. ’ ■ ■ ■ ,,r> ■^.V.V..WWAV,mSVAV,V.WA*.VAV.W,
. . . EDITORIALS . . .
■.■.VAV.V.SV.,.V,V.,,V.Vr,,V,,,V.V.,,V.,.W.W.'J'A'A«Jj^MjjJi. . . .....................
The Omaha Guide
Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St.,
Omaha, Neb.
Phone WEbsrer 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, May 11th, 1935
"
So This is Democracy
A large majority in Congress wants to enact a
Federal anti-lynching law. A large majority of the
citizens of the country favor such a law. This has
been so for many years. Then why isn’t there a law ?
Sinee this is democracy in which Congress is elected
by popular majorities and in which Congress itself
acts by maojrity rule, how could the Senate yester
day throw out the anti-lynching bill and prevent
majori y rule?
Well, is seems that ours is a democracy in text
books and Fourth of July orations but not in the
Sena e. There, peridocially it is possible to rule by
minority dictatorship. The method is not the one
of stuffing i he ballot box, or of kidnapping or ter
rorizing the majority. The method is much simpler.
The minority merely decrees that there shall be no
vote at all. This is achieved under the rule of un
limited debate by which the minority talks a meas
ure to death. It forces the majority to turn to other
emergency legislation acceptable to the minority
dictatorship; so that the minority can palm itself
off as the majority.
While congratulating the southern senators on
the effectiveness of their dictatorship, we venture
to raise this question for their consideration. Is it
wise, from their point of view, to kick democracy
in the face quite so publicly at this particular time?
Granting that they have got away with it for
many years, hasn’t there been a recent change in
the public temper which makes this sort of thing
dangerous? iWouldn’t it have been wise from their
point of view, for instance, to give the Negro lynch
victim the nominal protection of Federal law and
then nullified the law as they nullify the Negroe’s
constitutional right to vote?
We are interested in this question because we
understand that these southern senators are very
fearful of the spread of radicalism, especially among
Negroes. The radicals are said to be telling the
Negroes and the poor white share-croppers and mill
hands of the South that democracy is a fake, that
there is no such thing as representative government
in this country, that democracy is only camouflage
for dictatorship by their enemies. Aren’t those
radical agkators just mean enough to prove this
point in the minds of ignorant Negroes and whites
bv citing the dictatorship of those few southern
senators thwarting the mass democraic will of the
American people and of the majority of Congress?
Admi.ting, from the point of view of these south
ern senators, that Negroes must continue to be r -b
bed of constitutional rights, couldn’t they find a
safer method? After all, the Negroes are one-tenth of
a majority. With all this talk of radicalism and some
of the oppressed actually demanding their rights,
perhaps it would be safer for the country to hold ;
out enough hope of democracy to them to discourage
more violent weapons.
Anyway, it may be a matter worth thinking
about while these southern senators are patiing
themselves on the back, secure in their dictatorship;
secure fox the moment.
The Best Investment
How would this strike you as an investment op
portunity :
You are offered a chance to place a share of
vour monthlv or annual earnings; as much or as
» * ,
little as you like; in the hands of a concern which
is operated under strict laws, which has survived
half a dozen depressions without experiencing seri
ous difficulties, and which has met every obliga
tion to the letter. When you start placing your
monev wf.h the concern you stipulate, in advance
just how much “capital” you wish to purchase, over
ten or twenty or more years, and your payments
are arranged accordingly.
If you maintain your payments, as agreed in your
contract with the concern, you or your estate will
receive in the future not only what you paid in, but
a good deal more. Should it become impossible
for you to continue paying after several years, you
can surrender your contract and receive back a
large percentage of what you have paid in.
Should you become pressed for funds, you may
borrow against the money you have paid in, at a
low rate of interest, and pay your borrowing back
on easy terms.
And; most important of all; should you die be
fore your payments are completed, your dependents
will receive at once the full amount you contracted
for; even though it be $100,000 and you yet have
paid in as little as only one payment.
That sounds like a Utopian opportunity; and
might say it doesn’t exist. Yet that is precisely
what life insurance offers; safety, stabiliv, a reason
able profit, and invaluable protection for your
family. And that’s why life insurance has been
justly called the “perfect investment for the man
of small or average means.”
Things One Remembers
By. E. M. Hofer
The city council of Long Beach. Calif., jumped
the rates of its municipal gas plant ten per cent.
The additional revenue is not for the gas depart
ment, but for general city expense.
The Long Beach incident is of no importance ex
cept as h illustrates the freedom of tax-exempt
municipal plans from state and federal regulation
that applies to private plan s.
Municipal utility plants are generally in poli
tics up to their eyes. Rates are too often based on
promises to attract votes, rather than on facts. If
municipal tax-exempt plants do not fear the same
public regulation asd taxation that is applied to
private plants, why do they fight it too.h and nail?
on already tax oppressed industry.
The famous Tennessee Valley experiment in so
cialization of power resources of the South, has
fought every move to apply the same regulation to
i.s spectacle to see public officials ask one set of
laws for highly-taxed privately operated business
and demand exemption from those laws for untaxed
publicly operated business.
A Thought for the Taxpayer
Those who believe that the eventual solution of
the railroad problem must be government owner
ship of the lines, would do well to take a look
across the Canadian border.
Canada is served by two large railroad systems,
each of which provides good service, operates mod
em equipment and charges the same rates for
freight and passenger transport.
One system, the Canadian Pacific, is privately
owned, privaiely financed, and privately managed,
and has generally earned a reasonble profit for its
investors. During bad times, when profits have
been small or temporarily non-existent, the owners
have had to pay their own wav; they have no pub
lic treasury behind them to foot the bill for losses.
The other system, the Canadian National, is pub
licly owned. It was financed by a great bond issue
guaranteed by the Canadian government. In all
the years of its existence it has continuously created
defied.s to be paid out of the public’s tax money.
Its total deficit runs into hundreds of millions of
dollars; and is the direct cause of a substantial per
centage of the total tax bill paid by the Canadian
people.
There is no reason to believe that the American
people would experience better fortune with gov
ernment ownership of ihe railroads. The Canadian
National system has apparently been freer from po
litical influence than is the usual government vent
ure in this country; its managers have been men of
integrity, ability and position. In the Unted States,
the chances are that the deficit would amount to
many times that of Canada, due to political buc
canneering, and to the fact that much more rail
road mileage would be involved.
If the people are persuaded into believing that
government ownership is the only way out of the
vexatious railroad issue, heaven help the taxpayers.
It Must Be Done
Mechanically speaking, the automobile of today
is infinitely safer than that of ten years ago. Brak
es have reached perfection. lights have been vastly
improved. Steering mechanisms are fool proof.
Car bodies can stand terrific punishment.
Similar progress has taken place in road build
ing. The modern highway, with traffic lanas,
banked turns and “skidless” surfaces, is a tribute
to engineering science, which has done wonders in
seeking to make driving safe and pleasant.
Yet automobile accidents continue to rise; both
in number and severity. The motorist has no alibi.
He can’t blame the car or the road for mishaps,
save in an infinitesimal percentage of instances.
The human element; and the human element alone;
is at fault in ninety odd accidents out of a hundred.
Most drivers are competent. Most are careful.
Most realize that an automobile is a potential kil
ler. But that minoriy of motorists which is either
careless, ineompentent, or plain reckless, menaces
us all. Perhaps ten per cent of drivers fall into one
of those categories: and the lives, health and prop
erty of the other ninety per cent is placed in peril
because of them.
Last year saw 36,000 people killed; unneces
sarily; in auto accidents. It is the duty of every
citizen and every unit of government to see that a
different record is made this year. Traffic laws
must be Modernized and enforced with the utmost
strictness. The dangerous driver has been given
every chance. He has been urged to change his
ways, and has refused. Now he must be forced to
drive safely; or be deprived of the right to drive on
public streets and highways.
Toward a Sound Transportation
Policy
In a recent address, John J. Pelley, President of
the Association of American Railroads, proposed a
plan that he believes will solve the major railroad
problem. Two of his points are especially note
worthy.
First, Mr. Pelley proposes that no form of trans
portation be subsidized, and that all be regulated
on an equitable and comparable basis. This is the
key to solving the principal difficulties in our trans
portation policy; at the present time the railroads
are stringently regulated, while other carriers are
half-regulated or are not regulated at all. The rail
roads are not the only sufferers; responsible bus and
truck operators, fcaed by fly-by-nights and irre
sponsibles within their industry, are likewise eager
for fair and reasonable regulation. And every
private carries, whether rail or highway, is damaged
by the fact that some forms of transport, notably
state and government owned waterway systems, are
subsidized from the public treasury.
Second, Mr. Pelley says that no legislation should
be enacted which will increase the costs of rail
road opera.ion. That is important at this time,
when the “train, limitations” law has been passed
by one state and is up for consideration in others.
Such laws as this, proposed in the mistaken belief
that they will advance employment, simply add one
more straw to the breaking back of the railroads.
The industry is barely earning expenses now; and
artificial increases in the cost of doing business
would force many lines into bankruptcy.
It is a demonstrable fact that the cause of na
tional recovery is inextricably related to the wel
fare of the transportation industry, which is normal
ly our greatest employer and purchaser of supplies.
Aggressive and immediate steps should be taken to
bring order out of the transportation chaos.
—
The state senate of Ohio refused the governor
of Ohio and executive office expense budget includ
ing an item of $1,000 for a new rug for his private
office.
The prevailing style of private offices of indus
tries today does not show $1,000 rugs on the floor.
Possibly a governor’s office can worry along with
out one ,especially as it has to be paid for by taxes
on already taxoppressed industry.
Eating Habits
Consider these bits of common
sense.
First of all, what yon do the
rhild imitates. Eating habits are
contagious, u you
say one thing bat do
something else, the
value of what you
say is lost. The child
will do as you do.
Don’t expect any
thing else. You are
the model. If you
don’t eat carrots, don t wonder
when yotrr child doubts your as
soranee that “carrots are good for
you.” Children aren’t that gullible.
Avoid forcing. I mean that vig
orons. stem insistence—“you shall
eat i£ or I'll know the reason why.”
Rebel'* oa, resentment, unhappiness
are the only results. Your chance
is lost. Do not discuss food values
at length nor in technical terms,
such as calories, vitamins, miner
als and the like. You may under
stand them but children don’t
and more, they don't want to.
It is decidedly bad to make chil
dren “food conscious.” You car
do ao much more by casual, quie
suggestion in a conversations
manner, saving, “this milk make
strength” or, “this cheese build,
muscle” or, “this fruit keeps yo.
welL”
Summer camps — pood or bzd
Dr. Ireland will discuss them vex
week.
Editorial of the Week
The Pittsburgh Courier Joins Hearst.
_
Should William Randolph Hearst
advise Negro Americans how to im
prove their condition, his advice could
be no more pernicious than that given
last week by the Pittsburgh Courier,
a newspaper purportedly published
in the interest of Aframericans • Com
menting editorially on three issues of
vital significance to Negroes the Cour
ier recommended policies of resigna
tion, docility, and self jim crowism.
We quote—
Apropos the Scottsboro Decision:
“The opinion of the Supreme Court
should be accepted as proof that the
courts of this country are just, cour
ageous and fair ... If the rest of the
country will let Alabama go into
serious conference with itself on this
Scottsboro matter, we venture the as
; sertion that the Scottsboro case will
have not been tried in vain . . . Let
us all return to a quiet and sober in
trospection . ”
Two centuries ago, Uncle Tom’s
grandfather said the same thing in
: more picturesque language: “Hush,
pore black boy, doan you cry. Yo—all’ll
git justice by-and-by.”
Apropos of the Harlem riot: “Ne
groes will have to go about this unem
ployment problem another way . . .
We must learn to punish our enemies
and reward our friends quietly and
without ballyhoo or violence.”
The Courier lies. - . . but even if
the riot did not accomplish anything,
nearly twenty centuries ago, the
world’s starving millions were told:
, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth ”
Apropos of the Texas Vote decision:
“If the Democrats can organize a par
ty and define the qualifications of its
members, the Negroes are not pre
vented from doing the very same
I thing.”
In other words, we may now hope
fully look forward to the great day
when fifteen million Negro Americans
form a black bloc and legally wTest
control of the government from
ninety-five million other Americans.
If W. R. Hearst should express
these opinions, no Negro American
would be surprised. But from a rep
resentative of the Negro press such
views are incredible.
The Spokesman had expected Mr.
Vann, in exchange for his New Deal
appointment, to support the Adminis
tration. We were quite' unprepared
for this recent boot-licking betrayal of
the Negro people
(The above editorial was taken from
the San Francisco Spokesman).
To The Omaha Guide
Sometimes we think that it
doesn’t pay to be square and
honest, but it certainly does. I am
oging to cite you one instance
where this fact is truly demon
strated.
I walked into Carey’s Grocery
I ' ' '"
Sunday morning, and there were
so many people in their store that
it looked like a mad house. They
were packed in from both the
front and back, but you know
that I have reached the conclusion
that the Careys have made great
sacrifices trying to make this pos
sible. I do not know of any time
that the Careys did not fight on
on the side of the people. They are
now organizing and asking* for
Teachers in the public schools.
They have fought for Negro Rep
resentation on the School Board,
and I believe it can be done if
they were given support. I re
member when a lady who lost
$10.00 in their place came back
to their store seven days later and
her $10.00 was returned to her. I
remember one time that one of the
Careys put out 45 Christmas or
ders. for which he was never paid,
and I am aware of hundreds of
cases where they have materially
assis ed every worthy cause.
I believe this accounts for their
tremendous volume of business.
This is the biggest thing I have
seen since leaving Chicago.
Sincerely,
Morris Phillips
2209 N. 27th Ave.
ECONOMIC
HIGHLIGHTS
Happenings That Affect the Din
ner Pails, Dividend Checks and
Tax Bills of Every Individual.
Na+ional and International
Prcbleiis Inseparable from Lo
cal Welfare.
—0O0—
The average ciiizen has a vague
knowledge of the fact that the
Federal government is levying
processing taxes on farm com
modities in order to produce ihe
wherewithal for pursuing the Ag
ricultural Adjustment program.
What he doesn’t know is that
these taxes are now one of the
largest revenue producers the
government has; and that a bitter
war is slowly getting underway
between the friends and oppon
ents of the tax.
During the past 21 months, in
come taxes brought $760,000,000
into the Federal till. Processing
taxes brought in $793,000,000.
And, whether the tax is good or
evil, it is an undenied fact that
every cent of that three-quarter
billion came from the pocket
books of American housewives.
In theory, of course, the tax falls
upon the food middlemen of the
nation; producers of smoked
meat, the handlers of sugar, the
bankers, the cigarette manufact
urers. In actual practice, the cost
of the tax is simply added to the
selling price of the product. Ex
amp'e: On April 1, 1933, Mrs.
America paid, on the average, 6.4
cents for a pound loaf of bread.
In 1934. she paid 7.9 cents and
today she is paying 8.3 cents. Not
all of the increase can be laid to
the processing tax on wheat, but
a substantial part of it can.
Two hundred million dollars of
the $792,000,000 the processing
tax has raised, according to the
I’nited States News, came from
hogs. Two hundred million more
came from cotton. A little came
from cotton. A little less came
from wheat. The remainder came
from sugar, corn, tobacco, rice
and peanuts.
Of the 792 million dollars, 700
million has been paid to the farm
er. It is paid to him in fulfill
ment of a contract, not to produce
more or better food, but to pro
duce less. He gets so much an
acre for not producng cotton, so
much for not raising hogs. And
therein lies one of the grounds for
the battle that s gettng under
way. A great many people think
it not only unwise, but actually
criminal, for the government to
pay out good money to “bribe”
producers to cut down their pro
duction. This group is now en
gaging with the group which says
that non-production is essential
in order to raise the prices of
farm products to a profitable
level.
That debate is largely theore
tical. But there is much warfare
to anticipate over purely practi
cal issues. In the past much of
past much of the past much of the
American cotton production has
gone into export trade. But, as
processing taxes are added to the
cost of cotton, prices must rise,
and foreign buyers don’t like that.
Production abroad is stepped up,
as other nations seek scources of
cheaper cotton. The result is
that farmers find that, while
prices are better, they are unable
! to sell; and they begin to doubt
the wisdom of the tax.
Housewives discover that the
tax forces up the price of bread
and pork chops, amount to a sales
; tax on the basic necessity of life,
! food. The result of that is a
gathering of consumers, bent on
: eliminating the tax.
Even hog farmers, who are gen
erally supposed to be among the
greatest beneficaries of the tax,
are dubious. They think that pork
processors are cutting: down the
price they pay for livestock in
: order to compensate for the tax,
and so are taking it out of the
I farmer instead of the consumer
and middleman.
All of this is felt back in Wash
ington, where Senators and Rep
resentatives keep their ears to the
ground. Result is a growing feel
ing on the part of many Congress
men that the tax should be re
pealed. Some of them are begin
ning to talk about it; others will
line up behind them when the
future of the tax comes up for
Congressional consideration.
V/
In a recent article, able public
ist Walter Lippman pointed to a
strange anomoly. He said that
business is getting better, almost
all lines are up, and some are at
their best level since the depres
sion began,; but that confidence
on the part of business men is
conspicuous by i.s absence. Cash
registers tinkle, but industrial
leaders still refuse to show much
optimism.
The reason for that, according
to Mr. Lippman is two fold. First,
the New Deal program is running
in circles, and no one knows what
is going to happen next. Busi
ness men are afraid of new and
strange legislation, that will wipe
out the gains made.
Second, the Administration is
deliberately incurring the largest
government deficit in history,
without showing how or when it
will be met. That creates a fear
of excessive taxes that will make
business progress and profits im
possible.
Mr. Lippman, who is certainly
not an enemy of the New Deal,
and is the first to praise its
achievements, thinks that the Ad
minisration should immediately
settle the doubts as to the future
of legislation and the deficit
Business says fervent “Amen”
to that.
The Way Out
Bv Loren Miller
WHAT, A LETTER?
This column is on its road to
success. It finally got a letter
and nothing warms the heart of a
columnist so much as to get a
letter, whether he is bawled out
or praised. What is chilling is a
heavy blanket of silence and a re
fusal of the readers to consider
| the weekly offering important
i enough to warrant the wasting of
a stamp.
My correspondent took me to
i task for an indiscriminate use of
racial designations. It is his con
tention that I give the impression
that our problems are purely and
simply those of color and that in
some references to “whites” I had
issued a blanket indictment of
white people. Although I am not
certain just what article he had
in mind, I must plead guilty to
having done so at times. My
correspondent is quite right in
protesting against theNpractice.
The Real Division
It is obvious on the lace of it
that whites cannot be lumped to
gether any more than Negroes.
Certainly I would feel mightily
insulted if I were tossed in the
same category as. for example.
Professor Kelley Miller of How
ard. More fundamental than in
dividual differences are those dif
ferences that spring out of the
class to which men belong. Some;
white men, and a few Negroes, ■
own vast holdings out of which
they make profits. Most white
men, and an overwhelming pro
portion of Negroes, are workers.
Quite naturally, the interests of
those who own and those who
differ. The owners want to pay
low wages, the workers want high
wages; landlords want high rents
tenants want low rents. So it
goes all along the line. It is this
conflict between those who have
and those who have not, to para
phrase Thomas Jefferson, that
breeds strife that infests the
world today.
Keep ’Em Apart
On the one hand the owners
strive to keep the workers divid
ed in order to insure :heir posi
tions and on the other the more
farseeing workers strive to unite
all workingmen in order to gain
deeent living standards. It hap
pens in America that most of the
owners, those whose con rol of
wealth deprives the rest of us of
enough to eat and wear, are white
and it is pretty easy to believe
that our troubles are an out
growth of differences in color.
Quite naturally, there grows up
a distrust of all whites.
And that’s what the wealthy
want. While we fight among our
selves they live in luxury. What
is necessary is for poor Negroes
and poor whites to sec *he situa
tion in its real light. Both groups
have got to unders and that hey
must unite on the basis of the class
to which hey belong and for
swear old color antagonism or be
reduced to a worse than starva
tion standard of liviner.
Kicks in •'he Pants
When I write an article tilting
at all whites I am guilty of hin
dering worker uni y and by all
I means I should be brought to
hook for such an error. A verbal
kick in the pants is light punish
ment considering the gravity of
the crime.
The struggles of the next few
years are going to call for far
more uni ed action than has ob
tained in the past and the very
I fact that readers of newspapers
are beginning to check up on those
I who fail to fight for it is a healthy
sign. What this country needs
is about 13 million Negroes who,
like my critic, are no longer con
| tent to take seriously the easy
explanation that all white folks
are evil.
Inter-racial Group
Favors Federal
Anti-Lynch Law
(Continued from Page 1)
editorial or other communication
of any character whatever against
the bill was put into the record by
the filibusters, indicating that
none had been received. So
damaging to the cause of the lyn
chers was the great volume of
favoring communications read into
the record by Senator Costigan
that Senator Connally of Texas,
j towards the end of the fight ob
jected to any more being put in.
Try to Bribe Unicoi Labor
Desperate Southern filibusters
resorted 10 every conceivable
l trick and treachery. Senator
Black of Alabama tried to shift
responsibility by asserting on the
sixth day of the fight that it was
a filibuster of Republicans against
he bill. This patent falsehood
was laughed at.
Someone inspired telegrams to
some of the western senators from
farmer-labor groups demanding
that these senators stop voting
against adjournment as it was
holding up bills these groups
wanted passed. This pressure
caused several defections which
helped break the deadlock.
It is also rumored that certain
representatives of organized labor
j were approached by southerners
and.' promised a blockcmwtytyy
five southern votes for any bill
Labor might designate if only
Labor would help get the anti
lynehing bill withdrawn. Numer
! ous trades were made to pull off
senators from continuing to vote
against adjournment, but in spite
of this Senator Robinson, the Ad
ministration Whip was unable
for seven days to win.
The labor threat was halted by
the receipt of a telegram from
prominent New York Labor lead
ers to William Green, President
of the American Federation of
Labor, urging support of the bill.
Among the signers were A. Philip
Randolph, president of the Bro
therhood of Sleeping Car Porters;
Frank Crosswaith, general or
ganizer, International Ladies’
Garment Workers Union; Rose
Sehneiderman, president, Wom
en’s Trade Union League; Nathan
, Margolis, president of the I. L. G.
| James Bambrick, Greater New
York Council Building Service
Employees International Union,
and other prominent laborites.
Roosevelt Criticized for Silence.
President Roosevelt was bitter
ly criticized by friends of the bill
for his failure to send a message
to Congress demanding a vote on
the bill or to refer to the measure
in his so-called “fireside chat”
I which he made over the radio in
[ the middle of the filibuster. It
was reported however, that he
urged individual senators to sup
port the bill. A prominent mid
western Democrat senator declar
ed bitterly that failure to pass the
bill at this session would cost the
Democratic Party at least eight
pivotal states.
The day following the fight,
Senator M. M. Neeley; Democrat,
W. Va., strongly condemned the
filibuster and accused the filibust
erers of “poor sportsmanship”
and of responsibility for blocking
action on important legislation.
“So far as I know,” he said,
“every one of my constituents;
Democrats, Republicans and So
cialists, are 100 per cent for the
anti-lynching bill.