Advocate Register_1951-02-09

ADVOCATE REGISTER (Designed to Read) Published by Oliver Smith News Agency (Established 1943 OLIVER E. SMITH, EDITOR Office 1453 N. Williams Ave.-EM. 7266 ATwater 2551, 3411 S. W. First Avenue, Pordand I, Oregon Free from Services ~f Any Special Intere&ts The News As We See It. The Editorials Are Our Opi,nions IN MY OPINION AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR MAHONEY FROM ONE DEMOCRAT TO ANOTHER Senator Thomas Mahoney, Senate Office, Salem, Oregon February 1, 1951 Portland, Oregon Dear Tom: Your vote on the marriage ( miscegination law) was not questioned, but your vote or comments on the bill unquestion– ably lost some votes (DEMOCRATICALLY). The intent im– plied is not personal but ethical in the inter-marriage question. The implication of white and Negro marriages does not mean that the unborn child has security-as is, he has non– security or the alternative. (Abortion). The 24th and 25th Infantry has been wiped out in Korea fighting for the Democracy that you and I know. The inter-marriage of different racial backgrounds 1s not questioned as good or bad. The fact that white men marry Negro women or Negro men marry white women (and they do in both instances) gives the unborn children a place and a name in our integrated society. The vote also gives rise to the "WHERE CAN WE GET REVENUE DEPT). Washing– ton State has no miscegination law and its easier to get to the court house in Vancouver for marriages of any sort than to Multnomah County court house due to the "parking problem". Of course, the Republican sponsored bill, recommended by the Governoq Committee on Indian Affairs intended to rule out the chances or the fact that babies born to illigitimate unions, of any racial ba~kground, might become wards of their respective parents, rather than wards of the state, in baby homes. I admonish you to secure data on illigitimate babies born to white and colored mothers and you will be surprised at the greater number of "white" babies born to colored mothers because of the miscegination law, that forbids their white fathers from matrimony with their mothers. I know of a num– ber of cases where the children are taken care of by their illigitimate fathers. I am not opposed to inter-marriages for that reason alone. Our democracy depends on the freedom of the individual to love and marry whomever they please or choose. I do wish if the statement you made, had to be made, a Republican could have made it. Democratically yours: OLIVER E. SMITH. CHRISTIAN OR ELSE The Church of the People, 4033 University Way, Seattle, Wash. Fred W. Shorter, Minister and Editor. Marguerite Bro, well-known writer in the field of religious education, writes from Java to the Christian Century of some personal experiences in Hongkong, Indonesia, Burma and Formosa which indicate in unmistakable ways that the old white superiority stuff is out. Whites lining up in Hongkong for_ taxes had little chance against Chinese. They usually had to walk, as M. Bro herself did. In· Bangkok Siamese were very alert to any indication of white superiority attitude. In Singa– pore there had been a riot in which scores of European auto– mobiles were burned. A small incident set it off. Why? The reply was, "They're out to get the whites and take anything as an excuse." Even in polite Japan Mrs. Bro found the people edgy, sensitive, proud and belligerent. She concluded that the advice of Jesus about the brother– hood of man was not just a fine set of principles it would be nice to practice. It is now, she thinks, a matter of survival. We'd better have the dark-skinned people as allies if we wish to survive! "We can't kid anybody with fine phrases; by the time they are translated they seem hollow." So when she re– turns to the USA she's going to be more open, more honest and more humble in her friendships with dark-skinned friends . In the rural sections of the South a high percentage of our Negroes belong to the church. The 17 teachers who recently visited in the homes of 7486 people found that nearly two-thirds of these people were church members. The persentage who were church members was 61.7. But 29 per cent were children "too young to join." This only left 9.3 per cent of the adults and young people whowerenot members. But their record of church attenc;lance was not so good. In– formation was secured from 5333 people as to the number of times they attended church during "the last four Sundays." This is shown in the table below. Number of times 5333 people attended their church during · the last four Sundays: Number of Times Attended Number of Peo~le None ---------------·------------------------------- _ _ ________ 1383 Once _________ -----·---- ----- __ ---------- ___ ------·---- 899 Twice ------------------------------------------- ______________ 2120 Three Times _______________ ----------- _ 302 Four Times _---------- ___ _ ___ __ ______ _ 629 TOTAL ____ ---- 5333 Perct. 25.9 16.8 39.9 5.6 11.8 100:0 The 104 Pages of this survey distributed by the Rural De– partment, Drew Seminary, Madison, New Jersey for 40 cents a copy shows the reasons these people give for not attending church. "TAKE IT BACK"-SAY YOUNG DEMOCRATS At the annual meeting of the Young Democratic Club of Multnomah County Monday evening, January 22, a resolution was passed to return to Eric Johnston, National head of the Conference of Christians and Jews, the plaque awarded Port– land last year by his group for being the city showing most progress in race relations. The resolution read as folows: "Whereas on February 22 of last year the City of Portland was awarded a plaque by the National Conference of Christians and Jews during annual 'Brotherhood Week' for the city having made the most progress in race relations, and "Whereas the citizens of Portland on November 7 of the same year soundly defeated a civil rights measure which would have made it illegal for places of public accommodation to discriminate because of race, religion or national origin, there– fore be it "Resolved, That the Young Democratic Club of Multnomah County ask the National Conference of Christians and Jews' President, Eric Johnston, speaking here February 17, to take back the award, since by the vote of the people it was amply demonstrated Portland's citizens are not ready to practice what some of their leaders preach:: 'Brotherhood of Man.' " The club elected Bob Crosier of Reed College as its presi– dent. The board elected are: H. A. Anderson, Helen Parks, William McCoy, Jr., Carola Forrest, Ralph Golby and Richard Meigs.