HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1938-07-22, Page 6}
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pndernaed from The Saturday Eveging Post in Reader's Digest)
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Fit & nesta among, American Negro
r dories, is traps: And tops in
*len a s .Sugar Hilt When Sugar
E11 go es to ,church It does not join
'u he truladakeelass t nougs that mill,
'till the &i tinter Baptist Churdheathe
at*tioa a largest Negro rete irch; it wor-
&hips in Episcopalian St. Philip's or
St.
Martin's. When it chooses to
dance at the Savoy it rents the whole
. place, leaving the' esoluded proletariat
_ to snare from the sidewalk.
. Sugar Hill, in these {matters,is set
off above its surroundings no more
than Enright Street,'St. Louis, or the
swankier Negro area of West Phila-
delphia, or the few select blocks on
Chicago's South Parkway. In every
northern Negro center, social stand-
ing'has been hard to win; therefore
. the joys of exclusiveness are tasted
to the full.
But writlnie the last 10 years, a suc-
cession of shocks and a barrage of
propaganda have brought uupercrust
Negro society. and the lower levels'
closer to each other. The social lines
between the twc groups have not been
wiped out. But politically and econ-
omically they ' rave been shaken to-
gether.
The forces which are uniting the
present -days Negro community are pet -
era and portentous. Negro solidarity',
is approaching. It is not possible `o
say where the Negroes of the North
are going, but wherever it is, they
will go together. •
That. fact makes one of the nation's
largest political question marks, as
the unprecendented deference of the
boss politicians of both parties to
• the Black Belt voter demonstrates. It
es, also, one of the rosiest of
es thia.t Communism lives by.
prof'
the ho
In New111,',ork it has already proved
the mainstay of the American Labor
Party, In certain industries it is the
most important force in the drive of
organized labor. In short, the Neg-
roes
eiroes of the North, as the result of
their developing solidarity, have been
pushed squarely Into the middle of
our• political and economic whirlpools.
Some of the shocks that have sped.
this development . have been severe.
-That was the case in Harlem. In the
winter of 1935, when Harlem was—
as it is today—a relief city, a jobless
waste, an itinerant • prophet named
• Sufi Abdul Hamid preached to the
unemployed. demanding Harlem jobs
for Harlem people. He called upon
white store owners, "taking the Ne-
groes' money," to .employ Negro help.
Wiben nothing happened he urged a
boycott which caused much bitter-
ness,
That was the situation when, on
March 19, 1935, a dusky Puerto Rican
boy was caught lifting a ten -cent 'pear -
knife from the counter •of a white -
owned department shore. Two floor-
walkers carried hint ,away, kicking
and screaming: Some 500 Negro cus-
tome1rs got a fleeting glimpse\ of a
black boy being hustled off by white
men and, 'before the corner policeman
could arrive, they had pretty 'well
torn the place to pieces. Word pass-
ed down Seventh Avenue that a Ne-
gro boy was being beaten to death.
By nightfall most of Harlem was
screaming through the streets, and
before morning scores of persons were
injured, some killed, and block after
block of white stOre windows had
been smashed in the most violent Ne-
gro outbreak in New York in thirty-
five years.
Harlem has not been the same place
since. While the rioting was on, up-
per-class Negroes went down the hill
to see the excitement. A good many
of them got their first inkling of
what was . stirring in the minds of
Harlem's masses. Some grabbed the
handbills that the Communists, with
customary foresight, ' were distribut-
ing, and joined the agitators. As it
turned out, no harm befell the Puerto
Rican, boy, but the outbreak he set
off left Harlem a more united com-
m_unity than it had ever been before.
Not only in Harlem, but in every
large northern center of, Negro popu-
lation, mass meetings, tfiass picket-
ings, labor parades and soapbox ora-
tory have become commonplace. The
Negro is out for a new place in the
sun. He does, not expect to get it,
like Emancipation, on a silver plat-
ter, He plans to make or take it for
himself.
One reason the Negro is out for a
new place in the sun is that he has
found a new place on the map. In
1910 the Negro center of population
vas in northeastern Alabama. In the
next 20 years, almost one fourth, of
the 12,000,000 Negroes in the U. S.,
lured by cash money jobs, joined in a
northward trek; and they changed
i net, only the whole pattern of Negro
Ina in the North but the character
of the Northern Negro.
Before 1910 the Northern Negro
was not very different from the South-
ern.. He"probably worked in a white
mans household, and the more ex -
eluslue Negono WSW was rade up of
the butlers, chauffeurs and, ladles'
maids who had the more excluattve
pasittiOne; Save fon the preacher', the
only pi^ofesstAntal Negro whom he .ret
ganded as of•-ant'y nenseaueuce warn thea
tiud rtaker. He went -ta white doc-
tors when he was .ill and to, .w uirte
lawyers when be was in trouble,,
Bucker T. Washiugten was bib prdph-
et, as d, Washington's counsel to "put
down your bucket where you are," his
tI 1osophy, In politics he firmly be-
lieved thi 'statement of Fredeanck
Douglass, the that great Negro politi-
cal leader, that "the Republican Par-
ty is the ship, all else is open sea."
The church was the cornerstone of
the eom:munity, and the preachers, uu-
vexed by social problems, preached
the olddtime religion. The pne-migr a -
tion Negro of the North. "knew his
place" and, smiling, patient and tract-
able, he kept it.
Then came the migration, and by
1930 the Negro population of Chica-
go had increased 430 per cent„ of
Detroit, 2813 per cent.; of New York
City, 257 per cent. In 1910 there was
no city with more than 100;000 Ne-
groes. In: 1936 there were seven
These migrants --broke, jobless, un-
skilled—knocked the, bottom out of
the lowest economic level of the cit-
ies to which they came. In the mat-
ter of food, fuel, and particularly
shelter, life was generally worse by
a good; deal than: it had been in the
South.
The new popuiation "found the only
areas into which it oould move al-
ready overcrowded. The congestion
that resulted was worse than that of
the worst tenement districts. White
tenement owners took immediate ad-
vantage of the situation. There is', so
far as I know, no northern city' in
which the Negroes are not obliged to
pay considerably more for poorer
quarters than any other section of
the population. Negro tenants in Chi-
cago, for example, pay from $8 to $20
a month' for the same room for which
previous white tenants bad paid $4
to $5,
Day and night, Sundays and holi-
days, the streets of the Black Belts
are always full of people. Detroit's
Paradise Valley is as, much awake at
2 a.m. asat high noon. Harlem hard-
ly ever starts dancing before eleven
o'clock, and no one would think of
showing up at a party before mid-
night; In other words, in the aver-
age Negro neighbonhood, no one wants
to go haeme. The streets', the pool
and dance halls, the lodge rooms and
all manner of less legitimate bang -
outs are far more ,.cheerful.
All this overcrowding has had dis-
astrous consequences. Tuberculosis
among Negro children is from two tb
five times that of white children. In
New York the number of arrests of
Negroes in proportion to population
Give to barrows, trays and pans
]Grace and glimmer of romance."
• He didn't, of course, but Emerson might have had in mind
a certain kind of printing when he wrote those lines.
• The kind of printing that includes the liberal use of thinking
. . presswork that is mixed with brainwork. It's the kind
that brings The Huron Expositor to the minds of Seaforth busi-
ness men when the question comes up: "Where will we go to
get a real printing job?"
Ib Type—paper--color—lay out—all are combined here to the
best advantage.
• Tine stores—fine stocks—all stores and businesses strive for
them. Why ,shouldn't fine printing be part of the plan? It will
be if you bring it here.
• A business man who can't gamble with his business should
take v his printing to a printer that can't gamble with his reputa-
tion. The Huron Expositor, has been in business since 1860. Its
reputation is assured.
• Here is a sure way to settle your printing problems at a price
that is right.
Wit r &' record of bet yA rt, as a sane se
ft►,etoky treatment for INlee or beeuerehoide
lee can poeiti elir rle est
Dr. Chas.'s Ointment
has run as much as five times ahead
of that for wlhittes. The intelligence
levels 4n• the northern communities
suffered. • The incoming Negmes
brought tiheir superstitious with them.
"Bush -arbor" ,,preachers created new
'sects in 'almost every, block:' The
Metaphysical Church of the Divine lin
vestigation, The Triumph .Church,
Church of the Believers of the
mandments; the Sanctuaries of Mstlher
Horne, the Heavens of Father Divine.
Even morn' dubious faiths appeared.
There is admittedly a large amount
of voodoo worsrbdip; and the voodoo
preachers, 'an the side, generally Car-
ry on a lively trade in policy numbers
and sell magic in all forms.
There was, for a time, a more hope-
ful side to the picture. With Ameri-
ca's entrance into the World War, it
looked as 'though the ,floodgates of
economic opportunity were at last to
be opened to the Negro. Thee was
steadily Increasing employme ar
him, at improving wages, in steel, ir-
on, coal and automobiles. Employers
appeared to have a growing confidence
in 7iis workmanship, and he developed
a much greater confidence in himself.
Negro leaders described the period os
the Second"Emancipataon.
In 1929, however, this brave new
world came abruptly to an end. What
has happened since is best summed
upl in; the phrase that one hears•.
wherever Negroes tallr.,cai?out their ec-
onomic plight: "We're the last l ed
and, .the first fired." ±b --the: d pres-
sion, the number of"'wWj'hite men avail-
able for unskilled jabs greatly increas-
ed and the 'Negro was displaced.
White men even invaded those fields
which the Negro had looked upon as
peculiarly ',his, and became bootblacks,
porters, servants and waiters.
Today, in every considerable north-
ern center, from 35 to 45 per Dent. of
all Negro families are on relief. The
hope for a second Emancipation at
the end of the trek to the North •has
disappeared. The Negmoes are still
on 'the move. But this time their
shift is not geographical. It is social,
political and economic.
As a result, the Negro himself --in
both his temper and his objectives`
is very different from the docile ser-
vant of the pre -migration period. His
bitterest scare. is reserved for "the
white man's nigger:" He may revere
the name of Booker T. Washington,
but be has little use for Washington's
counsel. He is gratefu'l for the bene -
factious of such philanthropists as
the late Julius Rosenwald, abut the
mention of John L. Lewis will get a
bigger . hand from the average Negro
audience.
The Negro community is more cut
off than ever before from the white
man's world. The Negro now takes
his pains or his problems to a doctor
or lawyer of his own race. He buys
his burial insurance from a colored
salesman for a colored company. He
may make it a point to shop only at
stores which employ Negro help. Po-
litically he votes lit the column from
which, in terms of visible returns, he
is likely to'get the most.
The transformation in the north-
ern Negro community is probably no-
where better illustrated than in the
changes under way among Negro
churches. In many of them the gos-
pel is not greatly different from that
„preached on street corners or in the
balls of the labor unions. Young Ad-
am Powell, minister of the Abyssin-
ian Baptist Church in Harlem, point-
ed one Sunday .rinorning to bis audi-
ence of 2,000 and remarked to me:
"Most of them would be as much at
home on a picket line as they are in
church,"
When 1' visited one of the largest
Negro churches in Chicago, there was
a huge sign beside the entrance. The
first sentence read: "What must we
do to be saved?" The answer was
not, in the usual sense, religious: "Be-
set by Rent Hogs. Overcrowded in
Hovels. Come to the Housing Mass
Meeting on Thursday Noon. The
United Front."
In a Negro discussion group in De-
troit I heard a young Negro preach-
er assent: "In terms of the economic
needs of our people, the Negro church
up to now, has been an antisocial in-
stitution. We've had enough of the
gospel of 'dem golden slippers.' what
we want is the gospel of thick -soled
shoes." His audience applauded.
The migration made the Negro ac-
cessible to a vast number of new doc-
trines and unsettling influences, and•
the depression has Ied aim to give
ear to them. This combination ac-
counts for his developing solidarity,
for the fact that Sugar Hill has be-
gun to make common cause with the
sidewalk orators who offer their doc-
trines in the Lung Blacks. If there is•
a place in the sun for the Negro,
tbisi—in the Negro's opinion ---is bis
only obance to get it.
It is indeed a compliment to the
Agricultural Department of the Pro-
vincial and'Federal Governments that
from practically all of the adjacent
States, net to speak of some' farther
afield, students of agriculture are
sent in their Hu'nd'reds to attend and
study the a:grircultural, horticultural
and livestock displays at the Cana-
dian National Exhibition.
IN DEF NCE QF' :INSECTS
(Caxildepared .from, Scientific Amerie
can in Beadera Digest)
Acoorddn;g to some. of gar foremost.
enrtonuologists, man is 'fighting a los-
ing ,battler with insects for the suprem
acy of the worid. WIe are besieged
on 'Many fronts. The yearlyloss
caused by •their destruction of food
crops la the United States is nearly
twice the cost of ina{intaininrg. our
army and navy. Termites cost . Am-
erican' home owners more than $30,-
000,0 t year. Moths rands beetles at -
our clothing, furniture and stor-
ed foods. Mosquitoes alone are re-
sponsible for the dransmisslon of mal-
aria. 'Houseflies may transmit typhoid
fever, dysentery, cholera and tuber-
culosis; lice transmit typhus; and, ac-
cording to recent .reports, the caddis
fly with its 2,000 or, more shedding
hairlike scales is res'ponsdble for num-
erous cases of 'as•thma.
However, man's convicted enemies
in the insect world annrount to only
about 300 species out of the 500,000
species that have been ;classified. And
suppose insects do destroy ten per
cent. of our crops? What a small fee,
when, we consider that without the
aid of :insect pollination we would
have practiea.11y no 'crops at all! And
we are prone to forget the milliens of
dollars of wealth produced by insects
in the form of fruits, silk, honey, bees-
wax, dyes, etc.
We must he -thankful to insects for
the destruction of dead and decaying
animal and plant bodies which other-
wise would in a short time litter the
face of the earth. It has been stated
that three flies, due to their rapid
multiplication and activity will devour
a dead horse as quickly as would a
lion, ,and were it not for drilling in-
sects, a century would ellipse before
the elements alone would remove the
ruins of one of the hardwood tropical
trees.
Insects have been used since Bib!: -
cal times as a source of dyes. The
crinis'on of the Greeks and Romans,
and the imperishable reds of Flemish
tapestries, were produced from the
bodies of, ;•insects. Besides the more
modern '• dyes made from cochineal,
thank the insects also for lace, whioth
is the excretion of a certain minute
species, Twenty-five thousand tons
are produced annually in India. From
it we obtain our fine grades of sealing
wax, and shellac which is the chief
ingredient of most wood polisbes and
of the coating on the fine lacquer
ware used so much in Chin and India,
Insects greatly aid man's progress
in medical sciences. During the war
an imaginative American surgeon was
stationed at a base hospital in
France. Ambulances, frequtntly
brought in men .who after only a few
hours on the battlefield possessed ser-
iously contaminated wounda. In such
cases the mortality rate was extreme-
ly high. But sometimes, when it had
been impossible to recover the wound-
ed for several days, this surgeon no-
ticed that certain soldiers who had
lain upon the battlefields without food,
water or medical care, and suffering
from severe wounds, showed no fever
or general infection. Upon removing
the tattered clothing from the wounds
he was astonished to see them infest-
ed 'with squidnning fly maggots, and
the tissues around the wound in a
miraculously healing condition. The
minute fragments of bone and dead
tissue had been entirely removed' by
the maggots and the usual pus condi-
tion' was missing.
After his return to the United• States
he began experimentation upon labor-
atory animals, using clean, living
maggots in the treatment. of infected
wounds. His results were'so uniform-
ly successful that he began their use
in the treatment of similar human ail-
ments. Now many hospitals keep on
hand a supply of sterile maggots for
treating certain bone infections and
similar diseases.
Recently two physicians, realizing
that the maggots not only neatly re-
move the dead tissue of a wound but
also produce some substance which
prevents the growth of harmful bac-
teria in wounds, ground up maggots,
producing an extract. This, upon in-
jection into individuals., suffering from
internal infections such as sinus and
mustoid infections where living mag-
gots cannot be employed, is producing,
remarkable results.
Again, there is the use of bee yen -
Wales ales R-ad$u'sts
Month/net) frOM Page g) ..
registered Os inemployed 'of whom
64,000 had been, •contipuguaiy out 'of
Work for. 11. utcuuttht3 or Mere. This
state of affairis calla fbr a. neW 'bra..neb
Weenie,' service to organize the job-
less to. their, enfoiced idleness. The
National Cbtp ail Of Social 'Service
and' kindred;. organizations smolt as
pioneer Educational•iSettlements have
beets engageedl • in. this tremendous
task. More than 200 social service
clubs with - 20,000 members 'now ex-
ist
xist for unemployen people ini South
Wales.' They have -enabled thousands
to rediscover fellowship and creative
opportunstiee. •
Other bodies such as the social,.. re,
Iigious, and trade union organizations
have also 'been at work fitting the
jobless foe a new form of existence.
There are occupation centers, phyla
cal training courses and camps, allot-
ments, and edueational activities.
The question is asked --should not
the State and not voluntary bodies
shoulder this great 'responsibility? An
answer put forward by those in. close
touoth with the situation is that vol-
untary organizations should discover
the social needs and experiment in
meeting them. Success gains general
approval and) the State, "it is suggest-
ed, should then take over the :activi-
ties.,
On the other 'hand the dangeris-
stressed of the present policy being
used as a smoke screen for State in-
ertia. And II is pointed out that 10
years of dire poverty should be con-
sidered a sufficiently long period of
experimenting. It seems that drastic
measures are necessary ,involving
legislation affecting the system of
pensions, social insurance and possi-
bly introduction of family allowances.
in a summary of the •discussions by
Dr. Thomas and others, the conclu-
sion is . . "A Welsh population
of 1,000,000 or so in 50 years, work-
ing with high grade capital equip-
ment and natural resources, even
tlrowg+h it would be biased on the age.
side; would unquestionably enjoy • a
larger amount of wealth per head. 7f
we can rely on economic progress be-
stowing some blessings on Wales in
the -decades to cowl, then, after wen•
tiering the 'storms of the transition,
Wales will emerge a shrunken but a
richer community. And even the fu-
ture of the language and culture of
Wales' is not wholly dark. As society
gradually overcomes the economic
problem people will be able to turn
more and more of tbeir energies to
the things of the mind 'and the spir-
it. There is, tberefore, a reasonable
chance that it -tate smaller community
of the future there will be a strong
minority determined to safeguard the
cultural heritage of Wales."
on as one of the newer treatments
for rheumatism. In a number of stub-
born rheumatic cases wrhich could not
be relieved by conventional treat-
ments, two French physicians report
remarkable results following a series
of bee stingings. Extracts of bee
poison were also made, and the treat-
ment 'thus became available at all
times of the year. Or consider the
bee moth, which is w•arreci upon by
beekeepers all over the world be-
cause its larvae destroy their hives.
In a number of scientific institutions
you will find this pest carefully pro-
tected and fed;, and kept comfottably
warma in special ,incubators. For this
bee moth is immune to the tubercul-
osis organism, for which man has dis-
covered no successful serum. Inject
into one of these insects enough tub-
ercle bacilli to kill a whole laboratory
of guinea pigs and the germs are im-
mediately destroyed in its body by
some substance rare or absent in ..hu-
man beings. Can we learn how to
extract this substance from the bee
moth and use it to eliminate one of
the greatest scourges of the human
race?
All in all, insects aren't so' bad. It
is likely that man will continuo to,
keep in abeyance those which are in-
jurious to his well-being, and increas-
ingly divert the activities of others to
the common good.
Scipio,Too,TookSpain'sMetals
The presence of foreign troops tri
Spain --the results of whose fighting
may affect the distribution of that
4
Help improve yolk, :persof UtG P
with;;Wfighey►s: GUnt. >enr^•
teeth white, meat!' sw;eett, bY
using .healthful ,'IilfrigreY'.S' Gum
daily, -as mallow do. The chit- '
dren also love -•tke . delicious {te.-
freshing flavor )Wrlgley:'S Double
Mint. Take some home today alai
country's mineral wealth—might and
its prolptype as far back as 200 B.
C. when Scipio successfully campaign-
ed
ampaigned the Iberian Peninsula.
The lure of precious metals hard
drawn thim to Spain as it did the
Phoenicians •, and the Carthaginians;
and when he returned to Italy, he
paraded victoriously through the
streets of Rome with chariots filled
with silver from the ransacked pen-
insula..
eninsula..
But today the lure of metals more,
precious than "precious "metals" is
re's'ponsible for foreign "volunteers"
in the Spanish conflict. The dire need
for basic metals, felt especially
among the authoritarian powers, has:
turned many longing eyes in the di-
rection of the rich resources which;
make Spain a veritable treasure
ch-ests
More than 20 of Spain's 50 Prov-
inces 'contain annong other deposits;,
copper, lead, zinc, iron, coal and pot-
ash, according to a• •recent• bulletin
from beadquarters of the National
Geographic Society. -
The Insurgents, bolding a territor-
ial majority, now control a major per-
centage of the mineral resources
Oviedo, in northwest "Spain, with its
extensive iron and coal fields was con-
sideredra heavy iess by- the Loyalists;
as Also was the British, -owned Rio
Tinto copper • mine in Miele in the
southwest. Basque iron mines, al-
most entirely in Insurgent bands, pro-
duced about 1,6(j0;000r tons of iron ore
annually befere the war.
In normal times, nearly 50 per cent
of all mercury produced comes from.
Almaden, about 125 miles southwest
of Madrid in the Loyalist -held prov-
ince of Ciudad Real, the National Geo-
graphic bulletin says. Because of the
high industrial value of mercury—
both for wartime and peacetime pur-
poses—this seetion has in recent
weeks beensubjeeted to an Insurgent
drive for control.
There are other Loyalist -controlled
mines, particularly potash and lead,
which still bear economic fruits.
There are lead amines at Gerona, oa
the French border in the far north-
east, with an important by-product of
fluor spar,used in making steel. Lig-
nite
ionite coal, lead, and potash deposite
are found meat door in Barcelona, Far-
ther south, Murcia is rich in zinc,
lead and sulphur, while its neighbor,
Jaem, also contains' 'muair lead and
some iron. In Granada, whose north
portion isstill royalist territory, are
quantities of iron and some lead.
Mgch of the mineral industry in.
Spain has been in the heeds of for-
eign investors. More than half of all
copper mined in this country before
the revolution was from British -owe -
ed mines, the bulletin states. Lead
operations were about two thirds in,
the hands of French concessions, and
nearly all of Spain's silver and zine
output in recent years prior to th•
war was mined by French companies_
Nine -tenths of the country's potash
wealth was ;recorded as under the
control of a Belgian group.
These concessions, predominantly
held .by. -the democratic countries of
Europe, will undoubtedly pass into
other hands, if the balance of power
in Spain shifts to the Insurgent side.
This might be evidenced in the re-
cent treaty between Germany and,
Insurgent Spain, in which 'General
Franco agr ip all iron one
mined in a Bilbao district to Ger-
many.
ermany.
HERE ARE THE WINNAHS
4
4
Printers in
Seaforth,
Ontario,
for %!'years.
W;A 144,
Mistress: • "Is your daughter hap-
pily rriurried, Sapphire?"
, Sapphire: "Yassum, sire's got a
husband dat's akeered to death of
her!" -
•
The proprietor of a big storee notic-
ed an assistant dozing up against the,
Wali of one of the departments. 'He
consulted the manager about the mat-
ter. ,
"I can't do a thing with him," said
the manager, "I've had him in three
different departments, and he dazes
alt day long."
"Put him 'at the pyjetaa OouIiter"
silted the proprietor, `-'and fasten
a card on 'AIM With the wort* `'Out'
p;itjatnts are of 'each tiuperlor" g1Iaility'
that ,even the than who set; theta
'" tinet itra1t9'."
Top left, Alio flOwntree teanlin0 Axe.. Lee, 2.103/. Right, Carroll Direct 2,1214' (Fields up).. Cent -re
• shows the finish of thei first heat of the tbree4yetr`did trotting ittike at Orangeville With Jde Harvester
2.153/4 (Berry ifwirlflh g, garottes Leg 2,15 (16hrlodn tri) setofld and Lee 11/calmly!) '(Milton up) third.
Lower lift, Wireless Hat 213% (Haeoej Op)/ and rit#ht is Helinin fYl'cfCillop 2.10%% (Berry up). All, horses
shown aro entered in the odtakes to be l'o'bed at the 004n $ 'O reett Meeting of Ontario to be ,,held at:$tt'4t,
ford eft Juty 2Seed"attd 2ytlia
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