The Omaha Guide
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THESE THINGS COME NOT BACK
by Ruth Taylor
u There is an old proverb taken from the Persian
Four tilings come not back—the spoken word, the
sped arrow, the past life and the neglected oppor
tunity.”
The spoken word”. It is not the fine things we
have said that come back to us. What haunts us is
the careless word, the critical speech, the uncon
scious cruelty. The times we misunderstood or
misinterpreted our neighbor’s action, the hasty gen
eralization, the rumor repeated as though it were
tact, the unkind gossip, are what we remember. It
we are sincere in our endeavor to do right, these
things plague us. These are the words that hurt us
as deeply as those against whom we talked.
‘ The sped arrow”. This is the barb of unkind
ness that event straight to the heart of our neigh
bor, the wise-crack that stung, the indifference to
our brother’s needs, the cold withdrawal from the
common life. The sharp trick, the self-interest we
displayed, the spurning of the outstretched hand are
among the things that torment us.
“The past life”. Not only do we recall those
things we did individually but our national mistak
es, for which we, as citizens, are responsible. We
neglected the developing of brotherly relations be
tween Americans of good faith. We assumed an
isolationist attitude toward the problems of the
world. We allowed the sores of other nations to
fester and flare up until the plaguy threatened us
with its virus of hatred.
‘“The neglected opportunity”. Here again we
suffer from both our individual and national errors.
—the friendships eve did not make, the help to the
downtrodden we did not give, the responsibility we
shirked. We creatde out of the wilderness a great
nation. We founded a democracy—but how have
we lived up to it?
We have our opportunity now to correct old mis
takes—but we must remember the four things that
come not back: Let the words we speak be words of
fairness and friendship. Let the arrows we send
forth carry messages of brothely love. Let our life
be as near to what we want our future to be, as we
can make it—and let us not neglect any opportunity
to prove the worth of our faith.
LOW WAGE SCALES FORCE
NEGRO WOMEN TO WORK
(by Mary McLeod Bethune President, National
Council of Negro Women)
(The following article by Mrs. Bethune is the third
of a series released by the CIO in its drive to raise
the standarl of living for all Americans through
increasing purchasing power.)
* * * *
Day by day, two out of every five Negro women
in America have to leave home to go to work, where
as only two out of everyeight white women face this
daily grind.
In normal times, nearly 2,000,000 Negro women
go out to work in the kitchens of other women’s
homes, in over-lieated steam-filled laundries, in can
enries, in cotton fields and in factories. They ac
cept these hard, unpleasant, low-paying jobs not be
cause they like to work more than their white sis
ters, but BECAUSE of THE LOW INCOME OF
NEGRO MEN.
This needl to supplement the family income in or
der to keep alive is one of the greatest handicaps to
the race in the struggle for full citizenship and the
American standard of living. As long as our moth
ers must neglect their children in order to feed them
we will have a high juvenile delinquency rate.
The whole social structure of the Negro commun
ity is blighted by this economic necessity. Our
health standards suffer. Our health standards suf
fer. Our opportunities for self-development and
education are curtailed. The stability of our fam
ily life is undermined. Our moral and physical
stamina are impaired.
“The public must pay dearly for the substandard
working and living conditions of many thousands of
Negro women workers,” a publication of the Wom
en’s Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor as
serts. “When people have no jobs or their wages
are too low for adequate suport, they still must have
food, shelter, and clothing -Experience has
shown further that low living standards are costly
in that they breed crime and disease, which effect
all citizens.”
This is the social price we are compelled to pay to
keep on living in a society which, though able,
seems unwilling to pay our men sufficient wages to
enable them to maintain a decent standard of living
for their families. Aware of this condition, the Con
gress of Industrial Organizations has launched a
antionwide drive on two fronts to correct this evil:
one, through the maintenance of take-home pay
which has been cut 30 percent since the war ended;
and the other, through raising the hourly minimum
wage to 65 cents.
The bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act
to r Security
BUY
UNITED
STATES
SAVINGS
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D STAMPS
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Editorial: A Partly Shackled Ik or Id is Never Free!
to provide a 65c minimum is one of the most import
ant legislative matters now before Congress. Of
the 10,000,000 American workers now earning less
than the proposed minimum, a considerable number
are Negroes. At the bottom of the economic scale,
Negro men and women workers are concentrated in
low-paying occupations.
However, it is not only the manual workers, who
are underpaid. There are thousands of white col
lar workers, secretaries, typists, clerks, insurance
workers and school teaches whose earnings fail to
cover even the high living costs let alone provide a
little security for the future. These workers strug
gle to get along. As a consequence, they are com
pelled to carry two jobs and must work at night and
over week-ends. Cramped living quarters and con
statn debts are other results of low wages.
The CIO drive for a decent standard of living
goes beyond the organized labor movement. It
must involve all of us—bur professional and white
collar workers, our small business men, our unorgan
ized worekrs as well as our trade unionists. All of
us, whatever our calling, have a stake in raising the
standard of living, through increasing purchasing
power.
As President of the National Council of Negro
Women, I urge our women to mobilize their forces
i ntheir respective communities behind these drives.
Let your Senators and eRpresentatives in Congress
know that this legislation is vital to you and your
community. Write them, wire them, visit them.
Let the editors of your community newspaper know
your sentiments. Work with your church groups,
youth groups, busienss groups—we must get infor
mation over to the people so that they can think in
telligently and act effectively. . The challenge to
carry forward this program comes to every woman.
Women have a very definite responsibility as moul
ders of opinion to see that public opinion in every
household! in America is crystallized in the support
of every measure that will help America to become
a better place in which to live. Let us throw all our
strength behind this drive and with one long, hard
push all together work constructively for a decent
living standard for every American family.
OVERTONES: A1 Heningburg
THE CIO CONVENTION:
Important to— workers' everywhere is this pas
sage taken from the memo calling next month’s
(January) convention: “It is not impossible for fas
cist ideas to conquer America even though Axis
military might is crushed. Reaction which was
temporarily partially silenced by the war Is again
becoming prevalent. Those who place profits be
foer people, those who believe the Negro should be
kept ‘in his place’, those who seek a scapegoat in the
Jews, are now as vociferous as ever.
“Likewise, those who seek to crush labor as the
protagonist of democracy* are determined to use un
employment as their tool and the financial reserves 1
built at the taxpayers’ expense as a weapon- -”
The future of the workingman, and the future of
his home and children, are tied up in those words.
We are due to see the greatest struggle in the indus
trial life of America. A struggle between those who,
furnish the money, and those who furnish the labor.
Main would say that those who furnish the money
also furnish the brains and the initiative. This is
far from the truth. Our present high standards of
living in this country are the result of a COMBIN
ATION of the resources of labor and capital. With
out t he other, either is useless. But the great dan- *
ger for the cause of labor is that management rolls
up huge abcklogs of profit which enable it to wea
ther the kind of storm which is now gathering. Whe
ther labor can keep the unity and the wisdom neces
sary to work steadily toward its objectives is one of
the big questions of the New Year.
EXAMINATION FOR AMERICA:
We ve never had too much respect for those who
wait for the New Year to come around to fill the
books with good resolutions which they never in
tended to carry out, but it does pay to stop and take
X
stock once in aw hile. And many Americans are
omv taking such stock of themselves as individuals,
as well as of the nation as a whole. The direction
which America takes in 1946 may well determine
whether western civilization gets the necessary grip
on itself, or whether the golden age of democracy is
even now pretty well over.
GOOD NEWS FOR GI JOE:
Hundreds of thousands of veterans will benefit by
the liberalized provisions recently made available
to those who wish to continue their studies, or to
borrow7 money with w hich to begin business. It is
much less likely now7 that a veteran will begin a
course of study, only to be forced to give it up be
cause of lack of funds, long before the course is com
pleted. Not nearly so difieult as before is the task
of borrowing in order to start a business. In some
cities, veterans are pooling their capital, and begin
ning cooperative enterprises which, if well manag
ed, w ill obtain strong pubuic support.
The Negro veteran will still find it difficult to
meet the exacting standards set by banks which
have the money to lend. This veteran needs, the
help .and guidance of every qualified individual and
agency in trying to meet those standards. One of
the most important is making a careful study of all
the conditions surrounding the proposed business.
A frequent mistake made is that of relying solely
upon the trade of other Negroes. Every would-be
Negro businessman should remember this: “Negro
es won’t buy from you simply because you are a Ne
gro, but they as w7ell as other Americans will buy
when the merchandise or the service is exactly what
they w7ant.
TOO MUCH JIBBER JABBER:
Last wreek this column defended young people
from the charge frequently made that the younger
generation is “going to the dogs.” Old folks have
always thought that the youngsters wrere too skit
tish and irresponsible, and that will probably al
ways be true. Plato complained about it, and Mar
tin Luther wras concerned on the same score.
This wreek our position sounds like an about face,
for it is a complaint about the unnecessary amount
of noise that many of us make as w e go about our
daily routine. This includes some adults too, but
the youngsters have more energy, and perhaps think
less about other people. If your conversation or
your laughter attracts undue attention, or serves to
disturb your neighbor in any fashion, the chances
are that theer is too much of both. It’s no more
sensible to strike people in the face with shouts and
jibber jabber than to strike them with your fists.
t DAUN TALK-bv Dan Gardner_
MacARTHUR DOES FOR JAPS WHAT NO
WHIE MAN SINCE ABE LINCOLN
HAS DONE FOR NEGROES...
One of the greatest jobs in modem times to make
members of a darker race revere a white man is be
ing done currently in Japan by Gen. MacArthur.
Observers predict that within 20 years, MacArthur
will be the Japanese version of the American Ne
gro’s Abraham Lincoln. Things that MacArthur
are doing in Japan are basic but of overwhelming
benefit to the common people, the great masses of
Japs who are now being given every conceivable
freedom they had for centuries before been denied.
Under MacArthur the ordinary Japanese is fin
ally being shown, in many instances almost forcibly,
wliat are the benefits of democracy and why the
system which Japan has followed for a thousand
years is no good in modem times.
We know, of course, that what MacArthur is do
ing is to make the American white man great in the
Far East where the British, the Dutch, the French
and other species of the white race have generated
hate and contempt on the part of native populations
By hitting hard at the headline Japs and giving
what benefits that occurr from such a policy to the
little fellow, MacArthur follows the policy first a
seribed to Julius Caesar, “Divide and Rule”. How
ever, this diversion and governing process is making
friends for the American white man where before
he was ony a hated monstrous legend. Freedom of
the press, freedom of speech, movement and the
granting of universal suffrage to all Japanese, in
cluding women, are startling steps to the bewilder
ed Sons of the Rising Sun who never had any of
these things before and consequently didn 't know
what they are and, in fact, never thought about
them, so bowed down were they under exploitation
anct the burdens that are laid on the backs of the
little people the world over by bureaeracy and im
perialism.
All these things give rise to the idea of a MacAr
thur doing for the American Negro still slavery in
the South what is being done for the Japanese. The
American Negro has never warred on this country,
except in instances of rebellion such at Nat Turner’s
insurrection,' and other uprisings of the slaves beat
en down to the ground by the burden of the white
man’s chains.
Although Lincoln freed the slaves, his work in
this connection has been nullified almost completely
by the whites who got into the saddle after Honest
Abe’s assassination. American Negroes gave their
I blood that Mac Arthur might get to Tokyo to do for
the Jajanese, our defeated enemies what the Am
erican Negro’s own homeland refuses to do.
The Japanese can not vote, thanks to the combin
ed efforts of Negro and white fighting units who
chased the Japs from Manila, from Guadalcanal,
Bougainville, Leyte and back into the home islands.
The Japanese lias equality where he didn’t have it
before, thanks to MacArthur who ought to thank
every American Negro he meets that there were
such persons around could drive trucks through
mud and mire, up and down mountains; tear up
roadways through dense jungle, withstand the ter
rific tropical heat and diseases, who sang a song as
they marched, many of them to their doom.
Yes, the Japanese, who went down to defeat un
der the atom bomb and under naval blockading, in
addition to the sterling performances of Negro and
white fighting men, are now in a position to got the
things the Negroes who helped defeat them will not
get in another 100 years unless some sort of a maj
or spiritual and social turnabout takes place in the
heart of the white man in the South.
In another quarter of a century, providing there
is no major war going on/ Japan will be back on its
feet.
Ihe Japanese will enshrine MacArthur as tin* sym
j bol of liberty, freedom and democracy.
In another quarter of a century more Negroes
will be lynched by berserk, bloodthirsty white hood
£ lums on the streets of Mississippi’s proudest cities,
in Texas, in the bayous of Louisiana, in Florida,
Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, in any of the
states below the Mason-Dixon Line that do not in
tend to be decent to a minority group so long as the
federal government tolerates these violations of the
Constitution which grants theoretically to every
man, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
-A MacArthur is needed in Washington who won’t
see color as he moves about putting our national
house in order. A MacArthur is needed in the
South who will see that all men are the same, des
pite color; that they all eat, all sleep, all dream,
all have desires, all have in common the desire to
live and multiply peacefully.
HAPPINESS AND SORROW
by Ruth Taylor
;• _ ^ hat is the real secret of life—the secret of
living at one with one’s self and in that inner circle
of calm and quiet through which the winds of wor
ry cannot penetrate and which the storms of dis
content cannot shake?
A an Dyke phrased it once as “to have known hap
piness and never to he afraid of sorrow.” If you
stop to think it through, that is a charm which any
one of us may have. For happiness is not depend
ent upon material prosperity. Think it over the
happiness you have had. How do you remember
them? By some possession—or by a snatch of well
remembered music, the afterglow of a summer sun
set or a hillside white with snow and girdled by
black pines, the scent of flowers or of fresh cut
grass, a longed for laugh, a quiet companionship —
an hour of peace. Aren’t those the things that spell
happiness? Remember happiness is a jewel whose
value grows with the years—but like pearls, they
must be worn to live.
Guard your happiness by enjoying it to the ut
most. Live happily, rejoicing in all of beauty, joy
or contentment that comes your way. Do not dis
color your happiness with brooding on sorrow to
come. And when it does, as it comes to all, don’t
be afraid. Sorrow bravely met is not an enemy
but a friend—bringing with it a sense of comrade
ship with others who have endured—and in the end
a quiet peace for remembered joys. Sorrow is the
shading that emphasizes the reality of happiness.
If we will face it with courage—sorrow is never
greater than we can bear.
The evening prayer which Stevenson wrote for
his household in Samoa belongs to us all these days.
It was used there when his nearing death would
have saddened a lesser spirit and it breathes the
comfort of faith wre need today when there are a
mong us so many sorrowing hearts, so many homes
to which loved ones will not return.
‘A\e beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with fa
vour, folk of many families and nations, gathered
together in the peace of this roof. Be patient still;
suffer us awhile longer to endure and, if it mav be,
help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary
mercies. Be with our friends. Be with ourselves.
Go with each of us to rest. Ilf any awake, temper
to them the dark hours of watching; and when the
day returns to us call us up with morning faces and
with morning hearts—eager to labour—eager to be
happy, if happiness shall be our portion—and if the
day be marked for sorrow—strong to endure it.”
