i»*v- *
irAiHiiH
Published Every haturdny a* '>*18-20 Giant St. *
Omaha, Nebiaska
Phone W£l)»ter '517
Entered as Sec'Mid Clasa Ma'ter March 15, 1927,
a', the Pest Gtfice a„ Omaha, bJour., under
Act of Csp^-.eEi. of Mrrch 3, 1879.
’TERMS OF SUPSCFTF'TT/,N fS.OO ?£B YEAR
All News C~py . f OiuVrehos and a id Orgum
latiens mu be in our cffice net late* than
6:00 p. m. Monday for currcn Issue. All \dver
ticing Copy or Paid Article* not later than
Wednesday, noon, pieceeumjj date of issu«, to
insure publication.
. ■ ■ . ■ — ——■ — ■ —— ■■■ —- ~*.\trnmm
Race prejudice most ro. Tr-e Fatherhood ef
God and the Brotherhood o? 31 an must prevail.
These **■* only principles whi! wltl stand
the arid test ef good.
James H. Williams & James E. Seay—Linotype
operators and Pressmen. Paul Barnett—Fprsm^n.
EDITORIALS
APPRECIATION of MOTHERS
When Mother’s Day was first es
tablished a number of years ago, many
people thought it would be just a tem
porary kind of observance, an expres
sion of feeling that would soon be suc
ceeded b|y something else, as happens
in so many ways in our rapidly chang
ing American life. But it has not
proved so. The custom has become ap
parently a permanent one, and each
year it is observed in countless church
es, and noted in innumerable homes.
Power is given to that feeiing by
the general recognition that people
have never appreciated their mothers
as they should. Children rarely real
ize what their mothers have done for
them, or the extent of the sacrifices
they have made. They accept these
sacrifices, these labors, and this affec
titon, as a matter of course, something
to be expected and not wonderful in
any way.
As years go on, however, people
see how utterly selfish and wrong that
point of view was. They realize that
the love and devotion which their mo
thers gave them was something marv
elous and beyond the power of words
to express. As the years go on, they
desire to express this sentiment in
some tangiVc- way And so this cust
om has come about, of observing the
second Sunday in Mny in this manner.
May it long continue, and may it
inspire all children, young and old, to
testify to an af feet ion so deep that ev
ery mother will feel rewarded for all
the devotion she has lavished on her
offspring.
_nHn_
AMERICA $PEND$
A wag once remarked that the
only reason any of us ever worked was
in order that we might play. Web,
there are such trifling items as the
rent and the grocery bills to keep us
reminded of our jobs. But whatever
the reason for, and hiowever one may
have to work to obtain it, most will a -
gree that a period of rest and play is a
high gpot in the life of any individual.
And what a gigantic business this
health and recreational activity has
created for scores of industries and or
ganizations and for millions of indiv*
iduals!
If you are statistically inclined,
you can obtain from the railways,
from the steamship compares, from
the buses and from the airways, the
exact number of “passenger miles.”
You can check the registrations at the
hotels and at the resorts. And by ap
proximation you will know about how
many of these travelers are strictly
pleasure seekers. You can know how
many million lusty football and base
ball fans pass through turnstiles.
Then too, you can get a fairly
close approximation of the vast num
bers (of dollars spent every year in ad
vertising tlr's business of recre
ation. Tha modi* advertising volume
would be readily obtainable; we pre
I diet a Hur clean task in arriving at a
reasonably accurate total for the enor
mous volume of travel literature. Why
this phase of business alone* actually
staggers the imagination!
Yes yiou could, if you chose, ga
ther long reams of figures to determ
ine* fairly accurately just to what mag
nitude this strictly recreational busin
ess reached. But, we defy you to ap
proximate the amount of additional
business it creates of a completely mis
cellaneous and general character nat
U"e! After all—speaking in a commer
cial sense—is not a vacation in most
any form that of a period for unusual
spending? During such an (went, is it
not a fact that dollars flow more free
ly than in perhaps any similar period?
Think of the myriads of odds and ends
in apparel and accessories and for the
endless variety of impulse purchases.
And then think of the tremendous po
wer of the printed word.
-euo
CARRYING MONEY
A recent business note records
a demand from the men for larger poc
ket hooks.
Does this mean that they have
more money, so that a more spacious
purse is required?
Whatever this sign indicates,
American men have a lot to learn a
bout carrying money. Many of them
carry far too much in their pockets.
It is this habit of carrying money that
has made the hold-up trade what it is.
In spite of all the talk of pfoverty, it is
a common thing to read of some man
being held up on a dark street or coun
try rtoad, and being compelled to hand
over a roll of several hundred dollars
to some gunman.
Every time such a robbery is
committed, more despeiace young men
are emboldened to hoid to the wayfar
er, and many a celebration in the un
derworld is financed with the spoils
thereby abstracted from honest citiz
ens.
The traditional place of conceal
ment for the feminine world was the
stocking. It was about as safe a place
as could be devised. If the ladies
should return to that fashion, the
handbag snatchers would have to go
out of business. As for the men, they
need some safer way to carry money.
The man who goes out with a thick
wad in his vest pocket, which he fre
quently unrolls and displays publicly,
forms the raw material out of which
the crook world extracts a handsome
business.
-oOo
— BUYER’S GUIDE
by Clarence H. Peacock
The tobacco industry plays a
large and important part in the econ
omic life of our country. American
people spend more than a billion dol
lars yearly for tobacco and cigarettes.
Last year this industry paid more
than 500 million dollars in taxes to our
Federal government.
Within the last twenty years
the per capita consumption of cigar
ettes has increased from one and a
half pounds a year, while the consump
tion of chewing, smoking and cigar to
bacco has dropped from five pounds
per person a year.
Tho R. J. Reynolds tobacco com
pany of Winston-Salem, North Carol
ina, manufactures of Camel Cigaret
tes and Prince Albert Tobacco, contri
bute much to the economic life of the
Colored people of that state. This com
pany empldys hundreds of Negroes in
many capacities throughout their clean
and sanitary factories. They also ad
vertise the year around in the Colored
newspapers throughout the state.
It is estimated that Colored people
spend over 80 million dollars a year
for tobacco. It is needless to say that
if this huge buying power was concen
strated with those companies that em
ploy Negroes and who advertise in our
newspapers, wo could open up more
avenues of employment for the mem
bers of cur race.
For greater economic security
read our newspapers, patronize their
advertisements and support those
companies that give employment to
Negroes.
o
The Most Pressing Problems
The officers o1 owe of the lead
ing public utility companies oi the na
tion, in their annual report tj smck
hoiuus, recently said: “Tile problems
raised by the federal power program
me t.ig most piesshig luow coiiiiont—
ing tae industry and its investors.
“It is to> be presumed that the
objectives of both government and the
utilities must be the widest possible
use of electric service at the lowest
possible cost. The achievement of this
end and the solution of file existing
problSms of competition lie in cooper
ation between the government and the
privately owned electric uthties and
the coordinated' use of the existing
generating and transmission facilities
of both. We believe that such a pro
gram w ould go far beyond tile direct
benefits which would accrue and would
be helpful in encouraging general busi
ness expansion and increasing employ
ment”
One of the woirst phases of the
wrhole federally subsidized government
ownership movement has been the
rampant, unnecessary duplication of
facilities which already existed. Towns
have applied for and been given feder
al grants and loans for the purpose of
building municipal systems in spite of
the fact that adequate, up-to-date pri
vate companies had abundant generat
ing and distributing equipment to
serve their needs. Down in the TV A
area in the Sputheast, the government
has built transmission lines which vir
tually parallel existing lines more
than capable of carrying the load. And
out in the Pacific Northwest, it is pro
posed to build a costly federal trans
mission network to earry Bonneville
and Grand Coulee power—a network
which will practically blanket a terri
tor which has been served long, well
and cheaply by the private industry.
KesponsiDJe uiuity executives
have signified their willingness to co
operate with government 100 percenc.
They have offered to buy and distrib
ute the power generated at the govern
ment dams, at rates to be approved by
government officials, and to be regu
lated by government bureaus. Yet the
wasteful duplication goes on-—to the
destruction of private enterprise, and
at the expense of every taxpayer in
America.
Is it any wonder that the think
ing public is becoming weary of the
drive to socialize the electric industry
—and that the opinion is growing
widely that fair treatment for this
great industry, which under favorable
conditions would spend billions of pri
vate dollars (not tax dollars) far ex
pansion, is essential to orderly recov
ery?
-.. -
' Tax Government Bonds
The Supreme Court’s decision that
government employes may be taxed,
in the opinion of a number of well
known Lawyers, opens the way to stop
ping the) issuance of any additional tax
free government bonds, if Congress
will pass a bill to that effect. Accord
ing to the legal experts, the principle
is identical and there is no constitu
tional obligation which holds that gov
ernment securities must always be tax.
free.
Various high government offic
ials, including several Presidents, have
at times spoken of the desirability of
taxing government bonds. At present,
government issues are a haven for
those who wish to escape taxation of
income. In many cases, wfaere large
sums of money are involved, the net
return to the investor on a govern
ment bond paying three percent is lar
ger than1 on a private security paying
five or six. Two unfortunate results
follow this. First, the nation is depriv
ed of tax revenue from the billions of
dollars wrorth of government issues
now outstanding. Secondly, the at
tractiveness of tax-free bonds depriv
es private industry of capital it sorely
needs. 3* {
Certainly there is no reason why
a man with an income in five figures
from government bonds should entire
ly escape taxation, while a man1 with
an income from private sources is tax
ed to the hilt. And, as matters stand
now when private industry goes into
the money market for the capital need
ed for expansion and improvement, it
canont compete with the tax-free is
sues. More and more of the nation’s
wealth is going into non-productive
channels—at the expense of private
employment and opportunity.
The Court decision making pos
sible the taxation of government work
ers on the same basis as private work
eons is a long step in the right direction.
The next step should be a refusal by
Congr<«s to permit the issuance of any
more tax-free securities.
_nOn- "
“FARM RELIEF” FALLS AGAIN
According to Washington reports*
the current government farm relief
plan domes nearer and nearer to a
breakdown. Carried on at colossal ex
pense to all taxpayers, it has likewise
failed to satisfy a large segment of A
merican agriculture. Most government
farm relief programs have had a simi
lar sad history in the post-war years.
Such non-political tools of progress
as the producer-owned and controlled
farm marketing cooperatives have
probably done more to permanently
advance the interest of agricultuae
than have all the government paniceas
ever devised. 4 t
-0O0-—
THINK IT OVER > ,
» • .
_ - - -- - ?4-✓
All too often opponents of “spe
cial” taxation against chain stores are
criticized as mouthpieces for the
chains, and the principles underlying
their arguments are overlooked.
As a matter of fact, a discussion of
the vital question of taxation and the
extent to which it shall be used to re
gulate American industrial and busin
ess enterprises has nothing to do with
individual sentiment over the chain
stores themselves. Their welfare is a
comparatively irrelevant matter.
What does matter is the fact that
if they are destroyed by means of pun
itive taxation, no other private under
taking in the country is safe from si
milar attack. Any citizens who suc
cessfully develop an industry and
serve the community economically and
efficiently—as the chains undeniably
have done—will be subject to political
oppression. The Monessen, Pennsyl
vania, Independent makes this point
clear with the following- comment:
“The power to tax is the power to
destroy. And if it can be used to elim
inate chain stores, it can be used to
eliminate other kinds of business which
might happen to fall into disfavor with
any given political regime.”
Think it over ^
