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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1942)
NEGROES DO SKILLED WAR WORK IN ILL. OVER 1,100 ON JOB AT STEEL PLANT This is the third of a series of articles on the important part be ing played by the Negro in the na tion’s war effort in the factories and in the armies of the United States. Demands of the all-out war effort have so increased employment that today more than 1,100 Negroes are working at the South Works of the Carnegie-Illinojs Steel Corporation, a survey discloses. These Negroes are 10 percent of the total number Of persons On the payroll at this huge steel mill. All along the company has had nondiscrimination as its official BUY YOUR— POULTRY AT THE NEBRASKA PRODUCE 2204-6 NORTH 24th ST. Get the Best in Quality at the NEBRASKA PRODUCE Lowest Price PHONE WE. 4137 <^£ratchmg/Js, For quick relief from itching caused by eczema, athlete’s foot. 9cabies, pimples and other itching conditions, use pure, cooling, medicated, liquid D. D. O. PRESCRIPTION. A doctor's formula. Greaseless and stainless. Soothes, comforts and qukkly calms intense itching. 35c trial bottle provesi t, or money back. Don’t suffer. Ask your druggist today for O. O. D. PRESCRIPTION. K “X. for l\S. TWENTY THREE YEARS - of continuous service at the skill ed job of blacksmitiling at South Works, Carnegie, 111., will be the record set by Jake H. Horton in November. policy It didn't take the ern rg 1 ency or government urging to get ObS for Negroes at South Works, for many have been employed there for years. The expansion engend ered by the war has found Negio | employees increasing in the same , proportion as all others, which in j dicates the plant long has ha l Ne groes composing 10 percent Of iti I force. I In fact, one Negro, Ward Fisher, a laborer at No. 2 Structural Mill, has been working for the United States Steel Corporat:on. jf which Carnegie-Illinois is a subsidiary. lCr more than 37 years. He start ed at the Tennessee Coal Iron and c.ailroad Company in December, ’ono and was transferred to Sour/l Works in June 1923. Now 61, h« ftiso has worked for the company as a gashouee fireman and gas pro ducer man. i HOLD SKILLED POSITIONS But Negro ei,<pio.t n.ent at Sui’th Works is cot limited to common la bor nor the unskilled category Ne gro workers are founu in such Skill ! ed classifications as switch *»nSe; i gang leaders, locomotive opera?.'"-* blacksmiths, millwrights and main tenance men. The semiskilled j i.-cdigs include Second helper, loco motive hostler, chipper, scarfei, stamper .bricklayer helper, loromo j ive crane switchman and hooker. Encourage your white neighbors to subscribe ; to THE OMAHA GUIDE and learn what the dark- ! er one tenth of the American population is think-: j ing and doing. | The rest of the employees, such as janitor, scrap man. gag press h )i> J er bottom maker helper and laborm are classed as unskilled. Many skilled and semi-skilled wor kers have been at South Works fo ; long periods. Since November, 1919 Jake H. Horton has worked jn the I b.acksmith’s shop; Robert A. Chan ey has been a locomotive cran.; , switchman for fo >r years after ; starting as a laocrer in 1936: since ,1932, Willie i Candy has been a. boilermaker helper for the preced ! ing nine years. OX POWER STATION STAFF J A 1903 graduate if Syracuse Uni ' versity with a degree in electrical j engineering Charles Carter Robin ! son, started at South Works in Apr j 1907, as a lineman in the electrical | department. Six months later hi was made a motor operator in the rail mill and in April, 1908, a sub station operator. He advanced through various positions until , November, 1939, when he was made Operator of No. 1 switchboard in the No. 3 power station. Holding a similar position as swit chboard operator is the No. 4 power station is Elmer H. Wilkerson, who; began at South Works in April 1912, as a sub-station operator in the el ectrical department, being advanc ed to motor operator, then motor house tender and power station op erator. befre receiving his present job in 1939. These and all other Negro employ ees are integrated throughout the plant, working beside whites with out friction. South Works offn ials say they know of no trouble caused at any time by the two rac?s working together. This policy o! integration is carried over into ihe use of all plant facilities. No scp aration is practiced in locker room and similar accommodations. _ FQiy/ICTORY BUY UNITED STATES WAR /bonds I? AND V STAMPS I'll buy all I can... MAYBE I can’t grab a gun. But I want to take a shot at those Axis birds somehow. So I’m buying War Savings Bonds and Stamps. That way, I know my dimes and quarters and dollars are. in there fighting tor me. That’s the way I want it. And that's the way it’s going to be until this thing is over, ’cause every time I can ... Ill buy all I can! This is the filth of a series of advertisements by PEPSI-COLA COMPANY ' to promote the sale of United States War Bonds and Stamps. Do your share ! —Invest 10% of your pay EVERY PAY DAY in War Bonds and Stamp®. COMPANY PffSI-CC • Made Orff By *e»*Coh CowpMf. CHy, H. Y. Settled by AatWfacd httlm ftm twit t« Coast LOCOMOTVE CRANE SWTCHMAN —Robert A. Chaney served as a la borer for two years in the yard de partment at South Works before be ing promoted to his present iob. The workers themselves have vol untarily crossed color lines in the Good Fellow Club, an independent employee organization not sponsor ed by the plant. Many Negroes are members of this club and take full part in the athletic activities, wel fare functions and other organiz ation programs. SOLVE LABOR PROBLEMS Many belong to the union, w.tn some serving on labor committees, including the United Steelworkers Grievance Committee and the Joint Labor Management War Production Drive Committee. These facts indicate that the hir ing of Negro labor is not an exper iment at South Works and that Ne gro and whit? will work harmon iously together, not only On the job but in outside activities. As for of ficials of Carnegie Illinois steel 1 they state that they are satisfied , with their Negro employees, whom i they find to be ‘ loyal and efficient' workmen.” The Pressed Steel car Co., one of the biggest Of the defense plants in the Chicago area, has learned the value of Negro labor in the manu- j facture of medium and light tanks. The company .operating on three eight hour shifts, employs more than 300 Negroes, many of whom are performing highly skilled tasks. John Michel .assistant to the vice j president, conducting visitors thru the plant, can point out Negroes' operating milling machines, boring mills, precision grinding machines, arc welding machines, turret lathes and other implements used to turn out the 30 odd-thousand different' tank parts. ARTIST SHAPES GUN TURRETS One of these men, Frederick Banks, who has won several prizes as a portrait painter, is doing com plicated layout wirk on armored gun turrets. Another, Guy T. Myl es for 13 years a machinist, is op Grating a giant vertical boring mill. Several Negro youths took advan j tage of their idle moments when: they were working as janitors or j laborers in other plants and learn ed all they could about machine i tools. They now turn out tank parts that fit into other parts with an accuracy of les than one thous- • andth of an inch. Others, doing the samp sort of precision work, obtained their basic training on NT A projects and in defense train ing schools. Negroes and white men work side by side in this plant, turning out fast moving tanks to win the war for the land they love The fourth article, which will ap pear in The Omaha Guide, will deal with the part Negroes are taking in the Armed Forces. . .. Bertha’s bar-b-q AND HOME COOKED MEALS 1824 So. 11th St. Omaha, Nebr. ■»-—■— ALL WORK GUARANTEED “28 Years in Business” ECONOMY TAILOR Chas. M. Simmons, Prop. WE CUT, TRIM and MAKE SUITS TO ORDER v Iterations for Ladies and Gents Cleaning and Repairing 1818 NORTH 24th St. Omaha, Nebraska KISMET LETTER KLUB Est. 1935. Membership only $1.00. Soldiers, men, women, all ages. A dime brings info. P. O. Box 602, Los Angeles, California WHY NEGROES SHOULD SERVE IN THE ARMY (continued from page 1) I belong to no organization, and I act solely for myself. But I know I reflect the feeling of many thous and of my fellow Americans of Ne gro blood, who are called upon to fight for a democracy they do not share. I am taking my stand now, I am full yconvinced that in so doing I take a position on democratic prin ciplts which are far more important! to me than any penalty I may suf fer. I have arrived at my position not lightly- X am not a man who3e temper leads him to public notice. I would refrain from resisting if I could! Yet I cannot Jive with my self and yield the ground of prin ciple on which I stand, and for which I am prepared to take what evtr consequences come. After I had read that letter of yours, we talked for quite a whilel. I raised a number of questions a bo'ut your decision and you answer ed them. Usually you got back to the point of your letter: that you had the constitutional right t° fight for your country on a basis of equal ity and could not fight otherwise. That seemed to me to be hardest of all arguments for a white man to meet. I told you that I believed this to be a two-front war. ♦The military front against the Fascist armies in the field. ♦The political front to improve and broaden and strengthen our de mocracy at home. I said it seemed to me that the military fron was the more urgent for, if we lose that fight, any gainsi made on the other front will be meaningless. And it is on the home political front that the Negro must win his fight for a full measure of democracy. Granting that the Ne gro has not achieved real democ racy—for the very foundation of democracy is equality—I argued that if we lost on the military front; the Negro would lose even the right to fight for the things that have 1 been denied him. You agreed that it is a two-front' war, but you said that you coujd ■ not believe that one front more ur-1 gent than the other. You said in any event, that you didn’t believe! we could win on the military front until and unless we had unity at home. That, you said, could come) only if the Negro did achieve his full measure of democracy. I asked if you didn’t think that even the right to fight for equality was worth fighting for. I said that the stake of the Negro was the. same as that of the underprivileged white man, that democracy was the only means by which common peo ple, white or black, could win and keep freedom. I add now a few samples of other people who suffer in some degree or other the same kind of discrimin ation that burdens you. The Sou thern white sharecropper, the Jew particularly in communities whei'o he is numerous, the Catholic, part icularly in comunities where he is few—those, too, are victims of dis crimination. Democracy is the one protection for all of them. You agreed with what I said a bout democracy. You said that be cause of the color of your skin, your stake in it was greater than mine. I understood what you meant. As a white man. I had e quality. As a Negro, you did nut To you, the very denial of this her itage gave it a higher value than; it could have to me, for I had it and took it for granted. But, you added, you felt you had to make ev en this great sacrifice for the princ iple you stood for. I asked you if this was the only way you knew to fight for the e quality of your people: to refuse to bear arms and. instead, spend the rest of the war in some stinking THE OMAHA GUIDE A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Published Every Saturday at 241820 Grant St OMAHA, NEBRASKA PHONE WEbster 1517 Entered as Second Class Matter Match 15, 1927, at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebraska, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. ti. J. Ford. — — — Pres. Mrs. Flurna Coooet, — — Vice Pies ’. C. Gallowav. — Pub.isher and Acting Editor Boyd V. Gaiit/way. — Sec’y and Treas. — ^ — *• - —. “V SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA Or*e Year — — - — 12 C* Six Months — —■ — $i 26 Three Months — — .76 One Month — — .25 SUBSCRIPTION RATE OUT OF I OWN One Year - — - — $2 50 Six Months — — — $1.50 Three Months — — — 11.00 One Monti — — — - - .40 All News Copy of Churches and all organizat ions must he in our office not later than 1:00 p. m. Monday for current issue. All Advertising Copy oy Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, pre ceedintr date of issue, to insure publication. National Advertising Representative: INTERSTATE UNITED NEWSPAPERS, INC., 545 Fifth Avenu<». New York City, Phone MUrray Hill 2-5452, Ray Jick, Manager. I prison. I told you of other Negro es who had accepted the Jim Crow ism in the Army, not because the..' approved, but to cary on the fight for better race relations while end uring the very injustices to which you properly object. There are a couple more I would like to men tion now: There is Joe Louis, who fought for the Navy Relief at a time when the Navy would not have a Negro in its ranks except as a menial in the mess service. Don't you agree that part of the credit for the Navy’s later decision to open the door to Negroes goes to the exam ple set by Joe Louis? Or Dorie Miller—didn’t that Ne gro messman, denied the right to man & gun, bring the day of equal ity and understanding closer for all Negroes when he did man a gun at Pearl Harbor? You met my point by granting that a Negro could serve his people) and country in the armed services. You hoped that all who could would do so. For you know the slaveiy that fascism holds for all of us if we are beaten. But for yourself, you said, your conscience would per mit you only to make the other choice. I asked you to consider the Sou thern white Bourbons—Negro-hat ers of the vile stripe of Eugene Talmadge—who were in the service. When one of these men dies in ac tion, I said, his blood is being shed as much for your right to fight for equality as for his own version of democracy. You said that even if you could bring yourself to enter the Army and submit to its Jim Crow discrim ination, it would not be fair to the country, your leaders, or your com rades. For, you said, feeling as you do, your whole body and souL wouli not be in the fight—and a soldier must give everything. I asked why, if discrimination, meant so much to you, you had not gone around throwing bricks in windows long since—for you had never known anything but discrim ination. I asked why you had waited until now. You replied, simply, that the idea of serving in a Jim Crow Army was Just the last straw. I asked if you thought that re sistance to the injustice of dis crimination should be carried to the ultimate—if the Negro should club the white man on the head in an ef fort to make him surrender the e quality to which you are entitled. I knew how stupid the question was when you answered, quietly, i that equality could not be achieved Beware Coughs from common colds That Hang On Creomulsion relieves promptly be cause it goes right to the seat of the trouble to help loosen and expel germ laden phlegm, and aid nature to soothe and heal raw, tender, in flamed bronchial mucous mem branes. Tell your druggist to sell you a bottle of Creomulsion with the un derstanding you must like the way it quickly allays the cough or you are to have your money back. CREOMULSION for Coughs, Chest Colds, Bronchitis I Chairs for Rent | FOR ALL OCCASIONS. REASONABLE PRICES. WE. 1517 U Assembly Hall tor ftent J BY NIGHT OR WEEK FOR CIVIC OR POLITICAL ORGANIZ- U ATIONS, SOCIAL CLUBS, CONVENTIONS AND ALL ANNUAL 0 AFFAIRS. AT A REASONABLE RATE. WE. 1517. Q | by Negroes and whites who were fighting each other. There was more- But those were the main lines. As 1 look back at what I have written, I see that I have not done you justice. Your arguments, your justifications for your decision have not been set down here without the clarity, without the integriv wihout the fully reflecting the in telligent honesty of purpose which you gave to them when we spoke. As I write your side of the case, i ' lose the burnnig pain of yOur bur den, the sincerity of your approacn. As I left, I expressed my regret that a man such as you should be wasted in jail. I felt inadequate to meet the simple courage of your insistence that you had constitu tional right to fight for your coun try' as a free man on the same basis as any other free man; that you. •ouldn’t bring yourself to surrender that right by submitting to the se gregation and humiliation of Tim Crow discrimination in the Army. At this late day, there is just one dea I would like to add. You are a man of courage: your very decis ion shows it. Have you the cour age to take even that final Step to fight for your people that ■way; to fight discrimination while wear ing of your own free will the heavy yoke of discrimination; to stand as a proud man by subjecting yourself to humiliation: to forego your rights 1 JOHNSON DRUG CO. § NEW LOCATION 2306 North 241 h |VVe. 0998 Free Deliver} | [ Real Shoe Man— FONTENELLE SHOE REPAIR Cash and Carry CLEAN FI? 1410 North 24th St. CARL CRIVERj. "-iiuiiittiiiiieiBiniiiiiiinBnnRnnnHHHnnMBBi Be Prepared REPAIR YOUR FURNACE, STOVE or BOILER N O W! We have a large stock of Repairs NOW “since 1882” ^ISr Omaha Stove REPAIR WORKS 1206-8 Douglas St, —Phone AT. 2524— that you may win them? These discriminations of the Army are not the end of everything, they are just the handicaps of the fight. If your answer is no, I still know you as a man of courage, and the equal of any man I know. If your answer is yes, I will know you not as the equal, but as a better man than most. Some time, somehow, all of us. whites and blacks together, will win the democracy of equality we uro fighting for, and I feel that you can serve that fight better in the Army than in your cell.—JOHN P. LEWIS Fvt ' !!==-=—=■ <==-■-1 “IT PAYS TO LOOK WELL” MAYO’S BARBER SHOP Ladies and Children’s Work A Specialty 2422 LAKE ST. PAGE BOY ATTACHMENTS] For f! Beautiful i Hair Perfectly i Matched m $j.50 % 1 Send sample of hair or stale color. $1.50 with order and save postage or pay postman $1.50 plus 23c postage on delivery. Braids, Puffs and Wigs. Gray Hair 50c extra. POSNER HAIR CO. 113 W. 128th SI., N. Y. C. tortufaOiom or mm/ nfvmdod The TESTIMONYofTHOUSANDS: It’s the HOTEL THERESA WAen In NEW YORK any season af tin year 7 th Ave. at 125th St M* in the Heart of Harlem 300 spacious, all outside rooms] luxurious suites. The beautiful Orchid Room for dining; cocktail lounge and bar; the lovely Mes as nine for relaxation. Ideal atmos phere for rest, study, and comfort. 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