The Houston Informer and the Texas Freeman (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 44, Ed. 1 Saturday, March 26, 1932 Page: 2 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Houston Informer and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rice University Woodson Research Center.
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EDITORIALS
THE HOUSTON INFORMER
AMD
THE TEXAS FREEMAN
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOB ALL THE PEOPLE
OPINIONS
THE HOUSTON INFORMER
AND
THE TEXAS FREEMAN
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR ALL THE PEOPLE
Published every Saturday by the Webster Publishing Company,
409-411 Smith Street, Houston, Texas
Entered as second-class matter May 28, 1919, at the post-office at Houston,
Texas, under the Act of Congress, March 8, 1879.
G. H. WEBSTER ......................
CARTER W. WESLEY .............
8. B. WILLIAMS .........................
J. ALSTON ATKINS
C. N. LOVE
MISS EULALIA A. EDWARDS
J. M. BURR .........................
GILBERT T. STOCKS
J. M. NABRIT, Jr.
..........President-Treasurer
......................Vice President
......................Vice President
.............................. Editor
Contributing Editor
....................Society Editor
..........Advertising Director
...........Circulation Manager
.................General Counsel
SUBSCRIPTION RATES (Cash in Advance):
One Year, $2.00; 0 months, $1.50; 6 months, $1.25; single copy, 5e
(No paper mailed for less than 6 months)
Office, 8 a. m. to 6 p. m.
......Telephone PRESTON 7916
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
W. B. Ziff Co., Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Rochester, Kansas
City and Lagos, Gold Coast, Africa_________
IMPORTANT
All matter intended for insertion in any current issue of The Houston
Informer must reach our office by Wednesday noon of the week publication
of same is desired.
Make all checks, drafts, money orders, etc., payable to and address all
communications to the Webster Publishing Co., 409-411 Smith Street,
Houston, Texas.
Always demand a receipt when paying your subscription to The Houston
Informer, and pay no subscription to unauthorized representatives. All duly-
appointed agents of The Informer will have receipt books. Protect your
own interests, as well as ours, by insisting upon a receipt and keeping same
when obtained.
THE PRAIRIE VIEW CONFERENCE
There is nothing so helpful as understanding. As long as people
do not know and do not understand one another, just so long will ■
it be difficult for them to get along in a spirit of good will and
mutual helpfulness. In matters interracial this is just as true as
in matters intraracial.
Until Principal W. R. Banks arranged two years ago for the
first conference on Negro education in Texas, there was little un-
derstanding of the real problems which faced Negro schools and
Negro principals and teachers in this state. This lack of knowl-
edge and understanding was true to some extent of Negroes, but
to a greater extent of white people. As a result of that first
conference some white people who were in authority over Negro
schools as superintendents, etc., learned some things that they
did not know before, and promised to go back home and do more
for those Negro schools.
At the second conference held last year both the Negroes and
whites who attended were freer and more interested in the prob-
lems of Negro education. The third conference was held last
Friday, and the progress that was clearly evident makes The In-
former and Freeman venture the suggestion that this annual con-
ference on Negro education in Texas, which is held at Prairie
View, is the most significant and hopeful thing that is happening
each year in this great Lone Star State.
We are at the dawn of a new day when white people and Ne-
groes who are connected in one way or another with Negro edu-
POLITICS
(A Capital News Service Feature)
By CAPITAN
THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPEN
INTELLIGENCE AND INTEGRITY MAKE MEN
AND RACES GREAT
HOUSTON, TEXAS, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1932
THE SCHOOL TRUSTEES
This is no time to swap horses in the middle of the stream.
If a man was crossing a rough and dangerous stream, and was
riding a horse that had carried him safely to the middle of the
water, he would hardly change for another horse whose char-
acteristics he did not know, and whose stamina and loyalty had
yet to be tried in order to find him out.
The coming election of the school trustees may be likened to
this example. The Informer and Freeman knows, of course, that
there are still inequalities in the public schools of Houston be-
tween white and black which some day it expects to see corrected.
It also knows, however, that Negro schools in Houston have far-
ed better at the hands of the present school board than at the
hands of any other school board in the history of those schools.
Indeed, as Negro schools go in the South, the Negro schools of
...Houston stand in the very front rank. When compared with Ne-
gro schools in other cities of the South, with one or two excep-
tions, Houston is really in a class by itself. And this has been
made possible by the efforts of the present members of the school
board.
The thousands of Negro voters in the Houston Independent
School District ought to have wisdom and vision enough to use
their votes to continue in office the people who, often at the risk
of criticism to themselves, have had the courage and enough of
the spirit of fair play to all of the children in the district to bring
the Negro schools of Houston out of chaos and degradation to
the point of efficiency which they have now attained.
The present school board members have demonstrated that
they are willing to do more for Negro schools than had ever been
done before. They have been weighed in the balance and found
to be the friends of the Negro schools. This* true and tried
friendship should not be exchanged for a school board whose poli-
cies are not known and which may or may not believe in justice
for all of the school children in the district, without regard to
race and color.
The Informer and Freeman therefore urges the thousands of
Negro voters in the Houston Independent School District to go to
the polls on April 2, and strive to continue the progress which
the Houston Negro schools have made during the past five or six
• years, by voting to keep on the board of education the following:
DR. RAY K. DAILY, MRS. B. F. COOP, AND W. B. BATES.
Let the Negro voters be wise enough not to try to swap horses
in the middle of the stream. If we change now the Negro schools
might get drowned.
THE UNANSWERED QUESTION
The prohibitionists came to town last week and showed their
insincerity and fanaticism. With a loud voice and with many
words they shouted that failure to enforce the 18th amendment
would undermine and destroy our government. Of course, they
said more, but this is the gist of it. Then a simple question was
asked by a reporter for the Houston Press: “What about the 14th
and 15th amendments? For sixty years they have been violat-
ed by denying to Negroes the right to vote and by denying them
their other constitutional guaranties, and the foundations to our
government have not been destroyed.”
But the prohibitionists declined to answer the question. In-
stead they talked volubly about the dangers of lack of enthusiasm
for the noble experiment. And, in the opinion of The Informer
and Freeman, the refusal of America to answer this question
forms the basis for most lawlessness and disrespect for orderly
proceses in this country. Indeed, the questioner, in the opinion
of this newspaper, is far from correct when he suggests that the
utter disregard of this nation for the 14th and 15th amendments,
as they relate to Negroes, has had no effect upon the foundations
of the government.
If Negroes could be lynched and nothing be done about it, the
lawless soon came to think that they could lynch white people
with the same impunity. If justice could be induced to declare one
judgment for black and another for white, it was an easy step
to declare one for rich white and another for poor white. If
legislators could persuade themselves that it was fair to spend
most of the tax money for educational and other benefits for
the white community and practically none for the Negro commun-
ity, the lobbyists could with good grace urge special favors to
the few among the members of that white community.
So it goes through all of our national life. The sins committed
against the Negro tenth of the population come back to haunt the
nation. It will only be when the unanswered question is faced
with courage and justice and answered with fairness that the
foundations of this government will again find their pristine
strength. When that time arrives the 14th and 15th amend-
ments, which guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
will be vigorously enforced; while the 18th amendment, which has
had the effect of taking away life, liberty and the pursuit of hap-
piness, will be repealed.
POLITICAL BANDITTRY
In several Southern states, not-
ably Mississippi, South Carolina and
Georgia, contesting factions of the
Republican party are fighting for the
right to send delegations to the Re-
publican National Convention. Nor-
mally such contests should excite no
national interest. But there is an ele-
ment involved in them that makes
their outcome a matter of nation! im-
portance. That element is the color
question.
The similar situation existing in
Mississippi and South Carolina is
typical to a greater or less degree of
the remainder of the Southern States.
In these two states, legally authorized
representatives of the party, in each
instance the Republican national com-
mitteeman and the national commit-
teewoman, have in the normal way is-
sued calls for state conventions to se-
left delegates to the National Con-
vention. These representatives acted
in response to an authorization from
cation in Texas can come together at a Negro college and, more ... .... .. ... ............... .....
openly and frankly and sincerely each year, discuss and study the Republican" National Committee,
and try to plan for improvement upon and the ultimate solution Acting in accordance with state and
of the complex and difficult problems which face our Negro federal laws, they have made provi-
- - sions whereby every loyal Republican
in their respective states may meet
and express his wishes on matters
affecting the party locally and nation-
ally.
schools.
THE VEILED THREAT
What is America coming to when a great, daily newspaper like
the Houston Post is willing to suggest that a decision of the Su- _ _ ____________
preme Court of the United States “might mean trouble in some exists in both of these states a group
of the centers of population.” This is what the Post predicted of hily-whites, who will, have nothing
might be the result if the highest tribunal in the nation, in carry-tion in" which Negro voters partici. .
ing out its duty to expound the supreme law of the land, should pate. Practicing a vicious type of -
decide that Negroes have a legal right to vote in the Texas statu- political bandittry, these lily-white —
tory primaries, and that the constitution of the United States and factions (the Rowlands group in Mis-
1 1 . • A sissippi and the Hambright group in
the federal courts give protection to that right. South Carolina) have begun to stir up
Even though they might not agree with the Supreme Court, it trouble by calling rump conventions,
certainly ought to be expected that all law abiding citizens, and without any legal authority, in which
above all those who control the press and thorough it public opin-
Yet with every opportunity offered
to participate in a fair election, there
a contesting delegation of lily-whites
is to be chosen. Interested only in
excluding Negroes from the Republi-
can party in the South, the activity
of these groups of lily-whites clouds
the national horizon of the Negro
voter in every section of the country.
, For if the Republican National Con-
That is what the State of Texas ought to do, if it does not want vention should countenance their ac-
Negroes to vote in its statutory primaries.
But, as long as the State of Texas provides for a compulsory, ... .... ....... ,u.u.ea .. .ue pal.y
statutory primary election in which it guarantees to its white may well be expected to result on the
citizens by writ of mandamus, as it did to Senator Love in the complete exclusion of the Negro vot-
case of Love against Wilcox, the right to participate, there ought er from a voice in party councils. For
not to be any veiled threats of trouble if the Supreme Court of lily-white-“black and tan” fights in
the United States holds that the same guarantee must be given the South is more than just a ques-
by the State of Texas to all of its citizens, without regard to tion of the relative merits of Perry
{Howard as oposed Lamont Rowland,
or “Tieless” Joe Tolbert as opposed
to lily-white J. C. Hambright. The
issue is whether the Negro voter,
like the American Indian, is to be
shoved across the political continent
ion, would have more regard for a decision of so great and honor-
able a court as the Supreme Court of the United States. It would
seem that the Post would have been willing to stop with its sug-
gestion that “a considerable revision of the election laws” of Tex-
as be made in case the Nixon decision goes in favor of Negroes.
race or color.
THE CHANGING TIMES
Two years ago at the first conference on Negro education at
Prairie View a Negro high school principal was called upon to
tion by seating lily-white delegations,
the influence such groups would have
on the major policies of the party
this reason the issue at stake in the
t and tan” fights in
so far until there is nothing left but
the broad expanse of a sea of politi-
cal obscurity.
state some of the problems which he and his fellows in charge of
Negro high schools of the state faced. He hesitated, talked of
other things passed out . few compliments and Be it said tO the credit of the Re-
other things, passed out a lew compliments and sat down Ler-publican quadrennial conventions up
haps, he may have felt that, because of the newness of the con-to this time, that they have seldom if
ference and the fact that it had not yet been discovered how much ever failed to recognize the delega-
tolerance was present, he had better go slowly. At any rate, tions sent to the National Convention
whatever the cause, he left the real problems of the Negro high
school principal unsaid.
Last week, at the third conference, L. Virgil Williams, youthful
principal of the Dallas Negro high school, without any attempt
to offend or to wave the red flag, yet with courageous firmness,
began to tell the truth about problems of the Negro high school
principal. He described the causes of lack of initiative and point-
ed out that in the very nature of things the white superintendent
could not know intimately the problems of the Negro school and
the Negro child. And he was heard with courtesy and respect.
These are changing times, and young high school principals like
Principal Williams, and other Negro high school principals, too,
have an opportunity to help to facilitate the change by telling the
simple, naked truth about the Negro high schools of the state,
in such gatherings as the Prairie View conference.
THE WAY TO STOP IT .
The only reason why police officers beat up Negroes whenever
they feel like it is that they believe that nothing will be done
about it and that they will get away with it. The way to stop
such beatings and intimidations as are constantly forced upon
the members of the Negro community is to let these police offi-
cers know that something will be done about it and that they
won’t get away with it.
The Informer and Freeman is glad to take note of the fact that
the present grand jury has taken the first step in this direction.
Last week an indictment was returned against a Houston police
officer for beating up a Negro while the Negro was under arrest.
The officer is charged with assault and battery. Just as this
grand jury has returned this indictment, so will some petit jury
as time goes on return a verdict of guilty upon the trial of such
cases, and proper punishment will be meted out.
That is the only process by which a stop can be put to this in-
human practice.
STANDING BY HOWARD
The Informer and Freeman is glad that the Senate of the Unit-
ed States decided to stand by Howard University. The cuts in
the budget of this great Negro institution which had been made
EDDSE MASON Nouge
A VERY STUPID Box. 1
SAW YOU STUDYING (
YOUR GEOGRAPHY FOR '
THE LAST Two HOURS
AND NO YOU CANT
NAME THE CAPITAL
OF GERMANY
) TEACHER * WUTNL,
(ST ODN MY GEOGRAPHY
4) * woZ , READIN ,
A DIAMION’ DICK AN
1 ONLNHAD THE
J) GEOGRAPHY ON I
MY DESK FOR J
C A BLUFF,__
Zens Dyes
SHOPPING ADVICE DURING 1932
By THE EDITORIAL STAFF
During the year 1931 The Informer discussed the general principles which
it felt should govern the 70,000 Negroes of Houston in spending the millions
of dollars which they spend each year? A quotation or two will call to mind
just what position The Informer took on this all important question:
“One thought that we should have in mind throughout this year, A. D.
1931, is that the merchants and other business houses which invite our trade
and appreciate our patronage should be given preference when we have
money to spend. We should not offend people who do not want our business
by spending money with them.”
“The Houston Informer stands squarely for the principle that the 70,000
Negroes who comprise the Houston Negro Community should cooperate with
those merchants and business houses which believe in Negro progress and
which invite and appreciate the patronage of this great Negro market.”
During 1932 The Informer will call attention from week to week to mer-
chants, manufacturers, 'and other businesses which are interested in promot-
ing the progress of Negroes, and which do invite and appreciate the patron-
age of the 70,000 Negroes in Houston and the 1,000,000 Negroes in Texas.
by the regular Republican organiza-
tions. And certainly there is no
brand of political opportunism which
would justify a change of this policy.
The recognition of lily-white delega-
tions, will make the already doubtful
allegiance of the Negro voter in
pivotal states still more questionable.
For the Negro voter has long since
realized that the one type of person
more vicious and more dangerous
than a Southern white Democrat, is
a lily-white Republican. Republican
leaders throughout the country need
now to be advised that any attempt
to gain the small electoral vote of
South Carolina and Mississippi by
this type of political bandittry is apt
to result in the loss of the much more
important electoral vote of such
states as Ohio and Illinois.
HOUSTON ELECTRIC COMPANY
A larger percentage of the 70,000
Negroes of Houston ride the street
cars than not. To the service of the
street cars has now been added the
service of the buses. There is noth-
ing more important to the population
of any city than its transportation fa-
cilities. By the same token there is
nothing more important to the 70,000
Negro members of the population of
Houston than the facilities which they
have for transporting themselves
from place to place about the city—
to their work, to do their shopping, to
their churches, and elsewhere. The
70,000 Negroes of Houston should
therefore interest themselves in the
kind of transportation facilities that
are offered here, and do the things
that will improve those falicities.
The transportation facilities of
Houston are provided by the Houston
Electric Company. The street car
and the bus stay on the job all of the
time, and are always ready to serve.
It makes no difference where you
want to go or how long you expect to
stay, this transportation service is at
your command,
In order to find out about this serv-
ice it should be used. When the serv-
ice is not just what it ought to be in
your opinion, report the facts to the
Houson Electric Company, which is
always anxious to improve its service
and to see to it that its service is
prompt and efficient. -----*
Another fact to be kept in mind is
that the more fares Houston Elec-
tric Company collects on its street
cars and buses, the more money it
will have with which to improve its
service, . and to make that service
more prompt and efficient.
The Houston Electric Company in-
vites the 70,000 Negroes of Houston
to use its transportation facilities. It
gives that invitation through the Ne-
gro press. It does this, perhaps, to a
greater extent than the other public
utilities in Houston—certainly to a
greater extent than most of the oth-
er Houston public utilities.
The Houston Electric Company al-
so shows its appreciation for the large
amount of patronage which it receives
from the 70,000 Negroes of Houston
by supporting Negro enterprises that
are worthy and which ask their sup-
port from time to time, by advertis-
ing in Negro newspapers, and by giv-
ing employment to members of the
Negro community.
The 70,000 Negroes of Houston
should help to make possible a big-
ger invitation and appreciation by
riding the street cars and buses, and
The Houston Informer urges this
kind of cooperation with the Houston
Electric Company.
SHORT SERMON
By DR. A. G. BEARER
(The Literary Service Bureau)
THE STONE ROLLED AWAY
And they said among themselves,
Who shall roll us away the stone from
the door of the sepulchre.—Mark
16:3.
And when they looked they saw
that the stone was rolled away; for
it was very great.—Mark 16:4.
It was Easter morning, and Mary
Magdalene, Mary, the mother of
James, and Salome, their faithful
comrade, the loving friends of Jesus
were on their way to His sepulchre to
complete the work of anointing His
body, when suddenly they remember-
ed that a great stone had been rolled
against the door. Being women, they
began to wonder and to say, “Who
shall roll us away the stone from the
door of the sepulchre?” Undismay-
ed, they went on and, arriving there,
by the house of representatives and the senate committee would _
have reduced its efficiency terribly, and would have resulted in “And when they looked they saw that
crippling the only school which even approaches a university for “--*----------”
Negroes, in a manner which would have been a serious blow to
Negro education.
the stone was rolled away.”
So, in the line of human endeavor,
in every effort toward human better-
DENTAL TALKS
By DR. WALDO J. HOWARD
Houston Dentist
WEEKLY RHYMES
By J. WALTER FRIDIA, M. D.
That the Senate would not be brow beaten by such reaction-
aries as Senators Long of Louisiana, and Trammell of Florida, is
gratifying to The Informer and Freeman and should be a matter
of encouragement to all Negroes in the nation.
FRATERNAL COOPERATION
In the news last week three of the Negro fraternal orders in
Texas were present, as they pushed their respective programs.
Which very naturally raises this question: Since the Pythians
and Calantheans, the U. B. F. and S. M. T., the Odd Fellows and
Ruthites, the Masons and the rest, have but one primary purpose,
namely to promote the welfare of the Negro masses in Texas,
why is it that they can not get together in a program of coopera-
tion to achieve this common end?
It would be a fine thing if the old fraternal congress of Texas
could be revived and made to function for the best interests of
all of the fraternals among Negroes in Texas.
ment, there will be found great ob-
stacles, and there will come the dis-
couraging thought, “Who shall roll
away the stone?” In the perfection
of our natures, there is the stone of
vicious heredity; in the line of service
to others, will be found the stones
of ignorance, ingratitude and of piti-
able skepticism; but none of these
should be allowed to frighten and hin-
der.
The gospel record informs that an
angel came from heaven and rolled
away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre; so from heaven will come
help to move every obstacle that
would hinder in conscientious endeav-
or to serve mankind. Then let us pro-
ceed to the sepulchre where lie buried
the hope, the faith, and the love of
men, and know that arriving, we shall
find the stones all rolled away.
DON’TS IN DENTISTRY
DON’T—
Expect man to do what nature has
not done (make your teeth last
always).
Expect your natural teeth to serve
you long without care and atten-
tion.
Expect your dentist to do supernat-
ural things.
Use any kind of toothbrush to
brush your teeth.
Forget to brush your teeth and
clean them according to your
dentist’s instructions.
Use wooden tooth picks to remove
food particles from between your
teeth.
Use some of everything for your
teeth and gums that you see ad-
vertised without consulting your
dentist
Forget that the harm food particles
do lives after them.
Forget that in dentistry like in ev-
erything else, the cheapest work
is not the cheapest quality in ma-
terial.
Forget that you are due to have 32
permanent teeth.
.Forget that every tooth is put in
the mouth for a specific purpose.
(To Be Continued)
“MUTE” TALKS; GETS 6 MONTHS
Alexandria, Va.—( CNS )—John
Watson was arrested last week for
begging. He said nothing but ex-
hibited a card stating that he could
neither hear nor talk. When asked
how long he had been that way, he
answered the question quite loudly.
He got a six months suspended sent-
ence for forgetting himself.
JUST WISHING
Sometimes I wish, and so I do,
That you were me and I were you.
But when some blessing come my
way,
I wish I were myself to stay.
But when the blessings come too few; 4
Then if you’d be me, I’d be you; *
And true when sorrow comes along,
Please mix it with a bit of song.
Or if that sorrow be too true;
Then please be me while I be you.
I never could a burden stand;
Perhaps I’m not a full fledged man;
When all is well I’m satisfied
To be myself and just abide;
’Til some burden afar I see;
Wish I were you, wish you were me.
1 wish myself the best on earth,
And always did soon after birth;
But since this wishing will not blend,
I wish this wishing wish to end.
HOLD MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR
COLONEL YOUNG IN NEW YORK
New York City.—(CNS)—Impres-
sive memorial services for Colonel
Charles Young, at the time of his
death the highest ranking Negro of-
ficer in the United States Army, were
held at the Salem M. E. Church here
last Sunday. Speakers at these serv-
ices included Colonel George Chase
Lewis, professor of military science
at the College of the City of New
York; Colonel William A. Taylor of
the 369th Infantry; Arthur Schom-
burg, curator of the Negro collection
of books at Fisk University; the Rev.
Edwin A. Clark, pastor of Bethel M.
E. Church; and Dr. Robert Grimshaw
of the New York Commission on the
George Washington Bicentennial. A
letter from Lieutenant Governor Her-
bert H. Lehman was read.
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Atkins, J. Alston. The Houston Informer and the Texas Freeman (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 44, Ed. 1 Saturday, March 26, 1932, newspaper, March 26, 1932; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1637797/m1/2/?q=a+message+about+food+from+the+president: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.