vol. 6, no. 11

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE

“Eternal is the price of liberty.”

Vol. VI SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER, 1941 No. 11

HEAR ROGER BALDWIN SPEAK

Attendance Urged At Three Special A.C.L.U. Meetings

Roger Nash Baldwin, dynamic national director of the American Civil Liberties Union for over twenty years, arrives in San Francisco on the evening of November 4 for a three and one-half day stay in the bay area in the course of which he will fulfill eight speak- ing engagements. Three of the eight meetings have been arranged particularly for the members and friends of the A.C.L.U. in this section, although the general public is also invited. One of these three meetings will be held in San Francisco, the-second in Berke- ley and the third in Palo Alto.

We trust that our supporters will help in every way to make these three meetings successful, not only by their own attendance, but by bringing: persons who ought to become acquainted with the Union’s work. We are sure that all who come will be adequately compensated, because they will not only meet the nation’s outstanding leader in the field of civil liberties, but will find Mr. Baldwin to be a forceful, persua- sive and charming speaker. If you heard Roger Baldwin two years ago when he made his first trip to the coast since 1926, we are sure you will be eager to hear him again and to have your friends hear him as well. This is a rare opportunity that may not come again for many years.

San Francisco Meeting

The San Francisco meeting is in the nature of a luncheon at the Women’s City Club, 465 Post St. (near Mason), on Thursday, November 6, at 12:15 o’clock. Cost of the luncheon is $1.08 per\plate. Mr. Baldwin will speak on ‘‘National Defense and Democracy.”’ The local Executive Committee of the Union will be in attendance and Joseph S. Thompson, Committee member and past president of the San Francisco Symphony and the Bohemian Club, will preside. Mr. Austin Lewis, attorney and veteran civil libertarian, who for many years carried on the work of the A.C.L.U. in Northern California almost single handedly, will introduce Mr. Baldwin. Reservations should be made at the A.C.L.U. office, 216 Pine St., San Francisco, phone EXbrook 1816. The speaking program starts promptly at 1 o’clock.

Berkeley Meeting

The Berkeley meeting is an informa] dinner program at the College Women’s Club, 2680 Bancroft Way (corner of College Ave. and Bancroft Way), on Wednesday evening, November 5, at 6:15 o’clock. Cost of the dinner is 87c per plate. Reservations should be made at the A.C.L.U. office, 216° Pine St., phone EXbrook 1816. Reservations may also be phoned to Kathleen D. Tolman in Berkeley, at AShberry 5829. The subject of Mr. Baldwin’s speech is ‘‘Liberty In the Shadow of War.”’

Dr. Alexander M. Kidd, Boalt Professor of Law at the University of California, will serve as chairman of the meeting. Hon. Frank 8. Gaines, Mayor of Berkeley, will introduce Mr. Baldwin. The speaking program will start between 7:15 and 7:30 o’clock. Visitors not attending the dinner are welcome at that time.

Palo Alto Meeting

The Palo Alto meeting is sponsored by the World Problem Club. It will be held at the Parish House, All Saints Episcopal Church, Hamilton Avenue and Waverley Street, Paio Alto, on Friday evening, November 7, at 6:30 o’clock. Cost of the dinner is 65c per plate, and reservations should be addressed to Rev. Oscar F. Green, Box 322, Palo Alto, phone Palo Alto 4657. Visitors not attending the dinner are invited to come at about 7:30 o’clock. The subject of Mr. Baldwin’s address will be “Liberty In the Shadow of War.” Rev. Green will preside and Joseph 8S. Thompson will introduce Mr. Baldwin.

If you cannot attend any of the foregoing meetings, we suggest your attendance at one of the other meetings listed on Mr. Baldwin’s program. (See page 2.)

REV. GREEN AND PROF. HILGARD JOIN A.C.L.U. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Rev. Oscar F. Green, Rector, All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, and Prof. Ernest R. Hilgard, professor of psychology at Stanford University, were added to the local Executive’ Committee of the A.C.L.U. during the past month. The committee now consists of 24 persons.

ROGER N. BALDWIN

WHO IS ROGER NASH BALDWIN?

Roger N. Baldwin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, has been active in the many-sided fight for free speech since the beginning of World War No. 1. When the United States entered the war, he at once volunteered his services to the cause of civil liberties, severing his connections in public work in St. Louis, Mo., where he had lived for ten years since his graduation from Harvard: He organized the National Civil Liberties Bureau to oppose conscription, aid conscientious objectors and defended persons prosecuted for their opinions against war. When he was called to service late in the war, he refused to obey the draft act and was sentenced to prison for one year. On his release from prison he spent some months as a manual worker in the middle west to get first-hand labor experience.

He resumed the work for civil liberties in . 1920, expanding the Civil Liberties Bureau into the American Civil Liberties Union. He has been involved in all the free speech fights and campaigns since—affecting the rights of labor, of aliens, of Negroes, of political minorities and the issues of censorship and academic freedom.

Mr. Baldwin is also on the faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York. He isa member of the Harvard Overseers’ Committee in the Economics Department. He delivered at Harvard the 1938 Godkin Lecture on ‘‘Civil Liberties and Industrial Conflict’, published with a companion lecture in book form by the Harvard University Press.

In addition to his activities for civil liberty, Mr. Baldwin has been president of the American Fund for Public Service to which Charles Garland left his fortune. He is chairman of the International Committee for Political Prisoners, which organizes American support for victims of repression abroad. He is also a member of the direct- ing boards of numerous organizations, among them the National Urban League and the National Audubon Society.

Mr. Baldwin has spent considerable time in Europe in connection with international movements against war, imperialism and fascism. He made a two-months’ survey of liberty and repression ineSoviet Russia, covered in a book, “Liberty Under the Soviets’. (1928)

Mr. Baldwin, born in Massachusetts in 1884, is a Harvard A.M. 1906, who taught sociology at Washington University, St. Louis for several years. He later became executive officer of the St. Louis Juvenile Court, and is a joint author of a book on “Juvenile Courts and Probation’, written when secretary of the National Probation Association. He was active in social, civic and political reform work both locally in St. Louis and nationally before giving up those connections on the country’s entrance into the war.

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Roger N. Baldwin's Censor Attacked Speaking Program, November 4-7.

Following is the complete speaking schedule of Roger N. Baldwin during his brief stay in the bay area, Nov. 4-7:

Nov. 4—Tuesday evening, 8:15 o’clock, Jewish Community Center, California St. and Presidio Ave., San Francisco. Subject, “The Prospect for Civil Liberties.” Admission, 55c.

Nov. 5—Wednesday, 10 A. M., forum, faculty and students, Pacific School of Re- ligion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley.

Nov. 5—Wednesday, 4 P. M., tea, members of International House, Berkeley.

Nov. 5—Wednesday evening, 6:15 o’clock. Dinner meeting for members and friends of the A.C.L.U. and the general public at the College Women’s: Club, 2680 Bancroft Way (corner of College Ave. and Bancroft Way), Berkeley. Cost of dinner, 87c per plate. Subject: “‘Liberty In the Shadow of War.”’

Nov. 6—Thursday, 12:15 o’clock, luncheon meeting for members and friends of the A.C.L.U. and the general public, at the ‘Women’s City Club of San Francisco, 465 Post St. (near Mason). Cost of luncheon, $1.08 per plate. Subject: ‘National Defense and Democracy.”’

Nov. 6—Thursday evening, 8:30 o’clock, Jewish Community Center, 732 Fourteenth St., Oakland. Subject: “‘Democracy and the Jewish Minority.” Admission, 50c.

Nov. 7—Friday afternoon, 4 o’clock, joint meeting of the Student Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., Berkeley.

Nov. 7—Friday evening, 6:30 o’clock, dinner meeting, World Problem Club, Parish House, All Saints Episcopal Church, Hamilton Avenue and Waverley Street, Palo Alto. Subject: ‘Liberty In the Shadow of War.” |

SENATOR NYE, “MISQUOTED,” REPEATS THREAT OF SPEECH GAG

Replying to the Union’s query. about ‘Senator Gerald P. Nye’s ‘warning’ to Lewis W. Douglas, head of the Mutual Life Insurance Company and official of the New York Committee to Defend America, Senator Nye has written that he was “misquoted” as threatening Mr. Douglas with a Senatorial investigation into the business concern he heads if he did not maintain silence on national defense policy.

At the same time Senate Nye repeated the threat to Mr. Douglas’ right of free speech through action which, according to the Union, has no reference to the political debate itself. Said Senator Nye in his letter:

‘What I have said upon several occasions regarding the Douglas assertion was as fol- lows: ‘American insurance companies have long boasted about the fine security behind their policies. If Mr. Douglas does not refrain from, or keep still on this kind of scare talk, if he persists in these representations which he has been affording, he may well expect that Congress will want to know what is behind these life insurance policies, European or American securities.’ ”

MODIFICATION OF BLAND RADIO OPERATORS BILL HINTED

Modification of the Bland Radio Operators Bill (H.R. 5074), now before the Senate after passing in the Lower House, may be asked for soon by the Federal Communications Commission, following strong protests against the bill by the American Civil Liberties Union, the C.1.O. and various labor groups. The F.C.C., which favored the bill previously, is due to suggest modifications to the Senate Committee on Commerce, according to private advices from Washington. The bill, which would deprive marine radio operators of their licenses because of “subversive” activities, “bad habits” or intemperance, has been attacked on the grounds of its vague language and subjection of federal employees to capricious judgments.

In Steinbeck Fila Petition For Review

Review of the New York State Board of Censor’s action in refusing to license ‘‘The Forgotten Village,’’ documentary film of Mexican life, is sought in a petition filed with the Board of Regents of New York State by attorneys for the producer, PanAmerican Films. The Civil Liberties Union, through its National Council on Freedom from Censorship, has volunteered to help fight the case in the courts if the censorship order is not reversed.

The ban, based on scenes showing the birth of a child and a nursing mother, is at- tacked in the petition as “‘in direct conflict with public opinion.” Charges that the scenes which were ordered eliminated are “indecent” or “inhuman” are denied. On the contrary, says the petition, the picture ‘Gs the product of people of distinction and integrity, and deals with an important theme in a truthful, restrained and dignified manner.’’ Scores of eminent authorities and critics are cited as approving the pic- ture, written by John Steinbeck and directed by Herbert Kline.

“Sex is no longer taboo as a topic of conversation,”’ the petition points out. ‘In point of fact, violence and the baser passions are not strangers to the screen,” it is claimed. In addition, the petition sounds this warning: “If the screen is ever to become a mighty vehicle for the spread of ideas, it must present the truth without evasion and hypocrisy. Hiding facts is no use anyway. If the movies won’t tell people about life life will.”

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt heads the list of endorsers of the film cited in the petition. Others named include the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Dr. John Howard Lathrop, William Rose Benet, Miguel Covarrubias, John Erskine, Mark Connolly, Dr. Arthur L. Swift, Dr. Alvin Johnson, | Elmer Rice, Dr. A. A. Brill, J. K. Paulding, Dudley Nichols and Quincy Howe, head of the Union’s National Council on Freedom from Censorship. Distinguished book and motion picture critics are also quoted in the petition, as well as ministers, social workers, child educators and such newspapers as the New York Times, Brooklyn Eagle, Post and P.M.

Union Will File Brief In In Schneiderman Case

Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to review the case of William Schneiderman, California Communist Party secretary whose naturalization was cancelled by the Federal District Court of San Francisco, the American Civil Liberties Union will file a brief as a friend of the court to test the constitutional issues involved.

Schneiderman’s naturalization, obtained in 1927, was subsequently revoked on the ground that he was a member of an or-. ganization advocating “force and violence”’ and that his oath to uphold the Constitution | and forswear allegiance to any foreign power was consequently fraudulent.

The Schneiderman proceedings may possibly have a bearing on further judicial con- sideration of the case of Harry Bridges, West Coast labor leader whose deportation was recently recommended by Federal Judge Charles B. Sears. Judge Sears ruled Bridges was affiliated with an organization advocating the overthrow of government by force.

Among the cases in which the Civil Liberties Union is also interested and which are pending before the Supreme Court is the “Los Angeles Times” case, involving a contempt of court conviction for editorial criticism of a ruling of a Los Angeles court. After hearing oral arguments charging “censorship by oblique methods,” the justices took the case under advisement. The constitutionality of Tennessee’s $1-ayear poll tax, with which the Union also was concerned, was denied review by the Supreme Court justices.

U.S. Supreme Court Hears “Anti-Okie Law” Case

Following oral arguments that were concluded on October 21, the United States Supreme Court took under submission the case of Fred F. Edwards of Marysville, testing the constitutionality of California’s “anti-Okie” law which makes it a misdemeanor to aid an indigent to enter the state. Edwards was convicted in February, 1940, for bringing his brother-in-law — from Texas.

Edwards was represented by Samuel Slaff of New York, attorney for the A. C. -L.. U. Local A. C.-L. U. attorneys, Philip Adams and Wayne M. Collins, represented Edwards in the California courts.

Rep. John H. Tolan filed an amicus curiae brief in behalf of the House Committee in- vestigating interstate migration of destitute citizens. Tolan attacked the statute’ as violating the commerce clause of the Constitution and also claimed that Edwards was denied the equal protection of the laws.

The brief pointed out that similar statutes in twenty-seven other states will be affected by the Court’s decision on the California law’s constitutionality. ‘This case,” it contends, “is concerned with millions of persons, who, through no fault of their own, are in search of employment and new opportunities—the opportunity of being able once more to provide for themselves and their families.’’ National defense is also seen as an issue in the case, accord| ing to the brief, which poses the question: “Is this country to grow and develop as a single and united nation, or are each of us to be confined within the limits of fortyeight separate entities ?”

The Union's Stand In the King-Ramsay-Conner Case

‘Some misunderstanding has developed. concerning the A.C.L.U.’s position in the King-Ramsay-Conner case. The report has been circulated that the Union or its direc- tor, 1, have taken a position concerning the guilt or innocence of the men; 2, have urged © Governor Olson not to release them; and, finally, that the director was voicing his own opinion and not that of the A.C.L.U. when he stated that the Union had found no evidence to support the Defense Committee’s charges of frameup. THESE RE| PORTS ARE ALL INCORRECT.

The A.C.L.U. Executive Committee has never considered the question of the guilt or innocence of King, Ramsay and Conner, and is not directly concerned with it. Ob- viously, it has nothing to do with civil liberties and neither the Union nor the director have taken a position concerning it.

The Executive Committee has on two occasions examined the Defense Committee’s charges of frameup. Each time the committee was of the opinion that such charges had not been established. The last time the committee considered the question it examined the pamphlet “Crime Without Punishment,”’ issued by the King-RamsayConner Defense Committee. The minutes of that meeting read as follows:

“The director was instructed to prepare a written statement in the ‘Ship Murder Case’ declaring that in the Committee’s opinion the pamphlet ‘Punishment Without Crime’ does not establish that the convictions were brought about by manipulation of public officials nor that the confession of Conner was extorted.”

Recently, Governor Olson indicated that he might release the men in the near future, but at the same time he characterized “as ‘false propaganda’ assertions the three had been ‘framed and railroaded.’”’ The director commented solely on that angle of the case to the Governor, saying, in effect, “We did not find any civil liberties issues either.” That letter was not intended nor should it be construed as taking a position concerning the guilt or innocence of the men, nor opposition to their release. Neither of these questions comes within the scope of the A.C.L.U.’s activities.

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TIME TO GIVE To THE UNION

Test Application of Peddling Ordinances To Jehovah's Witnesses

Decisions upholding local ordinances applied against Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York and Vermont are challenged in briefs filed in the Court of Appeals of New York and the Supreme Court of Vermont by attorneys for the Civil Liberties Union acting as friends of the court. Both cases involve denial of constitutional rights of freedom of speech, press and religion to mem-— bers of the unpopular minority religious sect.

Argument on the New York brief, drawn by Judge Dorothy Kenyon, attorney for the Union, was recently heard by the Court of Appeals, and a decision is expected to be handed down shortly. The defendants in the case, George Bohnke and Mrs. Henry T. Brown, were convicted last March in Suffolk County Court of violating a Southampton, L. I., ordinance forbidding the distribution of tracts, pamphlets or advertising matter on private property. The Union’s brief argues that the ordinance was not intended to apply to religious pamphleteers, but was directed against sneak thieves, beggars and peddlers. It is contended that the ordinance is unconstitutional and void as an “invasion of the rights of free speech and free press” when applied to distributors of non-commercial pamphlets.

In the Vermont case, the defendants, Mrs. A. E. Clemons, Charles Clemons, Henry Johnson and Elva Greaves, were convicted in Rutland Municipal Court of violating an ordinance prohibiting itinerant peddling and auctioneering. Waldo C.. Holden, Union attorney, held in his brief that the ordinance violated the interstate commerce clause of the United States Constitution and — that its application to Witnesses impairs the. defendants’ constitutional rights of freedom of speech, press and religion.

HABEAS CORPUS PROCEEDINGS FREE JEHOVAH'S ‘WITNESSES

A recent novel decision by Federal Judge James V. Allred, of the Western District of Texas, freeing seven Jehovah’s Witnesses on a writ of habeas corpus after conviction in the County Court of Atascosa County on charges of ‘unlawful assembly”, is hailed by the American Civil Liberties Union as another step toward federal intervention in cases where the right of appeal is in effect defeated by state courts.

“Judge Allred’s decision,” said Roger N. Baldwin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, ‘‘not only established federal jurisdiction where judges in other districts have declined to recognize it, but it also will tend to check the lawless violence against Witnesses which has been more marked in Texas than any other state.”

In granting the application for habeas corpus, Judge Allred held that “perhaps the most serious aspect of this claim of invasion of the constitutional rights of these petitioners was the fact that, under the laws of Texas, the trial court of Atascosa County is the court of last resort in a case where the fine assessed is not more than $100—that there is no appeal provided for by the statutes of this state or constitution.” Although the right of appeal to the United States Supreme Court does exist, he continued, “that right can be defeated by the very manner in which it seems about to be defeated in this case—that is by the petitioners being compelled to serve their jail sentence until the time within which they could be reasonably expected to perfect their appeal has expired.”

The court also issued a blast against persecution of Witnesses and found that it was “plain” that the petitioners “have been illegally convicted, not only without sufficient evidence, but in the face of the evidence.”’

Contributions Solicited Now To Fill $4480 Budget For’42

Every member and friend of the A.C.L.U. is urged to contribute NOW in the annual drive for funds to carry on the work of the local branch of the Union during the fis- cal year ending October 31, 1942. The Executive Committee has set the goal at $4480, or about $373 per month. This represents an increase of $480 or 12 per cent over our $4000 budget of the past six years. While the general economic conditions justify this

Union Offers Aid To Bridges Defense

With the case against Harry Bridges facing a court fight, the American Civil Liber- ties Union has offered its services to Richard Gladstein, chief counsel for the San Francisco labor leader, in “contesting what will doubtless be the order of the Depart- ment of Justice to deport him.”

The Union’s offer was based on two issues involved in the case requiring deter- mination by the U. S. Supreme Court. One of these, according to the Union, is whether an alien who is or has been a member of the Communist Party or affiliated with it is subject to deportation on that ground alone. The second issue-is whether the Communist Party in fact advocates, within the meaning of the statute, the overthrow of government by force and violence.

‘These issues are of such importance in law and public policy,” the Civil Liberties Union wrote Attorney Gladstein, “that the case, in our judgment, will benefit by the participation as amicus curiae of organizaof civil liberties.

UNION PUBLISHES PAMPHLET ON MINNEAPOLIS TRIALS

With trial of the “seditious conspiracy” case against twenty-eight defendants opening on October 27 in the Minneapolis Federal Court, the American Civil Liberties Union has just published a pamphlet, ‘‘Sedition!’’ presenting the facts on “the first federal peace-time prosecution for utterances and publications since the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798.” Persons desirous of contributing to the defense may do so through the Civil Liberties Union, which has endorsed the appeal for funds of the Civil Rights Defense Committee created to. aid the defendants. :

The prosecution is considered of crucial importance to organized labor and champions of civil liberties. The defendants include the leadership of Local 544—CIO, Motor Transport Workers’ Union, and members of the Socialist Workers’ Party. The A.C.L.U. has participated in the preliminary hearings and, in the event of a conviction at Minneapolis, will test the constitutionality of the law under which the indictments were secured. The defendants are charged with violating those portions of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 which penalize advocacy of the overthrow of government by force or incitement to disaffection in the armed forces. :

COURT ACTION CAUSES SCHOOL BOARD TO ALLOW AMERICA FIRST MEETING

Following the filing of a petition for a writ of mandate to compel the Santa Monica School Board to permit the use of a school auditorium for the America First Committee, the school board reversed itself and granted the application for three meetings. Superior Court Judge Emmet Wilson, however, refused to dismiss the suit because the board failed to grant November and December dates that had also been aptions speaking solely from the point of view: increase in the budget, it may be well to remember that the Union ended the last fiscal year with a $350 deficit (met out of the Thomas T. White fund), so that an increase of $830 in the present income is needed to meet the budget. We hope that our supporters will show their approval of this slightly larger but still slim budget, by come a dollar or two to their usual donaions.

No Special Appeals

Since the Union put its budget plan into operation in 1936, it has pledged itself not to make annoying special appeals for funds, if its supporters would fill the budget at the time of the annual drive. By careful spending, because the meager budget has never quite been raised, we have made only one special financial appeal to our supporters during the past six years.

As we have said before, subscriptions at this time serve to place the organization on a business-like footing, and concentrate our fund raising activities so that there is a minimum of interference in handling civil liberties issues. Consequently, we hope you will contribute now, rather than at some other time during the year.

How Much Should You Give?

How much should you pledge or contribute? We need some $50 and $100 contributions from those who can afford them. We hope, too, that the general contributions will contain many $25, $15 and $10 dona. tions. Indeed, such contributions are necesSary in order to gain an average contribution of $7.50 per person to fill the budget. Sending as much of your pledge ag is convenient, or the entire amount, will save us the cost of future billing. Won’t you please fill out the enclosed pledge card and return it to us without delay?

Of course, the appeal is not directed to those who have already made pledges or contributions for the ensuing year. If anyone is in that class, or if he needs money as badly as the A.C.L.U., please ignore the request for funds. Also, we appreciate full well that many of our supporters can afford only the minimum dues of $2.00 a year.

The Budget

Following is the budget adopted by the Executive Committee:

Salaries = a, $2,820.00 Printing and Stationery .............. 755.00 Rent . Be : ... 330.00 Postage 3050 225.00 Telephone and Telegraph ...... 100.00 “ Tvaveling. 225.0. 100.00 Publications ... See 50.00 Miscellaneous .....0.0...00....0---.-50.00 Furniture and Equipment............ 25.00 Waxes: 22) 25.00 Total: 222. a $4,480.00

plied for. No further report on the case has been received at this. writing.

In Berkeley, patrioteers have petitioned the Berkeley Board of Education not to grant the use of the schools as meeting places to the America First Committee. The board has indicated that it will not pass on the question until an application for such use is made. Local Communists, who have also been the target of patrioteers petitions against the use of the schools, nevertheless are reported as supporting the proposed discrimination against the America First Committee.

American Civil Liberties Union-News Published monthly at 216 Pine Street, San Fran- cisco, Calif., by the Northern California Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union. Phone: EXbrook 1816 : ERNEST BESIG Editor Entered as second-class matter, July 31, 1941, at the Post Office at San Francisco, California, under the Act of March 8, 1879. Subscription Rates—Seventy-five Cents a Year. Ten Cents per Copy

Court Martialed C. O. Gr ante d Honorable Discharge From Army

After serving almost five months of a six months’ sentence imposed by a court mar- tial, Archie Gallatin, San Diego school teacher and conscientious objector, has been released from the guard house at Fort Ord and been granted an honorable discharge from the United States Army. The commander of the Ninth Corps area decided that Gallatin had been “improperly inducted.”

When Gallatin was drafted last February, his board placed him in Class 1-AO (non-combatant service in the army). Apparently, both the board and Gallatin be- lieved such classification granted full recognition of Gallatin’s conscientious objec- tions. In any event, Gallatin claims his board told him that “the army would give me civil constructive work as provided in the Selective Service Act.”’

When Gallatin went through the induction station in Los Angeles, he refused to take the military oath. Nevertheless, he was sent to the Medical Corps at Fort Ord and requested ‘‘to string along’ while the Army decided what to do with him. Finally, when he was told that the Army would take no action on his case, Gallatin refused to obey orders. On May 12 he was. court martialed for refusing “to put on his uniform and fall out to help clean the barracks for inspection.”” He was sentenced to six months at hard labor and “to forfeit fourteen dollars per month for a like period.” The latter penalty was no loss to the objector because he had refused to accept army pay.

Gallatin appealed to the A.C.L.U. for assistance last July.. His case was at once called to the attention of the Selective Service System in Washington and to interested groups. The former immediately undertook an investigation, but the usual red tape delayed Gallatin’s release until last month. Gallatin’s draft board will now undoubtedly reclassify him as a conscientious objector to do work of national importance under civilian direction (4-E).

$500 Reward Put Up In Tennessee Mob Violence

A reward of $500 has been offered by the A.C.L.U. to the first person supplying in- formation leading to arrest, conviction and imprisonment of any person or persons who participated in the mob violence against: two C.1.O0. organizers in Roane County, Tennessee, on September 25.

According to reports received by the Union, Oscar Wiles and Homer Wilson. were returning from an organizational meeting at the Mead Corporation’s paper — mill in Rockwood that night when a mob of masked vigilantes overtook their car, fired rifles and revolvers at them, shattered three of their windows and their left rear tire, and beat them with bushes, sticks, blackjacks and whips.

’ After slugging the union organizers into unconsciousness, the mob drenched them with steaming tar. A mob leader is reported to have said during the flogging: “We're not going to pay Northern wages in. Tennessee.”’

The Union’s reward offer has been duplicated by the Tennessee Industrial Union Council, C.1.0. Following failure of Tennessee authorities to take action in the case, the Civil Liberties Union urged United. States Attorney W. E. Badgett at Knoxville to institute Federal proceedings.

Union Urges More Protection For Conscientious Objectors

To avoid prosecution of genuine conscientious objectors, a group of twenty-six dis- tinguished citizens, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, have urged Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of the Selective Service System, to recommend a change in the Military Training Act t Congress. 7.

In their memorandum to Gen. Hershey, the signers, including prominent ministers, attorneys, and members of the American Legion, pointed out that the administration of the present Act “has resulted in the imprisonment of over 200 men who refused to comply with the requirements for registration.” They asserted that the granting of total exemption only to ministers and theological students is too rigid a restriction, since even England in war-time has adopted more liberal provisions for conscientious objectors. Advocating broadening of the law to meet the problem of conscientious objectors, the signers declared:

“Our Congress has granted total exemption only to ministers and theological stu- dents. If it is sound thus to recognize their loyalty to an authority higher than the state, it is sound to apply it to men of equal conscience who do not happen to follow their calling.”

Gen. Hershey was also informed that the present system of civilian service, under which work camps for conscientious objectors are organized by religious groups, “does not seem to us to meet the requirements of all men. The work camps organized by religious bodies fit the need of their members and some others; but there are many objectors who go critically and some who will refuse that assignment.’ According to the memorandum, “the appropriate remedy seems to us to be a provision for individual services outside these camps which, under the law, you may authorize.” Adoption of these two steps, the memorandum concluded, would ‘‘insure that, as in Great Britain, no genuine conscientious objector shall be imprisoned, a policy against which no reasonable criticism can be made.”’

The signers included Ernest Angell, Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge, Prof. Howard K. Beale, former Rep. Herbert S. Bigelow, Prof. Edwin M. Borchard, the Rev. John Warren Day, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, L. O. Hartman, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, the Rev. John Paul Jones, Prof. Rufus M. Jones, the Rev. John Howland Lathrop, Dr. William Draper Lewis, Frederick J. Libby, Bishop Francis J. McConnell, Dr. Felix Morley, A.J. Muste, W. W. Norton, Frank Olmstead, Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, the Rev. Guy Emery Shipler, Norman Thomas, Oswald Garrison Villard, L. Hollingsworth Wood, Mary E. Woolley and DeWitte Wyckoff. —

ATTY. GEN. BIDDLE VOWS TO DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE EMERGENCY

U. §. Attorney General Francis Biddle, according to the New York Times, recently declared: ; :

‘It seems to me that the most important job an Attorney General can do in a time of emergency is to protect civil liberties.

“In tense times such as these a strange psychology grips us. We are oppressed and fearful and apprehensive. If we can’t get at the immediate cause of our difficulties we are likely to vent our dammed-up energy on a scapegoat. That scapegoat may be some one whose views are contrary to our own, it may be some one who speaks with a foreign accent, or it may be a labor union which stands up for what it believes to be right.

“That sort of psychology is the very essence of totalitarianism, as witness the in- human treatment of minorities wherever the blight of Nazism has fallen. On the other hand, civil liberties are the essence of the democracy we are pledged to protect.

“ In so far as I can, by the use of the authority and the influence of my office, I intend to see that civil liberties in this country are protected; that we do not again fall into the disgraceful hysteria of witch hunts, strike-breakings, and minority perse- cutions which were such a dark chapter in our record of the last World War.”

RESOLUTION ADOPTED. BY NATIONAL BOARD OF A.C.L.U. ON OCT. 20

1. No local committee affiliated with the Union shall take action in regard to na- tional legislation pending before Congress except in accordance with the position taken by the national organization. In the case of legislation on which the national organization does not act, local affiliates are free to express themselves as they wish. Where the publications of the Union have not made clear the Union’s position as to a particular bill, local affiliates should consult the national office before acting.

2 Neither the Civil Liberties Union nor its affiliates may favor nor oppose the candidacy of any person for elective er appointive public. office, local or national.

3. No local affiliate shall take action on any matter arising in the area covered by any other local affiliate without the consent of that group.

“4. The national office of the Union may act on any local matter on which a local committee declines to act, but only after consultation with the local committee.

5. Whenever a referendum vote is taken of the active membership of the corporation (the Board of Directors and National Committee), active affiliated committees will be given the opportunity to express their views of the issue in order to get the maximum expression of opinion from those most active in the Union’s work. The views of local affiliates, however, are without legal force and will be regarded solely as advisory.

STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACTS OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AND MARCH 3, 1933.

Of American Civil Liberties Union — News published monthly at San Francisco, California, for October, 1941. County of San Francisco) State of California ) Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Ernest Besig, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the Editor of the American Civil Liberties UnionNews, and that the following is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management (and if a daily paper, the circulation), ete., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1933, embodied in section 537, Postal poe ead Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, o-wit:

1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher—Northern California Branch, American Civil Liberties Union, 216 Pine St., San Francisco. Editor—Ernest Besig, 216 Pine St., San Francisco.

Managing Wditor—None.

Business Managers—None.

2. That the owner is: (If owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also immediately thereunder the names and addresses of stockholders owning or holding one per cent or more of total amount of stock. If not owned by a corporation, the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given. If owned by a firm, company, or other unincorporated concern, its name and address, as well as those of each jindividual member, must be given.)

Northern California Branch, American Civil Liberties Union, San Francisco. fs Rt../Rev. Edward L. Parsons, Chairman, 216 Pine St., San Francisco. : : Ernest Besig, Director, 216 Pine St., San Francisco.

3. That the. known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: (If there are none, so state.) None.

4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the company but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the company as trustees or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing affiant’s full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a pona fide owner and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him.

5. That the average number of copies of this publication sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during the twelve months preceding the date shown DOVE AS=..2 aie ees (This information is required from daily publications only.)

ERNEST BESIG, Editor. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 16th day of September, 1941.

(SEAL) MARGARET GARNER.

Notary Public in and for the Co. of San Francisco, State of California. (My commission expires Dec. 4th, 1943.) each issue of