Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1935)
V.V,^V.\SV.V.V.V.,,.V.V.,.V.V.V.V.V.W.,.VJ,1'1V.,.V/.V.WAV/AVAV//AV^.V.V.,.WW. . . . EDITORIALS . . . The Omaha Guide Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St., Omaha, Neb. Phone WEbster 1750 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927 at the Post Office at Omaha, Neb., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Terms of Subscription $2.00 per year. Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man must pre vail. These are the only principles which will stand the acid test of good citizenship in time of peace, war and death. Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, JANUARY 26, 1935 SHOULD WE RESENT THIS? (What Do You Think?) The Omaha Guide wishes to ay that it is in deed a pleasure for us to print the religious, social, civic, political and personal news for the people of this community. We are very happy to serve you in the aforementioned ca‘ paciiies. However, after we have printed this type of news for you, positively free we feel that we have indeed been cheated when you, especially the clubs and organizations of this community, competely ignore us when you have job printing to be done. Some clubs, whoso news we print every week, and whose affairs we have given free publicity for months before the event, have taken what business they could have thrown our way and given to some one, whom they can never turn for a favor. Other clubs have claimed ignorance of the fact that we do job printing. How would you feel if you were a grocer, for instance, and you had credited some cus tomer when he didn’t' have money to pay and had just been a good friend to him, and as sooji as he did get some money to spend, he went to another grocery to spend his money ? Wouldn’t you, naturally,expect him to do all he could for your business by spending with you after you had befriended him? Then think how we must feel about your club news that we print free and your job printing you take to some one else when you have some money to spend. Don’t let personal feelings make you a traitor to your community. We know that we are capable of turning out attractive job printing and we believe that we can offer just as attractive prices as any other reliable print shop. At least, when you spend your money with us you are making it serve a dual purpose to pay the salaries of members who serve your community and if you are broadminded and far-sighted enough, you will see that you can help build jobs for our boys and girls of to morrow by helping to maintain the businesses of today. So at least, be fair with yourselves, as well as with us, and give us at least a chance to bid for your job printing of tickets, programs, folders, placards, stationery, invitations or any thing in the printing line that any other shop can do. We can, and will be glad to serve you. Remember, when you spend your money with us your are making it serve dual purpose. First, it pays for your job, and second, it sup" ports a community organization. The Omaha Guide is the property of the people of this community. It is your paper, and it is your duty to lend your support. We are not demanding. We are not begging. We do not want charity. We are merely ask ing you to stop choking us to death, still ex pecting us to function, and give us a chance to earn our maintenance while serving you. We do not mean that we won’t print your news because you do not patronize us otherwise It is one of our few privileges that we enjoy— representing the people of this community. But think this over, and see if you can honestly say you are being fair with yourself and your community by ignoring your own community print shop, hte Omaha Guide. WITH SLEEVES ROLLED UP Th# Dairymen’s League News, published the Dairymen’s League Cooperative Assoeia' tiou of New York, points out that the Dairy man has behind hm a strongy-saxpported, ag' gi'essive organization which is tackling dairy problems with sleeves rolled up. The League affords a splendid example of what cooperative action can do.. It has fought battle after battle in the great New York Milk Shed. It has fought, for a fairer share of the (final selling price of milk products for the farmer. It has fought for a better adjixst ment between demand and supply. It has fought for a higher standard of production and distribution. And, wh-efri alien radicLal elements attempted to disrupt the milk shed a year or two ago, destroying trucks and intim idating farmers, the League fought success fully for moderation, as opposed the extremists of either side. Other cooperatives can show similar records of achievement. Organized agricxiltxire, its sleeves rolled up, is going places. MUST LEGISLATIO N (From the Evansviile, Indiana “Press,” Jan. 9, 1935.) Among America’s achievements last year wei-g 16 lynchings. This record is the more famous in facts disclosed by he National Associa ion for the Advancement of Colored People. All of the vie" tims were Negroes. Nine were taken from peace officers by mote, four were accused of criminal assault and two of rape, four of mur der, one each of the following: stealing, asso ciation with white women, knocking dpwn a white man, writing a note to a white girl, “talking disrepectfully’ to a white man, “mis taken identity.” TVn includes the Claude Neal lynch ing, probably the most sadistically barbarous demonstration of mob fury in the his.ory of 5068 American lynchmings since 1882. It would be futile to blazon this dishonor if 1935 did not hold promise of something bet' ter. Congress today has before it the Costigan AVagner Anti-Lynching Bill, holding counties financially liable for mob lawlessness in their borders. The very threat of this measure checked the lynch evil last year. AYhile ihe bill was pending in Congress lynching stop ped completely, but when it became apparent that Congress would not act they broke forth with renewed frequency. It is believed that the publicity given the measure was respon sible for the drop of lynchings from 28 in 1933 to 16 last year. Organizations with total membership of 42 million people are requesting President Roose velt to pu' the Costigan-AVagner BilV on his “must” program. The government should no longer ignore thus evil, and the'p.epular outcry against it. “The aristocrat of today must work”— Princess Lucien Murat. EMINENT CITIZENS SPONSOR ART Exhibit o n lynching An are exhibit on lynching sponsored by a committee of eminent Americans will open at the Jacques Seligmann Galleries, 3 East 51st Street, New York Ci.y, Februarv8, running to 23. Bcalk and AVhite drawings and sculptures by no'ed artist dealing With the subject of lynching a!nd mob violence will be displayed. A number of striking works already have been received from artists and sculptors of the first rank. Among the sponsors of the exhibit aye: Louis Adamic, Dr. and Airs. Chas. A. Beard, Faith Baldwin,, ,Mrs. Courtland Barnes, Ste phen A'invent Benet, Bruce Bliven., Dr. and Airs. Ernest R‘. Canby, Senator and Mrs. Ed wa,rd P. Costigan, Mrs. Barnard S. Dectsch, Clifton Fadiman, Mr. and Airs. Lloyd Good* rich, Mrs. John Henry Hammond, Harry Han s(|i, Airs. Hekvne Alin Ro<3sen Hoogdendyk, Air. and Mrs. James AVeldon Johnson, Air. and Mrs. Oliver LaFarge, Airs. Henry Goddard Leach, Robert Nathan, Airs. Annie Nathan Meyer, Airs. AVilliam Jay Sehieffelin, Airs. Alary Simkhovich, Carl A"an Vechten, Charles H. Studin, Airs. Amy Spingam and Rose Schneiderman. “Democracy is possible only through high ly educated people.”—Newton D. Barker. AMERICAN SPIRIT—“SELF RELIANCE” In a recent address, E. M. MeCoonev, Vice President and Actuary of the Bankers Life Co. of Des Moines, observed that the cost of gov ernmental relief of distress during depression, could be infinitely greater were it not for the institution of life insurance. In the last five years, life insurance companies have returned to policy holders and beneficiaries the vast sum of $13,000,000 375 for death payments, surrender values, etc. Other hundreds of mil lions have been distributed through policy loans. A tremendous percentage of the thirteen billion has gone to widows and to people whose resources of support have vanished. It has gone to beneficiaries of once-sizable estates which, when probated, contain no value save insurnance policies. Life insurance payments have kept count less c\ff the) relief rolls, who otherwise would have become a burden, to all taxpayers—at the expesnse of their own morale and self-respect. One of the great achievements of American life is the thrift habit which manifests itself in acquiring life insurance. It is pleasant to re flect that such protection is made possible by thrift, wisdom and foresight of each indvidual. He does not depend upon “relief” furnished by others. That represents the true American spirit—“Self Reliance.” “American young people give one hope for this country’s future.”—Thomas Mann. THINGS ONE itEMEiaHEtUa ay E. in. Ho* E*. The public mis ueartl the elect ric muusay oi tue Lulled, states auused siLauieadiiy lor tue past six. or eigut years by many per sons wUu wisned to curry punite xavor by attacking someuiuig or somebouy. Boiitical attacks were onen sickening in tneir umair ness. iUe politicians used the collapse of tUe great insuii utilities to etinen tueir arguments as to in quiry oi tue “power trust aud prove tnat tue wnoie industry had oeen manipulated to ‘uio detri ment anu robbery oi tlie puonc. But whau has Happened? Tnree of tue principals in the insuii properties were tried before three typical juries in the center of the territory wnere tue properties were iocaU'i, and whL-re senti ment against the prinicpals was supposed to be greatest. In all three cases the juries brought in verdicts of “not guilty” of the various charges to defraud the' public. Nobody has yet claimed that ihe juries are tools of the “power trust.’ A fairininded person wonders if many of the blanket charges leveled by politicians against the electric industr as a whole might not tall just as if the facts were known, as did the evidence before the three juries in the Instill cases. Experience teaches that it is | well to be on guard against ony one who is continually accusing J his neighbor of wrongdoing. * Whclssale Slaughter Permitted _ A few months ago a great pas-1 senger liner burned at sea, with loss- of life totaling about 150. Re cently a crack Canadian passen ger train tore onto a siding and telescoped a “holiday special.’ A score of people died. Each of these tragic incidents headlined in newspaers through out the civiized world. Millions of people were literally horror stricken. Public and private bod ies immediately started inquires in an effort to fix the blame and punish those who were guilty. The whole force of public opinion, backed by the authority of the law, determined that everything be done to make certain that there would be no more similar acci dents. Yet those killings, horrible as they were, were infinitesman com pared with a form of accident which the piibiic accepts with complete indifference—the auto mobile killing every 15 minutes, and an injury every 31 seconds. The year showed a record killing in the United State of 36,000 and an injury total of 1,000.000. What would the poblie have done if the railroads and steamships had kill ed 36,000 persons in one year? Practically every accident whe-l ther it results in killings or only in scratched fenders, is the result of the human element. Ninety per cent of automobile drivers are safe, careful and competent. Ten per cent are reckless, careless or incomptent. And that ten per cent menaces the lives, health and pronerty of us all. If one steamship accident or a had railroad accident killing com paratively few people, causes re volution legislation to protect the public, what should he the safetv program resulting from 36,000 automobile killings in one year? NEGROES ON RELIEF SHOW A HIGHER RATIO WANTING EMPLOYMENT By Edgar G. Brown The proportion of Negroes, 16 to 64 years old, who want work is great er than the proportion for the whites in the urban relief population, ac cording to reports coming in to Harry L. Hopkins, Federal Emergency Re lief Administrator, from his staff of research and field workers. The greater proportion of Negroes on relief who want work, as compared with the whites, is due, it is believed, to the greater percentage of Negro women than white women seeking work. In both races, 91 per cent of the men and boys of -working age on relief want work, bdt in the Negro re lief population, 64 per cent of the wo men and girls -want jobs, nearly twice the proportion of white women and girls in this category (34 per cent). These figures would indicate that more Negro women than white women have been forced by economic circumstances to consider themselves as work-seekers rather than as house wives. Of 2,000,000 Negroes on relief in towns and cities of the United States in October 1934, more than 1,150,000 were estimated to be between the theoretically employable ages of 16 and 65. Of these, more than 880,000 or 76 per cent, were looking for work or demonstrating their employability by holding non-relief jobs (though the resulting incomes were so small as to make supplementary! relief necessary). Only 24 per cent of the Negroes on relief, of the theoretically employT able ages, were disqualified from the search for work by disabilities, home duties or school attendance. In the urban relief population as a whole, including Negroes, whites and other races, the proport on of persons between the ages of 16 and 65 who v anted jobs was 65 per cent. Those who considered themselves unem ployable amounted to 35 per cent or nearly one and a half times the pro portion of Negroes in this classifica tion. For the white relief population alone, the proporton wanting work was 63 per cent and those who re garded themselves as unemployable amounted to 37 per cent. On the basis of the findings of the “Survey of Occupational Character istics of Persons Receiving Relief in 79 Cities”, conducted by the FERA, it is estimated that 840,000 Negroes on the October urban relief rolls who wanted jobs had had previous work experience. This number represents about 95 per cent of all those who wanted work. In the general urban relief population, aged 16 to 64, in cluding all races, the proportion of experienced workers to the total workers was 93 per cent. If jobs were available, the Negroes on relief could fill a variety of occu patons. Only about 13,000 or one and a half per cent of the experienced workers had been professional per sons or business proprietors or offi ials. About 18,000 or 2 per cent were formerly white collar workers, such as salesmen, office clerks, investiga tors, bookkeepers, cashiers, steno graphers, and telephone and tele graph operators. Skilled workers and foremen num bered approximately 73,000 or about 8 percent of the experienced workers including building trades craftsmen, machinists and mechanics. Nearly 160,000 or about 18 per cent of all ex perienced Negro workers on relief, had been semi-skilled workers. Most cf these had been employed in manu facturing, which accounted for more than 100,000 workers. Chauffeurs made up the majority of the non manufacturing semi-skilled Negro workers. Two-thirds of all Negro workers on relief were unskilled,—nearly 580,000. About 400,000 of these, of whom more than 320,000 were women, had worked in personal service occupations, as ho tel or household servants, janitors, cooks, and laundry workers. The bal ance of the unskilled workers, about 180,000, had been laborers. PREPARE FOR HEARINGS ON ANTI-LYNCHING BILL New York, Jan. 18.—Preparations are being made for the appearance of witnesses at the hearings on the Cos tlgan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill which are expected to be held in the next few wreeks before the judic iary committee of the senate. The hearing this year will not be as elab orate as the ones last February 20-21. A selected list of witnesses will be invited to appear. Most of the ma terial submitted last year will be placed in the record. HUEY LONG IGNORES LYNCHING AND FRANCHISE FOR NEGROES IN HIS FIGHT FOR 'POOR MAN’ Senator Gives Interview to The Crises, Declaring He ‘Won’t Touch’ Ques tion of Negroes Voting in South and Can’t Do Any thing About Lynching. New York, Jan. 18.—Senator Huey P. Long, the Kingfish of Louisiana and possible candidate for President in 1936, gave out his first interview on Negroes to The Crisis magazine here last wreek and in it ignored the ques tion of Negroes voting in the South and the question of lynching. The Kingfish, who talked with Roy Wilkins, managing editor of The Cri sis, for thirty minutes, said he “w'ouldn’t touch” the question of Ne groes voting in the South. He said it was one of the things that “even Huey Long” couldn’t handle. The complete interview appears in the February issue of the Crisis, on sale this week. On lynching, the Kingfish dodged a question about his attitude on the Cos tigan-Wagner bill. It is well known that he opposes it. Questioned about the lyrfching of Jerome Wilson in Franklinton, La. on January 11, the day before the interview, Senator Long said that lynching had “slipped up’ on him and the state, but ex pressed the opinion that the lynched man was “guilty as hell.” He rambled on, talking about his belief in education for Negroes as well as whites, telling how he had distributed free school books when he was governor of Louisiana. • He also dwelled at length on public health fa cilities which he said the state of Louisiana was maintaining for Ne groes. The Kingfish, clad only in a suit of maroon silk pajamas, received his call er in his bedroom at the Hotel New Yorker. He was courteous except that throughout the interview he used the word “nigger” coninuously. He said Negroes in the North were welcome to join his “share-wealth” clubs because they could vote. He was not concerned with Negroes in the South because they cannot vote. He denied that he is definitely going to run for the Presidency in 1936, but it would be easy to turn his “share wealth” clubs into political organiza tions almost overnight. Another leading article in the Feb ruary Crisis is ‘Jtaly over Abyssinia’ by J. A. Rogers, famous writer and traveler, who was present in 1930 at Lhe corcnaton of the Abyssinian em peror. He declares Italy: cannot af ford to make war in Africa, so far from home, and that England and France wil not permit Italy a free hand in the Ethiopian kingdom. ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS Ask a dozen economists this question: “llow great a debt can the federal credit stand?” The chances are that you will get a dozen different and opposed an swers. Not so many years ago finan cial authorities fearfully forecast that he nation debt would soon reach the 10 billion dollar mark, said that this would mean the be ginning of a collapse in the na tion’s credit. Today the debt has passed 30 billion dollars, and some authorities believe that it will reach 50 billion before many years have passed. Yet little fear is now expresed as to slpvncy of our government. Treasury offi cials say that 50 billion dollars would not be an excessive debt for so rich a country. The President’s budget mess age was predicted upon the theory' that it will be possible to achieve a smaller deficit in the 1936 fiscal year than in the 1935. Federal bookkeeping today is done under a sort of dual system. One set of books takes care of the regul ar budget. Anoher involves e" mergency expenditures which, in the view of the Administration, are much like war expenses and 1 so cannot be carried on the books j as normal spending. This sys tem has led to contusion of the' public which has been told, on the one hand, that the government i is cutting costs, wh:le on the; other hand, it sees the deficit and taxes constantly rising. Es'imated recipts for the 1936 fiscal year reguar budget total $3.422.000,000—an advance of; $299,000,000 over 1935. Estimated expenses are $3,322,000,000, a rise of $544,564,243. This leaves an encouraging estimator surplus, so far as regular income and spend" inrr is concerned, of $122,000,000. The next, step, however, con cerns the. emergency budget. The! Administration plans to spend I some $4,582,000,000 for extraor dinary purposes, asopposed to bp income of $.570,200,000 which wall j rnme from various AAA activities. | This leaves a deficit of $4,112,000- j 000. As a result, total expenditures for “regular” and “extraordin ary” budgets will be $7,844,000, 000 a drop of $124,543,000 from 1935. Total receipts from all sources will be $3,992,000,000, a rise of $281,000,000 from the pre ceding fiscal year. The total net deficit will thus be $3,892,000,000 ($414,000,000 less than the 1935 deficit) whch muist be added to the soaring national debt, bring it close to the 35 billion mark, There is the budget situation in a nut shell. Great as the deficit is, the Prsident and many finan eial experts say it is “well within the nation’s resources.” Tt re mains a fact, however, that the na tional debt must eventually be paid—ad that in the meantime hundreds of millions a year must he spent for interest. All of this money has to he raised by tax ation, and the greater the debt, the greater the burden on. indus trv—and the less money it has for other purposes. Nineteen thirty-six interest expenditures, for example, will come to the neat sum of $875,000,000. a jump of 41,000.000 over the 1935 fiscal term. To get away from the economic aspects of he budget, one of its most interesting phases is the pro posed expenditure of 900 million dollars for national defense. Tf Congress authorizes this expendi ture, as it probably will, 1936 will witness the greatest “peace-time war expenses” in the nation’s history. The President announ ced these figures without com ment—it is obvious however, that +hey are principally necessary hv Japan abrogation of the treatv. Two years from now, when the treaty expires, Japan will start to build naval craft on a grand scale, and the Fnited States must keep up with her. At the present time our naval strength is -well below our treatv limit. This ton nage deficit will he made up, for the most part, within the next two years. “GOD AS A MYTH” BY R. A. Adams (For the Literary Service Bureau'' The press dispatches of a few days aco carried report of senate proceedings in Mexico, in which en effort was made to drive re ligion out of the country. The movement was especial! against the Homan Catholic Cflurca. la a heated tirade against the church against religion, in general, this senator declared, “ \\ e must drive on. religion and make Mexico an atheistical state; we must make the people know that Clod is hut a word, a myth.” Reading this one is incliined to quote David, and question, “Why do the heathen rage, and why ima gine a vain thing?” This move ment is characteristic of the mo dern materialistic and a'heistic trend, and the folly would be a* musing but for the serious menace to such as are weak enough to be influenced by blatant and un founded fallacies, ions attention to this foolish effort ions attention this foolish effort, or if any of the fai hful ones should become at all fearful, let them remember the tower of Ba bel, and the disastrous attempt to climb up and take Cod’s kingdom by violence. Figuratively, God laugh at the Babel builders, and, when it pleas ed Him, He ended their folly sud denly. So. He must laugh at the futile efforts of today to out-law Him and drive Him from His own creation. Man’s nature is religious. He is innately worshipful. Abandon ing God, the true God, he will worship other gods. They may be material idols or sueh intang ible things as knowledge and pleasure, but worship, he will. All these who feel this foolish unatu^ al urge to turn from God and count H'ui a myth, are advised to read 115th Psalm, which tells of the impotence of other gods and the destruction of those who wor ship them. COLLEGE PRESIDENTS MUST NOT ASSIGN FERA SCHOLAR SHIP STUDENTS TO MENIAL TASKS A special bulletin on the FERA stu dent-ad program was issued this week by Administrator Harry L. Hopkins to strengthen and improve the char acter -of work projects to which col lege presidents may properly assign eligible men and women students. The attention of Dr. Lewis R. Al derman of the United States Office of Education who is Director of the FERA Emiergency Educational Pro gram, has been directed to the mis use of funds allocated for student-aid by certain Negro college presidents in the South and the West as outside the spirit and intent of the program. The bulletin states, “In the assign ment of students 'to jobs, it is highly important that theiy be given work compatible with their interests and abilities.” The colleges and individuals con nected therewith are advised not to use student-aid beneficiaries as their servants. The FERA rules and regu ations specifically preclude such reg ularly maintained routine jobs as dishwashing, house work, waiting on table, laundry work, janitor service, window cleaning, bell ringing, elevator operating, care of locker and shower rooms, painting, general carpentry, furniture repairing, lawn mowing, raking leaves, watchman service ,and office activities such as typing, grad ing papers, stenography, maliing, filing, messenger service, library cir culation service, etc. Further, no work of a non-public, sectarian, or private nature is permissable, under these latest rules and regulations is sued by the FERA and the United States Office of Education. The determination of the eligibility of the individual applicants for aid from the stand point of “financial status is another point which is given classification. The FERA rule reads: “The students’ financial status shall be such as to make impossible his at tendance at college without this aid.” (Mr. Hopkins’ letter of July 3, 1934). “All other considerations, such as ability, scholarship, and personality, should be secondary”. The following paragraph on the payment of students is an important part of the Federal regulations: “Inasmuch as the earnings of a student under this program are ex pected to represent the deciding fac tor as to his ability to remain in col lege, it is essential that students re ceive pay in actual cash rather than credit on accounts or against college debts.” The regulations contemplate a reg ular system of supervision of all students on university work projects To quote again the FERA regula tions: “Careful personal supervision by each head of department or instructor of the work of all students assigned to him. “Perodical inspections by faculty committee designated for that pur pose.” “Regular inspections by FERA stu dents designated for that purpose. “Requirement of weekly reports of work done. “In cases where the institution has delegated responsibility for supervis ion of off-campus jobs to public agencies it is advisable for the insti tutions to be certain that such agen cies are equipped to supervise the work efficiently. In any event some systematic plans for inspection and supervision by college authorities ^should be adopted”.