The Omaha Guide + A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ^ 1 Publish,a Every Saturday at 2)20 Grant Street OMAHA, NEBRASKA—PHONE HA- 0800 \ Entered a9 Second Class Matter March 15. 1927 at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebraska, under Act of Congress of Mar tfa 3, 1879. C- C- Gal!aw ly, Publisher and Acting Editor All News Copy of Churches and all organiz ations must be >n our office not later than l :00 p- m. Monday for current issue. All Advertising I Copy on Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure public ation SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA < ONE YEAR .. $3.0' ^ SIX MONTHS . $l.7f,' THREE MONTHS .$1.2." SUBSCRIPTION RATE 0U7 OP TOWN ONE YEAR . $3.50 ‘ SIX MONTHS .$2.o> I National Advertising Representatives— INTERSTATE UNITED NEWSPAPERS, In^ 545 Fifth Avenue, New York Citv, Phone:— MUrray Hill 2-5452, Ray Peck, Manager j Afterwards-What? by RUTH TAYLOR 9 “If, after the manner of men, I have ought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage it me, if the dead rise not.” So apnke Paul—Paid the realist, the practical preacher. Of what avail will the sacrifice of our youth have be?n if we go on blindly compromising with prnciple, making the same mistakes as before, allowing, the hydra head of tyran ny to rise again? e fought for freedom—our own and our fellow man's, for without his freedom, our own was not and is not secure. Democracy, our way of life, has one answer and only one 1o ALL forms of Statism. It is the fundamental principle of equality before the law, and the sanctity of all men as individuals. If the was is to stay won, then aL over the earth there must be freedom for all men. Men everywhere must have the right to decide without fear or favor under what govern ment they shall live and, regardless as to whether they are the minority or the majority, they must have freedom to live and work and grow strong, in the spirit as well as in the flesh. A refugee is not a solution. If the war is to stay won, then there must be established justice, giving to every man no matter what his race or creed or color an equal opportunity to utilize, in the chan nels of his own desire, such talents and ability as he may have. As a great thinker said recently: “When we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we do not merely desire that there sould be no fighting in her streets. We are praying for the presence of that quality of justice which ensures peace, and which, above all others, distinguishes a society that accepts the moral law, from a society which repudiates it.” If the war has in truth been won by the forces of democ racy, there must be universal brotherhood of nations as well as of men. Only this spirit can bring in the new day for which the hearts of men have long yearned—a new day in which the law is love, and love, thefulfilling of the law. This must come, for “If, after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not.” Released by Calvin's Newi Serviot The age-Hour law was adopted at the heyday of the New Deal to the accompaniment of lavish self-praise, not only by New Dealers, but by big employers generally. The legal “floor under wages” wa& to be elevated gently until it reached the dizzy altitude of 40-cents an hour. True, sev eral million workers, a large proportion of them Negro field hands and domestics, were excluded from the law, it being argued that this would inconvenience an Important group of politically potent employers. Doubtless, the leg islators were also deeply concerned lest the millions of cot ton choppers and other field hands suffer vertigo as the result of a giddy elevation in their fortunes. Notwith standing this exclusion, the “floor under wages” was hailed by industrialists, sundry reformers and do-gooders gener ally as a tremendous step toward giving the workers secur ity“. What has happened to the “floor under wages”-? To the workers to whom the law- applies the 40-cent minimum wage has become meaningless. Forty cents an hour is $16 a week, of about $950 a year. Industrial employers can’t buy labor that cheaply these days. And the reason they can’t buy labor that cheaply is that the cost of living has risen to a point where 40 cents an hour no longer repre sents a minimum LIVING wage. Actually it is capitalist economics, not capitalist law, which fixes the minimum wage. How much can an ordin ary laborer squeeze by on at current prices? That is the real minimum wage. The law merely codifies the mini mum wage that capitalist economics has momentarily estab lished. Share Your Easter Joy! Buy and Use Easter Seals! ;! CRIPPLED CHILDREN Editorial: “Another World Menace!” pcOpiE$ o7 Ttit WOStv If there is a group of workers, such as Negro field hands whose standards are traditionally lower, and who are inur ed to etremex poverty, THEIR minimum wage is lower— and the legislators simply exclude them from the act. Because the 40-cent “floor under wages” has become meaningless in the face of current living costs, the capital ist State faces the alternatives of adjustnig the “floor” up ward or abandoning a reform that has proved its political usefulness in distracting the workers. The Administration has chosen to revise the law. The debate which began a couple of weeks ago in the U. S. Sen ate, therefore, is to determine a legal minimum wage that will not conflict with the real minimum established tempor arily by capitalist conditions. Some of the Senators would jack the “floor” up to 65 cents immediately and then raise it gradually to 75 cents by 1950. (By 1950, because of the increase in living costs resulting from the debasement of currency, 75 cents will probably be as far below the real minimum wage as 40 cents is today!) Others, including the bloc of Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans would play it safe by calling for a‘55 cent “floor"’ now and an increase to 60 cents in eighteen months. Very likely a compromise will be reached but, whatever it is, it will not alter the real minimum. I do not deny that a considerable group of workers, in cluding the large proportion of Negro workers who crowd the lowest wag elevel, might receive a modest wage increase under the enfrocement of the new legal minimum wage. On the other hand, many who would be thus affected are employees of two-bit firms which have managed to survive the competitive struggle only by chiseling on wages. As was the case when the 40 cents “floor” was put under wages many of these are doomed. Others will be. compelled to accelerate the adoption of laobr-displacing machinery. In either case, unemployment will result and capital will con centrate. The moral of this is that the minimum wage reform is a nut which, once cracked, is a pretty empty hull. The con dition of the working class, lashed to the capitalist jugger naut, is not rendered less insecure by such shifts. Now think a moment! Isn’t it a commentary that in this day and age, when we have demonstrated in wartime our capac ity to produce enough to provide every family in America with at least 35,000 a year, our legislators are talking in terms of 65 cents an hour? The age of abundance opens before us. But the wages system prevents us from reach ing it. The abolition of that system is the key that will un lock the door to plenty, peace and human brotherhood. INDUSTRIAL LABOR RELATION by Geo. DeMar for CNS No Jobs for Negro Pilots America’s far-flung and expanding airlines’ industry has closed its eyes to Negro men and women as it operates its great silver fleets throughout the world. Only yesterday twelve pilots, seasoned in the air, made application for jobs as pilots with the Eastern Airlines, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, to be told that there are no openings. In fact, this company has never employed a Negro as a pilot and it is open in its position that no provisions have been made for Negroes who have had previous flight experience and CAA ratings. Archie Smith, who has more than 5,000 hours in the air and who has trained over 150 flyers for the Army, said that of the forty-five Negro flight instructors in the United Stat es, only two have been able o land jobs. For the most part and in order to preserve their licenses, they must set up business for themselves. Edward Gibbs, for five years flight instructo- for~ the Army and a civilian instructor before the war, is operating a grocery story. The State Commission Against Discrimination, the NA ACP and the Urban League have taken initial steps to change this lily white policy in the air. A passenger in a plane is only concerned with the proven ability of the pilot. The organizations mentioned and those that will be formed on behalf of fair employment practices want only that the Negro pilot be given the opportunity to carry on in peace time he skills he so ably demonstrated in the war. WON’T YOU, MR. AND MRS. READER, write to the air lines in your community? Tell them we have men who can qualify, and let’s help the pilots get jobs like everyone else. \A£lO? TURN IN YOU& WASTE FAT H E RE. I 1v4 4T *00* / "L <£fvi V-0tf tice. Injustice there is in America. ISo one can overlook it. But, neither can anyone, reading our history, deny that we have made—and still do make—progress toward the crea tion of the kind of country in which opportunity is open to all regardless of race or religion. And because there is hope and promise here for all men —as m no other country under the sun—in spite of our short-comings, Americans are e\ery day more and more realizing how good a thing it is to live under one form of government—liow good it is to be free, free to speak, to print, to worship to vote—howr good it is to be able to work towards a better democracy here-to bring the fruits of justice to those of our people who yet do not enjoy them— to be able to do this without fear of reprisal by the govern ment. How good it is to be an American! To live in a country where rotestants, Catholics, Jews, Whites and Negroes have an opportunity to carve out their own destiny and over the years, to make progress toward that better, juster order of which America gave promise at her birth. THEY LL wmitn, &*m THOMAS A. mMAS FRANCE'S GREAT CZRERAL y \ !M TV OA'.AS * ' ALEXANDER DUW.5 WAS ' BORN 1762 IN SAN DOM INGO OF A FRENCH FATHER AND AN AFRICAN MOTHER BECAUSE OF HIS RARE COURAGE HE BECAME THE MOST FEARED SOLDIER INTHE FRENCH ARMY- IN NO TIME AT ALL HE BECAME A GENERAL, AND STAGGERED ALL EUROPE BY ONCE CHALLENGING NAPOLEONS RANK/ HI5 SON. THE ILLUSTRIOUS WRITER. WILL BE PRESENTED IN A LATER CARTOON. GvAwidl fwVst STERN TEACHER ✓ \ .VU sr'jtT* . V " Coilri W Appreciafe America, /as.