New Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 10

i 'I 1 I 't All inquiries and all communication pertaining: to national adver VMlng, rate, data and general national advertising information, enonia ba addrts ad ta j. H. B. CROHN COMPANY National Advertising Representative 645 Fifth Avenue. New York City I Vandcrbllt 3 1589 trOTlCW TO ALL.

SUBSCRIBERS: Datt of mfiraHon of your ubcripton is stamps on your address wrapper each week. TX( is for the purpoto of giving you constant notice the date yosr smoscrtption expires. Postal Refutations Reauiro Payment in AtfvanM sf ATI Suhaertions, Tho Pltteburgh Courier does not guarantee either the uae or return of I unsolicited manuscript. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1939 ARTISTS AS SHOCK TROOPERS Marian Anderson has sung in Washington, D. and by so doing administered a stinging rebuke to the bigots and given America something to think about.

She, like many artists before her, has served as a thock trooper in the battle for manhood rights for her people; and she has done it despite embarrassment and loss of the large fee which she would have received in the normal course of events. But while we honor Marian Anderson for her spunk and laud her as a spectacular shock trooper fighting bravely for! the things we want in. let us, especially those ot iis who live in Washington, D. recognize frankly that absolutely nothing has been solved by her action. j.

Negroes are still barred from virtually all places of public accommodation, amusement and recreation in Wash ington which are not owned and operated by and for colored people. I This is a disgraceful state of affairs to exist in any city, but worst of all in our capital city, and unless the Negroes of Washington promptly take up where Miss An derson left off, her service as a shock trooper will have been in vain. It has always seemed shameful to us that Negroes in various communities should sit supinely amid discrimina tioh and segregation, doing nothing' except grumble, until tome prominent Negro visits the city, and then expect him or her by courageous action to undo the evil which we have permitted to nourish unchallenged. Certainly our artists should be expected to have a warm OST ASTONISHING of all current social phenomena is the return of millions to After decades of rampant and the numerous GODLESS ISMS it has bred, more and more THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE are again finding comfort and satisfaction in CHRISTIAN teachings. In an increasingly UNCERTAIN world in which everything is in a state of alarm and FLUX, it is not strange that men and women today are finding refuge in the certainty of FAITH.

When FALSE PROPHETS interpreted transient well being as indicating the hope of perfection HERE and the renunciation of HEREAFTER, people ran after the SUPERFICIALITIES of the immediate and spurned the FUNDAMENTALS of the ETERNAL. Those who still leaned on the Holy Bible for SUPPORT and refused to ignore the teachings of Jesus Christ were SCOFFED AT as old fashioned and IG NORANT. Those who remained DEAF to the siren songs of the apostles of the market place philosophy of life and UPHELD THE CHURCH were looked upon as somehow INFERIOR because they remained wedded to the ANCIENT WAYS. There were many who turned from God when ADVERSITY visited the land, believing that there must be some NEW way to SALVATION: There were many who PICKED FLAWS in the Scriptures, pointing, to apparent CONTRADICTION as evidence that thev were fallible and illogical as justification for ABANDONMENT. There were many who REJOICED in blaming religion and the church because SOME preachers were IMPERFECT.

There were many who BOASTED that they no longer ENTERED churches or ATTENDED services. There were those who were more than WILLING to give to the Godless State an ALLEGIANCE which interest in the struggles of their people and on occasion to go out of their way to serve as shock troopers for principle, but our people also have a duty to follow in their footsteps and hold the ground they have Won. Indeed, if the 40,000 Negroes who heard Marian Anderson sing before the Lincoln Memorial had been set against their pariah status and fought it all along, Miss Anderson would have had no difficulty getting a place in which to sing. We must learn that we owe it not only to ourselves and our cliildren, but equally to those of our race who visit our community, to see that they are not embarrassed and insulted. WORK FOR THE RACKET BUSTER District Attorney Thomas E.

Dewey, of New York who has been the terror of gangsters and racketeers in the great metropolis, for the past several years, has been asked by the N. A. A. C. P.

to give special attention during the New York World's Fair to the enforcement of the state's rigid civil rights law. Certainly, if Mr. Dewey can get Jimmy Hines convicted and break up the vice ring, he should be able to enforce the laws designed to prevent discrimination against colored people in places of public accommodation. It is well known that many of the better, hotels and restaurants in New York City which have been unaccustomed to the patronage of Negroes are viewing any such possible patronage during the Fair with considerable alarm, and wiff probably do all they can to discourage it. It would not be necessary to request Mr.

Dewey to give special attention to the enforcement of civil rights laws if New York Negroes had through the years been vigilant in this regard. But owing to their negligence, there will probably be much for Mr. Dewey to do if he doe it. they refused to the TEMPLE OF GOD. Millions of FOOLISH parents who had been REARED as Christians no longer felt that their CHILDREN should have Christian teaching, and the old time home BIBLE READING was shunted aside for the transient and SUPERFICIAL scribblings of the moment.

INEVITABLY the pendulum had to swing BACK, and faced at last on every hand with the horrible consequences of crass MATERIALISM, men and women have come to realize anew the MEANING of religion in evervday life. INEVITABLY with the obvious failure of man made laws to solve the riddle of EXISTENCE, men and women have begun anew to see the merit of the Decalogue, and are returning to the fold. They have observed that Science is a MENACE unless.it is CONTROLLED by men and women with MERCY, humility, FAITH, love and REVERENCE in their hearts. They have observed that Government is a MENACE unless administered by men and women who BELIEVE and RESPECT the teachings of the Saviour. They know NOW that marriage is a FAILURE unless buttressed by something STRONGER than carnality and convenience: that unless it APPROACHED with AWE it is apt to be approached with indifference and DERISION.

They have been unable to find any MORE effective curb to JUVENILE DELINQUENCY and to crime than the RESPECT for family and fellow men engendered by RELIGIOUS TEACHING. "And in time of SORROW, defeat and disappointment, they have found nothing MORE COMFORTING and strengthening than SIMPLE PRAYER. So EACH DAY the returning columns of prodigals swell in size and enthusiasm as they approach with REBORN CONVICTION the House of the Lord. They wandered away WITHOUT FAITH, but somewhere in the desert of ADVERSITY they suddenly realized its NECESSITY and have returned to FIND IT. DISTURBED Representatives 'of the Army and Navy appeared before the House Judiciary subcommittee in Washington, D.

the other day to endorse sections of an anti alien and anti sedition bill offered by Representative Smith of Virginia. The Army and Navy officials are said to be disturbed because of the large number of enlisted men in both services who have either had to be discharged or tried for belonging to communistic organizations or for distributing subversive literature or for selling information to foreign governments. Most of these enlisted men have been of alien birth or alien extraction, and yet they seem to have experienced no difficulty in joining either the Army or Navy. The time has come when no nation can entrust national defense to people who have foreign ties of any kind, or whose interests are outside our national boundaries, and yet the United States continues to discriminate against the one group in the country that is without foreign ties or sympathies. Colored men are virtually barred from the U.

S. Navy and from most of the U. S. Army regardless of mental, physical, educational or moral fitness, and apparently the cliques that run these two services would rather see them endangered than to give a qualified colored man the same opportunity as a foreign born white man. But the time may not be far off when colored men will be welcome in all categories in all services and Uncle Sara will be glad to have them.

President Roosevelt could do much to eradicate jim crowism from armed services by merely lifting his voice and expressing his disapproval, but at present he seems more concerned with hurling verbal broadsides at European dictators 4000 miles away. (DMA I cTY iiHfT)Tr imiETiuiHiM cwf Trim ie FnaconDnas ails IUustrated By HOLLOWAY see wmxt Lb EDIT EDITORIAL Main Office 2628 Centre Avenue at Francis Street Telephone UAyflowir 1401 Pittsburgh. Pa Published at Pittsburgh, ovary i Saturday fry THE PITTSBURGH COURIER PUBLISHED COsfPAJTT, Ii SUBSCRIPTION RATES: it Por Tear ASvanei it Pr Sis ATontaa in Advance; Singlo Copy foreign St.00 Chang of address: Two weeks notice required for change of ad ore, when ordering a change, please give both new and old add Cntared aa second class matte; at the Pittsburgh Poet Office, If ay 10, 1910. under the Aot of March 1879. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE 1041 W.

Columbia Arenu LONDON OFFICE Qortlnge'a Travel and News Agency. Ltd. Green Street, Lelceeter Square, London, W. C. 2 Incorporated Under the Laws of Pennsylvania, 1910 I III (TIH stm represents fe personal opinion Of Mr.

ScJUy, mtnd in esny roJUoto tko odttoriat opinion of Tko PttrewfA OomrtsrTXa MMtarJ World's Fairs have come and gone, and the Negro's part. in has been minor and Insignificant. The current clamor in Nnw over the failure of Negroes to get jobs is merely an echo ot rrrr cries since tho Centennial Exposition In Philadelphia in 187. 7, sure, there have been Negro Days at the various at th tM Centennial the brethren managed to wangle a building out of Sam. and now at the New York Fair the theme song has born by William Grant Still, while Augusta Savage has done one f)r finest sculpture.

But otherwise our role, aside from an exhibit or tw9 in the WPA Building, Is going to be the traditional one of scavlnw servant and clown. There waa no discrimination againirt securing concessions, but apparently they did not think a'r jt couldn't pay the J14 a square foot rental. The beet we able to do la to work up enough gumption to picket the f'r lest moment for employment when all Job hare long been It is interesting to compare our experience now with our experience at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Thanks to the late Charlen K. Mitchell, I have a clipping from the Chicago "Inter Ocean for August 26, 1893, which tells at considerable length and with five dignified pen and ink sketches of rh colored doings at that famed exposition.

"Colored American Day at the Fair," it bejjinv "and the dignified manner of its observance, did honor to the race. Even in the face of opposition in their own ranks, with which those in charge had to contend, the celebration was everything that grand old taW. man and sage, Frederick Douglass, had hoped for if (Note the usual opposition!) "The programme," it says, "which was carried nut in Festival hail reflected the highest credit on tho who listened as as on those of special gifta is music and oratory who took the part of entertainer. It is not extravagant to say that the music, the declamation and the oratory, which were listened to "by an audience of several thousand persons, have not oft been surpassed by any race on any occasion "After a creditable and successful parade la the principal streets of the city, the colored people to tb number of several thousand quietly went to Jackinn Park They were, as a rule well dressed, prosptrou looking and courteous fn manner. AH were not from Chicago; many were visitors from distant part of the country." There was loud applause, the "Inter Ocean" tells Vhtn Hon.

Frederick Douglass came to the platform, preceded by Mrs. Beecher Hooker. Mr. Douglass presided and oa the plv.form ri Bishop Arnett, Hon. George Jackson.

BLshop Walters, W. E. Mfhtri, Prof. J. M.

Gregory, Bishop Turner, Prof. D. A. Shaker anH Dr. Vthrt.

Will Marion Cook was muelral director and Charles S. Mri manager. In the audience were Dr. R. S.

Rust, first president force; Dr. Waterhouse ok Maine; Dr. J. Norman Croiir: 1A. J.

H. Alexander, then the only colored graduate of West Tv.v at Fort Robinson, and Miss F. E. Alexander, hU s'r. Th artiste of the day were Mm.

Delseria Plato, mezzo Halite Q. Brown, elocutionist. Sidney Woodward and Arrfeu: 7th man, tenors; Harry Thacker Burleigh, baritone, teacher in r.l Conservatory of New York; Joseph Douglass, violinist, a rr! ii of Frederick Douglass, and Maurice Arnold Strothotte. "Mme. Sissieretta Jones, the 'Black Patti'," we are toM.

"wi r.iiiM to sing, but remained in the East at Asbury Park, bn ii' of Colored American Day at the Fair had written nd ht and her husband In regard to the good character of Th This was done after her manager, Major Pond, had :zr.i ment for her to make three appearances here for th of IV. which $300 waa paid by telegraph." A resolution denouncing who had deceived Mme. Jones was Introduced by Rev. C. I.

Dayton, seconded by S. T. Ellsworth of New Mexlre, mously paeed. What Frederick Douglass had to say on rhl occasion has a very familiar ring: "Our presence here in such number i a vindication of ourjwisdom and of our good nature. 1 am glad that we have cheerfully embraced this occasion to show by.

our spirit, song, speech and enthusiasm that are neither ashamed of our cause nor of our company. It is known to many of you that there Is divMon opinion among intelligent colored citizens as to th wisdom of accepting a 'colored people's day' at thf Fair. This division of opinion has been caused, in part, by the slender recognition we have received jfrom the management of the exposition. Without expresning; an.r satisfaction with this phase of that management. I think that we cannot wisely withhold our thanks to th World's Columbian Exposition for the opportunity now afforded us to define our position and set ourselves right before the world.

It might perhaps have done more and better for us at it inception, but we shonld not forget that it might also have done less and fr for us." "The question will be asked," Douglass continued. by our transatlantic visitors, why we do not more fullv r.r glory of the great World's Exposition. To answer tfcr to nrotert nur1v, fmm nnf.i.AM. iA la. In part, the purpose for which we have assembled to4 "Rejoicing In the liberty we have already secured nd latlng the nation upon the recognition given our rishti mental law of the republic, we shall nevertheless rAM denounce the Injustice, persecution, lawless violence aM 'n'fl to which as a class we are still subjected." He thn xo i lonr period of slaverv and th TnnHi n4 "It is only neceseary to accuse one of our number of ln 0 ivuticuon ana punisnment.

iris stp engendered will In a measure explain to our fr'anatlsn'l fr" we have a share so slender in this Worlds Columbia I deny with scorn and indignation the allegation, bv m.4. yflnr uur small participation is due eitner to our want of public spirit." "That we si niifoiilA if ttiA Yki lrt Fair. he I on, "is only consistent with the fact that we are excluded from every respectable calling, from workshop manufactories and from the means of learning trad It is consistent with the fact that we are ontM' church and largely outside the state. "The people who held slaves are still the ruli" class of the South. When you are told that the of a Negro is held dog cheap in that section.

system tells you whv it is so. Negro whipping. VP cheating, Negro killing, are consistent with the ai em Ideas inherited from the svstem of slavery. hear nowadays of a frightful something called a VFJ problem. What Is this problem? As Continued an ftatura Page.