GUIDE I m «llf OMAHA ... -- „ The eye of a Master will I 11 | III gl I “No Man was e v e r do more work than his | | Ik I f \ I Glorious who was not hand --—-2- p P^ | I ~ “ m Laborous.” ■. March of Events J i X XX U City, ana Nat l Lite ^-=== ■■ _ OMAHA, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, FEB. 24,1934 __Page 6 _ 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 5 p. m.,and all Advertising Copy, or Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday at Noon. Entered as Second class mail matter, Marcdi 15, ia' 10 a ten thousand, eight hundred and fortv ($10 - 810) dollar job. v ’ r,- ’1.n® J°b t0 whicb Delaney was appointed is that of j-ax and Assessment Commissioner of New York City he b 01 seven whose duty it will be to appraise and essoss property amounting to more than eighteen billion live hundred million ($18,500,000,000) dollars. We call it a big piece of news because this is the ‘y\i!£sb salaried position in the municipal government to which a Negro of this country has ever been appointed. It might he mentioned here, however, that Ferdinand Q Morton of the same city holds a position which pays sev en thousand dollars a year as a member of the Civil Ser vice C ommission. These are worthwhile appointments and they lend hope and courage to Negro voters in many part of the country. It may be noted that Mortin was ap pointed by New York Democrats, while Delaney gets his appointment through Mayor La Guardia who holds his onice by election on what was called a “Fusion” ticket, it t ing lemembered that Mr. La Guardia before he became mayor was a representative in Congress from New York City, being elected on the Republican ticket. Incidentally, we may state in this connection that there are two Negro judges in New York elected to twel ve year terms at twelve thousand dollars a year. We call special attention to these appointments that the Negroes mother sections of the country may take notice of these things and think, then, too, public officials in other cities and states should take note of what is going on in New fork with reference to Negro voters and begin to pre pare for what will be expected by Negroes in the future. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY-GENERAL ‘DEAD GIVE AWAY According to newspaper reports, Assistant At torney General W. O. Sawyers, who was.supposed to be piosecutmg Valter Garton, charged with participating m the lynching of Lloyd Warner at St. Joseph, Mo., Nov ember 28, undoubtedly gave away his case in his argu ments to the jury. Sawyers is quoted as saying, “The vic tnn of this lynching should have been hanged,” but he d,cldgcl thcit n6 should have boon hcingod in & logul munriGr. " 1 statement coming from the prosecutor, appears to us to be a “dead give away” of his case. He has told the jury, before whom he was arguing for conviction, that the victim was guilty of the crime for which he was lynched. So far as we can see there was no reason for Sawyers to make such a statement unless he was ignorant of the way and manner in which to prosecute a case, or unless he deliberately gave away his case for fear that the jury might give in a verdict of “guilty.” Thur, it may be prop erly stated that the idle gesture made at prosecution when I Sawyers referred to the President of the United States! was what we might properly call a mockery of the words1 of President Roosevelt. In other words, those high sound-1 mg phrases were like unto a pillow fight—loud sounding, but no one meant to be hurt. It will be remembered that Lloyd Warner was innocent of the charge of rape for which he was lynched, that is, every man is presumed to be . innocent until he has been proven guilty. Already there are reports from St. Joseph saying that persons, who are in a position to know, doubt that Lloyd Warner made an attack upon a white girl. The alleged confession which was'supposed to have been wrest from Warner by the po lice is just like hundreds of other alleged confessions which prove to be false. Recently three striking cases of alleged confessions have come to our attention, one of which was a Negro youth who was lynched in Tennessee after a grand jury had failed to find sufficient evidence to sustain an alleged attack charge. Following close upon this case was that of another Negro who was lynched in Florida charged with an attack on a white woman. After a grand jury in vestigation the prosecutor stated “there was not one scin tilla of evidence” to show that the lynched man was guilty of an attack on a white woman. More recently there has been a statement from the high sheriff of Jefferson Coun ty, Alabama, following the conviction of a Negro charged with the attack on and murder of a white girl, in which he said, “I do not believe that Willie Peterson was guilty of the charge agaiust him.” This belief is shared in by many other citizens of this county including the chief of police. We cite these cases CRITICISING ROOSEVELT POLICIES Reprint from World-Herald) The Hon. Ogden L. Miller, former Secretary of the Treasury and before that a Representative in Congress from New York, is undoubtedly one of the leaders of pres ent ciay Republicanism. This iact gives added importance to the address made by him recently at Topeka, Kansas, in which he pointed out the dangers he declared to be in herent in the politics of the Roosevelt administration. Mr. Mills holds no politcal office now, although he is looked upon as a maker of Republican policies and perhaps a likely candidate for the Presidency. Declaring that there has been no popular mandate for the revolutonary changes made in the governmental and economic life of the nation, Mr. Mills demanded open discussion and honest criticism, as essentials to the func tioning of democratic institutons. Some political com mentators might assure Mr. Mills that the popular man date he fails to perceive was furnished in the popular vote for President and Congressmen in the fall of 1932. And .he Congress then elected has delegated most of its powers to the President which he has exercised through his var i ious commissions. It may be true, as Mr. Mills says, that the whole con ception of a planned and directed national economy is de structive of the fundamental principles upon which the American system rests, but the people and their represen ives appear to have accepted that idea as the only prac tical way to meet the existing emergency. Even so drastic a measure as the bill devaluating the gold dollar and seiz ing all the gold in the country was adopted by Congress with but few dissenting votes. Nine out of ten members in the House, including two out of every 3 Republicans voted to support the Presidciit’s policies. At present there is but little outspoken opposition to the President’s policies among either Republicans or Democrats, who are dependent upon the popular vote foi office. The most ntense opposition to his financial meas ures has come from such Democrats as Senators Glass and Gore, who have no fear of consequences. Mr. Mills can afford to criticise the administration because he holds no office at present, but there are not many Republicans in Congress who dare to take that risk, because they feel that the President still has the backing and confidence of the people. Should the President lose this backing through fail ure of his plans for economic recovery and readjustment, such critics as Mr. Mills will doubtless .receive a more fav orable hearing. In the meantime it is well that the open discussion and honest criticism advocated by Mr. Mills should be given its proper place in the program. TRIBUTE TO RECOVERY AIDES An unexpected and probably unintentional tribute was paid to good faith and freedom from partisan bias shown by some of President Roosevelt’s Recovery aides, in their distribution of funds and jobs to bring about a re sumption of prosperity. As reported by the Associated Press, one day last week Representative Blanton of Tex as, during a discussion of Recovery plans, rose to make the inquiry, “Who’s in charge of the spending?” THROUGH MY SPECTACLES By Vere E. Johns — - FINDING A WAY OUT Despite Several Opinions to the contrary, I am firm ly convinced that, never so much as at the present time, there is every need for all Negroes to unite for their com mon good. I can agree with those who think that we can never be a separate and complete race in the United States, because we are too divided and too independent on others for our very existence. It is and should be the Ne groes aim to take full advantage of the benefits and ad vantages that the land of his birth or of his adoption of fers—the same as others have done, even those who have come from remote quarters of the globe. The Negro seems like a giant army that has sped j swiftly across open country, then struck mountainous I country which caused it to divide up into numerous isolat- j ed groups, ajl of which have now come to a massive wall that bars their way to the promised land beyond. So far, whilt a select few have, here and there, found a crevice in the wall where they could creep through, the great mass remains still divided into small groups, some futilely bat tering their heads against the unkind wall, and others sit ting idly by, hoping for nothing, expecting nothing, and j consent to exist on the scraps that are occasionally thrown over the wall to them. The advancement 'of this people is at a standstill. There is not enough substance on their side of the wall to enable them to make any appreciable progress, amount i to anything, and if they are not able to pry an opening in j that wall, they must eventually be forced back into barren lands they just traversed, where they will perish. Only two courses are open to them—either to unite and make a concerted and continuous attack on the wall until they do break through or else to give up all ideas of getting through and start a long trek back to where they originally came from. There, with all the knowledge and, experience gained, they would be able to rise into some-! thing substantial. Unity Is Strength The Negro, today, is that giant army camped on the wrong side of the hard and cruel wall of white prejudice and injustice. The first course to pursue is to unite. At present in this country we find hundreds of little organi zations, all supposedly interested to advance the cause and status of colored people. But, either they arise, last for a while and fade out, or those that remain are at a standstill and keep going around in circles without any forward progress. There isn’t a single one of them that is big enough, strong enough or with enough numerical following to warrant their being taken any serious notice of, either by city, state or national governments. Each one is resplendent with executive officers with high-sounding titles that look very nice on paper, but as far as their power to help their brethren to advance is concerned, they are not worth the paper their names are printed on. Besides all this, they are all intensely jealous of one another, each treats the rest as contemptible and beneath their notice and point-blank refuse to cooperate with each other even when they profess to be fighting for the same cause. At times one wonders whether these peo ple are really sane or are they just damnably and cruelly selfish. If they could only be brought to the point of pool ing all their interests in one grand and concerted organi zation with everything they possess behind it. Sink personal feelings and desires of self aggrandize ment and have the voice of the majority select and elect the proper men and women to be their leaders* Such an organization should and would sweep into its ranks all the millions of Negroes scattered over the United States and | could so control, by popular consent, their economic and political movements that a ready ear would be bent at all i times to their calls by the rest of the nation. There is only one word for it—UNITE. Back To Whence Failing the above, the only other alternative is to start back to where we really belong'—Africa. This is no stunt a la Marcus Garvey. The American Negro has planted his foot in Africa—Liberia, and it is Liberia that he must look to. To allow such a fine country to be taken over by some white nation and made a dependency or col ony, and^ put into the position of other parts of Africa where the white man rules and lords it over Negroes who slave to develop the country for the enrichment of some big white nation, would be a disgrace the American Negro would never survive or live down. Liberia wants youth with brain or brawn or both—colored America has mil lions of young men and women with no future before them. College diplomas hang on the wall while their own ers wash dishes, scrub floors, shovel snow, and the gr< at majority starve and steal. What would these people lose by striking out for a new- land with new and immense opportunities. What a grand adventure for red blooded youth! Tens of thous ands of them went readily into the great war—to die for nothing—how much better now to go to live for some thing To build up a great African nation that will stand on all fours with the nations of the world and will lead the way to the reclamation of that great continent, that’s our birthright. Liberia is our hope and refuge, not only for the col ored peoples of America but also of the West Indies, Cen-! tral and South America as well. Think it over. HITLER—AMERICAN STYLE In a recent number of the American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune, Walter Hart Blumenthal, in an article upholding the right of Congress to protest against Hit ler’s treatment of the Jewish people in Germany, said: “It is a farce that we should quibble as to America’s right to denounce Hitlerism with the full import of governmental spokesmanship; it is not only a right, but a manifest duty.” Right on the heels of this came the action of Repre sentative Lindsay C. Warren of North Carolina in his effort to out-Hitler his German protatype by raising a racial issue in the public eating room of the House res taurant at the Capital. As chairman of the Accounts Committee, he ordered that Negroes should not be served in tlie House rstaurant, claiming that the practice had never come to his attention until recently. Representative DePriest of Illinois, the only member of the Negro race in Congress, took issue with this ruling and disputed the authority of the Accounts Committee to make rules for the conduct of the restaurant, claiming that such authority ceased with the sixty seventh Con gress, when it was specifically conferred and since which time no committee has been authorized to conduct the restaurant. A committee of five members was asked to investigate why such authority was exercised by the Ac counts committee and also why discrimination is permit ted against Negro citizens. Now, that Representative Warren lias started his pitiful imitation of Hitlerite methods in order to demon strate : he superiority of the so-called Aryan race, it remains to oe seen how far his colleagues will go with him. Plr. DePriest insists that lie is going to fight to bring up his resolution for a vote and debate on the floor, after it has gone to the Committee on Rules for a hearing. The committee can report it favorably or unfavorably, or even pigeonhole it. The ultimate disposition of the matter will show more clearly the caliber of the average American Congressman. # Unless Congress rules decisively against racial dis crimination in its own precincts, it would truly be a farce, for it to denounce any act of Hitlerism abroad. It is the clownish performances of such little Americans as this! North Carolina Congressman, Will Rogers and General | Smedley Butler that bring discredit on the whole country. EDITORIAL OF THE WEEK Segregation (From the Friends Intelligencer, February 10, 1934) One of the accomplishments of the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People, which is this year celebrating the 25th year nf its organization, was the carrying through to the Supreme Court, in 1914, of the Louisville, Kentucky; or dinance segregating Negroes. The iecision in this case that 'Such ordi nances are unconstitutional prevented the forming of black ghettoes all over the country into which the Ne groes would have been forced and from which they could not have es caped. But segregation exists just the same- There is both social and eco nomic discrimination practiced by the majority group upon the minority. The keynote of the Race Relations Sunday message this year is: “The spiritual and moral values so essent ial to national recovery cannot be realized when the material advan tages are offered to members of one race and denied to those of another.” At a recent interracial gathering to consider this question of segrega tion, one Negro said: “What ths white people do to us is bad enough, but what they do to their own souls by their shutting us out from the privileges of decent living, is infinite ly worse.” These discriminations are soul-searing on both sides, and as is stated in "The Creed and Christian Convictions” in the Teacher’s Man ual. “Whatever one may believe about heaven or hell as places, the main question remains not of a soul in heaven or hell, but of heaven or hell in a soul.” • • FINANCIAL STABILITY PARAMOUNT In the February issue of Harper’s Magazine Paul Tomlinson writes on life insurance safety. And the record he describes is possibly unequaled by any other industry. During depression extraordinary drains have been made upon life in surance assets at a time when the writing of new business was at the lowest point in years. Yet at the end pf 1933 the industry’s assets totaled more than $21000000000. The Reconstruction Finance Cor poration was setup by the gover’inent to aid major businesses in weather ing hard times. Life insurance is the type of industry for which the R. F. C- was primarily intended. Yet loans made by it to the companies amount ed to only one seventh of 1 per cent of their total assets as 1933 closed The achievements of ife insurance so far as its investment portfolio is concerned is equally impressive. Bonds in default represented well un der one per cent of assets and during 1933 there was no substantial rise in defaulted securities held — even though a great many concerns of var ious kinds went under during the year. It will probably be discovered that in the long run depression act ually'caused a strengthening rather than a weakening in the financial position of the legal reserve life com panies as a group. The achievement of life insurance long list. But they serve to indicate the safety the stability and the per manence of an industry whose great work is to serve ordinary citizen and make it possible for him to protect himself his family and similar inter ests- They are especialy interesting at this time in connection with Fin ancial Independence Week which be gins March 19. RECOVERY DEPEND ENT ON PRIVATE INITIATIVE Koger Babson has been , long re spected for his statements on eco nomic trends when he believes that facts and statistics justify an opin ion- In a copyright article from Bab son Park Florida he now points out the dangers of our menacing tax bill. He shows that the rapidity of cir culation of money is the key to pro sperity and that the velocity of cir culation depends upop the confidence and willingness of those who have capital and courage to start new en terprises and take risks. He lists basic industries that are still in deep depression because those who understand such industries re fuse to risk money for development unless they have confidence that their income will not be taxed away from them. “It is therefore vitally important” says Mr- Babson “for every citizen interested in restoring employment to fight against new and increased taxes-” Mr- Babson praises the President for his endeavor to raise commodity prices to the 1920 level but he points out that he should realize that to do this he must have “the same confid ence enthusiasm and willingness to take risks among business people as existed in 1920 . - . “Instead of holding back recovery by discouraging private initiative the government should offer those with capital some incentive to risk it in new enterprises and new buildings Every citizen can help by appealing to his senators and congressman as follows: “1. Protest against increases in corporate taxes income taxes and surtaxes “2. Urge that a certain percent age of funds spent by individuals for new building or new business be de ducted from income surtax pay ments. “3- Protest against increases in taxes of all types ” STUDENTS O. K. ANTI-LYNCH BILL A COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 22_ Calling upon President Roosevelt to “remember the twelve millions of colored American citizens by giving them legal protection like the rest of the popuation”, the Anti-Lynching League of Ohio State University here ’ has urged the President to back the Costigan-Wagner bill.