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WHAT IS AMERICA?
by RUTH TAYLOR
The other evening a man, rich in years and experience,
told me a story which sums up in a few words just what
America is.
t
The story goes as follows: A Viking crew, one of those
daring breed whose insatiable curiosity drove their small
galleys into all parts of the world, sailed up a river in
France. They were met by the challenge: “From whence
do ye come and who is your master?”
The Vikings answered with the shout: “We come from
all the earth, and we call no man ‘master’.”
Then he went on to say: “Is not this the position of the
United States?”
The analogy applies clear down the line. America was
Founded by men whose insatiable desire for freedom drove
them to seek progress and prosperity across the seas. Those
•who came here were daring souls, eager to live to the fullest
ready to work hard to get ahead, quick to take every op
portunity for advancement for themselves and their chil
dren.
They came—like the Vikings, from all parts of the big
earth bringing with them the best in racial, national and
religious eullture which in the natural evolution of our so
ciety are fusing into one unified culture in which the best
of each strain is preserved and dignified.
In America there are no dual nationalities. A man may
be—should be-proud of the country from which he
comes but his allegiance is here and he proves it by his act
tions. Americans are not divided by their1 religions. Pro
testant, Catholic or Jey—they all say with deep felling,
“In God We Trust.” We Americans come from all of the
earth—but we come from and our hearts are where we
ARE.
W'e calll io man master. Wre have not been par: of the
Feudal system. We have been free men on this soil and we
owe our fealty only to God and our country—which is of
our own making and of our own ruling.
the close cooperation of the Vikings—the respect given to
the individual no matter at what task he works, the coop
eration of shipmates who rely on one on the other.
“We come from all the earth, and we call n«i man ‘mas
er’.”
Released by Calvin'* New* Service
Who was the worst enemy of the Negro slave, the ‘good'
slave master or the ‘bad* one?
I don't toss this one out as an idle quiz. The qquestion,
and the answer have their modern applications. From the
standpoint of the individual slave, to be owned by a master
-who was sadistically cruel was an infinitely worse misfor
tune than to be owned by one who was kindly and consider
ate. But when we consider the slaves’ class and historic
interests—as embodied in the aspiration for freedom—the
good master appears, paradoxically, as by far the most
insidious and potent fee. His very kindliness his refusal to
permit the families of slaves to be broken up. the paterna
listic manner in which he supervised1 their physical welfare
and religious training, gave to the instituton of shattel slai
very a moral veneer and armed pro-slavery' elements in the
North powerful arguments to sway the wavering mass.
%
Few will disagree wit hthis summation today. Time has
same proposition had been uttered, say in 1850, it would
have evoked puzzled bewilderment if not open disbelief.
Just as. today, the charge that reformers and ‘good* employ
ers of the Henry Kaiser type are the workers worst ene
mies evokes puzzled bewilderment and open disbelief.
Yet, I venture to make the charge, I hasten to add, how
ever, that I make the charge not because I think a Henry
Kaiser exploits workers more ruthlessly than, say, General
Motors but because through his profit-sharing scheme,
company medicine and conciliatory attitude generally, he,
and other ‘good’ employers, give a moral veneer to the
NAACP GAINS 5,000 MEMBERS
ON WEST COAST
San Francisco, Calif—During
1945 the NAACP gained 5,000 new
members on the Pacific Coast,
according to Noah W. Griffin, Se.
cretary of the Regional Office out
here. California branches made
the greatest gains, with Los Ang
eles maintaining its place as the
fifth largest NAACP unit in the
nation. The increase in Oregon
was about 50 per cent, but there
was a slight decrease in Washing
ton due to the shutdown of war
industries and movement of war
workers out of the state. The re
gion has set a goal of 30,000 mem
bers for 1946
To Subscribe lor
Omaha’s Greater
Negro Weekly
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Editorial: “Time Waits for No One!”
v . •:..' -’.. ..--c ' *
system of wage slavery.
I am speaking now in terms of the class and historic in
terests of the workers, nto interms o ftlie individual inter
ests of the wage slavery within his slavery. The class and
historic interests of the workers clearly call for an end to
the hazard of employment and the degradation of poverty.
They call for the termination of the system like cotton and
pork to the caprices of the market. They require, in short,
the advent o fa new social system under the means of pro
duction are owned collectively, managed democratically and
operated for the benefit of society.
It was Benjamin Franklin who said “the rich will do
everything for the poor—except get off their backs”. The
observation is particularly apropos are as determined as
the 'had’ employers to stay in the saddle. The difference is
that they are less reluctant to put more padding under the
saddle, not only because it affords an easier ride.
,.This view will explaine why this writer looks askance at
the union leaders who, by damning this employer as “ruth
less” (General Motors, for example) and by singing hosan
nahs to the friendly and constructive spirit ofl that employ
er (for instance, Ford and Chrysler) divide the exploiting
class into ‘good* and ‘bad*. This merely serves as a smoke
screen for the real villian of the piece. For whether some
employers are good or not, the system is bad. And I daresay
that the time will come when this conclusion will be as uni
versally accepted as the conclusion is accepted today that
Negro slavery was bad.
would say “Oddsniggs, we have still to flea the cat’s tail”.
For actually it doesn’t make much difference even to the
individual worker whether bis employer is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
All employers are forced by the competitive nature of the
system to squeeze as much as possible out of their worker
as they can. All must lay workers when business gets bad
All are compelled constantly to install labor-displacing
equipment and thus send new recruits into the army of un
employed. The best hearted corporation executive in the
country is under the same compulsion as the hardest hear
ted to grind down the toilers.
---
OVERTONES
—(by A1 Heningburg
Too Much Noise:
One of the most serious dangers facing a minority group
in a country like America is that too many of us cease to
be useful, hardworking citizens, and drop to the low level
of the professional protesters. These professionals not only
spend all their time an denergy inveighing against the gen
eral order of things but they get all steamed up when every
other professional noisemaker >n town doesn’t join in
whatever is their particular project of the moment. When,
that kind of thing happens to a group over too long a per
esters. They toil not, neither do they spin, but they do raise
< ain.
Of course we need people like that but ever so much more
do wc need men and women with enough brains to get the
work of the world done, in spile of the difficulties to be
faced. Too great is the danger of spending our whole effort
on complaint, and not enough of it on the big job of getting
things done. When a fellow spends all his time grieving
about the way his ne.ghbor is treating him, he sometimes
forgets to go to vock and before he knows it there is no
bread in the house. And those about whom he e-tinplating
not only control things generally, thev even move into his
neighborhood : ud sell him goods at most unreasonub'-j p*i
ces.
W e shall always need men who have the courage of their
convictions but we need even more those who can operate
businesses and help to give their neighbors a job. At the
present time, too many are school teachers and ‘leaders’.
The Negro s share of these two groups is much higher than
it needs be with the resuudt that often we make too much
noise over very small accomplishments.
For Equalzied Salaries:
It s too early to know whether this is news or just rumor
but there seems good reason to believe that slaaries of Negro
teachers iin Mississippi will be made to equal the salaries
of whites who have the same training and experience. This
doesn t mean that they will earn mnch money for even the
white teachers in Mississippi are underpaid, but it will just
about double the income now received by Negroes.
No Time For Hatred:
In many ways, Booker T. Washington was one of the
very few great Americans. When he was chosen recently on
the first ballot for the well known Hall of Fame, he was
chosen not as a Negro, but as an American whose contribu
tion wras significant. He was not chosen because he had been
campaigned about but because his stature was such that the
100 hundred judges were practically unamimous in their
selection of the great Negro teacher and philosopher as 1st
choice. When Mr. Washington said “I shall allow no man
to drag me down so low as to make me hate him”, he was
speaking from actual experience, and he knew how soul
searing hatred can be. He knew that he had a job to do, and
that if he hated some folks as much as their meanness
would suggest, he wouldn’t have had time for anything else.
When meditation and arbitration have been exhausted;
when lighting is inevitable, the only thing to do is to pitch
in and fight with all you’ve got but you’re more certain of
winning if you keep a cool head. There is no time for hatred
even when the fight is on.
Those Neic Jobs:
In spite of all that we hear about unemployment and its
attendant dangers, there are hundreds of different types
of new jobs in the offing in these United States. This is
important for young people, many of whom are trying to
decide now just whtat they are going to do to earn a living.
We hope earnestly that all these young foukgf will find out
everything possible about new occupations, and about the
skills needed to master them. Of course they will learn
sooner or later that the good old-fashioned qualities of
honesty and industry will be just as much in demand in
1950 as they were in 1850. And its still true that more wor
kers fail because they don’t have the right social qualities
than because they lack needed skills.
Some More Misinformation:
One of the worst results of living in a segreagted society
is that many of those discriminated against come to absorb
many Negroes believe that Negroes are unclean, dishonest,
and are criminally inclined. They don’t like to admit these
S and they Qoni understand their own feelings, but
the fact is there just the same.
Plain Talk...
(BY DAN GARDNER)
“Gl” PRISONERS OF POLICY ASK OUT OF INDIA
BURMA ROLE OF BEING SERVANTS TO BRITISH
INTERESTS.
-—
We know what our servicemen are doing in Europe, in
the Philippines and in Japan. That is,, we have a pretty
good idea of what occupation duties in former enemy ter
ritory require in policing by the victorious military until
civilian government under proper supervision can be re
stored. We don’t pretend, however, to understand what
good purpose is being served in, keeping our forces in the
India-Burma theatre.
This theatre is not an occupation zone; it is British ter
ritory and the Japs were chased out of India long before
V-JDay. 1 if o.-J .i
Occupation forces in India and in Burma are largely
Negro, but the racial line i j given less emphasis here, in
favor of justice for both white and Negro troops who have
earned their right to return home.
So desperate are the men that 1300 enlisted personnel in
a January 11, 1946 mass meeting at the Eastern India Air
Depot at Panagarh, India, contributed funds to pay for an
advertisement in American newspapers to ask U. S. citizens
vital questions.
The writer has been to the China-Burma-India (CBI)
theatre of war and knows of conditions which American
boys are subjected to and feels that those interested in fair
play will join in condemnation of a War Department policy
that isolates Americans in a forgotten part of the world as
pawns in some program hat results in helping others than
ourselves.
Currently, the answer to the gripes of the CBI troops is
that American, soldiers are needed in India and Burma to
dispose of surplus U. S. property. Common sense arith
metic shows that an American private in India is paid 200
rupees per month in addition to being provided with food,
shelter and medical care.
The average monthly wage for an Indian laborer is forty
rupees. Most of the U. S. property disposal at the Pana
garh Base, for example, consisting largely of demolishing
> obselete aircraft, which could have been done by Indian
DO’S AND DONTS:
They are Americans but do tell them about the cultural
contributions of Africa, so that they will realize that their
heritage is as rich as that of other fellow Americans.
civilians, was done by high ranking U. S. Air Force techn
icians.
Breakdown in comparative monetary values shows that
the Indian rupee it worth 30 cents. This means an Amer
ican soldier gets $60 a month, base army pay, against $1.20
a month for an Indian civilian laborer. There are un
counted millions oi' Indians who work for far less in any
capacity they can bis used.
Occupational ]iolicy in Japan and in Germany should
neither affect nor l»e jeopardized hy the redeployment of
India-Burma persoi ncl, the mass meeting at Panagrah de
cided. War Depar ment ruling does not permit basic
training for new recruits at overseas points as was often
done before the wai. Thus, the return of India-Burma
soldiers to the States is held up because of a lack of re
. placements. Today it requires 14 weeks of basic tra|iKff£
when during the war men often went into comjvn units
overseas with six weeks and less of basic. Theimys in the
India-Burma theatre want to know why?
Returning to arith«w*Mf, thr average CBI “GI Prisoner
of Policy” is bewildered in what it is all about when he
compares the sale of surplus U. S. property in India with
the cost of keeping U. S. Army personnel on duty there.
With millions of unemployed Indians around, he cannot
understand what is the issue in punishing him with long
service in a forgotten part of the world to appease some
tight little clique of financiers and bankers who see a
chance to make a lot of money with the British and are
moving in at the expense of our boys. Little or no prac
tical work is being done in India today.
Negro engineering companies built the world-famous
Ledo Road; Negro quartermaster outfits transported vital
war supplies to China; white and Negro work outfits main
tained supply lines throughout the war against Japan.
They did more than they were required to do. Now is
the time for them to come home. In fact, they should
! have been returned home long, long ago.
I ---
The Common Defense
(by Rev. William C. Kernan)
•f.ptT-w
tmm t
On The Side Of The Victorious Legions—
Let us resolve to live in the American way. The future
belongs to it. Tyranny—called totalitarianism in its Com
munist and Fascist guise—it old, tried and found wanting.
Racial prejudice is old. Religious persecution is old—and
o fdate—out of step with the times/ and the demand of the
times. It is American democracy that is new—the recogni
tion of the rights of man that has a; short and very rectal
history—the right to worship in accordance with the dic
tates of conscience that assetred its claims on mankind but
a few years ago. Let us embrace and ever hold fast to demo
cracy. The future belongs to it.
Gladstone, speaking in Parliament on behalf of Lord Rus
sel’s Reform Bill said, “You cannot fight against the fu
ture. Time is on our side. The great social forces which
move onwards in their might and majesty, and which the
tumult of our debates does no tfor a moment impede or
disturb—these great social forces are against you; they
are marshalled on our side; and the banned which we now
carry in this light, though perhaps at some/ moment it may
droop over our sinking heads, yet it soon again will float
in the eye of heaven—perhaps not to an easy but to a cer
tain and to a not distant vcitory.”
Gladstone’s words are our words. The democratic prin
ciples which we are standing for today, the things we are
doing to make democracy work today, are what all men
will stand for—what all men will do tomorrow. The future
belongs to us. We are on the side of the victorious legions.
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