways, use of power. These facts have been constantly em phasized for years by supporters of private development of the electric industry. To the average citizen it will seem an odd policy for the government to spend tax money by the millions to! create something of which we already have a great sur plus! And, even anticipating an astounding gain in de mand in the next decade, tax-exempt projects which make it impossible for .private companies to adequately finance developments, are hardly in the public interest. The most zealous advocate of* public ownership has never urged that government should take over all power properties at once—even he knows that private concerns, with their great network of facilities and taxable assets, are the backbone of electric production. When more powrer is needed, they will bn called upon to furnish the great bulk of it. Establishing a policy of taxing and legis lating them out of business and destroying the invest ments of millions of people and the earning powrer of their billions of savings, does not quite fit into the picture. There appears to be a discrepancy in the argument that government powder development is needed to serve the public. WHERE OPINION IS UNANIMOUS In a recent address, Carl Gray, President of the Un ion Pacific, made a large number of quotations concerning the railroad problems, from sayings and w7ritings of var ious observers—public officials, member of utilitites com missions, executives of large and medium-sized businesses and so on. They displayed an amazing unanimity of opin ion—all believed that unregulated, helter-skelter, compe titive practices between different types of common car riers is destructive to business, and that there should be unified, equitable regulation that regards all carriers in the same light. It is Mr. Gray’s opinion that this regulation should be made part of the* duties of the Interstate Commerce Commission—an opinion shared by most authorities. The Commission has had vast experience in observing and regulating the railroads. It would be eminently fitted to exert similar authority over trucks, barge lines and other carriers, and provide the nation with regulation wThich is not restricted to one form of transport. It has been rumored that Mr. Roosevelt plans to bring definite proposals for handling the transportation prob lem before Congress when it meets again, and if they are in line with his previous statements on the subject, a" defi nite advance will be made tow7ard settling a question which grows increasingly important. A LESSON WELL LEARNED It’s often said of life insurance that it has taught the nation the meaning of thrift. Life insurance has done something else, the past few years especially, that is of equal value—it has shown the average citizen what sound investing is and isn’t. It has shown him the difference between an invest ment and a speculation—and he has learned that very few people are sufficiently supplied with excess funds to take fliers. He has discovered, expensively and painfully, that genuine investments don’t often return 20 per cent dividends—and that you can’t double your money over the week-end, with safety. More and more life insurance policies, large and small, are being sold purely because of the investment angle, the purchaser believing them best fitted to guaran tee him an income or an estate. That is what life insurance, aided by that other great educator, depression, has taught the American people. And it’s pleasant to record that as more jobs are provid ed, and general purchasing power rises, concrete evi dence is appearing in the life sales figures to prove that the lesson isn’t easily forgotten. ___ RANSOM MONEY! The oil industry, says Baird H. Markham, director of the American Petroleum Industries Committee, is captive ! of the tax collector. The motorist—who actually pays a “ransom” in ex ' orbitant taxes every time he buys gasoline or other petro-, ! leum prodccts—will say “amen” to that. And he knows only a part of the story. He probably doesn’t know, for example, that the industry’s tax bill now exceeds $1,000, 000,000 a year—a colossal burden laid upon the shoulders of those who drive automobiles. He doesn’t know that the gas tax alone has grown 7,500 per cent in rate and 6,00u per cent in revenues in 14 years-a degree of ac celeration that must be unprecedented in the annals of j taxation. . And this isn’t all of it by a long shot. The legislatures ; aren’t satisfied yet. Campaigns are on foot to place new severance taxes cm oil products, to increase crude oil production taxes, to impose new taxes upon already over i taxed wholesale and retail outlets. Whether these pro posals fail of realization or not, other campaigns will be instigated, other taxes advocated, new burdens de manded. When you buy ten gallons of gasoline, you are, on the average, paying sixty cents to the tax collector directly— through the federal and state sales taxes. Ill some local ities you pay appreciably more than this, with the possible addition of a municipal levy. Even then you haven’t foot ed the whole bill. A very substantial percentage of the price of gasoline, not including the sales tax, represents one or other of the 24 taxes the oil industry pays the federal government, the 68 taxes it pays the states, the five paid to county governments, and the 19 paid to muni eapilities. The net cost of gasoline, separate and apart from the high cost of taxation, makes it one of the cheapest | commodities on the market, in the light of 1913 values. LETS BREAK A TRADITION Traditions, even when most ridiculous, die hard. And I it’s an unfortunate thing, that a sort of tradition has1 grown up in this country to the effect hat the only pos sible time for building and repairing is in spring and summer, and that fall and winter are not to be considered. As a matter of fact, winter is an excellent time fori building and repairing in most localities. The construe--* ton industry is just gettng on the road to recovery. It is j preparing for a revival that will materialize, in the view of experts, in the near future. Materials and contract prices are still extremely low—but they ar starting up. This winter, in all probability, offers you your last chance to get in “at the bottom” so far as buildhig costs l are concerned. Unprejudiced observers, particularly those who gather statis\'cs and follow trends, are of the opinion that it’s impossible for real estate and construe- J tion prices to sink further—and that rises are just over the horizon. This is the time when savings are to be made —whether they be a couple of thousand dollars on an en tire new house, or a couple of hundred o nrepairing or re conditioning the old one. Investment and employment are better than charity. SPECIAL TO THE OMAHA GUIDE From the United States Department of the Interior Office of Education, Washington “Education in the United States has been greatly af fected by the recovery program,” declared United States Commissioner of Education George F. Zook today an nouncing publication by the Office of Education of a siun mary of “Education in the Recovery Program.” “Effects of the recovery program in the school field are beginning to become clear,” he pointed out. “Mil-! lions in PWA and CWA funds are going to benefit schools. Creation of the Federal Emergency Education al Program under the F. E. R. A. will employ 40,000 unem ployed teachers. An educational program in the Civilian Conservation Corps camps will serve 300,000 young men. The staff of the Office of Education takes satisfaction in cooperating in these and other emergency projects that touch elbows with education.” How and where thesee emergency projects touch el bows with education is described in a 20 page special sec tion of SCHOOL LIFE, official monthly journal of the Office of Education: N. R. A. (National Recovery Administration) whose codes banished chrld labor thus increasing school enroll ment, affected all supplies schools buy, set up training standards and wage rates for apprentices and learners, and sharply increased the extent of the problem confront-! ing schools in helping Americans to make use of their’ leisure time to advantage to themselves and their com-, munities. P. W. A. (Public Works Administration) which has allotted more than $50,000,000 of itr $3,300,000,000 in grants and loans for the construction and repair of school buildings. F. H. C. (Federal Housing Corporation) whose plans , for slum clearance and large scale housing include con sideration of nursery schools, playgrounds and other sdu cational advantages. C. W. A. (Civil Works Administration) which has' engaged thousands of unemployed persons to paint and repair schools, improve school grounds and playgrounds which had been neglected due to lack of funds. C. W. A. workers are also making an occupational survey of the deaf and hard of hearing to provide schools with data for guidance of handicapped persons. F. E. R. A. (Federal Emergency Relief Administra tion) which is employing 40,000 unemployed teachers on six kinds of projects: (1) to teach in rural schools which otherwise would have to close due to lack of funds; (2) to teach adults unable to read and write; (3) to provide gen eral adult education (4) to teach persons in need of voca tional education; (5) to teach persons suffering from physical handicaps (6) to organize and teach nursery schools. Members of the Office of Education staff have been assigned to help the States carry out these projects. E. C. W. (Emergency Conservation Work, also called Civilian Conservation Corps) for which the Office of Edu cation's developing an educational program in coopera tion with the War Department. Educational advisers are beng selected for 1,468 camps. i A. A. A. (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) which is enlisting the aid of vocational education in the development of the farm product control program. (To be continued next week on Editorial Page.) . . > F. B. WASHINGTON GIVEN IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT POST ♦ . *, • • Appointed Assistant to Director of C. VV. A. to Protect Interests of ! Negroes in the New Deal Washington, D- C., Feb. 1.—Addi tibnal protection for the Negro’s .in terests in the “New Deal’’ was pro vided for here today by the appoint ment of Forrester B- Washington. Di rector of the Atlanta School df Social Work, as an assistant ot Harry L Hopkins, National Director of the CWA, which administers the Govern mentt’s program of civil works and reief- Mr. Washington’s titlte will he Director of Negro Work of the Fed eral Emergency Relief and Civil Works Administrations and his duties will concern all phases of relief and civil works as they affect Negroes in all parts of the countrty. While his headquarters will be in Washington, he will continue as director of the Atlanta School of Social Work, of which he has been the head since 1927. *, The appointment of Mr- Washing ton to this important national post s a logical recognition of his special ized training in social work and h:s distinguished career in that field- A native of Salem. Mass-, he is a grad uate of Tufts College and Columbia University and an alumnus of the graduate school of Harvard. Finish ing Columbia with an M- A. degree in 1917, he immediately became di rector of the Detroit Urban League; then supervisor of Negro economic* in the Federal Department f Labor; then director of the research bureau of the Associated Charities of De troit; and in 1923 executive of the Armstrong Association of Phila delphia, where he remained until called to head the newly organized School of Social Work in Atlanta. During this period he directed a num ber of important social surveys and prepared many important reports and papers on social work. Mr. Washingtton is a member of the National Conference of Social Work, the Commission on Interracial Cooperation,' the American Associa tion of Social Workers, the Ameri can Association of Social Hygiei. • the Georgia Council of Social Work, the District Committee cf Boy Scout*, and the Atlanta Social Work Coun cil, Famiy Welfare Society, Tuber culosis Association, Community Chest Community Service Trr.ining School, and Economic Advisory Committee. He is connected also w ch a number of benevolent and nal organiza tions. The long roll of Mr. Washington's connections indicates sufficiently the high esteem in which he is held in his chosen field of Social work. Hm new position will afford extraordina ry opportunities for wide and effective sei-vice in the natinal recovery pro gram. HARLEM HOSPITAL REPORT GOES TO COMMISSIONER New York, Feb. 2-—The much-dis cussed report of the distinguished committee of physicians and laymen on Harlem Hospital was officiary submitted to Dr. E. E. Goldwater, the new Commissioner of Hospitals, on January 30, by Walter L. Niles, head of the investigating committee, James Marshall, a director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Pople, and Walter White, its secretary. In an accompanying statement to the Commissioner, the N- A. A. C- P which initiated the investigation, stated that it “feels that colored phy sicians and nurses should be admitted to all municipal hospitals in the City of New York if properly qualified and if they have all other necessary re quisites for such positions . • • Much of the difficulty in the Harlem Hos pital situation is due to the fact that Harlem is the only hospital to which Negro doctors are admitteed to staff positions and internships- There re sults thus a keen competition for jobs”. The statement also called at tention to the health problems of Harlem and of colored America. In accepting the report. Commis sioner Goldwater asserted that sever al groups of Negroes from Harletn had visited his office denouncing the Association, to which he had replied: “If you comedown here to complain against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, I will not listen to you, because I have for many years known of its high character and integrity- If, however, you have any suggestions for the good of the hospital, I shall entertain them-” Subscribe For The Guide