vol. 9, no. 8

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE

“Eternal is the price of liberty.”

Vol. IX SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST, 1944 No. 8

TYRANNY REIGNS AT TULE LAKE

18 Citizens Imprisoned Without Charges For Over Eight Months

The American Civil Liberties Union charged last month that citizens of Japanese an- -cestry at the Tule Lake Segregation Center are being denied the constitutional right to counsel. Ernest Besig, local director of the Union, declared that he and his secretary were ordered to leave Tule Lake by the project director, Mr. R. R. Best, after spending ‘quested counsel. Two armed members of the Internal Security (Caucasian) police escorted the Union’s representatives from the Center after the camp director declared that their presence was interfering with an investigation of a recent murder.

Gestapo-like conditions at the Center can be judged by the fact that someone there poured a sack of sugar into the gas tank of Mr. Besig’s car. While the ancient car misbehaved on the more than 400-mile return trip to San Francisco, the cause of the difficulty was not discovered until two weeks later when the car finally broke down. The gas tank will have to be removed and thoroughly cleaned.

Held Incommunicado

Mr. Besig not only charged a violation of the right of counsel but also pointed out that eighteen citizens have been imprisoned in a stockade for over eight months without the filing of charges or the granting of a hearing or trial of any kind. “During these eight months.” said Mr. Besig, ‘‘these citizens have not been allowed visits from their wives and children (some born since their incarceration) and the War Relocation Authority only during the past month erected a beaver board wall around the Stockade to prevent the relatives of the men from occasionally waving to them from behind a wire fence about a hunderd yards away.”

Following his ejection from the center Mr. Besig sent a lengthy complaint to Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior, under whose jurisdiction the War Relocation Authority - was placed earlier this year, requesting a complete investigation of the administration of Tule Lake. The complaint, however, does not go into charges of brutality and third-degree methods that have been leveled against Caucasion Internal Security po- lice. There is evidence that on the night of November 4, 1943, the police dragged cer- tain Japanese into the administration building and beat them with baseball bats. It is | general knowledge among the Caucasian personnel, that the people who came to work in the administration building the next morning of Nov. 5 found a broken baseball bat, and had to clean up a mess of blood and black hair. The persons who are : alleged to have participated in the brutality are still employed on the police force and two days there, but without being allowed to interview most of the citizens who had rehave since been accused of other brutalities. This aspect of camp administration had not been fully investigated when Director R. R. Best ordered the Union’s representatives to leave.

Censorship Conmplaint

The Union has also filed a complaint with the Post Office Department against the cen- -sorship of mail of persons detained in the Tule Lake stockade, claiming it is in viola- tion of Sec. 2347 of the Postal Laws and Regulations. The W.R.A. denies that the stockade inmates are imprisoned, and, in fact, has filed no charges against them.

Under such circumstances, the Union asserts that the W.R.A. has no authority or right to censor the mail of the persons involved. The Union also filed an appeal with Mr. (Concluded on Page 2)

Local Southern Censors Cut Negro Movie Footage

Municipal censors in Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., and other southern towns have been censoring scenes from Hollywood productions and regular news-reels showing Negroes in any degree of equality with whites, according to reports reaching New York last month. Memphis, on July 6, for instance, cut scenes involving Cab Calloway and his Negro band from the United Artists release “Sensations of 1945” on the ground that such scenes were “inimical to the public interest.’’ Lena Horne, Negro artist, was similarly cut out of “Broadway Rhythm.” These cuts were made without regard for the artistic integrity or the intelligent continuity of the films involved.”

Using the results of these municipal censors, Southern exhibitors, who hold com- plete control of releases in their hands, have sent word on to Hollywood advising.as a practical solution that if such scenes must be included they be so treated that cutting would not disturb continuity. Hollywood companies have long been jittery about the prejudices of Southern exhibitors and have produced pictures under restrictions to meet Southern reactions. Since the war, however, the motion picture industry has somewhat relaxed its restrictions, with the resultant censorship.

Draft Charges Against 26 Tule Lake Nisei Dismissed

U. S. District Judge Louis Goodman on July 22 dismissed indictments against 26 citizens of Japanese ancestry residing at the Tule Lake Segregation Center who were charged with violating the Selective Service Act by failing to report for induction. Judge Goodman held that because of their detention, the defendants were not “free agents” and consequently they were in no position to take voluntary action.

Judge Goodman is quoted as having made the following: strong statement: “It is shocking to consider that an American citizen must be confined on grounds of disloyalty and then, while so under duress and restraint, be compelled to serve in the. armed forces or prosecuted for not yielding to such compulsion.

“It is clear to me that the defendants are under the circumstances not free agents nor are any pleas they may make free or voluntary, since they are not accorded the due process of law.”

U. S. District Attorney Emmett Seawell noted an exception to the Judge’s favorable action on a “motion to quash,” and it will be interesting to see whether the govern- ment takes an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Goodman’s decision is unprecedented. Indeed, on June 26, 63 Nisei residents of the Heart Mountain Concentration Camp were convicted in the Federal District Court in Cheyenne, Wyo., on charges of failure to report for induction, and were each sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. An appeal has been taken. Growing out of that situation, six Nisei were recently indicted for conspiring to violate the Selective Service Act, and two of the men were recently returned to Wyoming from Tule Lake.

In another case, eleven Nisei residents of the Granada concentration camp at Amache, Colorado, were convicted of draft evasion and sentenced on June 30 to prisons terms ranging from 10.to 18 months.

ARMY LIFTS BAN ON NEGRO NURSES

Necessity and a war-time shortage of personnel has forced the U. S. Army to abandon its traditional policy of limiting Negro nurse enlistments. Negro nurses will now be accepted, if qualified, ‘without restriction.”? A telegram from Truman K. Gibson, Jr., civilian aide to the Secretary of War, to the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, which has campaigned against the restrictions, said: ‘““Negro nurses will be accepted without regard to any quota. They will be used both in this country and abroad. They should apply for commissions in the regular manner.”’ Negro nurses had been previously limited to the personnel of four Negro Army station hospitals, a total of 220 nurses in the entire country.

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(Continued from Page 1, Col. 2)

Edward J. Ennis, Director, Alien Enemy Control Unit of the Department of Justice, suggesting that immediate arrangements be made permitting wives and children at Tule Lake to join husbands and fathers — who have been transferred from Tule Lake as enemy aliens under Presidential warrants. In about thirty cases families have been separated for more than eight months, although in 19 cases they were permitted brief visits on the day the men were transferred from Tule Lake.

An Explosive Situation

One former administrative employee has this to say about the camp: “Instead of being a center of disloyal Japanese, Tule Lake is really the dumping ground for misfits, | anti-administration leaders, embittered youngsters and a lot of old people who just want to go back to Japan. The administration under Best is so stupid that it succeeds in uniting all these elements against itself, but that’s the only point of unity in the colony.”

an explosive situation has been created at Tule Lake because of the suppressive ‘pol- icies of the camp administration, which may seriously jeopardize the security of our own citizens who are in Japanese hands.

The Union’s letter of July 14 to Secretary Ickes, signed by Ernest Besig, follows:

Following Mr. Myer’s refusal to permit me to visit the Tule Lake Segregation Center during the week of June 12th, my secretary, Mrs. Philip Adams, and I were allowed to visit the Center during the week of July 10th in order to confer with certain segregees concerning their legal problems. After spending only two days at the Center and seeing only 20 or 30 of the more than fifty persons: who had requested interviews, I was informed by Mr. Best that after conferring with Mr. Myer on the phone, it had been decided to request us to leave immediately. Mr. Best stated that I would be permitted to conclude my business at some unnamed time, but that my presence then, in some manner which he failed to indicate, was “interfering with their investigation of a recent murder,” or words to that effect. As a result, a considerable number of the segregees have been denied the right to the counsel which they had duly requested. That request, I should add, was presented to the WRA in petition form, a copy of which I have ‘1 my files.

An Arrogant Display of Force

We were escorted from the Center by two armed Internal Security men who followed us in their car. It is rather difficult to understand why such a procedure was necessary, but then, from our observation, we have found that an arrogant display of force is the rule rather than the exception at the Center.

My chief purpose in visiting the Center was to arrange certain cases for filing in the U. S. District Court, challenging the procedure whereby the War: Relocation Authority denies leave clearance to citizens of Japanese ancestry. The greater part of the two days that I spent at Tule Lake, however, unexpectedly concerned itself with certain citizens of Japanese ancestry who have been imprisoned in the stockade since last November. These persons, now reduced to eighteen, originally numbered over 300. What concerns us particularly is that they (or at least those whom I was able to interview) have never been charged with the commission of any offense, nor have they received a trial or hearing of any kind.

Denied Due Process

I do not know anything personally about the inmates of the Stockade outside of what they have told me and what their relatives have told me. It may be that they have committed various acts for which they should be punished or disciplined. This they denied, but even if true it would seem

Mr. Besig is of the opinion that

only just that the WRA file charges without delay which these men might have an opportunity to answer. Otherwise, it would

of law to all of them.

Moreover, during the entire time they have been in the Stockade (now more than eight months), they have been denied all visiting privileges from their wives, children, fiancees or anyone else. From these relatives we heard many tragic stories. We heard of men who had never been permitted to see children born after their detention. We heard of one young man who has been denied visits from his fiancee, whom he was scheduled to marry the day after his arrest on November 13th, and in some cases, women and children became sick with grief over the enforced separation.

Only Mrs. Mori Sees Her Husband It is quite true that in all cases the relatives did not request the administration to permit visiting. However, letters were assertedly written that were censored, other requests were made in person, or after numerous unsuccessful efforts to see a person in authority, the visiting effort was abandoned. As a result, it became the general understanding among the segregees that visits at the Stockade were prohibited. We were unbelieving when the first case came to our attention. I went to see Mr. Best about it and his story was that the particular woman, Mrs. Mori, had never made a request to see her husband. Consequently, I prepared a written request which Mrs. Mori signed and she was allowed to see her husband that afternoon.

However, we soon had other wives before us who had likewise been denied visiting privileges and we made similar written requests to Mr. Best on their behalf. Such requests, however, were merely taken under consideration by Mr. Best. At some future time, he would not say when, he would notify the applicant whether, and if so, when, a visit would be permitted. I pointed out to Mr. Best that even in our State prisons and Federal penitentiaries, immediate relatives of incarcerated persons are allowed visiting privileges, and I suggested that some rule or regulation ought to be prepared and promulgated under which such visiting could be arranged for the Stockade. Mr. Best refused to consider such a proposal and stated quite definitely that he would not even consider written requests for periodic visits.

Beaver Board Wall Erected —

Until a beaver board wall was erected about ten days ago, relatives of the men would occasionally gather outside a fence about 100 yards or more from the Stockade and wave to them until chased away by the guards. In view of the denial of ordinary visiting privileges, this added suppressive measure seems especially harsh and even cruel.

Although it is claimed that the men in the Stockade are not prisoners, nevertheless, unlike other persons at the Center, their mail is censored, including that coming from outside the Center. In fact, while we were at the Center, the complaint was made to us that the men in the Stockade had not received mail for ten days or more.

On June 28, nineteen aliens who were transferred from the Stockade to Santa Fe under Presidential warrants, were permitted parting visits with their relatives in the office of the Internal Security, but we are informed that a prior group sent to es Fe were denied even such parting visits.

Others who had been held in the Stockade were released after investigations and without charges even being filed. It would seem to us that investigation ought to pre- cede arrest, and that written charges and an early hearing ought to follow promptly. I would request on behalf of the persons T interviewed in the Stockade, whose names Mr. Best has, that they be released forthwith or that charges be filed against them without delay on which they may be given a trial. appear that there is a denial of due process |

The Administration’s Hope

I know the administration is hopeful of solving its “Stockade problem” by persuadIng the inmates to renounce their citizenship, thereby permitting their transfer to Santa Fe under Presidential warrants. I ‘think it is most unlikely that the majority of these inmates of the Stockade will accept such a request, even though they have ‘all expressed a desire for expatriation. They may at some future time, but judging from what they told us, it would appear that the opportunity for such action under the new Federal law will be turned down ‘by most of them until they are released from the Stockade.

In connection with the interview whict. “we had with the segregees in the Stockade, all right of privacy was denied to us. At first, the Internal Security insisted upon placing a big policeman alongside any man I interviewed. The excuse was made that the men might try to escape or that I might be attacked. I told Mr. Best. over the telePhone that I could not proceed under such conditions, and I was told I could take it ‘or leave it. The project attorney then hur‘ried over to the building and arranged that the police would sit outside the doors of the small room, but the doors had to be kept open. Consequently, there was no privacy. In fact, my secretary, Mrs. Philip Adams, overheard a conversation on the ‘telephone as our conference proceeded, in which one of the policemen declared that they were “taking it down” but that I had a woman in there who was taking it down in shorthand.

WRA Seeks to Dictate to Counsel ' At the conclusion of the conference, I “was accused by the project attorney of having discussed the recent murder at Tule Lake with a number of the segregees, which he said was contrary to an agreement I had made with him. Such discussion, he claimed; interferred with their investigation of the murder. While I have no recollection of having made any such promise, I can say definitely that if any mention was made of the murder in discussions with the men ‘in the Stockade, such mention was quite casual and leaves no definite impression in my own mind. However, since we have stenographic notes on all of our interviews, which are now being transcribed by Mrs. Adams, I will know exactly how or if at all I referred to the murder. I would add, however, that I do not believe it is the province of the WRA to impose restrictions upon the subjects I discuss with the persons who consult me.

I still have requests from thirty or more persons .at the Center to discuss their prob- lems with them. May I respectfully request that I be permitted to visit the Center to consult with these people. In the case of Dr. S. K. Ikuta, he and I were scheduled to examine his docket on appeal on Wednesday, July 12, in accordance with the appeal rules, but because of my exclusion from the Center, such examination could not be carried out. I would request, therefore, that the docket be placed at my disposal for examination here in San Francisco.

Seek to Conceal Truth

I regret to say that instead of being met with a spirit of co-operation when we came to Tule Lake, obstacles were constantly placed in our way to prevent our getting information. We even have evidence that an effort was made to keep us apart from the Caucasian personnel, because we might question them.

We appreciate, of course, that Tule Lake presents many difficult administrative prob- lems. At the same time, I venture to say that the present policy of keeping the lid on can result only in further difficulties. I sincerely trust that some investigation will be made into what appear to me ag intolerable conditions and practices.

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Hawaiian Martial Law Test Heard On Appeal

The rights of civil courts under martial law, under which hundreds of civilians in Hawaii have been sentenced by military courts since Pearl Harbor, were argued before the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco on July 1 in the test cases of Lloyd C. Duncan and Harry E. White. The cases were appealed by the military after the U. S. District Court in Hawaii freed White and Duncan on writs of habeas corpus. Duncan, a Navy civilian employee was charged with assaulting two Marine sentries at Pearl Harbor and sentenced to six months, and White, a broker, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years.

Garner Anthony, former Attorney General for the Territory and attorney for Duncan, stated that “this case presents a single question: Did the provost court have juris- diction to try and sentence petitioner, an American citizen not connected with the armed forces, for an alleged assault upon a sentry on duty... at a time when the civil courts are admittedly able and are in fact | ce eee the duties entrusted to them by aw 99

It was charged in the Appeals Court that the military tribunals were made up of men who ‘‘never had been in a law court,’ gave “nobody” a fair trial and punished lawyers who objected to the procedure. The attorney for the government, however, Edward J. Ennis of the Dept. of Justice, as serted that martial law had been lawfully declared in the islands and that what was done under it was legal. Ennis cited testi-mony of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz that : there is still an “‘imminent eee of invagion.’

Should the District Court’s issuance of the writs be upheld it is estimated that about fifty persons serving provost court sentences would walk into civilian courts with possibilities of winning their freedom. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in the case as friend of the court, prepared by ACLU attorney Wayne M. Collins of the Northern California branch, and signed by Arthur Garfield Hays and Osmond Fraenkel of New York and A. L. Wirin of Los Angeles. The Honolulu Bar Association submitted a brief signed by a score of lawyers, and was represented in the argument. Whichever way the Circuit Court decides, it seems certain that an aprile be taken 22 the U. S. Supreme Court

NATURALIZED CITIZEN NEED NOT : : BE PATRIOTIC, COURT HOLDS

An extension of recent high court rulings in denaturalization cases was expressed on July 6 by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York, which held that patriotism is “not a condition of naturalization any more than it is of continued native citizenship.” The court’s decision was rendered as it restored the citizenship of John A. Rossler of Syracuse, N. Y., naturalized German and Bund member.

Union Paints Rosy Civil Liberties Picture For Last Year

In an annual review of the state of civil liberties released last month by the Ameri- can Civil Liberties Union in an 80 page pamphlet entitled, ‘‘In Defense of Our Lib- erties,’’ the Union asserts that “more issues of civil liberty have arisen from the conflicts in our democracy than from the war itself,” which has maintained ‘‘the extraordinary and unexpected record of the first two years in freedom of debate and dissent on all public issues.”’ The review points out that in the field of democratic struggle ‘“‘marked advances have been made under the impact of the professed aims of the war, particularly in meeting the claims of racial minorities.”

As evidence, the report cites the repeal of the Chinese exclusion act, the Supreme Court decision opening up the exclusive white democratic primaries in the South, the “rising strength of the movement to abolish the poll tax,” increased support of the civil rights of the Mexican American minority of three and one-half million, and the ‘‘growing public awareness of the evils of an expanding anti-Semitism.”

The Union maintains that although the anti-poll tax bill failed in Congress, the movement to abolish it is “too strong to be resisted.”” The support of the Fair Em- ployment Practice Committee by Congress is noted as an encouraging development, together with the efforts of employers and unions to minimize discrimination against Negroes.

Second only to race relations, the Union cites as a major issue during the year the right to vote, involved not only in the Supreme Court white primary case and the poll tax, but in the soldiers’ vote bill and legislative restraints on the right of trade unions to contribute to political campaigns. The Union reports that it supported the white primary case in a brief in the Supreme Court, aided the anti-poll tax cam- paign, backed the federal soldiers’ vote provisions and opposed restrictions upon trade union political contributions.

War Issues Cited

Among issues arising “‘directly out of war controls,’ the report characterizes as the “most catastrophic” the continued exclusion of the entire population of Japaneses ancestry from the Pacific coast and their detention in relocation centers. Refuting the argument that military necessity can any longer be invoked ‘‘when all danger of invasion is past,” the Union promises further contests in the courts to challenge: exclusion and detention, noting that two critical test cases are before the United States Supreme Court for argument in the fall. Prophesying that the effects of evacuation will not be removed for many years, the report holds that ‘‘no possible redress can ever compensate for the tragic toll of human and material losses suffered by so many thousands of our fellow citizens.” Other war issues noted in the report are “a handful” of cases under the espionage

ie EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

To: Date: Mrs. Masaye Nagashima $502-B June 26, 1944 rom:

Administrative Police Subject: On Tuesday June 27, 1944 you and all members of r mi at e Fo 6 : on. f te w. Kindly be prepared to leave when the officer calls for you, AT 1.50 P. M. An Example of the Petty Tyranny To Be Found At the Tule Lake Center

and selective service acts involving utterances and publications, notably the sedi- tious conspiracy trial in the District of Columbia for alleged offenses committed be- fore Pearl Harbor; the denaturalization proceedings, chiefly against German Americans, “now restrained by adverse decisions in the Circuit Courts and in the Supreme Court;” the discontinuance by the War Department of orders removing inland ‘“‘dangerous” individual citizens on the coasts; the ‘unsatisfactory administration of the draft act” so as to imprison six times as many conscientious objectors in World War II as in World War I—3,000 against 500; and the contest over military control of civilians under martial law in Hawaii. The report notes that the voluntary wartime codes affecting press and radio have been administered with only occasional complaints; and that no publications have been barred by the Post Office Department for obstruction of the war.

Issues Outside War Controls

In fields of civil liberty not connected with the war, the Union notes progress in the facts (1) that no case of mob violence has occurred since the race riots of the summer of 1943; (2) that reported lynchings were reduced to one; (3) that no noteworthy interference with public assembly was reported; (4) that only two cases arose of the dismissal of college teachers for opinions; and (5) that no proceedings were brought against Communists, “who now conform to all leading majority dogmas.’

No progress however was reported in the continued Post Office censorship of allegedly obscene publications, the report citing court contests over “Esquire”? magazine, birth control, nudist publications and the advocacy of polygamy.

Year’s Balance Sheet

In a balance sheet of favorable and unfavorable developments during the year, the report found thirty events to commend, twenty-two to deplore, pointing out those commended are more “substantial.’”?’ Among them are: (1) Supreme Court decisions voiding white primaries, a Florida peonage statute, an espionage act conviction in Chicago, and the denaturalization of a German American; (2) decisions of lower federal courts opposing the removal inland by the Army of citizens held dangerous to military security, upholding the right to writs of habeas corpus In Hawaii, and sustaining freedom of speech for employers in discussing unions with employees; (3) state court decisions declaring segregated Negro auxiliaries in unions illegal, voiding statutes aimed at the right of Japanese Americans, and reversing a 1940. conviction of Communists in Oklahoma for possessing party literature; (4) the activities of federal agencies in invoking the civil rights statute against lynchers for the first time in forty years, in upholding the rights of Japanese Americans, in supporting the Fair Employment Practice Committee, and in condemning the removal by Congress of federal employees held to have had ‘‘disloyal associations.”

Among the incidents deplored were: (1) the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the conviction of eighteen members of the Socialist Workers’ party convicted under the 1940 peace-time sedition act in Minneapolis in 1941, and the case of a Negro who chal- lenged racially segregated draft quotas; (2) the refusal of the Navy Department to admit to any branch of the service Japanese Americans; (3) the resort to the 1940 peace-time sedition law to bring to trial in the District of Columbia thirty persons for seditious conspiracy; (4) the continued drive of the Post Office department on alleged obscenity in publications; (5) the failure of Congress to abolish the poll tax in federal elections and to provide “an adequate system of absentee voting by men 1 and women in the armed services.’

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American Civil Liberties Union-News

Published monthly at 216 Pine Street,. San Francisco, 4, 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 3, 1879.

Ten Cents per Copy.

Eequire Magazine Denied | Mailing Rights As Court Upholds Postmaster

‘The Federal District Court in Washington, D. C. upheld on July 15 the order otf.

Postmaster General Walker revoking Ksquire magazine’s second-class mailing privi- leges with the statement that “free speech and whether or not the magazine was obscene do not enter the case.” held that the Postmaster General was fully authorized by law to take the action against “Rgquire”’ and that the rulings of a government executive cannot be set aside unless they are clearly illegal, arbitrary or ca-pricious.

The law, according to Judge T. Whitfield Davidson, requires that second-class. mail must be educational, and the duty of the Postmaster General in this respect 1s not censorship but classification. In this instance the Postmaster General had termed “Esquire” “smoking room literature’ not contributing to either the “arts, sciences, or literature.” The question of censorship. by the Post Office Department Is amply guarded,” Judge Davidson held, saying Gon J. 1. DeWitt, no longer exists; that the removal of all enemy forces from Alasthat since the Postmaster General had in- dicated that many other magazines would lose their second-class mailing privileges for the same reasons that “‘Esquire’s” were revoked the action could hardly be termed “capricious.” The Postmaster’s interpretation of the law has been sustained by. the courts through the years, the judge said. Attorneys for the magazine have estimated that the loss of second-class mailing privileges to a magazine with 700,000 cir- culation would cost $500,000 a year. They will appeal the decision at once. The ACLU which filed a brief as friend of the court will doubtless file one on appeal. According to ACLU lawyers the lower court decision follows the precedents, and only the higher courts can establish new law. The case is unprecedented in basing revocation not on alleged obsccnity but on the broader ground of not contributing to the “arts, sciences or literature.” . Meanwhile, “Esquire” continues to enjoy secondclass rates, the order being suspended pending the outcome of court proceedings.

. PHILADELPHIA CO. ACCEPTS FEPC RULING ON NEGRO DRIVERS

Philadelphia’s first Negro street car operators and bus drivers will go to work gome time in September as a result of acceptance of a FEPC directive by the Phila- delphia Transportation Companyy. The FEPC had directed hiring and up-grading of Negroes as operators with the posting of notices in car garages stating that all qualified applicants for jobs will be accepted “without regard to the applicant’s race, ereed, color or national origin.”

BOOK NOTE

“Organized Labor and the Negro,” by Herbert R. Northrup, Harper and Bros., with a foreword by Prof. Sumner Slichter of Harvard University.

Dr. Northrup’s study of Negroes in unions in the United States is an outgrowth of his Harvard doctorate thesis, and presents upto-date the long struggle of Negroes for ad- mission to unions and the manifold forms of — discrimination against them. The book is indispensable for all persons dealing with -race relations in the industrial field, and constitues a needed complement to the book on the ‘“‘Black Worker’ by Spero and Har- ris, published a few years ago.

The court |

Military’s Ban On Coast Japanese Challenged In New Test Suit

Challenging the constitutionality of further enforcement of military orders ex- cluding citizens of Japanese ancestry from. the Pacific Coast, a suit was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court last month in behalf of three American born Japanese against Major General Charles Hartwell Bonesteel, Western Defense Commander. One plaintiff is Shizuko Shiramisu, wife of an American born soldier wounded while on combat duty with the U. 8. Army in. Italy, who was awarded the “Purple Heart,” and who later died of his wounds.

Another is Masaru Baba, honorably discharged from the United States Army in March, 1942. The third is a dentist, George Ochikubo, who offered his services to the Army immediately after ‘Pearl Harbor,” but is still being kept at a relocation center at Topaz, Utah. All three are California born.

The plaintiffs seek an injunction restraining Maj. Gen. Bonesteel and other officers ‘from interfering with their return to California, on the ground that the military au- thorities have no legal power to enferce exclusion orders without resort to the courts, and that there is no military necessity justifying the further exclusion from California of loyal American born Japanese from California. With respect to military necessity, the complaint alleges that any military ‘danger which may have existed.on the Pacific Coast in the spring of 1942, when the original exclusion orders were issued by ka and the Aleutian Islands and the change from a defensive war on the part of the United States in the Pacific make any fur‘ther exclusion of loyal American citizens of Japanese ancestry unnecessary and therefore unconstitutional.

The test cases are being sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Cali- fornia branches. A. L. Wirin and J. B. Tietz of Los Angeles are acting as counsel. Eight other attorneys joined in filing the suit, including Wayne M. Collins, counsel for the Northern California branch of the A‘C.L.U;

The test cases were filed:in the state courts because of some doubt as to the juris- diction of the federal courts. It is likely that the government will remove them to the federal courts. —

Arguing against the right of the military to continue their exclusion, the plaintiffs

RAILWAY MAIL ASS’N GUILTY OF VIOLATING N. Y. RACE BIAS LAW

The New York State Court of Appeals, highest state court, on July 19 ruled that the Railway Mail Association, national organization of postal clerks, is guilty of vio- lating the New York law forbidding discrimination by unions “‘by reason of race, color or creed.”? The Association’s constitution limits membership to the “Caucasian and Indian races.” In 19438 it applied to the Albany special term of the Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment that it was not a “labor organization’’ within. the meaning of the statute. A decision was rendered in its favor.

The Industrial Commissioner and the Attorney General, however, with the NAACP | as friend of the court, appealed to the Appellate Division, and in January, 1944 the decision was reversed on the ground that the Association had always acted as a labor organization, securing many benefits for its. membership, and was.a member of the A. F. of L. The court ruled that the statute is: ‘an effort to prevent racial and religious discrimination in all labor organizations operating within the state.”’ The Associa- tion then appealed. The recent decision is the first test of the N.Y., law applying. to. Criminal actions to back up the unions.

decisions appear likely, particularly against the national railway unions, most of which refuse admission to Negroes.

allege that, “In the State of California and in the County of Los Angeles the courts of the United States as well as the courts of California... have been and are now trans- acting all judicial business and are open for ‘the. prosecution of all offenses against the United States and of the State of California by all persons, including persons of Japanese or other ancestry. No martial law has been declared or is now in force in the State of California, or in the County of Los Angeles.”

Pending before the United States Supreme Court is the case of Fred T. Koremat-su which challenges the constitutionality -of the military’s exclusion of citizens of Japanese ancestry from the Pacific Coast as of the time of the exclusion. The case has been placed on the calendar for the October term of court. Also pending is the case of Mitsuye Endo, who challenges the government’s right to imprison her in a concentration camp. That case will also be argued at the October, 1944, term of the Supreme Court. Wayne M. Collins of San Francisco is handling the Korematsu case and will also appear in the Endo case.

Union Paints Rosy Civil Liberties Picture for Past Year

(Continued from Page 38, Col. 3) Issues still pending in the courts and Congress for decision affecting civil liberty cited by the report number forty-one, “a larger list than in any recent year.”’ Chief -among them are suits affecting the evacuation and detention of Japanese Americans, four test cases involving discrimination against Negroes, five cases involving federal war-time prosecutions for speech and publication, seven cases challenging state statutes of 1943 regulating trade union ac- tivities, five cases involving Post Office censorship of alleged obscenity, and one in Massachusetts involving the novel “Strange Fruit,”’ and seven other test cases in the courts involving such varied issues as martial law in Hawaii, the deportation of Harry Bridges, the constitutionality of the poll tax, the conviction of John Longo, opponent of Mayor Frank Hague in Jersey City, and the use of public school buses to transport children to parochial schools.

Twelve bills pending in Congress are noted as involving civil liberty, ranging from measures aimed at Japanese Amerieans to liberalizing the Post Office censorship and creating a permanant Fair Employment Practice Committee.

Conclusions

The report concludes that the “survey may be regarded as overly optimistic in view of the enormous war-time powers exercised by the government, the wholesale charges of bureaucratic domination, the impending threat of civilian and post-war military conscription and the uncertainties both of a presidential election year and the upset conditions consequent upon the not unlikely conclusion of the war within the next year.”’ But the Union cites the “plain factual record” to justify its conclusions, stating that “it is evident that three years of war have not essentially impaired the guarantees of the Bill of Rights and that stronger foundations have been put under the extension of those rights.” The conclusions were verified, according to the review, by returns from correspondents in twenty-nine states in May who ‘‘almost uniformly reported unlimited freedom of de-bate and dissent on issues of the war and peace,” but cited as “alarming” the increase in race tensions affecting Negroes, Jews and Japanese Americans.

Reliance for the future can be placed, according to the review, on the “spirit and power of the pro-democratic forces in the United States, the quick resistance to every threat of our liberties, and the expanding international concept of civil liberties.”