THE OMAHA CHIDE
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
5:00 p. m. Monday for curren issue. All Adver
tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than
Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issae, 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 good.____
EDITORIALS
DRIFTWOOD
-oOo
Too often the current is filled with
driftwood. Until it is picked up by the
tide, it is not driftwood, but a potential
mahogany cabinet, or a potential part
of an ocean liner bearing men and val
uable cargo made by the machines of
men. Lying along the shore, it is swept
up by the current and ruthlessly rush
ed along downstream where it may
eventually be used for a poor fisher
man’s fire.
Thomas Gray thought as did the
wise men oi old when he mused over
this world's dissapointments and wrote
his memorable “Eulogy in a Country
Churchyard.” Similar eulogies could be
written upon the scene of “The Ameri
can Breadline” where potential “maho
gany china cabinets” have become drif
twood. Slum districts were men revel
and seek to lose their worries through
the medium of intoxication would also
evoke an eulogy, Here is driftwood that
has been reduced to such by the world.
True, there are some wrho could stay
out of the bread lines—be other than
driftwood, but it is much harder. There
are those in greater number, however,
who made valiant attempts but have
been buffeted about the world to such
a degree that they have decided that
there is no use of taking another fling
at “cruel” life. They content themselves
with following the line of least resis
tance.
The axe that is made of good steel
and that has a keen edge will not be
dulled when tried against the time
toughened oak, The inferior still can
not stand the gaff and will be tossed
upon the scrap head. Life wdll give a
man’s mettle its most severe test. A
wreath to him whose mettle survives
the test; and pity and air, rather than
scorn, to him who is unfortunate
enough to be forced by the wrorld to
cast his lot with the driftwood.
From the devastating tide that is
ever swreer>ing the shore can still be
snatched the driftwood. Ere it reaches
the fisherman’s fire it can be towed
ashore and used to build a castle.
—Edwin A. Wilson
THE COST OF FIRE INSURANCE
There is considerable misunder
standing of the basis upon which the
cost of fire insurance is determined—
and also of the record made by the
insurance companies, especially the
stock companies, in reducing their
rates.
Insurance companies have no pre
minum revenues save those derived
from their policyholders. Their expense
hinge upon the number of fires for
which thqy must pay. Thus, when fire
losses go up, rates must rise. And when
fire losses go down, rates decline.
Naturally, a community cannot
have one good year so far as fire losses
are concerned and then expect imme
diate reductions. Rates are fixed over
a considerable period of time—and a
community must prove that there is
good expectancy that loss will stay
down before it is possible to slice its
rate.
For over a generation the stock
fire insurance companies have con
stantly reduced rates, and they are now
at the lowest level in history. Their
overhead costs, considering the compli
cated nature of business, are held to a
very low percentage. They constantly
advance their standards of routine effi
ciency, in the interest of the policy
holder.
We will have further reductions in
the cost of insurance as we earn them.
We connot have them if we continue
our national habit of permitting fire
hazards to exist and multiply on pro
perty until a blaze results. Several hun
dreds of millions a year in property
values go up in smoke—and at least
eighty per cent of that loss could be
avoided with simple precautions.
The stock companies are as eager
as their policyholders to lower rates.
Whether rates will go down or up in
the future is a matter that is up to all
of us. If^we indulge in the careless and
slothful habits that cause fire, we must
pay the bill.
DRIVING, A PRIVILEGE—NOT A
RIGHT
» . I
It is high time we realized that the
operation of a motor car on the pub
lic highways is a privilege—not a right.
Every automobile is a potentially
lethal weapon. Properly used, it is one
of man’s most desirable mechanical
servants. Improperly used, it is a ter
rible menace to the lives, health and
property of everyone in the area it
travels.
Rigid training is necessary to ob
tain a license to pilot an airplane—yet
the plane travels empty airways where,
genrally speaking, it cannot endangers
others. Locomotive engineers must
likewise undergo years of arduos ex
perience, and must prove their physi
cal and mental competence and respon
sibility before being entrusted with a
train—yet a train operates on tracks,
and has no traffic congestion problems.
Still, in most states, we allow anyone,
whether he be competent or incompe
tent, careless or reckless, of good habits
or bad—to drive a car on crowded’ ar
teries of travel where the slightest error
of judgement may cause a death!
Is is an undeniable fact that a
considerable percentage of the people
now driving should either be denied
that privilege or forced to undergo a
period of training to make them abler,
safer car operators. Some of these peo
ple are physically incapable of driving
properly. Many more are mentally in
capable, congenitally incompetent, or
reckless. And the toll is 35,000 lives a
year.
We will never solve the accident pro
blem until we adopt drivers’ licensing
regulations that will keep the incom
petent and reckless driver off the pub
lic roads. No man has a “right” to drive
until he can show how definitely that he
is worthy of the “privilege” bestowed
upon him.
-UUO
Is it consonant with democratic
principles ior Uie government to go di
rectly into compeuon with the proper
ties of its citizens, Is it proper for
government to subsidize this competi
tion with money received, in the forms
of taxes, from all citizens—including
those property it completes? Can
socialism, w'hether it goes by that name
or not, be extended without destroying
the time honored American principle of
individual enterprise and initiative?
Can a politically constituted and mana
ged body be trusted to serve the public
as efficiently and economically as a
stringently regulated private body?
It should not be forgotten that
Norman Thomas, head of the Socialist
party in this country, once termed the
TVA the only genuinely socialistic ex
periment undertaken by the govern
ment. Nor should it be forgotten that
if the power properties of the country
can be socialized by the TVA and simi
lar bodies, so can the insurance busi
ness, the banking business, the grocery
busines, or any other business, if the
politicians decide on it, Socialism is
easy to start—and difficult to stop.
The Supreme Court has the
final legal say on the TVA, but the final
decision on the principle of government
the TVA represents can only be made
by the people.
-0O0
It s apparent that the young men
on the average of our time do not ap
preciate as they should the avenues
open to them. For the most they care
little about outside work and where
they can find something on which to
lean they become wholly resigned' to
the favors of their friends and relativ
es.
Many young men who could be in
college today are out because they do
not have that urge of self help. They
are unwilling to make the sacrifices
necessary for their support.
What this age and the race in par
ticular needs today are young men with
a backbone. Manhood is the crying
need of the day and a lazy indifferent
person, thinking he is too good for
common labor is a parasite to our pro
gram.
It is hoped that the young men will
catch the spirit of the fathers, those
brave men who came along when it
took real steel to stand the rigors of
oppression and race prejudice. The
task before us is demanding more ef
ficiency than the former age. We are
met on the threshold of a new day and
a new era. We must have brave men
to take the helm. At no time was it
more conspicuous than nowr that old
men are falling out of the lines. Big
places are becoming available for great
men every day. The youth of the day
must fill these places and they are de
manding the highest standards.
We have faith in our young men.
We want them to enable us to keep
that faith. Our future is bright, but
we cannot hold fast those fine friends
that have ever stood at our back with
a palpable and questionable leadership.
-0O0
Definition
The idenity of the young lady in
withheld, but the memory of her an
swejr lingers on with the instrif.-tor
conducting a science course at a local
high school. One of the requirements
in the written quiz was: “Define a
bolt and nut and' explain the difference
if any." The girl wrote: “A bolt is a
thing like a stick of hard metal, such
as iron with a square bunch on one end
and a lot of scratching wound around
the other end. A nut is similar to the
bolt only just the opposite, being a hole
in a little chunk of iron sawed off short
with wrinkles around the inside of the
hole."
The startled professor marked
that one with a large “A."’
-0O0
Naturally
Usher: How far down do you wish
to sit, lady?
Lady: All the way, of course.
-0O0
Machine Age
Jock: How do you like your radio,
Mack?
Mack: Man, it’s grand, but the wee
light’s hard to read by.
| BUYER’S GUIDE by Clarence H. Peacock |
Colored Americans are beginning
to recognize the important part their
newspapers play in the economic devel
opement of the race. They have been
made to realize that it is only through
their newspapers that the race can au
gment its strength with those in busi
ness and industry who supply them
with the common necessities and lux
uries of life.
Because of the increased lovality
and support of Colored people to their
papers, many of the larger papers carry
more local and national advertising
than any other papers of a racial min
ority group in America.
An example of the loyality and re
spect that Negroes have for their
newspapers and their advertised mer
chandise is shown in the city of Nor
folk Virginia. The Journal and Guide,
a weekly with a circulation over 27,000
carries more lines of nationally adver
tised merchandise than the local White
daily paper the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot
whose total circulation is 47,000.
In comparing the November 5th
editions of these two papers, I found
that there is not only a greater num
ber of national advertisements in the
Journal and Guide, but these adver
tisements on a whole were larger in
size than those in the White daily, the
Norfolk Virginia-Pilot.
A number of the white daily papers
have been quick to recognize the in
fluence, prestige and power of the Ne
gro press. Some of these white daily
papers in an effort to increase their
circulation revenue, have given em
ployment to a number of Negroes. The
papers also devote a certain amount
of space to news that is of particular
interest to Negroes.
The Negro Press, educators and the
leaders of the race should spend more
time and effort in publicizing and
pointing out those instances where
group action has brought about greater
benefits to the individual and race. It
is this type of publicity that will do
much to increase and inspire confidence
among Negroes for race betterment.
Colorde people must give greater
support to our newspapers. It is the
Negro press that moulds public opinion
favorable to bettering our economic &
social conditions. Our papers perform
a definite educational and social func
tion through the dissecination of in
formation which the White press could
not possibly perform. These papers al
so give profitable employment to hun
dreds of Negroes.
For economic, security, support our
papers and their advertised merchan
dise. 1 ^
i !
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