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NEW NEGRO OPINION NEW NEGRO OPINION WASHINGTON'S PROGRESSIVE WEEKLY OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE NEW NEGRO ALLIANCE Published Weekly by THE NEW NEGRO ALLIANCE, Inc. 1333 R STREET, N. W. PHONE NORTH 1258 EUGENE DAVIDSON Editor 2 Pennies Per Copy; 100 Pennies Per Year; 150 Pennies Per Year Outside of the United States Saturday, September 22, 1934 LOTTERIES FOR RELIEF In Washington and in New York the suggestion that the city conduct a lottery to raise funds for relief and other public purposes has been denounced by many of the "better people." The argument is that the morals of the community will be corrupted if the city sells for, let us say $1, a chance to win several thousand dollars. Undoubtedly the thing proposed is gambling, but as was once said of the more serious crime of treason, why not "make the most of it." In an ever increase number of states betting on horse racing is being legalized, and the race tracks make the profit. Stocks are still bought and sold on margin; speculation in real estate are still lawful; poker, bridge and even marbles are still played "for keeps". There must be some reason for the growth of the "number racket". So long as a large part of the population will insist on risking its pennies and dollars on the long chance of huge return, there is no good reason why the profits of their folly should not be used for the welfare of the community. It will hardly be argued that the British have lower moral standards than the citizens of this country, yet lotteries for public benefit have been familiar in the British Empire for many years. Apart from any moral issue it is probable that our present laws forbid the suggested lotteries, even though they are disguised as something else. The law should be respected, but righteous indignation at the proposal seems uncalled for. H. PROGRAM OF THE NEW NEGRO ALLIANCE To improve the economic and civic status of the Negro through: 1. The securing of positions which will increase the earning capacity of our group. 2. The securing of opportunities for advancement and promotion in positions secured. 3. The uniting of the purchasing power of the Colored people to be used as a lever in security economic advantages. 4. The creating of bigger and better Negro business through increased earning power of Negroes, through a better business outlook resulting from contact and experience with successful businesses of the other group, and through the stimulation of businesses now run by Negroes to higher levels of efficiency and service. 5. The concentrated support of all businesses which employ Negroes or in which Negro capital is invested. 6. Research and investigation which will discover and thoroughly anlyze the possibilities for Negro Business and Negro labor in new fields. Persons and Affairs... By William H. Hastie "One of the few things a poor man can have just as good as the rich man's is his word." A few days ago I heard a story with a moral. It seems that a priest in a rural parish approached a poor farmer for some contribution to the work of the church. The farmer pleaded his poverty but assured the priest that if he had fifty cows like one of his prosperous neighbors, he would give 25 cows to the church. Further questioning revealed that the farmer would give 15 cows to the church, if he owned 30, and 10 out of 20, if he only had that many. Finally the priest asked him whether he would give one cow if he owned two. "Hold on, Father," the farmer interrupted, "You know full well I have 2 cows." A second thing I heard the same day was that of some $6000 pledged to the Community Chest last year through the Negro unit of the Chest only about $1500 has been paid. That happens to be a pretty shocking record. I suspect that most of us use the excuse of the poor farmer that we would do something really handsome if we had more to do it with. However, that still does not excuse the unpaid pledges. Irresponsibility may be a heritage of slavery, but it is a heritage that can and should be outgrown. It may be that a strong argument may be made that the world in general and this country particularly owes the Negro a living since he is responsible neither for being here nor for the poverty which lack of economic opportunity forces upon him. On the other hand there are very to the Community Chest who cannot pay that sum. And every person who has made such a pledge owes it to his own self respect to pay up as promised. It is certainly much to the preferred that any person refuse outright to contribute to any cause than to make a pledge which he will not pay. One of the few things a poor man can have just as good as the rich man's is his word. I have been asked why the doctor should have been singled out for criticism in this column last week. The person asking the question suggested that as a group, at least in Washington, school teachers are worse offenders than doctors. The only answer which occurs to me is noblesse oblige. Because Negro society has elevated the doctor to a position of particular prominence, his obligation to society is especially apparent. The New Deal AND THE Rural Negro By VICTOR H. DANIEL At the time of emancipation only about ten per cent of the group could be classed as literate. Today it is estimated that about seventy-seven percent of the race can read and write enough to be classed as literate. In other words the group has advanced along the literary scale from ninety per cent illiterate in 1865 to twenty-three per cent in 1932. When we consider the handicaps that the group had to overcome to reduce its high per cent of illiteracy we might be forgiven if we seem to be a bit proud of our progress along educational lines. But on the other hand when we sto to consider that in spite of this remarkable achievement of the group that, today, in the fourteen Southern States about thirty-two per cent of the children of the group who are of school age have not even been enrolled in any school whatever, we can see that there is hardly any occasion for laudation from a racial point of view, and certainly neither the Southern States nor the Federal Government can be proud over this condition. When we stop to reflect that it was mainly through the efforts of Negro political leaders that public education became really democratic, we grow confused over the present amamolous situation which confront us in the South today. Upwards of thirty-two per cent of the Negro children of school age are denied the education system that their forebearers made possible. We think that we are stating mildly when we say that it is an evidence of very poor statesmanship for the South to continue to provide schools for one portion of its children and then only give the meagerest consideration to the educational facilities of another portion of its potential citizenry. As the nation attempts to stage a comeback from the chaotic condition induced so largely through the rugged individualism of former years it ought to consider very seriously the potential economic power of the rural Negro in the fourteen Southern States. To deprive thirty-two per cent of the Negro children of school age of the chance to get an education is not any part of the ideology of the New Deal. DR. DuBOIS' NEW BOOK WILL BE RELEASED FROM PRESS THIS FALL By Capital News Service NEW YORK CITY.—"Black Reconstruction", the latest book of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, will be released from the press this Fall, according to information received from the publishers, Harcourt, Brace and Company. Dr. DuBois has been working on this book for the past four years, and spent the Summer here putting the finishing touches on it. It will be his first book since "Dark Princess" was published in 1928. He plans to complete at an early date his work on the Negro in the World War. "Black Reconstruction," is a heavy documented work, which presents a new point of view with a labor interpretation. Dr. DuBois states that he believes that this new publication will provoke caustic criticism, but holds that his sources fully substantiate his thesis. Dr. DuBois having retired from the strenuous tasks of active race leadership will devote his time and energy to teaching and historical research at the Atlanta University, in which fields he established his reputation as the race's foremost scholar. DRS. KING AND FRANCIS ADDRESS FORUM The Civic National Forum holds its first public meeting of the autumn series at Florida Avenue Baptist Church, Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The principal addresses were made by Dr. Kathleen Jones King and Dr. John R. Francis. Mrs. Naomi Williams, mezzo soprano, sang: "The Lord Is My Light" and "In the Garden of My Heart." The Boys' Sunshine Glee Club, of Northeast Washington, also appeared on the program. The next public meeting of the forum will be held at the Berean Baptist Church, corner 11th and V Street, northwest, Sunday, at 3:30 p. m. Dr. Mary S. Daugherty, author and poetess, will be the guest speaker. The Rev. D. F. Rivers is pastor of the church. HEALTH EXPERT NAMED TO HEAD DEPARTMENT ON NEGRO HEALTH CHICAGO.—Mrs. Florence C. Williams, recently a member of the White House Conference Commission under President Hoover on the Negro child, and more recently supervisor of Negro work for the Arkansas Tuberculosis Association, has been appointed to head the new department, "Negro Health Work," recently developed by the Chicago Tuberculosis Institute. Mrs. Williams has served as director of health education for Negroes on the North Carolina State Board of Health and with the Y.M.C.A. under the A.E.F. in Europe during the World War. She was sent to Belgium in 1926 by the Phelps-Stokes Fund, as a consultant delegate in health education for a conference on Christian education for Africa, called by the International Board of Missions of the M.E. Church. SHRINERS TO MEET IN WASHINGTON The St. John Grand Lodge of Masons of the District of Columbia, under Edward Love, grand master, will be host to the Supreme Council of the Mystic Shrine September 16-21. Other bodies included in the session will be the Daughters Sphinx, the General Grand Masonic Congress, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Heroines of Jericho and all allied bodies. The opening sermon will be preached at Florida Avenue Baptist Church on September 16, at 3 p.m. N. Y. MINISTER IS HELD FOR HOLDING SLIPS NEW YORK.—The Rev. Raymond C. Cone, pastor of St. Paul A.M.E. Church, the Bronx, was held for Special Sessions on a charge of possessing slips, by Magistrate Katz, last week. Detective Anthony Barro testified that he went to a store and saw the Rev. Mr. Cone there. Barro declared that the minister had a slip of paper which he let flutter to the floor when he saw the detective. The slip was exhibited in court and Magistrate Katz asked the pastor to copy numbers therefrom so that the magistrate might compare the handwriting. The Rev. Cone complied and on the strength of this evidence, he was held for Special Sessions, but later released in his own recognizance. Mr. Cone is a graduate of Wilberforce University.
