The Omaha Guide
+■ A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ^
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(Continued from Page One)
him bruised, bandaged and forlorn. Politicians
rally to his defense. Moreover, so pervading is the
belief in this spook, that probably ninety-nine per
cent of the population would agree that “the public
must lie protected.” and “the public interest is
paramount.”
Nevertheless, this writer ventures to brand the
concept of “The Public” an arrant fraud! There
is no such thing as a “public” whose interests are
separate and apart from those of the working class
and the capitalist class. As for that part of the so
called “public” which, during a strike, is always to
be found rolling its eyes and dedaining for “the
public interest”—the capitalists—watch closely
and von will note that it stands cheek by jowl with
t lie struck employer. Its press prints lies about
the strike and heaps bucketfuls of slurs on the strik
crs. Its politicians berate them over their alleged
“irresponsible conduct” and “inconsideration lor
the public' interest.” Indeed, according to the logic
of these gentlemen—spokesmen for wealth and priv
ileged, the only way for workers to “serve the pub
lic interest” is to take wage-cuts and other imposit
ions without a whimper and retreat en masse to
serfdom.
But the overwhelming majority of the so-called
“public” are workers. And for workers to com
plain that a strike is causing the “public” to suffer
is about as sensible as for rear echelon troops to
complain over the “inconveniences” resulting from
front-line fighting. The working class is one Army
And just as every battalion of a real army has a vi
tal interest in the victories and defeats of its bah
tale-o-line troops, so have all non-striking workers
a vital interest in the outcome of strike-struggles
their embattled brothers are waging.
As this is written, some of the greatest industrial
conflicts this nation has ever experienced are pend
ing. At least two of these are in industries—steel
and meat packing—in which the proportion of Ne
3 gro workers is high. They have a hard fight ahead,
for they face ofes who are as ruthless as they are
powerful. The managements of these great corpor- J
ations, stewards for rich and idle men, will feign the
most touching concern for the poor, suffering
“public”, .but they will not hesitate to starve the
wives and children of their own employees to bring
them to their knees.
There wil be much blubering for “The Public”
in the days ahead, but working men and working
women, even those not directly involved in strikes,
should not be fooled. They should take the incon
veniences, and even the hardships, as they come,
with the knowledge that the fight of striking work
ers is their fight too.
And it IS their fight. The whole capitalist class
has aligned itself with the big corporations because
it knows that if the wage line is breached in one
place, it will be breached in others, and wages gen
erally will rise. On the other hand, if the recent
post \ -J I )ay wage cuts hold in the steel, meat-pack
ing, auto and other strike-bound industries, they
will also hold all along the line.
rl he Negro community is overwhelmingly a work
ing (‘bass community, it should turn a deaf ear to
“public interest ' spook talk. It should support
by every means, the gallant workers who, by resist
ing and striking, evince the kind of spirit which is
big with promise tor the future. It is an earnest
that slavery shall not prevail.
OVERTONES
— (by A1 Heningburg
An attractive young woman swung into tlie corn
er grocery, and she did not carry a shopping bag.
She looked much like Park Avenue, and gave the
impression tht somea other bodies usually looked
after such chores as the buying of food. The clerk’s
lace lighted up when he saw her, and with a smile
said: ‘‘Some very fine salmon just came in, Ma’am.”
I followed the customer back to the shelves, inspect
ed one of the cans with a view to purchase, and dis
covered that on the bottom there was a number pen
dllel in blue. You have already guessed that the
number on the BOTTOM of the can had nothing
whatever to do with the price of salmon. But it
oau much to do with just one more scheme used by
t 'e numbers rackets to deprive their deluded vic
tims of their monev.
THEY WANT HOME:
More and more it becomes evident that American
service men stationed overseas want to get back
ohome as fast as they can. Some complain that
.— ■ J
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MARCJ OF DIMES
rJANUARY 14-31
I
Why Not Make this Cneof our Examples to the World.
brides coming to this country are given preference
in ships; others that the 82nd Airborne Division had
a long line of priority in order that all men in the
Division could be in New York for the parade of
last Saturday. These men cannot understand why
they need to stay in China or in France, and many
of the French and the Chinese are openly suggest
ing to that the good Americans go l ack where they
came from. One of the things our nation has t<>
settle is the extent t<> which we can force or per
suade other nations to adopt the mode of living
which we call democracy.
Negroes in the service are likely to feel this whole
business more than some other American troops.
Generally disadvantaged by the nature of their see
vices, they face the added problem of seeing men in
uniform similar to theirs inciting native people a
gainst them. Englishmen have been amazed at the
tenacity with which American soldiers insist that
other American soldiers should be treated not like
men, but like animals. People in other lands know
that story rather well, and that is one of the reasons
that we shall have difficulty persuading anyone to
take on the ways called democratic.
THE STREET:
For those who read, and the number is increas
ing daily, there is an interesting range of books
dealing with what Negroes are doing and thinking
about in this country. One of the best of these is
the STREET, first novel by Ann Petrie, who
writes with photographic accuracy about interest
ing people and places. Her setting for THE
STREET, which won the Houghton Mifflin Life in
America prize, is 110th Street in New York. Amer
ica needs more books like this, for the story of the
Negro in this country is not told well enough or of
ten enough. And those who should lie able to tell
this fascinating story most effectively are Negroes
themselves. Every time a young person like Ann
Petrie becomes nationally known, thousands of Ne
gro boys and girls are stimulated to aim a little bit
higher than they would have aimed otherwise. This
kind of result alone is enousrh to encourage Negroes
who can produce something worthwhile to do so, and
to do at a moment when the whole country is in a
mood to listen and to read.
TOO MUCH MONEY:
In more ways than one, there is too much money
in circulation in this country. This fact doesn’t af
fect wealthy Americans much, for they are much
more thoughtful and careful on this score than the
rest of 11s, but it is demoralizing ti millions of poor
folks like myself. The urge to spend large sums
for trifles, or to pay for a piece of property two or
three times its real value; these are signs that we
have arrived at what the economists call inflation.
Some of us are going to be wise enough to go on
wiating for the things we’ve been wnating, instead
of maikng a mda rush to add ourselves to the vic
tims already trapped by foolish spending. Of course
if you can afford to spend in this wild fashion, and
your income is assured for the next twenty years,
with no financial worries for yourself or your child
ren, you need not read this at all.
ON COLLEGE PRESIDENTS:
Many of us have not yet overcome the habit set
some years ago of thinking of presidents of Negro
colleges as being under-trained handkerchief heads
whose chief function was to prevent real learning.
Just one look at the men and women who sat in the
Hotel Commodore one day last week plotting the
next campaign for the United Negro College^Fund
would have beenfitted many who have not brought
themselves up to date on this picture. There vou
found some of the best brains of America; there you
discovered a concentration of serious intention to go
on doing a better job. " j
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* - I
WHAT IS AMERICA?
i
by Ruth Taylor
There is a great fascination in the little homes
strung out across the rolling countryside. There is
nothing spectacular about them, no mark of unusual
beauty or careful landscaping. Yet they nave a
distinction which the great estates do not possess.
There are miles pon miles of them; strings of light
from a train window; houses far enough apart to
grow; little, lighted windows strung across a con
tinent with roads binding towns and homes togeth
er. It is these myriad homes in small towns that
constitute America.
AA hta would it be like to five ill a world composed j
entirely of people of geniiis—men with single track
minds and temperaments, each capable of great a
chievement because of singleness of purpose and
aim, and an ability to eliminate the little things of
life!
The bold, ambitious people are busy getting ready
to enjoy life—but the people of the little homes in
small towns are the ones who really live. They are
the men who work faithfully all day long at tasks,
going from these tasks at the day’s close to life with
their families. They have time to putter about, to
enjoy their homes, their gradens, their children, to
take an active part in their church and their com
munity, to be neighborly. It is this body of people
who make up the democracy we call America.
It is how these people think; it is how these peo
ple vote; it is how these people decide, that makes
America different from any country in the world—
for it is the combined decision of these people that
determines what the policies of America shall be.
Bigger are they and more powerful than the dicta
tors of all the world.
And because of this it is the task of the people of
the little town to think clearlv and carefully, to
realize their responsibilities and to act courageous
ly and at all times in full accord with the high prin
ciples of their own Declaration of Independence,
and always by word and deed to “hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable righs, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happines.” If they do this, this
stronghold of Democracy will endure throughout
any storm which may assail it.
LABOR FRONT
(bv George DeMar)
A REAL MAN:
A man is worthy of hire. An efficient, friendly
worker is entitled to praise.
James H. Hill, an engineer for the United States
Rubber Company, was being retired with lull pen
sion. He had been employed by the company for
33 years and 7 months. A banquet was given in his
honor. Co-workers and company representatives ,
were present.
Xot a roamer on the job or with regerence to his
living quarters, he kept the same room apartment
DO’S AND DON’TS:
THIS IN YOUR
POCKET, PARLI
ANP THEM
lET'P
PANCe
Girls, you may be the weaker sex, but don’t load
your escorts down with your paraphernalia. Do
be practical in your choice of accessories when at
tending dances.
for 29 years. He had watched his family and his
sister Pocahontas’ family grow. Children became
men and women. They became outstanding social
workers, lawyers, physicians, teachers, postal em
ployees, top-flight domestics, capitains, lieutenants,
sergeants, corporals, privates. Each experienc
ed the friendliness of James Hill. Each lie knew
as youngsters trying to get an education, trying to
break through the maize of prejudice which sur
rounds the struggling Negro, lie knew of their
heart aches, their illness—even death. Not a fellow
to tarry over a mistake, you could admit and go or
stay. Always he would say, “If you can’t make it
here, you can’t make it anywhere.”
Paid now as the surrey with a fringe on top, he is
65, about 5’ 7”, weighs 165. Married for 4o years
to Rosa, a faithful companion, lie likes both the old
and new. Emphatic in speech, he is quiet upon
occasion. Always saying, “You know, fellow, some
thing seems to be wrong with me,” or, “Birdie, I
really don’t know.” Generally he lias the right
answer.
A\ ell, Back to the banquet, the official represent
atives of the U. S. Rubber Company praised punct
uality, reliability, efficiency, cooperativeness, and
adaptability. Arthur Wright for the company pre
sented a Victory Bond and said, “You will never
have to want.’ . ~~ .
Younger employees called this hard-bitten, but
friendly man “Pop” and said, “He will always com
plain about his legs and can outrun any of us.”
James Hill said in reply to the presentation and
praise a few words: “Well, I did not think anybody
thought this much about me. I am going to take a
rest. James Hill was a faithful, efficient, reliable
worker, and don’t forget, he was a union man.
The Common Defense
THE TRAGEDY OF HATE:
(by Rev. William C. Keman)
Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, address
ing a gathering of Christian Youth at Christ church
New York City, told the story of a woman who had
gone to meet a train bringing some 1300 refugees to
Palestine.
“She stood,” said Mrs. Douglas, “with an old man
waiting with tears in his eyes for a grand-daughter,
the only living member of the large family lie had
left behind him in Europe; with a physician whose
wife had been gassed to death in <iermany but whose
son had somehow escaped and wsa coming to him;
with hundreds of other tremulous, bereft human
beings, waiting for some one miraculously rescued
relative. Then the newcomers began to descend
from the train—an orphaned girl from Italy, an
orphaned lad from France, a youth who when ask
ed from where he came, replied: ‘What difference
does that make? What matters is where I have
come to, not where I’ve come from. I’ve come
home.’
“He stretched out his hands in joy—and the
woman saw the number scorched into his flesh—
108223—his slave number in a labor camp. There
were such numbers on the hands of all the 1300 new
comers, omthe hands, too, of a little boy of six, who
came shyly up to the woman and told her, in reply
to her question, that he had come originally from a
town in Poland. He was six vers old and his eight
years old sister was with him. ‘She and I,’ he said
simply, ‘are the only Jews left of all the thousands
in our town. Just she and I.’ ”
A boy—with a mark of a slave burned into his
flesh! Has Twentieth Century civilization come
to that! Two little children—bereft of everything
and everyone—the only members of their religion
left in their town—the rest liquidated.
Anti-Semitic lies did it—lies nurtured by hatred
—until hatred had accomplished its perfect work_ '
murder. Well did St. John say, “Whosoever hat
etli his brother is a murderer.”
