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. . . EDI! ORIALS . . .
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The Omaha Guide
Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Giant 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, JULY 13, 1935
Federalism VS. State's Rights.
QUALIFICATION of the NRA by the Supreme
court is generally regarded as a momentous decision
ing controversial issue as to whether it is lawful
tutional implications. The rank and file of our
citizenry is gradually awakening to the fact that
the nation is very apt to be stirred over the burn
ing controversial issue as to whether it is lawful
for the Federal Government to enforce in states
code provisions establishing fair trade and practices
forbidding throat-cut competition and determining
higher wages and shorter working hours for labor.
Not even the most ardent advocate of the New
Deal wll contend that the NRA was without imper
fections. Hastily put together as an emergency
measure to bring about business recovery, it intro
duced some objectionable features which were un
avoidable under the circumstances. However, in es
sence the aims and objects sought were admirable
and commendable.
Since the wings of the Blue Eagle have been
closely clipped by the Supreme Court, the idea has
been advanced that business voluntarily effect an
agreement to observe the eodes without government
al coercion. New Dealers assert 90 percent of the
business men are willing to live up to such an ar
rangement, but that 10 percent are chiselers whose
disinclination to play the rules of the game fairly
is provocative of double-dealing and chaos. It,
therefore, is expecting to much to look forward
with optimism to commercial practices to be honor
ably observed by all.
Charles L. Bernheimer, chairman of the commit
tee of arbitration of the Chamber of Commerce of
the State of New York, believes that in the event
the administration offers no other solution, some of
the most effective features of the NRA codes invali
dated by the Supreme Court decision may be sal
vaged by substituting an arbitration clause for the
part of the decision which deals with court juris
diction. He opines:
“Now that the Supreme Court NRA decision
has been rendered, and now that we are without
something which was in its entirety not satisfactory
to most of us it has become nevertheless evident,
with a few dissenting voice being heard, that we
must make a prompt effort to preserve the good
part of the codes and make them fit for our Consti
tutional structure.. The administration is groping
lor a solution- It wants the NRA codes. The great
bulk of our business people want them; the employ
es want them, and the mass of our population, the
consuming public, likewise. They have all in the
main been well served by them. Business industry
has taken hold.
The Negro worker cannot enthuse over the NRA
which often worked to his disadvantage, although
it was not the intention of the New Deal that he
be discriminated against. Scores of cases may be
cited wherein a company was ordered to raise the
wages of employes and Negro workers lost their
jobs because of the employer’s contention that if
he had to pay more money it would be to white
help. The split between the Roosevelt administra
tion with Governor Talmadge of Georgia, who re
fused to pay Negroes NRA wages, is well known.
In any national political controversy on the is
sue of State’s rights versus Federalism, it is hardly
possible that the Negro will take the side of State's
rights, which has meant disfranchisement, “Jim
Crowism and other forms of discrimination and
persecution to him. Having secured his full citizen
ship under Federalism and made his greatest prog
ress under the protective wing, and even at this
vein- moment is seeking to stamp out mob violence
by Federal legislation, it is doubtful if the scant i
benefits derived from the NRA will impel him to
embrace the philosophy of State’s rights as a pana
cea for political, economic and social betterment
*
^ hj' Fire Loses Have Dropped
By E. Hofer.
I)1 KL\G the five-year period from 1930 to 1934.
the stock fire insurance companies of the nation
earned, on an average, a smaller underwriting
profit than the five per cent which the National Con
vention of Insurance Commissioners has fixed as
reasonable and necessary for the continued finan
cial strength and operating efficiencv of the indus
try.
During the last two years of that period, how
3* "°mpanies di<* earn a good operating
P n made possible by a substantial reduction in
the national fire loss. And this has resulted in a
misinformed belief that fire insurance premium
rates should immediately be reduced.
The President of the National Board of Fire
Underwriters recently commented on the factors that j
caused the improved underwriting experience. It
was partly due to the absence of major conflagra
tions during the two years, and partly due to de
cided diminution in the number of fires of suspic
ous origin- But the main cause of the reduction lies
in the fact that during periods of depression inven
tories of insurable goods carried by commercial con
cerns are much below normal. As a result, there is
a heavy reduction in the amount the insurance com
panies have at risk. In addition, the curtailed
staffs of industrial plants during depressions are
made up of the more efficient and carefeul employ
es.
Consequently, it is logical to assume that better
times will again see increased stocks of goods on
hand—and will again provide jobs for careless, run
of-the-mill employes. And then the fire loss will
probably soar once more.
It takes more than two or three veal's to es
tablish averages for future insurance underwriting.
If fire loss is down permanently, insurance rates,
will follow, as soon as time has justified reductions.
Hastily forced reductions, based on insufficient data,
I would simply force retrenchment of the insurance
industry’s many essential activities, to the detri
ment of every property owner and policyholder.
NEW YORK WOMEN ON
LYNCHING
rJ7HE New York State Women’s Democratic
News is a monthly published in Manhattan. Its
president and editor is Mrs. Daniel ODav, whose
highly esteemed friend, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
is a regular contributor. In its current issue the
leading editoral is devoted to discussions of the
Senate filibuster against the anti-lynching bill.
Views on the subject are enunciated with such cour
age, vigor and compelling candor that they are
gladly republished herewith:
We want to talk to you this month about the
defeat of the anti-lynching bill. It had the ardent
support of the Junior Senator of New York, Hon.
Robert F- Wagner, and the Congresswoman-at-large,
Mrs. O'Day. Many of us feel that, in this session
it should have been possible to pass this bilL It
would have accomplished very little in eliminating
the evil but at least it would have been a step in
the right direction and it cannot be that any of us
really want lynching to go on.. Of course, in some
southern States they are so actuated by the feeling
of fear of the bad Negro that they seem to forget
that there are hundreds of thousands of good ones
whom it is nothing short of crime to treat as they
are treated at present.
To have this bill finally laid aside because cer
tain southern Senators insisted on filibustering to
prevent its coming to vote is one of those injustices
which makes us feel that our particular form of
government is not always representative of the true
feelings of the people of the country as a whole, or
even of the majority of the people, that some, of
these representatives claim to represent.
Lynching is a blot on our national honor and
means that in the States where it occurs, people
haven’t, yet learned to abide by the law and to in
sist on justice to all men, no matter what color they
may be or what creed they may profess.. Until we
do this in every State in the Union we cannot feel
really secure that we ourselves will receive justice.
In our own State there is little chance that this law
would matter to us any way or the other, but we
are a part of the whole United States and therefore
we feel that our people, men and women alike,
should make it their business to try to influence
their friends and relatives to think this whole situa
tion out and begin to take such seps as are neces
sary for the elimination of lynching as a form of
justice.
What a refreshing, heartening editorial ? No
pussyfooting, straddling or qualifying. Not only
do the sponsors of The New York State Women’s
Democratic News make themselves perfectly clear
in their unalterable stand against lynching, but they
voice criticism of the short-sighted, unfair policy of
condemnating an entire race for the questionable
acts of a few. That paragraph making ironical ref
erence to representative government should be read
and re-read by every member of Congress.
The white Americans who believe the Negro !
should enjoy the full protection of the law as pro
vided by the Constitution are many. But very few
are articulate when it comes to championing the
races cause publicly. One political demagogue can
attract more attention and more conspicuously get
into the headlines by viciously attacking the Negro
than 1<>0 sympathizers who are reluetant about get
ting into a a free-for-all discussion on the race ques
tion.
It. therefore, is a unique and gratifying experi
ence to read in print what the Democratic women
of New York think about lynching, filibustering
and representative government. They do not care
what others of divergent views may think of what
they think.
Now every field and tree is in bl-om. the woods
are in full leaf, and the year is in its highest beautv
—\ irgil.
* * A
ECONOMIC
HIGHLIGHTS
Happenings That Affect the Din
ner Pails, Dividend Checks and
Tax Bills of Every Individual.
National, and.. International
Problems Inseparable from Lo
cal Welfare.
In the eyes of industry, the fed
eral deficit looms large. Busi
ness men, in company with invest
ors, property owners and other
taxpayers, have watched the gov
ernment charge present activities
against future income and are
wondering how long it will be
before the paying off process is
reflected in exorbitant, perhaps
confiscatory taxes.
In the eves of the politicians,
the deficit also occupies a large ;
part of the landscape. During
the political war that will be
fought next year, the deficit will
be an out standing issue. Repub
licans will claim that the Roose
velt Administration is imperiling
the country's credit, is running
us into bankruptcy at express
1 train speed. Administration
spokesmen will poo-pooli that,
and answer that vast expenditur
| es were essential to fighting de
pression, and that the country’s
credit is easily able to stand the
j bill.
Irrespective of which is right,
federal finance presents a depres
i sing picture, and has done so
| ever since 1930, when the last sur
plus was recorded on the Treas
ury’s ledgers. That year’s sur
i plus amounted to $738,000,000
S and in the ten preceding years
| the government’s receipts had ex
ceeded expenses iby the hand
some sum of 10 million dollars.
In 1931, the red ink period be
j gan, when the federal government |
I spent 463 million dollars more
I than it received. Then, in 1932,
the era of really large deficits set
in, with a total of 2 billion 741
i million dollars. For the next two
■years the deficits were 2 billion
607 million dollars and 3 billion
606 million dollars respectively, j
And for the fiscal year which en
ded on June 30, 1935, it is estimat
ed that the deficit came to 3 bil
lion and 65 million dollars
It is a notable fact, according
to the United States New^s, that j
the 1931 and 1932 deficits were'
not due to greatly enlarged spend
ing, but to a falling off in reve
nue. Since then, taxes have been
raised and revenues increased,
but spending has gained at a
much faster rate. For example,
direct and indirect doles for un
employed accounted for the spend
ing of 3 thousand million dollars
in the 1935 fsical period alone.
At the start of 1934, the Presi
dent said he expected that federal
outgo would balance income be
ginning with July 1, 1935. Now,
in the President’s latest message,'
he forecast that the 1936 deficit
would be 3 billion 829 million dol
lars: the argest in our history.
Reason for that about-face, says
Mr. Roosevelt, is the unlooked-for
persistence of depression, coupled
with the fact that only the Fed
eral government seems capable of
providing relief for the needy,
some business men answer that
by saying that one major cause
of this persistence has been the
vast increase in governmental ex
penditures and legislative inter
ference with business; that we
are pursuing a vicious circle
which can end only in national
insolvency- This view is of course,
held to be false by Administration '
economists.
At any rate, more money is be
ing collected. It is forecast that
next year the American people
will be deluged with more and.
bigger figures than they ever
heard before during the conduct
of the national election. The
people will be confused by so-cal
led experts contra dieting each
other. The solution to the deficit
problem will not be solved by po
litical speeches from either side.
But until it is solved. American
business will remain unconvinced
that natural, sound recovery ean
be achieved.
_nOn_
Business is holding steadily to
a level that is somewhat below
that of a year ago. Fall buying is
down, due principally to the hope i,
of large purchasers that prices
are about to break now that the ,
codes are out. July may witness1:
a rise in the general business in
dex that will bring it up with j
last year,, accordng to some ex- ,
perts. • i =
Power producton has not gone
into its usua seasonal decline. '
This unlooked for strength has |
reulted not from inereaed domest-j
ic usage, but from large coinmer- \
c-ial users.
Commercial privtae construe- j
tion is also at a relatively high ,
level, and is far ahead of last i
year.
During May, Business Week (
says, machine-tool business hit a j
five year high. The motor in
dutrv is said to be looking for
ward with confidence to a heavy i
demand netx year. Steel demand <
is fair, and prices are reasonably
firm.
Export business is well above
last year, which, in turn, register
ed a large advance over 153, when
foreign trade was almost at a
standstill
The farm outlook is changing,
and surpluses are taking the
place of shortages. The Depart
ment of Agriculture forecasts a
670 million bushel wheat crop;
70 million more bushels than is
Fruit and vegetables are unusual
needed for domestic consumption,
ly abundant, with lower prices
resulting. Only important agri
cultural shortage will be meat,
which will be comparatively
scarce, and so will continue to de
mand high prices.
The cotton situation seems to
get progressively worse. Only
way out, says Henry Wallace,
lies in increasing cotton saQes
abroad; which can be done only
if foreign countries can sell more
goods in this country.
Mothers—Let your boys be Guide
newsboys. Send them to the Omaha
Guide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street.
No Segregation in
California Camps
Los Angeles, Calif., July 3, (ANP—
Definite contradiction of published
reports that the L. A. County Relief
Administration contemplates segre
gation of Negroes now members of
Civilian Conservation Corps camps
was made last week by Harold E.
Pomeroy, assistant director, LACRA
His statement follows:
“tin reply to a query as to the
segregation of Negroes in CCC camps
in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los
Angeles counties:
“There never has been a statement
made by any authorizd official of the
L. A. County Relief Administration
that there is contemplated a plan to
segregate by races men in CCC
camps.
“Not even the SERA Administrator
for California could make such a rul
ing. The reason for this is that the
United States Army has complete re
sponsibility for the operation of these
camps.
“The LACRE acts merely as a re
cruiting agency.”
Southern Whites
Object to CCC Camps
For Negroes
Washington. July 3—(By Staff Cor
respondent, ANP)—Southern whites
rather enjoy seeing Negroes work on
the roads and live in convict road
camps even if said camps are located
near them or their resorts, as long
as those performing such services are
classified as convicts and under the
surveilance of armed guards. When,
however, the ball and chains, shackles
and the armed watcher are absent
three is a difference.
This fact is brought out by the
howl that has come from several
communities down South, protesting
the establishment of CCC camps for
Negroes in vicinity of white sections
or resorts. Two protests that are
typical come from Colliersville, Ten
nessee and Elizabethtown, North Car
olina and in each instance congress
men, senators and other mouthpieces
have been contacted to add weight
and “pull” to the protest of the citi
zens
From down in the North Carolina
town comes the plea to desist from
placing Negroes in the established
CCC camps, because it is adjacent to
White Lake, a resort in which no Ne
groes live and their presence might
bring about strained relations be- i
tween the races, endanger the well
being of the white patrons of the
resort and cause a general deprecia
tion in property values Singletary
Lake, however, would be an ideal
*pot because it has been used solely
by Negroes for several years.
Paralelling the North Carolina case
is that of Colliersville, where the
citizens became aroused by reports
from Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., that Ne
groes would be sent to the CCC
:amp at Frank Woods on Poplar Pike.
Senator McKellar, according to re
ports reaching the Capitol City , has
seen swamped with letters, telegrams,
post cards from cit*ens of the sec
don pointing out that the placing of
Negroes in the camp would cause a
calamity as far as business is con
rerned.
In North Carolina it is said that the
■esort, WTiite Lake was erected by
Megro convict labor and in the Ten
lessee sector Negro road gangs,
misoners are frequently engaged in
railding and keeping in repair the
3ike on which the • camp is supposed
o be established.
Dr. Jackson Heads
Rhode Island Baptists
Providence, R. I., July 6, (By the ;
Associated Negro Press—Dr. Andrew
-•i Jackson, prominent dentist here,
vas unanimously elected president of
he Rhode Island Baptist Sunday :
School Convention here Tuesday at :
he final session of the annual meet
ng of the organization.
Mothers—Let your boys be Guide '
lewsboys. Send them to the Omaha 1
luide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street. 1
‘‘1 Less Mouth to Feed”
By Elizabeth Lawson
“My boy would have been in school
today, but not having clothes even to
go in, he went off to hunt work, and
he was sentenced to die in the elec
tric chair.”
And this letter from Mrs. Mamie
Williams of Chattanooga sum up the
entire story of Eugene Williams,
youngest of all the Scottsboro boys.
The sentence against Eugene was
the first to be reversed. He was only
13 at the time of the Scottsboro trial,
and the law of Alabama provides
that persons under 16 must be tried
in Juvenile Court. But that law went
unnoticed in the frenzy of Alabama’s
greatest lynch-holiday. Only after
the international Labor Defense had
fought, inside the courtroom and out,
against this illegal conviction, did the
Alabama Supreme Court, in 1932, re
verse the sentence of death and re
mand Eugene Williams for a Juvenile
Court hearing.
Poverty-Stricken Family
Among Chattanooga’s poverty
stricken Negro families, the Williams
family was of the poorest. The fath
er got only two days’ work a week.
The house was gradually stripped,
even of its furniture.
“My furniture man has got all my
furniture except two beds and a
table I made myself,” Mrs, Williams
! wrote in one of her first letters to
the I. L. D.
“I ain’t got a chair in my house
and ain’t got no stove and ain’t had
one since December- I did all right
cooking on the grate while it was
cold, but now it is so hot, for my
grate is in the room I sleep in and me
and the kids nearly die after cook
ing in the evening. Some days I
cook out in the yard on bricks to
keep from making a fire in the house.
I got one dime and my baby needs
some teething medicine, but I got to
spend it for food. I went to the re
lief for some clothes for my kids,
ain’t got the first piece yet”
Eugene worried a great deal about
the state of the family, and about
the younger children. “If I leave
here,” he said to his mother, “it will
mean one less mouth to feed.” With
Arly and Roy Wright, and Haywood
Patterson, three of his closest friends,
he hopped a freight out of Chatta
nooga. His mother saw him next in
Kilby Prison, after he had been sen
tenced to die at Scottsboro.
Grew Up in Jail.
Eugene has grown up in jail. One
day when his mother visited him, he
stood up to his full height behind
the bars, and she wept. “Why do you
want to grow up now, Eugene, in
this place?” she said
To William L. Patterson, National
Secretary of the international Labor
Defense, Eugene wrote:
“Dear Sir, Mr. Patterson:
“Just a few lines to let you hear
from me. I am well and getting
along all right. All with the Concep
tion of beng free. But I do hope
when these few lines have been de
livered to you it will find you and
the whole I. L. D. doing just fine- i
Well. Mr. Patterson, I know you have
heard of the boys’ great success
(here Eugene refers to the 1932 de
cision of the Supreme Court revers
ing the death sentences imposed at
Scottsboro—E. LJ and to say I am
happy, sure as silk, because that will
help me out a lots, and I know that
you all are still busy in trying to get
us out. I really will be glad when
the day comes when Roy and I can go
out in the street where I can exercise
my worried bones. I remain yours
as ever,
EUGENE WILUAMS.
Tormented in Jail.
The fact that Eugene is the young
est of the Scottsboro prisoners has
had little weight with the jailers,
'They have tormented him, abused
him, and have even gone the length
of stealing from him the parcels
which friends outside have sent.
Last year a friend in Detroit sent
him a package containing shoes and
stockings • W hen no reply came, she
sent him stamps, thinking that lack
of postage might have kept him
from answering. It was then that
she got a letter thanking her for the
parcels. To this letter the forged sig
nature of Andy Wright was ap
pended. The friend, who was famil
iar with Andy's handwriting, angrily
exposed this attempt of the jailers to
break the boy’s morale by leading
him to believe himself forgotten.
Mrs. Williams, who has made a
consistent fight for the freedom of
all the boys, wrote the I. L. D-: “I
am proud to know that my boy and
the others are still alive today. I
■miss him so much. I miss his ap
pearance at my home, ana also the
little things he used to do in making
it easier at home for his mother.
“But I often sit and think that he
could of been in the clay if it hadn’t
been for the I. D. L. calling the
workers from all parts of the world
to fight for him.”
Bugene has never been tried again
since the Alabama Supreme Court re
versed the verdict against him three
pears ago. But the Alabama offi
cials have determinedly opposed
every move of the I. D. L. to free
iim and Ray Wright on bail. Even
n the case of this child, they know
10 mercy.
Early in July, Eugene, together
with Roy, will come once more be
fore the authorities. The two boys
■will be brought into (Juvenile Court,
jefore Judge B. L. Malone of Deca
:ur. The I. L. D. will defend them.
ThousancL of dollars, are needed for
that hearing. Roy aind Eugene have
pas.-ed their youth in jail, and now
they must be freed.
HELP THEM! RUSH FUNDS TO
I. L. D. AT 80 EAST 11 STREET
NEW YORK.
FLOOD ,JUDGE B. L. MALONE
AT DECATUR, ALABAMA, WJTH
RESOLUTIONS AND TELEGRAMS.
DEMANDING THAT HE FREE
THE TWO YOUNGEST SCOTTS
BORO BOYS.
Notice. Subscribers: If you don't
get your paper by Saturday. 2 p. m.,
1 call Webster 1750. No reduction in
subscriptions unless request is com
plied with.
Crawford Pamphlet is
Dud at N. A. A.
C. P. Convention
St. Louis, Mo., July 11, (ANP)—
Maybe when the delegates to the
26th annual conference af the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People return to
their homes and have the opportunity
to read the pamphlet entitled “Who
is the N. A. Ai C. P?” so gener
ously supplied to them by the Misses
Martha Gruening and Helen Board
man, they will conclude that they
were sadly remiss in failing to take
any action on the subject matter of
the bold brachure.
But facts are facts and the two
big facts are: First, that al! those
who attended the first big mass
meeting received copies of the pam
phlet and its subject matter was not
discussed officially at any of the con
ference seasons, and if there were
any sub rosa discussions, informal or
formal, they escaped your corres
pondent.
The pamphlet contained a wither
ing indictment of Walter White, the
executive secretary, and Charles
Houston and Associate counsel, in the
trial of George Crawford, the Vir
ginia man now serving two life sent
ences in the penitentiary for the
murder of two white women.
The few persons who had the op
portunity to read the pamphlet before
the convention opened expected the
issue to be fought out on the floor
of the convention. Even Mr. White
thought so and when interviewed
was undecided as to whether he
should bring it up himself although
no time had been set aside in the
conference program and the delegates
would have had to vote to consid
er it.
As it was, the pamphlet was for
gotten about and the selection of the
convention city for 1936, instead of
the Crawford case, became the most
exci ing issue of the conference.
Mothers—Let your boys be Guide
newsboys. Send them to the Omaha
Guide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street.
Swindle Woman; Old
Confidence Game
Greenville, N. C., (July 6, (By the
Associated Negro Press)—The old
“pocket-book con game” was worked
here again this week and the victim,
Mrs. Martha Johnson is out of just
$57.50, she reported to the police
last Thursday^
The lure of getting $200, as her
share of a pocket book, two strange
ment told they had found, caused
Mrs. Johnson to go to the bank, with
draw her savings and turn over the
sum of money to the confidence men.
She was given the old purse stuffed
with newspaper clippings.
Notice. Subscribers: If you don’t
get your paper by Saturday, 2 p. m..
call Webster 1750. No reduction in
subscriptions unless request is com
plied with.
Social Workers
*
Discuss Problems
Boston, Mass, (July 6, (By the As
sociated Negro Press)—Problems
faced by the social workers were
aired and solutions thereof were
sought at Camp Atwater, near here
last week when the Colored Social
Workers convened with Dr. William
N. DeBerry, as the host. Visitors to
the convention included, E. F. Fra
zier, Washington, D. C., Mrs. Vivian
M/ason and Dr. Dean S. Yarborough,
New York City, Mrs. Ida N. Law
son, Hartford, Conn., and Dr. Ros
coe C. Brown, United States Public
Health Service, Washington, D- C.
Mothers—Let your boys be Guide
newsboys. Send them to the Omaha
Guide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street.
Revise Jury Lists in
Virginia County
St. Petersburg, Va., July 6, (By
the Associated Negro Press)—Jury
commissioners of Hopewell county
were busy last week revising the
jury lists so far as to comply with
th decision of the United States Su
preme Court that Negroes must be
placed on juries. The revision fol
lowed closely in the wake of an order
from Judge Marshall R. Peterson of
the Circuit Court.
Mothers—Let your boys be Guide
newsboys. Send them to the Omaha
Guide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street.