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 adu Organi
zations must be in our office not later than
5 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 test of fc-ood.______
EDITORIALS
Abundance or Depression!!!
-0O0
Speaking on the importance of nor
mal consumption of basic products,
Mr. W. M. Jeffers, President of the
Union Pacific Railroad, expresses the
following common sense ideas that
show there is no dividing line between
the interests of production, distribu
tion, transportation and employment.
The business depression of the past
eight or nine years has focused nation
al attention on the railroads and their
problems. It has placed them in the po
sition of parading their troubles before
the world and of continually complain
ing of regulation, taxes and wages,
while trying to meet the other fellow’s
problems as well as their own.
- They have given faster service, la
ter departures, earlier arrivals, mod
ernized equipment, smoother handling
—any one or all of which may easily
be factors of far more importance than
a fractional reduction in rate, in the
solution of a shipper’s difficulties.
Distribution costs have grown tre
mendously in many lines of business.
This may be traced to the merchandis
ing or selling methods of the produc
er, or to federal or state legislation, or
to competitive conditions.
“The grading of agricultural prod
ucts, the packing of merchandise for
sale, the cleaning of your windshield
or putting air in your tires when you
buy gasoline—all of these and many
other services have added to the cost
of distribution. I have no quarrel with
any of them. They are praiseworthv
and successful methods of merchandis
ing. But railroad (freight ratep anil
charges have not increased, and todav
revenue per ton mile is only a fraction
of what it was twenty years ago.” said
Mr. Jeffers.
“This problem of distribution con
cerns us all. There is need for proper
government regulation in connection
with distribution, but not for govern
ment control. Control can only resu’t
in putting the government in business.
the establishment of federal compan
ion with private enterprise.
“We live in a land of plenty—o*
surplus in many commodities. And
still we have millions who are under
fed, poorly housed, illy clothed. What
?, paradox!
“Hundreds of millions have been
expended for relief in its various
forms, and cither hundreds of millions
t,o control surpluses through reducing
production.
“Why not expend these hundreds
of millions in distributing America’0
products to the far corners of our land
—thus enlarging consumption, produc
tion, payrolls, reducing relief and fin
ally restoring private industry to the
position of absorbing unemployment
“The interests of producers, ship
pers, railroads and labor*, are identic
al. Only one thing will increase traf
fic and that is greater consumption
which in turn means greater produ'*
or potafoes, or anything else, if you de
crease production or choke consump
tion. Only by narrowing distribution
costs through volume distribution and
working together unselfishly with s
creased production. And only bv
consumption is it possible to utilize in
mutual appreciation of fair play car
that be brought about.
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
-0O0
A news story yesterday told how
the Rev. T. H. Gibson, a white minister
refused to be intimidated by a Ku Klux
gang, which invaded his church down
in Miami, Florida. The mob threatened
Rev. Gibson unless he would consent to
oust a group of Negro chorus singers
who were participating in the church
services.
One of the Ku Kluxers, serving
as stooge for political reaction de
manded that the minister observe “the
unwritten law: in this town that color
ed people cannot take part in the ser
vices at the white church.” But when
Rev. Gibson stood his ground and re
fused to be browbeaten or frightened
the news story reports that the cow
ardly terrorists “went away quietly.”
Buried away in the Daily press, it
was made to appeal that this item had
little or no\ significance—or that, at
best, it fell in a “believe it or not” ca
tegory.
In actuality, this little story is a
sign of the times.
It is whr»t is taking place more
frequently in the South, although the
Tory Cq fon Ed Souths and Walter
Georges try frantically to conceal it
behind a smoke-screen of Negro-bait
ing and “white supremacy” nonsense.
It shows that the lynch oppresion
of the Negro people hits the civil
rights of the white people as well. And
more important still, that the white
people in the South are beginning to
realize this more clearly day by day.
-0O0
HOME BUILDING IS NEWS
-0O0
In a recent issue, the magazine Life
published a handsome housing portfol
io that should come as “news” to mil
lions of American families.
The purpose of the portfolio is to
point out that these families can build
and buy far better homes than they
now rent without increasing their
housing budgets, with the aid of mod
ern construction methods and long
time, low interest mortgage loans.
Life does not simply illustrate a
variety of homes, with dry-as-dust sta
tistics concerning costs. Instead it
takes four actual families, one each in
the $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 and $10,000 in
come groups, and discusses their hous
ing needs, wants and ambitions. As it
says, it “invited them to make their in
dividual housing problems a laboratory
test tube.”
In pursuing this idea, it retained
eight of America’s foremost architects
to design actual houses for these fam
ilies. Two architects were assigned to
each income level—one to plan a mod
ern house, the other an up-to-date tra
ditional house. It is pointed out that
building costs in 1938 average a full ten
percent below 1926—and that it is pos
sible for the same amount, to build a
far more efficient, attractive and liv
able home than you could build ten or
twelve years ago.
This country needs home building
on a vast scale. It needs it because so
many families today live in inadequate
houses, and can afford better. It
needs it because residential construc
tion provides a big answer to the recov
ry problem. Every dollar spent for a
home creates one hour of labor for a
workman. It stimulates the great
heavy industries, such as metals, ce
ment and lumber, which are now dor
mant. Life, and other publications
which have taken an interest in this
question, are performing a fine public
service by dramatizing home building
to the public.
NOW THAT THE WEEK IS OVER
Fire Prevention Week is over,
But it will be a major tragedy for the
nation if we simply forget about it, as
if it had never been.
This year unprecedented effort was
given to instructing the public on the
hazards that breed fire and how they
may be eliminated. The radio, news
papers, magazines—all avenues of com
munieation joined in the great work.
And equally important, according to
reports, the public showed an increas
ed appetite for information.
So far as you are concerned, every
week should be fire prevntion week.
You have learned of the importance of
periodically repairing your heating
plant—of the dangers inherent in im
proper storage of inflamables—of the
hazards of accumulations of old news
papers, clothes and other stuff that
should go to the junkman— of the
chance you take when you amateurish
ly repair electric cords or put a penny
behind a burned-out fuse. If you’re
wise, you eliminated these hazards in
your home during the Week. Now
make a note in your memorandum book
to keep your own fire prevention cam
paign continuously.
LIFE MAGAZINE FOULS
A Recent issue of Life Magazine
presented a pictorial study of the grow
th of the Negro in America, during the
last seventy-five years. Along with
this presentation, the Editor took the
opportunity, in a cowardly way, to hit
the race below the belt. This was done
by the use of one of those anonymous
quotations that might have been writ
ten tty almost anyone, even the Editor
himself.
Such drivel smacks of Georgia. It
is as it it were written for the eonsump
tion ot the deep South. It is like saying
“the Negro has done well, but of course
you understand he has his limits”. A
pronouncement of this kind leaves the
reader with the feeling that the Editor
is reassuring his subscribers in this
wise, “we have neither hope, nor brief
for the Negro.”
If Life wanted to tell the story of
the Negro’s groulh, that was enough.
It was not necessary tq.raise the social
issue. The mere story of the Negro’s
struggles makes a complete picture.
If one just wants to be mean the
story of the white man can be told
with the sad commentary that after
thousands of years of enlightment,
millions of whites have yet to be cult
urally absorbed. If you desire proof,
go to the slums.
Reporter: I’ve got a perfect news
story.
City Editor: The man bite the
dog?
Reporter: No, a bull threw a Con
gressman.
—— ■ i\
V ... ',j4
Customer: You’ll have to take this
steak back and get arjother piece. I
can’t even begin to cut it. . ,
Waiter: Sorry sir, I can’t take this
back now. You’ve bent it.
BUYERS’ GUIDE Ly Clarence H. Peacock
While some advancement has been
made in the political and social life of
the Negroes in Harlem, their econo
mic status has changed but little with
in the last ten years. In October 1928,
the “Advertising And Selling” maga
zine published an article by H. A. Har
ing called “Selling to Harlem.” The
following excerpts from this article
•will give a clear picture of some of
the conditions that exist in this com
munity and in other cities where there
is a large concentration of Colored
people.
Indigention, and vanity, laxatives,
cosmetics and silk stockings are the
outstanding traits of Harlem. They
point to the secret of Harlem’s mer
chandising, for within the district are
hundreds of small merchants growing
rich by catering to these traits, per
fectly willing for Harlemites to go to
125th Street for their shoes and hats,
suits and cloaks, and furniture.
Four times, too was I told, ‘If you
want to get rich, come up here and
open a delicatessen store. The chain
store groceries cant make a go here,
but a delicatessen—that’t a different
story!
Throughout Harlem (excepting
125th St.,) there is n/)t a single de
partment store or dry goods store that
is worthy of name. On Sunday after
noon, at a haberdashery window "ext
dojor to a moving picture house, 31
Negroes were found crowding to the
window. Without, apparently being
observed it was possible to get near
enough to discover the cause of their
gesticulations. The 22 men aided by the
8 girls were discussing ties!
After the movie doors had opened
and the crowd was gone, it was rather
surprising to observe that not a tie in
the window was priced for less than
$2.00. On the following evening, I chat
ted with the owner of the store, and
discovered that he had sold four do
zen ties that day at $1.50 and over. “I
used to work on lower Broadway,” he
said where we thought we had the
cream of the world. Never again! Here
I’m paying $60 rent and doing more
business in socks and ties than Wana
maker does.
At another place, where women’s
hoisery and underwrear filled the win
dows, the proprietor, who has been
seven years at the one location, enligh
tned me by stating: “Half of the time
the women dress in hand me downs gi
ven them where they work. But when
they dress up it’s done to a finish.
When a women has five dollars, she
can’t get by my window any more than
her man can get by the one next door.”
Jt was found 'that the window next
door was filled with soft-shelled crab.
The writer might add, that today
ten years later, fundamentally these
same conditions exist. These condi
tions are a challenge to all thinking
Colored Americans. Will we at the end
of the next ten years be in the same
rut or will we take advantage of the
existing opportunities to solve our eco
nomic problems. A planned program
for mass action, both for publicizing
discrimination and for extending op
portunites, a further union with or
ganized labor and an extended pro
gram of vocational guidance for Ne
gro youth will do mucR to correct some
of these economic injustices.