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VOLUME ~ NUMBER

FLINT, MICHIGAN, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1941.

DR
=

JEM

SON WINS IN LANO

Breaking Down Color
Line In Industry

By HOWARD COONLEY

FLINT, Michigan ~ Breaking
down the color tine in industry, full
equality of employment opportunity, and improving one~s efficiency so that he be an asset to
this nation, was contained in the
message delivered by Howard
Coonley, Board chairman of the
Walworth Company and chairman
of the National Association of
Manufacturers~ Executive Committee, on the date, August 26, before
the National Convention of Elks,
held at Atlantic City, New Jersey.
~The Negro in Industry~ was the
title of this adcress. s

The Flint-Brownsville News will
print the full text of that important address in a series of parts,
in serial manner beginning this
week.. The first part is here-in
contained:

~THE NEGRO INDUSTRY~

It is certainly a privilege to
speak of this great gathering of
fellow-Americans. It represents, I
am informed, lodges in 38 states
and the largest Negro organization,
outside of religious groups, in the
country.

One of the outstanding events of
my youth was a dinner party my
mother gave me in our Chicago
ie honos, of oe os foe sree

since, I have had many

pleasant contects with other Ne
gro leaders. We have discussed
many problems of American life~

Flint Boys Make
Good In 94th Engr.

On Maneuvers

From the beginning it seemed
that the boys from Chicago and
~ Detroit had all the jobs worthwhile in the outfit. But time has
changed many a position. The
hoys from: Flint are coming into
* their own.

Let~s begin with Royal A. Wingfield, now a corporal of the Flint
-squad in charge of nine privates.

Jesse (Bob) Liston has private
first class rating and is operator of
which does everything from digging
holes to sawing logs.

Private ist. Class Ollie Branch
lost his stripe for going A. W. O. L.
during the recent trouble but
there~s No holding. a good man
down, He'll get them back again.

Evekiel Ross is doing fine as
cook and due for a rating anytime.

Private 1st Class Woodrow W.
Brantley is Asst. Tractor driver.

Jimmie Barnett has left the Buck
Private Ranks for the P. F. C. Rating,
wp. F. C George Grinnage has
~charge of the largest truck in Co.
B. (a 4 1-2 ton Diamond T).

Not to be out done P. F C. Joe
Ray operates the twin to Grinnage~s truck.

P. F. C. Melvin Fuller is: Co. B.
Clerk.~ He also works
quarters and has charge of the
field Canteen.:

Brady Carpenter works in Co
B. Motor Pool.

Jerome Scott made Corporal for
Co. C.

Wm. H. Roquemore is Sergeant
and Section leader of 2nd section
ist Platoon Co. A.

There are only half dozen or so
boys from Flint without any rating and they are due anytime 98
there will be quite a few vacancies
when the soldiers over 26 get their
discharges. That will be around
mid-October.

~ ~Yesterday the Boys who went A.
W. O. L, during the recent uproar
which made nations headlines were
shipped via railway from Custer to
the Bivouack area some where in

may

in Head-:

*| danger and effort and sacrifice we

especially, in recent years, the
problem of the Negro in industry.
I have learned much from them. I
trust I have made some slight

~Largest Class

500 Freshmen
Form Skegee's

Group ~Carried

contribution to their thinking.

I was glad to accept this invitation to meet with you today in
order that I might assure you cf!
the interest ~of industrial management in enlarging the economic
opportunity of the Negro. It is not
your problem alone it is a problem of the American people. We
can solve it only through mutual
understanding. Such a __ relationship has been coming all too slowly, but now there is evidence. of
more rapid progress. Whatever -I
shall say here today is intended
sincerely~ to promote that under
A Common Cause

This is a time of trial and sacrifice for America~for al Americans~whether Christian or Jew,
Protestant or Catholic, Negro or
white, farmer of manufacturer,
employer or employee. The future
of. cur country~the future of all
of us together~is at stake in the
present emergency.

It is no less a crisis than the
nation faced eignty years ago. Then
the vital question to be decided was
this: Shall the United States be
forever. divided, one section holding
to humer ~slavery, the other
human freedom, no matter how
great the sacrifice? ~The decision
was on the side of freedom. That
group of our people which for 200
years had been enslaved was set on
the road to free citizenship in a
free nation~to work: its way up
ward, against the handicap of
prejudice and tradition.
It has been for you a_ long,

hard road, yet it is the ro3d that
has led and will lead you forward
After all, character is built by
overcoming great difficulties.
You have had to earn the progress
you have made; in that effort you
have gained strength to win a finer future

But now the road ahead for you,
for all Americans, is threatened by
forces that are resolved to establish a new order in the world. They
demand that certain peoples are
entitled to rule with an iron hand
and the rest must submit. As for
Afmericia, these powers aim at
control of the seas that surround us
and the peoples who are our neighbors. With such a ring~ around
this land. we could not keep our
way of life. Our hopes for reising
our scale of living, for making this
a land of increasing - opportunity
for all the races who have gathered here, would be ended.

It is the old, old conflict be.
tween slavery and freedom: There
can be no freedom for any race
among us unless we keep America
free. We are now working = with
might and mair: to defend the righ:
of all of us to live in a world where
good will among men, not fear and
hate may flourish~a world of free
men and free women, not of masters and slaves... We want a world
where we can freely carry on our
normal, peaceful occupations, a
world where we can. cultivate better relat with one another; a
world in which we can use our resources to open the door of opportunity wide for the men, women
and children who make up this
nation. That is the real issue of
the conflict between the democracies and those who would destroy.
them.

This emergency is clearing the
air. It is showing all of us Americans that the things we heve in
common are more important than
the things that divide us. It is
making it easier for us to move
forward toward a better understanding among our racial groups,
For in such a crisis we all have tc
le Amerfcans~Amerfcans above
all~we have to realize~ more fully
this common bond. And I am convinced we shall hereafter have a

ing of brotheriood~because of the

shall have shared.
Leokine Backward

ing backwad. We are all more interested, I hope in. what America
means to us todsy and what it will
to us in the years ahead
tan in the shortcomings and misunderstandings of the past. Let me
refer to the past only to measure |

rin. 1886. ee a ORE SI, SIRE spt a
In ~ addition to an imspection of;

% oe

new sense of unity~a stronger feel. | |

No people goes forward by look- |

On Sightseeing.
Tour Of Campus

TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE~(SNS)
Under the direction of J. J. Flood,
personnel director, more than 500 |
new students were introduced to
the many points of interest connected.with the history,. program,
and personne] of Tuskegee Institute through an orientation week
carefully planned for the openiny
of the famous Alabama __ school
founded by Booker T. Washington
60 years ago. é

Sight seeing tours included a bus
trip to Zion Hill, about a mile from
the campus, where a huge boulder
of Alabama marble bears a plaque
stating that Booker T. Washington
opened school on that spot in 1881.
The boulder is just a few feet from
Butlers Chapel which replaced the
church in which Tuskegee Institute started. Returning to the
campus the students passed the
home of Miss Caroline Smith who
was enrolled with Mr. Washington~s first students, and. graduated

the
pital, the Power Plant, ~Laundry
Agricultura] unit, William G. Willcox Trade School, Women's vocational buildings, Gymnasium and
Alumni bowl, Frissell Library,
Bpoker Washington~s -grave and
morument, the students were taken
through ~The Oaks~, home of Booker T. Washington, and the George
Carver Museum.

On Tuesday evening the newcomers had greetings from Mrs. J.
P. Cuzman, dean of women, Edward Adams, dean of men, Rev. H.
V. Richardson, chaplain, N. D.
Sprague, Librarian the _ registrar,
the treasurer, and the director of
public relations, and J. H. Palmer,
Tuskegee~s first registrar, now retired. Thursday night brought
greeting, from the heads of the
yarious schools of instruction, J. R.
Otis, agriculture, Mrs. Ophelia
Pearson, home economics, Der; J:
Max Bond, educaticn, Wm. C. Curtis, Mechanical industries R. E.
Epicely, commercial dietetics, Cleve
Abbott, physical education, Dr. John
A. Kenney, health, Wm. L. Dawson music,

Keyhole Column
Editor Promoted

e

Again
WILL V. NEELY IN HIGHEST
BRACKET ATTENDED BY A
NEGRO
(Special to ne Brownsville News

y Lon Kingsly
Mt LINT. Mich:~ The sky is the
limit! That seems to be the motto
of a Flint Michigan Negro whose
name is Wilmer V. Neely. One of
the most astonishing feats ever attained in the United States Army
came to light last week when it
was learned that a Negro, Wilmer
Neely had been promoted FOUR
times in Sixty days. Neely was inducted into the Army last April.
A few days later this was followed
by the promotion to Staff Sergeant.

It all started when Neely, a former editor of a column in the
Flint Brownsville News decided
that since he was in the army he
would make the best of the whole
thing. He attended the Army College in Aberdeen, Md., graduating
in Specialization in Administration.
The Company was moved to Proving Ground, Illinois where he ~was
Fifth class, then a Corporal after
which came the elevation to Sergeant. Monday, September ist, he

was again this time to
Staff Sergeant.
The grade of Staff Sergeant is

reached
~tenant -
going,
people

offered. At the rate Neely
it
if

(Continued on Back Page)

_| Gepart each day, many with brief

Get Ready For Their Vote S To Count

Three more residents of the
quali
Nh ae ta a ~ School. co ae

astley, 637 ~Houston s

fying to vote in the next election as

treet; Mrs. Fa:

fifth ward were

this | 638

Lte r, Mrs dB ov

nie | (SNS Staff Photo).. it

Jefferson, 621 Houston Street; Mrs, Lucile Sims,
Houston Street, and.C. A.

Buise of Alpharet
a fe eee

Notes And Comments

From Washington

CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM W.
BLACKNEY SIXTH MICHIGAN
DISTRICT

TAXES~ at the time this letter
is written, the Senate has passed
the tax bill amounting to $3,583,900,000 by a yea and nay vote of
67-5. Inasmuch as the Senate had
made several amendments to the
tax bill, as passed by the House, it
will become necessary to report the
same back to the House for agreement. E

IN THE BILL AS REPORTED
BY THE SENATE, the personal income exemptions were reduced
from $800.00 to 750.00 a year for
single persons, and from 2,000.00 to
$1,500.00 a year for married persons. Credit for each department
remains at $400.00. This Bill as
passed by the Senate, will bring in
an estimated 4,911,000 additional
persons under the Federal incometax structure.

THE NORMAL TAX RATE on
individual incomes remains at 4 per
cent. The news surtaxes begin at 6
per cent on the first dollar of taxable income. The Bill contains a
provision imposing a $5.00 use tax
on automobiles~a provision which
effects 32,000.000 motor vehicles. It
doubles the present 3 1-2 per cent
automobile excise tax. It improses a
10 per cent tax on electric. light
bulbs and increases the levies on
numerous household articles, sporting goods and other items.

The 7 percent automobile Excise
Tax will result in assessment of
merely 80,000,000 a year on automobile industry, while 5.00 used levy
will provide an estimated $160,000,000 ore sr revenue.

CE PLACID SOUTHERN TEMPERED CITY of Washington has changed into a veritable bedlam. This once sleepy southern city of charm on the Potomac
has become the frenzied money
Capital of the world. Out of Washle of vs A th pore

money a e rate of
$175,000,000 a day, for loans to
Britain and other nations, and for
pepe ne

FLOODING INTO THE CITY to
direct or to touch, to fight for, or
to carry away, a part of this treasure, now hasten 45,000 people a day
by train, and another thousand by
airplane. An almost equal number

cases full of arms contracts; many
se broken hopes and shattered il
IN THIS CITY BY THE POTOMAC, a political bureaucracy, the
size of and power of which has
never been witnessed anywhere in
the world, holds forth over a conglomerate army of government
workers. From May 1940 to May
1941 government workers came in
to Washington at the rate of about
a thousand a week. Now they are
called ~Defense Workers~ and are
arriving at the rate of three thousand a week.

REASONABLE AND CONVENIENT HOUSING no longer exists
in Washington. The government
has taken over new apartment
buldings and unceremoniously removed the tenants therein. Rents
have skyrocketed and nothing has
been done about it. The cost of
living has gone up fifteen to twenty per cent and nothing has been
done about it. Traffic is perilous
and nothing has been done about
it.

COPPER SCARCE. Reports this
week indicate that cooper is rapidly becoming the leading raw material bottleneck in the National
Preparedness Program. The government has thus far found itself
unable to import enough from
Latin America and Canada to supply the needs of the broadening
preparedness demands,

LEND LEASE. Reports in Washington are that the first seven billion dollars of lease lend money is

-all committed now, and that. there

is no money left to provide the
volumn of aid whigh has been
promised to China, to say nothing
of Russia. It is believed by many

Washington observers that the Ad- |

ministration may ask for another
seven billion dollars to give to other countries in the way of supplies
and munitions, before the war is
ended.

AFTER ALL THAT HAS BEEN
SAID by Harold Ikes about the
conservation of gasoline, reports in
Washington indicate that Mr. Ikes
has a storage tank of gasoline on
his estate. Apparently Mr. Ikes is
going to see that he is supplied
with gasoline, even though other
citizens in the United States are

ge thereof. 4
CONTINUES TO

INCREASE throughout our country
for a full and complete national
defense, for which the tax payers
are to pay, but, unquestionably, the great majority of the
American people are America's participation in the European war.

Very sincerely yours,

~Wm. Blackney, M. C.

JUNIOR INTERVIEWER OUSTED

CHICAGA~(ANO) ~Bernard A
Edwards, junior interviewer in the
state _labor.. de

~ficials of the Civil

CAA Refuses To
Discuss Bases
In W. Africa

Rumors Of
Construction
Draw No Comment

WASHINGTON, D.C~(A N P)
~Reports of building~ airports in
Liberia to facilitate overseas transportation nave begun to gain wide
Aeronautics
authority are loathe to discuss any
phase of the contemplated plans.

Although much has been said
about these fields, which would be
landing bases for commercial
planes and useful to the United
States and her allies in the event
of war, it is admitted tacitly that
they are planned as a long range
insurance in the far flung defense
building scheme.

And as part of the~ defense
plans it is -practically assured they
will go through.

Information on the location and
the size of the fields will not be
made public, although there is

every reason to believe they will |

compare favorably with the reported Dekar bases being constructed by the Franco-German
forces some 500 miles north of
Liberia. |

Sparse information that the
fields are to be built at or near
Monrovia, the capital of the republic, filter through the screen
of secrecy surrounding the whole
matter.

Such an additional recognition
would be of inestimable commercial value to the natives and bring
additional prosperity to the African republic.

LINCOLN BEGINS 87TH YEAR
OXFORD, Pa.~~(A N P)~Lincoln university, oldest institution
in the United States for the higher education of Negro young men,
began its 87th year Tuesday with
the largest number of applicants
in its history and its dormitories

filled to capacity in spite of _ the

draft.:

ADDS 320 TO MEMBERSHIP
TUSCON,. Ariz.~Because she

keenly felt that injustices to which
Negro soldiers are subjected should
be stopped, Mrs. Roswell Skeel Jr.,

for~ the Advancement cf Colored
People and included an extra contribution of $20.

"| or

By HERMAN CLAYTON >

CLEVELAND O-~Rev. D. V.!
Jemison president of the National |
Baptist Convention since last ~December by special action of

office Wednesday night in
Cleveland Civic auditorium. \

He received 1,194. votes, while his
only rival for the office, Rev. J.
C. Austin, received 193. The. other
Officers of the convention were
re-elected by acclamation. The
line-up remains: A. L. Boone,
Cleveland, vice president atlarge; Rev. S. A. Owen, Memphis
vice president; J. M. Nabrit, American Baptist Theological seminary,
Nashville, secretary; Benjamin J.
Perkins, St. Louis, treasurer; R. C.
Barbour, Nashville, editor, National Baptist Voice; W. H. Haynes,
Chicago, attorney; E. W. Perry,
Oklahoma, first regional vice-president; T. S. Harten, Brooklyn, second regional vice. president -atlarge; Roland Smith, Atlanta, statistican; T. S. Boone, Fort Worth,
historicgrapher; and W. H. Jernagin, Washington, director, National

i %

Austin Runs
Poor Second

-

Rioutous ag it seemed, it as just
a tune up for the wild demonstrations that marked the next day~r;church is entitled.

Rev.. Henderson contended that
the hoard recommendcd the
amending of this clause, thus permitting a church to have as~~Many
additional] delegates as it could pay
for. When Rev. Jemison ruled Rev. -
Henderson out of order, screaming
delegates rushed to the front, and
catapaulted the convention: into 4
bedlam. It was literally impossible
to hear oneself talk. Again. the
convention had to adjourn... ~
But order was never to be re-.
stored.. The delegates remained @

voleanic, undisciplitied group, sub-.

Baptist S.S. and BYPU..

Be
visitors and camp followers to the number of an estimated
5,000 descended upon Cleveland,
taxing severely ~the ability of ~the
citizenry toe accommodate them:
ELECTION ON THEIR MINDS
Their loins girded for battle, they
listened. tolerantly to the rousing
gosrel singing, the special music,
the departmental reports, and other
features otherwise highly enjoyed
They were not deceiving them--
selves. They came to elect a president and they did not try to hide
the fact.:
The old-fashioned devotional
services were scantily attended
while the majority of the delegates swarmed in the halls and
ante-rooms, in caucus groups, reaffirming allegiances and outlining
strategy.
Those that chose to be present
the first two days were witnesses
of two of the wildest. sessions in
convention history, according = to
the old timers. Rev. A. T. Stewart
of Texas, who has attended every
convention for 50 years, stated that
they were even more unruly than
the famed Chicago convention of
1915, in which the famous split oc:
curred.

gh

oe

introduced when Rev. T. S. Goodall
of Houston objected to the blanket
approval of the convention agenda
read by the assistant _ secretary
Rev. E, Arlington Wilson. Yelling,
~You won~t railroad things in
Cleveland,~ Rev. Goodall claimed
that the agenda did not provide
for the, hearing of amendments to
the constitution awaiting the meet.
ing of the Board of Managers. ey
The mentioning of these amendments, aiming at the limiting of the
term of president, and the election
of officers by secret ballot, touch.
ed off the first bombshell. Angry,
shouting delegates, their teeth
clinched, and their arms, wildly
swinging, gathered about the plat.
form and raised their voices to a
habble so deafening that business
was suspended for over two hours
The question was never settled.

Disorder and confusion was first |,

president~s message |
before the National Baptist Convention on the eve of the election
ursday.

4 pee J

ison cited the futile efforts of men
and nations to fashion an ~

son, ~ tried to
a new order of things

complish the st
Kaiser failed in 1914, and Hitler
will fail in 1940 and 1941. ~...4
~True there fs neéd of a chang-.
ed order of things in the world,~
Dr. Jemison avowed, but he denied
it could be accomplished by

by force in

in

i

whether Nazi, communistic, or~
democratic. The only way he said
the world can find a way out is
through the yielding of the humad.
heart to the*promptings of. ~the.
spirit of-God. Ste
NFED AWAKENING,
Speaking of our own country, Dr.
Jemison said, ~Here in our ows.
country, are told. that the.

Republican
same thing if it hi

either of them? ~:

&

that the real need of American
is a moral awakening, and

|
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Annapolis

of the navy,

_Negro Messmen.

WASHINGTON, D. C~(ANP)~Not only are they net

The ranking Negro is a machinist~s mate, ~ petty officer, who~ |

ae

Won't Call

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