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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1938)
THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St. Omaha, Nebraska Phone WEbster 1517 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927, at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebr., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. ' "TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR All News Copy of Chrurches and add Organi zations must be in our office not later than 6:00 p. m. Monday for curren issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure publication. __ Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man must prevail. These are the only principles whil will stand the acid teat of good. EDITORIALS _ EARN. SPEND, SAVE “Buy the things you want and can afford to have.” That is the thought expressed in a fine editorail printed re cently in the Mansfield, Ohio, News Journal. “There's too much inactive money” the editorial sajys. “There has been postponement of buying clothing, fur niture, floor covering, draperies, elec trical conveniences of various kinds— as well as numberless other large and small items. “Construction of new homes, or remodeling of old ones, has been put off—. “Out-dated automobiles have been continued in use by motorists who can well afford a new car. “All of these things have contrib uted to the general slow down of indus try and business—thus encouraging the reign of fear that has engulfed so much of the nation—. “Money is of no earthly good—ex cept for use! “ ’Earn, spend, save,’ is a formula under which individual and national progress is assured.” The man who spends less than his means would normally dictate, is as much of a burden on the country as the man who continually spends more than he can afford. This country pos sesses an almost limitless market for commodities of aill kindsj, We need more homes, more cars- more roads, . more farm and factory machinery, more clothing, more labor saving de vices in home and industry. It is pur chases of things such as these that make new jobs, new purchasing power higher national income, and greater opportunity for both capital and lab or. Spend wisely and frugally. Keep your budget balanced. Don’t get your self in the hole. But always remem ber that sound spending is vital to the maintenance of our standard of living, to the advancement of recovery, and to the ultimate attainment of pros perity. A LETTER TO MY READERS By Upton Sinclair Ever since 1906, when ‘‘The Jun gle” was published in seventeen lan guages, there have be^n millions of humble people who have counted me as a friend. Today, when there are over ten millions copies of my books in exis tence in more than forty languages I am making an effort to reach these many readers, in wrhat I believe is a grave crisis. To that end I ask the help of the radio stations- and of edi tors of publications of liberal and de mocratic tendency, regardless of party or faction. Being at work upon a play deal ing with the French revolution, I have been reading the (Jocuments of that time, and in a thousand details am struck by resemblances with events now being reported. History is repeat ing itself, and mankind has not learn ed enough from the sufferings of a whole continent over a century and a half. The people of France attempted in 1789 to break the chains of feuda lism, and the monarchies of Europe went to war to put those chains back upon their wrists. The result was the ravaging of a continent by twenty-two years of mass slaughter; the so called Holy Alliance was riveted upon Eu rope, and the people of France were forced to wage several wars, both for eign and civil, before they won their elementary political rights. One continent was involved in that struggle; but today we see the same course of events upon three continents. The people of Abyssinia- Spain, and China, are fighting heroically for the rights of self government; four auto cracies zpe banded together againfct them, several more are lending secret aid, and the whole world is involved in a campaign of official lying. Condi tions today are in many ways more sinister and deadly than those which prevailed in revolutionary France. In those days there were few newspapes, and the war of ideas was carried on by leaflets and pamphlets which were easy to print; but todqy the giant press is in the hands of special privilege, and in the radio the ruling classes have made themselves a master weapon for controlling the mass-mind. In 1789 military weapons were crude; the peo ple of Paris could forge themselves fifty thousand pikes in thirty six hours and with these overthrow a nine hun dred year old despoism. But today a people cannot get free without rifles and machines guns and in the last few years it has been demonstrated to the world that they cannot stay free unless they can manage to persude the mas ters munition factories to make them bombing and persuit planes, giant can non hauled by tractors—all the equip ment 01 mechanized militarism, cost ing hundreds of millions of lollars. The system of production for pri vate profit, dying of the poisons en gendered in its own body is today drag ging to its doom the civilization which it has helped to spread and devolp. Five years ago I defined Fascism as “Capitalism plus murder.” That was the truth then. Class privilege, terri fied by the spread of revolt against mass suffering, created a new force for its defense. But now we see a further development; the new force turning out to be stronger and more deadly , than its creator. Gangsterian has seiz ed the world, and the capitalists too have a master. At the outbreak of the World War Prussian militarism was called by this writer “the Beast with the brains of an engineer.” In the twenty four years that have passed, that Beast has been to school and perfected his technique. He no longer permits opposition met hods which have not been known in Europe since the days of Inquisition and the St. Bartholomew Massacre. He burns books upon a scale forgotten Alexandria deprived us of most of the since the destruction of the Library of intellectual treasures of ancient Greece and Rome. He is not content with mak ing slaves of the wjorkers; he takes their children and twists their minds, turning them into little demons strut ting with toy guns. He has made anit moralism and anti humanism into a re ligion ,and conducts on its behalf a crusade upon the five continents of the earth. How can such things happen How can this evil thing go on from triumph? The answer is that privileged classes would rather see civilization perish than sacrifice their own power to ex ploit. In every nation where the profit system prevails- the masters of muni tions, of steel and oil and money, spe culators, in the means of human life, gamblers in misery, death ,and des truction, are openljy or secretly the friends of Fascism Nazism; still cling ing to the hope that they can master it or buy it, and use it for the holding down of the workers- the preventing of a new birth of democracy in the world, this time in industry as well as in government. The result is that patriotism is a deception in our society; class has be come more than country, and in every government the rulers are intriguing with other governments to keep the people down, betraying them, betray ing civilization itself. That is why in France the money lords are willing to see Germany fortifying the Pyrenees, and Italy plotting to cut them from Africa, and counter revolution pre paring to destroy the democracy of France. That is why the British Tories have been willing to risk the cutting of the lifeline of their Empire, and to see Germany win the World War twenty years after—rather than take the risk of that Socialism which must surely follow a Hitler or a Mussolini defeat ed in war. Events are moving so fast that what is written today may be out of date tomorrow. One can only guess at the future; but on Sept. 15,1938 we see the brave and truly democratic people of Czechoslovakia about to be thrown to the wolves to keep the pack sated a few weeks longer; th epeople of Hun gary, and Roumania and the Balkan states of Denmark, Holland, and the Balkan states, all trembling beneath a rumbling avalanche. Throughout far off Asia the poison is being spread; there is not a country in South Ameri ca free from it; and even in my own “sweet land of liberty” we have in our State Department men who are open sympathizers with reaction, and who, with the consent of our President, are using a hypocritical “neutrality act” as a means of strangling the democrati cally chosen people's government of Spain- and denying it the right to pur chase arms for its own defense. This action is putting an iron band of Fas cism about Spain; it is subjecting France to British Tory intrigue, and in the end it may break democracy ia Europe. Against such array of military' and money power there is no defense save in the awakening people. To all work ers and ^rocjucers whether of hand or brain, wherever these words of mine may be able to penetrate, I plead Do not permit this consipracy against justice and human right to take ano ther step towards triumph. People of France, do not permit the Spanish bor der to be sealed. People of Britain, stop the deal with Hitler which will permit the sacrifice of the little peoples of Central Europe. People of Soviet Rus sia, help the world to understand more clearly the difference between produ ces and exploiters, and why all the hopes of the future lie in the producers People of Asia lift your voices against the military lords of Japan. People of South America, cherish your revolu tionary traditions >and do not permit money to become more than liberty and truth. To the people of my own country, Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, I plead that they will pre pare for that new birth of freedom (Continued on page eight) BUYERS’ GUIDE by Clarence H. Peacock Colored Americans must be made aware of the fact that their newspa pers are their most effective and res pected weapons in their fight for eco nomic security. The Negro press is now an established institution capable of maintaining influence ,prestige and po wer. Within recent years great strides have been made in Negro jounalism and in the quality and appearance of our papers. Although our papers are widely read and absorbed by our people- many of them do not fully understand or ap preciate the importance of this medi um.. Every readers should know that he plays an important part in our col lective efforts for group betterment. This year American business men will spend approximately $450,000,000 for advertising as an expression of their faith in the future. Last year white business men spent $500,000 for advertising in the Negro press, while Colored business men spent approxi mately $25,000 for advertising in their papers. Negro business men mu^t culti vate this market if they are to reap the full benefits that are found there. They must lead the way by advertising and by developing the art of spreading constructive propaganda. They should participate in all public affairs when ever possible and they should sponsor and create interest in those things that will bring legitimate publicity to their business. In a recent survey made of the daily morning papers in New York City, it was found that the circulation in the Harlem area of one paper was 24.704. There are 26,969 families in this section, therefore the family cover age for this paper in Harlem is 91.9 per cent. The combined circulation of the four morning papers in Harlem was 34.704. This shows that Negroes as a group as susceptible to advertising as any other group. Another interesting fact disclosed in this survey was that in the entire borough of Manhattan the median an nual family expenditures was $2,675, while the median annual family expeni ture in the Harlem section was $3,097. Colored business men and the read ers of our papers must give their full support to these papers for it is through this median of expression they can build business and insure the eco nomic future of the race. THE INFERIOR (by William Henry Huff for ANP) The one who’s been unused to things? 1s the one who gets excited When freak of fortune quickly brings A loaf to him benighted. He hoists his head and ups his nose. To show he is superior; This makes his friends his lasting foes— Such person is inferior. f Tke things he gets are “best of all,** To listen to his raving; All other people, too, are small— This red rag he is waving, But all this tells the wise old world A new jackass is braying, With all the quips that he has hurl’d He’s decayed or decaying.