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. . . EDITORIALS ... J
THE OMAHA GUIDE
Published every Saturday at 24618-20 Grant Street.,
Omaha, Nebraska
Phone WEbster 1750
GAINES T. BRADFORD, • - Editor and Manager
Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927, at the Post Of
fice at Omaha, Neb., undertheAetof Congress of March 3, 1879.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION *2 00 PFR YEAR
Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood of God and
the Brotherhood of Man must prevail. These are the
e^lv priciples whio-h will stand the acid test of good
citizenship in time of peace, war and death.
Omaha, Nebraska, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7,1935
SPOTS BEFORE HIS EVES
Senator Borah added to his reputation for courage, but not
for sense or liberalism, by his letter to the National Association
for th)" Advancement of Colored People. Tie says he will again
oppose an anti-lynching bill and that he thinks Fedcrel legis'
lation against lynching unconstitutional.
The opinion does no credit to a man who has often talked j
of putting human rights above property rights. For the Four
teenth Amendment, which is now the bulwark of corporate
privilege, was originally passed to protect the rights of the
freed slaves and is ample base for anti-lynching legislation.
Tn the debate on th|e WagnerCostigan bill in Ihe Senate
last May Senator Borah opposed anti'lynching legislation, as
he opposed NBA an dAA, a san interference writh the rights
of the States and as a dangerous tr|end toward centraEbed gov
eminent.
But Senator Borah seemed to ignore the fact that the Four
teenth Amendemtent, by giving the Federal Government power
to veto acts of States in violation of fundamental rights, had
fundamentally changed the relations between Federal and State
governments.
, Congress, under the Fourteenth Am|e<lndment, is given
“power to enforce by appropriate legislation" the guarantee:
“nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or pro"
perty, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person with
in '.‘ts jurisdiction the equal protection of the law's."
If this means anything at all, it means that Congress can
punish as in the WagnFvCostigan bill—any State officer who
fails to prevent a lynching. It also means that Congress need!
not wait until a man’s banging from a tree. Federal Marshals i
can be empowered to protect against a lynch mob where State
officers fail to do so.
Federal officials might also, if they wanted to, use the
civil rights act of IH7<> to punish lynchers. It is true that the
same courts which found 'it leasy to enlarge due procress on
behalf of property have virtually emasculated due process in
regard to the rights of persons.
But it ill becomes such a liberalism as Senator Borah to con
cur in that procedure. New York Post, November 2(>.
MAKE THE STREETS SAFE
i
___________ **
*
The drive to make Omaha streets saflo for the public is an
effort worthy of consideration. The oarelessness with which
some motorists drive through streets makes it dangerous for
other motorists as well ns pedlestrains. Bach person who drives
a* ear should make the pledge to refrain from carelessness.
Omaha ranks with the leaders wWeri ’it comes to traffic deaths.
Aiong with the recommendation that each person cheek
on his or her driving, we believe that stridt (enforcement of the
traffic laws will do a lot to rid the streets of the Oldfields and
other careless drivers. A litjtje thinking will also go a long
way toward solving the problem.
FUNDS FOR MISSISSIPPI CASE
The sensational Mississippi torture ease, in which three
sharecroppers, Ed. Brown, Yank Ellington and Henry Shields,
are appealing from their death sentence to the United States
supreme court, is 'in desperate need of funds, according to an
appeal broadcast today by the NAACP.
The three sharecroppers, of Kemper County, Miss., were
convicted last year after being brutally tortured in order to
force “confessions” from them. All three were beaten with :
heavy straps containing studs and buckles, and Ellington, in
addition, wna itrung up by the meek tnd permanently ajnred
The Mississippi supreme court affairmed the conviction, but
one of the justices, i a disseting opinion, called the torture
“unbelievable’’ and characterized the ease ts “worse than the
Scottsboro cases.”
The NAACP, assisted by southern organizations and indi
vidual white and colored people in Mississippi who were out
raged by the torture, raised most of the money needed to carry
the case to the United States supreme court. The supreme court
has agreed to hear the argument soon, but there remains still
a balance to be raised if various incidental expenses are paid
and the case is presented effectively in Washington.
“It would be a pity for these friendless sharecroppers, who
have an excellent chance for their lives,’’ said the NAACP
statement, “if we failed at this crucial time to provide the funds
to carry the case forward.’’ Contributions should he sent to
the NAACP, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
THE WAY OUT
(By Boren Miller)
OUR SNOOTY NAVY
The NAACP has just been
told by the navy department
that the fleet has no place for
Negroes except as messmen and
personal servants. In a certain
sense this ruling is a blessing
to Negroes. The next war will
probably be a naval one and
the navy's stand will prevent
Negroes from getting killed
to make Alabama safe for dem
ocracy and Texns safe for
lynchings.
Anyhow, the navy has been
snooty for years. There hasn’t
been a cadet at Annapolis since
the 1870’s and few full pledged
seamen since the Civil war.
In fact, about the only op
portunity for a Negro to bleed
for disfranchisement and suffer
for segregation lies in enlist"
ment in the infantry.
I can't verify this but I have
been told that the air depart
ment is seriously considering
making it a felony for a Ne
gro to look at an airplane; the
known fact 'is that the air corps
is lily white. The sanje thing
goes for all the mechanized
branches of the service.
NOT MUCH GOOD
Modern warfare has more or
less relegated Infantry to a
minor place. The strength of
any nation lies in its navy, its
air corps and in the mechanized
UAL. KIVU ..
branches of its military service
—the very branches from which
Negroes are excluded. About
all infantrymen are good for
is to get shot, wounded ,gassed
and burned to a nice crisp by
a liquid flame.
It seems to me that there are
two reasons for the exclusion
of Negroes from the first line
of defence. The first is that the
theory that Negroes are infer"
ior is widely held and our West
Point trained generals hold fast
to the lessons taught in their
sociology and history books.
The other renson is that Amer
ica’s warmakers don’t trust
Negro soldiers at all. They fear
to arm them with weapons that
might prove too dangerous.
HEROES
I can already hear a roar
of protest; Negro super-patriots
will descend on me on masse
to shout that the Negro has al*
ways proven loyal in time war
This easy generalization over
looks the fact that Negro
troops revolted ‘in Houston,
Texas ,at the beginning of the.
world war and that at least
fifty of them were condemned
to death for what amounted to
military treason.
As far as I can see the men
were not traitors; they were
heroes and ought to he honor
ed by us much more than they
are. The Houston revolt oe*
eurred because the soldiers got
tired of browbeating and bully
ing by the city’s police officers, i
They did what any other group
of brave men would have done;
they took guns and shot it out
with their tormentors.
OBJECT LESSON
That lesson has not been
wasted on America’s brass hats
and war makers. They know
as well as the next man that
America is just one great big
Houston where Negroes are
constantly being brow beaten
and bullied. I’m no prophet
but Negroes are going to get
tired of it some day just as
they did at Houston. And when
they do they are going to fight
back.
Our generals, who are so
ifond of dying in bed, know it
too, and that’s the reason
they’re careful to see that Ne
groes don’t learn too much
about military science.
I’m pretty much opposed to
war but I think that the
NAACT is right in protesting
discrimination in America’s
armed forces. So long as any
disability is attached to color
we can never be free. Negroes
ought to have the right to serve
in the navy, or the air service
or the tank corps. But before
any Negro enlists he ought to
go hear Major General Smed"
ley Butler speak, or ut least
read some of his articles.
After 30 years of service,
Gen. Butler says that war is a
racket and that the armed
forces are used by big business
a collecting agencies for bad
debts. Afer a Negro enlists and
learns how to use a gun he
can decide for himself whether
he wants to use his skill to be
a racketeer or whether he pre
fers to help abolish the racket.
Americanization
Project Underway
Miss Martha Pulton, vooa’
tional office worker, under the
WPA, is conducting classes in
vocational training at the Cen
tral lEgh school on Tuesday
and Thursday evenings at 7:3U.
Persons who are interested in
improving his reading, English
etc., arc welcome to attend.
Tien or more persons interest
e<( in forming groups in dif
ferent sections of the city, noti
fy Miss Pulton, and arrange
ments for the hours and place
of meeting will be made.
BRAIN TEASERS
“DO YOU KNOW YOUR
RACE irtSTORY?”
questions
1. Where is Si rra Leone?
2. What is the location of
Ethiopia?
3. What is the definition of
a Colored person?
4. Who is said to have the
largest life insurance policy
on record?
5. Wh re was the first Negro
bank organized? When?
6. What Negro Inventor pep*
fected Therapeutic electric
lamps for the aid of medi
cal science?
7. Who was Joe Cans?
8. Who was the first Negro
student to be awarded
Magna Gum Laude from
New York university?
9. What Negro woman was
the first to receive the ap
pointment a s assistant
principal in the public
schools of New York City?
10. TiTiere was the first norm
al school for Negroes
stablished? When?
ANSWERS
1. A British colony in West
Africa.
2. Northeast Africa. From
about 10 to 24 degi-ees
latitude. Described as
modem Abyssinia.
3. Jn Michigan, Nebraska,
and Oregon. One is not
legally a person of color
who has less than one
fourth Negro blood.
4. Watt Terry, real estate
broker of New York City.
Amount, $545,000.00.
5. The Capital Savings Bank
of Washington, D. C. Be
gan business October 17,
1888. After running for 16
years it failed.
6. Paul E. Johnson of Chi
cago who operates his own
factory, has been quite
successful with his inven
tions.
7. Lightweight champion o f
the ring from 1902 to 1908.
8. Asa T. Spaulding in 1930.
9. Mrs. Elsie MoDou gal-Ayer
at public school No. 89 in
1928.
10. New York City in 1863.
John Peterson was the
first principal.—NNF
KELLY MILLER
SAYS
HITLER GOES
AMERICA
ONE BETTER
The instances of the Jew in
Germany and of the Negro in
America furnish the most in
teresting laboratory on race
relations to be found in the
world today. In America the
two races are separable by dis
tinction of high visibility; in
Germany the racial discrimin
ant is below visibility. There
is no color line to justify Ger
man race antipathy. The Jew
and the German have been in
contact fora thousand years
with every semblance of ami'
cal adjustment. But, presto!
all of a sudden, as if in a mom
ent, in the twinkling of an eye,
the Teuton’s racial intoler
ance breaks out in uncontroll
able fury. Hitler’s keen dicta
torial acumen instinctively
sensed the need of a rallying
cry around which he could
arouse the whole nation. Ap
peal to racial sensibility is a
most powerful social dynamic.
The Hymn of Hate is easily
sung by the Germans who look
upon themselves as God s
chosen people. Looking around
for an object on which to vent
his Teutonic spleen, he saw the
Jewish race as Abraham saw a
ram caught in the thickets by
his horns, which he offered up
as a sacrifice to appease the
demon of race hatred.
The world was amazed at
the spontaneity and sudden
ness with which Hitler was
able to inject the virus of race
hatred into the veins of the
whole German people. Al
though Germany ;s perhaps
the most orthodox Protestant
nation in Europe, yet amidst
all of th's breathing out of hat
red and slaughter against a de
fenseless race no single voice
of carrying power and Christ
ian conviction has been raised
against this un-Christian bar
barity.
What Germany has done to
the Jew might be easily dupli
cated by any Nordic nation in
Europe should the occasion
arise for arousing the people
by appeal to their racial sensi
bilities. The Ku Klux Klan
in America made such an
abortive attempt, which failed
for a leader of nitler’s dare
devil recklessness.
The forms in which race
prejudice express itself
against the Jew in Germany
run on all fours with that
against the Negro in America,
from which students of the
world-wide race problem may
learn lessons of deep signifi
cance and far reaching conse
quences.
Tn America race prejudice
takes several legalized forms.
(1) the marriage bar, (2) sep
arate schools, (3) separate
cars, (4) limitation of political
rights and civic privileges.
Hitler has forbidden inter
marriage between Jew and
Aryan, set up separate schools
for the Jewish race and made
the Jew a subject rather than
a citizen of the Reich, lie holds
himself in readiness to decree
whatever further forms o f
distinction and discrimination
his imperious will might sug
gest. He has not yet set up
traveling facilities, or j i m
crow cars as we call them in
America, for the specific reas
on that the Jewish contingent,
constituting barely one per
cent of the population, is not
sufficiently numerous to justi
fy such distinction in public
conveyances.
There are sundry other
modes of distinction and dis
J crimination to which the Negro
in America is subjected which
have not been legalized. Amer
ica contends that race prejudice
against the Negro is due to his
inferior education, culture and
concrete achievements. On the
other hand ,Hitler frankly sim
plifies the matter by having the
distinction bluntly on racial
grounds, although the Jew oc
cupies a level of attainment and
distinction above the average
German.
There is this vital distinction
Hitler has decreed that pro
scription against the Jew is a
Government function and its
execution must not be assumed
by the individual but by the
Government. In America, es
pecially in the South, every
white man arrogates to himself
the monitorship over the be
havior of the Negro and as
sumes the right to chastise any
member of the race who trans
gresses the border line of race
distinction set up and sanction
ed by the community. It is this
racial arrogance and assump
tion which lies at the basis of
lynching where an individual,
or group of individuals, take
the law 'in their own hands in
wreaking vengenance upon the
Negro who commits offense
against the person and dignity
of any member of the white
race.
In Germany no Jew is allow"
ed to hire an Aryan female un
der thirty-five years of age as
a household domestic. The p lain
object is to prevent the Hebrew
male from exerting authority
and persuaisive 'influence over
Aryan womanhood. The same
disposition manifests itself in
America. A Jewish proprietor
has been jailed for kissing an
Aryan girl in his employ al
though she acknowledged her
willingness to receive his ad
vances. All such intimacy across
the race line is considered a
racial rather than individual
insult, of which the Government
itself takes cognizance.
Hitler’s aovwed purpose is to
preserve the purity of the Ary
an race, free from further in
term ixt ure of Jewish blood.
The Nordic method in this re
spect differs fundamentally
from that of the Latin or South
ern European races. With the
Nordic, wherever he is found,
offspring between the white
man and the non-white woman
is relegated to the lower class
of the mother status. Whereas
with the Latin or Southern
Europeans such offspring is
given the father’s status. The
result of the first method is
to mix the inferior race while
keeping the superior race pure;
whereas the effect of the latter
is to mix the superior race
while keeping the inferior race
pure. Which of these methods
will best solve the race problem
in the long run is a matter of
d'spute and speculation.
In America the white male is
disposed to take advantage of
the colored female with impun
ity, free from legal or social
responsibility. This procedure
give the white malg^naa* the
colored female a free range in
their lascivious indulgence.
But condine and drastic punis
ment is imposed upon the white
female and the black male
whose sexual inclination cross"
es the color line.
According to Hitler’s decree
an Aryan male and a Jewish
| female have both been impris
oned for one year for illicit re"
lationship, on the ground that
they had both offered an insult
to the Aryan race. No Southern
state in America has allowed
its racial antipathy to go to
this extent.
America is prone to condemn
Germany for outbreaks of rac
ial ruthlessness against the
Jew, but the American pot can
not call the German kettle black
I without expecting a d'iscon
1 eerting retorte.
OUT WHERE THE
WEST BEGINS
Bjr R. A. Adams
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
Years ago the Mississippi River
was the boundary line between
what was termed “the civilized
East,” and the “barbarous West."
It was the point “Where the west
begins.” But, by conquest of dif
ficulties, advancement in means of
locomotion, and in courage and
persistence of heroic souls, the
line of demarcation was pushed
back and then eliminated. So we
have today a common country and
no longer is applicable the saying,
“But East is East, and West is
West,
And ne’er the twain shall meet.”
As in the realm of geography,
so it has been and is in the field
of ethics or moral philosophy. For
years there have been sharp lines
of distinction between the admis
sible and the inadmissible, the
conservative and the radical, in
human behavorism. This was the
line where the east of conservat
ism and the west of radicalism or
moral laxness m t. And experi
ence teaches that this line is in
dispensable to the moral well-be
ing of the people.
But the tr ad of the times in
dicates that the methods and the
results are about to be reversed.
It seems now that the radical will
push the conservative Into the
ocean and there will come, final
ly, the domination of moral laxity
and moral radicalism. And this
will take us back beyond “the
horse and buggy days,” to the
time when every man was a law
unto himself. And it will mean
the wreck of our civilization.
BE NOT AFRAID
By R. A. Adams
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
If you are right, be not afraid,
With confidence lift up your head;
Though calumny her vtnomed
dart .
Send piercing to your inmost
heart,
And things as false as hell be
said,
Be not afraid; be not afraid.
If you have faith, be not afraid;
Be brave, and confident, instead;
Wh n dire misfortunes shall
befall,
Let nought your valiant soul
appall,
To friends and helpers all
have fled;—
Be not afraid; be not afraid!
If you would win, be not afraid,
Though rugged be the path you
tread;
All who have been approved of
God,
The way of suffering have trod;
Remembering “God is not dead,’’
Be not afraid; be not afraid!
SERMONETTE
By Arthur B. Rhinow
(For the Literary Service Bureau)
Love and Hate
You cannot love unless you
hate. You cannot love the right
unless you hate wrong. Love is
a fighter, not a mere gush of af
fection. If you love yourself you
will fight everything that hinders
you in being and becoming your
best self. If any one is dear to
us we despise the bad habits that
drag him down. Love of country
implies an earnest effort to elim
inate the evils in the nation. The
'brotherhood of man is just a
sweet phrase unless we are will
ing to fight the selfishness that
keeps it from becoming a blessed
reality. War cannot be ended
without war; not with the crude
weapons of explosives and steel,
but with the weapons of loving,
fighting minds and hearts.
Wilberforce hated slavery be
cause he loved the slaves. He did
not merely indulge in a sentiment
of aversion, or speak of the
“horrible thing” in drawing rooms
over a social cup of tea; he
fought the iniquitous trade with
all his might for 46 years to the
day of his death. That was love.
Jesus hated sin because he
loved the sinner. How He loved,
and how He hated! And when
we meet in pleasant surroundings
to talk about the evils of the day,
do we not -hear His words of
scorn against hypocrisy and the
swish of the scourge upon greed;
words and scourge that ought to
rouse us out of our comfortable
but stagnant apathy? Hatred
without love is devilish, but love
without hatred is weak.
