The Omaha guide., 1933-10-07

mans soul with his appetite. Mans an
petite is essentially the carnal part of him
and his soul is the spiritual part. AS "meat
and drink are not the kingdom of heav-
en" then meat and drink evidently has no
spiritual relation to a mans soul. It is not
q moral question nor is it a spiritual one.
And not being either it is not a question
for the church to handle. It s a question
which belongs to Caesar" and not the
Church.
We have watched the trend of the
noble experiment" since its inception
and while we have never been able to in
dorse this law or subscribe to its policies
and principles, deep down in our hearts
we wanted to see it succeed. Our OPPOSE
ton against it was for economic and in
dustrial reasons. We never attached anv
credence to the exaggerated and Utopian
promises the advocates of the amendment
made for their pet measure, that we
would need nc more jails; the asylums
would be empty; the banks would be
bulging with money; every man would
have q full dinner pail: after ten wears
the youth of the land would not knows
the taste Of booze; For every closed sal
Don there would be a thriving busy gro
Ger, clothing, or mercantile, house; !, and
many other claims. How many OF. these
claims are true, a good many Of us know!
We as Negroes know well as in refer
ence to the full dinner pail, not only did
we not have a full dinner pail. but We
couldn't even get . pail to fill. we feel
safe IN our declaration that the Negro
was injured more than any, other group
on the advent Of prohibition. Before that
event we were employed as walters and
porters in -95 per cent Of all saloons and
70 per cent of all hotels, cafes. and
restaurants. The closing of The saloons
threw over 100000 Negroes out Of en-
ployment almost overnight. Soon~tbere
after their places in the dining rooms
were taken by white girls or white ,hovs
Large numbers was used on nuhl;c VOL.
and street work before p~rohibition. Soon
tne complexion began to gradually
cnange until now seldom if ever z can 4
black face be seen on a public works lob.
AT the time, most all the janitor work
was done by Negroes; as it was with the
other jobs, soon it was with this. Negro.
es were replaced by whites. W. awoLe
one morning to find that two fallacies
mad been exploded, namely: That the
white man would not stoop to the clean.
ing OF floors and sucpidors. and that tba
Negro had jobs which were his hv r;oht
Of birth. iight
p We are not unmindful of the fact that
we are the last hired and first fired. It
was obvious to every one who has follow
ed the laws of self preservation of what
would necessarily happen to the Negro
when the white man had been forced off
his job. It what has been said here is true,
why would a Negro want to petition
against the repeal of the 18th amend
ment? Had prohibition been successful
in only n instance one may be con-
strained to yet have some hope for the
noble experiment" Instead of reducing
the percentage of drinking, immortality
and crime, it increased to proportions
known before. John Barlevcorn
was almost dead in 1919 when prohibition
came in. Any saloon man at that time
could tell you that he was not selling S
gallons of whiskey per week, but when
the 18th Amendment went into effect it
increased in price and demand by leaps
and bounds, where it had been bringing
20 cents and $1.OO per quart, it was bring
ing $1,000 and $500 per quart. Without
the 18th Amendment the percentage of
whlskey drink in this country would not
have been as much as nineteenth as # has
been since it's passage.
Why should the Negro not want re-
peal?