Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 September 1944 — Page 9

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KEEP ON

WITH

WAR BONDS

VOLUME XLVIII

SECOND SECTION Saturday, September 2,1944

NUMBER 39

Towards Freedom— Read Much, Listen Carefully, Think Clearly, Act Swiftly

WHITE EDITOR ATTACKS GARY'S RACE PRORLEM

PROGRAM FOR SOLUTION OF RAGE PROBLEM

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THE JOBS OF REPAIRING •ome of the most delicate mechanisms of modern warfare are handled by the men shown above and stationed at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. On the left is PVT. BURRELL DeHAVEN, JR., of Columbus, Ohio, is one of two Ne-

gro heavy anti-aircraft fire control instrument repairmen in America. The other man on this unique team is T/4 HARRY GEORGE of Chicago, pictured on the extreme right. In the center is T/SGT. RUSSELL H. FRENCH, Indianapolis, who is the section chief.

Praises Negro Units’ Expert Handling of Supplies in France

By LEWIS GANNETT (Editor’s note: The New York Herald Tribune has authorized reprint of the following story by one of their ace war correspondents). SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE — I Delayed »—if you go onto the ships in Cherbourg Harbor you look down into the cavernous holds of Lil>erty ehips and see the amazing miscellany of supplies that keeps an army going being unloaded by colored soldiers. You see colored soldiers rigging the crates onto the swarms of . . . •’ducks” that chug back and forth, end all colored soldiers driving those weird amphibious craft — boats with a spare tire on deck — out of the water, up a ramp and away. Colored soldiers man winches ns the ungainly L. S. T. maneouver their way up to the tracks across which cars are transferred directly to the French railway lines. And you see thousands of black faces behind the steering wheels of the endless convoys of trucks, tanks, trailers, gun carriages and weapons carriers which make the front line advances possible. The official figure is that i> percent of the American troops in France are colored. which is close to the propor tion of the civilian population st home, but In Normandy it looks like more — lot more. BARRAGE BALLOON HANDLERS. Negro units handle the silvery barrage balloons that protect the landing beacht's. and have been handling them since I) Ihiv They ••re ^fringing telephone wires thru cut liberated France. They drive the fire trucks armed with foiimarnothoring chemicals which are sometimes the only indication to a layman that a gasoline or ammunition dump is just a hedgerow. American Negroes are doing the double-quick job of building hast* hospitals behind the front. They mount anti-aircraft batteries. Their field artillery units are at the front end they guard German prisoners. One sometimes suspects that an officer with an anthropological sense of humor selpctnl the coalblack hoys who. with rifles on their •boulders, march as guards lK*sides the straggling lines of tired Henen volk prisoners that you see everywhere on the French roads. AfroAmerican soldiers also mount guard over the gangs of Germans who have volunteered — for extra pay —to do pick and shovel work about the base hospitals and to dear the rubble covered roads of St. Lo and other heavily bombarded towns. I have just spent three days on a tour of Inspection that covered some 500 miles in various sectors of France with Brigadier General Benjamin Davis, the only colored general in the American Army, and his aide. Major Homer B. Roberts, of Chicago. General DeivIf, Incidentally, is the father of Lieuten-

ant Colonal Benjamin (>. Davis jr., who graduated tenth in his class at West Point and is now in command of a tighter group of four opiadrons on the Italian front. General Davis entered the United -states Army in 181KJ and has been m it ever since. He has a long, -trong memory, and in virtually •very encampment he recognizs oficers — and occasionally non-coms with whom he has served in Chi•d and seventeen white motor traus.•an border or in one of several .ozeu American camps. GENERAL PROID OF TROOPS. Colonel Clarence W. Richmond, if Silver Springs. Md., who has unler his command ninety-five color'd and seventeu white motor transport companies, has skin of a diferent. color from General Davis’, 1 ml when he told a couple of hunIred of his colored G. I.’s ussem- ■ led to greet General Davis that le serf (si under the general’s comnand in the '.Hli Cavalry in the ■ hilippines Islands during the World war, you could see in the lien's faces how much good it did 1 hern to hear him say it. "I am proud of what you officers have told me about you”, the general said in his fatherly way. . . . Your record is good — good all around”. (That was one of several colored units which, contrary to some expectations, had not had single case of veneral disease since they landed in France. One (I'ictor said to me. ‘Tin only V. I). <ase we’ve laid in this camp was a German prisoner”.) And the general went on to suggest to some of the units, which included men cited for action under fire, that the very brilliance of their record made them marked men. that the people at home were watching them and that he exjKM-ted them to maintain 1 h«-ir record all tin* way to Ber1 lin.

*) iiis smiling lad is enjoying a nutrit>3U8 noontime meal as a result of a School Lunch Program sponsored by l»‘s local rommunily in cooperation with the VLar Food Administration. Ua-I year close to one million Negro children participated in the program snd at least as many are looking for* ward to it again this year.

GARY, Ind., Aug. 17.—Getting in step with the Greater America that regard such things as race hate and discrimination taboo, the directorate of the Gary Chamber of Commerce adopted a statement of principles advocating equal economic opportunity and cultural rewards for all races, and soliciting the cooperation of the citizenry toward a peaceful and intellectual solution of Gary's race problem, according to H. H. Kleinschmidt, president. Adopted by the directors as originally prepared by the Chamber’s racial committee, the history-making ll-poitrt declaration was the product of 18 months of careful study of the local race problem that grew more acute as the war progressed. The 15-man committee has six Negro members and is under the chairmanship of H. B. Snyder, white, editor of a Gary daily newspaper. whose interest in bettering the lot of the town’s colored citizens allegedly dates back more than 20 years, wheji he became a patron of Stewart Settlement House. Nominated by other leaders of their race. Negroes serving on the committee were: Herman Pearson, an employe of the 10-inch No. 1 merchant mill in Gary works long active in the United Steel Workers’ Union (CPO); Milo Murray and Benjamin Wilson, prominent attorneys; A. B. Whitlock, editorpublisher of The Gary American, and two clergymen—Rev. J. Claude Allen, pastor of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church, and Rev. Beniamin Neal, pastor of Trinity Methodist church. Text of the ethical code, believed to be the philosophical cornerstone upon which Gary shall build better race relations, included the following conclusions: "We believe that interracial problems are solvable hut that they will not solve themselves. “We believe the need is for a positive program arrived at in an atmosphere of understanding, cooperation, and mutual respect by men of good will. “We believe that there are no superior or inferior races but that all mankind is one. “We believe that the real differences which separate men are differences in culture, training, and opportunity. "We believe in equality of opportunity. equal economics, and cultural rewards for all races. “We deplore the presence of resentment and race prejudice In present-day society. “We believe that real freedom must be earned (and cannot be granted), but we hold that opportunity for all people to earn freedom is a definite obligation upon the majority group. “We believe that the Negro is entitled to every right, privilege, , aud opportunity that any other American citizen enjoys. “We recognize the reality of the presence of race prejudice and rejsentment in our society. We do not and will not condone it. We will do all in our power to remove it by education, persuasion, and

example.

“We are fundamentally opposed to the principle and practice of compulsory segregation in our ] American society, whether of races j or classes or creeds. However, we i regard it as both sensible and time- ■ ly to address ourselves now (o the j current problems of racial discrimI ination and neglect and to ways • in which we may co-operate in the advancement of programs aimed a* the sound improvement of race lelations within the democratic framework. “We are absolutely convinced that the future of all races lies in the realm of co-operation and that no race can benefit itself in the long run by violent or oppressive methods. Seeming gains, made by violence or suppression, are genuine losses for all concerned since they set back by years the progress of inter-racial co-operation.” Reviewing the unprecedented action of the Chamber of Commerce directorate, Kleinschmidt, the chamber president, emphasized the point that while adoption of the statement of principles was preceded by considerable debate, in the early stages of which some dissident voices were heard, the vote for adoption was unanimous. “It is impossible,” Kleinschmidt said, “to pay excessive tribute to the members of the racial commltj tee, white and black, who worked so diligently and so sincerely and expended incalculable time and effort in developing a direction to follow in the solution to this vital

question.

“Thanks to the earnest activi(Con, on Pag* 8, Sac. Section)

The Komi to Progress Whites Mast Abandon Their Supremacy Ideas Gary’s race problem is not so difficult or “old ways of thinking” and accept the inconcomplex that it defies solution. It can be solved if all its citizens, white and Negro, tackle the job with resolution

and goodwill.

But it will not be solved until the whites abandon their preconceived prejudices and trovertible findings of anthropological science, which hold that no race has any “corner” on human talent or capacity to absorb

culture.

These thoughts formed the essential framework of a talk before i tbe Rotary club here recently | improving their situation. I am eonby H. B. Snyder, chairman fHlent that they will not depart

of the Gary Chamber of Commerce’s racial committee, whose, ele vent-point state-

from this attitude.

"We can do a tremendous job with this thing for ourselves, our community and our country if we

ment of principles calling i have the will to do it. but we for an end to racial intoler- shan’t K e t anywhere until and un-

less we abandon our old ways of thinking and accept the verdict of science, which has branded as

shibboleth of

ante and all its concommitants in the Steel City recent-

ly won unanimous acceptance a myth the ohr by the C. of C.’s board of white superiority’.’

directors.

Reviews Activities

The Post-Tribune editor re- ! increasing tension between whites hearsed briefly the work of and Negroes, Snyder quoted from hia article written by an editorial his committee Mhich has de- wr!ter for the Philadelphia m- \ Oted more than a year &nd qulrer immediately in the wake of a half to an exhaustive studyl the race riots which put. the Quak-

In an attempt to show what can happen in a community whose leaders prefer to remin blind to

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of Gary’s race problem. In the course of this racital, in which he disclosed his group has interviewed approximately 75 representative Negroes in addition to many whites—“to learn their side of this important question”—he emphasized that the “majority of our Negro citizens are reasonable minded folk who aren’t expecting miracles hut are merely looking for that degree of equality and economic freedom which is their due under the constitution whose guarantees extend

er City into the headlines about

a month ago.

“On the basis that anything is possible,” the editorial said, “subversive elements and enemy agents might have had a hand in bring-

to offer except blindness and stub-

borness.

•‘And behind it. all there was, and still is, a public following— whether large or small God only knows—which egged the wildcat strike on, echoing its hatreds and

fostering its prejudices.

“Its basis was a spirit of ’to hell with the war; to hell with the country; to hell with you: to hell

U, S. TO DEPORT FARM WORKER

SOUTH BEND, [nd., Aug. 31 —

... . , Government officials have started r n ‘’ h r gZtl.. • ^ deportation proceeding against a

battles in the

world’s most terrible war for hu-

man freedom. . . . ’ Cites Scientific' Basis

“We can argue about the Negro problem until the war is won, or possibly lost to- all intents by the

mtgnt nave nan a hand in bring- selfishness and indifference of our- . . f r t t th - tr ine .bout the siv-dov snmmnsinn selves at home, and we can carry since coming to this country, wa:J! virtually pmalyzed ’—-'on the footless discussion of that driving on Lincoln way, according

Jamaican brought into this country as a farm laborer following his arrest for driving while under the influence of intoxicating li-

quor.

Llewellyn F. Millings, 26, employed on a farm near Niles, Mich.,

which virtually paralyzed local transportation, lost 5.000,000 man hours in vital war production, generated racial violence . . . and put a deep smudge on the good

name of the Cradle of Liberty. Hits Hatreds, Prejudices

“But the cold and hitter fact is

on the footless discussion

problem until it finally explodes to police, shortly after midnight in some devastating way. We canlt Sunday morning when he lost coeargue awav the eternal principles trol of his car at Sample street, of liberty.', of tolerance, of de- striking another car and knock-, cency which must provide the tng down a telephone pole, framework for real Americanism The case against Mullings in city unless we are to join the other [ court is expected to be dismissed berserk nations of history. to clear the way for the govern-

to us all.” itr.at no agents provocateur were , i ment action.

“ft is going to he pretty hard to needed from Berlin or Tokyo to ' "Now where does Philadelphia Thousands of Jamaicans were change peoples’ wav of thinking,” bring this malign thing about, go from here? It. will he where brought into this country by the Snyder admitted. “This was borne i Therein lay the crux of the prob-' all America goes — up. or dovvn. | federal government a year ago to home to me recently when some 1 lem faced by the editors and pub-. The street railway tieup in the supplement the shrunken agriculof our most intelligent white citi-j Ushers of Philadelphia's newspa-1 City of Brotherly love had no strict j ture labor supply. They were giv-

pers when this walkout began and i parallels in its details, not even in en a wage guarantee, adequate while it endured, and which must t the Detroit racial outbursts. In its j housing and free transportation,

still be faced and fought, not only

GREAT LAKES, III., Aug. 31.— LENA HORNE, exquisite star of stage and screen graciously autographs one of her pictures for a sailor. Miss Horne, currently appearing at the Club Chez Paree in Chicago, took time out to make two appearances at the U. S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, III., on August 14. Above, from left to right are: Earl L. LeMelle, AS of 10856 Union Hall street, Jamaica, N. Y.; Osceola W. Madden, S2c of 943 R street, N. W., Washington, D. C.; John W. Parker, AS oT 2111 W. Susquehanna avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., and James E. Holmes, Cic of 735 North 29th street, Philadelphia. —(Official U. S. Navy Photo for Continental Features.)

zens, in voicing to me their personal reaction to the proposals embodied in the ethical code adopted by the Chamber o-f Commerce directors. revealed a total disinclination to depart from their old ideas

in respect to racial relations. “No Overnight Solution”

“But no one, white or Negro, expects that Gary will be able to solve its race problems overnight, and our Negro citizens least of all expect any instantaneous reforms. They, like our committee, realize that it will take time to

final meaning, however, it spoke j They w.ll he returned home with i s a uL

in the city founded by William the same ugly thoughts and acted j the passing of the present emerPenn. but in every city, town and the same dangerous deeds that have gency at government expense. hamlet, in America. ‘ i appeared in more or less degree j

in many other parts of our coun-

Race Question Depends on

Equality, Wallace Says

' LOUISVILLE, Aug. 31. (ANP) — The race question in the South will be solved at about the same rate that Negroes are given equal educational, political, and economic opportunities, Vice-President Henry A. Wallace declared here Wednesday in one of the few press conferences he has granted on his current tour of the Deep tSouth.

“Only when these equalities have

been won can any change be expected in the racial problem,” he

“It is a problem made up of i disposed to cast many things: Of vicious, burning; ,ry - , * ,: ° rtls » ose “ ^ racial intolerance .a rife amonj' ■W O'Y®" 1 .<* f,5f"'

u £ ; adelphia might well keep in mind.. i “No problem arising in this inexplicable allair, is confined to : Philadelphia, the problems are na- ) tional, but what happened in the

“A spirit of liberalism is abroad in the South,” the Vice-President asserted. “I found it in Georgia where liberalism is growing. . . .

Negroes as among whites; of ter unreasoning human selfishness which made duty, patriotism and the dire needs of the hour vague, formless and of no avail. It involved a blind and stubborn ad-

work things out. If they can beiherence of 6,000 men and women made to feel that we of the white | to suddenly and mysteriously community are sincerely intent on emerging leaders who had nothing

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Quaker City insistently points the need for the press and public j throughout America to turn their minds and tneir good purpose to | the task of solving those problems [

in an American way.”

The editor supplemented his ref- ' erence to the findings of eminent : anthropologists in respect to tlm ; equal - talents and intellectual ca-

I -w~* ^ m uiieitr iiutfi ciiioiii is grown ,LOrp. Ferry (i. Strum I found it in Texas, too.” , “The South is very Important

to the case of liberalism throughout the nation,” he said. “If we are to have a great liberal party in this country the South must

participate in it.”

Transferred to Ky.

FORT WAYNE, Ind., Aug. 31. —Corporal Perry G. Strum, son of Mr. and Mrs. Perry G. Strum, 924 Eliza street, has been transferred from Camp Stewart, Ga., to Camp Breckenridge, Ky. He entered the service May 1, 1943. and received his basic training at Camp Stewart and ASTP at Camp Davis. N.C„ and A. & T. college, Greensboro, N. C. He was graduated from

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parity of the Negro by pointing ^‘^dial High school in 1942, and

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“WE WORK TOGETHER,” *ay these two CIO members, Workers at the General Electric plant at Philadelphia. They are Mrs. Catherine Pengler and Mrs. Ida Perdue, and they want people to know that unity keynotes relations between white and Negro workers in Philadelphia war plants. Ida Perdue calls the recent Philadelphia transit dispute “an attempt to discredit the Roosevelt administration and the CIO, and to create disunity on the home front.” ——

out that intelligence tests records of the first World War prove the Negro’s native ability is not less than that of the whites. Pleads for Real Americanism In the same connection, he quoted the eminent Swedish sociologist. Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, who said, in reporting on an intensive study of the American Negro made under the aegis of the Carnegie founda-

tion;

“Behind all outward dissimilarities. behind their contradictory valuations, rationalizations, vested interests, group allegiance and animosities. behind fears and defense construction, behind the role they play in life and the mask th,*y wear, people are all much alike on the fundamental level. And they are all good people. They want to be rational and just. They all plead to their conscience that they meant well even when things went wrong.” The editor commented, at one point in his talk, that since taking over leadership of the racial committee, seme of his friends had started calling him an “idealist.” “But to try to improve the situation of the American Negro according to the American creed, which recognizes the ‘equality of all men,’ regardless of race, isn’t idealism,” he said. “It’s just common sense.” Snyder was, presented by Rofarian H. H. kleinschmidt. who as as president of the Chamber of Commerce is an ex-officio member of the C. of C. racial group.

attended Kentucky State college, Frankfort. Ky., until his induction.

LEGION, WOMEN MEET ANDERSON. Ind., Aug. 31. — William Hall Post, No. 282, of the American Legion and the Women’s Auxiliary held a joint meeting at the community ceater last Sunday, with veterans of both world wars as guests, H. Beckham, V. Cook, and C. J. Jones were the committee in charge.

TERRE HAUTE CHURCH ENTERS NEWLY ERECTED HOME SUNDAY

TERRE HAUTE. Ind., Aug. 31. —A beautiful new building will take its place Sunday among the religious institutions of this city dedicated to the service of humanity. Planned. financed and erected within the record time of three years, it will stand as a living monument to the loyal congregation it will house, the resourceful pastor and the spirit of sacrifice and devotion that has brought it. into being. Formerly known as the Friendship Baptist church, the new institution will be dedicated and henceforth known as the St. John Baptist church. Appropriate ceremonies will mark the laying of the cornerstone, Sunday, September 3, 1:30 to 5:30 p. m„ with the Dorn’s and Prince Hall Free and Accepted Masons officiating. A colorful musical program will be presented by the church choir and other musical organizations. Supporting the entire venture from its inception three years ago is the forceful personality of the pastor, the Rev. William McClure. Answering the call of the. congregation to accept leadership, the

Rev. Mr. McClure found the group vithout a place in which to worship, but with a willingness to ccept his guidance. During the first year, two lots were purchased, ?ven though no regular place of vorship was secured until the second year of Rev. McClure’s pastorate. Throughout this trying period construction of the church building was pushed with commendable resolution. Today, upon its completion, it stands as one of the most attractive and impressive structures in the city. Its exterior of concrete blocks, while, the interior has been given the skillful treatment necessary to create the proper religious atmosphere. All departments of the church have been reorganized for the most effective effort, and the entire congregation is reflecting the new spirit of loyalty, devotion and service to God and all mankind. .The pasfor and officials, in the name of the church, has extended a cordial and sincere invitation to the public to share their merited happiness on the occasion of the cornerstone laying, Sunday.