Cayton's Weekly

Cayton's Weekly PRICE FIVE CENTS CAYTON'S WEEKLY Published every Saturday at Seattle, Washington, U. S. A. In the interest of equal rights and equal justice to all men and for "all men up." A publication of general information, but in the main voicing the sentiments of the Colored Citizens. Subscription $2 per year in advance. Special rates made to clubs and societies. HORACE ROSCOE CAYTON..Editor and Publisher Entred as second class matter, August 18, 1916, at the post office at Seattle, Wash., under the Act of March 3rd, 1916. TELEPHONE: BEACON 1910 TELEPHONE: BEACON 1910 Office 303 22nd Ave. South DECORATION DAY That annual "marching along" of the Grand Army of the Republic was held yesterday and another Decoration Day is now history. Yes the men, who make up this army, are not only marching along, but rapidly marching away never to return, and each year as we view these feeble blue coated veterans wend their way to the graves of their departed comrades we see the number growing smaller, their former measured tread shorter and their energies feebler, and silently we pray, long may their memories live. Wars in this country have come and wars have gone, but the veterans of none call forth the pleasing memories as do the veterans of the Great Civil War. No, not so much because it was brother against brother, but because it was a war for human freedom. The Revolutionary war was for independence of government and the men fought bravely for the right of self government, not that they were slaves of English lords, but they objected to being subject to English rule. The war over the sore spots began at once to heal over and the memories thereof soon forgotten. The war of 1812 was for having England mind her own business, but no soon over and its memories began to fade. The Mexican war was for territory and that acquired and the war ended the veterans thereof were soon lost in the prevailing commercial spirit of the times and they had little or nothing to say about having licked Mexico. But the Great Civil War was for human rights, for the overthrow of oligarchy and the enthroning of equal rights, for the freeing of human beings from inhuman masters and for preventing one half of this country being free and the other slave. All of which formed a bond of brotherhood among those who fought for human rights, that will never grow old or cold so long as there are more than one of them left to tell the tale, and those citizens who were not actually in service, but partook of all the Christian patriotism of those who were at the front are as closely bound to the brotherhood arising from this war as the participants, and they, like the old battle-scarred veterans, who are marching along, cherish the memories which Decoration Day so vividly reminds them of just as tenderly as do the "old soldier" himself. Again, we repeat, may the memories that made it necessary for an Annual Decoration Day never be beclouded and may those old veterans for human rights pass the remainder of their lives in comparative ease and comfort. May each recurring Decoration Day be an inspiration to see another and may God help us one and all to ever scatter flowers along their passing pathway. A PAIR OF THEM That both W. E. Du Bois and Emmett J. Scott are men of more or less importance as well as usefulness in the uplift work of the body politic of the colored citizens of the United States is well known to all manner of man in this country, but when they pit their usefulness against each other and call upon he public to choose between the two then to speak plainly and to the point they are both making genuine damphools of themselves, and at the rate they are traveling in their personal rivalry its only a matter of a very short time before both of them will be eliminated from the race leadership. Way down in his heart of hearts Du Bois knows that Scott tried to get all out of the war situation for the colored citizens of this country that his circumscribed position would permit. His position to be sure was but a sinacure and only created for political buncome, and was operated under a chief wholly antagonistic to any good arising therefrom, but even at that Scott did some little good and no harm, and a half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. He realized from the very outset that anything he got for the colored folk was like finding it and so, using the vulgar vernacular fo the street, he did "his damdest." After, however, its all over comes Du Bois and practically accuses Scott of entering into cahoots with the Democratic colorphobia fanatics to prevent the colored soldiers from getting a square deal, which to us is preposterous. Like Du Bois, way down in his heart, Emmett Scott knows Du Bois has and is doing all within his mind and soul to make conditions better for the colored man in the United State, but he, Scott, hits back at Du Bois' Crisis article in an open letter, which falls little short of declaring Du Bois a traitor to his race and, like the Mexican greaser, hanging round to thrust his deadly stilleto into his, Scott's back. The letter was well written and with far more between the lines than on the lines. Both Scott and Du Bois are well educated and both well supplied with vituperative venom, and they have the ugly faculty of cutting and injecting their poison into the incision and yet smile most charmingly all the time they are doing so. Taking it all in all both Du Bois and Scott have thoroughly convinced all who have read their bellingsgate against each other that both of them are such hideous monsters that to be hated they need but to be seen. The white man of this country will see to it that neither DuBois, Scott or any other colored man or woman reaches any very great eminence in this great governmental fabric and it seems a wilful waste of valuable time and energy for one colored man to set out on a like mission against another colored man. Even if we can we will not all act alike. One will not see things in the same light as do others, but a happy medium can always be struck by persons with knowledge in their heads and Christianity in their hearts. Whether DuBois possesses a greater numebr of human faculties than does Scott or vice versa the public is wholly indifferent and if the two possess an equal number and are to spend their equal human faculties in trying to silence the other, then VOL. III. NO. 52 the public will see to it that both are silenced, so far as directing the way to a better life is concerned. The world is plenty large for both of them and they, we trust, will soon fully realize this. Cut it out. LEAGUE OF NATIONS Sheared of is verbose and rawhide and bloody bones rot we quite agree with Senator Reed in that it would be an imposition for the league of nations to grant to Liberia, Panama and all like distinct nationalities, whether their population be black or white, an equal vote with the United States with a population of from 20 o 50 times greater than such governments in the league of nations' parliament. Those black and tan nations of course would never rule the league of nations covenant, though admitted on equal footing, but to admit them on equal footing is but borrowing trouble, which could be obviated by the United States withdrawing from Europe and permitting this league of nations to fall of its own weight. Senator Reed's speech was simply a resurrected Tilmanic tom tom and the colored man as usual the bug bear to frighten the babies into submission. If the league of nations ever directs the destinies of this world, as its advocates hope it will, then the United States will have to send roops to every cock fight that is pulled off in Europe, Asia or Africa, which will prove to be a source of everlasting annoyance to the citizenry and in less than a decade the name of Woodrow Wilson will be a hiss and a by-word from Maine to Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the league of nations will only be known to damn. EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS With no experience as a restaurant keeper, Mrs. J. C. Cogswell blundered into the business and made much success of it. Then she blundered into the grocery business and was likewise successful in it. Now she has broken into the ranching business and from the foundation she has lain success in it is bound to come her way. Better to be born lucky than rich. Let's hope that Mrs. Mann will do as well on her Eastern Washington farm lands as she is reported to have done on some acreage in Alaska near Fairbanks, which she now has rented out, and if she does both her self and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Gregg will soon be rolling in the lap of luxury. When newspapers with no more general information than has the Chicago Defender can secure a circulation of one hundred thousand then it is quite evident that its readers are moved to do so with either the hope of seeing their names or their friends' names in print. A people who have no higher ambition than to reap the flowers and thereby destroy the prospective fruit will never rise very high. However much in love one may be with the publishing of a weekly paper, yet there come times when it is edited under most trying circumstances, and that seems to be our situation on this occasion, but the wind does no blow one way all the time, and we live in hopes though we die in dispair. 1. Look Who Is Coming To Seattle JUNE 5, 1919 For the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will lecture at the And tell you all about it. N. A. A. C. P. SPRING DRIVE President Samuel H. Stone will act as chairman of the evening at the James Weldon Johnson meeting next Thursday evening at the Y. M. C. A. hall. Dr. F. B. Cooper is not a constant visitor to the branch, but he brought home the bacon last Monday evening. The Campaign Committee has thought it advisable to discontinue the published program idea and other arrangements will be made. Each church, however, will be supplied with a speaker and a complement of four solicitors, but in case any member of the branch sees that there is a shortage of either speaker or solicitor volunteer to help. During this rally, let every member become a soliciting committee of one to get new names. Dr. Arthur Williams made a noble fight and gave them more than value received for their money at the dance, but came out three dollars to the bad. A vote of thanks, however is in order for his good work. Mrs. N. J. Asberry will head a committee that will take the Hon. James Weldon Johnson to Tacoma June 6th. He will speak in the Baptist Church in Tacoma and Mrs. Asberry is hopeful in having a Tacoma branch set up on that occasion. W. H. Wilson has done very effective work in the N. A. A. C. P. drive. If W. L. Presto is to continue to disturb the peace and harmony of the public meetings of the N. A. A. C. P., then the branch ought to either expel him or he expel the branch. James Weldon Johnson will tell you things next Thursday evening that will be music to your souls. Samuel H. Stone, president of the Seattle branch, will preside at the Johnson meeting. Rev. W. D. Carter, like oil, soothes the troubled waters when everybody wants to be heard. New Incumbent—"The next question, dear friends, is the carol singing. From what I learn, I think a couple of tenors would brighten the singing and—er—I think I can get them for you." Choirman—"Thank'ee, sir, on behalf of the singers. I'm sartain sure it will make us sing more 'earty like. You see, sir, last parson was here twenty year, an' he never gave us a penny." SANDERS & COMPANY LOANS NEGOTIATED 1003-1004 L. C. Smith Building Office Hours From 8:30 A. M. to 5:30 P. M. Seattle, Wash. Phone East 179 Calls Made Promptly Day or Night PENN UNDERTAKING CO. Funeral Directors and Embalmers H. Alfred Lewis, Funeral Director 1215 East Marion St. Seattle Elliott 4662 Open to the Public EVERY EVENING From 8 to 12:30 P. M. Come and See Something New With Up-to-date Music M. C. HARRIS & ROBT. DISHMORE, Props. 1238 Main St., Seattle Phone, Beacon 136 --- AMERICANIZE AMERICA Eight and a half million persons in the United States over ten years of age can not read a newspaper, billboard, car card, sign, booklet or letter in the American language. Five and a half million of them can not read anything in any language. These astounding facts demand the immediate consideration of the nation. The war has remonstrated some of the dangers from large number of foreign-born persons who have not been assimilated or Americanized. It has also brought to light thousands upon thousands of native-born Americans who can not read or write. These illiterates and aliens outnumber all the people in Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, Arizona, Idaho, Mississippi, Vermont, Rhode Island, North Dakota, Oregon, Maine, Florida, Connecticut and Washington combined. They exceed the total population of the Dominion of Canada. As voters, their ballots will outweigh the influence of greater New York, Philadelphia and Chicago in national affairs. Such people must be educated at least sufficiently to read the Constitution of the United States and American newspapers and to know something of what it means to be an American. This problem is national. The South leads in illiterates. The North leads in non-English speaking. Seventeen and one-fourth per cent. of the people of the east south central states are illiterates, but 15.8 per cent. of the people in Passaic, New Jersey, can not read, speak or write English. Sixteen per cent. of the people of the south Atlantic States are illiterates and so are 13.2 per cent. of the people of Lawrence and Fall River, Massachusetts. These civic and economic "seconds" are beyond all help from printed warnings or advice in the English language. Their ignorance and inaccessibility to essential public information are constant drags upon progress. The Secretary of the Interior has graphically painted the situation by the nationally accusatory questions he has asked in his recent letter to the President: "What should be said of a world-leading democracy wherein 10 per cent. of the adult population cannot read the laws which they are presumed to know? What should be said of a democracy which sends an army to preach democracy wherein there was drafted out of the first 2,000,000 men a total of 200,000 men who could not read their orders or understand them when delivered, or read the letters sent them from home? "What should be said of a democracy which calls upon its citizens to consider the wisdom of forming a league of nations, of passing judgment upon a code which will insure the freedom of the seas, or of sacrificing the daily stint of wheat or meat for the benefit of the Roumanians or the Jugo-Slavs when 18 per cent. of the coming citizens of that democracy do not go to school? "What should be said of a democracy which permits tens of thousands of its native-born children to be taught American history in a foreign language—the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's Gettysburg speech in German and other tongues? What should be said of a democracy which permits men and women to work in masses where they seldom or never hear a word of English spoken?" A bill before Congress directs the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Education to co-operate with the several States in the education of the above-mentioned peoples and in the preparation of teachers for the work and appropriates money for the work. "A State, to secure the money, acts through its chief school officer and shall not participate until it has required the instruc Tailors and Cleaners. Clothes called for and delivered. Hats retrimmed and blocked. H. S. Frazier C. W. Curtest tion of illiterates and non-English speaking minors more than 16 years of age, in the American language, for at least 200 hours per year. Federal money shall be used only for salaries or training teachers and no Federal money shall be used for buildings or equipment or for support of religious or private schools. Each State receives money in proportion to the number of her illiterates and persons unable to speak English as compared to the total number of such persons in the United States. The other provisions of the act concern details of administration. These 8,500,000 when taught to read will be an immense new market for every form of merchandise. They will mean 8,500,000 new readers of newspapers, periodicals, farm journals, books in general and advertisements of manufactured products. At present they can't make use of any product of the printer's labor. They can't read even a moving picture title or a Victory Loan poster. The elimination of illiteracy means the elimination of falsified merchandise and the reduction of cheating by manufacturers and retailers who rely upon illiterate groups for their main support. Secretary Lane has said: "It takes a brave and very ambitious man to lift himself out of such an environment. Easily he becomes a victim to the shrewd, predatory padrone or boss. He falls into debt and becomes mortgaged to ignorance and squalor for years. His ideal of America has suffered a change. 'And is this freedom?' he says to himself, as with tired back he bends to his work, without hope that the burden will be lighter tomorrow. He can not read the signs which warn him of danger. He cannot read of the opportunities which city and country offer. In his own land perhaps he is too tired, too hesitant to learn this strange, difficult tongue. Is it any wonder if to this dissatisfied stranger the voice of one who speaks to him in the language of home has authority and carries far? And if this voice preaches a discontent and violent discontent, as the one sure path to better days, is it strange that he should listen? Who are the men who master this new world? Plainly the ones he knows, from whom he has suffered. Do these same men control everything; are there no sweet places of refuge? He can find no one to make him see the greater America. The whole of this continent is to him the cramped apartment, the dirty street, and the sweatshop or the factory. To the sweep of the great land and its many beckonings his eyes are closed. And in his isolation and ignorance and disappointment there is fruitful nesting place for all the hurtful microbes that attack society." From every humanitarian and business viewpoint, it is of the utmost importance to all with messages, educational or commercial, that these eight and a half millions be taught at least sufficiently to read a poster or a newspaper.—Yeoman Shield. "I thought you said the vest you sold me last week would not shrink," cried the indignant customer as he stalked wrathfully into the haberdasher's shop. "Quite right, sir," said the clerk. "If it should shrink all you have to do is to hand it back to us and we will give you a new one." That's just what I meant to do," snapped the customer, "but I was caught in the rain last night and now I can't get the beastly thing off." Private Pigley's people were good to him, but after receiving a pocket service book, a pocket Bible, a pocket album, a pocket French dictionary and a pocket edition of the poets he thought it time to say something. So he sent his mother a postcard. It read: "Please send no more pocket editions until I get some pocket additions." A lady decided to give a Christmas party, and purchased a hat stand which she ad- mired. While showing her purchase to a visitor her little boy came in and forgot to remove his hat. Thinking to teach him a lesson, she said: "Tommy, what did I buy that hat stand for?" "For four and sixpence," answered Tommy, promptly, "but you said that I was not to tell any one. The teacher had spent twenty minutes impressing on her pupils the correct pronunciation of the word "vase." The following morning she wanted to find out if the children remembered, so she turned to one little boy suddenly and demanded: "What do you see on the mantelpiece at home, Jackie?" "Father's feet, miss!" came the prompt reply. fflSarcastic Cabby (to stout old lady who has just paid the minimum fare, with no tip)—"Excuse me, madam, would you mind walking the other way and not passing the horse?" Old Lady—"Why?" Cabby—"Because if 'e sees wot 'e's been carrying for a shilling 'e'll 'ave a fit." Teased into it Boole had accompanied his wife on an excursion to the realms of bargains, and in the enormous building, with its many departments, had become separated from his better half. For an hour at least he remained lounging impatiently at the junction of many ways, where lifts, stairs, and passageways met, and then, tired and angry, he approached a shopwalker. "Sir," he said to the frock coated and suave attendant, in tones of righteous indignation, "I've lost my wife!" Back came the reply with stunning force: "Third floor and over the bridge for the mourning department." But Boole waited on. "Yus," said Bill, "it were superstition that made me marry my missus." "How's that?" inquires his friend. "Why, it were a toss up 'twixt her and Mary Jane. One day I was walkin' along, thinkin' wich of 'em I'd have, when I saw a cigar lying on the ground, so I picked it up, and blessed if it didn't say on it, Hav-anna. So I had her." Doctor—"Good morning, Mrs. Brown. Did you take your husband's temperature as I told you to?" Mrs. Brown—"Yes, doctor, I borrowed a barometer off a neighbor and put it on his chest and it said, 'Very dry,' so I gives him a pint o' beer and he's gone off to work." RICHARDSON'S UNDERTAKING PARLORS RICHARDSON'S UNDERTAKING PARLORS Embalmer and Funeral Director Office, Beacon 103; Res.. Main 5610 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF Washington, for King County. Robert W. Jeffery, Plaintiff, vs. Myrtle E. Jeffery, Defendant.—No. 135467—Summons for Publication. The State of Washington to the said Myrtle E. Jeffery. Defendant: You are hereby summoned to appear within sixty (60) days from and after the date of the first publication of this summons, to-wit: within sixty (60) days after May 17, 1919, and defend the above entitled action in the above entitled Court, and answer the complaint of the plaintiff, and serve a copy of your answer upon the undersigned attorneys for plaintiff at their office and post office address below designated, and in case of your failure so to do, judgment will be rendered against you according to the demands of the plaintiff's complaint, which has been filed in the office of the Clerk of said Court. The object of this action is to obtain a decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony now existing between plaintiff and defendant on the grounds of abandonment. MORRIS & SHIPLEY, Attorneys for Plaintiff. Office and Post Office Address: 55 Haller Building.