PAGE TWO
ARIZONA SUN
xHE VOICJE OF 60,000 NEGROES IN ARIZONA
Published Every Thursday by the
ARIZONA SUN PUBLISHING CO., INC. ’
1927 South Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona PHONE AL 3-3682
Subscription Rates 10c Per Copy 53.00 Per Year
Six Months- $1.75
Three Months . . sl.ov
fCT Cents to Mail Overseas
All Inquiries concerning advertising rates should be secured
f at the above address
D. F.
Fredonia Benson - Assistant Editor
Registered'as Second class matter July 2, 1948, at the Postoffice at
Phoenix, Arizona, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Big Things and Little Things
f Here is a sound rule-of-thumb that every householder can
profitably follow: If your ,fire insurance has been in effect for a
/number of years without review or revision, it’s an odds on bet
that you are seriously under-insured.
Since 1945, the statistics show, the cost of home building has
just about doubled. So, if your home fire insurance policy dates
back to that or some comparable time, you can imagine what
could happen to your pocketbook if fire strikes.
What is true of the home itself is true of practically every
thing inside of it. For instance, the cost of household furniture,
women’s clothing and dinnerware—items found in every home —
has more than doubled since 1940. The cost of washing and sewing
machines has almost doubled. A similar inflation in the cost of
the “little things,” like book and bedding and curtains and so on
has taken place. These “little things” add up to a surprisingly
big total when an accurate inventory is made.
The remedy is for every householder to consult his local insur
ance agent and bring his coverage up to date. In many cases the
householder will find, to his pleasure, that adequate insurance
may not cost him much more with a new combined or single
policy than he is now paying for inadequate insurance through
two or more separate policies. (Shreveport Sun)
The Post Office Problem
The financial problems of the post office department have been
in the headlines. The Postmaster General had to go to Congress
for a $47 million deficiency appropriation to carry the department
through this fiscal year, and he estimates that, unless rates are
raised, the deficit in the next fiscal year will reach $651 million.
Writing of post office troubles in the New York Times, Jay
Walz points out that Congress has this broad problem on its hands
—should it treat the post office as a business or as a public service?
Mr. Walz adds: “If it is business, then postage charges should be
raised until the post office can pay its own way But just recently
a Senate advisory committee turned in a report saying the post
office is mainly a public service and its deficits are, therefore, not
deficits at all, but expenses to be absorbed from taxes.”
This “public service” argument may have validity when i,t
comes to carrying matter which contributes to public knowledge
and entertainment, and which is not in direct competition with
existing private business. But it has no validity in the case of at
least one service—parcel post. Parcel post is not a basic postal
service function—it did not come into existence until 1913. The
law creating it specified that it should be self sustaining and that
it should not unnecessarily compete with private parcel or express
organizations. But the fact is that it is in direct competition with
such organizations, on a tax-suhsidjzed basis—and that during
much or most of its life it has operated at a deficit.
Here is one place, at least, where the charges for a post office
service should fully reflect and cover all the direct and indirect
costs of providing that service.
~let
IMS SUN
SHINE IN YOUR HOME
If your neighborhood is not serviced by an Arizona Sun news
boy, just step around the corner to the nearest newsstand.
Here is a list of stands for your convenience:
Rosner Pharmacy 901 East Jefferson Street
Norman's Pharmacy 1402 East Washington Street
Reddy's Corner 1602 East Jefferson Street
Lee Jew Market 1503 East Washington
Jim’s Food Market 1110 East Washington
Southern Drug Store 624 South 7th Avenue
Broadway Pharmacy 1608 East Broadway
Nelson’s Grocery 2803 East Broadway
EDITORIAL PAGE
ARIZONA SUN
flo Comment /
By James W. Douthat.
Editors Note: “No Comment,”
should not be regarded as nec
essarily reflective of National
Association of Manufacturers po
sition or policy, for it is a re
porting of incidents and conver
sations which its author, Ass’st.
Vice President Government Re
lations Division thinks might be
of general interest.
WASHINGTON—The most im
portant development in the
great economy drive is action
of the United States Slenate
in matching the House effort
to cut the $71.8 billion budget.
In the past the House fre
quently has cut hundreds of mil
lions from appropriations re
quests, only to watch the Senate
restore the cuts or even increase
the total.
Thus, over the years, the Sen
ate has had a reputation of sup
porting the big spenders in gov
erment.
But this year it seems that
leadership of the Senate—back
ed by the membership—has em
barked on a different course.
The aim is to support appro
priation reductions made by the
House.
The first test came on passage
of the Treasury-Post Office ap
propriation bill, which totals
over $3.9 billion. The Senate
agreed to the House reduction
of SBO million under president
budget requests.
POSTAL SERVICE MAY BE
CUT—Because it contains ap
propriations to pay interest on
the government debt, and to run
the Post Office, the Treasury-
Post Office appropriation bill
usually is the most difficult of
all budget proposals for Congress
to cut.
In upholding a House reduc
tion of SSB million in the Post
Office fund Congress may be
inviting a reduction in postal
services. Postmaster - General
Summerfield has said this would
be the case.
But Senate economy-bloc lead
ers took the position that the
Post Office Department should
make every effort to absorb the
reductions—and the question of
more money to avoid service
cuts will be taken up later.
OTHER SENATE BILLS—Oth- •
er big appropriation bills will be
coming before the Senate in the
next few weeks.
Whether President Eis en -
hower’s defense of his budget
will have the effect of stemming
the economy drive is uncertain.
But economy leaders believe
that this will not result if pro
test against extravagant govern
ment spending continues.
POLITICAL RECRIMINATIONS
—Some effort has been made
to make political capital out
of thle budget this
appears at this time to have
fallen flat.
It is a fact that both Demo
crats and Republicans are among
the leaders in Congress in the
fight to cut the Eisenhower bud
get. It also is true that both
parties contain adherents of the
spend-tax-elect school.
Congress—in the opinion of
such economy leaders as Sen.
Bridges—is responding to a gen
(Continued on page 6)
FACING THE FACTS
W. A. Robinson
Back in 1926 a group of Negro
women representing Parent
Teacher Associations in Negro'
schools in Alabama, Georgia,
Delaware, and Florida met to
gether and organized the Na
tional Congress of Colored Par
ents and Teachers.
In some twenty states of the
Union the National Congress of
Parents and Teachers was a
, “white” organization that was
doing a job for white schools
that was needed even more in
the Negro schools. The Negro
, communities were forced by cir
cumstances to tax themselves
voluntarily, over and above the
public school taxes which both
whites and Negroes paid, if the
schools for Negro children were
to have even a few of the edu
cational facilities which the
schools for white children re
ceived from tax funds. Such
things as sanitary containers
for drinking water—a necessity
for teaching health habits, paper
napkins to spread on the desks
at lunch time, soap for hand
washing, window shades to pro
tect the children’s eyes from the
glare of the sun, or even bigger
things such as a well to be fitted
with a pump, library books, paint
to cover ugly walls, or a slide
film projector, would be lacking
in Negro schools unless the par
ent organizations provided them.
The Negro P.T.A.’s struggled
along as individual local orga
nizations for som'e years with
out the help that could come
from cooperating with like or
ganizations with similar prob
lems. Finally with the help of
the Jeans Teachers state or
ganization of Negro P.T.A.’s were
formed. White P.T.A.S’ in the
south belonged to the National
Congress of Parents and Teach
ers, which had been organized
many years before, by a south
ern woman in Georgia, but Ne
gro P.T.A.’s could not join. There
was no literature available to
them except such of the N.C.
P.T. manuals as individuals could
get into their hands.
So it was a rather momentous
undertaking that these four
state organizations of Negro P.
T.A.’s faced in organizing a NA
TIONAL Congress of Colored
parents and teachers. I happen
ed to be president that year of
National Association of Teachers
in Colored Schools (now the
American Teachers Association).
Negro teacher organizations in
* the south could not belong to
the N.E.A. hence the need for a
national association of south
ern Negro teachers. I received a
letter that year from the presi
dent of the newly organized N.
C. C. P. T., Mrs. H. R. Butler
of Atlanta asking if the organi
zation might come into the fair
ly strong and stable NA.T.CB.
VETERANS NEWS
Nearly 40 percent of the World
War n GI life insurance policies
now in force have been convert
ed from term to permanent
plans, Veterans Administration
announced today.
Ten years ago, the figure was
21 percent and five years ago
30 percent.
Os. 5.4 million National Serv
ice Life Insurance (NSLI) po
licies in force at the end of Feb
ruary 1957, more than 2.1 mil
lion were of a permanent plan
type, VA said.
Most popular permanent plan
THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1957
as a department. After thinking
it over, I made a judgment of
which I have always been happy
and which the N.C.C.P.T. came
soon to appreciate for they grew
rapidly almost at once. I replied
to Mrs. Butler that they didn’t
need to be a tail on the kite of
thte NATOS; they, could fly
their own kite and go higher.
They did come to Nashville to
our meeting that year but they
took my suggestion and organiz
ed independently. Several other
states joined them at that meet
ing.
The National Congress of Col
ored Parents and Teachers be
came a strong, well known, and
highly respected organization to
which the Negro public schools
of the south owe a great deal
for the help they received from
it. As did the American Teachers
Association and the N.E.A. the
NCCPT and the NCPT formed
are intergroup committee and
in £he cases of both pairs of
organizations these intergroup
committees are being very use
ful in merging the groups now
that integration has been start
ed. As states become integrated
in the schools the teacher groups
and the parent-teacher groups
join the integrated national
group.
This week in Cincinnati the
National Congress of Parents
and Teachers is meeting. Re
presentatives from Arizona are
there and good ones. This will
be a joint meeting of the two
national groups and some of the
states groups now with the NC
CPT will join the NCPT. Many
of the state organizations of
the NCCPT however must wait
until integration advances
further in the south. Laws in
the south like the adolescent
ruling of the Georgia Board of
Education that public school
teachers and public school stu
dents may not attend national >
and regional meetings of in
tegrated organizations, will pre
vent Negro and white teachers
and parents in some states from
meeting together.
These laws are being protest
ed in some states by the more
liberal whites and, I will pre
dict, will be the first segrega
tion laws to be carried to the
courts by southern whites.
The walls of separation be
tween the white and Negro seg
regated worlds are crumbling.
This is just another example
that segregation in America is
on the way out.
There are Negro teachers and
parents in Phoenix who remem
ber when Negro parents could
not meet with the white parents.
It is interesting to me to have
seen the birth and the death
of an important and very nec
essary national organization.
GI policy is the 20-pay life, held
by 963,000 veterans.
Next in order of popularity
are ordinary life and 30-pay life,
each held by more than 400,000
veterans.
Endowment policies range
from the 20-year endowment
(145,000), down to endowment
at age 65 (55,000).
A total of 2,221 World War II
veterans have paid-up policies
on which no more premiums will
be due, VA said.
Permanent plan GI insurance
(Continued on page 8)