vol. 9, no. 9

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AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS


FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE


“Eternal is the price of liberty.”


Vol. IX SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEMBER, 1944 No. 9


18 TULE LAKE PRISONERS FREED


W.R.A. Releases Citizens Held in Stockade Without Charges for Mere Than Eight Months


Faced with the prospect of habeas corpus proceedings, the War Relocation Authority last month very quietly released 18 United States citizens of Japanese ancestry. who had been imprisoned in the Stockade at out charges or hearings, children and friends. A.C.L.U. attorney, and WRA officials, including Dillon S. Myer, national director of the WRA. Philip Glick, solicitor, Robert Cozzens, area director, and Raymond Best, project director at Tule Lake. The WRA agreed that the ten men still imprisoned would be released by August 31, at the latest, but on August 24, those remaining in the stockade were freed, and they are again -residing with their families.


WRA Had Bear By the Tail.


We venture to say that even the WRA is glad and without the to be rid of the “stockade problem” for that agency has acted as though it had a bear by the tail and did not know. how to let go. We under| odie visits.


“Stand tat tie StocKade will not be reestabished, unless there are disturbances at the center, in which case all persons apprehended and lodged there will be duly charged and tried. Following Ernest Besig’scomplaint to Secretary Ickes, in a letter dated July 14, the men imprisoned in the stockade were suddenly allowed visitors, and, for the first time in more than 8 months, they were given an opportunity to talk to their parents and wives. However, no regulations were ever established to allow peri


Plaster Board Wall Comes Down


Also, about August 1, the plaster board wall, which had been erected on July 3 to prevent the relatives and friends of the stockade inmates irom occasionally waving to them from behind a wire fence more than a hundred yards away, was suddenly removed. On August 10, however, according to reports reaching the Union, some of the friends and relatives of the men in the stockade who were waving to them were driven from the area by a couple of Internal Security police and told not to return.


Ernest Besig, who had been ordered from the Center by Project Director R. R. Best on July 12, on the ground that his presence was interfering with the investigation of a murdex that oecurred on July 2nd, was permitted to return to the Center on July 30 in order to appear as counsel in certain proceedings before a leave clearance Appeal Board. On this occasion, Mr. Besig was also permitted to confer with persons who had previously made written: requests to counsel with him, and who had been denied that opportunity at the time he was ejected from the -eenter on July 12.


Second Visit Relatively Uneventful


Mr. Besig’s second visit to Tule Lake was relatively uneventful. He was met at the train station by a uniformed and armed member of the Internal Security police, who stayed with him at all times during the two days he was at the Center, and who drove him to and from the Center. In accordance with “instructions” he sought to sit in on Mr. Besig’s conferences with segregees, but after the matter was taken up with the Project Attorney, the policeman was withdrawn from the room and stayed at a respectable distance on the outside.


Incidentally, the “sugar’’ which was placed in the gasoline tank of Mr. Besig’s car on the previous trip to the Tule Lake Center, turned out (Continued on Page 4, Col. 2)


the Tule Lake Segregation Center for more than eight months withprivilege of receiving visits from their parents, wives, The releases followed a conference on August 22 between Wayne M. Collins,


U. S. WON'T APPEAL TULE LAKE DRAFT DECISION


The U. S. Department of Justice has decided not to appeal the recent decision of Federal Judge Louis Goodman of San Francisco, sitting in Eureka, liberating 26 Tule Lake Nisei who had been indicted on charges of failing to report for induction in the Army.


In his memorandum opinion, Judge Goodman declared: ‘It does not follow that because the and other Constitutional provisions are abrogated by the existence of war. ... The due process, Which is in alienable to the defendant in this proceeding, cannot be suspended because of the war or danger to national security, but only upon a valid declgration of martial law.”


Judge Goodman held that the defendant in question was “not a free agent, nor is any plea that he may make, free or voluntary, and hence he is not accorded ‘due process’ in this proceeding. It is shocking to the conscience that an American citizen be confined on the ground of disloyalty, and then, while so under duress and restrait, be compelled to serve in the armed forges, or be prosecuted for not yielding to such compulsion.”


Military Ailows Gee Nisei to Return; New Test Suit toBe Heard Sept. 13


The military authorities have indicated they have no objection to the return of Mrs. Shizuko Shiramizu and Masaru Baba, citizens of Japanese ancestry, to the Pacific Coast, and consequently, U. S. Attorney Charles H. Carr of Los Angeles has asked the federal court to dismiss suits brought by them against Major General C. H. Bonesteel, Western Defense Commander, to reStrain the military from preventing their return | to the Pacific Coast.


Still pending, however, is the suit of a third plaintiff, George Ochikubo, California-born dentist, who offered his services to the Army immediately after ‘Pearl Harbor” but who is still kept at a relocation center at Topaz, Utah.


Mrs. Shiramizu is the widow of a U. S. war veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart, while Masaru Baba was honorably discharged from the U. 8. Army in March, 1942.


All three suits were originally filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court but they were removed to the federal court on the’ motion of the government.


In the meantime, Federal Judge J. F. T. O’Connor ordered General Bonesteel to appear before Judge Peirson M. Hall on September 11 to show cause why citizens of Japanese ancestry, and George Ochikubo in particular, should not be allowed to return to the Pacific Coast. The suit alleges that there is no military necessity for continuing to exclude the Nisei.


The suits were filed by the A.C.L.U. through A. L. Wirin as counser


ROGER BALDWIN TO VISIT BAY AREA NOV. 26-30


Roger N. Baldwin, national director of the A. Cy. Us will Spend more than a month in a trip to the Western part of the United States for the purpose of first-hand contacts with the Union’s representatives and with public and private agencies dealing with : other of civil liberties. Says Mr. Baldwin, ‘“T am particularly anxious to meet groups dealing with race relations and labor problems.”


Starting from New York City on November 8, he will not return until Dec. 14, About four days of that time will he Spent in the bay area —from Sunday morning, Nov. 26 to Thursday afternoon, Nov. 30.


Meetings will be arranged at which members of the Union and the general public will be able | to hear Mr. Baldwin. His lecture subjects are, “What Prospects for Race Equality?”, ‘“WhatChance for the Four Freedoms?”, and the ‘Bit. war power may allow the detention of defendant of Rights in War’. at Tule Lake, the guaranties of the Bill of Rights .


1926, 1989 and 1941.


SCHOOL BOARD TURNS DOWN RELEASED. | TIME FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION


By a 4 to 3 vote, the San Francisco School eo 4 Board last month refused to institute released school time for religious instruction for pupils in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The issue has been pending before the Board for a year, and — a the chances are that the recent vote will not dispose of the question because proponents of the plan are expected to renew their efforts to have it adopted as soon as there are changes on the School Board.


Board Member Mrs. Edwin Sheldon, in voting against the proposal declared, “In casting my vote opposing this measure, I do so believing (1) this suggested plan is a violation of America’s great principle of the separation of church and state; (2) that it would be unsound in our democracy which has. stood consistently against the emphasis upon racial and religious differences,” Mrs. Sheldon also cited other objections.


The Rev. C. S. Dutton, pastor of the First. Unitarian Church of San Francisco appeared in opposition to the plan, as did Joseph 8. ThompSon,


YEAR IN JAIL FOR EKIPTING EMPLOYER WHO CALLED HER A “DAMN NIGGER”


The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating the facts regarding the case of Mrs. — Martha Bowie, Negro mother of six who early last month was sentenced by a Magistrate in Rockland, Maryland to serve a year in jail after pleading guilty to an assault charge sworn by her employer, Mrs. Clarence Small. Mrs. Bowie, who had been Mrs. Small’s servant for eight years, testified that she had struck her employer after she had been called.a “damn nigger.”


In sentencing the woman, the Magistrate said: “This is one of the most reprehensible things I have ever heard. Although I am in sympathy © with your six children, I would not think justice had been done unless I impose this sentence.”


Mrs. Bowie had no counsel at the trial, but later filed an appeal.


one aspect or an-.— his will be Mr. Badwin's fourth trip"to the Pacific Coast. His previous trips were made nm |


Page 2


AMERICAN CIVIL: LIBERTIES UNION: NEWS: Cs


State Supreme Court + Hits Police Brutality


The California Suprem eme Court recently ‘reversed the murder conviction of Preston Samuel ' Jones, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, on the ground that his “confession” was improperly admitted by the court since it was secured by brutality. Jones, who! was only 17, was “arrested on November 1, 1942 and taken to the Police Station where he was questioned by officers Slager and defendant if he was implicated in any crime eommitted in San Diego. He told them he was os not, The officers insisted that he was and tried to make him say so. When the defendant declared he did not know anything about it they ‘beat up on’ him. Slager used a blackjack and Tetrich hit him with his fists. He was beaten twice a day for four days.


“On November 4th Slager and Patek took defendant to a room in the Hall of Records and had started to beat him, as they had before, when officer Blucher of San Diego came into the room with several Los Angeles officers. . Blucher told him that some people had seen him at San Diego near the place where the Chinese was shot, that one of the people involved was caught and one of them escaped and he was being accused. Defendant told him he might as well “tell them he ‘had been with the men who shot Abraham Lincoln’ as to tell them he had been invoved in anything of that sort. Tetrich was standing on one side of him and Slager was on the ‘other side with a blackjack in his hand. Slager said, ‘You know you were in San Diego and implicated in what happened there.’


— To which defendant replied ‘Man, I don’t know anything about that.’ Slager hit him in. the stomach about three times and he fell to the -floor in a cramped position, whereupon Slager \ and Tetrich started kicking him all over and one of them kicked him in the groin and when head with the blackjack.


= “Defendant said he was crying and was jeraid ae didn’t | know what was going on, that he oF eating, so he told them he was the boy that ran away... ..


: = — On November D, : wher he arrived at the Jail he was treated for the groin injury and sent to the County Hospital for further treatment. On November 7th officers Blucher and — Wells took him from the jail fo a room for guestioning. They did not put handcuffs on him, and when they left the jail officer Wells ' teld him to run ‘so he could shoot’ him. Neither Wells nor Blucher struck him. When he was . brought into the room he .was shaking, and Blucher told him. to start talking or they would ‘give him the same treatment -he had received in Los Angeles. . He was told two or three times if -he would not talk he would. get the ‘gas chamber.’


“During the trial Blucher testified that he had seen Tetrich strike defendant several times but ‘denied that any San Diego officers had struck the defendant.”


In its decision the court held: “If a defendant, subjected to threats or violence and within a few. days thereafter, may not be introduced in evidence unless it \ dearly appears that such improper treatment did not cause him to confess. In a situation such as here presented there is a presumption that the influence of the prior improper treat- ment continues and operates on the mind of the defendant and that the subsequent confes- sion is the result of the same influence which rendered the prior confession inadmissible and the burden is upon the prosecution to clearly establish the contrary.”


ACLU ACTS ON ANT | "FREE SPEECH CONTRACT


Arthur Garfield Hays, counsel for the Amerjean Civil Liberties Union, has addressed a letter to the secretary of an AF of L union expressing the hope that the union will soon — modify the anti-free speech cause in its constitution..This action followed in the case of the San Equip. Co. of Syracuse, N. Y., which protested signing of a maintenance of membership contract with the International Assn. of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers because its constitution violated the free speech its eR The ACLU holds that e of Depo) clause should c ealing with any ‘by circum blication.’”’


titution so cle , and pu seribes freedom or speec! .. Tetrich of the Los Angeles Police. They asked. he got up Slager started hitting him on the makes a confession it |


‘SEEK PARDON. FOR 18 "TROTSKYITE’ PRISONERS |


The American. Civil ‘Liberties Union has filed a petition for presidential pardon for the 18 members of the Socialist Workers Party. who are now serving jail sentences under the 1940 peace-time sedition or Smith Act. The petition, addressed to Dan Lyans, Dept. of Justice pardon attorney, which was signed by Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Arthur Garfield Hays, counsel, and Roger N. Baldwin, Di- rector of the ACLU, states that executive clemency should now be granted on the grounds that there remains great doubt as to the constitutionality of the statute which brought about the convictions, and that public policy would best be served by the release of the prisoners who were convicted solely on the ‘basis of their beliefs.


The U. S. Supreme Court refused three times to review the convictions, and the alleged ‘Trotskyites” began serving terms up to 16 months in December, 1943.


In the ACLU petition it was stated “that in the interests of a broad concept of civil liberties -in general, and of freedom of speech, thought, and press in particular, an unconditional pardon should be granted.”


Virgin Island Pics Jailed For Opposing ‘Class’ [nal


Claiming’ a denial of the right of free speech, the Virgin Islands Civic Association in New York has protested the jailing for contempt of two St. Croix editors for expressing public resentment at the manner in which Federal Judge Herman E. Moore on June 5th freed Harry Beatty, a game warden accused of killing a “lower-class” native, 60-year-old Andrew Thompson. The editors, Canute Broadhurst of the St. Croix Avis and Paul E. Joseph of the West End News had reflected on the “dignity” of the court, | according to. Judge Moore, and were as ten days each. ceil


Harry Beatty, accused of murder, was freed in quick order without a jury, as soon as the judge had heard the witnesses, an unusual procedure in capital crimes. The West End News had headed its story “Rapid-Fire Trial Acquits Beatty something as he didn’t want anv of Murder Charge’ and had gone on to say that | “Judge Moore’ Ss decision, the News learns, is in keeping with ‘the ‘general prediction, and has created a wave of discussion that ‘may be reechoed from the mainland. For one thing he has given St. Croix a precious example of the most. rapid-fire justice it has ever known in its his- tory.” Upon the sentencing of the two editors, the native legislature met in extraordinary session and by majority vote requested the Department of Justice, the Secretary of the Interior and the President ‘immediately to remove Judge Moore.


State Dept. Holds Preliminary Conference On Communications


The American: Civil Liberties Union was represented by an observer at the meeting last month in Washington sponsored by the Department of State to consider possible revisions of the International Telecommunication Convention in Madrid, 1932, and General Radio Regulations in Cairo, 1988.


Francis de Wolf, Chief, Telecommunications:


Division of the State Department, acted as Chairman and stated that the purpose of the meeting,—which is the first of a series—was to obtain an expression of opinion from all interested parties to guide the government when it presents its proposals at the next international communications conference, which is expected to take place next spring.


Representatives from radio and other businesses were.present, and the principal topic of discussion was the allocation of space on the radio spectrum for international broadcasting after the war. Suggestions were made during the conference, which lasted two days, that defeated as well as victorious nations should have equal access to radio short and longwave bands.


Union Protests Mailing Ban On Left‘Wing Literature


The American Civil Liberties Union recently protested the action of the Post Office Department in declaring unmailable two publications’ of: During: the past year, copies of the “Fighting Worker” — the Revolutionary League of Chicago. and “International News’ were banned from the mails under the war-time Espionage Act because of their allegedly oe matter. The protest, ACL


Justice, reequested case “in order to give the saci keep within your interpretation of the


Acton’! in tae Act Case Pic :


The Federal Court in Washington, D. C., has dismissed the action brought by CIO Federal Workers of America which sought to bar the enforcement of the Hatch Act which allegedly restrains the political liberties of civil, service employees. Under the Act, mitted to vote, speak or write privately on political matters, but may not speak publicly, write for publications, nor take part in organized political activities.


. The Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union, in declining to participate in the — case, stated that “there seems to be little doubt as to the constitutionality of the Hatch Act on .its face,” and that the restrictions of the Act were justifiable on these grounds: “To protect the employees themselves “against manipulation: by politicians; to prevent employees in positions of influence from exerting pressure on voters;. to prevent using the enormous army of federal civil service employees as political propaganists.”


The ACLU, however, reserved judgment on the question ‘whether the desirability of protecting workers from the importunities of their superiors is greater than their right to exercise their political rights.”


The Union statement concluded that it did not therefore give bla: tions imposed by the . ther consideration a t the statute.


et, and left open for furst of other provisions of


S. F. Police Dept. and Arrests in V. D. Cases To Be Reviewed by Health Officer


Ina step caleulated to protect the civil liberties of persons brought before the Separate Women’s Court in San Francisco, the Director of Public Health has made an arrangement with the Police Department to review the police reports under which women are arrested and quarantined (without the right to release on bail) on suspicion of having venereal disease. workers are peret approval to all limita-: These records will be reviewed by a representa. oF tive of the Division of Venereal Diseases. ‘If, in. altley? oh says a letter from Dr. Richard A. Koch, Chief “such ‘pres liminary physical quarantine as established by: the arresting officer is justifiable because of occupation, suspicion of prostitution, or for other the opinion of the Director -of-Public-k of the Division of Venereal Disease, reason, reasonably suggesting the potential existence of a venereal disease in the person under consideration and the likelihood that others will be exposed to this veneral disease, the Director of Public Health shall maintain the preliminary. physical quarantine established by the arresting : officer and place the: person under diagnostic physical quarantine.” Otherwise, the preliminary physical quarantine will be lifted, and the person will be allowed the usual bail on the pending criminal charge.


In the past the Union has complained that po-. lice officials, acting as deputies of the local health department, have quarantined innumerable girls — without having any reasonable grounds for believing they are infected with a venereal disease. The Union expects to check on the operation df this new arrangement for the handling of venereal disease. quarantine cases during the present. month.


ACLU TO FIGHT CU STOM! S SHIZU RE : OF ‘FREE’ THOUGHT BOOKS.


. The American Civil Liberties Union will support the petition brought last month by New York importers against the Collector of Customs testing the action of the Collector in seizing 200 — volumes recently shipped from England. The action was filed in the U. S. District Court in New York City by the Truth Seekers Company, Inc., dealers in books of the “free thought” school. The company charges that by holding up delivery of the books the Customs Service is exceeding its duties and violating the First Amend- ment of the Constitution. The ou ue also seeks € judicial ruling on the question WHERE “a, citizen of the United States, with respect tothe three freedoms, has liberties ‘equal to those | of the citizens of Great Britain.” Involved in the ity’, and “A Short History of Sex Worship.” The Truth Seeker Company, publishers, dealers’ id magazines for more. and importers of boo ‘than severity years, ¥ case last year whe seized several pu after an investiga by the Union.


avolved in a similar sllector of Customs: 7 b, en after a protest eases are copies of “Clear= Thinking Logic for Everyone”, “Humanity’s Gains from Unbelief”, “The Social Record of Christian. were released


The WRA Conditcts” A Loyalty Appeal Hearing


Loyalty hearings, ‘whether conducted by a Dies Committee, a Tenney Committee, Military Hearing Boards, agents of the WPA or the War Relocation Authority fall more or less ‘into the same pattern. The person involved really never has a “fair hearing” The source of the unfavorabe evidence is generally withheld, and, anyway, no opportunity is given for crossexamination of the witnesses against him, even 4 their names are disclosed. The ee “affords a. splendid avenue for spiteful people vent their grudges.


But, there is one thing to be said for the Y RA loyalty hearings. If the particular Japnese (citizen or alien) is not satisfied with the decision in his case, and is not. too embittered (after more than two years of detention) he may take an appeal to an. to fight -on, Appeal Board composed of fair-minded men outside the WRA. The Board makes a “recommendation” to the director of the WRA, which does not have to be followed. That Board held its first sessions at Tule Lake on July 28 with a calendar of about 20 cases. On July 31, Ernest Besig, local director of the Union, apeared as counsel for a physician, citizen of Japanese ancestry, in an appeal trom a decision denying the loctor leave clearanee.. The hearing was conducted before Hon. James H. Wolfe, Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, and Bruce Bartley, an attorney of Seattle, Washington.


Before the Board was a memorandum setting forth the reasons the doctor had been denied leave clearance. Among other things, it stated “The Committee felt that Dr. ————was not loyal to anything’ or any person other than a principle which would mean dollars and cents to him. It was felt that to permit him to relocate would bring immeasurable discredit to loyal citizens and law-abiding aliens who were trying to get a new start in life.” Nevertheless, the formal notice denying leave clearance read, “There 4s a reasonable ground to believe that the issuance of leave would interfere with the war.


ee or otherwise: sn fe pepe yore


Cahn terrible things the cor had said aa done to merit. detention in a concentration camp for the duration of . the war,. little or nothing eould be found except anonymous and “confidential” bits of gossip. It was reported the doctor not only gambled but cheated at cards; that he had performed some abortions, and that he had been. fined for filling out too many liguor prescriptions during Hawaii’s recent pro/ Wibition period; that he had accepted fees for his medical work at the relocation centers (in: addition to his $19. a month wages); that it “was reported (by an unnamed person, of course) that he had contributed $250 to the Imperial Favors Memorial Fund (whatever that is; no one seemed to know); that he had contributed $100 to the building of some innocent shrine in Hawaii; that. somebody had said the doctor was in. favor of the Japanese “new way’, and that he was active in promoting American-Japanese controversy and in favor of Japan’s totalitarian form of government. It was also noted in the file that someone with the same family name (put not the same first name) had been given certificate of thanks from a Japanese government official for a contribution to the Navy League. And, finally, some investigator declared that a letter the doctor had written to Liberty Magazine in 1936 in answer to an article by George Fielding Elliot was pro-Japanese, but no copy of the letter had been placed in the file so that one might discover the exact pro-Jap- anese statements in the letter. The decision on the appeal is being awaited.


POST OFFICE LIPTS BAN ON ‘CANDIDE”


The banning by the ‘New York post office of a publisher’s ca talogue because it contained an neert tisement for “Candide” has been cleared up by the ACLU, and as a result of the investigation, the Post Office Department has ordered all sostmasters to submit to Washington proposed action against such non-mailable material in the suture.


The case involved the mailing of a catalogue by Concord Brooks, Inc. which ‘contained advertsements objectionable to the New York Postmaster as well as notices of books which, as books, had been eres pr "evio usly. As a result ef the case, ¢ u alled pos S$ Treiused by the ma | readmitted.


Allowing Japanese Americans | American citizens oo serve in the U. Japanese “rom Servi 3


se Navy would ‘create collateral racial problems of a complex nature which cannot be handled Siac under war conditions,” Acting Seeretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard deciared im a letter to the ACLU which has just been made: public.


Replying to a query from the ACLU in April regarding the Navy’s


Following is Reuns Secretary of the Navy Ralphs A. Bard’s letter to Dr. John Haynes Holmes, refusing to accept citizens of Japanese ancestry for Navy service.


This is im reply to your letter in which you asked reconsideration of the reply made on April 24 by the late Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox,. concerning the question you’ previously raised regarding “the opening of the Naval Service to Japanese Americans.


I have given your letter the careful reconsideration you request and which it deserves, but find that it is impossible to accede to the proposal that they be made eligible for any of the various branches of the Naval Service, including the Women’s Reserves. This policy is dictated not by any fundamental distrust of the loyalty of this group as a class, but because of the peculiar conditions which are encountered in present Naval warfare and which would make their presence particularly troublesome in active areas of combat, such as in the Pacific. Insofar as these reasons prevent men of Japanese ancestry from being utilized in the Naval Service at sea, the only possible remaining capacities in which either men or women could be utilized would be on shore. Even in such billets, however, they would be subjected to more or less. a continuous, if unjustifiable, ‘suspicion. because of certain deep-seated prejudices which are agerg- vated in the psychology of war.


Moreover, this determination has ‘been. neces sary because. the immediate needs of the Navy require general service personnel capable of performing unlimited duties in any capacity to which assigned, either ashore or afloat. You will, therefore, perceive the impracticability of giving consideration to proposals which are otherwise meritorious, problems... of a complex nature which cannot be handled adequately under war conditions at home. or in combat. It is believed that, while this may work an incidental hardship upon certain loyal Japanese Americans with valuable capabilities and. talents, they will realize that during these trying times their own ultimate interests. will best be advanced by performing important warsupporting duties on the home front rather than to msist upon the recognition of a status which it is impractical to grant in time of war.


Court Overrules Pest Office


Ban on Marriage Pamphlet


‘The case of the Post Office ban of Dr. Paul Popenoe’s s pamphlet of sex instruction for marriage resulted in a technical victory for the author last month in Federal Court, Washington, D. C. The pamphlet, “Preparing for Marriage’, 1s endorse d by the American Soeial Hygiene ‘Association and other agencies, and had been excluded from the mails as “obscene”.


An injunction action to restrain the ‘Postmaster General from enforcing his ban was filed last: spring, and after the hearing, Judge F. Dickinson Letts ruled that since the Post Office Department ordered the pamphlet banned from the mails without a hearing, it had failed to meet the requirements provided -in the Constitution, and he therefore sustained the plaintiff's motion. for a summary judgment.


In the Union’s view the decision establishes a novel precedent which would have an important effect upon Post Office procedure which now bars from the mails individual issues of magazines, books and paneer without notice or hearing.


The governm Leite however, is eapered to ape proba bi ity that the case will be t Court for a decision oe was repr ted in


ein Navy but which create collateral racial, s alleged discrimination against Japanese Americans, former Secretary Knox had stated that “the rights of Japanese Ameritans cannot be recognized without great risk to our. military operations,’ and that “it would be quite possible for disloyal Japanese to impersonatethese naval pe sonnel (Nisei) with highly damaging results.” On May 5th, ACLU’s chairmam of the Board, Rev. John Haynes Holmes, and counsel, Arthur Garfield Hays, took ‘respectful. exception” to this statement in a letter to James V. Forrestal, who had become Secretary of the Navy. In their “exception” Rev. Holmes and. Mr. Hays pointed out the -fact that the Navy also excluded from the WAVES, all women of Japanese ancestry to whom-the Secretary's argu ments could not possibly apply, and added that. it was difficult to understand why “disloyal Japanese’’ could impersonate loyal Japanese Americans to a proater degree than disloyal Germans or Ttalians. might impersonate their own loyal kind.


Acting Secretary Bard’s answer, just received, confirms, the Navy’s stand and states that “it is impossible to, accede to the proposal that the Japanese Americans be made eligible for any of the various branches of the Naval service, -including the Women’s Reserve.’ He stated that, “This policy is dictated not by any fundamental distrust of the loyalty of this group as a class, but because of the peculiar conditions which are encountered in present Naval warfare and which would make their presence particularly trouble-. some in active areas of combat, such as in the Pacific.” Mr. Bard further declared that while this decision “may work an incidental hardship ‘upon certain loyal Japanese Americans with valuakJe capabilities, they will realize that during these trying times their own ultimate. intere is ao will best be advanced by performing gate war-supporting duties on the home frof than to insist upon. the recognition of a status which it is impractical to grant in time of war.”


Seek Habeas Corpus Writ to Prevent Negro’s Extradition


A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was: filed late last month in Federal Court, Newark, N. J., to prevent the extradition of Herman Powell, Negro, who was captured in Newark after escaping from a Georgia prison where he was serving a life term: for murder. The writ followed Gov. Walter Edge’s granting of the request for Powell’s extradition which was sought: by Gov. Ellis Arnall of Georgia. Governor Edge urged clemency.


Several years ago an automobile operated by Powell was involved in an. accident in which 2 white woman was fatally injured, and he was convicted of murder.. . :


After granting of the extradition papers, it was said at the Governor’s office, “A conviction of murder as a result of an automobile accident.


was this such a departure from regular procedure in state that Governor Edge felt free to sug‘gest clemency, and in so doing the Governor emphasized that he signed the extradition because: of his obligation to honor the demand of a sister state, but that he was asking Georgia to extend to Poweil the same treatment accorded numerous: other cases where defendants have been paroled after serving three years of a life sentence. The American Civil Liberties Union is cooperating with Powell’s attorneys.


LOS ANGELES JEHOVAR’S WITNESSES LOSE PROSELYTISM CASE.


Ruling that Jehovah’s Wi itnesses did not have: a constitutional right directly to approach hotel tenants for purposes of proselytising over the protest of the hotel manager, the Appellate Department of the Los Angeles Superior Court. — last month upheld the convictions of Mrs. Grace: Vaughn and ‘Leon F. Scheerer on a “disturbing the peace” charge. Attorneys for the defendants held that, in the: interest of maximum freedom: of Rip reesae on x oo ace persons had.


race, religion or politics.


AMERICAN CIVIL. LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS.


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 22 ... Editor


Hntered. as second-class matter, July 31, 1941, at the . Post Office at San Francisco, California,


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FCC Opens Radio Censorship Hearing


The Federal Communications Commission opened a hearing last month at which the CIO United Auto Workers opposed renewal of the license of Radion Station WHKC of Columbus, Ohio, for alleged discrimination against labor.


The American Civil Liberties Union is represented at the hearing by an observer and the Union’s radio committee is examining all data on the case.


The UAW charged that station WHKC censored its scripts and applied censorship only upon those with whose viewpoint the management disagreed.


In announcing its petition, UAW officials said, “Though the UAW-CIO bought time over station WHKC and paid the full rates charged others, we were forbidden to seek new members over the air. We were forbidden to discuss any controversial issues. We were forbidden to discuss Simultaneously, antilabor agitators like Fulton Lewis, Jr., and Boake Carter were permitted to pour forth their venom daily, immune from the censorship and gag-rules with which Station WHKC sought to hamstring the UAW.” ‘


They continued, ‘Station WHKC is not unique in this respect. We view the present petition as a test case, to determine whether only the Fulton Lewis, Jrs., and the Boake Carters are to have access to the microphone, or whether radio listeners will also be permitted to hear thé progressive views of such community groups as labor unions, farm organizations, cooperatives, veterans organizations, and others now banned . from effective use of radio.


“We ask that Station WHKC be denied dicense. and to that-end we seek a full and fair ct which we will show the extent to which the Station, like others pursuing identical policies, fail to meet the ‘public interest’ standard which the Congress of the United States has established as the cornerstone of a free radio under the Communications Act of 1934.”


PANEL TO EXAMINE C.O's | Seb UP IN-LOS*ANGELES


The sincere conscientious objector, asking the Federal Court for probation but dreading the prospect of a prison term, may perhaps hereafter breathe easier. A new device has been formulated and put into working order that should better assure that the sincerity of such a defendant be properly brought to the court’s attention.


. At the instigation of counsel for the Southern California Branch of the ‘American Civil Liberties Union a meeting was called and attended by nearly all the leaders of the groups interested in the protection of the right of conscience. A decision was made to set up a panel of men whose opinions, based on an interview, would have weight with the Federal Judges. The plan is that counsel for the defendant is to instruct his client to visit three of these men and that each is to write a letter to the attorney setting forth his opinion of the defendant’s sincerity, with special regard of course to his conscientious objection to military service.


In the first instance of the plan’s operation the defendant was Richard Hamlin Rice. His attorney, Mr. J. B. Tietz, attributes the court’s decision to grant probation to the credence given the three letters presented, inasmuch as the report of the Probation Officer was against the granting of probation and the. United States Attorney concurred in the Probation Officer’s report.


Judge Yankwich carefully scanned the letters of Dr. Edwin P. Ryland, Dr. Albert Edward Day and attorney Herbert Ganahl. When Mr. Tietz pointed out that the first two were prominent pacifist leaders but that attorney Ganahl was not, and in fact is a Selective Service officer, the court added that in addition he knew Mr. Ganahl was a member of the American Legion. :


The panel includes approximately a half dozen additional men, and it is believed that none of them will have to be called for such service very frequently —Open Forum.


V.R.A. FREES 18 CITIZENS ! [OUT CHARGES FO}


(Continued from Page 1)


to be salt. Two paper sacks were also stuffed into the tank which had to be removed and thoroughly cleaned. The fuel pump had to be replaced, the carburetor cleaned and the gasoline lines blown out, all at a cost of over $21. The WRA will investigate, but: they would be “surprised and chagrined” if any employee of the Center committed the malicious mischief.


On August 25, attorney Wayne M. Collins visited the Center and conferred for six hours with various segregees (including the former stockade inmates) concerning their problems. The WRA refused to grant a permit to Ernest Besig to accompany Mr. Collins. Project Director Best informed Mr. Collins, however, that he has no objection to future visits by Mr. Besig. The night before Mr. Collins arrived at the Center, the last of the Stockade prisoners were released.


Secretary Ickes Answers Complaints


Under date of August 3, the Union received a response from Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, under whose jurisdiction the WRA is operating. Except to declare that “any resident of the Center who so requests in writing many confer with an attorney of his own choos“ing at reasonable hours with complete privacy,” no effort was made to answer the charges contained in the letter signed by Ernest Besig. The best answer to the Union’s complaints, however, lies in the release of those who were imprisoned. Still unsettled, however, is the issue arising over complaints that members of the In- ternal Security dragged certain of the prisoners into the Administration Building and beat them with baseball bats. Some of the persons who are alleged to have participated in the brutality are still employed on the police force. Also unsettled is the question of the censorship of mail and delay in its delivery to those held in the Stockade.


answered the Union’s complaints.


The Postmaster General has not yet


WRA Silent On Center Events As noted above, the stockaders were released without publicity. In recent weeks, also, no announcements of a more recent hunger strike


Elmer Hartzel Freed : On Sedition Charge


A Federal judge in Chicago last month dismissed the indictment against Elmer Hartzel who was charged with sedition because of. pamphlets he had written and circulated.


In 1942 Hartzel was convicted of sedition and sentenced to five years in jail for the publication of three pamphlets, “The British: An Inferior Breed,” “The Jew Makes A Sacrifice,” and “The Diseased Spinal Cord.’”’ The case then came before the U. S. Supreme Court, the first sedition case decided by this court during the war, and the conviction was reversed. The majority opinion held that while Hartzels ideas were ‘‘odious,” an American citizen has the right of discussion and that there was not sufficient evidence to show that Hartzel intended by the pamphlets to bring about disturbances in the military services. The U. S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial, -and the dismissal last month brings the case to a close. —


“ACLU ADVISES UNIONS ON : RACE DISCRIMINATION LAW


Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union last month circularized officials of labor unions operating in New York State calling attention to the law regarding race discrimination by unions in admission to membership. The letter pointed out the decision of the Court of Appeals which the previous month sustained the New York statute in the Railway Mail Association case. The Association is a nationai organization of postal clerks, and in this case was found guilty of violating the New York law forbidding discrimination of unions “by ‘reason of race, creed, or color.” This decision was the first test of the New York law applying to unions.


The ACLU letter states, “As interested parties who back this legislation, we feel it our obligation to bring to your notice both the statute and the decision with the hope that if your constitution or your practices do not conform to the statute, changes will promptly be made*so that your union will not be in conflict with the law.”


conducted by the stockaders (which ended early in the morning of August 13) were made to the public, nor has any mention been made of the recent occasions when the troops were suddenly placed on alert. .


On August 11 some of the wives of the stock: aders, who were near hysteria from the prolonged concern over their husbands, tried to get permits to see them. When permits were denied, the women refused to go home, so Internal Se— curity men finally dumped water on them. ‘ On August 12, at about 8:30 o’clock in the evening, according to reports given to the Union, a crowd of 400 to 500 people were seen gathering at the high school auditorium in the colony. — The Army prepared its guns, the Caucasion po- lice donned gas masks and secured a supply of tear gas. However, when inquiries were made ‘by administration representatives, it was found that the meeting had been duly authorized, but that the matter had not been reported to the administrative heads. Meetings at the Center, it should be added, may be held only by permission of the administrative authorities.


After the foregoing story about Tule Lake was written, we discovered the following U.P. article in the Oakland Tribune, under an August 28 dateline:


“An isolation area at the Tulelake Japanese segregation center for separating ‘trouble- makers’ from other camp inmates is empty for the first time since its establishment last November, the War Relocation Authority announced today. A total of 386 internees were. confined in the area for periods ranging from one to 10 months.”


Apparently based on the same press release, the San Francisco. News for Aug. 28 carried essentially the same story as the Tribune, except that closing of the stockade was attributed. to “Improvement of conditions at the Tule — Lake” center. The “News” story also related that 28 aliens in the group had been transferred to the Department of Justice internment camp at Santa Fe “and the others were returned to the residential area following reviews of their cases.”


Book Notes


“An American Dilemma; The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” by Gunnar Myrdal, with the assistance of, Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose, Harper and Brothers, 1944.


This two-volume work, prepared as a report to the Carnegie Corporation on the problem of the American Negro, is done by the eminent social scientist of the University of Stockholm, and represents six years of study with the assistance of more than fifty specialists. It is doubtless the most comprehensive study ever made of the American Negro problem.


Dr. Myrdal starts by marshalling all the facts, then proceeds: to present them without fear or | favor. The constant fight between man’s beliefs and his acts is shown with stress on the problems involved, and the whole work resounds with truths that should awaken a somewhat lethargic America, as it will doubtless give other writers on social subjects something to emulate.


“Martin Dies” by William Gellerman, Professor of Education, Northwestern University, author of ‘The American Legion as Educator’, the John Day Company, 1944. :


The record of Dies and his Committee on unAmerican Activities has been written before only in fragments. Professor Gellerman has pulled the whole story together in a volume of 300 pages, fairly and accurately documented and evaluated on the background of its time.


Though the Committee has run its course and Dies is no longer a political factor, the record is not only revealing of the period of the drive on the left, but useful to all defenders of civil liberties as a warning against a repeated performance under other guises.


Of Rome Hanks’ in Boston


ACLU and other agencies have protested the Boston banning of “A History of Rome Hanks,” a novel by Lt. Joseph Pennell of the U. S: Army.


After a lady reader found what she thought were obscene passages in the volume, she noti-+ fied the Watch and Ward Society which informally complained to the Police Commissioner. A’ hint from the Police Dept. brought about a with-. drawal of the book by Boston and Cambridge shops.


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