Open forum, vol. 2, no. 13 (March, 1925)
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"THE OPEN FORUM
Self Expression is the first Law of Life.
Voliad: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 28, 1925
No.3
; A worse exhibit of mental and moral idiocy it
would be hard to imagine than that which is given
by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., on the editorial page of
The Illustrated Daily News of the date of Wednes-
day, March 18, 1925. In large type is this heading,
over a full-column editorial: GREAT FLEET AS-
SEMBLING AT LOS ANGELES HARBOR INSURES
US AGAINST WAR. The heading itself is idiotic
enough, but the "argument" which follows is even
more void of sense and sincerity.
"Not since the review of the British squadrons at
Portsmouth, England, in the summer of 1914, has
`such an array of fighting ships been seen." This as
a starter for the contention that we have in the
repetition. of the English folly "in the summer of
1914," an insurance against war. Yet the World
- War followed almost immediately upon-the British
exhibit, and as everybody knows was directly related
to the threat which British sea-power carried to the
competing sea-power of Germany. England shook
her fists under the nose of all Europe and a few
minutes afterwards all Europe was at it, in the worst
melee of blooshed and slaughter the earth has ever
seen. So now we shake our fists in the face of Asia,
"and thereby insure the world against war. Could
stupidity exceed this?
--_-_------_
"The armada is a peace-time fleet; its assemblage,
the Atlantic and Pacific fleets together, is the BEST
INSURANCE of peace we can have." And then this
millionaire editor goes on: "It is a demonstration
of the peacetime power of the United States; a
warning of HANDS OFF to any nation." Note now
the concluding paragraph of this editorial imbecil-
ity: "We in America must learn, as Australia and
New Zealand have learned, that a show of FORCE,
of STRENGTH, of POWER is the only thing on
earth that will keep us from having to fight JAPAN.
And the only way to impress upon Japan that we
MEAN BUSINESS is to let them see what kind of
`insurance we employ when we are not at war."
--_--_ 4
"The next war-if there is another war in our gen-
eration-will be a naval war fought in the Pacific
Ocean. It will be a war for the supremacy of the
race; a war of the colors; a war for the domination
of the white man over the yellow man." Frank isn't
it? Especially that last clause," a war for the domi-
nation of the white man over the yellow man."
And it is thus that we "insure peace."
But the sentence does not end as we have ended it
AnGVS. Here is the apex of imbecility and insin-
cerity. "A war for the domination of the white man
Over the yellow race; brought about inversely."
That is, the war is going to be for the subjection of
the yellow man to the white man, and the yellow
an is going to provoke this war. But let Vander-
bilt speak for himself. |
---___
"Here in America we are talking peace; we are
ad to call ourselves a peace-loving people. Not so
cae a Orient; there they have the idea that even-
ae y ne yellow man is to rule the world; that
"a prevails because it has been instilled into the
natives for generations. They are waiting, as Ger-
Aca waiting, for THE DAY. Peace means
ieee o them, except a subterfuge of the white
Hates clr language a show of the white feather."
"If this coo utterance from the same editorial.
Goan a mada goes to the Orient it will do MORE
nee = any other one thing imaginable to keep
ne Pacific. Demonstrations of power are
the ;
Only kinds of demonstrations that mean any-
thine ;
ae - those who inhabit the lands of the Far
Sam, he power of the combined fleets of Uncle
`
would mean more to the Chinese and Japa-
an yard
ganda." y Ss and yards of peace propa
PITH AND PARAGRAPH
It may be possible to put more falsehood, foolish-
ness, and Pharisaism into the same number of words
than Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. has packed into these
short paragraphs, but if it is possible it would be
hard to prove that the thing has ever been done. For
immeasurable idiocy, and a hypocrisy that has not
been surpassed since that hour of the world's mid-
night when Judas kissed Jesus as the sign of his
betrayal, this thing has no parallel. And the ap-
palling fact about it is that here is no accidental,
individual utterance, but the voice of American
moronism and imperialism speaking the thing that
Americanism has come to be, a lying, braggart men-
ace to the world.
And here are the "thirty pieces of silver." Midway
of the editorial notice these words. "`The ships and
the men at San Pedro mean that a great deal of
money will be spent, a great many merchants en-
riched, a great many citizens given an opportunity
of viewing the BEST TRAINING SCHOOL in the
world for their sons, now and in the future."
eS
All the emphasis of capital letters in all the above
quotations is that of the [llustrated News, a fact
which makes plainer yet where the emphasis of
American feeling and thinking lies today. For Van-
derbilt speaks. for millions upon millions, and most
of all for those who are sure that they are most
American.
Germany may have been the insane asylum of the
earth yesterday, but there can be little doubt that
the United States is the mad-house of the present
hour. And to climax this, and locate the maddest
ward in this mad-house of up-to-date Prussianism,
let me give just one quotation more, the concluding
words of the initial paragraph of this editorial.
"It is all the more impressive that this great drama
of naval life should be centered at San Pedro, the
port which Los Angeles is doing its best to make
one of the greatest in the world."
---_ 4 -__-_-_.
Neither religion, nor irreligion, is the concern of
THE OPEN FORUM. We are no more interested
in promoting rationalism than we are in promoting
orthodoxy. Our first business is to defend all kinds
of people in their right to express all kinds of opin-
ions, within the limits of decency and non-violence.
We will defend the Fundamentalists in their right
to the peaceful use of their own platforms, and an
orderly hearing from those who want to hear them,
just as we will defend the atheist in his right to
his platform and his audience as long as they want
to hear him. But attacks on religion do not interest
us any more than do defenses of religion. So far
as religion is an institutional thing, and its teaching
an item of social phenomena, criticism of it as such
is entirely within the social education, which is the
work we are trying to do. But rationalists among
us ought not to expect us to propagandize on behalf
of rationalism any more than religionists among us
ought to expect us to propagandize on behalf of
religion.
----
Repeal of the Criminal Syndicalism Law in Cali-
fornia, aS proposed by Assemblyman Hornblower of
San Francisco, was turned down without so much
as getting a hearing before the State Assembly at
Sacramento. The Judiciary Committee unanimously
tabled the resolution, thus indicating how completely
the State Legislature is in the hands of the profit-
eers and the patro-maniacs. This result was ex-
pected by everyone who knows the present political
situation in California. Reaction is in the saddle
here, as emphatically ag it is anywhere in the world
today. Meanwhile few of our Eastern friends rea-
`lize the difficulties of rallying liberal sentiment in
California right now. The-recent decision of the
State Supreme Court making membership in the
I. W. W. itself a crime, and the contemptuous dis-
missal by the Judiciary Committee of the effort to
repeal the infamous Criminal Syndicalism Law both
point to the almost hopeless ascendancy in this State
of the Big Interests and the Associated Bigotries in
their combination against the people who- would
make California free. This.is, however, only a chal-
lenge to a more serious campaign on behalf of de-
cency and democracy. But it will have to be a
very serious campaign, indeed.
eB Ee ee
Russia is still the acid test of social thinking.
Four times in a period of less than eight years the
Soviet government has been the object of world
attack, in which the United States has always been
with the enemy. There was first of all the military
attack, wherein Woodrow Wilson joined the Allies
and without warrant of legal act or authority, used
United States forces in an attempt to overthrow a
nation with which we were not at war. At one
time during this period Russia had to stand off at-
tack on twenty-one fronts. The Red Army brought
her successfully through.
The economic barricade was a Severer test, if pos-
sible, than the armed invasions had been. In this
also the United States was a leader, and still con-
tinues the effort to crush the Soviet government. by
the policy of economic starvation. Here also the
world-wide conspiracy has failed.
The third attack was the resort to publicity. Lenin
was killed off again and again, the failure and
abandonment of Communism was widely proclaimed,
and every effort was made to put Russia out of
business by proclaiming her bankruptcy to the world.
This attack also failed, for Russia has slowly but
steadily strengthened her standing both in the eco-
nomic and the political field. Now comes the fourth
attack, also on lines of lying publicity. The tactic
today is to claim and cultivate dissension in the
Russian ranks. First of all we have a campaign of
championing Trotsky against the Communist Party
in Russia. This has broken down, like the other
publicity programs of those who proclaimed the col-
lapse of the Soviet Republics. There follows the
present effort to play up the political prisoners in
Russia, and so discredit Russia abroad, and if pos-
sible make a rift in Russian unity at home. Macaulay,
the English historian, said that the Puritans opposed
bear-baiting, "not because it hurt the bear, but be-
cause it pleased the spectator." The interest in the
political prisoner in Russia is much less a matter of
sympathy for the prisoner than it is a matter of
antipathy to the Soviets.
Charles M. Sheldon, the famous religious writer,
tells of a recent meeting of a Rotary Club, a ban-
quet at which there were present "members of the
churches in large numbers, officials of the state,
representative business and professional men, a few
working men, to use a term designating those who
hold tools of labor in their hands, and visiting
guests, including several ministers of the gospel."
The speaker of the occasion was "a well-known
minister," whose subject was patriotism. And this
was the climax of his address.
"If my country should declare war against even
a weaker nation, a war that was cruel and unjust
on gur side, nevertheless I would enlist without
a word of protest. My .country, first, last, and
always." ~#
This appears to have been too much, even for a
Rotary Club. Sheldon notes that instead of the
pronounced applause which this peroration was ex-
pected to draw forth, the audience received it "almost
in silence."
And this is the extent of the protest against a
prostitution worse than that of the woman of the
street. Preachers get away with that sort of thing
today as they did with their boot-licking of the slave
oligarchy less than a century ago.
eae seein ia Sat tar ae SESSA TELS re
OR ER ON CE I ED
2
SA GR: ea ee EY
Will The Church
Survive?
By Elmo A. Robinson
Il
It is objected to the idea that the church will
survive that religion is the "opiate of the masses,"
that the church is a tool of financial interests and
does not function to the benefit of the proletariat.
It is pointed out that the workers of the world are
largely alienated from religion, and asserted that
in the future the church will be discarded.
Such objections are based on Upton Sinclair's
"Profits of Religion" and similar studies. The same
author, however, has shown with equal, if not
greater force, that the press, the schools, the col-
leges, the arts, are also capitalistically controlled.
People who withdraw from the church on account of
its relation to capitalism ought, logically, to discard
newspapers, refuse to send their children to school
and college, refuse to listen to the radio, or visit
the movie, the theatre, the concert. People who argue
that there will be no church in the fitlture might
with the same sweet unreasonableness argue that
there will be no public press, no institutions of learn-
ing, no social expression of the artistic impulse.
Such people forget the transformation of church life
in the past, and expose their own lack of vision,
of capacity to see the coming transformation. The
church of the future will be influenced ane po-
litical and industrial forms of the future. People
who object to the church of the present because it
has not yet become the church of the future might
contribute to progress if they would help accelerate
this transformation by their co-operation. .
The church of the future will be a cthurch with
a world religion, corresponding to the world indus-
try of the future. It will know no national boun-
daries. Already progress is being made in har-
monizing the world's greatest religion. In the new
era the church will teach a religion which will in-
clude all races, all revelations, all prophets.
The church of the future will be a united church.
Denominationalism is passing. The spirit of unity
is growing. Some definite steps toward organic and
functional unity have been taken; more steps will
be taken. Denominationalism will go, not by a
process of destruction, but by building parts into a
more perfect whole.
Metaphysical |
Determinism
The doctrine, so much in vogue in the United
States today, that the mind determines everything
never had a funnier expression than this which fol-
lows. It is from a well known New Thought period-
ical which carries at the head of the page from
which this clipping is taken "Copies Printed This
Issue, 119,000." We are using only a part of the
article, the rest being taken up with nearly two
pages of testimonials as to weather changes affected
by prayer:
Everything in the universe is the outpicturing
of the thoughts of man; even the weather is the
result of man's thought. When people pray for
a change in the weather, their prayers will be
granted if there is a change in their thinking-
for all outer conditions respond to thought.
History shows that climatic conditions change
as the thoughts of the population change. For
instance, fifty years ago it was considered that,
outside of Egypt and a fringe of land along the
coast line, but little of the continent of Africa
was fit for human habitation. It was thought
that on account of the climate the land could
not be made productive. However, when set-
tlers from the civilized races came to Africa and
brought with them thoughts more civilized than
those held by the natives, it was found that the
climate of Africa was changing. Large areas of
the country that had been considered unin-
habitable were found to afford a good living to
those who settled there, and the dream of a
great railway from "Cape to Cairo" was at least
partially carried out.
We find like changes taking place in our own
country. About fifty years ago an important
convention of grain men was held in Chicago.
After considering the evidence and listening to
the discussion these pioneers caused a record to
be spread on their minutes to the effect that
there was a great future for grain growing in
the. United States, but that it ~would be impos-
sible, on account of the climate, for grain grow-
ing ever to be successful in the northern tier of
states. It was not many years, of course, before
Minnesota and other northern states showed
what could be done by them in the way of grow-
ing grain, and it was conceded that the climate
had changed. Experts then concluded that the
forty-ninth parallel of north latitude surely
|
1
eee
A weekly commentary by Robert Whitake;
on the high-power humbug and the res.
pectable nonsense of platform and presg,
@
Few issues are more difficult to discuss intellj.
gently than is the issue of free speech. Many who
think they believe in it humbug themselves to ap
amazing degree in face of the fact that they repudi.
ate it whenever they get into a tight place. This
is true of all conservatives, and it is true of the
vast majority of those who think themselves liberals.
On the other hand there are many radicals, who
know the limitations of free speech as a matter of
actual human experience, yet are foolishly inclined
to proclaim their abandonment of the doctrine just
when and where they ought to be loyal to it.
Free speech is a consistent doctrine for the anar-
chist, though it is doubtful whether anarchists woul(
allow unlimited discussion if they were actually in
a numerical and directive majority in any country
of the world. Certain suppressions would follow
quite inevitably upon such a situation, especially in
the days of adjustment to the new order and the
menace of a return to the old order.
The doctrine of free speech rests upon the con.
ception of society as an aggregation of economically
insulated individuals to whom the truth may be
trusted to make its undiluted appeal. Given "a free
field and a fair fight" that which is rational and
moral may be counted upon to win against that
which is irrational and immoral. All that is neces.
sary is an appeal to reason, and the fact that men
do not reason in a vacuum, but act from compul-
sions and persuasions that.are far removed from
pure intellectualism, is quietly ignored. Everybody
is assumed to be in the main on the same level of
"spiritual" response.
There never has been of course any such actual
condition of human affairs, nor has there ever been
any social experiment of unlimited freedom. Always
the owning class have dominated the human situa:
tion, and have determined what the people might
say, and back of that what the people as a whole.
would think.
Not...only, is all art .propaganda,.ias Sinclair has
demonstrated, but all life's arrangements, since
society began to be, are propaganda. Education has
always been propaganda. Religion has always been
propaganda. "Let me write the songs of a people
and I care not who writes their laws." Songs and
laws, both--propaganda. Men have always lived
under pressure, and the pressure from outside has
always been more powerful than the pressure from
inside, or else the man has been broken. Always.
men's feeling, thinking, doing have been responses -
to social situations operative before they got here,
marked the northern limit of the wheat belt; but
as the years went on Canada became a great
wheat growing country.
and used by the class in power. to perpetuate and #
extend their special privileges. Freedom to talk,
within carefully circumscribed ranges of non-inter.
The church of the future will be a community
church. Just ag society will guarantee to every man
food and a job, so it will guarantee every man a
place in the religious group and an opportunity for
religious expression. Every man will be welcome in
the church, not on account of money, creed, saintli-
ness, but because he is a man. The attention of
the church will be focused on the community, its
problems, its people, their needs, its children, their
nurture.
The church of the future will be a free church.
Just as the higher socialism finds its justification
in the promise of greater individualism, so these
characteristics of the church of the future will lead
to greater freedom for the individual. The require-
ments of creed and form will disappear. Within
the one harmonious whole smaller groups, and with-
in those groups individuals, will freely express their
religious ideals.
One reason why membership in the church is now
to be prized is that it gives one a chance to advance
this world religion, this era of church unity, to mold
the old denominationalism into the new community
religion, and to be a part of one of these small free
groups and have the thrill of making it live, blos-
som, and bear fruit in an atmosphere not yet prop-
erly purified for its needs.
Christianity in its beginnings was the religion of
slaves. It bore the same relation to respectability
that the communistic theory does today. To the
hundred per cent citizen of the ancient Roman
empire a Christian was looked upon exactly as a
member of the I. W. W. is looked upon today by a
hundred per cent American. He was a despised
member of an inferior caste, a dangerous radical
who sought to overthrow the state, and worst of all,
an immoral promulgator of heresy against the gods.
-Don Ryan in Los Angeles Record.
Is it logical to conclude from these facts that
as countries become settled, as more thought is
generated in them, their climate changes? May
we conclude that, if Canada and the northern
part of the United States were today populated
by only a few bands of roaming Indians, the
climate would be too severe for the growing of
wheat?
Kansas was once a part of a great `tract of
country that was designated as the "Great Am-
erican Desert." It was believed that the rain-
fall was so scant and insect pests were so num-
erous that the land was valuable only for graz-
ing. Now Kansas raises more wheat than any
other state in the union and produces many
other agricultural products in great quantities.
JESSIE CAMERON BROWN.
LY
%
Nursery Rhymes With
Interpolations
THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET,
(And like the old Roman general-Veni, vidi,
vici'-he conquered (cornered) the market).
THIS LITTLE PIG STAYED AT HOME;
(And did all the work for the other pig-was ex.
ploited, in other words.)
THIS LITTLE PIG HAD ROAST BEEF,
(Of course he did, and all the trimmings too-they
go to the holders of special privilege always.)
THIS LITTLE PIG HAD NONKE.
(Why should he? Corned-beef and cabbage-or
more likely, cabbage alone-is good enough for the
wage slave; he may thank his lucky stars if he
gets even that these "prosperous" Coolidge times! )
Oe ee
ference with the economic order, has been granted,
but even this has been limited by the necessity of
keeping education down to the level of a generally
prevailing slave psychology. But every man's think |
ing is, and always has been chiefly a social product
in which his own part was infinitesimal as com
pared with what natural environment, traditional ac
cumulations, and contact with his fellows hag done
to him and with him. :
Capitalism requires freedom of competition among
the masses, and therefore encourages the delusiol
of freedom of thought, speech, and political action.
Communism seeks not competition among the
masses, but co-operation, and frankly admits ani.
seeks social control. In the one case the pretense ~
of freedom is insincere; in the other case the pro-
gram of interference is apt to be excessive.
Communists are not bound to accept free speecl
where they are regnant, because they do not accept
the principle, knowing that social constraint is the
actual program of every established order. But
common sense, and their own necessities, ought 10
make them loyal to free speech where capitalism is
regnant, for their only chance to get a hearing for
themselves is to take advantage of the extent td
which capitalism, by its own professions, is com
pelled to allow verbal dissent and attack.
The natural thing is for those who are on the
Side of an established' order to favor suppressions,
and for those who are opposed to an establishel
order to favor free speech. Consequently capitalists
are for freedom of criticism and opposition where
they are down and out. And communists ought 0.
be for freedom of criticism and attack where the)
are down and out. For communists to fight agains!
freedom of speech in the United States is a pe
formance that is too incredibly stupid to be de
scribed. They have everything to gain and nothine
to lose by letting every man have his say here
however much of a fool or a knave he may be. Othel,
wise how shall they claim, under capitalism, the
chance to speak for their own program of attat -
upon capitalism? But we are all of us, at times
curious victims, of our own particular brand and
Brisbunk.
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-_
SAY SO
We want letters.
Lots of them.
From lots of people.
On lots of subjects.
BUT NOT LOTS OF WORDS.
Make them "Century Letters,"
that is letters of not more than
One Hundred words.
Write on subjects of general
interest.
Typewrite your letters,
if possible. If you are
interested in anything worth-
while, say so. But say it in
as few sentences as you can.
Sign your name. It will not be
used if you do not wish it
published, provided you say so.
Let's make "SAY SO" the best
page of this paper. Mind you,
be brief. And again, BE BRIEF.
eae o-en-cent [7]
How Long Can the
People Be Fooled?
By Kate Crane Gartz
March 16, 1925.
In the year 1925 after fighting a war to end war,
we are greeted this morning, in the Los Angeles
Harbor with the spectacle of one hundred and ten
fighting ships in battle array-surely a sight for the
gods! They are to let loose their six minute in-
fernos of smoke, flame, noise and whistling steel;
more gun power will be in action in this spectacular
practice than in all other naval battles in history!
Who is: responsible for: this: show -of brutal~power,
when every battle ship and every gun should be
buried a million fathoms deep?
Dinners and balls at the Coronado, for the officers
of this destructive fleet; besides forty thousand non-
producing men in worse than idleness; and instead
of being ashamed of their murderous occupation,
they boldly flaunt their gilded uniforms in our
faces!
They tell us we can get what we want by the
3 _ vote. How many of us voted for this?
Did we go to war to end war or did we not?
Who fooled us and conscripted us and jailed us for
that false slogan? What about those millions who
- died in vain? How long can the people be fooled?
When will Christian nations adopt Christianity,
and live up to the Golden Rule and the Ten Com-
mandments? Let them tear down all their so-
called Christian edifices, and try to build a world
fit for human habitation instead of permitting our
planet to be used as the insane asylum of all other
planets, as George Bernard Shaw has so aptly said.
-_-__ a-____-_
Christian Science
Position Stated
March 21, 1925.
To the Editor of the Open Forum, Los Angeles, Calif.
Dear Sir:
ae your issue of February 14th, C. L. W. states
at the Christian Scientists' "fear of criticism has
made them desperate."
stra tian Scientists are not afraid of honest con-
Bad ae criticism. They feel about this as Mrs.
wiih oe when she wrote in "Science and Health
the he to the Scriptures": "During many years
bie a has been most grateful for merited re-
Yals i: zg wrong lies in unmerited censure,-in the
eurohood which does no one any good." (p. 9.)
oe author or publisher attempts by mis-
Christian coco or implication to misrepresent
lest @eainet ee and members of this church pro-
removal' ot; e falsehood asking its correction or the
Savors "of `tt ne book, there is nothing in this which
respecti me desperate. It is simply the self-
ng act of an honest religion which refuses
hood, and approves only of the truth.
Respectfully,
Albert BE. Lombard
Christi : . : :
ristian Science Committee on Publication
How Child Labor
Was Defeated
The following editorial, from the Christian Cen-
tury, tells volumes as to the use of propaganda
devices by the Big Interests in defeating Child La-
bor. How easily farmers and city workers can
be fooled into being cats-paws of the Powers That
Prey, is made evident every time we have an elec-
tion. Such is political democracy, with the purse
in the hands of Special Privilege.
In the entire history of social legislation there
has perhaps never been so remarkable an ex-
ample of the use of hokum as in the campaign
against the children's amendment, nor one in
which its use was so effective as in the case of
the farmers in this campaign. Their leaders
came actually to believe that its passage meant
that farmers' children would be forbidden to
work under their parents' direction. False propa-
ganda never reached a higher degree of efficiency
even in war time. One of the sources of its
effectivness has been uncovered by Gilbert
Hyatt, a special investigator for the labor press.
He discovered that the Farmers' States' Right
League of North Carolina was organized,
financed and directed by the cotton mill owners
and their agents, and he procured the admission
of its founders and directors to that effect. The
farmers who signed the charter confessed that
they did not know what the organization was for,
that they did not know where its funds came
from, and that they did not know who was
conducting its publicity. The editor of the
Southern Textile Bulletin, who was presiding
genius of this remarkable organization, confessed
that he drew up the charter and that a special
publicity agent by the name of Palmer secured
the signatures. Mr. Hyatt found that among the
officials were the cashier of a cotton mill bank
and the storekeeper at a cotton mill. No real
dirt farmer had anything to do with its activi-
ties, and the publicity was conducted by the
Southern Textile Bulletin in the name of the
league. Its editor, Mr. Clark, made no other
alibi than' that the league was "legally" incor-
porated and that he was "officially" authorized
to conduct its publicity. He says quite frankly
that had the literature gone out under the name
of the Southern Textile Bulletin its effect would
have been neutralized by the source from which
it was distributed. "By getting the truth to the
people of the country without allowing our op-
ponents to confuse the issue by an attack upon
the senders of the literature we turned an almost
hopeless situation into an overwhelming victory,
and if our methods do not please those who lost,
it makes no difference to us." He says, "We
set out to beat the child labor amendment and
we have beaten it." We wonder if he has.
The Old-time Religion
The Boston Evening Transcript reports that the
earthquake felt in New England on the night
of Feb. 28 greatly increased church attendance
the next morning, March 1. In eight different
cities, including Hartford and New Haven, in-
quiry discovered a noticeable increase in the
number at church on the morning after the
tremors. In Leicester, Mass., the Rev. Frederick
B. Noyes took into his pulpit and read the ser-
mon preached by his kinsman, Rev. Thomas
Noyes, after the earthquake of 1817.
--#-__-
Commends
The Open Forum
March 20, 1925.
To the Open Forum:
Here's to "Say So!"
This week's Open Forum comes with so much that
is constructive and hopeful in its contents, that it
has quite disarmed me, as one of its readers, from
a half formed purpose of writing a gentle protest to
its editors, for what seemed too much negation in
its mood and selections for print.
Whether the fear of a prevailing pessimism in the
make-up of its columns was well taken or not this
correspondent hastens to thankfully and hopefully
commend the O. F. issue of March 2ist.
% Fred K. Gillette.
Catholic Report
On Haiti
"The United States government should close the
door it has opened in Haiti to the establishment
there of a network of American owned plantations
through which Haitian small farm owners will be
turned into peons and day laborers. It should do all
possible to retain and extend ownership by Haitian
farmers of the land they till." This is the principal
recommendation of a representative of the social
action department of the National Catholic Welfare
conference in his report of an investigation in Haiti.
American influence in other West Indian islands
has meant the growth of the plantation system
and the gradual expropriation of the people's land,
says the report. The masses of the people are
changed into landless, low-paid laborers and peons,
working on plantations that are owned principally
by Americans. It is declared that this same process
has been begun in Haiti since the occupation through
permission laws which the American government
dictated and through the establishment of planta-
tions in sugar, pineapples and cotton by Americans.
"Because the plantation system has only begun in
Haiti, theres is time yet for another policy to be
pursued successfully. The United States can change
the policy it initiated. It still holds its power over
the Haitian government."
The specific recommendations are the following:
`4. The former provision of the Haitian law for-
bidding foreigners to own farm lands should be
restored. At the same time, care should be taken
to safeguard the money invested by foreigners in
Haitian land under the permission given by the Am-
erican written constitution of Haiti. 2. Instead of
allowing easier foreclosure of mortgages on farm
lands, as is contemplated, foreclosure should be made
impossible upon farms that are needed by the work-
ing owners to support themselves and their families.
3. Other credit arrangements should be provided
for, particularly through co-operative credit unions.
4. Elementary and high school general education
is one of the greatest needs of Haiti at the present
time. The present elementary schools in most
instances could be used to teach agricultural and
other technical arts to children. All of the work
should be inspired by the purpose of making the
Haitian an independent farmer with the personal
sense of dignity and the strength of family life which
this begets. 5. The contemplated irrigation projects
should be carried through as soon as possible. In
the irrigated districts, colonies of small land owners
should be established. The land should not be turned
over to plantations. 6. The government should help
to educate the people in better methods of marketing
and especially co-operative marketing. 7. A plan
of government regulation of the few existing plan-
tations should be worked out."
-_-_r-_--_--
"Arrowsmith"'
Editor, Open Forum:
Sinclair Lewis' latest novel, "Arrowsmith," makes
one pause in the middle of a chapter, sit back and
think. An amazing picture of the way science-
medical science, in particular-functions in the exist-
ing system of society in America. Liberals and
radicals cannot afford missing it. It is, I think, a
greater novel than either ""Main Street" or "Babbitt."
fp. At
i
It was the evening hour of relaxation, and the
sound of a concertina mingled with the jingling
words of a soldier's song, "Sur l'Yser pendant la
guerre." And there was a little French Territorial,
over forty, married and with three children, and
he kept a hotel near Boulogne. He had had months
of the trenches, two days in and three days out,
and the red wine pushed an epigram thru his lips-
an epigram which is now upon the lips of the world.
He said:
"T don't mind being alive, and I don't mind being
dead, but I don't want any more of this."
-The English Review, July 1917.
eee
We are beaten back in many a fray,
But newer strength we borrow;
And where the vanguard rests today
The rear shall camp tomorrow.
Gerald Massey.
ee RL Sek Tr eSa eee Un eee
- Saad - - ne ~
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California
Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.
Phone: TUcker 6836.
MANAGING EDITORS
Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft
LITERARY EDITOR
Esther Yarnell
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Upton Sinclair
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Leo Gallagher
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Entered as second-class matter Dec. 13, 1924, at
the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the
Act of March 3, 1879.
SATURDAY, MAR. 28, 1925
COMING EVENTS
ROK RO KS Rae, KE
Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233
South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
a
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At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.
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All are Invited to Attend
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EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION
At Eight O'clock
A Free Education is Offered at
EDUCATIONAL CENTER
By Industrial Workers of the World
Saturday, March 28th, William Velarde.
Subject: `Conditions in Mexico, Past and Present."
Saturday, April 4th, Entertainment.
Saturday, April 11th, Debate: `Can a Society Func-
tion in the absence of a Centralized Government?'
Affirmative, Joseph Spivak. Negative, Frank Cassidy.
Saturday, April 18th, Archie Sinclair, I. W. W.
Speaker will address the Forum, Room 218, 224 So.
Spring St. Time 3s.P. M:
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
224 South Spring Street, Room 218
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FREE WORKER'S FORUM
420 N. Soto St., Los Angeles, Cal.
(One block north of Brooklyn Avenue)
PROGRAM FOR MARCH, 1925 pee
March 30-`Gandhi-Soul Force Versus Physical
Force" by Miss Ethelwyn Mills.
"THE BEAUTY AND THE BOLSHEVIK," a mov-
ing picture described as "The First Great Picture
Film made in Soviet Russia and produced by the
World Famous Moscow Art Theatre" is to be given
in Los Angeles, Monday, April 6th, 1925, at the
Philharmonic Auditorium, Fifth and Olive Streets.
With it, as an added attraction will be given "Russia
in Overalls,' a three-reel survey of Economic Life
in Soviet-land. The exhibit is for one evening only.
RR pe nce rn nt eae
ena eae ed ee
The Vampire II
(Apologies to Kipling)
A fool there was, and he cast his vote
(Even as you and I)
For ragged pants and a tattered coat,
And some grub on which he didn't dote.
He voted for G. 0. P.; youll: note
(Even as you and I).
Oh, the work we do for the favored few,
And the miserable wage we get!
We crack the nuts, they take the meat;
They hand us chaff, they take the wheat,
And to make our bondage more complete
We vote for this system yet.
A fool there was, and he goods had none;
(Even as you and I).
He worked all day, from sun to sun,
He got no cash, so he worked for fun;
And he voted just as his dad had done
(Even as you and I).
Oh, he worked like fun, from sun to sun,
And he plotted and schemed and plan'd,
But he simply couldn't make ends meet.
If his head kept warm, then he froze his feet,
And his kids hadn't half enough to eat,
But he couldn't understand.
The fool was stripped to his foolish hide;
(Even as you and I)
They couldn't use that, though they may have tried,
So the poor old fool was kicked aside.
But his legs lived on, though his head had died
(Even as you and I).
It isn't the shame, and it isn't the blame,
That stings like a white hot brand;
It's the cussed foolishness of a jay,
Who'll work ten hours for two hours' pay,
And then vote for this thing on election day,
And will not understand.
-By Bert Leach, in Labor.
--_-_-_ 2r-_-_--_-_
KU KLUXISM KONDENSED
The present day Ku Klux Klan was founded in
1915 by William Joseph Simmons of Atlanta, Georgia,
a professional fraternal organizer.
It took its name and most of its ritual from the
post-Civil War organization of terror known as the
Ku Klux Klan. The name is a corruption of the
Greek word kuklos, meaning circle.
It differs from the original klan in that the old
organization was primarily anti-Negro, while the new
order embraces five "antis" of equal importance;
anti-Negro, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-foreigner and
anti-liberal.
The original klan was in no way anti-Catholic. Its
first chaplain-in-chief was a Roman Catholic priest.
(See History of the Ku Klux Klan by H. L. Davis).
In 1919 Simmons sold his organization for approx-
imately $150,000 to Edward Young Clark, a news-
paper man and "drive" promoter. Clark proceeded
to sell it to the people at $10.00 a head. Two dollars
of every ten went to Clark as a personal bonus, over
and above his salary as Imperial Kleagle, and in the
first sixteen months of his activity he reaped a har-
vest of $170,252. (See "The World Tomorrow,"
March 1924.)
The acts of violence committed by the Ku Klux
Klan since 1920 include horsewhippings, tar and
feather "parties," lynchings and shootings. Many
of these outrages are well known to the public, as
for instance the murders in Mer Rouge, Louisiana.
(See record compiled by the American Civil Liberties
Union for the period from December 1920 to Feb-
ruary 1923.)
The Internationals
Sh
Shortly after the outbreak of the present war in
Hurope, a man was talking over the situation. "At
bottom," said he, bitterly, "We are hyenas, nothing
but hyenas." He might as well have said that
the rose at bottom is nothing but dirt. Human
nature cannot be blamed for war. One part of it
is used in making war just as one part of corn is
used in making whiskey.
-Scott Nearing, The Germs of War.
ht
So live that your plan of living, if adopted by the
whole of society would make the whole of society
finer and better.
Los Angeles -
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O0x00B0CLOCK
MAR. 29-DEBATE "RESOLVED THAT TH
ATTACKS OF THE LIBERTARIANS ON _ RUSgy
ARE JUSTIFIED." The affirmative will be take
by THOMAS BELL, and A. PLOTKIN will uphoj
the negative. When two such doughty antagonis;
get together the fur is sure to fly-and some poy
facts touching a long-continued controversy AMOn
liberals will be brought out undoubtedly. MR, FISH will be heard in a number of Russian song
acacia Giant akan
WORLD PEACE AND
SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Next Sunday, March 29th, will be the closing gq.
vice of the Church of the New Social Order at Sym.
phony Hall for this season. Because of the demani
for out-door life during the spring and summa
months this church, which is quite unlike all othe
churches, will discontinue indoor meetings, generally
speaking, for the summer months, and will meet i
out-door picnics, to be announced from time to time
Next Sunday Mr. Whitaker will close his series
addresses upon "A WARLESS WORLD," by discus
sing The Social Revolution as a Cure for War. Mec.
ing begins at 10:45 A.M., Symphony Hall, 232 South
Hill Street. Everybody welcome.
Oe
Boston, Dec. 6 (By United Press).-``There is 1)
God in the army," asserts the Rev. William }
Ayers, Wollaston, Mass., preacher, who served 4
a chaplain during the war, and declares in the net
war he will serve as a stretcher bearer, but not a
a chaplain.
---_-_- e--____--_
We always get at second-hand our notions aboil
systems of government and high tariff, and lov
tariff; and prohibition and anti-prohibition; ani
the holiness of peace and the glories of war; ail
codes of honor and codes of morals; and approval
of the duel and disapproval of it; and our beliefs
concerning the nature of cats; and our ideas as ti
whether the murder of wild animals is base or is
heroic; and our preferences in the matter of Te
ligious and political parties.
-Mark Twaing| cent
i
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