The Omaha Guide
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER JL
Published Every Saturday at 2.'/20 Grant Street
OMAHA. NEBRASKA—PHONE HA- 0800
Entered as Second Class Matter March 15. 1927
at the Post Office at Omaha. Nebtaska. under
i Act of Congress of Mardi 3, 1879.
C‘ C- Gallowiy,_ Publisher and Acting Editor
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Nat’i ifcgro Health Week
The first postwar National Negro Health Week observ
ance finds a nation eager for what President Truman terms
“health security for all, regardless of residence, nation, or
race—everywhere in the United States.”
National Negro Health Week stresses the great need and
opportunity for the average Negro family to improve their
home and share health benefits in the community.
'I’he late Booker T. Washington, eminent Negro leader,
founded National Negro Health Vi eek in 1915. Following
the death of Ur. W ashington, the observance was sponsor
ed by Tuskegee Institute anti by Howard University. The
II. S. Public Health service has carried on National Negro
Health W eek since 1932 as a phase of the year-round
health program.
Although Negroes have shared generally in the Nation’3
health progress during the past 35 years, they Iiave not
shared in proportion to their needs. Negroes constitute
10 percent of our population, but they bear from three to
six times their proportional burden of ill health and pre
mature death.
In every thousand Negro births, one and three quarters’
times as many babies die before they are a year old as in
white births. Negro mothers die in childbirth at twice the
rate among white women.
Many of the chronic diseases which disable and kill
strike Negroes far more frequently than their white neigh
bors. These inequalities are unnecessary. Publie health
ami medicine have found the knowledge and skills with
which to make the Negro’s load of sickness and death as
light as the white man s todav. More than that, the means
are available now to reduce death and illness in all races to
* still lower levels than are experienced at present by the
most favored groups.
It is significant that the theme for this year’s observance
of National Negro Health W eek is “a healthy home in a
healthy community.” Plans for better homes and com
munity improvement should highlight proper housing for
the Negro families.
The constant need for the security and enjoyment of the
home is health. The healthy breadwinner is a better pro
vider. Health conserves the family earnings and sickness
drains the family budget. And so it is also true of the
community in which the healthy homes are located. Com
munity health is economical as it protects and promotes the
welfare of the people. Home and community are equal
partners in the business of keeping the American people
healthy.
The Surgeon General of the United States Public Health
Service, Ur. Thomas Parran, has pointed out that among
the major requirements throughout the country are better
facilities and more trained personnel. This means, he
said, in order to assure equal opportunity for tiealth in all
parts of the country, we shall have to: Construe; more hos
pitals and health centers and equip them with modern med
ical tools; train more physicians, dentists, nurses, engineers
health educators and other professional people; establish
more public health departments and gear up all services to
make use of the newer knowledge in prevention and cure.
In no part of the United States, the* Surgeon General has
pointed out, have health and medical services reached the
point where all services meet all needs. It is rare to say,
however, that in all parts of the country, services for the
Negro fall farther short of the mark than do those for
white people. State and community plans for ;he future
must take account of this fact wherever Negroes form a
significant proportion of the population.
Any movement to stimulate better health among Negroes
not only helps the group itself but the entire Nation which
is seeking an adequate health and medical care program for
all people. High disease rates among Negroes are needless
drains upon the Nation's resources and upon individual
health and progress. Thus, as President Truman so aptly
stated, “Our new economic bill of rights should mean
health security for all. regardless of residence, station or
race—everywhere in the United States.”
Plain Talk...
(BY DAN GARDNER)
POLITICS, RELIGION AND INTERRACIAL PERSONNEL
Most whites we find in interracial movements are there
because of religious or political motives. It is very rare
that we find them in the swim out of a purely natural and
sincere desire to right a wrong or to help their fellow man.
That is the abolitionist spirit-to right wrongs, to follow
the Christ-pattern and do unto others as you would have
them do unto yon.
For example, the Catholics are in the midst of a wide
campaign to do something concrete in improving racial
relations and the other day, a young lady, previously with
out contact or experience i ninterracial matters, approach
ed me to discuss the program upon which she was working.
Her thesis was that her religion had decreed that we are
“ali brothers in Christ”" and that she was now out to prove
it. She set her own conditions upon which she would en
gage in the working out of the statement. “I hope.” she
said, ‘■‘that I never meet any bad Negroes. I hope thev all
are well-mannered, clean-cut people. If I meet the bad
ones, I am sure I'll be disappointed and disillusioned.*’
Another young while woman came to my office with
Your RED CROSS
must carry on
1946 FUND CAMPAIGN
some publicity material regarding an interracial affair in
volving the Japanese-American Citizens League of New
\ork and wanted me to appear on a program that would
include the celebrated Japanese-American war hero, Ben
Ruroki; the Chinese-American movie star, Keje Luke, and
the Broadway columnist, Ed Sullivan of the Daily News.
Her leanings were to the left, as organizations and 1 .tier
heads carrying her name among the sponsors, indicated.
Right here she was interested in presenting to New York
City a pieture of Negro, Japanese-American, Irish-Amerij t
and Chinese-American engaged in an affair that would
prove they all could get along together without fussing and
fighting.
Somewhere, somehow', I sensed that she was motivated in
to her course of action because of a political reason and not
because of an innate, sincere desire in the first place to
bring about a better race setup. I might be presumptuous
but somewhere, I believe she was told to do this or that;
better yet, taught to do this or that through a prescribed
course of political action and thinking. I got the idea that
if she had been instructed to take a counter course, she per
haps, might have done that without a qualm.
A prominent young Negro woman in Harlem is engaged
in publicity and promotional activities for various national
organizations. Her ability is unquestioned.. She gets re
sults and is very much in demand. However, she enlists
her services in organizations which approve of her political
and social convictions. Thus, she is far removed from the
great masses of our people since her work brings her in
contact mainly with interracial groups and organizations
W ere she told, however, that her assignment next would be
door-to-door work in the tenement district, I am positive
she would go about such duties with all the intense enthus
iasm she has and is still exhibiting in her present position.
Above and beyond the “I was told this was the thing to do
motive ’, is the school of thought that occasionally produc
es a Wendell Phillips, an Elijah Lovejoy or a John Brown.
1 he hundreds, yes, thousands of whites who join interrac
ial movements mainly because religious instruction is the
main influence, or those who take part in such activity be
cause the political complexion has today a black hue in
stead of yesterday's lily-white, do by their very weight of
numbers contribute something tangible to interracial re
lationships, and sometimes, to interracial harmonv. But
many times they confuse issues and kill the very thing that
should be nurtured into full bloom. They continue their
own petty hates and politics i nthe midst of a bigger issue;
they seek to use the new forces with whom they are thrown I
into contact as reinforcements to win their own particular
points.
As an example: under«Earl Browder, the Communist
Party almost forgot there was a Negro problem where be
fore Browder assumed leadership of the party, the Negro
was Number 1 on the agenda. That is what got Angelo
Herndon off the Georgia chain gang; what shocked the na
tion into forcing by pulic opinion, the freeing by the State
of Alabama most of the Scottshoro Boys; what brought
Richard Wright and his “Native Son” to the front. Under
Browder, however, the emphasis turned to Rooseveit and
to the Russian cause in the war.
The Catholics today are engaged in a relentless war with
national and international communism. To rally support,
they are taking any and all who will subscribe to the faith,
including the Negro in larger numbers than ever before.
The Communists are now debating a return to their for
mer active stand in championing the cause of the Negro
through the ranks of organized labor. Yet, in each in
stance quoted here, the political or religious motive is para
mount. The human is secondary.
The subtlev of the situation is shown in what happens to
Negroes when the power of persuasion of a political belief
is allowed to range unhindered. The wav out of the dilem
ma is for those of us in positions to do so to demand with
increasing vigor and dii-ectness. more complete devotion to
the cause of interracial umity and relationships than to pol
itical and religious ideologies as a price of our trust and
confidence. Sooner or later, we must face the issue.
An Apbeal to Nebraska Motorists
Captain C. J. Sanders. Nebraska Safety Patrol, is making
an appeal to Nebraska Motorists to help cut down accidents
and fatalities by safe driving, as the largest percent of ac
cidents are caused by traffic violations.
This, Captain Sanders reported, is evidenced hy the fact
that the Patrol made 21 percent more arrests during Febr
uary than in January.
Excessive speed was the greatest single offender with 148
arrests. Careless or reckless driving accounted for 59 ar
rests and stop sign violations 62. Drunken driving brot
about 49 arrests which was an increase over January’s 38
arrests.
401 Motorists received written warnings for careless
driving practices, while 1687 other motorists received vio-1
lation or “must repair” cards for equipment violations, I
“One headlight” and “no tail light” headed the equipment i
violations.
In the line of helpful service the Patrol assisted 801
stranded motorists and removed 392 dangerous obstruc-l
tions from the highways.
To complete the Patrol’s February activity report, 108
accidents were investigated and reported, 47 safety pro
grams were given, and 8 stolen cars were recovered.
On Unemployment'
by RUTH TAYLOR
Unemployment is the big problem of today. But this
great problem is not an issue in which we have ONLY a
selfish interest. Unemployment in America will affect the
whole world. As Walter Lippman said, “We are now such
a preponderant part of the economy of the worr.: that un
less here at home we attain the stability of fuli employment
we shall be a force for disorder, rather than for order ev
erywhere.”
We have learned the bitter lesson that no democracy is
secure anywhere in the world when tyranny retgns any
where in the world. We have learned the bitter lesson
that not only can no nation remain half slave and half free
—but that no world can remain half slave and half free.
Do we need another bitter lesson to learn that there can
be no enduring prosperity for one country and not for all?
Freedom of body is smaJI solace to a hungry man. Patri
otism does not thrive on hunger. Unless we establish in
all countries a system removing the shadow of hunger from
anyone that is willing to work, there will be no freedom any
where.
I am not advocating any system of world philanthropy.
But I am saying that full employment here in America is
not just a question of earning a living for us alone. We
must prove here in America that in democracy ties the sol
ution of the peace problems, that we cannot only maintain
our freedom of thought but with our American system of
free enterprise we can continue our high standards of liv
ing and wipe out the dread spectre of unemployment, of
post-war depression. We must prove the worth of our
faith in our way of life, if we want to make a permanent
peace.
If we will all work together, we can lick tnrs spectre and
win a permanent peace of prosperity. We must prove that
130,000,000 people stemming from all the four corners of
the earth CAN live together ann together create a real De
mocracy where a worker, whether of brain or hand, is an
American worker, not an Irish worker, not a Polish work
Editorial: “The Jeopardy of the U. N. O !”
er, not an Italian worker, not a Jewish, a Catholic, a Prot
estant workers, hut just an Anieriean.
«e cO^G
mV* ** ERIC hass
Released by Calvin'* New* Service
About the same time that the uniformed and un-uniform
ed hoodlums of Columbia, Tennessee, celebrated the end of
“Brotherhood Week” by terrorizing the town's Negro in
habitants, mounted policemen rode down and dubbed
pickets at the General Electric plant in Philadelphia.
The two events are not unrelated. Philadelphia police
were enforcing an order banning effective picketing. The
order was issued by a capitalist court in the interest of a
powerful capitalist corporation. The police enforced it
via the tamiliar method of terroristic violence which is cal
culated to cow the workers.
True, there was no strike at Columbia. But Columbia's
3,000 Negro citizens constitute the town's reservoir of
cheap labor. And the fear exists in Columbia, as it does
throughout the South, that the Negroes’ wartime exper
ience in war plants, shipyards and the armed services, has
made them “uppity”-that is, less docile.
It is a fact, amply attested to by history, that ruling class
es have hut one method of dealing with workers who slough
off docility—terrorism. It is the method of imperialism
in dealing with colonial slaves. It is the capitalists' ulti
mate method of breaking strikes. From the so-called Re
construction Era to the present it has been the method of
the Southern plunder-hund, when all others seemed to fail,
of keeping the Negro in a submissive pattern of behavior.
Terrorism—the policy of overwhelming subjugated peo
ple with violence, is a calculated policy. Inspired by fear
that resides in the back of the minds of oppressors even in
the most “peaceful” of times, its purpose is to crush the
rebellious spirit by demonstrating the “futility” -of chal
lenging the oppressor's power.
I have said that the events at Philadeljhia and Columbia
are related. They are. But it is easy to draw many dis
tinctions between them. The Phildelphia police acted un
der the law—a fact of dubious solace to the workers who
had their heads cracked, but a fact nevertheless. The po
lice, highway patrolmen, militiamen and plain hoodlums
who unleashed terror on Columbia's Negro community
scorned legal sanction. Indoctrinated by a “white suprem
acy” culture which implicity denies the Negro equality
under the law, they forced their way violently into dwell
ings ami searched them without warrants, clubbed and ar
rested the occupants who attempted to assert their lawful
rights, and otherwise deported themselves in the lynch
spirit which has always been the ultimate expression of
their “clulure.”
Obviously, the whole pattern of racist thought in the
South is caluculated to encourage violent and overt acts a
gainst the Negro, to deny him his elementary and constitu
tional rights, and to “keep him in his place.” But what is
“his place?” The apologist for “white supremacy” says
the phrase has a social application only. But the facts of
the economy in the South give him the lie. The facts show
that the Negro’s “place” is almost any job that is menial,
dirty, repulsive or back-breaking, and for which the wages
are so low that it is often more economical for the exploit
ers to hire a hundred Negroes than buy one machine.
The brutal assault on Columbia’s Negro inhabitants was
an ac tof racial terrorism. But lurking behind the vicious
racist spirit, and secreting it as a rattlesnake secretes ven
om, is the same hatred that erupted in the savage attack on
pickets in Philadelphia—hatred of labor!
Industrial Labor Relations
(by George DeMar for CNS)
When nearly 1800 people crowded their way into Madi
son Square Garden for the rally sponsored by the National
Council on Fair Employment, many Americans of all
creeds, races and colors took a renewed hope and faith in
the integrity of America. Rankins may rant, a handful of
senators may temporarily slow the wheel of progress and
necessary employment legislation, but the will of the ma
jority of the American people cannot be killed. Fair em
ployment legislation is not dead. It was downed, but has
not stayed down. Once again, rallying strength for a
March on Washington, A. Philip Randolph again let it be
known that the war for human rights is not lost through
the loss of a skirmish or battle.
Throughout the United States where men have a sense of
values, where fair play is not just a phrase, where econom
ic opportunity is recognized as the basis for all living, there
must have been a pounding of hearts when Mrs. Franklin
D. Roosevelt said, “If we are to assume a position of leader
ship, then here at home we must see that all of us as citiz
ens of this greatest democracy have equality of opportun
ity.”
The National Urban League is this month entering its
fourteenth Vocational Opportunity Campaign. This Cam
paign is designed to help Negro youth to prepare today for
tomorrow’s opportunities. It has a new ring as placards
ask “Jobs for all to protect America’s future, Protestants,
Catholics, Jews.” The Negro is part and parcel of Ameri
ca. He, like other Americans, must have training in all
the fields of industrial and cultural endeavor. The time is
NOW for the youth of America, Negroes in particular, to
take a renewed determination based upon sound counsel
ing and advice, to train for work in fields hitherto untried
by them.
Be ready! Fair Employment Practices Legislation Is
coming! It is coming as sure as this is America. It is a
job for hard-hitting politicians and does not belong to any
party. So with renewed fight let’s tell each district leader,
each county chairman, each state leader, each national
chairman that: no Fair Employment Legislation, then your
candidate is out!
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