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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1939)
nBriBin Q THE OMAHA GUIDE Q X TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.50 Per Yr.O X All News Copy of Churches and Organiz- V X ations must be in our office not later than U U 5:00 p. m. Monday for current issue. All Q {) Advertising Copy or paid articles not later X A than Wednesday noon, proceeding date of y y issue, to injure publication. _u a Race prejudice must go. The fatherhood U y of God and the Brotherhood of Man must pre-Q Q vail. These are the only principles which will X X stand the acid test of time. ^ V fj James H. Williams, James E. Seay, Linotype X X Ope: a ars and Pressmen U y Paul Barnett, Foreman Q X Published every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant 0 y Street, Omaha, Nebraska— Phone WE. 517Q fj Entered a; 2nd Class Matter March 15, 1927X X at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebr., underU U Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. M Soviet Parliament Outlaws Barring of Vote to Any Race By Austin Worth, Moscow Correspondent CNA, MOSCOW, USSR—(By Airmail) —The recently held second session ot the Supreme Soviet of Sussian Soviet Federated Sociasist Republic (RSFS R), one of the eleven republics without the curse of racial prejudice d mpris ing the Soviet Union, adopted unani mouly its election rules which the fran chise and election democracy on a scale and equality such as the Negro people everywhere have long dream of but never achieved. Neither race or color, creed nor education, possessions nor social des cent can stand in the way to disfran chie a citizen of the RSFSR, whb is al so at the same time a citizen of the RSFSR under the election rules. Thus, a citizen here is doubly guaranteed the franchise, that is, by the election laws of the USSR and by the separate elec tion rules of the FSFSR. — «* The forthcoming general elections in the FSFSR this coming fall will be such a mass turnout of citizens—black and white, yellow and brown—as Ga. and Arkansas, Miss, and Fla. and the rest of tlie Bible Belt find impossible under their Ixourbon-landltrd rule. —No Place for Ku Klux Klan It was during just an election as the forthcoming one is expected to be that the American Negro worker, I^bert Robinson, was elected by the people as one of their deputies in the Moscow' Soviet, highest governing organ of the city of Moscow, capital of one sixth of the earth. Paul Robeson has declare himself so delighted with all-round Soviet denixnracy, politically socially and economically— that he wants his son to be educated and grow up under such a system. The Ku Klux Klan and all of its co horts would soon find themselves be hind the bars under the RSFSR elec tion rules. For here is W'hat the elec tion law's declares (and enforces): “Any person who by violence, fraud, intimidation, or bribery, hin ders a citizen of the RSFSR in the exercise ctf his rights to elect and be elected,” faces a term of imprisonment up to two years. Then* are no loopholes or subtar fuges in this law, no way to beat round the bush or raise “Grandfather Clauses,” etc., to deprive citizens of their birthright and -citizen rights. In this respect the election rules lay down the inviolable law that “All citizens of the RSFSR who have reached the age of 18, irrespective of race, nationality religion, standard of education, domi cile, social reign, property status or past activity” as the right to vote and be elected, and no power, individual or group of individuals can deprive him of this right. Oppression Abolished About the closest approach that the American Negro people have ever made the franchise democracy uni versally existing in Soviet Russia was - ==It during the Reconstruction pe*-od, when Negroes sat in the Southern state legislatures, had their own arm ed people’s militia, and gave the South its first public school education sys tem. How comes it, then, that more than three-fourths of a century later the huge RSFSR, sprawling over vast scretches of Europe and Asia and with a population of colors in excess of 60 millions, can put the vote into the hand of ever/ citizen, as well as social and economic equality? The answer seems not far to seek. Primarily, it is that oppress pn of races and exploitation of man by man has been abolished, there are no pos sessing and nonpossessing class, and equality of all rights have been grant ed to all citizens with nit any distinc tions, racial or otherwise. ——-0O0 HEADACHES FOR THE TAXPAYER The American public is. unknow ingly, being taxed gigantic sums of money annually as a result of our haphazard transportation policies. That is the opinon of M. J. Gorm ley of the Association of American Railroads, whb points out that, ac cording to a recent authoritative sur vey, highway transportation was sub sidized to the tune of $10,000,000,000 between 1921 and 1932—and that it is reliably estimated another $3,000,000, 000 has been donated by general tax payers since then, and the subsidy is now alpfut $680,000,000 per year, which is the amount in excess of what motor vehicles pay. Another survey indicates that, on the basis of 1929 tonnage, it costs the taxpayers of this cpuntry $4.50 for every ton of freight moved on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to the mouth. A report of the National Resour ces Committee found, on^the basis of 1928-29 tonnage, that the taxpayers were subsidizing shippers on the Low er Mississippi River to the extent of alj>ut nine mills per ton mile. What this amounts to is that ap parent differentials between railway rates and the rates charged by other camel's, are usually a delusion. The lower rates charged by the latter are made possible only by handsome sub sidies—which all of us are taxed to contribute. As Mr. Gfcrmley says. "There is no economic health or vigor in such a policy." What we need today is a cohe sive transportation policy under which all carriers will stand on their own feet, all be subjected to fair regulation all pay their own way. Any other course spells continued chaos in trans portation — and more unnecessary headaches lor taxpayers. -0O0 HELPING WITH PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURE If for no other reason than the fact that they are the promoters of nation wide "producer-consumer" campaigns, the retail chain stores are entitled fc} an established niche in the economic structure of the nation. Since the food chains inaugurated this organized plan of agricultural as sistance three years ago, more than 65 empaigns & promotions have been conducted. On a number of these, fi gures are available with which to measure concrete results. They indi cate startling and gratifying success. For example, a national beef cam paign in 1936 brought a 34% increase in beef sales over a comparable period in 1935. Large percentages increases in sales were reported for similar cam paigns in grapefruit (274%, lamb (42 percent), apples {46 percent), eggs (16 percent), beans (45 percent), oranges (64 percent), dairy products and other citrus fruits. „ .j _ 1 In the face of demonstrable proof of this kind, of the economic value of mass merchandising, it is hard to see how politicians and short-sighted busi ness men will be able to talk the public into condemning the chains to death with “chain store taxes" and other forms of punitive legislation. Even now the tide appears to be turning. And undoubtedly if given a fair op portunity, mass merchandising will do still more in the future to ameliorate the evils of farm surpluses. ---yj yj THE PLIGHT OF WIDOWS Most of us have seen, in some in dividual instance, the tragic problem of men grown old without financial re sources, and forced \> subsist on the bounty of relatives or public charity. The plight of thousands of widows is equally grave. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, 32 per cent of all the widows in this country must work for a living. Many of these women once had fine hpmes. rJ\heir husbands earned good salaries, or owned prosperous businesses. But no bulwark was es tablished against the future, and when death came to the wage earner, there was little or nothing left for depen dents. It is an encouraging thing, going by the records of life insurance sales, that more and more men are making sure that their widows mav never be in that unhappy position. —-0O0 “Like it or not, we have got to make the choice between free enter prise and Fascism—A >r economic plan ning. Let us revive the capitalistic system by restoring the flow of ven ture capital through a basic correction of our system of taxation. Let us bat tle for free enterprise by putting up a real fight for free and open competi tion. If we are willing to fight not for special privilege but for such objec tives, it won’t take long to put those ten million back to work, to insure a continuation of the American way of life, and to bring back that singing, surging America that we all love.”— Paul G. Hoffman. _nOrt_ SHIRT TAILS By E. HOFER ARE Americans irresponsible spendthrifts? This would appear to be the only logical conclusion to be drawn from the fact that during the past eight years the yearly additions to the pub lic debt have averaged three and a half billion dollars, which is mpre than the total cost of government in 1929, not withstanding new and heavy taxation that has been imposed since then. By July 1, 1940, the President estimates that the Federal debt will be $44,458, 000,000, as contrasted to $16,000,000, 000 in 1932. Interest alme on this vast amount now consumes 20 cents of every dollar of tax revenue, or over $1,000,000,000 a year. All the flag waving in the uni verse cannot save a spendthrift nation from revolutionary chaos. And that is something that the general public does not yet seem to realize. Public officials in the nation’s capital are now almost helpless to stem the tide of spending, even if they S3 desired. The desire to stop spending the nation into ruin has got to start at home. Every man and woman must come to realize that the Federal debt is rapidly approaching proportions that threaten the very foundations of individual liberty. There is no such thing as “free money.” As one public official, a United States Senator, recently point ed out: “We get the money from you and you don’t get it all back. We take your shirt and give you a little piece of the shirt tail. Then you go back home waving it and shouting, ‘Look what Uncle Sam gave me.’” -0O0 “SUPERVISION” SHOULD NOT MEAN MANAGEMENT One essential of national prosperi ty, observed a recent economic survey, is the existence otf “a private banking system, publicly supervised, operated primarily for the benefit of indivi duals, industry, commerce and agricul ture.” It should b(* kept in mind that there' is a world of difference between gov ernment “supervision" of banking and government “control” or management of banking. Government supervision is prop er and necessary. Government “con trol" of banking, on the other hand, Wjuld amount to government control over practically all of the financial re sources of America. Every bank ac count would be more or less the play thing- of politics. Immense financial power uld be used for political ends and purposes. Our American private banking system has worked. It has built our in dustries and homes, and has done much t*j help give us the highest work ing and living standards in the world. It has been largely responsible for our world supremacy in every field of commercial endeavor. To weaken banking as a private enterprise is an invitation to disaster. That would place the savings of the American pen pie more and more under the not-so tendr mercies of politicians, few of whom would be employed bya private citizen to invest his savings or manage his business. - —0O0—-<— NOT FOOLED The farm marketing cooperatives have been subjected to many attacks. They have been denounced by selfish dealers, who dislik doing business with organizations which can meet them on equal terms in deciding prices. They have been reviled by others with an axe to grind at the farmers’ expense. But the farmer, by and large, has rpt been fooled. The membership rolls of the marketing co-ops have steadily increased. So has their volume of busi ness. And this has happened because the organizations have produced re sults. They have broadened and stab ilized markets. They have often im proved prices. They have helped tho consumer, by assuring him of a trust worthy supply of farm products. And they have done invaluable work in * improving standards of farm main tenance and operation. The cooperative marketing move ment brings business principles to the craft of agriculture, and provides the eventual solution to many of the farm ers’ most difficult problems. --—0O0— Whether taxes are or are not busi ness deterrents depends to a large- ex tent upon whether government actf-* vities are necessary activities, wheth er they are efficiently performed, and whether government policies as a whole are sound. Given a certain' amount of revenues to be raised, how ever, for whatever reason, it is obvious that certain ways of raising them will have a more deterrent effect on busi ness than others. What the present advocates of tax revision are now ad vocating is merely the adoption of the least harmful ways of raising the existing level of revenues and the re peal of the most harmful ways. That problem should present insuperab^’ difficulties. In fact, there is remarka ble agreement among the tax revisicr-* ists concerning- the necessary progran' —New' York Times. o . •> *.
