GUIDE OMAHA 1
The eye of » Mister wifl w w i i— !▼! y-\ I 1 AA - —,
do more work than his • “No Man was ever
hand.___ ___ Glorious who was not
March of Events City, ana Nat’l Life UI>oro,M"
___ _ __OMAHA, NEBRASKA, SAT. MARCH 18. 1934 ~ ” P^gc ThrM
TH E OMAHA GUIDE
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EDITORIAL
LYNCHING AND IT EVILS
(From The Twin City of Little Rock Arknsas)
Lynching has been on the rampage for years. Un
curbed so long it has run until todjfy it is one, if not the
greatest menance to our present day civilization. We
know of its destructiveness, its havoc; what we need to
do now is to study ways and means how to arrest, yes de
stroy it. Let the state and national government enact
laws sufficiently strong—laws with teeth that will insure
its death. The Federal Council of Churches in America
has asked for national legislation to this end. The evil to
which we as W'ell as others are pointing out is a menace,
but along with it are the two evils, viz: Immorality,
RAPE. This is far too prevalent today. It is practiced by
races.
YOUNG WOMANHOOD
Today young womanhood which evidently will be
America’s motherhood tomorrow, is far too little prac
ticed. The use to be premium placed on virtue chastity so
brietjy in too many cases is not found. Let the manhood
power rise up as never before and deal this demon a death
blow regardless by whom practiced.
HOW TO STOP IT I
Court procedures are 0. K. but the best way to
stop this nefarious practice is not court proceedings. Shot j
and shell are th<> best weapons. This done in a few cases!
and others will refrain. Purity of womanhood is Ameri
ca's greatest asset.
- I
THE EAC AND THE N. R. A.
The National Urban League has organized the1
Emergency Advisory Council for Negroes wrhich is de- i
signated by the initials EAC. Declaring its belief in the j
N. R. A. as a significant opportunity for intelligently im
proving the economic and social status of American wmrk!
ers, the EAC sets out to inform Negroes of the mechan
ics and benefits of the National Industrial Recovery Act
and other legislative enactments designed to meet the
current emergency.
It recognizes that the purchasing power of 12,000
000 Negro citizens is too potent a factor in our national
economy to be subjected to exploitation such as is usually
practiced against Negroes. Consequently it intends not
only to promote awareness of the provisions offered, but
to sensitive Negroes to the point of seeking benefits pro-,
tided for in legislation having to do with public wrorks, i
farm and home mortgage loans, civil w orks, the national j
employment exchange, relief for the unemployed, and all
similar measures.
The National Council has as its Chairman, C. C.
Spaulding, highly respected President of the North Caro
lina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Members at large,
—prominent Negroes throughout the country—and
Chairmen of State Councils make up the National Coun
cil. The principal activitier are carried on by the various i
City Councils now numbering 157 and located n 32. states i
and the District of Columbia. Over both the State and
City Councils are men of unquestioned integrity and en
ergy and already some groups have shown surprising
initiative and imagination in informing Negroes of Fed
eral activtier in their local communities.
Underneath and buttressing all of this emergency
interest is something regarded by the League far more
fundamental to the economic life of the Negro. Each City
Council is to be a study group in which the rudiments of
industrial relations are to be analyzed and weighed in the
light of actual problems experitneed in its midst. The
EAC w ill deal not writh abstractions, but with actualities.
It will not have academic instructors but self instruction
in which the Council members will all participate. The
text books will be the President’s Reemployment Agree
ment the address of General Hugh S. Johnson and Cab
inet members the N. R. A. law and rulings plus the work
experiences of Negro wage earners.
How’ realistic organized labor idealism will be
made to leaders who never before understood the disad
vantages under which Negro wage earners work when
union membership is denied them! Howr necessary labor
union membership appears to workers themselves since
thy have seen the high favor the Government has bestow
ed upon organized labor! Economic theories of rent value
and price have definite meaning to the fellow who has no
money to meet his mortgage, pay rent, or purchase food.
The EAC must not be an organization of profes
sional people. If it is to serve the ends sought it will need
the experiences of the rank and file of the working mil
lions. It is more important that the masses make their
owrn contributions than that a program be planned for
their welfare independent of their having participated in
it. There is no technique fo»* doing this. There are no Dast
experiences to guide the Council in such a procedure.
Groups of working people, divided according to occupa
tions, have been brought together for vocational training.
Negroes belong to labor unions, and some have tried to
join only to be denied the opportunity. Social clubs of
ianitors. messengers, waiters, porters and the like exist.
To these information relating to labor problems must be
carried from them must be obtained accounts of actual
happenings in industry.
HOW WILL THE NECRO FARE UNDER GOVERN
MENT CONTROL?
Bv Keilv Miller
Under a Facist state ^reduction is regulated bv the
government through capital and organized labor. The
emergency powers ionferred upon President Roosevelt
are facistic in character, which our industrial and eco
nomie imnasse makes inevitable D«7noe»*aev mnsf needs
be adjourned, or at least suspended, until the emergency
is oassed. The magazine section of the New York Sunday.
Times for January 21. carries an illuminating article:
“Behind the Mark of Dictators,” illustrated by the like
nesses of Stalin, Musilini and Hitler. It might well have
added another—Franklin D. Roosevelt. The only differ
ence between him and the former three is that they have
assumed the role of the dictator as a permanent mode,
while American democracy has conferred it upon Roose
velt for a definite period. Democratic government must
needs resort to dictatorship in times of emergency, as was
instanced in case of Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War
and Woodrow Wilson in the World War. But the powers
of the dictator did not survive the duration of the emer
gency. Just how long our existing economic emergency
will last, no one has the wisdom to foresee, and therefore
it is impossible to prophesy the duration of the dictator
ship. It is too ambitious for the limited purpose of this
release to attempt to determine the effect of his dictator
ship upon the conomic future of the nation nor yet how
far it will modify our democratic traditions and preten
sions. My chief concern is to point out the effect upon the
industrial and economic lot of the Negro. It is the acting
principle of facism to regulate, if not to control product
ion through the coordination of capital and organized
labor. The task is comparatively simple where all labor is
eligible to organization. But in America black labor is not
acceptable to white labor organization. A representative
of Henry Ford, presumably voicing the sentiment of his
chief, is reputed to have said that organized labor is the
greatest enemy of the Negro. Mr. Ford has been the Ne
gro’s greatest industrial benefactor, employing Negroes
on the quota basis and allowing them to do whatever their
abilities can command. He has not been restrained by the
intalerant exactions of organized labor, 'Which at one fell
swoop, shuts out the black competitor. The government
does not, and probably will not, engage to direct the pur
pose of union labor i nthis racial respect. It is apt to leave
labor and capital unhindered in their customary prero
gatives but will confine its concern to seeing that there
shall be no wasteful friction to frustrate production.
r>
When the Government announced intention to take
over the management of the Rail Roads during the per
iod of the World War, the American Negro Academy was
then in session in the city of Washington. I was author
ized to indite a telegram to President Wilson to the effect
that the government should see to it that there should be
no discrimination among American citizens so far as pas
senger traffic was concerned under government opera
tion. This telegram was never answered. As a matter of
fact the government adopted the policy that it would not
interfere with existing racial regulations. During the
War, jim crow cars rolled unquestioned on railroad lines
under government operation. The N. R. A. does not ques
tion the prerogative of labor unions to include or exclude
whomever they will, nor yet of capital to employ or refuse
to employ whomever it will. Thus under government
dictatorship, however kindly it may be disposed to the
Negro, and however justly it may insist upon a square
deal for all employes, still the Negro is left out in the
cold with an empty to hold without content to fill his
empty stomach. Labor no longer has the incentive to en
courage Negro workers to form their own racial units,
because there is no longer work enough for all. Capital
has no further incentive to employ Negro workmen be
cause they are cheaper, for the government forbids this.
Neither is it constrained to employ Negro workmen as a
foil to hold white w orkmen in check. The government will
do this. Lo, the poor Negro is left knocking at the door of
labor and of capital, wThile the government looks on with
a pitying but an impotent ^ye. There is not work for all.
The marginal wrorker is threatened with extermination.
Not feeling able to cope with the unjust exactions of race
prejudice or to wipe out race distinction in employment,
the policy of Henry seems wisest. Give the Negro a quota
according to his numbers and adaptability so that indus
trial opportunities will be evenly distributed throughout
the population.
A DANGEROUS TIME FOR THE ARONIST
The Winter issue of “Safeguarding America
Against Fire” contrasts American sentences for the
crime of arson with those imposed in Europe, citing as
examples of European severity the beheading of Van der
Lubbe for the Reichstag fire and the hanging of the
tramp in Austria for spitefully firing a farm. Now, how
ever, the people of our own country may begin to feel
more secure against firebugs if such convictions as are
handed down in Scranton, Pa., the other day, continue to
be obtained. Arrested for setting fire to a dwelling in
which a little girl was burned to death, the defendant was
brought to trial and speedily convicted on the charge of
murder by arson and sentenced to death.
One man found guilty in Cleveland of starting a
i fire which caused the death of 13 people is serving a life
sentence, and another remains to be tried. In a case in
! Chicago, the fire burned two young children to death and
seriously injured the mother. The assured confessed, and
he and an accomplice received forty year sentences, and a
third was given thirty years.
• An arson hotel fire in St Louis, took seven lives
and resulted in sentences of seventy years for ore eri? >
inal. life imprisonment for another and hanging for a
third. Public opinion, the strongest weanon, is arousintr
itself to combat the arson evil; prosecutors and author
ities are cooperating, and loopholes in laws are being
plugged up. Times are getting more dangerous every day
for the arsonist!
A THREAT TO RECOfERY
In a letter to stockholders of one of the companies
associated with H. M. Byllesby and Company, John J.
O’Brien, president of that concern, said: “Your corpora
tion has substantial investments in public utility securi
ties wRich have suffered severe declines in market values
particularly during 1933, when unusual burdens w ere
placed upon the industry of additional federal, state and
local taxes, threats of competition from the government
and municipalities and continued demands for reduced
rates.” During the last year we have witnessed an amaz
ino- spectacle. Every effort has been made to stimulate
industries and increase their profits so they could employ
more labor, pay better wages and meet dividend require
ments, to aid recovery. The utility industry alone has re
ceived different treatment. Efforts have been made to
lower its rates—which are already far below the pre war
level—at a time when operating costs were rising rapidly,
due largely to its willing compliance with such agencies!
as the N. R. A. Special taxes, borne by no other business,
have been levied against it under laws which prohibit it
from including them in cost of operation. Public funds
have been to build tar free competing plants—even
though there is a great of power facilities in this country
now. As the duplicate public plants destroy the invest!
ments of thousands of American citizens, they also dei
stroy tax revenue nowr paid by private utilities to govern1
ment, amounting to ten per cent of all their earnings.1
These tax losses will be added to remaining taxable'
property. This situation is of vital interest to e'Tery citij
zen who owns property, has a job or has his savings in a
bank, an insurance company or industrial securities.
Utilities, normally, are great employers. They are extra
ordinarily progressive, and spend millions annualfy to1
broaden and improve their service. The major portion of;
their expenditures goes into pay envelopes, taxes, interest j
on savings, and supplies. They are among the greatest;
assets any community can Rave. Any program which j
cripples, them, in order to create political business toys, j
is an industrial crime.
THE TRAIN IS COMING BACK
Under the above title, Walter P. McGuire, editor
of the Southside Virginia News, Petersburg, Virginia,
says: “Having blazed the permanent way across the
continent—laid itself down for seemingly endless miles
across the level land, bridged every little creek and
spreading swamp and roaring river, climbed over the
mountains or blasted its way through them, the railroad
made itself perhaps the largest single instrument of nat
ional development, servant of individuals and great in
dustries ... a great American institution.”
He then points out how privileged competition, tax
i subsidized and unrgulated, has crippled and nearly de
strqyed highly taxed and over regulated railroads.
Out of this testing period, the railroads are emerg
ing into a new era brought about by imagination and
courage on the part of their managements. The Union
Pacific, for example, is pioneering what is undoubtedly
the world’s fastest, long distance land travel method. Its
aluminum train with every modern convenience has a
speed of 110 miles an hour. Editor McGuire is right. The
train is coming back—and with a vengeance.
PITY THE POOR PEDESTRIAN
Pity the poor pedestrian in the
great American traffic tangle- Dodg
ing skipping coat tails flying he con
tinues annually to account for nearly
half of all our automobile accident
fatalities.
Pity him not only because speed
ing careless brakeless light beating
motorists cut him down without
mercy invade his street Safety zones
and slaughter him as he steps from
street cars and busses—but pity him
, also because his own stupidity re
mains his unrestrained enemy- He
| still crosses streets against traffic
signals walks along the wrong side
j of rural highways with his back to
traffic plays in the street and is the
most flagrant jaywalker in the world
In this last capacity he crosses be
tween intersections"' invites highway
murder by coming out from behind
i parked cars and makes himself a pot
I shot target by crossing diagonally at
j intersections.
Pity him because last year 13440
out of a total of 29900 persons killed
in traffic accidents according to the
National Bureau of Casualty and
Surety Underwriters were members
of his clan. One in three or 38 per
cent were jaywalkers The foot travel
er is apparently the product of a
hotse and buggy age who cannot
master the rules of a motorized era
His species as such may soon be ex
tinct for his children happly are
- ;«h
♦ * ■
worlds safer. They have learned that
playing tag with high-powered cars
is a futile game- They cross at de
signated cross walks wait for the
signal light and walk on the left
hand side of the road facing traffic.
Pity the poor pedestrian but drive
reckless killer type motorists from
the road!
THINGS ONE REMEMBERS
I was feeling particularly depress
ed after reading the morning paper
at breakfast — murder* scandals the
air mail imfbroglio wars threatened
the dollar of uncertain value stock
market shaky and the worried citizen
facing the greatest taxes and the
greatest Federal debt in history—
when in came four young people past
voting age.
“Is Bim married this morning?”
asked all four
“Who in the world is Bim?” said I
“Benpamin Gump” said they.
And lo and behold the thing they
were most interested in was whether
Benjamin Gump and his lovely little
sweetheart of the comic strip were
safely wedded. And there I was
worrying about the condition of the
country.
I decided that as long as the young
people and voter* had such a sense of
humor the man troubles of our
nation would prqj|£bly be solved in
due course and in Mite of the politi
cians speculators and war promoter*.
And in line with the foregoing I
ran across the new book by Arthur
J. Burks entitled “Where Are My
People 7”
, Burks was raised in the West and
’.v«s in the East. He has written a
simple straightforward narrative
which is as unmistakaby American as
doughnuts and apple pie. Through
the history of one family—the auth
or’s own — we see the virgin land
transformed into profitable farma
and thriving towns in the “Big Bend’’
country of Washington.
The book is about real people such
as have been responsible for this
nation’s grow'th from the beginning.
They have carried on through thick
and thin through hard times and
good times and in spite of every
brand of political experiment
Would be statesmen and hard
working citizens shoud read the book
to understand the real forces that
develop the country and carry on to
greater achievements.
It will take the conceit out of pol
iticians to realize the importance of
the Gumps.
The average portion which each
man woman and child owes for Fed
era and local government debts tot
als about $300 or approximately
$1200 for every family of four. Re
payment of principal and interest
comes out of earnings of every citi
zen and industry.
MEN NOT MACHINES NEW
SAFETY SLOGAN
The recent decision of insurance
companies underwriting workmen’s
compensation risks to abandon “sche
dule ratings” marks the end of the
first era of industrial safety work.
“Schedule rating” was the method
by which insurance companies cred
ited or debited an employer on .he
physical hazards of his plant and
determined the premium paid for the
insurance Established in 1913 the
system was considered by manu
facturers and insurance men alike
as the greatest stimulus ever given
to the safety movement.
It encouraged manufacturers to
T iotect their workmen from the most
obvious dangers of industrial activi
ty. It stimulated the use of mechan
ical safeguards such as metal screens
for open machines goggles safety
shoes and leggings power belt guards
and countless other devices.
Before “schedule rating” was es
tablished conditions in factories as
respects safety were bad- By 1918
with the safety credit system well
under way only 60 per cent of in
dustrial accidents were caused by
mechanical hazards according to the
Engineering Committee of the Nat
ional Bureau of Casualty and Surety
Underwriters- Another review in
1923 showed a 50 per cent drop in
accidents attributable t o factory
hazards and mishaps were 30 per
cent mechanical and 70 per cent due
to a failure to carry on general safe
ty work.
Today the ratio is about 15 to 85.
State labor departments have made
mandatory many of the protective
devices specified in the in: urance
companies’ schedule. Other organ
izations labor unions and enlarged
conservation departments of insur
ance companies adequately administ
er the problem* considered by sche
dule rating.
As a result it is agreed the system
itself has become antiquated it no
longer serves the full purpose for
which it was established. A substi
tute has been demanded. This substi
tute is found in more individualistic
treatment of workmen's compen
sation risks under what is known as
the “experience rating plan ”
Under this plan the casualty com- ,
panies are able to study over * per
iod of years the peculiar character
istics of every risk on their books.
Such studies make known to them
. the exact causes of each and every
accident in every plant. With this
information on han^ the year able to
develop and execute safety plans ap
' plicable to every risk- The reward is
| safer operating conditions in fact
; ories and reduced insurance and pro
! duction costs to employers
Concentration on this alap of con
servation work opens <$» » new er*.
; It considers the human element in~
| industrial accidents as paramount.
SILVER PRECEDED GOLD
l Silver was the standard unit of
! value in America before gold- The
| Continental Congress adopted as a
! monetary unit a dollar containing
; 375-64 grains of pure silver
I Consequently the present move to
! remonetize silver can’t be called an
untried experiment- It is simply de
signed to put an od economic in
strument which did necessary work,
well back on the job again. In doing
that it would bring new life into an
industry which has been one of our
greatest employers taxpayers and
sontributors to prosperity—mining.