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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1935)
EDITORIALS The Omaha Guide Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Grace 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 Raee 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, SEPTEMBER 7, 1935 INTERRACIAL (From the Catholic Worker) FOR THE past two months we have had an inter esting time with both colored and white children at the country place we rented for a garden com mune. There were children from Harlem and child ren from the lower west side, .and Greeks, Irish and colored got along with perfect accord. There was no race consciousness of any kind, and they all played together and cooperated together in the work of getting meals and cleaning up after them selves. We had one big attic room with two little al coves ,and eight could fit themselves and thieir toys into the room with neatness and dispatch. It was a delight to run up in the evening after they had gene to bed to see them tucked in. On thun dery nights ,they doubled up two in a bed to make it more cozy "and little black fades and little white faces peered out at Lora, the sixteen-year-old col ored girl ,who liked to tell stories, long stsories which put them all to sleep, including herself. It has always been the contention of those conversant with the problem that racial cooperation and understanding came naturally to children. At titudes of contempt or superiority had to be instill ed into them by some adult whose attitude was cor roded by bitterness, a bitterness which had grown up obseeurely away back somewhere in between that period of innocent childhood, and economically and socially conscious adolescence. Last year a young seminarian was visiting us in the office at the same time Dr. Falls, our Chicago correspondent, a colored physician, was our guest. In joining a discussion on interracial atti tudes, he paused to wonder at the fact that never had he come into contact with the problem, never had it entered bis mind. His suggested solution was the Negro schools, Negro churches, a Negro prienst hood and sisterhood be sought And when we point ed out that segregation only perpetuated the mis understanding and bitterness ,he said thoughtfully: “i - r;*ue that we never come into direct con tact with them. We never met them in our schools as children nor in our organizations as adults. We will have to seek each other out and get together." We remind our readers that while they are reading all these editorials and notices in the Cath olic dioejesan papers about sending their children to Catholic schools so that they will not lose their faith, many of our Catholic parochial schools are closed to Negro children ,for fear that the parents of the white children will object and ceasv* to sup port the church and school. In New \ork and Chicago, as well as in many other northern cities, Negro and white sections are adjaqent, and the children sit together in the public schools. Let us use our influence to bring colored children into out Catholic schools in order that wje may complement this physical contact by spiritual contact and build up the understanding of the dogma of the Mystical Body. “We are all members one of another.” Our readers and cooperators will be glad to hear of a novena which the children made before the east of the Assucption. Methodist, Greek Cath olic and Roman Catholic ki|?Lt together to recite olic and Roman Catholic knelt together to recite for none days that long and beautiful and very com plete prayer whieh is usually said for thirty days to the Blessed Virgin Everything is included in that prayer, nothing is left out, and it is a pleasure we are sure, for you to know thatMafty and Tommie, Lora and Cora and Yetta, Georgia and Helen and Teresa, remembered all our fellow workers for those nine days. We hope that you w'ill remember them, and the problem their parents present, and se*e what you too can do to bring ALL men to Christ. RELIGION AND THE RACE PROBLEM (From the Catholic Worker, By Rev. John M. Copper) 1IAN is a wolf to man an dthe wolf in man comes out more in his relations to those of groups other than his own—to those of other social and ec nomie classes, of other nations, of other peoples, of other races. Underlying racial wolfishntess are many factors. I shall take up two of the chief ones—the white man's assumption racial superiority, and ]|is tacit or explicit acceptance of the double moral code. CULTURE Intellectually is the white race on the average superior to the Negro race? We have a number of comparative intelligence tests of whites and Ne groes. The majroity, but not all ,of these tests re veal higher gross average scores for the whites. But are these higher scores due to higher racial ability or to ampler opportunities for education and advancement? The rapidly accumulating evidence the conclusion that the differences in the scones are in pointing more and more unmistakably towards due, certainly very largely and no imporbably quite entirely, not to differences in racial ability between whites and Negroes but to differences in racial op portunities. And we have further to recall that in somje of the tests it is the Negro and not the white who has come out with the higher score. NO PROOF The sum of the matter is that in the present state of our evidence neither whitje nor Negro can be scientifically proven to be superior or inferior one to the other- The compelling probabilities are that the differences, if there be any differences^ are not great. So much for th/e first factor underlying our white racial wolfishness as regards our Negro fel low citizens. Let us pass on the second factor, the double code. By the double code we do not mean the double sex code, but rather the broader code under which wre respect the rights of those of our own group and have little or no respect for the rights of those who belong to groups other than our own. JUSTICE The Christian moral code and this primitive but still prevalent double moral code are obviously in flat contradiction one to the other. The double code runs: Only thosjs of my own narrow little circle of family, kin, friendship, nation and race are my brothers; outside are not. The Christian code runs: There is neither Greek nor barbarism, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither white nor Negro; we are all brothers under the skin ,brothers to one another and to one Elder Brother who lived and died for all of us. The double code decrees: Justice to those of my own little group; to others, justice only in so far as expeiency or sheer power of eodmpulsion demands. The Christian code decrees: Justice to all, regardless of expediency or compulsion; our just Father in heaven is no respector of persons or of race; the members of all races are equally His children with equally inviolable rights The two codes are as unlike as night is from day, as darkness from light. No one who pledges loyalty to the just God of all humanity can for a moment take as his own a code that denies even handed justice to all but a segment of humanity. To sum up what we have said so far: two major factors are responsible for much or most of our interracial w^olfishness- The first of these, the as sumption of physical or mental superiority, is un scientific. The second of these, the ancient selfish double code .is obviously at odds w*ith a religion built on faith in a God of love and justice. INTERMARRIAGEi It is largely to these two factors, the double code and assumption of -white superiority, that are traceable the deeply unjust discriminations on the part of the whites against our Negro fellow-citizens in this our own country. I am not speaking here of interracial marriages, which are not particularly desired by the overwhelming masses of either race, and which, under existing social conditions and under prevalent trends in public opinion, are broad ly speaking not desirable. Nor am I speaking of interracial charity. It is not sufficient for whites merely to support generously works of charity and philanthropy inaugurated and carried o ut by whites for the benefit of their Negro fellow-citizens. The American Negro is increasingly asking, not for charity and philanthropy, but for justice. In fact he is increasingly resenting this attempt to build up charity on the ruins of justice. He is increasingly, i and within his full God-given rights, asking for justice, askini that the manifold discriminations and injustices under which he suffers at the hand of the | white majority he end|ed. WE HAVE SINNED Time does not permit more than a brief enum eration of some of the more outstanding of these j discriminations and injustices that characterize the color line: Blocking or shouldering the Negro out of jobs in these days of depression and unemploy ment; famine wages; denial of opportunity for vo cational and economic advancement; widespread trampling upon basic civic rights and often upon the most rudimentary justice in our very courts of justice; refusal to prosecute the cowardly murder- j ers who hide behind lynch law; discriminations less lethal but no less unchristian at the doors or within the very walls of our churches an deductaional in stitutions. These are but a few items in a litany that could be continued through many minutes more- And all this is done today, without ever a humble and contrite plea to be forgiven for the in-1 justice we whites have wrought upon the Negro in the past four centuries of conscienceless exploit ation. The day is far spent. But there may yet be time and light enough to make some admends to our sins and the sins of our fathers. Such amends must come not merely in words, nor even in deeds of charity. They must come through deeds of justice, a justice that is uncompromising in principle and in application. Justice, not words nor charity, is the cure for injustice. Those who seek to establish the kingdom of God on earth must seek first God’s | justice—all other things can then easily and fitting ly be added. But charity without justice limps. WHEN POLITICS RUNS THE GENERATORS An editorial in a paper from an Indiana town illustrates what happens to the efficiency and certainty of electric service when politics runs the generators. The plant, in that town, which is municipally-owned, operated during a number of municipal ad ministrations without interrup tion—inasmuch as these adminis trations did not, according to the editorial, make a political play thing of it. Then the town’s government changed, and a new group came into power. Recently service was broken off twice on a single Sun day, with all the inconvenience and danger to persons and prop erty that interruption entails. Theaters were compelled to dis miss their patrons and refund the money; filling stations with electric pumps could no longer sell gasoline; routine in the hos pital was disturbed and upset. Electric pumps at the water plant wrere out of commission . The newspaper ,after investiga tion, discovered the cause of the interruptions- Trouble with the main generateor had put it out of service. The electric plant, how ever, also possessed two smaller, emergency generators. One of these was immediately started, wrhen the shearing of a pin like wise caused it to stop. The next generator was then started, and was found to be so far out of bal ance it could not be brought up to speed. This left the plant en tirely without facilities. According to the newspaper, the poor condition of the equip ment, and the inability of plant engineers to get it started, was due to the fact that political ap pointments had replaced capable men with inexperienced workers know'ing little or nothing about the involved machinery they wrere supposed to handle. As a matter of fact, service only came on again when an automobile me chanic, by hooking up a large number- of automobile batteries, was able to produce enough cur rent to start the generator As the editorial stated, the towm “is ex tremely fortunate to have an au tomobile mechanic handy w'hen something goes wrong at the po litically-operated plant." A\ hen politics steps in, good service steps out. As a rule, it is simply a matter of time before municipal powder plants fall under the control of politicans w^ho re gard them as profitable fields for political patronage. In commenting on the proposal that large corporations be pro hibited from making gifts to charity, 'W alter Lippman, the well-known publicist, wrote: Gov ernments ought not on purely theoretical grounds, wantonly disturb a custom of the people. Now it is a fact, established by usage, that private chanty de pends for more than a fifth of its support on corporations—Cus toms and usage are entitled to re spect. To disrupt them simply because someone in authority happens to have a personal dis like of them is a kind of irre sponsible meddling which no seasoned public official would contemplate Writer Hits Founda tions For Meddling In Negro Health New York. Sept. 4.—Writing in the September CRISES magazine. Eh*. Louis T. Wright, eminent New York surgeon, scores funds and foundations, particularly the Julian Rosenwald Fund, an instrument to better health conditions among Negroes. Dr. Wright accuses the Rosenwald Fund of attempting to control every avenue of Negro life and of trying to establish a nation wide system of jim crow training for Negro doctors and nurses and jim crow health services for the Negro people. Also in the September issue is an article “Ethiopia Awakens” by Eh\ Reuben S. Young of New York City who lived for one year in the Afrcan kingdom. There is, in addition, a sketch of Howard D, Shaw, young Chicago engineer, who has charge of air-conditioning railroad cars of the New York Central. ECONOMIC INSANITY The American tax system is outmoded, wasteful, inefficient —and essentially vicious. That is a digest of statements recently made by a number of economists of standing. It is especially vicious when it comes to the so-called “share the-wealth” tax measures which propose that higher taxes be levied against individuals and corporations. “Big-business” is to be penalized for being “big”. And, according to the advocates of these measures, the average citizen will benefit — wealth will pay the bill, and he will receive the services of government for lit tle or nothing. What misrepre sentation of fact! The average citizen who is taxed to death now, will be taxed still more as new taxes are cre ated. Every tax on industry must be paid by him, through higher prices for commodities and ser vices. Every new tax adds to his cost of living. The confiscatory “share-the wealth” tax bill now pending in Congress would, acording to its sponsors ,cause increased federal income of $270,000,000 a year. If that is true, it would “redis tribute wealth” to the tune of I about $2.25 fore each man, woman and child in this country. And it would fall $5,000,000,000 short of meeting the deficit incurred in the last fiscal year alone! It is possible that such schemes are put forward in an attempt to blind our citizens to the fact that we need tax reduction and fewer taxes—and not tax increases and new taxes. Overtax wealth—and you kill initiative, employment and industrial development Over tax industry—and the consumer finds himself faced with rising prices and declining income. As a recovery measure, that looks like economic insanity. “CAR NUMBER 20“ --— According to an advertisement of a large life insurance com pany, the driver of every woman or child before the year is over— if the accident experience of 1935 duplicates that of 1934. And sta tistics fo rthe first six months of the year indicate that little if any progress has been made in curb ing the dangerous driver. Every driver should decide for himself whether he wants to be at the wheel of “ear number 20.“ The decison is really within his power. He can drive carefully, in accordance with the law and good judgment—he can keep his speed to reasonable levels, main tain his car in first-class mechan ical condition so far as safety de vices are concerned, and work on the basis that it is better to give up his right-of-way than risk a trip in an ambulance. Or he can take chances—he car. regard i crowded streets and highways as playgrounds, where his reckless and adventurous instincts may be indulged to the full without re gard for others or himself. The laws of chance are im mutable—and every motorist who is deliberately careless, can be certain that eventually he will come a cropper. He may get away with reckless acts a thou sand times—the thousand and first time he wdll pay the price.1 Gambles with death always lose —the dice are loaded before you start the game. One car in twenty will be the cause of someone’s death or maiming this year 1 Are you go ing to be the 20th driver? * New President Of Tougaloo College Assumes Charge Tougaloo. Miss.. Sept. 11, (ANP) Hh*. Judson L. Cross, newly elected president o f Tougaloo Col lege. arrived here from his home in Bexton. Mass., Tuesday, to assume his new position. He was for eight years New England regional secre tary of the Congregational and Christian commission on missions, home and foreign, and was elected to the presidency of Toualoo Col lege at the summer meeting of the American Missionary Association to succeed Dr. William T. Holmes who retired at the end of the 1934-35 sc hoi as tc term. C. C. C. Advisers Meet At Hampton To Dis cuss Program By Whl Anthony Aery Hampton, Va., Sept. 6—Dr. Thomas Gordon Bennett, U. S A. Third Corps Area Educational Adviser, has just brought to a close, at Hampton Institute, a two-week Training Conference Program for Negro Camp Educa tional Advisers of the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose admin istrative officers include Maj. Gen. Robert E. Callan, Commanding General of the Third Corps Area, and Col. Elvid Hunt, Assistant chief of Staff. Among those who took part in the training conference program were: Hon. Robert Gechner, Di rector Emergency Education Pro gram; Dr. Howard Oxley, Educa tional Director, C. C. C.; Col. Elvid Hunt, U. S. A , Welfare Of ficer, Third Corps Area.; Wm. Anthony Aery, Director of Edu cation, Hampton Institute; Dr. C. J. Hyslup, Director of Student Guidance, V. P. I.; Edgar G. Brown, publicity department, Em ergency Conservation Work; Dr. T. G. Bennett; Dr. C- E. Ward, C. C. C. Company No. 1252, Marion, Va. Dr. Sidney B. Hall, Superin tendent of Public Instruction for Virginia; Maj. S. M. Ransopher, Assistant Educational Director, C. C. O; George W. Burroughs, Chairman Third Corps Area Com mittee on Camp Papers; i. L. Blair Buck, Virginia State Director Emergency Education, Program ; ■ Miss Eva C. Mitchell, Extension Service, Hampton Institute; J. A. Atkins ,Assistant in Relief Edu cation for Negroes, U. S. Office of Education; Ellsworth C. Dent, Visual Education Specialist; H. E. Weatherwax, Virginia State Park Division, and E. Floyd Flick inger .Superintendent National Historical Monument (Yorktown) —all of the National Park Ser vice. Fred Morrell, Assistant Chief, j National Forestry Service and the following co-workers H. R Kylie, j Educational information Service; G. P. Kramer, Educational Direct or. Region No. 7 and Frank A. Connolly, Specialist in Conserva- J tiom Writing and Public Relation Advise, Region No. 7; Ernest H. j Hays, Organist, Hampton Insti tute; Walter S. Newman, Virginia State Director, National Youth Administration; Dowell J. How ard, Acting Virginia State Super- i visor of Agricultural Education; Harry J. DeYarmett, Director ofj Trade School, Hampton Institute, j and Frank L. Hann, Supervisor of Industrial Arts and Trade Teaching; and Frank L. Crone, who served for some years as Di rector of Education in the Phil- ‘ ippine Islands. Some of the bajor topics for discussion were' “Educational Activities in the CCC:” “Educa tional and Vocational Guidance;” “The Individual and the World of Work;” “Appreciation of Mu«ic; ” “ Giving Opportunities for Practical Instruction;” 1 rade and Industrial Educa tion: ’ and ’‘Camp Educational Problems,’’ The panel-jury dis cussion method was employed in brining out the important phases of a number of problems; namely, guidance technique, occupational information, securing jobs, ap prenticeship training, relation of guidance to placement, instruction on the job, training in unit skills, camp papers, adult-education pro grams, applying teaching tech nique in camp programs, and academic programs The members of the training conference include the following educational advisers: James F. Adams, Co. 376; Richard F. Bell, Co. 1371; Charles E. Brown. Co. 314; R. T. Boyd, Co. 354; Lorenzo Burford, Co. 1367; Joel T. Carter, Co. 1372: Walter H. Dabney, Co. 1334; Robert L Duren, Co. 1287; Clarence J. Grinnel&, Co. 361; Rushton C. Long, Co. 336; Fred Minnis, Co. 333; J. Franklin Pet ers, Co. 1355; Oscar A. Pindle, Co. 1375; Theodore H. Thompson, Co. 321; W. H. Tyler, Co. 439 ;i Ruben R Webb, Co. 315; George W. Williams, Co. 316; and two newly appointed advisers—Char les H. Clarke and James F. Childs. N. A. A. C. P. Demands i Att’y General Act Against Election New York, Aug. 30—Formal de mand was made today on Homer S. Cummings, U. S. Attorney Genera], that the Department of Justice pro secute John Cashion of Wilkesboro, N. C., “for arbitrarily refusing to register qualifed Negro voters and for refusing to allow them to vote in the general election held in No vember, 1934.” The N. A. A. C. P. re minds Mr. Cummings that this viola | tion of the Federal Constitution was reported to the Department of Just ice by Professor W. H. Hannum of Salisbury, N. C., more than six months ago. The Attorney General’s ; office at that time referred the case to Carlisle W. Higgins, U. S. Attorn ey for the Middle District of North Carolina, with offices at Greensboro, The supposed investigation was made by T. N. Stapleton of Charlotte, N. C., Special Agent for the Department | of Justice, which the N. A. A. C. P. charges was “a flagrant whitewash” because in spite of the fact that written statements were filed by fourteen Negro complainants, no federal agent interviewed these com plainants except that one agent cal led upon Mr. Claude M. Petty of Wilkesboro not to obtain information against Cashion but to try to intimi date and threaten Mr. Petty because he had complained.” The result, the N. A. A. C. P. charges, was that U. S. Attorney Higgins on May 14 wrote to Profes sor Hannum that the Bureau of In vestigation was of the opinion that no action should be taken against Cashion, this opinion being based on the defense made by Cashion that he “was not satisited that the compla n ing individuals had the educational qualificatkmse required by the law of North Carolina.” The N. A. A. C. P. charges that this is a patent evasion of the facts and alleges that “if the Bureau of In vestgaton had been honest and thor ough in seeking information, it would have clscovered that the majority of the complaining Negroes had (1) a better education than the registrar himself; (2) that the majority of the complaining Negroes had a better education than the majority of the white voters in Wilkesboro; (3) that the registrar did not apply any edu cational test to the white voters of the county”. In July, 1935, Prof. Hannum made a special trip to ashmgton bearing with hirn additional writ'-en state ments hv the Negro complainants to the fact that no federal agent had inter viewed with them with the ex ception of Mr. Petty, and he only for the purpose of intimidation and with signed statements from white voters of Wilkesboro that they had been given no educational tests by Cash icn as a prerequisite to voting The N. A. A. C. P. reminds the attorney general that Mr. Carusi of the De partment of Justice with whom Prof. Hannum conferred promised that an investigation would be made immedi aely and action taken within a few weeks. The N, A. A. C. P, alleges that this promise has not been kept so far as it could learn and puts the issue squarely before the attorney general in these words: “Here we Ere concerned not with primaries but with a general congressional elec tion. We are concerned with a flat denial of suffrage in a general elec tion. We have a precedent for prose cution by the Department of Justice in a similar situation in the same district in the October term, 1931, of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina at Salisbury, in the case of U. S. vs. S. R. Sechrest. Under these circum stances, Negro citizens all over the country await with particular con cern and interest the decision and action by your department in this Wilkesboro fiase.” Mother, Three Months OM Babe, Left To Sleep on Sidewalk NEW YORK CITY—(CNA)—Re lief check cut, miles of red tape from the home relief bureau—and Mrs. Ida Jones, her two year old child and three months old baby were left i to spend the night on Harlem side walks, in front of her apartment at 11 West 118th Street. Mrs. Jones was informed by Nata ; lie Cozan of the Home Relief Pre i cinct No. 26, West 124th Street that the city could “do nothing” for her family until she had been evicted. After the eviction, she informed Mrs. Jones that the dlty could “do nothing until they moved into another place”. Sympathetic neighbors finally se cured a moving van which moved the Jones family to another apartment Meantime, a police car drove up and rushed the investigator away. Although the relief rent checks are stamped ‘ paid in full”, Mrs. Jones’ landlord had been forcing her to g.Ve over part of her food allow ance to cover the exorbitant rent The relief authorities refuse to pay the six dollars charged by the mov ing operator. Mothers—Let your boys be Guide newsboys. Send them to the Omaha Guide Office, 2418-20 Grant Street