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The Omaha Guide \
■fa A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ^ (
Published Every Saturday at 21,20 Grant Street SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA i
OMAHA, NEBRASKA—PHONE HA. 0800
Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927
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Care Of Our Future Generation
Katherine F. Lenroot, who last week celebrated
her 10th anniversary as chief of the Children’s Bur
eau, United States Department of Labor, has compil
-ed som estatistics on the need for care of children
by local, State and Federal health authorities. Miss
Lenroot reported:
Three million babies were born in 1943, sustaining
the all-time high birth record set in 1942. And the
nation has approximately 40,000,000 boys and girls
under 16 years of age.
Jn the years approximating those in which Social
Security "funds have been available for maternal
and child-health services, the maternal mortality
rate in this country has been reduced over one-half,
or from 59 deaths per 10,000 live births in 1934 to 26
deaths (per 10,000) in 1942. In the same period, the
infant deaths per 1,000 live births were reduced to
40.4 in 1942.
The record, however, is not all good, for it repres
ents a great uneven-ness in immortality by sections
of the country and by race. As for the latter, the
mortality rate for Negro mothers is two and one
half times that for the whites. In 1942, sixteen stat
es had rates under 20 maternal deaths for 10,000 live
births, but five had rates above 40, the highest being
53.2 in South Carolina. The rate is closely related
to care or lack of care given mothers in pregnancy
and childbirth.
Fifty percent of the deaths of mothers in child
birth, it is estimated, might have been prevented
had the mothers liadi proper care, and many of the
babies might have been saved had adequate medical
and hospital care been available. The size of the
problem confronting this nation is getting good ma
ternity and infant care to all mothers and all babies
is indicated in following summary:
More than 200,000 babies are born annually with
out a doctor in attendance. There is only one certi
fied obstetrician to 2,000 registered births. Obvious
ly thos£ obstetricians cannot handle the actual serv
ice to all these patients. Even from the standpoint
of consultation their number is insufficient because
of their concentration. These specialists for the
most part are in the larger metropolitan areas.
In 1942, approximately three-fourths of the rural
counties were still without maternity-clinic centers.
Only 16 States provide a special consultant nurse
in maternal and child health on the state agency
staff. Every state health department should have
at least one nurse responsible for developing ade
quate nursing services in hospitals and in homes.
Every city or county having a population of 100,000
persons should include a consultant nurse in mater
nal and child-health services on' the staff of the of
ficial health agency.
Forty-eight thousand additional public-health
nurses are needed if adequate service is to be given
to all, especially to mothers and children. There
should be one public-ehalth nurse to every 2,000 of
the population.
Fifty thousand new maternity beds are required
to meet the need for hospital facilities for mothers.
In 1940 there were about 25,000 midwives in the
United States, most of them untrained. There are
onley about 175 trained nurse midwives in the coun
try and the school capacity for training them is only
40 per year. Yet thousands of women during their
child’s delivery are almost wholly dependent upon
mid wives.
Further evidence for the need for a larger nation
el child-care program is given in the statistics on
growing children.—
More than 8 million children under 21 years of age
in this country suffer physical handicaps.
Ten million have defective vision.
Tavo million have impaired hearing, 17,000 of that
number being deaf.
Close to a million have cengential syphilis.
A half million have orthopedic or plastic condi
tions.
Four hundred thousand have tuberculosis.
Nearly half a million children have been or are be
ing affected by rheumatic fever. Many die and
many more are being made ill for many months or
develop a permanent disability of the heart. Rheu
matic fever is chiefly a disease of poverty. e
It is estimated that three-fourths of all school
children have dental defects.
“To cope Avith the child-care problem,” Miss Len
root said, “our post-Avar policy should include clari
fication of the contributions made by Avomen as
mothers and as breadwinners, and of the responsi
bilities of schools and social Avelfare agencies for
meeting child-care needs. For children whose mo
thers are employed, a broad and coordinated pro
gram of community services is essential, Avith nec
essary guidance and supervision from state agencies
These services should be planned tliorugli commun
ity wide committees in Avhich schools, social agenc
ies, industry, organized labor and the lay public are
represented. There should be clarification of the
educational functions of the school and the social
service functions of Avelfare departments and other
social agencies.
“Finally, there is urgent need for an immediate
and Avidespread expansion of health and medical
facilities to care for childern. The groundAvork for
health and physical fitness must be laid through a
program that begins with pre-natal care for the mo
ther and extends through all the stages of infancy,
childhood, and adolescence. Money invested in a
comprehensive program that would assure access
to health services and medical care to all, and in a
nutritional program that Avould be directed toAvard
an adequate level of nutrition for all children and
youth, Avould contribute more to physical fitness
and national preparedness than any other one ac
tion.”
Employment
“A number of recent news stories tell of the acute
shortage of workers for Southern textile mills.
G-ovemment officials have stated that plants are be
hind on production, that thousands of workers are
needed, andi that house-to house recruiting will be
done.One source has been virtually untouched
by industrial employment—Negro women... It is
being done—and successfully. A number of the
largest textile plants in the South have been employ
ing Negro women as machine operators for many
months. One plant which employs more than 5,000
people is over 40 percent operated by Negroes, pre
dominantly Negro women.... Recognizing that
most human beings will accept changes if they un
derstand why and if they feel they are getting a
square deal, management paved the way solidly for
the intoduction of Negro women machine operators.
Department by department, it educated its super
visory and then its geneal personnel. Patriotic
appeals were made to the workers; a sense of job!
security was developed; opportunities for upgrad
ing and advancement were pesented; prejudice was
combatted with an abundance of pleasant common
sense; employer ond employees talked it out; man
agement took a firm but not coercive stand; and lion
est effort was made to ‘ ^ell ’ the plan_As each
move was made, the white workers were consulted,
and every parctical effort was made to foresee the
difficult spots and to make adjustments in advance.
Today Negro women are employed as hopper feed
ers, car tenders, strippers, drawing-frame tenders
and doffers, as well as cleaners and roving haulers.
What about results? The number of white work
ers lost was negligible; turnover and absenteeism
have decreased; production is up to schedule; and
that plant has no ‘labor shortage problem.’ ” (Rich
mond Times Dispatch, Nov. 24, 1944. Reprinted
from the Southern Frontier, Atlanta).
Labor
“An alert democratic consciousness is indicated
in the resolution at the A. F. of L. Convention in
New Orleans advocating congressional measures to
attack racial discrimination and reduce its causes
but the Mariento resolution, asking criminal penal
ties for ‘organized’ discrimination, is probably nei
ther practical nor desirable. .. .The Mariente reso
lution, however, correctly warns that labor unions
in Euope learned, when it was too late, that organiz
ed race hatred may become an ‘opening wedge to
ward the destruction of labor’ itself. Another reso
lution calls for a permanent Fair Employment Prac
tice Committee, which would carry into the post
war period a machinery and technique which, with
out using compulsion, has materially reduced dis
criminations in economic opportunity. The A. F.
of L. will honor itself and serve democracy by adopt
ing this resolution and thers designed to protect A
merica against the poison of fascist ideas.” (Chicago
Sun, November 25, 1944).
Save Your Money-Buy Bonds!
Poll Tax
i
Leaders of both factions of the Republican party,
and the anti-organization Democrats in Virginia
have called for repeal of the state poll tax. “Since
the poll tax is going to be eliminated in a few years
anyway, it seems only sensible to perform the oper
ation now, when the machinery for doing so is about
to be set up... .The policies of the Republican party
* on the national scene impress us as distinctly reac
tionary, but in Virginia they are in some respects a
head of those offered by the Democrats. The poll
tax is a case in point. The GOP has been calling
formally for its repeal at successive State conven
tions over a period of a good many years. The dom
inant Democratic organizations, on the other hand,
has been taking just the opposite tack over a long
period. A few of its leaders have recently spoken
out for repeal, but the great bulk have remained si
lent.’’ Richmond Times Dispatch, Nov. 25, 1944).
“Cotton Ed” Smith
“In the passing of Sen. ‘Cotton Ed’ Smith of
South Carolina was the passing of a tradition. That
is, symbolically, for the Smith tradition still lives
here and there in the South.... In him was the de
velopment into almost the epitome of a type of de
magoguery seen most often in the South, though not
peculiar to it. This is the demagogue for the pre
dominant economic and financial interests, who is
able to sell his doctrine to enough of the masses by
a picturesque personality, a gift for the homely sim
ile and story, and with a slug here and there of pre
judice, usually at the expense of the ‘Yankee’ or the
‘nigger.’ The last was laid on more heavily if he
was pressed hard politically.”—(Philadelphia Rec
ord, Nov. 20, 1944. Column by Thomas L. Stokes).
“Such publications as ‘Time’ and others. In Nor
thern states, which occasionally intimated that the
late Senator Smith was brutish in his disposition to
ward the colored people, will not observe that six
colored men were the active pallbearers at his
funeral. It ea nbe safely said that no man was ha
bitually kinder to the colored people tlion was Ellis
on D. Smith, notwithstanding the attacks made upon
him by the Thurgood Marshalls.”—(Charleston
News and Courier, Nov. 22, 1944).
Armed Forces
“These Negroes who refused to load the munition
ships following the Port Chicago disaster were plain
ly overcome by fear. They were not per se mutin
eers except to the extent that their fear overcame
whatever responsibility they had. Considering
then that fear and failure to do a duty because of it
cannot be eneouarged in wartime, we still believe
that the sentences imposed on these men were al
together too severe. We do not believe that the
honor of the United States Navy or the reputation
of the United States Navy as a fighting, fearless
force, would have been impaired by sentences rang
ing from one-lialf to one-tliird of those given.” (San
Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 22, 1944.)
Faith In Themselves
“A company of Negroes (sic) of New York city
has purchased a valuable estate in Putnam county
and will use it as a country club_These Negroes
(sic) who are to have a country club are not seeking
association with white people andare presenting an
exceptional example of the ability of members of
their race to go forward ‘on their own.’ If there be
evidence of comparative weakness of the American
Negroes (sic) it is made plain by incessant murmur
ing that they are not taken into political and other
societies of white people, nourished and promoted
by them.... Since the Negroes (sic) were emanci
pated they have failed, by reason of constant’effort
to get themselves adopted by the former master race
to make the progress that Japanese in the United
States would have made. The New York projectors
of a country club have faith in themselves.” —from
Charleston News and Courier, Nov. 24, 1944.
Lynching
“Tennessee observed Thanksgiving Day with a
lynching.... The boy who was lynched first came to
the attention of the Nashville juvenile court at the
age of 9. Thereafter, he was involved in at least
six offenses, ranging from housebreaking to stabb
ing. But the men who cut short his career were not
the authority to sit in judgement or to execute a
sentence upon him. By taking the law into their
own hands, they were not rendering justice— they
were not even setting up a deterrent—Gov. Cooper
has posted a large reward for the identification of
these terrorists, but they are probably not in great
danger of ever being tried or convicted. But that
is not the only disturbing aspect of this affair. What
is here revealed is shocking incompetence in the earl
ier treatment of the lynchers’ victim. He was evi
dently a psychopathic criminal. .This Pikeville bus
iness has its lesson for other states, Alabama includ
ed, in which juvenile courts have become routing a
gencies without adequate facilities for working out
their problems.”—(Birmingham Age-Herald, Nov.
25, 1944.)
faith in themselves
Electoral College
“Obviously, the electoral-college system, under
present conditions, is o potential agency for foiling
the will of the majority... .Certainly it would ap
pear to be part of wisdom to reform it. While this
(the Guffey-Celler amendment pending in Congress
is opposed by Southern Senators, the fact is that it
actually would have the effect of reducing the influ
ence of such large, often doubtful States as New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and California
and proportionately would increase the influence of
Southern States where the majority is always sub
stantial. The Southern Democrat’s opposition is
porbably based on the fear that a prorata system
would provide an incentive for the Republicans to
invade the South in search of a fraction of the elec
toral vote. A method of reform however, which
would apparently give a much better balance to the
electoral-college vote, and which might not meet
with concerted congressional opposition, is that
which was in effect in the early days of the Republic
up to the time of Jackson ond Van Buren. This is
the system of choosing electors by congressional
district, each district to chose its own elector and to
vote oil the two from the State-at-large. This sys
tem was proposed by Jefferson and by Jackson, but
did not become national law. —(Christian Science
Monitor, Nov. 20, 1944. Signed bv Malcolmn W.
Bavley).
Outlining the history of the electoral college the
Advertiser asks why not abolish the college and e
lect the president by direct popular vote. “This
change would deprive the larger states of some of
their unjustified influence, it would pervent the fu
ture election of a president by a minority of the vot
ers, and it would stimulate parties to campaign
harder in the ‘Solid South’... .If the direct method
of election were used, it would become desirable for
candidates to seek every possible vote in the State.
This new situation would make the South and some
of the Western states more influential within their
respective parties, and it would give the South a
bargaining power in national Democratic affairs
that it does not have now.”—Birmingham A^e Her
ald, November 20, 1944).
Freedom of Religion by Ruth Taylor
Which of the Four Freedoms means the most to
you?
Freedom of Religion is to most people the great
est freedom because without it the others are value
less.
Freedom of Religion is not just the privilege to go
to the eliruch of one’s choice, to bring one’s children
up in the teachings of one’s fathers. It is the only
true freedom of the spirit, because when freedom
of religion is taken away, the mind is fettered.
All real freedoms stem from freedom of the mind,
from freedom of faith. Without freedom of relig
ion, there is no liberty. The shackles of one master
have simply been exchanged for those of another.
Freedom of one religion means freedom of all re
ligions. If we enjoy freedom of religion, we must
respect the religious beliefs of others who do not
share our faith.
True religion, by whatever creed it acclaims it
self, knows no banders of nationality, race or class.
Its covenant is the brotherhood of all mankind. If
a man hates another because of his creed he is deny
ing the fundomental faith of all monotheistic relig
ions, that all men are the sons of God.
e can respect another’s religion without losing
our own distinctive faith. As Father Ross so aptly
said; ‘‘In all things religious we Protestants, Ca
tholics, Jews, can be separated as the fingers of a
man’s outstretched hand. In all things civic and
American we can be as united as a man’s clenched
fist.” We may differ in the path we inav take to
God, we may be strong in our belief in the rightness
of our way—but we will see to it that our neighbor
has the same right to choose his path that we have
to choose ours.
Freedm of religion is more than freedom of ritual.
We are all of us children of one Father and we have
a duty toward our brothers. We share a common
faith in God—let us put that faith into action by
bringing to our fellow men justice and righteous
ness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity
and an equal chance. Only in this way can we keep
our souls as well as our bodies free, and ensure the
permanence of our freedom.