vol. 1, January insert

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

CENSORSHIP IN SAN JOSE

San Jose has established its Chief of Police as censor of handbills. An ordinance which has just become etfective prohibits the distribution of handbills “which are intended to or LIKELY to incite riots, racial prejudices, ENCOURAGE force and violence against the established institutions or which are contrary to peace and good order or the public safety.” The Chief of Police has been named to decide what is LIKELY to be bad for public consumption. It is clear that the ordinance is intended to discriminate against minority political groups and organized labor. The A.C.L.U. will institute legal proceedings to decide whether this isn’t a LIKELY unconstitutional law interfering with freedom of the press.

“RED” CHARGES AGAINST PROFESSOR DROPPED

The San Mateo Junior College Board of Trustees have refused to dismiss John G. Iliff, professor of economics. The Board held that the Legion had failed to sustain ~ its charges of “radicalism.” The attempted ouster grew out of Iliff’s participation in several meetings not endorsed by the American Legion. He gave accounts of experiences in the Soviet Union not quite as unfavorable as the patrioteers thought they should be. The A. C.L.U. helped in resisting this attack upon academic freedom.

WARNICK FACES DEPORTATION

Jack Warnick, 28-year-old former University of California student, who has lived in the United States since he was two years of age, faces deportation to Canada. Though acquitted in the famous Sacramento criminal syndicalism trial last March, Warnick on October 3rd was held for deportation because of PAST MEMBERSHIP in the Communist Party. The immigration authorities are using the SAME EVIDENCE against him on which he was acquitted in Sacramento. On December 20, an additional charge of “illegal entry” was filed against him. It was based on testimony he gave at his hearing that in the summer of 1931 he attended a student conference at Vancouver, “as a delegate from the University of Washington.” Warnick’s deportation means separation from his wife and parents, twho reside in the United States. A few years ago Warnick’s application for citizenship was denied because no RECORD of his birth could be found in Canada. If the Department of Labor now issues an order for Warnick’s deportation, the A. C.L.U. will institute habeas corpus proceedings in the U. S. District Court to test the ruling.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM???

Holding her allegiance to God above her allegiance to country, 9-year-old Charlotte Gabrielli refused to salute any but the Christian flag and was expelled from a Sacramento grammar school. “The flag of the United States is not the flag of Jesus Christ,” declared her father. The Gabriellis are members of a sect known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, who regard saluting any but the Christian flag as idolatry. In response to the A. C. L. U.’s offer of legal assistance, the child’s parents responded that they were keeping their daughter in private school, and that “you will no doubt hear from us later.” We join with the San Francisco “News” in saying, “Any statute requiring that the flag be saluted by school children is an insult to the Stars and Stripes, and ought to be resented by all patriots.”

NO JUSTICE IN SANTA ROSA TAR AND FEATHER CASES!

Mob violence in Santa Rosa has gone unpunished.After four months, though the victims of the tar and feather varty have identified over 20 vigilantes, Attorney Gen| eral U. S. Webb claims the local authorities are still “working hard” to secure evidence. The only effort to secure “legal justice” for these unfortunate people has come from the A. C. L. U. Two damage suits against Fred. Cairns, Secretary of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce and alleged ALIEN VIGILANTE LEADER have been filed in the U. S. District Court. The cases are being delayed by the usual legal technicalities raised by the defendant’s lawyers. At the suggestion of the A.C.L.U. Cairns’ status in this country is under investigation by the Immigration Department.

THE RECORD FOR 1935 During 1935 the A.C. L. U. secured thousands of dollars in damages to compensate for destruction of property by vigilantes following the general strike; it conducted a successful legislative campaign against suppressive laws; it fought the deportation of Ferrero and Sallitto, long-time U. S. residents, whose OPINIONS alone formed the basis of the action against them; and it raised $604 for the Sacramento C. 8. defendants, whose chief offense was organizing poorly paid cannery and agricultural workers. When 150 workers in Eureka were arrested on riot charges and were unable to secure local attorneys to defend them, the A.C. L.U. promptly provided counsel. It defended the right of academic freedom for teachers and students in numerous cases, protested discriminatory radio practices, campaigned for civil liberties through various types of publicity, etc., etc. The A.C.L.U. is the ONLY organization that defends civil liberties on ALL fronts. JOIN THE A. C..L.U!

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BRANCH AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 434 MILLS BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO Phone EXbrook 1816 ERNEST BESIG, Director January, 1936