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AUTO DRIVERS’ INATTENTION CAUSES ACCIDENTS
Millions of column inches of valuable
space are contributed by American news¬
papers every year in the never-ending
battle to halt the bloody carnage taking
place on our highways. It seems incred¬
ible that drivers continue to act as they
do behind the wheel of an automobile de¬
spite the avalanche of grim facts and
warnings.
Rut it is a matter of record; record that
is slightly over 50 years old yet already
stands as one of the more sordid indict¬
ments against our society.
A recent report by The Travelers Insur¬
ance Companies states that since the ad¬
vent of the automobile, more than 62,000,-
000 men, women and children have been
killed or injured on our highways. More
Americans have died on our highways
than in all the wars this country has
fought.
The cause of this slaughter screams for
attention. More than 85 per cent of all
fatal accidents last year was blamed on
human error!
More than 85 percent of the 37,600
deaths occurred because somebody behind
the wheel had shrugged off the countless
highway safety news stories and editor¬
ials this newspaper and hundreds of others
like it across the country printed during
the year. “It can't happen to me,” he
thought.
TRUMAN’S RANTING
Prom the Louisville Defender
Former President Harry Truman’s con¬
tinued negative remarks on Student Sit-
down Demonstrations grow more repug¬
nant with each utterance — they have
gone from ill-considered and unfair to the
utterly ridiculous.
In Louisville, Mr. Truman said: “If any¬
one came into my store and tried to stop
business I’d throw him out. The Negro
should behave himself.” Later Truman
wired the Detroit NAACP “If I were in
Detroit, I would say ail the same thing to
you personally for the newspapers and
televisions in the country.”
Last week at Cornell University Tru¬
dents. man sajd: I think “I don’t think engineered they’re all stu¬
this was by the
Communists.”
The former president’s cries of misquot¬
ed are Unfounded because each of these ill-
advised statements is a matter of record.
It was bad enough to threaten to throw
students out. but to say, “The Negro
should behave himself,” is definitely ig¬
norant. “Sit-downs” are not a matter of
behavior. They are an expression of free¬
dom of speech — a right which Mr. Tru¬
man himself abuses very often with reck¬
less abandon.
Communistic labelling is the lowest
tinge he could possible have given to the
demonstrations. More than this, such an
utterance is commonly characteristic of
EDITORIAL OPINION FROM THE NATION’S PRESS
COMPILED in THE ASSOCIATED NEGRO PRESS
The student sit-down demonstrations
against lunch counters and other jim crow
facilities still command volumes of edi¬
torial comment after three months. Here
are a few samples:
NEWS AND COURIER, Charleston, S. C.
“A fashion that we predict won’t catch
on with the public is taking one’s morning
coffee with instant integration.”
TIMES, New York City
“The shrewdness of Mr. Golden’s in¬
sight was indicated in a recent dispatch
from Suffolk, Va„ A national chain store
there, after closing its lunch counter for
two Weeks following a Negro demonstra¬
tion, has reopened the counter on an un¬
segregated basis, but with the seats re¬
moved. If that price must he paid for
equality, it is worth paying. But surely the
episode underlines the pettiness and illo¬
gicality of racial segregation, as Mr. Gold¬
en’s “plan” did.”
JOURNAL, Milwaukee
“This kind of dollar pressure boycotts
will continue to help open new breaches
in the color line. The lunch counter de¬
monstrations are potent reminders that it
cannot he ignored.”
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, Norfolk, Ya.
“Lively electioneering always can be
expected in North Carolina. The unfold¬
ing political season may be different in
its liveliness. For Negroes campaigning
at lunch counters for what they insist are
their rights may be campaigning also for
second thinking among the state’s race
mouerates and tor the ascendancy of the
National AdTertlslng Representative!
Associated Publisher!
65 Wegt 42nd gtreet
New York 30. New York
160 W. Washington Bt.
Chicago 2, HI.
Whaky-Stapson^ompany
6608 Selma Ave.
Los Angeles 28. California
Mr Gordon Simpson
Whaley-Simpson Company
700 Montgomery St.
San Francisco ll, California
a - L - 1 - ■------=•— - •—* --
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Perhaps he didn’t consciously think
that. Maybe the fact that it could happen
to him didn’t get past his subconscious.
Perhaps it never did happen to him. Per¬
haps he was the survivor in a horrible
crash that maimed and killed those he
loved most.
Inattention is the overwhelming factor
which figures in 85 percent of our death
crashes. A lapse of attention to the road
ahead, a heavy foot on the gas pedal,
an unnecessary gamble to save a few sec¬
onds that cost an eternity — these are the
ways in which the human behind the
wheel failed. The supreme penalty was
the result for those who erred once too
often.
Although 3,000,000 copies of the report
by The Travelers Insurance Companies
describing the sordid record on our high¬
ways last year are being distributed in
this country, chances are that you will not
see one. If you do, however, read it close¬
ly. Your error behind the wheel could be
included in the statistical columns next
year.
It is safe to predict that you as a driver
will be exposed to countless news stories
in this newspaper during the coming
months describing what happened be¬
cause the human behind the wheel made
a mistake. Read them carefully. They
could help you avoid that same mistake.
avowed racists, who use it as a last
ditch stand.
It is not enough to conclude here that
Mr. Truman’s senility is now more pro¬
nounced than ever. His claim of being
misquoted even when faced with taped re¬
cordings of his statements, attests to that.
Now it is readily apparent that Mr. Tru¬
man has always had fixed misgivings on
Civil Rights although he performed poli¬
tically expedient to the contrary while in
the White House.
While admittedly his negative remarks
give aid and comfort to pro-segregation¬
ists, they will not deter but rather inten¬
sify demonstrations if only in retaliation.
The greatest damage is not only to Mr.
Truman’s reputation — or how historians
and people of good conscience will ulti¬
mately evaluate him but to the political
party he seeks to direct.
In a season of mediocre Democratic
presidential candidates, who are already
greatly over shadowed among Negro vot¬
ers by Richard M. Nixon, offensive mouth-
ings that belittle Negro efforts to obtain
integration can and will be construed as
Mr. Truman’s desire to throw Negroes
out of the Democratic Party.
It is an understatement indeed to say
that Mr. Truman has already done Demo¬
crats an irreparable disservice that will
he felt wherever Negroes vote decisively.
state’s long-fustrated, but now hopeful,
total segregationists.”
PRESS-SCIMITAR, Memphis
“The Press-Scimitar’s advice to Negro
citizens is not to put on any more demon¬
strations. Appeals to reason and good
will if directed to the right quarters will
profit them more and will avoid the nega¬
tive results always possible in any mass
demonstration.”
CONSTITUTION. Atlanta
“But businesses involved, especially in
dime stores and transportation need to
work out a course of action which will deal
with the issues involved. And others may
find profit in exploring attitudes. But as
Mayor Ilartsfield suggests, a city-wide
committee would he ineffective.”
BANNER, Nashville
“When students — any set of students
subsidized by the State treasury — so
comport themselves, on or off the campus,
as to become a police problem, it is time
to sever their connection from that public
bounty.
They are on notice now. and if they
choose to further defy these authorities,
the dismissal is in order. They cannot
say they have not been warned.
The Board of Education is to be com¬
mended for handling the matter firmly,
Chairman Morgan for laying it on the line
as he did, and Governor Ellington for his
emphatic statement of full approval.”
POST DISPATCH. St. Louis
“The folly of state demands to punish
treason is illustrated by a campaign by
THE SAVANNAH TRIBUNE, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
Millions Denied The Vote, Segregation, Li scrimination. Not Too Bad At Home?
TWO NEEPS i'll OCEANS just ATTENTION- glance TO SEE THINGS across IF ANT ARE THING rue NOT .7
HERE AT HOME *
TOO EAD - , „ *
'SV'^ SCWY. *
Says Southern White Students
Spiritually Back Sit Downs
WASHINGTON, tANP) — A
southern white college student told
the nation Sunday on a TV pro¬
gram that he believed most of the
white students in the South were
spiritually behind Negro lunch
counter demonstrators, but he add¬
ed that most of them were not
about to become actively involved.
James Alrutz, a student at all-
white Emory University in Atlan¬
ta, made the statement of an ABC
television program.
In a reversal of standard TV
procedure, Alrutz and four other
students here for a conference on
the sitdown movement were,ques¬
tioned by Reps, James C. l)ayis
(D.-Ga,) and George A. Kasem
(D.-Cal.).
Another panelist, Diane Nash of
Fisk university at NashVille; de¬
scribed how she and other parti¬
cipants in a lunch-counter dornoh-
stration were convicted of.disorder¬
ly conduct and , sentence^
workhouse, when: they scrqljjbed
floors and washed commodes.,
The students were in Washing¬
ton for the National Student-Con¬
ference on the sitdown movement
sponsored by the U. S. National
Student Assn. It was attended by
delegates from 188 colleges.
The conference passed a
Lillian Smith Challenges
Truman’s Criticisms of Negro
Sit-Down Demonstrators
WASHINGTON, (ANP)
statement of for m e r President
Harry S. Truman on the
movement of the South could do a
great harm to the crusaders
equal lights, declared a southern
author last week.
This observation was made by
Lillian Smith of Georgia who
into national fame with her first
novel “Strange Fruit,” which
followed by “Killers of a Dream.”
Speaking at the All Souls Uni¬
tarian church, Friday, Miss Smith
chided responsible Southerners for
not speaking out against
tion. And she charged
Truman with “begging the
Klux Klan and the White
Council” to pin communist label
on students attempting to
gate lunch counters.
Although President Truman de¬
nied that he had made the
munist comment to reporters
Cornell University earlier in the
week, still the Southern writer
pointed to the report as a
of the type of obstacle which “a
few men in strategic places” can
throw in the path of young people
struggling for their rights.
She pointed out that a new clim¬
ate of opinion could only be
ed in the south by the good,
sponsible decent Southerners
My Date Reminder
An ANP Feature
May 1—May I*ay
May 1-7 — National
Week; Be Kind to Animals
Goodwill Week and National
Week.
the Citizens Councils in
sedition laws to
“Twisting an appeal
into grounds tor treason
tion endorsing the sitdown, and j
opposing “all manifestations of j
discrimination and inequality.”
TV Among show those participating in the j
were Albert Rozier 'of
North Carolina A&T College in ;•
Greensboro, N. C.-, where the first
sitdown occurred; Marvin Robin¬
son of Southern University, Baton
Rouge, La., and Rolf Kjelspeth of
the University of Colorado. Rozier
and Robinson are Negroes.
Asked by Davis if any group
sponsored the first incident in
Greensboro, Rozier said it was
"completely spontaneous.” But he
said the movement there now has
some organized support.
Rep. Davis, in a preliminary to
one' question, read from records
which he, said were furnished him
by thy House Committee on un-
American Activities. He said the
committee had issued citations for
nine of 16 advisory personnel af¬
filiated with the Congress on Raci¬
al Eqtiality (CORE) which he said
was talking an active part in the
sitdoMn movement.
Mitfs Nash pointed out to the
Georgia Congressman that being
cited was not proof of un-Amer¬
icanism. “You could be cited,” she
told him. “It means nothing.”
selvest Mpb violence and the hood¬
lums and the police and the White
Citizens Councils can be controlled
if the better element of white
Southerners would break their sil¬
ence and speak out.
The South cannot and will not
change until we change our leader¬
ship and ourselves, declared Miss
Smith. The South as a region can
have its moment of truth only when
it begins to think of itself as a per¬
son, and opens its imagination and
its heart by taking the walls down
within itself. “Then it will come,”
she said, “And it will be a .healing
time for us and perhaps for the
whole world for we are so sensitiz¬
ed one to another, so closely relat¬
ed, with the common purpose of
creating a future, that whatever
brings wholeness to us as persons
will bring wholeness to others
across the world.”
During the question period Miss
Smith said she had received many
“nasty telephone calls and letters”
because of her racial views.. And
at least three forest fires had been
started deliberately in the vicin- j
ity of her Clayton, Georgia, moun-
taintop home.
“But 1 have suffered very little
compared with otheV people,” she
added. “1 haven’t been to jail.
But the young student? have.”
May 1-8—National Family Week
May 1-31—National Home Im¬
provement Month and Better Hear- !
ing Month *■*
May 4-8—Women’s International
Convention At The Church of God
In Christ, Inc., Meeting In Kansas
City, Kansas
South to apply sible result of
demonstrators. fine sedition.
civil rights Senate
just one pos¬ injustice.’’
Direction
By J. REDDICK
Freedom and Opportunities
One of the greatest challenges
‘hat anyone can have is freedom.
The values of freedom realized
depend upon the use that one
makes of the freedom that he
possesses. Freedom is an oppor¬
tunity. It is the open door.
Maik Twain tells a story of a
man who spent years in prison,
only to discover one morning that
the doors had never been locked.
This can be applied to many areas
of our life situations today. No
one deserves the values of free¬
dom who does not use that free¬
dom which he has. If freedom is
applied in harmony with its true
purposes, more doors will open.
I heard a speaker tell the fol¬
lowing incident: “I was approach¬
ing a closed door in New York-
City as I used the last few min¬
utes I had to board a train. Both
hands were full and packages
under each arm. I wondered how
would I get in, but I kept walking.
When I came to the door, it au¬
tomatically opened.” Many of us
can witness this same kind of
experience before we were accus¬
tomed to automatic doors.
It is not hard to recall inci¬
of this duplication in vari¬
life situations where freedom
been applied in harmony with
its true purposes.
Freedom is not a license to
“take it easy,” but an opportu¬
to make achievements. It is
not a chance to boast, “I do as
I please,” but an opportunity to
do something. Whenever it is
to serve a low taste it is soon
lost. A person with such dis¬
torted conceptions of freedom can¬
not do justice to a Christian civ¬
ilization.
A Scriptural reference: Luke
16: 19-31. Abuses of freedom can
serve as traps for perma¬
imprisonment to us; while
right use of it, whether it is
or much brings to us un¬
values. In this Biblical
it is not hard to see that
man who abused his freedom
in the face of, apparently, major
was trapped by the
of such abuses. The
other man who applied his free¬
dom rightly, apparently, in the
face of minor opportunities, was
blessed by the consequences of
such application.
As we use our freedom, these
days, in the face of opportunities,
it is wisdom to take the follow¬
ing questions as a guide: 1. Are
the doors of communication be¬
tween me and other people open,
regardless to our differences? 2.
Are my opportunities used to make
the world a better place for all
people to live instead of a small
circle? 3. What account will I
be able to give of my freedom
after my opportunities have gone?
4. Will I ever need the person
whom I neglect?
allowing the states to de¬
We cannot imagine the
such illogic and such
I
2)o Drops
By R. W. Gadsden
The consumer co-operative move¬
ment is not new to America or
some people in Savannah, but
it did receive a little more
than usual interest in this sec¬
tion of the country during the
early thirties, during the New
Deal Vogue. Perhaps the em¬
phasis was placed on co-operative
organization among farmers at
this time. The principle of co¬
operative effort, however, can be
applied to almost any field of en¬
deavor or any line of business:
Food services, utilities, clothing,
furniture, gas, oil, electricity, etc.
The principle of co-operative en¬
deavor which follows the Roch¬
dale plan, strictly adhered to, can
be made to serve the needs of
the average income, or better still,
it can be made to serve the needs
of the low-income earner. Of
course, the matter of leadership
is extremely important at any
level.
The plan recommended here fol¬
lows the line of the Rochdale idea,
that originally included: 1) Ev¬
ery member one vote; 2) every
membership fee the same; 3) all
purchases for cash; 4) prevailing
interest rate paid on investment;
5) profits distributed on the ba¬
sis of purchases, called a patronage
dividend; 6) a certain per cent
of the profits reserved for ex¬
pansion, and 7) only members
can make purchases. The plan
also includes provision for an edu¬
cational program in order to keep
members informed as to the his¬
tory, operation and merits of the
movement.
It may be news to many Sa-
vannahians to hear that about
25 years ago, there was a con¬
sumer co-operative here which did
very well. It lasted three years
and it did not cease operation
because it failed in the sense
that it lost money. It did not
lose money. It ceased because its
membership was made up of per¬
sons who found it too taxing to
be carried on by them who had
Between The Lines ■
By Dean Gordon B. Hancock for ANP
ONE CONGRESSIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS GESTURE
After all our congressional
and our vaunted deliberation, what
Congress did about the matter of
civil rights amounts to a feinted
gesture. In spite of Russia’s re¬
cent ultimatum concerning the Ber¬
lin situation our Congress finds
time for racial politics, with the
Southern bloc winning the day.
When it comes to fighting for
state rights and opposing civil
rights, the current combination of
Southerners of segregationist per¬
suasion is in a class by them¬
selves.
And so it seems that if Negroes
in this country are to enjoy the
immunities and opportunities of
civil rights, it must be by the irk¬
some and devious ways of attri¬
tion. Serious students of the
question had hoped that some way
could be devised to storm the fort
of civil rights, but evidences are
mutliplying that we must resort
to attrition and that is the “little
by little” methods.
When Israel had been brought
out of Egypt and had entered the
wilderness, they were told that
they would take the Promised Land
not by one full swoop but “little
by little” and little by little did
they conquer Canaan.
Strangely enough, when Israel
was being brought out of Egypt,
God fought their battles but when
they attempted to enter the Pro¬
mised Land they had to fight their
way into Canaan. Israel’s strug¬
gle is suggestive.
Evidences are multiplying that
from here in Negroes will have to
fight their way. The political mi¬
micry of Congress and its civil
rights efforts are not only, inter¬
esting but ominous.
Time, after time there has been
held up before this nation what
the nations of the earth are think¬
ing. but this nation pursues its
way seemingly oblivious or care¬
less of what the world may think.
When it comes to the liberation of
its Negro citizens what the South¬
ern segregationists think is the
most important.
From time to time this column
keeps on pressing the fact that
God and Time and Right are still
on the side of the oppressed. It
would be fatal for the Negro to
lose faith in God, for only through
faith in God do we see a silver
lining to the clouds that the civil
rights gesture casts over the Ne¬
gro's sun of hope.
Tlie Southern segregationists
have elected to fight it out along
attrUional lmeq and the Negroc:
SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1060
regular employment otherwise. For
three years, 35 persons including
school teachers, letter carriers,
ministers, janitors, doctors, etc.,
did the purchasing and distribut¬
ing of the groceries every week.
The membership fee was only
five dollars which earned the pre¬
vailing banking rate of the com¬
munity and which could be with¬
drawn at any time. Such a pro¬
vision was necessary because of
the prevalent ignorance about the
movement and because all of our
banking institutions toppled dur¬
ing the Depression of the late
1920s and early 1930s, and dis¬
trust was kindled of anything
which looked like Stock companies
or businesses that required put¬
ting up money. This resistance
kept the organization from getting
new members. It could have been
living splendidly today if it could
have increased its membership at
the time to 100 members, and
could be employing today a num¬
ber of persons in an expanded
business. You see, it is as sim¬
ple as this: Every member rep¬
resents a family*. A hundred
members would have represented
patrons. Multiply this by five,
10, 20 and what have you?
This organization had paid in¬
terest on the original investment
or membership fee for three
ye* s and for each year had
paid a patronage dividend which
for the last year amounted to two
or three times the membership
fee. It would take more than
$5.00 to organize a co-operative
now because of the increase in the
cost of living and because co-oper¬
atives are now subject to some
form of taxation, besides a newer
approach to organization recom¬
mends that a portion of the mem¬
bership fee be set aside for ini¬
tial expenses: rent, telephone, fix¬
tures and perhaps a manager.
The purpose of this column is
served if it suggests something
that can be done requiring only
a little vision.
in the nature of the case must ac-
cept the challenge. Congress is
with the Southern segregationist
and has shown it in a hundred ways
and especially in its latest water¬
ed-down civil rights bill.
Israel was exhorted to take the „
land of Canaan little by little but
they took it. And so the Negroes
will take the fort of civil rights.
It must be remembered that from
here in the fighting will be most¬
ly the Negro’s and he must be
prepared to use every conceivable
lawful device.
If Negroes are to win their fight
they must know the potency of
the dollar, the job and the vote.
And it must not be forgotten
that character will play the lead¬
ing role; What is currently going
on in the “big leagues” with Ne¬
groes starring every day is but
a dramatization of the role that
performance will play in the fu¬
ture.
Every Negro who manipulates
the vote and the dollar and the job
to fullest advantage is like W’illie
Mays or Willie McCovek knock¬
ing the ball out of the park.
There are many parallels be¬
tween the Israelites in Egypt and
the Negroes oppressed in the Old
South. And it must never be for¬
gotten that it was God who de¬
livered the Israelites from Egypt
and it will be God who delivers
the Southern Negro from the thr-
alldom segregation and its hell¬
ish concomitants.
It has been said that the man
who comes back for one more
round cannot be whipped. Al¬
though Congress persists in com¬
ing up with civil rights gesture
bills, the negro is not lost
so long as he keeps coming
back for another round. The Ne¬
gro lost out in his current bid for
a honest to goodness civil rights
bill but he will be back for an¬
other round.
*
Sight must never be lost of the
fact that the issues involved in
bring to full fruition a civil rights
bill that guarantees full citizen¬
ship to Negroes are spiritual is¬
sues.
There must be a spiritual trans¬
formation of the soul of America
before the Negroes of America
are free. Power and might are
at present against the Negro and
his aspirations.
But we are told that it is “not
by power and might but by my
opirit ^aith the Lend.’’