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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1939)
THE DMAHA GUIDE fWMished Every Saturday at 2418-80 Giant St. Omaha, Nebraska Phone WBbatar 1617 Batered 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 $2.0# per year EDITORIALS SALVATION IN NEW UNDER STANDING The year just closed was a momen tous one, not only for the United States but for the entire civilized world It was a year of crisises, of dramatic and far reaching changes in the structure of governments and peoples. By the nar i>owest of margins, a world war that seemed certain was averted. Yet, at the same time, major, though undeclared wars are in progress on two of the con tinents, brute forces has become the principal weapon of modern diplomacy and there can be no real stabilty in the world, no permanent rest for the nei - ves of the troubled billions who inhabit it. so long as this is true. Coming home to our own country, 1938 opened with business declining on every hand, and with depression deep ening. At the year’s end, one of the sharpest improvements in business in our history was registered over a per iod of five months, and the immediate prospects favor a continuation of this trend. Some of the grave differences between industry at large and the Na tional Administration seem to be near ing reconcilement. The inevitable de duction to be made from the important off year elections in November is that the thinking of the electorate is turn ing toward the conservative side. Spokesmen for manufacturing industry publicly express confidence. All this is highly encouraging. It gives great cause for hope that a depression a de cade long may be at last nearing its end. But, even though this is true, it would be tolly to overlook or to under estimate, the many vital and unsettled problems that the American people still face. Our largest single industry, rail roading, finds its condition growing steadily worse. Better business during recent months has naturally resulted in some increase in railroad traffic. But the basic difficulties facing the lines— rate problems excessvely stringent re gulation, heavy taxation, and direct & indirect subsidization by government of their principal competitors—remain the same. There can be no real prosper ity in America so long as an industry which spends a billion a year for sup plies in normal times, which employs hundreds of thousands of well-paid workers, and on which we depend for the transportation of the great bulk of the products of our farms and factories can look forward to nothing save in creasing deficits. The political problems affecting ' the public service industries are simi larly unsolved. There has been much talk for instance of “accords” and “conciliations” whereby the Federal government would modify its sociali zation program of subsidizing publicly owned gas and electric systems. But there has been no definite action. Such agencies as the TVA continue their as touding policy of refusing third-party arbitration of the prices to be paid for private properties they wish to pur chase, and to hold the threat of building duplicate plants and transmission lines over the heads of utilities which refuse to sell at prices which would entail seri ous losses to their bond and stockhold ers.-As a result, utility spending re mains at low ebb and this great indus try, which could do so much toward revitalizing America, must mark time, while its owners and workers wonder what an unpredictable future will bring. learning the hard way A release from the Claims Bureau of the Association of Casualty and Su rety Executives points out that the widespread drive against fake accident claim rackets, in which the police and capital stock insurance companies have joined forces to protect the insuring public against heavy losses, is going forward with undiminished vigor. This work is comparatively new— but it has resulted in the arrest and con viction of hundreds of racketeers, in cluding members of old-established gangs who moved about from city to city, and state to state perpetrating their frauds—frauds which every in surance policyholder must pay for, through higher insurance rates. As the Association says, “Accident fakers constitute one of the strangest criminal types known to the police. They wilt stop at nothing, not even personal in jury, to get ‘easy’ money from some in nocent motorist, taxicab company, rail road, or other individual or utility.” Over a period of time, the “take” from the rackets runs far into the millions. One of the recently convicted racke teers, it has been found in the busi ness for 15 years. Operating from Mass achusetts to New Jersey, he was for ever getting caught in trolley doors, falling off broken seats, tumbling over umbrellas in trains, and getting hit by aut'omcbile fenders. He always had witness readv at hand to swear that his */ accident was the result of someone else’s carelessness or negligence—and usually he obtained a generous settle ment, Now he has started serving a . prison sentence, along with ethers of the same profession. rni • T. • • ii! /» l ims urive against me laneu claim artist is as important as a deterrent to others as it is in punishing those it actually catches and convicts. The acci dent racketeer is at last learning that ‘‘crime doesn’t pay”—and learning it the hard way. -0O0 THE ECONOMISE WARNING It is impossible to measure the suf fering that will result from the shaving of WPA rolls during the next several weeks. Hunger, malnutrition, fear and desperation do not lend themselves readily to the yard-stick. But the effect that the lay-offs will have on the economy of the country is more easily calculated. Sixty-nine out standing American economists, after examining the pending curtailment of WPA, have told President Roosevelt that it would mean a blew to the econo mic welfare of the entire nation. Pointing out that the plan invokes a reduction of more than $50,000,000 a month in direct wage payments in ad dition to some $30,000,000 in related ex penditures, these economists put it in blunt terms: Such a cut in consumer purchasing power, would, we believe, constitute a severe threat to the continuance of the present economic recovery. —--0O0 SC IENCE AT THE SERVICE OF DEMOCRACY America’s anthropologists have a gain put fascist racial “theories” on the dissecting table. And they have found them foul and false to the core. Three hundred leading anthropolo gists of the American Anthropological Society meeting at the Hotel Commo dore passed a resolution Thursday on racial propaganda. With the clear eye of scientific truth, with lives devoted to the study of all manner of mankind from anthrpo* logical aspects, these men of science concluded: “The terms ‘aryan’ and ‘semitic’ have no racial significance whatsover. “Anthropolgy provides no scienti fic basis for discrimination against any people on the ground of racial inferior ity, religious affiliation or liaguiatic heritage.”— Thus a political truth long known, repeatedly attested to by science, again is the unanimous verdict of America’s 300 leading anthropologists. And while these scientists were re affirming established truth against fas cist venom, Dr. John Swanton of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, retiring vice president of the American Associa tion for the Advancement of Science, was making his contribution to de bunking racial “theories.” The gist of his remarks were: de velopment of different races and ethnic groups does not depend in any way on so-called “inferior” or superior traits, which do not exist. Here is a branch of science which has long known and established these truths about race coming forward act ively refuting the baneful spoutings of fascism. Science is stepping out of its la boratories and onto the stage of public life in the interest of truth, progress and scientific advancement itself. All the more certain will this make the freedom or research in the labora tories unhampered by brute fascism. Honest men can indeed rejoice when the word goes round from Rich mond, Virginia, where the nation’s scientists have foregathered, that prac tical steps have been launched by a group of prominent scientists to place * science at the service of democracy. BcV:h sciecite and democracy will profit thereby. -—0O0—— ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS The United States government— unless there is unlooked—for apposi tions in the forthcoming Congress— has started to fight the dictators with their own weapons of government subsidized trade and financial credits to needy friendly nations. That, in the view' of political ex perts, is the only deduction that can be made from two remarkable events which occured during the week ending December 17th. First, in a cautiously worded an nouncement, Secretary Morgenthau said that the Treasury was studying a plan to use Federal funds, to help fi nance trade with South America. Com ing on the heels of the Lima conference in which the American delegates tried, with modrate success, to cement crack ed Pan-American relations, the mean ing of this is apparent. We have been steadily losing ground in South Ameri ca. Germany, with her blocked mark barter system, has been steadily gain ing, as has Italy to a lesser degree. With foreign trade in its present state of doldrums, private capital is not ir any position to fight a trade war in which the “enemy” has behind it the resources of a powerful government. Therefore, it is argued, this government must help American business in a way very simi lar to the way the Fascist and Nazi governments help their businesses. Second, there was announced an ex tremely complicated plan which will give the hard-pressed Chinese national government a sizable U. S. Treasury credit. As Washington correspondents Alsop and Kintner write, “The highly involved form of the Chinese credit all but obscures the vita fact that it will bring desperately needed supplies to the tattered armies of Chiang Kai Shek. But, however, complex the met hod, supplying the Chinese patriots is an assault on the invading Japanese.” There is a moral issue in all this— our government definitely dislikes the dictators, and various surveys have shown the American people to be al most solidly behind the Administration in its attack on totalitarian states and methods. At the same time, there is also a very practical, dollars and cents issue involved in our giving support to China, as well as in our trying to re gain lost South American business. At the beginning of the undeclared' Sino Japanese war, the representatives of the aggressive little Eastern empire were extremely vocal in assuring in vested foreign powers that, whatever came to pr^s,1 th$ traditional “open door” theory of China trade would be maintained. Since then, much has hap pened—notably the creation of the Rome Berlin Tokyo axis, which makes Japan an ally of Germany and Italy, both in commerce and in potential war. And Japan has gradually but ruthless ly squeezed out. And a few months ago came an official Nipponese announce ment which, though it was framed’ in the careful diplomatic anguage in w'hich the Japanese statesmen excel, made it perfectly clear that the “open door’ policy was to be much modified —even to the extent that the Chinese trade of other powers would be stopp ed, or subjected to runious economic burdens, if the government of the Son of Heaven so desires. Thus a Japanese victory in vnma would mean, in all probability, the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in trade to American industry—and, at the same time, would immensely in crease the economic resources of an em pire which our military leaders view' as a potential enemy in a Pacific war. The Chinese armies have been steadily losing, due in large part to lack of mon ey and supplies, and it seems inevitable that an ultimate Japanese victory is a certainty unless Chiang Kai-Shek is given what he neted,s. The Treasury credit is apparently designed to help him solve that vital problem. The new international technique is to fight wars, with the w'eapon of trade, before »e sorting to the weapons of physical vio lence. And it seems that the rentless press of events has at last forced us to adopt that course of action, it only to a limited extent, as yet. ,, -0O0 BUYERS GUIDE PEACOCK With the coming of the new year, let us hope that Negro business men will make plans for an up to date ad vertising program. It does not matter what their line of business is, whether it be large or small, they should devel ope a definite advertising budget. Advertising has transformed Ame»i can life, it has grown marvelously in power and in beneficient services. Ad vertising, by creating desires for new things has produced enthusiastic en deavor on the part of millions and from that endeavor has come the marvelous developement of our national wealth. Advertising performs countless public services no other agency of pub lic information could possibly perform. It has rescued the housewife from dru dgery by telling her of labor-saving de vices. It saved countless lives by selling better refrigeration, by getting dust out of homes, by promoting health-giv ing foods, by suggesting more health ful clothing, better beds and better ven tiation. In 1938 American business men spent approximately $450,000,000 for advertising. These business men have increased the volume of their busines ses, lowai-ed their operating costs and reduced their prices to the consumer. The Negro newspapers afford to all business men an opportunity to deve lop a rich and hitherto almost hidden market. The advertising manager of this paper will be glad to aid you in laying out an advertising program, and in determining the amount required to carry the program through. Many alert and progressive companies are now ad vertising in our papers and are getting j satisfactory results.