Twin-City herald. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1927-1940, 1927-06-11
The Observer
By Fred G. Thomas

Through the immense pressure
brought to bear on the administration
regarding complaints and criticism
about treatment of our people in the
flood area, Secretary of Commerce,
Herbert Hoover, has appointed an
auxiliary Negro Committee, headed
by DR.. Robert R. Motion; R. H. Taylor,
Bishop R. E. Jones, T. C. Campbell,
J. o. Thomas and Miss Era D. Bowles,
to have charge of the work among
Colored women and girls. If all re-
ports are true the appointment has
come none too soon.
A few days ago read of the sale
of the West hotel; "The Old Home
stead" While the West has changed
hands number of times, this is the
first time it has passed out of local
ownership. l believe the present
owners are Chicago people. Of the
members of our group who helped
open the West in 1884, only two are
now living. "Little" Joe Mathews,
retired Millionaire" and Wendall
Latimore, who is still employed. The
"Old West" was the first field of my
activities in Minneapolis and for
twenty years helped serve the great
and the near great who were shelterc.s
within it's walls. An interesting story
is told as to how colored help came to
be installed. 1t seems that the choice
of white or colored was left to COM
mittee of seven big business men who
were stockholders jointly with Col.
West. One of the seven was Mr..
Thomas Lowry then president of the
Street Railway Co.; at the time of
voting Mr.. Lowry was out of town
and the vote stood three for white and
three for colored leaving the deciding
vote up to the St. Paul Railway presi-
dent to decide-in a few days he re-
turned, and the question was put up
to him-he Immediately replied, "Give
it to the colored boys, they have lit
tie enough to do as it Isl" and so both
waiters-bellhops -doormen-hat-r
men and porters were all of our
group.
From the windows of the West,
high and low I saw all the big build
ings in Minneapolis erected: The
Masonic Temple, Cream of Wheat
Building, Butler Bros, the present
home of the New England, Wyman-
Partridge went to Forepaugh Circus
on the lot where Mcdonald Bros.
building stands at 1st Ave. No. and
9Th St. and that was before the base
ball park was built on the same cor
ner.
Speaking of Cream of Wheat re-
minds me of a bit of history. The
inventor of Cream of Wheat was a
Minneapolis man but he was poor
and did not have money to put it on
the market and properly advertise it
and as breakfast foods were practical
ly new to the public he could not get
the necessary financial backing and
I know when stock in Cream of
Wheat could be bought for fifty cents
a share. Finally the Clifford Brothers,
rich ranch men from out west, inter-
ested themselves and bought the con-
Germ outright. AS you know they
used as their advertising trademark
the picture of a colored cook in the
act of preparing or serving Cream of
Wheat to two children of one of the
Clifford's. Very few people know
what a struggle the Cliffords had in
using their Negro cook in their ads.
Magazine after magazine, periodicals
in large numbers, refused to accept
their ads, unless they discarded the
cook; but they as steadfastly refused
to do so and finally won out.
And the result was that soon big
business began to notice that ad; they
woke up to the fact that it was that
smile that was the chief attraction
and they began to copy, no one ever
saw smile or broad grin or the face
of a person in an advertisement be-
fore-no such thing was thought of;
everybody was as sober and sedate as
deacon. But now note the difference
and Cream of Wheat, the Negro cook
and the Cliffords started it all.
RETROSPECTION