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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1936)
IavaTKSriEinQnElriiarnK irDanEnJanJa/wanLariJc^^:?^^ EDITORIALS..®, MfiUMgBi ■'• BTtWWWWBWMSaBP BI~~I OMAHA GUIDE Publish'd Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant Street, Omaha. Nebraska Phones: WEbs'er 1517 or 1618 Entered as Second Glass Matter March 16, 1927. at the Postoffiee at Omsna Neb., under Act of Congrw.s of March 3, 1879. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood of God and the Brother hood of Man must prevail. These are the only principles which will •tand the acid test of rood. All News Capy of Churches and all Organizations must be in our office not later than 6:00 p. m. Monday for current issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, preceed ing date of issue, to insure publication. WE CONGRATULATE THE PRESIDENT “The i'«lion has spoken. Every American will accept t/he verdict, and work for the common cause for the good of the coun-j tr.\. That is the pint of democracy. ’’ S«j ran the telegram dispatched by Governor liumlon to Pres* j idei t Roosevelt when it became apparent that the voters had rallied in unpreeidented numbers in support of the Administra tion. And that telegram represents something more than good sportsmanship it marks an attitude that should be held by all of the people in every walk of life. The Democratic victory was not a party victory. No mere party victory could he so overwhelming or so completely break down seetioi al lines of partisan sympathy. The victory was a very different thing—it was a personal victory for Mr. Roosevelt. No man in a century has so captivat ed the imagination and emotions of the people, and none has received so gr at an expresion of public confidence. A It publican newspaper sai l the morning following the election that “the President today is the most popular figure in I our national life known since Washington.’’ It is impossible to gainsay that. The most popular of presidents, and those whose administrations stand out mountainously in our history--Jef ferson, Lincoln, Cleveland—were never so popular as Mr. Roose velt. The past records have all been shattered. The time for partisanship has passed. And the time for co operation has come. This does not mean the President should be followoed blindly in every course—that would be unjust to Mr. Roosevelt 'himself as well as to the country. It does mean that all should work together in the common cause, as Governor London said, deliberating differences and adjusting varying points of view to the end that the great ideal of democratic gov ernment he served to the ultimate of all our capabilities. Congratulations to the President! Few men in the world’s history have been so signally honored by a great people—an1 honor which carries with it the gravest responsibilities. Every • good citizen will hope sincerely that Mr. Roosevelt’s second term ns chief executive of the foremost nation on earth will be successful, and that his will be a high place in the history of our time. WHAT $220,000,000 COULD BUY For the first nine months of this year, the nation's estimated fire loss amounted to about $220,000,000. This marked a $30,000' 0(H) advance over the loss sustained in the same period last year. We hav become accustomed to thinking in vast figures these days, and we say a billion more easily than we used to say a mil lion. But the fact remains that $220,000,000 is a lot of money—ns a little analysis will prove. Suppose that instead of burning up tha $220,000,000, we had put it to productive work. What could it have done! We hear much about the housing shortage in this country. The money we gave to the god of fire in nine months could have built 55,000 homes at. a eost of $4,000 each,—homes which would have comfortably housed 200,000 to 300,000 people. There are millions of men in our country who lack steady jobs. Had we put that $220,000,000 in productive enterprise, it yould have given more than 300,000 men work for a solid year at the rate of $60 per month. Many parts of the country are still in need of good roads. If we had put that $220,000,000 into road construction, it would have built 44,000 miles of highway costing $5,000 per mile—la road long enough to reach back and forth across the continent almost fifteen times. Finally to give an idea of the magnitude of the sum destroyed by fire in less than a year, $220,000,0000 represents interest at 6 per cent for twelve months on the vast sum of $4,400,000,0000! Is fire prevention worthwhile? Is it worth the little time and effort that is required of every individual to make it an actuality? Read the above again, and make your own answer. WOMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE In 1915, women life insurance owners totaled hut 3 per cent of all policy holders. Today new life insurance written on women represents 15 per cent of the total. And the proportion is constantly increasing. This is due to the fact that many more women are self-sup porting than in the pre-war days. But that doesn’t tell the en tire story. Women have developed a much broader understand ing of economic problems of the individual—and, as a result, art taking steps to protect themselves against the exigencies ol the unpredictable future. The figures speak well for the foresight of modern Amer iean women. PAPER SAYS “WE HURT OURSELVES” We Hurl Ourselves)’ is the caption of the leading editori al in the Kansas City Call recently, in which Editor C. A. Frank lin says: “One reason why Negroes do not make the progress they should is their insistence on an equality within the race. The Negro domestic easily takes orders from whites, hut she fair ly shouts ‘I won’t work for my owui color' because to do so, she thinks, is an admission that the employer is her superior. Considering the large number of Negroes who work ingroups the foremen among them are few. Promotion is blocked at the very outset of their rise from common labor by their peoples unwillingness to take orders from them. Not all are so foolish, but enough are to have created that general impression. Conse quently, employers are unwilling to invite discord by advanc ing one Negro over another. Failing in the first step, the Negro, if he enters business at all, leaps into it unprepared. It& buys experience at his own expense, with no period of training such as he would have had if he could have moved gradually from worker to foreman to partner. “There are many cities in this country with a Negro popu lation of 25,000 or more. Any city of that population has a var iety of husinissex, yet Negroes of equal number, who buy every thing like their white neighbors, do not supply themselves even the necessities. As a result many places of employment are lost and they must crowd into a few lines of work with cutthroat competition resulting. “In recent years movements to force white business men in Negro neighborhoods to employ Negroes have broken out in sev eral cities, notably Chicago and New York. Of course it is fair I that some part of the money that comes from Negroes shall go back to them. Hut it is obviously hotter to seek that money with out coercion and strife than with it. If there was no silly refus al to let one member of the race rise above the others, a move ment toward business would be natural, and in time would reach its full development in the form of all kinds of business. “The place to begin is at the beginning. First of all, if work is honorable, there is no social difference between employer and employe, and for that reason a Negro is as good to work for as anybody else. With that handicap out of the way, a cheerful willingness to work under a Negro foreman would follow. After that nature would take its course. Ultimtely all Negroes with business inclinations would succeed. There can be no solution of Negroes problem in America so long as they themselves insist upon blocking their own progress.’’ THE MANY I’AY FOR THE FEW Iii a recent address, L. L. Campbell, formerly executive as sistant. to the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, said that the development is a failure so far as providing a “yard stick'’ with which to measure electric power rates is concerned. “If the so-called yardstick principle means anything, it means that TVA, as a public agency* would generate and' sell electricity at a rate that would return, not only the actual cost of TVA, but that would also coveij those cost factors that! are inescapable by private industries, such as interest on invest ment, depreciation, taxes and the like,’’ he said. “Any other method of measurement, would neither he fair nor honest. TVA rates do not cover the interest on its investment, depreciation and other like charges. Under the thin guise of navigation and national defense, it is flaunting the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution, b ybuilding a aupeireldctric empire. Dominant and dominating, unaceounting and unaciountable, it means that mil lions of tax money is being used to place in jeopardy the honest investment of thousands of our citizens. ’ Mr. Campbell cited figures to the effect that the public treasury has put up 58 cents for every 42 cents paid by a resi dent of Tupelo, Miss., for TVA power, and said this town is typ ical. In other words, the rate charged for TVA power amounts to only 42 per cent of the tree cost, according to Mr. CamphU s analysis, with public subsidies accounting for the balance. All of this square with what others have said about the T\ A Unprejudiced newspapers and economists have time and time again described the so-called TVA yardstick as being complete ly inaccurate and misleading. The chief virtue of such yard stick seems to be that it is a devise by which the many can be made to pay for the few. If the proposed Tennessee Valley power pool, suggested by the President—in which the TVA and private utility resources are to be combined and the business equitably divided—is to be a success, the crooked yardstick must be changed to an honest measuring rod and the whole structure of the TVA must be re' formed and put on a business instead of a political basis. FROM CITY HALL TO WASHINGTON Most of us think of the menacing problem of taxation pri marily in relation to the federal government. And it is true that the cost of the central government could bo materially out with out reducing its efficieneey or eliminating any necessary func tion. But there are othr frtile fields for drastic tax reduction. State governments, by and large, are no models of efficien cy and economy. In many states great bureaucracies have been built up and turned into political machines—with the taxpayer footing the bill. In almost every state government there is waste, duplication of effort and overlapping departments. The same thing Is true of county governments—which some experts believe are the most wasteful of all—and it is likewise true of many municipal governments. Any complete program for tax relief must include all units of government. It will avail us little if the federal government saves a dollar and the state government wastes two, or vice ver sa. When we demand a cleanup of one governmental unit, we should give the same dose of medicine to the other governmental units, or bureaucracies will swamp us. Tax reduction is as vital an issue ns we face today. We must fight for a reduction of waste from the city hall to the nationa capitol. ALTA VESTA A GIRL S PROBLEMS By Videtta Ish Dear Alta Vesta: Yur last tetter was made up of questions, but they are the most important ones that come to the attent'on of men. They deal w'th all people, and with both time and eternity. To begin w'th relig'on s the be lief in a supernatural be'ng who made all things and controls every th'ng There are many relig'ons. The chief ones are Judaism, Mo hammed!.-',m, Buddh'sm, Brahmin 'sm, Confuciusism and our relig'on called Chr'stianlty. We believe our relig'on to be superior to all. It is called Christ'anity because it was e tab"shed and taught by Christ, also called Jesus The religion of Jesus 's different from all others and we consider 't superior t« all others; its chief tenets are love to God and love to one’s fellofman In regard to the other terms, people are often confused and large ly 'n rror. They say “be converted,” but conversion 's subjective, and, contrary to general interpretation, every man converts h'mself To con vert means to turn away from wrong to right and that the 'ndivi dual must do for himself. By “get t'ng religion” they mean the same th'ngs as being converted. But the right term is regeneration or be'ng horn again Th's 's a mysterious spiritual change that comes to us when we decide to g've up all th'ngs that are wrong and do only what 's right- And this every person must decide for h'mself. Well, my child, I believe in pray er, though some people do not, and I shall be constantly pray'ng that you may enter 'nto this new ex perience which is necssary for all mank'nd As usual I send love, lots of love to you and Aunt Cor nelia As ever, your father. MAXIE MILLER 1 WRITES ] Maxie Miller; I am very much in need of adv'ce so I’m writ'ng to you as you give such good advice to us all I am a g*rl 15, and I am aw fully 'n love with a nice boy, 18 My folks don’t find any fault with him, but they say we are too young I th'nk I am old enough to know what true love is, and I know ours 's that kind We can run away to another state where we will both be old enough to get marr'ed, but I hate to hurt my folks, espec'ally my mother. But love is love and I’m almost ready to run off, but I do want to know what you think about 't—Elsie May Elsie May: You are wrong, my dear. Your “folks” are right. You are too young to know your own minds, and you need to go to school and complete yur education.- Re garding the other state, you would be ungrateful as well as fool'sh to deal that way with your parents. Go to school; take your time about marrying; and this course will im prove your chance fr a happy mar ried l'fe- Then, Els'e May, you’d better leave home in a way that you may retgm If necessity should requ're—Max'e Miller. MRS. SCHULYER SAYS By Mrs. Jostpfune Schuiye? FOR THE CALVIN SERVICE MAGIC The most fascinating word in English *s ‘magic., All of us at some time or other have believed in it, hoped for ‘t or delighted in what we thought was it Just the other night, on Oct- 31st, Hallow e’en, seances were held throughout the country in the name of mag'c. Prom Los Angeles to Boston those interested in psychic developmnt, gathered to try to communicate with the spirit of Houdini- It was the tenth ann'versary of the death of this greatest modern magician He had, on his deathbed a decade ago, prom'sed his wife that if there was a spiritual life after death and it was at all possible to communi cate w<th the living, he would by certain signs let her know that he was flourishing in the other. Ela borate preparations were made by Mrs Houdini and a host of others to make It easy for the spirit of her husband to talk or make some sign to her. No word or sign came. Houdin', himself, doubted the su pernatural He knew and had prac ticed all of the clever tricks which up*ritual'sts perform for the amaze ment of the ignorant. There was no ‘supposedly’ psychic feat, he could not himself accomplish. He had learned to stay under water and 'n the ground for far longer than is considered possible In a natural way He could undo any SERMONETTE By Arthur B- Rhinow BIBLE TRANSLATIONS I visited the new sales rooms of the American B‘ble Soc'ety the oth er day, Fifty^seventh street and Park avenue in New York City, and was impressed not only with the bright atmosphere of the place it self, but also, and mainly, with the pictures and other d'splays de monstrating the world wide reach of the Holy Book. Surely the Bible Is more cosmophtan than the Lea gue of Nations. A wall like structure bore the names of all the languages into which the prec*ous volume had been translated, and even a pheno menal linguist would have a hard Pme pronouncing all of them- It does not seem very ong ago when ny heart has st'rred on reading that the B'ble, in whole or in part, had been translated into six hundred languages, and now a panel >n that wall told me that the number had been increased to 972 When we consider that some of these trans atlons could not be made unth the missionary had given the natives a wr'tten language, laboring at this task alone for years, the work seems truly stupendous; yes, sub lime. What other book has received so much attention? What other book deserves so much attention? There is, however, one other trans tation which *s as important as any, the translation of the spirit of the Bible 'nto the lives of those who 'profess to believe in *t- When Queen Victoria was asked for the secret of England’s greatness she answered, “The Bible ” She believed this, and the blessed Book lived in her heart, but I am afraid that many who speak of the B’ble with admiration and even adoration, who swear by the Bible and on the Bible, do not prove the'r love with their lives. That is a pity and a shame- Does not your Bible, ly*ng snugly in the corner, often seem very lonesome? JUST_HUMANSBy gene carr W~ $ lock in record time. He could throw h's voice and im'tate the speech of your lung dead Uncle Henry, just as any so-called high-class Medium He made trumpets talk and tables walk And he was honest enough to confess that it was not superna tural nor mag'c in the way we think of these th'ngs. Seif-discip)ine. swiftness and hypmxuETAOINN tools- Especially self-disc'pline He knew that the secret of what is called mag'c is chiefly mastery of one’s own mind. THE MAGICIA N COULD TEACH US MUCH The Yogis who can sleep under ground forty days and arise in good health; the East Indians who can walk across coals of fire on bare feet without be'ng burned; the West Afr'can fisherman who can, accord ing to G«rer, stay under water forty-five minutes without breath 'ng as we breathe; the Egyptian Seers who can read the m'nd as an open book; the Dervishes who can whirl countless times and plunge swords into their s*des w'thout bringing blood, all are the result of self-discipline- There is very little you cannot make the body and mind do if you concentrate upon it enough Most of us would not care to take the time to learn to do these arnaz 'ng but useless th'ngs. But there are countless useful things to be accomplished by the same methods MOST PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE IN MAGIC , When someone breaks a mirror and cries out about the seven years bad luck which they th'nk w'll come because of it, they are voicing be lief 'n mag'c- They don’t know the origin of this idea but the trad't'on has been handed down from mother to daughter for ages. At one time all peoples bel'eved that the re flect'on of the face in water or glass was the image of the soul When a mirror you had gazed into was broken, your soul, it was be i'eved, was scattered and it took seven (always a mag'c number) years to rergan'ze it, bring 't back to its former power and glory. “THE GOLDEN BOUGH” S'r James George Frazer made a collect'on of magic beliefs from all over the world.- It took him twenty years to make it and he called It “The Golden Bough” Mjag'c, he says, is always sympathetic, that 's, the belief that ‘like creates like-’ Th's sympathetic magic is divided 'nto imitative and contagious kinds. The 'dea of the broken mirror, sup psed to denote a shattered soul, is an example of im'tative magic- The mirror and soul were identified as one and the supernatural 'mitated the natural in breaking I recently read that visitors to the home of the D'onne Quintuplets had carried off literally tons of rocks from the scene- They bellve that these rocks coming from the vic'nity of multiple births will somehow be endowed wth th's principle and that the mere presence of the rocks will sterile couples miraculously fert'le. This is a perfect example of ‘contagious mag'c.’ RELIGION ANO MAGIC Both religion and science origin ated in mag'c. Primitive peoples seeking to control their enviroment, sought certain rules that could be employed to do th's- Not under standing the actual rules of nature, they perform what they thought were the rules When they wanted a bontiful crop they sacrificed pre gnant animals upon the spot. Like was suposed to produce like. It took them millen'ums to find out that na ture worked by other rules and on the way they discovered both God and science When modem folks hold seances and try to talk to the spirit of de parted loved ones, they are trying to apply the rules of ordinary l'ving to a different plane. It is as silly as trying to compute the we'ght of Uranus with elementary arithmet'c To imagine that the dead w'H speak through a trumpet is as stupid as trying to fertilize a field with a pregnant animal Nevertheless there is undoubtedly a great deal to be found out about the spirit. It pro bably surv'ves but not *n the per sonal way in which people imagine. People of great sfrtr't (personality) Influence their own times and often like Chr'st, Buddha, Mohamet and others, reach down through the ages to impress themselves upon . humanity More ordinary folk leave f their impress upon the'r children and't survives thus through gener ations. Not alone the good but the bad spirit has this method of sur vival- Th's is why each must try to perfect his spirit- It is our high est duty to try to pur'fy the spirit wo inher't before we hand it on. |
