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. . . EDITORIALS . . .
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The Omaha Guide
Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St.,
Omaha, Neb.
Phone WEbster 1750
GAINES T. BRADFORD, Editor and Manager
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 goad citizenship in time
of peace, war and death.
Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, OCTOBER 12, 1935
- _ I
NEGROES THANK
GREAT BRITAIN FOR
ETHIOPIAN DEFENSE
IONDON, Oct. 12, (ANP)—All the world’s 200,
7 000,000 Negroes will thank Great Britain ever
lastingly if she comes to the aid of Ethiopia in her
efforts to stave off Italian invasion, states Eric
Walrond, well known Negro journalist and fiction
ist now living in England. On the other hand, if
Britain does not intervene to stop it, the 50,000,
000 Negroes in her empire will feel they have been
seriously let down, the writer asserts.
“For more than a century a great tide of color
has been beating against the age-old barriers of the
white conscience,” Walrond says. “You may say
that the white world has managed to acquire its
paramount position, its wealth and its culture, with
out more than a cursory interest in the private and
corporate contribution which the Negro has made
to that wealth and to that culture.
“Only one Power appears to have realized its
debt to the black folk—Great Britain, which is at
this moment not only fighting for world peace, but,
with all the pacific means at her disposal, to pre
serve one small and independent section of the Ne
gro race.”
Walrond points out Ethiopia is a symbol of the
destiny of the world’s Negro millions. The attack
on Abyssinia is not a colonial venture; it is a trial
to prove whether the most advanced mind and con
science of the white people can remain satisfied by
the new reaction which will confirm the hideous
slavery of the past.
“With incredible labor, through generations of
bruised bodies and broken souls, they have climbed
to a position from which they justly claim to have
earned complete equality with the white race. But
what is equality worth it’ it 'is threatened periodical
ly with naked force?’’ the writer asks.
The journalist sets forth constant frustrations of
Negro liberty everywhere which has bound them
together. For reasons of racial integrity they do
not wish war on Ethiopia. Mussolini, by so doing,
sets back the hands of the clock. But II Duce can
not turn back.
“If given a free hand in Africa he will stand a
chance of kindling a violent war between the black
and white races, which can only react disastrously
on the position of the great Colonial Powers,’’ Wal
rond sets forth. “Two hundred million people can
not for ever watch with complacence their destiny
being torn by bayonets.
“As a proof of the world wide solidarity of the
Negro ,this unrest is not confined to the highly
educated and super race-conscious blacks of parts
of the United States and the British Empire, but is
spreading unmistakably through the Negro popula
tions of Egypt and the Sudan into that impene
trable heart of darkness which is the jungle.
“Already the Negroes of the Gold Coast, Ni
geria, and the Cape are restive. But they, all of
them, are prepared to rally with all the means at
their disposal to support Great Britain in her ef
forts for peace and racial justice.’’
EDITORIAL OF WEEK
VIEWS dispatches from Georgia, reporting that a
^ Negro arrested for drunkeness, was taken away
from a sheriff and lynched by a mob, call to mind
that Georgia is ruled by a governor who has gone
much about the country in recent months telling
the people how highly he respects the Constitution.
Which also calls to mind that the Constitution,
among other things .guarantees that no man shall
be deprived of life without due process of law.
It will be interesting to note whether Gov. Talm
adge will be as vehement in deeds, as he is in words,
in defense of the Constitution.
WPA TESTS HEALTH
THOUSANDS of applicants for relief work reject
ed because of physical disability were the cause
of tests being made by WPA which revealed that
approximately one-sixth of the 240,000 on home re
lief in New York City are unemployable on account
of physical disability arising out of malnutrition
and other results of destitution. Many will never
regain sufficient health to work again.
The Milbank Memorial Fund survey in ten. Am
erican cities reports the effect that unemployment
had had on health. Sickness is sweeping rampant
among the twenty-odd millions on relief. The rate
of disabling diseases among the families of the un
employed was 39% higher than among the families
r« rnTrrrnm
of wage earners.
A survey of 4500 families by the New York
Association for the Improvement of the Poor shows
an increase of 83% in illness between 1930 and 1932
as a result of unemployment.
Health Commissioner Shirley Wynne in his
1933 report said: attendance at tuberculosis clinics
in New York City had increased from 55,000 pa
tients annually in pre-depressicn years to 120,000
1932; at the tuberculosis consultation stations from
437 to 10,000; at veneral diseae clinics from 63,000
to 180,000; at baby health stations from 550,000
to 700,000; and at pre-natal clinics from 24,000 to
50,000.
ITALY’S CASE AGAINST
ETHIOPIA
TN AN article apologizing for Mussolini’s adven
ture in Ethiopia, Roberto Forges-Davanzati, a
member of the Italian Senate and editor of the
TRIBUNE of Rome in CURRENT HISTORY, Oct.
1935, refers to Ethiopia in fascist fashion to the
effect that “Ethiopians true to African type” which
he says is an “inferior type’’ and “cannot lay claim
to an ancient civilization.’’ This in spite of the fact
that about one-half of the Ethiopian population has
been Christian for many centuries. Signor Davan
zati justifies the conquest of Ethiopia by citing the
fact that slavery has not been abolished.
According to a recent Foreign Policy Associa
tion Report: “Domestic slavery 'is being, gradually
eliminated. Slave trading is punishable by death.
An edict of March 31, 1924 provided for the eman
cipation of children born of slaves. A second law
of July 15, 1931 declared that slaves should be freed
immediately on the death of their master. From
Sept. 1, 1933 to August 15, 1934, 3647 slaves were
liberated and 293 persons were sentenced for of
fenses under these laws.”
Signor Davanzati also insists on the right of
Italy to colonial expansion—the same apology as
advanced by Japan for its expansion in Asia, and
by nearly all nations in the past which have con
quered colonial lands.
Educators’ Pronouncement On Imperialist War
‘ ‘ Children should learn how foreign investments
frequently result in intervention and the use of
troops for the protection of private rights and the
collection of private debts through soldiers; how in
turn such imperialism leads to rivalries such as have
existed for generations in Africa and parts of Asia ’ ’
said Ames Marshall, a member of the New York
City Board of Education ,in an interview with re
porters of the N. Y. Post, in which he urged an in
tensive program of peace education both in the
elementary and the high schools of the city. “Stu
dents should learn the effect of war on democratic
government—the tendency even in a democracy
such as ours and that in England to become more
bureaucratic and autocratic, the danger that further
wars will result in further dictatorship.” Numerous
organizations and educators have endorsed the
proposal.
Comparison Of Italian and Ethiopion Strength
Mussolini’s Fascist army now numbers 1,000,000
men, about 400,00 of whom are concentrated on
African territory. This army is “at once the most
technically perfect and probabl ythe mot nusmerous
European army that has undertaken a campaign
in Africa.” (Manchester Guardian Weekly, 9-6-35.)
Haile Selassie’s army consists of the Imeprial
Guard and the National Army. The Imperial Guard
is a force of 15,000 men, infantry, cavalry and ar
tillery, inadequately equipped with anti-aircraft
guns, automatic rifles and machine guns The Na
tional Army is made up of 100,000 men known as
the standing army which gadrisons the provinces
and about 600,000 followers of local chiefs. This
army possesses only 100,000 modern rifles.
These 715,000 soldiers are determined to pre
serve the independence of a population numbering
seven and one-lialf millions. The Ethiopion soldier
is generally armed with a curved sword, bucklor and
lance. His means of transportation includes mules,
horses, and donkeys, He ’is used to long fasts and
can therefore march two days easily without food
or water. The Italian army, on the other hand,
equipped with tanks and airplanes, will find them
of little use in a “guerilla war of ambuscades.”
There are no army barracks in Ethiopia to bomb,
no industrial centers, no 'important buildings—there
are only peasant huts, scattered over plateaus,
mountains rising 13,000 feet in height, swamps and
r]pcpr»tc _
STANDARD OIL WITH
DRAWS SUPPORT
rFHE ONLY important development work in the
oil-bearing zone of the disputed territory in
the Chaco has been carried on by the Standard Oil
Co of New Jersey. This company has spent several
million dollars, since 1923, on its concession of
860,000 acres However, there were no means of
transportation from Santa Cruz, where the oil is
found, to the Atlantic sea ports. All the ports were
controlled by Paraguay. When the Standard Oil
Co tried to secure an outlet for Bolivia through
northern Argentina, the latter through its State
Petroleum Enterprise, imposed such a high tariff
rate that shipment of Bolivian oil via railway from
Yacuiba was prohibitive. Argentina also refused
to grant the oil company a concession to construct
a pipe line across Argentine territory. In addition,
Argentina strongly financed Paraguay. As a result
the Standard Oil Co. was forced to cap most of 'its
wells and to cease financing the armed forces of
Bolivia. . L,
ALTA VESTA
A GIRL’S PROBLEMS
By Videtta Ish
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
Alta Vesta to Her Father—No. 18
Dear Father: I am pondering over
your last letter. Is that the right
word? & mean ponder. Well, I am
thinking seriously over what you have
said about the Easter Spirit. Sure,
I do not understand it, but, as usual,
I say you know what is right and I
am willing to take your word.
Writing of Easter and Jesus, you
set me to wondering who was Jesus
and what about him? And I find my
self wondering what we have to do
with a man who lived many thou
sands of years ago. who got killed
for some cause. Do you know, Fath
er?
A preacher called to see Aunt Cor
§
nelia, the other day, and he seemed
so much in earnest. He was so seri
ous and seemed to be worried about
something all the time. Was it his
religion that made him worry? Was
he sorry that they killed Jesus? Did
that make him worry? Then I won
der about what people call religion
and what benefit is in it.
Father, Aunt Cornelia has just
called me and told me that she is
ready to take me to the show, so I
shall close my letter and finish later,
maybe tonight.
Aunt Cornelia has just told me to
give her love to you. Well, I can send
her love to you, but I don’t want you
to be sending too much love to her,
because I am a little selfish about
your love. I want it all for me.
As ever, your daughter,
Alta Vesta.
Howard President
Urges Mastery Of
Inferiority Complex
Tells Students NegToes Must
Appreciate Them
Selves
Washington ,D. C., Oct. 12—
ANP—If Negroes are to make any
contributions to civilzation and
to advancement in any direction,
there must be a complete mastery
of any inferiority complex was
the advice given the students at
Howard University by the presi
dent Dr. Mordoeai Johnson, here
Tuesday.
“There is only one danger to
the great dictators of the world”
said Dr. Johnson, “and that is a
healthy, obedient will. Just as
Christ believed the vaunted splen
dor of the Roman Empire and the
rampant patriotism of the Phar
isees were diseases of spirit af
fecting the social security of the
masses of the population, so be
cause of such disease the empire
fell.
|
“And here are you students in
a relative position in the modern
world openly disfavored, segre
gated, economically powerless and
with the knowledge that the sit
uation presses down upon the will.
In your first week of university
life may I say that scholastic at
tainment, alone is not. able to
overcome this empirical disease.
Must Help Make World
“It is not merely ignorance,
no runskilled effort that the Ne
gro must overcome, but he must
through simple faith ,attain the
will which will enable him to feel
in the midst of a dominant civil
ization, that the world is not yet
made and that he can have a hand
in making it.
“If you give up your theologic
al inhibitions and philosophical
obstructions that stand in the way
of obedience to the will of God
then you may attain a sense of
well being and incipient power
which will emancipate and liber
alize both mind and soul .
“The diseased sense of subor
dination to a Roman empire was
overcome by Christ, when He
realized it was not necessary for.
Him to be like a Roman nor an
associate of Romans ,to violate
His self respect and sense of im
portance. He never bought a tick
et to Rome, nor reported to His
congregations that He had talked
with Roman senators or princes.
“With all its weaknesses mani
fested today, the Christian relig
ion is still a contendor for control
of the will of mankind. From a
lowly beginning arose the Spirit
that outlasted the Jewish state
and the Roman empire, and will
outlast every other dominant cul
ture of the world.”
KELLY MILLER
SAYS:
MY LIFE’S SPAN
I am now three score and ten and
two years old. I have passed the
Scriptural allotment and am still go
ing strong. I was placed on the re
tired list two years ago for purely
calendarial reason rather than on ac
count of failing strength and physi
cal infirmities.
I was for four years a contempor
ary of Abraham Lincoln. There has
been greater transformation in the
material aspect of civilization
since my birth than had taken place
from the time of Adam until then.
Abraham Lincoln never saw an elec
tric light, rode in an automobile, used
a telephone or listened over the ra
dio. The intellectual transformation
has been no less marvelous. Darwin’s
“Origin of the Species” was publish
ed in 1859, four years before my
birth, but did not come into general
acceptance and vogue until some
twenty years after. This discovery
has caused the readjustment of re
ligious, political, economic and social
thought of mankind. Nor is the end
in sight. It doth not yet appear what
the reconstructive thought shall be;
but we do know that it will be trace
able back to Darwin and the theory
of evolution. All of this has transpir
ed during my life time, although I
cannot say with aneas “Magna Pars
Quarum Fui” (I was a great part in
those things), yet J can truly say
that the span of my life covered those
great transformations.
My seventy two years of life may
be taken as a yardstick to measure
the progress of the Negro race from
Emancipation until now. I came to
notice things at the fag end of re
construction. I have known and in a
measure have touched and been
touched by the great men and mea
sures who have shaped the destiny
of the Negro race. I have seen the
political experiment reach its height
under Douglass and Langston, Pinch
back and Bruce, and have seen it
fade almost to nullity, and then
again take new spurt under DePriest
and Mitchell. I have seen the reli
gious life of the race reach the point
of highest hope and expectation in
the great A. M. E. church under
Payne, Way man and Brown and then
to decline on lower level of moral and
spiritual energy and enterprise. I
have seen the educational life of the
race bouyant with the hope of sal
vation through learning, and then to
taper down to hundreds and thou
sands of college bred men and women
who are seemingly satisfied to get
a place on the white man’s payroll.
I have watched the agitative organ
izations from the Afro-American
league, the Niagara Movement, the
Equal Rights League to the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, they have all risen,
flourished and faded, except the last
mentioned which is still functioning.
I have seen business organizations
flourish for a season like a green bay
tree, and then wither at the top for
want of depth of earth.
I have always maintained some
sort of self distance from those
movements. I have mixed with action
only to a limited degree. I never en
tered actively into the political ar
ena, in religious leadershp, nor busi
ness enterprises, nor into fraternal
and social organizations. I have been
in the main, an observer and a com
mentator rather than a dictator of
the current of racial life.
I was born with a certain equipoise
of mind and am not easily swerved
by the hysteria of the moment. I
have incurred the reputation of not
being willing to take sides in issues
and controversies to which the race
is so readily proned. My intellectual
sanity saves me from such futile
partizanship. I watched thq fury that
raged for two decades between the
advocates of higher and industrial
education, but became the blind par
tizan in neither. From the start I
made a just appraisment of the value
of both, I realized their relative im
portance and comparative impotence.
I remember thirty years ago speak
ing in Boston and presenting two
briefs, one for the higher education
and one for the industrial education
as contributive factors in the solu
tion of the race problem. Of course,
I was branded as a compromiser and
trimmer. At that time Booker T.
Washington and W. E. B. DuBois
were the irreconcilable antagonists.
I stood midway between the two, ap
preciating the merits of both and
their deficiencies. Twenty-five years
later, both schools have come to my
platform. Dr. DuBois in delivering the
graduating address at Howard Uni
versity several years ago, acknow
ledged the failure of both the higher
and industrial education as a solvent
for the race problem. In my Found
er’s Day address at Tuskegee last
April I stood precisely where I did
thirty years ago and watched the
storms go raging by. During the past
forty years since I began to com
ment on public life I have engender
ed much corbity and some bitterness
but I have no enemies. I feel like El
bert Hubbard “my enemies are my
friends who misunderstand me”. I
have never hated and do not now j
hate a single individual who has
risen above the horizen. I empha
tically dislike many of the attitudes
and faults but have always disen
tangled the genuine from the oscre
sent in character. I hate the sin, yet
WHAT IS YOUR
SPEECH LIKE?
Is your speech:
Like the rush of mighty waters on
the hollow sounding shore ?
Like the tinkle of a crystal spring
on the rocky mountain side?
Like the name of an Indian maiden,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water?
or
Like a broken sapling, straining in
the storm.
Like the rendng of a rock.
Like the menace of a flood.
The first duty of a man is to
speak. That is his chief business in
the world. Robert Louis Stevenson
once said: “Talk is the harmonious
speech between two or more persons.
It is by far the most accessible of
pleasures. It costs nothing in money;
it is all profit; it completes our edu
cation, founds friendships, and can
be enjoyed at any age and in almost
any stage of health.”
A clear speaking voice is a prime
requisite in every field of activity.
In public speaking, in debating, in
conversation, in business interviews,
in the schoolroom. Most persons are
careful about their dress when they
are trying to get on successfully in
the world and at the same time how
careless the same people are of their
speech, which is the mirror of their
personality. As a man speaks, so he
is.
There is really no excuse for any
one having a strident, or weak voice.
Most of the faults of the voice are
not inherited but are merely bad hab
its. People can change these habits.
You can re-leam these the same as
other habits. It is not easy to change
old habits but it can be done. This
should be your aim in this series of
weekly articles.
The voice is one of the great won
ders of God's gift to men. One can
do almost anything with it if he will
only try. The great orator Demos
thenes said: “As a vessel is known
by the sound, whether it is cracked or
not; so men are proved by their
speeches.”
Penalty for Mater
nal Indulgence
By R. A. ADAMS
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
She is a mother. There were three
children. Two of them still live. Dur
ing the extended absence of the fath
er these girls took advantage of the
meekness of the mother and depart
ed from what the father considered
“right and proper”, in social conduct.
This departure was discovered and
caused estrangement between father
and mother. The mother was terribly
distressed but considered that, after
all, she had merited and secured the
love of her children.
But the children, now grown and
with children of their own„ are un
kind to this mother. They do not re
spect her views nor her wishes and
actually are unkind in word and
deed. The wreck is complete. The
breach between father and mother
will never be healed. The mother feels
the weight of this terrible thing on
her conscience. But the children seem
not to realize what they have done
nor what they owe to their mother.
In this sad case is a lesson for
all mothers, especially for mothers,
who are inclined to be indulgent and
to suffer children to deceive their
fathers. It is retribution.
love the sinner.
I have never hated the white race,
on the whole, I have pitied them.
After severe self-searching I have
feared in my heart of hearts that
had there been a transposition of
places I should possibly, nay prob
ably, have had the same disdainful
attitude towards them which they
now exhibit towards the Negro. Then
I know that I should hate myself.
I have always preserved a more or
less unruffled attitude and stood
aplomb amidst irrational things. I j
have the patience of Job which could
cry out in deepest despair and dis
tress “I know that my Redeemer
liveth”. I have an abiding faith that
all human problems, of which the
race problem is but a troublesome
incident, will finally be solved. This
will not take place in my day but I
trust that my past forty years of
endeavor will neither hinder nor de
lay this great consummation in God’s
fullness of time. I have been able to
maintain this equipoise of mind and
calmness of spirit because of a cer
tain introvert psychology by which
I am able to sink into the sub-cellar
of my own soul while the storm of
life goes raging by.
»I shall devote the remaining years
of my life actively along the same
lines of endeavor. I shall not allow
myself to be carried away by any
sudden nostrums, political, religious
or economic. Here I stand, I can do
no otherwise, God help me.
I am now engaged upon my auto
biography which I hope will be ready
within the next year or so. A picture
of the type of life which I have
striven to live in its relaxation to
the racial and general movements of
my day and generation, it seems to
me, ought to make an interesting
story, if not a worthwhile one.
Kelly Miller
Townsend Old Agre
Recovery Disciples
Meet In Chicago
Promoters Say Negroes Have Joined
Clubs in Large Numbers
Chicago, Oct. 12-(ANP)—Under
the slogan, “Youth for Work; Age
for Leisure”, disciples of the Town
send Plan of Old Age Revolving Pen
sions for Permanent Recovery, from
all sections of the country will meet
here at the Coliseum, October 24 to
27, according to an announcement
made by Mrs. E. C. Dow, president
of the International Humane League,
Inc., Thursday morning.
The movement has for its purpose
the passage through Congress of the
Townsend Old Age Pension Bill,
whereby all citizens of the United
States 60 years of age and over
would receive a monthly pension of
$200 with the condition that the en
tire amount must be spent during
the month for commodities and serv
ices, according to its promoters. A
large number of Negroes in various
sections of the country have been at
tracted to the organization, many of
whom are organizing clubs, accord
ing to Mrs. Dow.
It is the belief of those sponsor
ing the movement that the Townsend
Plan is the only feasible one offered
for permanent recovery. The depres
sion is due to the non circulation of
money thus causing a stagnation in
industry and the productive fields.
With more than ten million people
receiving a monthly stipend of $200
which must be spent, a vast sum of
money will be in constant circulation,
these Utopians contend, which will
enable factories to resume operations
farmers to find a market for their
products, mines to sell their output,
all which would open up employment
to the youth.
This vast sum of money, which of
necessity must be required, the plan
adherents insist, can be raised
through a law establishing a federal
tax of two percent on all bequests
and gifts of $500 and over, and a one
tenth percent increase in present in
come tax levies. And asks the spon
sors, “Who would object to paying
these equitably imposed taxes as a
guarantee for leisure and happiness
in old age as well as opportunity and
work for the youth of our land?”
We Have Not Failed
By R. A. ADAMS
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
We have not failed if days and years
Have all been spent in doing good,
E’cn tho we’ve not done what we
would,
And we’re beset with doubts and
fears.
We have not failed, tho may seem so,
And it be thus by others viewed,
And many show ingratitude
For deeds of kindness we may show.
We have not failed, e’en tho our goal
Has not been reached, if verily,
We’ve tried, in all sincerety,
With powers of body, mind and soul.
We have not failed, tho yet undone
Is much we would, ere comes the
night,
If we have striv’n with all our might,
Thus we may greet life’s setting
sun.
WEEKLY SHORT
SERMON
By Dr. A. G. Bearer
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
Do
Text: Whatsoever thy hand findeth
to do, do it with thy might—Ecc.
9:10.
The verb in this text is a little big
word. It is small in number of let
ters, in space required to write it, but
in its import it is as full as
life; it concerns all time—and eterni
ty.
1. It Is in the Active Voice. It pre
sents the subject as acting—as re
quired to act. It is in the imperative
mood, for there is the stem necessi
ty that one should be constantly do
ing. So it is evident that every one
has something to do—and should be
"up and doing".
2. The Adverbial Element Consid
ered. The adverbial element tells
how one should do. The term might
include opportunities, possibilities,
physical strength and mental capa
city. It includes the endowments of
body, mind and soul all combined.
3. The Object Complement Is Posi
tive but Indefinite. No special task is
specified but the text “Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might" would indicate that every
where the hands will find something
and it is incumbent to do whatever
may be in reach.
4. The Urgency Manifest. The rea
son for this urgency as to time, op
portunity and strength is made very
plain in the statement “for there is
no labor, nor work, nor device in the
Ejrave whither thou goest.