Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 September 1936 — Page 10

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

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Saturday, September 26, 1936

The Indianapolis Recorder Published Weekly at Indiahapolis 618-20 Indiana Ave. LI. 7574-5 GEORGE P. STEWART Founder and Editor—1896—1924 MARCUS C. STEWART EDITOR ■ ■■■ ■ ■ im i. i iw m ■ ‘ • !■■■ m '■* ■ i nil. ■ ■ ■■ .-i.— Subscription Rates . - Indianapolis: 1 year, $2.08; six months, $1.25; 3 mortths, 75c. * Indiana: 1 year, $2.50; 6 months, $1.50; 3 months, fcl.0& *' Single Copy, 7 cents in State; 10 cents elsewhere. Elsewhere in the U. 8.: 1 year, $S.0<>; 6 moriths, $2.00; 3 months, $1^5. Entered as Second Class Matter at the Indianapotjs Post Office July, 1910, under the Act of March 8, 1897. REV. M. W. CLAIR GOES TO GAMMON

.For seven y6ars. as pastor of Simpson Chapel, Rev. M. W. Clair, Jr., has met fully and unflinchingly the diverse problems of that church and related ones of the community pertaining to civic and general economic welfare. This occasion is altogether timely to note an expression of regret that this community should lose one whose work has been militant in the proper manner. His appointment as instructor of practical theology at Gammon Seminary is justly deserved, yet that he could not remain here to continue endeavors so needed, battles so necessary to be fought, contacts so essential to be made in order to bring about a larger, fuller and more sympathetic relationship among persons of different creeds and racial stocks, gives cause for regret. Foremost in the civic fight for better hospitalization, Rev. Clair was president of the Community hospital board and has interested himself intensely in the social aspects closely allied with the evils of inadequate medical facilities open to colored people here. During the most trying period of the depression years, his hard and earnest work has been a strong-planted flag flying in the midst of a fight to conquer problems that rode roughshod through the ranks of our people. His effort's have been persistent, effective with little of the “theatrical” except as the winning and hard-fighting of problems in themselves are packed with drama. In accepting a position as instructor at Gammon Theological Seminary, this community has lost a courageous fighter of the right kind, but it is felt that the tremendous work of his everyday, little-yielding Christianity as well as his great contribution through the channels of more harmonious race relations will be things carried to othpt places with the same intensity which characterized his stay here. At Gammon, he will have the opportunity, ocssibly a larger one, than here, to further ideas ahd ideals so heedful in a world harassed and verging the unbalanced stage. There he will have the high duty of training young minds, student minds; and that work has in the past been worthy of' our best men. It still is.

! the law, if there is one, is a thing yet to be satisfactorily defended. We have seen the effects of a segregated paTk, Douglas; we have seen the separate school, Crispus Attucks, and we are yet to be content with either. Douglas Park, our glorified cow pasture, is not adequate in physical equipment or the matter of geographical location to accoommodate the needs of fifty thousand or more colored citizens. Recourse to more convCrtient public parks brings no uncertain reaction. Recently a Y. M. C. A. official was put olit of a public park; even later, a religious group was bullied and put out of a public park by some beetle-browed, bullying police. Then there were those who were instrumental in bringing about the high school. As many promises concerning the equal facilities and equipment of this school unit, were made, but to date they have not materialized. The school, built to accommodate 1200 students now has. almost twice that number enrolled. No effective relief is promised. Weanwhile, Washington High school built at the same time as Attucks, receives additions totaling $400,000; Irvington gets a new unit. Colored people of this community should flatly refuse any further surrendering of their rights by way of segregated units. It is useless to expect parity of equipment and operation under segregation. Hospitals and schools, and like institutions, operated on public taxes are not made for narrow individuals, or doctors, or whatnot, but for the public. The answer is to open wide the hospitals—and the schools, for all those who can qualify. No further infringements of constitutional rights should be tolerated by the colored people of this community.

SUB-CIVILIZERS

REFUSED SEGREGATION

Approximately twenty-five years have passed since a colored man has served a full term as interne at the City hospital; twentyfive years during which time this community has grown in many ways, during which time the population has reached new heights —and the need for training of physicians and persons in related fields has grown apace. This growth has been common to all members of this city; especially has the need for adequate hospitalization grown apace among the colored citizenry. Because of their low economic status, because of groups who override their constitutional rights, because this group has long been subject to the selfish schemings of politicians, and because of a community indifference and social callousness, the need for proper medical care has grown not only acute but alarming. Various admirtistrations have proposed in grandiose gesture that the placing of colored people in a jim crow wing, for training and hospitalization, would be the logical solution. To date, no such suggestion has been seriously made concerning the medical care of other groups — Italians, Germans, Chinese, or apy minority groups. One possible reason is that members of these groups are admitted freely and experience little if any of the unpleasantness in this matter of hospitalization as do the colored people. Students from any or all these groups who are able to comply with the necessary scholastic requirements are readily admitted to the City hospital to serve as internes, nurses, staff doctors, and related capacities. Not so with the colored persons in the above-named fields. Despite the many and fervid promises made by the present mayor, John W. Kern, and by the candidate runnisg in opposition in 1932, Walter Pritchett, no real effort, judging by results, has been made, or even considered in this vital question of our group and sufficient medical care and experience for those peculiarly interested. , \ Both {hese men named above promised to meet the issue squarely by admitting doctors qualified to do so, and internes on like basis—especially graduates of Indiana University — to have the opportunities given others. There Was even mention made of some provision for the training of colored girls in av nursing Capacity. Mr. Pritchett lost and so could do nothing from the standpoint Of mayor; Mr. Kern won and has done nothing from the standpoint of mayor. There is admitted segregation at the City hospital; and Why this should logically be, or for that matter, why it should be under

On the heels of the announcement that Japan will modernize China comes the thought that Italy’s avowed purpose in Ethiopia is the civilizing of that country. Some may choose to be free of a culture which demands that thousands of miles be traversed in order to bandit land on an unoffending people. * In the instance of China, it has been said that the warlords are so grasping in their desire for power and bitterly jealous of each other that it is a simple matter to bribe, to undermine and so to gain a firm foothold in a country divided and weak because of their pettiness. And so remindful of some of the leaders of the brother of color are these Chinese warlords— (in our case I suppose one could properly labCl them vicelords). They bicker and battle among themselves, with others, and altogether make leadership a joke and principle a word glutted of all potency. They sit in stupid splendor and nurture their petty hates, devise means whereby the beneficial, the decent, the right can be subordinated to selfish ends. Frequently, a handful of misguided selfempowered persons seek to shape the pattern of life for their fellows into definite forms, and often these Fates enjoy a success remarkable. However, when the reckoning comes, it is usually swift and complete, steam-roller in its effect. Until such time as there is detection and deflation of these men, the damage is large, broods are spawned and every measure for perpetuation of its particular species is made. Altogether, the situation is unpleasant and more than a little disgraceful that such things should be. The practice is challenging to every citizen not desirous of losing all that makes him that. We know the situation to some degree when we read that the jealousy, the greed of the warlords allow those ‘come to civilize” to pass with little resistance. Our vicelords will bicker and jealously bellow; and when those who “come to civilize” us hammer at the gate their hands are still—having been crossed with silver.

'CORNELIUS JOH MSP*

"NOW EF WE KIN JES 6IT UP NAWTH!

CRUISING 'ROUND lel j

‘"Tavern Square” was not so thickly populated ^ast Sunday night, despite the fact that there were many out-of-town people in the city who had attended the Auto race at the State Fair Grounds •during the day. But the light gathering around the square may have been due to the fact that the race absorbed most of their energy. Thdn the lack of personal safety around this arda may have contributed to the smallness of the crowd. The silliest argument mixed with a drinks or two often ends in a tragedy which otherwise would never occur. Then there is the usual feminine trouble in such places. The main reasonis persons linger in such places is to see and be seert. So, if your attractive companion attracts another,* you should be pleased, not angered, or if such attractiveness gets beyond your control, better you step out of the picture than off the mortal coil.

After the Spaniards grow tired of killing each other to the Strains of Mussolini and Stalin, they will realize that after all they have only heen tools of munition manufacturers, who must have wars to make excess profits. As long as war materials are made for profit so long there will be less chance of peace.

Taxes has been and for a long time to c6me will be the bone of contention among politicials. To eliminate taxes, the govdirnment would have to operate all major business. We are ready for that. To reduce taxes, we have to reduce government functions. Then how far must these functions be reduced. Should the Highway Department be abolished? No! No! we say, but give them less money. Then how much less! Oh, just cut out the waste. Then the question, what waste? Taxes cannot go down while the nation goes up.

Half the families in this country rent their living quarters. It

Is this half which pays most of the property taxes. Owners of rental property do not pay any property tax whatever, only in times of depressions. Homestead owners pay taxes, but the amount is small compared with what tenants pay.. For instance, if an owner paid eighty dollars a year tAxes on his four thousand dollar home, a tenant atodlti pay 480 dollhrs a year for th£ use' of that same house, and then pay along with the owner alt other less visible taxes. 1 increase in taxes hurt the tenant not the owner, but strange as it may seem reduction in taxes (foes not benefit the tenant. ! !

The gross income tax is unjust because it is one tax you cannot pass on to the consumer. If a merchant adds to the price of the article it i‘ri turns adk ro his grdss income, thui more faxes ' to..pity. It is airtight ahd affords no chance to duck. If you mike a profit or if you do not, the gross incbihe will get yotr just the same. Some it hurts. To others it is just a trifle.

Haile Selassie is still trying to stay in England and sit on h1«s throne in Ethiopia at the same time.

The two ways of relief which have been tried are granting / to big concerns money so they may be able to employ more help. This plan started under Mr. Hoover and is still being carried on. The other is government ‘‘made Work” paying the men direct from the Federal treasury. We should be able to judge which of the two affords the greater and the better relief. No President under our present economic system can guarantee XI million people jobs in private industry, because the government does not own or operate private industry, and the Supreme Court says it can’t. The government may loan 6r give Mr. Kingan money to employ you, but it would be government relief.

YOUR HEALTH

MOUTH HYGIENE The hygiene of the mouth includes not only the health of the teeth, but also the gums, tongue, salivary glands and tonsils. The tongue and salivary glands should be omitted, because there is no procedure that can the carried out to keep them healthy; although they may contribute to the general contamination of a mouth cavity and add to the unfortuante condition of bad health, they respond only to the general measures of cleanliness advocated below. The tongue, especially after the age of 50, should be watched for any open spot or denundation of the mucous membrane. The other structures suffer from two handicaps which determine all their many Irpufbles—first, frtmi youth to age the teeth, gums and tonsils tend to degenerate and atrophy; second, they are constantly exposed to infection. The atrophy the dentist has to fight all our lives. We can help prevent it by using a good protective diet—with milk, eggs, green vegetables and fruits—hut that is a subject we. will later discuss at greater length. These infections work in various ways. They are introduced by the food, in the air which is constantly going in and out of our mouths by the many things that both infants and adults put into their mouths. They are augmented by nests of food particles which get between the teeth and act as culture media for germs. They are also augmented by the tendency of the gums in some mouths to recede from the gums and make a pocket for germs, especially those called “Vincent’s

organisms,” or trench mouth. These organisms are present in all mouths, but do no harm until they begin to attack the receding gum margins, where they create a spongy condition which bleeds easily, and is evinced by a bloodtinged accumulation of debris in the morning. Eventually this leads to pyorrhea which is more destructive to teeth than dental decay itself. Question of Cleanliness The question of cleanliness, then is paramount in mouth hygiene. Absolute cleanliness in the bacteriological sense of sterility is impossible, and the incessant use of mouthwashes and antiseptics may do more harm than good. But the removal of food particles and of debris in general around the gum margins and between the teeth will bring about a large measure of order, and as a useful by-prod-uct the manipulations will toughen'the gums. This brings us to the ancient habit of tooth brushing and its proper technique, if the ihrush is to remove all dirt and food debris the bristles must penetrate into the spaces between the teeth. The tooth brush is generally considered by auhoritios the best instrument for cleaning—better titan dental floss or toothpicks. The tooth brush should leave widely spaced bristles trimmed so each group comes to an apex. The brush should he placed so that it rests entirely on the teeth—not on the teeth and gum tissue. Pressure is then made so the bristles will slide off the prominent parts of the teeth and penetrate into the spaces between them. A softer brush can he used on gums and gum margins.

Contributed Verse

ON HAPPINESS It would he something to talk about If these,few days were days of bliss. With all life’s pleasures, ins and outs We find ourselves in a thing amiss. If you count on friends who will he true And then succeed through much travail, Perhaps you’ll find that the things you do Are being clone to no great avail. Oh God, we enjoy felicity And serving Thee well in all our ways. That we may dw’ell in Love’s city For blissful and immortal days. Composed August, 1936, by William M. S. Myers, Jr.

THE WORLD IN REVIEW

THE NEGRO (For Emancipation Day) No race on earth is more supreme. Even with its great wealth and pride. God, of whom a few ever dream, Rains blessings. He, amid the tide, Opened doors of freedom for us. Bv William M. S. Myers, Jr. Septeriiber, 1936.

ophones.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, harass the natin. Oh, if Cngress was only in session! An old-timer is the one who can remember when a man was punished for murder.

Literary Corner About BOOKS AND REVIEWS

They are endeavoring to find a substitute for spinach. Oh, death, where is thy sting? People buy the luxuries of today with the hopes that they may pay for them tomorrow.

Speaking about the horrors of being a conquered nation, Italy is preparing to send grand opera to Ethiopia.

Developments in Spain at least serve to emphasize the fact that there is no struggle as bitter and bloody as a civil war. Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde, former minister to Denmark, is making a political tour of the United States. Admittedly, there is nothing startling or particularly unusual in that announcement. But the fact that she, accompanied by her husband, is making the tour in a house trailer, is unusual. It is probably the first time a house trailer has been used to provide transportation and housing accommodations for a national campaigner.

Some day, when the wounds of the depression have healed a little more deeply, it wouldn’t be surprising to find a new organization springing up to take its place alongside the American Legion, G. A. R., and D. A. R. It would be composed of those who were stockholders in banks at the time of the nation-wide bank moratorium.

WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIEPrison As Seen By A Condemned Man—By David Lamson. David Lamson was graduated from Stanford university in 1925 with honors. As an undergraduate he was unusually popular, and engaged in many student activities. He showed a marked talent for writing, and helped 'support himself while in college by newspa^ per and other literary work. Later, while sales manager of the Stanford University Press, Lamson continued to lie a frequent contributor to periodicals. In September, 1933, he was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to hang. He was first imprison in San Jose, but fortunately for him—although it was against the pleas of his counsel—he was sent to the State Penitentiary at San Quenin shortly before a mob broke into San Jose and lynched two inmates. The next thirteen months he spent in the Condemned Row at San Quentin with other men waiting to be “topped.” His experiences and observations in the months spent where a man becomes a number and “all men are convicts and convicts are nothing and nothing equals nothing,” and yet here “convicts are people,” make up this book. In the early autumn of 1934 the Supreme Court of California unanimously reversed the decision, four of the justices reversing on the grounds of the insufficiency of the evidence, one of these four reversing on the additional grounds that one of the jurors had been a deputy sheriff in the county of the trial. As a result of the reversal, Lamson was returned to the jail in San Jose in November, 1934. His second trial began in February, 1935, and lasted for

twelve weeks. It resulted .in a divided jury. As this book goes to press arrangements for a third trial are in progress. ORCHESTRATION—By Cecil Forsyth. This exhaustive and profound book is now the recognized standdard book of reference on Its subject.. So 'successful lias it been that a second edition, completely revised, has been called for and is now available. Mr. Forsyth writes in a clear, concise manner which will appeal to any student of the theory of all forms of music. - The book is divided into four sections, covering respectively the history and use of “Percussion,” “Brass,” “Wood-Wind” and “Strings”—these sections offering together the fullest information and instruction relative to fiftysix modern orchestral instruments. APaVt from these main headings, the whole field of orchestration is reviewed by the author, and such subjects as “Acoustics” and “Methods of Tone-Production and ScaleVariation” are dealth with at great length. The book contains more than 500 pages, three hundred musical examples, and other helpful illustrations, and an appendix on the “Phagotus of Afranio” — the supposed ancestor of the modern bassoon. In this second edition new facts have been supplied in the text whenever posihle. Some of these are to be found, grouped together, under the heading “Addenda.” The author has included things as far removed as the antique topic of What the Denners did with their primitive chalumeaux, and the modern question of what students ought to do with their lively sax-

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO — By Ina Corine Brown. Negroes form nearly a tenth of the population of the United States. An understanding of the life backgrounds of so large a section of our people is essential to constructive dealing with the vital questions of Negro-white relationships in America today. Miss Brown has contributed to the literature of this field a unique hook. She describes it in her foreword as follows: “This hook Is not another study of the race problem as such. It is rather a simple, chronological -tory of the Negro us the chief figure in one of the most dramatic migrations and adjustments made by any people in human history. The twelve million American Negroes .oi^today are not Africans; they are a new people who, in custom and temperament, and even in physical features, have been modified and changed by their life in the New World. They, in turn, in no small measure have molded and influenced the total life and history of the American people of which they are a part. It is, therefore, aj, interesting and significant human being's, neither better nor worse than other folks of like opportunities, that I have tried to present American Negroes in these pages.”

By FRANK MARSHALL OAVlS (For ANP) EVEN SCIENTISTS CANT AGREE Twelve of England’s leading biologists last week met to discuss the question of race. Some internationally famous scientists were for discarding all designations of race; others urged their retention. After talking for two hours nothing was decided except the fact that the study of mankind is'the most exacting and difficult of all sciences and popular beliefs are

silly.

When distinguished specialists fail to agree, it becomes doubly absurd for the ordinary person of any so-called race to believe hard and fast dogmas of fundamental differences. Despite their clash of opinions, the most hidebound of these 12 Englishmen agreed to a definite overlapping between “races,” cross-breeding, equal mental equipment and no superiority in intelligence. Speaking of the impossibility of keeping any group pure. Professor F. A. E. Crew declared: “When an animal breeder wants to keep a tsrain what he calls ‘pur.e’ he uses barbed wire. There is no barbed wire in nature. Even mountain ranges, deep seas and deserts have not been effective harriers to migration.” When you read that, remember how lower animals of different strains will cross-breed and yield varioys kinds of progeny within a fevfr generations. Then recall that man has reputedjy inhabited this earth for hundreds of thousands of years. By now even the mixtures of humanity have been mixed. Laws and taboos have meant nothing. Barring the use of barbed wire, the only deterrent to mating between different stocks is the presence of one sex exclusively, a fact overlooked by legislatures of many states. Not many years ago pupils were taught mankind was divided into five races: Caucasian, Mongolian, American Indian, brown and Negro. There were supposedly insurmountable dlflferenfce between them. All had individual characteristics. Caucasians were ranged at the top, Negroes at the bottom. Lately scientists have done consideralhle consolidaion as they learned more. Today studehts in many colleges are taught there are just three races and instructors say the term has ceased to have much meaning. The Caucasian now includes most of the brown men, the American Indian has (been telescoped into the Mongolian, the Negro includes those brown people left out of the Caucasian class. These three rates, teachers farther say, are purely arbitrary names for convenient handling of the human family. This changing attitude on' the

“SLAVERY IN ARKANSAS?” _ To the Editor of The Post—Sir: Please permit me to thank you personally and also on behalf of my constituency for your able and courageous editorial, “Slavery in Arkansas?” which appeared in The Post August 15. With unequalled sagacity the founders of this Republic reared, without porfotype or precedent, its solid walls and stately columns on the broad basis of human equality and of certain inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursit of happiness, to which they declared all men entitled. The Negro is here, in the providence of God, through no fault of his own. He cannot be eliminated or long ignored. The sooner he ceases to be a problem and is recognized as an

American citizen and a man—a constituent part of the body politic—'the better for him and for the Nation. Let it he home in miijd that the Negro is an American by Ibirth, training, spirit and ideals; which count Tor Americanism more than does race hr color. The well-known peonage system in Arkansas and elsewhere in this fair land is not only a local menace but a national dishonor. It should be promptly ended. The ruthless infractions of man’s inalienable rights can never he buried beyond resurrection. Right and truth, in the end, will rise in their might, burst the coffin lid, and live to vex ih^ti dfttil equity and justice get a hearing. Injustice solves no problem’s. Spain tried it. Through the

part of science points to the day when there may be but one race existing—the human race. Different nationalities did a splendid job of mixing in tne ’past, but in modern time with aircraft, speedy ocean liners and other inventions drawing the most distant peoples of the earth more closely together it is entirely within reason that a few centuries from now all of mankind will be of approximately the same tan hue. People of that day will laugh ^at the popular beliefs of 1936 just as we laugh at the flat earth ideas prevalent before Columbus. Every Negro suffering from an inferiority complex and influenced by the phobias of whites who retain 18th century ideas of race should buy or borrow the mythkilling hooks of such internationally renowned authorities as DDr. Franz Boas, Mr. Melville Herskovitz and Dr. Julian Huxley. After reading their enlightening facts, turn them over to individual members of the mass of backward writes for their perusal. That is one way of lessening- racial prejudice. WHY THEY WANT NEGROES Last week the Memphis Employment center announced it has ah alrundance of places for large Negro families picking cotton. With several opportunities -to become sharecroppers and work next year’s the Center, were definitely second choice with these large plantation

owners.

The reason is obvious. Although po’ whites are robbed and brow-beaten by land owners, there products. White families, said is a limit. The Negro tenant farmer, however, may be victimized as. much as the landlord wishes. He is unpaid, assaulted, treated like a dog, has his women raped, and if he protests he faces lynching or murder or the chaingang. Why shouldn’t he be preferred? LOOKING AHEAD AT TUSKEGEE Farm leaders gathered recently at Tuskegee to hear Secretary of Agriculture Wallace explain, the purposes of the federal soil conservation plan and Went away gratified at the contemplated program of the government as outlined by Mr. Wallace. Most significant phase Of the Secretary’s talk dealt with the Rust cotton picking machine which sooner or late'r^ will revolutionize the South. Mr. Wfilla’cV fs aWare that proper precautions must be taken to Circumvent the temporary ill effects of an economic upheaval when the machine comes into wide use. Neither the states of the cotton 1)411 nor society itself will fake an? aCtfott; what is dohe' will depend on' the government. The U. S. neddd- to Ihy definite plans now for a' readjustment to a mechanized South. . msl H> "T yeans she sowed wrong and oppression, only to reap the ripe, red harvest of insdrre'dtiti'n'and revolution. Truly, the law of physics that action ahd reaction ar4 equal is true also* in the moral world. Oppression, injustice and economis exploitation revenge tWmsdlves gradually hut severely, and the race guilty of them suffers mhte in the end, by degradation and loss of civilization, than the face that is the victim of tti'4m. Keep (be Negro down ahd yph dragYlie white man down also. Right is diademed with blessings mahy: Wrong is dowered With curses humerous. —The Rev. F. R. Kiflingsworth, Washington’. — The Washington Post. The famous wolf in sheep’s clothing was doubtless a male. No lady wolf would waer a garment that completely covered her face.