vol. 7, no. 10

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE

“Eternal is the price of liberty.”

Vol. VII SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER, 1942 No. 10

COAST CITIZENS BANISHED

Army’s Civilian Exclusion Program Extended to Non-Japanese Citizens

The Army has embarked on a program of deporting United States citizens, other than Japanese, from the Pacific Coast. Atileast four cases have come to the attention of the Northern California branch of the A.C.L.U. in which citizens have been uprooted from their homes and businesses and compelled to move inland. It is reported that at least 250 citizens in al] will be banished from their homes in this manner.

No Basis for Criminal Action

The Military admits that there is no basis for criminally prosecuting any of these un- fortunate people. At the same time, it claims that their unrevealed records are such that they should be deemed ‘‘danger

ous or potentially dangerous’’ to the milttary security of the Western Defense Com- mand. It doesn’t. say what acts or evil thoughts make a citizen “‘dangerous or po- tentially dangerous.” Will the victims be solely those who are charged with having shown sympathy to the Axis powers, or will they include others who incur the wrath of the military command?

Here is the way the banishment takes place: The accused suddenly receives a citation to appear before an Army officer. At a Star Chamber session, at which he is denied the right to counsel and an opportunity to present evidence in his own defense, he is questioned very briefly and subsequently ordered to leave the area within a given time, usually ten days. Thereafter, as a disloyal citizen, he must report periodically to the F.B.I. Forever after his record will bear the blot of disloyalty to his country, even though he has never had a fair opportunity to meet the charges. That sort of procedure is typical of the red-hunting Congressman Dies; it is the technique of the witch-hunter.

Such witch-hunting is the logical result of the country’s almost unquestioned accept ance of the evacuation of citizens of Japanese extraction. The government was able then with impunity to trample on the civil rights of an unpopular minority. Today the badge of inferiority is being pinned on additional citizens. Where will it-end? If the civil liberties of one class of citizens can be denied, the rights of the rest of us are thereby placed in jeopardy.

Case of Sam Fusco

An idea of the Military’s concept of a citizen who is “potentially dangerous’’ is illustrated by the case of Sam Fusco. Fusco, now about forty years of age, was born in Los Angeles. He attended the San Francisco public schools graduating from Grammar and High School. For a number of years he has been engaged in the dried fruit business with his father.

In connection with that business, he made the acquaintance of numerous Japanese. He become interested in them as a people and practiced writing Japanese ideographs in a special class.

In 1937 he became choir director of the Japanese Episcopalian Mission in San Fran- cisco, and has held that position until the evacuation. ‘His interest in Oriental things was so. strong,’ says the pastor of the (Continued on Page 4, Col. 1)

S.F. ‘Rugg-Beating’ Comes Before Special Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee named by the San Francisco Board of Education to investigate the merits of the Rugg social studies textbooks, which have been attacked by patrioteers as ‘‘subversive’’, will seek to answer three questions:

1. Are these books subversive in nature?

2. Should controversial questions be presented to students of junior high school age?

3. Are the procedures by which these books were adopted, and by which their discontinuance is proposed, desirable procedures?

Monroe E. Deutsch of the University of California is chairman of the Committee. Other members are Glenn E. Hoover, John L. Horn, Lloyd Luckmann, Harold R. McKinnon and Edgar E. Robinson.

RABBI REICHERT AND MRS. HARRY KINGMAN JOIN THE UNION’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Dr. Irving F. Reichert, Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, and Mrs. Harry Kingman, wife of the Y.M.C.A. director at the University of California, have just ac- cepted invitations to membership on the Executive Committee of the Northern California branch of the Union.

THE “JAPANESE PROBLEM’?

The October, 1942,-issue of Harper’s Magazine carries an article entitled, ‘“‘The Japanese in America,’ written by “An Intelligence Officer.’’ Says he, ‘‘The entire ‘Japanese Problem’ has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people. | It should be handled on the basis of .the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis.

THREE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE “HOT CARGO” BILL

The “Hot Cargo” referendum appears as Proposition No. 1 on the November general election ballot in California. While there seems little excuse for passing this type of law aS an emergency war-time measure when Labor is fulfilling its voluntarily given promise of no strikes in war industries, there are at least three good civil lib- erties reasons why you should VOTE “NO” on Proposition No. 1:

1. Because the act requires forced labor on a private employer’s “hot cargo’’, it vio- lates the constitutional guarantee against involuntary servitude.

2. Because the act outlaws peaceful picketing in support of a secondary boycott, it violates the right of freedom of speech.

3. Because it prohibits a person from saying or printing anything which “directly or indirectly” induces anyone not to handle “hot cargo” or to maintain a secondary ———™ boycott, the act violates freedom of speech and press.

McNutt Assures Protection For Fair Employment Committee

Freedom of investigation and a substantial increase in personnel for the Fair Em- ployment Practice Committee, recently transferred to the War Manpower Commission, has been promised by Chairman Paul V. McNutt, in a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Union had urged complete independence for the Committee, with greater financial support and personnel.

Mr. McNutt stated: ‘Although the details of the organization have not as yet been worked out, the supervisory contro] exercised by my office will naturally be limited to the major questions of organization and procedure which have to do with the co- ordination of the work of the Committee with other units of the War Manpower Commission. There is no intention to exercise a detailed supervision or control over any particular investigations which the Committee may make into complaints submitted to it.

“With a more adequate staff and with the close cooperation of the War Manpower Commission it is believed that the Committee’s highly important work can rapidly be made more effective than it has been during the first year of its activity.”

CALIF. A. F. OF L. SUPPORTS CITIZENSHIP OF AMERICAN-BORN JAPANESE

The recent convention of the California State Federation of Labor overwhelmingly defeated a resolution asking Congress to revoke the citizenship of American-born Japanese. The proposal was denounced as “inhuman, vicious and undemocratic.”

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Hays Appearing For AC.L.U. At Communist Ballot Hearings

Asserting that attempts made by members of the American Legion to secure the repudiation of signatures of nominating petitions of the Communist Party in New York State “would make it impossible for any minority party to get on the ballot’, Arthur Garfield Hays last month appeared as a friend of the court on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union to protect attempts to rule the Communists off the New York ballots.

Mr. Hays represented the Union’s position of protecting minority parties at a hearing before Supreme Court Justice Francis Bergan at Schoharie, N. Y., September 14 where members of the Legion sought a permanent injunction restraining Seeretary of State Michael L. Walsh from certifying Communist Party candi. dates on the ballot.

The Union stated, “The federal Constitution and the various state constitutions guarantee to every citizen the right to vote. A political party’s right to a place on the ballot bears directly on the right to vote, for if a party is kept off the ballot, its adherents are compelled to vote for representatives other than those of their choice.

“The American Civil Liberties Union has rendered service in the past to minority parties in contesting illegal interference with the right to get on the ballot and in- tervened with election officials where discrimination was shown. The Union is par- ticipating in this case as it has in previous court contests on the ground that the denial of a place on the ballot constitutes a deprivation of the franchise.”

BULLETIN

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emmet H. Wilson has just ruled that the Communist Party candidates cannot be removed from California’s November 3 general election ballot. He held that the recently‘enacted statute which attempts to proscribe political parties advocating the violent overthrow of the government deals only with the right of such parties to appear on the primary ballot and not at the final election. —

MOVE TO BAR COMMUNISTS FROM CALIF. BALLOT FAILS

Superior Judge Franklin G. West of Orange county has ordered the removal from Orange county to Los Angeles county of proceedings directed at banning the Communist Party from the ballot in the forthcoming general elections. The order was made because all of the defendants but one, and he was made a defendant after the suit started, reside in Los Angeles county. The A.C.L.U., through its counsel, A. L. Wirin, appeared as a “friend of the court.”

The Orange county suit, in behalf of three “citizens and voters,” filed on the eve of the forthcoming elections, to keep the Communist Party off the ballot, represents the twelfth legal proceeding filed by them or their associates in the California courts, during the last three years.

At the time of the filing of the suit, without notice of hearing, Judge West issued a ‘temporary restraining order against the Secretary of State restraining him from placing the name of the Communist Party on the ballot. Steps are being taken to vacate the restraining order.

The A.C.L.U. contends that the Communist Party ought to be permitted to have a place on the ballot on a par with the Republican and Democratic parties, irrespective of its political creed, and that in any event it should not be banned except upon a showing of a “clear and present danger” that such appearance would endanger the State of California or the government of the United States. '

Appeal Taken

District Court by Attorney Wayne M. Collins of San Francisco appealing from the judgment of United States District Judge A. F. St. Sure finding Fred T. Korematsu, 23-year-old, Oakland-born citizen of Japanese extraction, guilty of violating the Military’s Japanese evacuation orders. Korematsu was placed on five years probation and departed with other evacuees at the Tanforan Assembly Center for the Relocation Center at Abraham, Utah. Concurrent with the filing of the notice of appeal, an order, signed by Judge St. Sure, was also filed, allowing the appeal to be prosecuted in forma pauperis, that is, without the payment of filing fees and certain other costs of the appeal.

At the trial on September 8, Korematsu testified that he was born in Alameda county, where he resided, and graduated from high school, that he was a registered voter and taxpayer, and that he had never departed from the state. He also testified that he had never renounced his citizen

In Korematsu Evacuation Test Case Notice has been filed in the United States

ship nor registered as a dual citizen. Following his rejection under the Selective Service Act because of stomach ulcers, he trained for a defense job and went to work in the shipyards as a welder, until his labor union expelled him because of his race. He does not read or write Japanese, and cannot converse fluently in that language. He testified that he was willing to bear arms against Japan. He had never before been convicted or charged with a felony or a misdemeanor.

The trial took place before Judge St. Sure because Judge Martin I. Welsh, who had been hearing the case, was on vacation. Previously, Judge Welsh had overruled a demurrer attacking the constitutionality of the evacuation orders. Judge Welsh promised to file a written opinion, but thus far has not done so. The record on appeal will be filed in the Circuit Court of Appeals by the middle of October. Briefs must then be prepared and filed, after which oral arguments will take place, possibly early next year.

President Urged To Clarify Policy Toward Japanese-Americans

Pointing to the uncertainty of the future of 70,000 American citizens of Japanese descent evacuated from the West Coast, the American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter to President Roosevelt, urged on him the value of a statement clarifying the adminis- tration’s policy toward the evacuees. Mailitary orders have moved all persons of Jap. anese blood from West Coast states to assembly centers and detention camps.

The Union declared that the ‘wholesale indiscriminate evacuations of all. persons of Japanese blood” led to a general attribution of disloyalty to American citizens of Japanese ancestry, which, in turn, was held responsible for a bill favorably reported in the Senate that would intern all persons of Japanese blood in the country, and for a court attack on the citizenship of Japanese-Americans.

The letter, signed by John Haynes : Holmes, chairman of the Board of Directors; Edward L. Parsons and Mary E. Woolley, vice-chairmen of the National Committee; Arthur Garfield Hays, general counsel, and Roger N. Baldwin, director, stated that a public declaration of administration policy recognizing the loyalty of the ‘“‘vast majority of Americans of Japanese descent’? would reassure loyal Japanese-Americans and would counter Axis propaganda capitalizing on “what is conceived to be racial discrimination.”

Other suggestions recommended by the Union for government policy were an ac- knowledgment of the sacrifices of the evacuees, an offer of work and residence outside the military zone, a warning against restrictions on Japanese-Americans outside of military zones and attempts to deprive them of citizenship and a promise to lift all restrictions immediately after the war.

Concentration Camp Test Case Set for Argument On October Z

The applications of Ernest K. Wakayama and his wife, Toki Wakayama, for writs of habeas corpus, challenging the. constitutionality of Lt. Gen. J. L. DeWitt’s restrictive orders evacuating American citizens of Japanese ancestry, and interning them in- definitely in concentration camps, will be heard in the federal court in Los Angeles on October 2nd, after originally being set for September 8. The United States District Judges who will: hear the oral arguments are Campbell E. Beaumont, Harry A. Hollzer and J. F. T. O’Connor.

Adverse Decision In Seattle Evacuation Test Case

U. S. District Judge Lloyd L. Black of Seattle last month ruled against Gordon K. Hirabayashi, citizen of Japanese extraction’ and University of Washington student, who is contesting the Japanese exclusion orders. Hirabayashi, a Quaker, is charged with failing to report for evacuation and with disobeying the curfew regulations.

The adverse ruling come on a demurrer to an indictment which, among other things, - argued that the exacuation orders were disriminatory, deprived defendant of his lib: erty without due process of law, and questioned the President’s authority to evacuate citizens from the area..

In a memorandum opinion, notable for its absence of legal arguments, the Court held that “Our Constitution does: permit Congress and our President, as Commander in Chief in time of war, to make and enforce necessary regulations to protect critical military areas desperately essential for national defense. In these days of lightning war this country does not have to submit to destruction while it awaits the slow process of Constitutional amendment.

“There must, of course, be extraordinary reasons to justify curfew for or any re- moval, even from a military area, of American citizens residing therein. But with respect to those of Japanese ancestry in Military Area No. 1 certainly since Pearl Harbor most extraordinary reasons have obtained.”’

Following the trial and sentencing of Hirabayashi, which are next in order, an appeal will be taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals. The American Civil Liberties Union is backing the case which is being handled by a special defense committee.

RECREATION FOR JAPANESE

A Congressional committee eliminated an appropriation for “‘recreation’”’ in the measure providing funds for the Japanese Relocation Centers, on the ground that it would be coddling the Japanese. As a result, the boys and girls and older folks in the various centers need all kinds of recreational material, particularly balls of all kinds, bats, books, subscriptions to magazines, victrola records, etc. We have no means of collecting such things, but if you can get them to us or want to send in a donation to buy such materials, we will see to it that the gifts reach a center where they are badly needed.

Union Asks Supreme Court Rehearing In Literature Case

Declaring that the “very constitutional guarantees of freedom of press and religion are at stake,” the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief joining with the Je- hovah’s Witnesses in asking a rehearing of the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the right of cities to license the sale of religious literature. The court, by a 5 to 4 decision in June sustained licensing ordinances in Alabama, Arkansas and Arizona.

Signed by Osmond K. Fraenkel, counsel for the Union, who argued the case in the Supreme Court, the brief states:

“The seriousness of the restriction on freedom of the press and of religion which will result if that decision of the Court stands, the fact that the division within the Court was so close, justify, we believe, a further consideration of the problem here presented. It is evident that the decision of the majority has greatly curtailed the constitutional protection of freedom of speech, of the press and of religion. Indeed, these freedoms are given less protection from state interference than transactions in commerce have been given.

‘Surely the views expressed in the opinions of the Chief Justice and of Mr. Justice Murphy are more consonant with the high standard which this Court has in recent years reached in the field of civil liberties than are the views of the majority. We re- spectfully urge that the Court reconsider this decision which, if not reconsidered, will some day be recognized as the most unfortunate recently rendered by the Court.” Briefs supporting the application for rehearing have already been filed by the Seventh Day Adventists through Homer Cummings, former U.S. Attorney General, and by the American Newspaper Pubcounsel.

APPEA L WILL | CHALLENGE MISSISSIPPI LAW.

Filing a brief in the appeal of two Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Mississippi Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged a new Mississippi law making it a crime to advocate refusal to salute the flag for religious reasons. In attempting to prevent sincere persons from following the dictates of their religion, the Union argues, the law violates the guarantees of freedom of religion contained in the Bill of Rights.

The two defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Mills, charged with distributing a pamphlet “containing a statement therein that the reader should not salute the flag of the United States of America’’, were sentenced | to serve until ‘the country shall declare peace but not more than ten years.”

In defending the Witnesses, the brief points out: “In the past few years every form of abuse, calumny, official oppression, political persecution and outright brutal assault has been used to intimidate them -and to deprive them of their fundamental rights of free speech and religious liberty. Most of these efforts have failed when the calm scrutiny of the courts has ey brought to bear.”

The brief was signed by Charles E. yang and Ross Quitman, of Laurel, Mississippi, and Arthur Garfield, Hays and Whitney North Seymour of New York City.

GEYER ANTI-POLL TAX BILL SCHEDULED FOR VOTE

A petition to force a vote on the Geyer anti-Poll Tax bill, which has been bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee, has now gotten sufficient signatures to bring the measure to a vote in the House in a couple of weeks.

Hearings on a similar bill before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee were recently concluded.

Vigilantes Attack “Witness” Convention —

Led by Legionnaires and Veterans oe Foreign Wars, and aided and abetted by the local Chief of Police, vigilantes on September 20 attacked the Klamath Falls, Oregon, regional convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses attended by 1500 men, women and children from Oregon and Northern California. As a result of the attack, three persons required hospital treatment and many more suffered minor injuries, extensive damage, particularly to plate glass windows, was done to the convention hall, the leased wire, carrying the speech of N. H. Knorr, Witness leader, who was speaking in Cleveland, was cut, ammonia and stink bombs were thrown into the erowded building, scores of automobiles (estimates run as high as 200) belonging to Jehovah’s Witnesses were overturned, large quantities of the group’s literature, besides banners; was seized and burned, numerous pnonographs were destroyed, the local headquarters of the society was ransacked, and literature and personal possessions seized and burned.

While the Flag Waved

The trouble started when the vigilantes set up a war bond booth near the entrance to the convention hall (a former automobile display building), and a sound truck blasted away exhorting the Witnesses to buy bonds. ‘“‘Members of the American Legion in uniform,’’ says James E. Davis of Brooklyn, chairman of the convention, in a letter to the Union, “then came over and planted a flag in front of our hall and one of them struck the front plate glass window several very heavy blows. A stink bomb was then thrown through an open window into the main hall where the speech was coming in. lisher’s Association through Elisha Hanson, ' (‘Witnesses claim the bomb was thrown by Police Chief. Earl Heuvel.) Rocks were y thrown through the windows that had been closed, and, indeed, the whole upper part of the building which was glassed in was completely wrecked.”

Ammonia and Stench Bombs Thrown

About 1000 persons were in the mob outside the building. The vigilantes tried un- successfully to break down the large sliding doors in the rear of the building. “‘A prominent physician threw an ammonia bomb into the outer hall where the women with small babies were located, driving them into the larger hall, into which another stink bomb was then thrown. They used large crow bars to try to break into the ' hall directly behind the speakers’ stand. A group of men then came around behind ‘ the building and put up a ladder, and, with a saw cut the large cable by which the speech was coming from Cleveland, Ohio. It was then necessary for the talk to be continued from manuscript in the hall.

‘After the Witnesses were driven from the cuter hall with the ammonia bomb, the mob took literature, banners and personal property out into the street and burned it. The fire department came and put out the ' fire but no attempt was made to quell the mob. The Chief of Police stood within a few feet of those breaking out the windows and didn’t even caution them not todo it. I wired Edgar Hoover in Washington, 'D. C., and also called Governor Sprague of Oregon and he finally got the State police on the job.

“As the Witnesses were leaving the hall ' after 5:000 P. M., when the mob was sup| posed to have been dispersed, mobsters took phonographs and other property from | them and destroyed it. .

Another Hall Races cleed

“While all of this was going on at the Convention Hall, other mobsters broke into the Kingdom Hall at 201 E. Main, using crowbars, and took literature, 5 or 6 phonographs, and much personal property (one brother being left with nothing but what he had on his back) and burned it in the middle of the street.... In this connection, there is not only evi

in Klamath Falls

dence to show that the “Witnesses” requested and were denied protection, but that the Chief of Police told the vigilantes to “Go as far as you like’’, and then participated in the lawless acts.

“In addition to the above-mentioned damage, many of the Witnesses’ cars were turned over, and others were rendered useless by putting sugar in the gasoline tanks, ete. In fact, thousands of dollars worth of cars were completely ruined and hardly worth towing home, which many of the brethren were compelled to do.”

Mauiy of the vigilantes have been identified, and thus far two of them have been arrested. Federal authorities are investigating to determine whether there was any violation of federal laws. Suits are being contemplated against the community for the property damage resulting from the failure to extend police protection.

ve Ordinance Adopted

The vigilantism had been brewing in Klamath Falls for more than a month. The City Council had recently enacted what was frankly called an “‘anti-Jehovah’s Witnesses ordinance,” prohibiting the sale of literature without the payment of a $10 a day license fee. However, the ordinance, scheduled to go into effect on September 24, will not be enforced. Instead, a new ordinance has been adopted, which reduces the license fee to $5. The purpose behind this move is to meet the inevitable legal attack that the ordinance is prohibitive, and that the tax hears no relation to the ‘profits’ (of which there are none) and the ae of policing.

City Attorney J. H. Carnahan, in discuss. ing the proposed ordinance before the Council, commented that “he was not advocating the measures taken against the Witnesses Sunday, but that prone ae were effective.”

Suppressi “Witness” Is Attacked, : Then Gets 30 Days In Jail

George Gutman, 18year-old Jehovah’s Witness, was convicted in the San Francisco Municipal Court on September 24 on charges of disturbing the peace and sentenced to 30 days in jail or $100. fine. The case illustrates quite well the kind of justice the members of this group receive in our inferior courts.

Gutman was waiting in the reception room of a San Francisco draft board for a friend who was attending an oral hearing on his claim for classification as a minister.

The board chairman, George W. Gillen, in the course of the hearing, stepped into the reception room and explained to those who “were waiting, ‘““We’ve got a fellow in here who is using the Bible to evade the draft.” Gutman then asked, ‘‘What’s wrong with the Bible?’’

Gutman’s question was not well received. . Gillen wanted to know whether he was with that fellow in there, and when Gutman admitted he was, Gillen ordered him out of the building. He pulled Gutman out of his chair by the sleeve of his coat, tearing the sleeve very badly. As Gutman pulled the other way, Gillen went reeling into some chairs. Gillen called the police and charged Gutman with disturbing the peace. The U. 8. Attorney’s office lent its moral support to the prosecution by having Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Karesh, known to the judge, seated alongside the prosecuting witness.

It is hoped an appeal will be taken beeause the facts clearly show that Gillen’s peace was not disturbed by Gutman. Instead, Gutman might well have charged Gillen with assault and battery.

The incident reminds us of the damage suit filed by the Santa Rosa vigilantes in 1986 against the persons they had tarred and feathered.

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American Civil Liberties Union-News

Published monthly at 216 Pine Street, San Francisco, Calif., by the Northern California Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

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Coast Citizens Banished

(Continued from Page 1, Col. 2)

Mission, “that he furnished his own apartment with some objects of oriental art.”

Led Ranking Bugle Corps

“Beginning with his interest in our mission,” says the pastor, “he became ac- quainted with the Boy Scout troop to which some of our boys belonged. He gave lessons to the boys of the Drum and Bugle Corps of that Scout troop .. . until it became the ranking drum and bugle corps of this area. Our corps won first prizes and honors at many of the parades... . It was a snappy outfit with about 80. drummers and buglers. This was a great accomplishment for Mr. Fusco.”

Mr. Fusco also encouraged the Japanese of voting age to register and to vote. He was instrumental in having deputy registrars visit the Japanese section to register the eligible voters. He also arranged political meetings for the Japanese at. which the community’s political candidates spoke.

After the Japanese were moved to Tanforan, Fusco was appointed a sub-deacon of the St. Xavier Church and assisted with the regular Sunday services conducted at Tanforan. He drove the Fathers and Sisters to Tanforan every Sunday. The manager of Tanforan invited him to organize the Boy Scout Drum and Bugle Corps, which he did.

“Too Friendly With Japanese”

Apparently on the basis of such activities, Lt. Col. F. Meek, who conducted Fusco’s “hearing’’, told him he would have to leave because he was ‘“‘too friendly with the Jap- anese.”’ It was a little too difficult for the military mind to understand how a person could be genuinely interested.in his Japanese neighbors in the United States without being disloyal to the United States.

The Union has checked with various people who are acquainted with Mr. Fusco. Not one accused him of disloyalty. They all say that there is nothing dangerous or potentially dangerous about the man.

Mr. Fusco is already in Salt Lake City whence he was banished. It is to be hoped— that he will be willing to resort to court action in order to nee) his liberties, if other means fail.

Brief Filed In Last of Oklahoma Syndicalism Cases

The last of the cases brought against four Communists in Oklahoma City for possessing and selling Communist literature was argued on September 9 in the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals in the case of Alan Shaw, sentenced, like his three associates, to ten years under the criminal syndicalism law. A brief in support of the defense has been filed with the court by the American Civil Liberties Union, signed by Arthur Garfield Hays, general counsel. The Union participated with briefs in support of the defense in the other three cases already heard.

The Oklahoma cases were brought during the election campaign of 1940 as part of a drive against Communist election activity. The four defendants were associated with a bookstore selling Communist literature. It is the only case brought under the state criminal syndicalism laws in récent years. With the conclusion of the -Shaw case, the Criminal Court of Appeals will have before it all four convictions for decision.

Contra Costa County District Attorney Upholds Rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses

District Attorney Francis P. Healey of Contra Costa county, as the result of violence and threats against Jehovah’s Witnesses, issued a public statement on September 25 calling upon the citizens to uphold the rights of the ‘‘Witnesses’”’ to carry on their activities. Said Mr. Healey:

“It has been brought to the attention of this office that threats against the members of the religious sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been made in several com- munities in the county.

“The citizens of Contra Costa County should keep in mind that the Constitution of the United States and of California guarantee religious freedom. It is for the courts to decide whether or not a given organization is subversive, and in this connection the Supreme Court has held that Jehovah’s Witnesses is an accepted and legal religion.

‘“‘Members of this sect have a right to call on the citizens of a community and to knock on their doors, or ring their doorbells. They can pass out literature or inter- view residents. They have a right to do this unmolested by any citizen or group of citizens. Any violation of their rights will require the peace officers of the county to intervene to afford them protection, for under our democratic form of government every citizen regardless of race, color or creed is entitled to the same protection as every other citizen.

“On the other hand no citizen is required to listen to their arguments or accept their literature, but can tell them to go away. If they refuse to leave the proper thing to do is call the police or constable and report the incident so that the matter may be dealt with in a lawful manner.”

The statement grew directly out of an assault upon a “‘Witness’” in Concord. Mr. D. D. Reusch of Berkeley, in the course of his activities as a Jehovah’s Witness, called at the home of George MacDonald. The latter’s daughter was in the driveway and Reusch proceeded to play a phonograph record for her.

ute, the girl left and called her father. Mr. MacDonald wanted to know whether Reusch would salute the flag. He finally ordered Reusch from his property, and emphasized his order by pulling Reusch by the arm and then knocking him unconscious with a blow to the jaw as he stooped

UNION WARNS AGAINST “UNREASONABLE APPLICATION” OF COAST ORDER

Legal contest of any “‘unreasonable application” of Lieut. Gen. Hugh Drum’s order for evacuation of ‘“dangerous’’ individuals from the Eastern Military Area were indicated in instructions sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to state representatives and local committees in the 15 Atlantic Coast states comprising the area.

The Union declared that “it does not challenge the inherent power of the government to remove persons from military zones, but it will challenge any unreasonable application of that power; it is obvious that such unprecedented powers are open to abuse unless carefully guarded.”

CALIFORNIA COURT SANCTIONS PROPERTY RESTRICTIONS AGAINST NEGROES

The first round in what may be a Supreme Court test case on the constitutionality of property restrictions against Negroes was lost recently in the Los Angeles courts in a suit supported by the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. Judge Roy Rhodes of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued an injunction re- straining Negroes from living in homes purchased by them in a residential district restricted to ‘‘Caucasians.”’

After listening for a min

‘Cyanamid Company,

to pick up his phonograph and literature. A doctor testified that Reusch suffered a contusion of the left jaw, abrasion of the scalp, and contusion of the right arm.

On Reusch’s camplaint, MacDonald was arrested for assault and battery. At the trial, MacDonald contended that he had ordered Reusch from his property and had merely beaten him to the punch when he failed to leave. The force of these contentions was lost when MacDonald threatened from the witness stand, “If you ever or any of your organization ever come to my. place under any circumstances you will get the same treatment except a woman.”

The court, nevertheless, let the threat pass without comment and found MacDonald “‘Not Guilty.” “A person ordered to leave the premises of a man’s estate,” said he, ‘‘must suffer the consequences if he fails to obey.” It is hoped that the District At- torney’s statement will not only correct the Justice’s erroneous idea, but also put an end to the invasion of ‘‘Witnesses’ ”’ rights in Contra Costa County.

L. A. FEDERAL COURT ISSUES HABEAS CORPUS WRIT IN CASE OF J. W. MINISTER

Federal Judge Leon R. Yankwich last month established a new precedent in the application of the Writ of Habeas Corpus — when he overruled a government motion to dismiss the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Kenneth Stewart, Jehovah’s Witness.

Stewart claims to have been arbitrarily classified by his local draft board, when the board refused to accord him status as a minister of the Gospel. —

The government asserted the contenant that classification by a local draft board is final, and not subject to review by the federal courts unless the draftee submitted for induction in the United States Army.

This claim Judge Yankwich overruled. In doing so, he announced that the lack of precedents upon the subject was not binding upon him; that the writ of habeas corpus issues to ascertain the legality of detention at any point after final action by the draft boards. He ruled that a draftee who claims to be unfairly and arbitrarily classified need not risk the danger inherent in surrender to the military forces; and that a federal court, after a registrant has “been prosecuted for a violation of the Se- lective Training and Service Act, while in the custody of the United States marshal, may have the benefit of the writ to secure his release if the draft board has acted arbitrarily.

Upon overruling the Souonnnienl s motion, the case was set for trial October 5.— Open Forum.

COURT UPHOLDS DISCHARGE OF EMPLOYEE FOR CRITICIZING . HIS UNION

Union contracts with industries requiring disciplinary action against members acting to undermine the union as a bargaining agency were upheld recently by Vice Chancellor Wilfred Jayne of the New Jersey Chancery Court. The complainant, Samuel Keller, of Old Bridge, N. J., was supported by counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, in seeking the annulment of the disciplinary measure on the ground that his right to free speech had been abridged. . Keller was discharged from the American | upon the request of the Union, accused of making derogatory ‘remarks about the Union’s attitude in the settlement of a strike. The opinion was contained in a holding by the court that for technical reasons it had no jurisdiction.