Open forum, vol. 2, no. 18 (May, 1925)
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Facts are the Skeleton of Truth
~ THE OPEN FORUM
Q; Q
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2, 1925
The Issue In This Campaign
By J. H. Ryckman
We find ourselves on the eve of the most important
municipal election in the history of Los Angeles.
It is important not only because a new city charter
is to be tried out and unprecedented vice conditions
prevail and a great harbor is to be developed, but
because we have reached a critical point in the ex-
periment this city hag been working out with great
success in municipal ownership of water, light, heat
and power.
The next mayor of this city will be either Mayor
Gryer or Judge Bledsoe. Both are able, honest and
incorruptible, if judged by the records they have
made as citizens and public officers. Let us assume
that either will equally well try out the new charter,
hold crime in check and honestly administer the har-
bor. But what about the remaining problem-light,
power and water?
That is the supreme issue in this campaign. Here
two warring philosophies meet face to face-out and
out public ownership, operation and control of public
utilities, as for example, the post office and the Pana-
ma Canal by the United States, and water, light and
power by the City of Los Angeles, or private owner-
ship, operation and control by private enterprise
under government supervision. These two principles
are forever in irrepressible conflict. They cannot sur-
vive side by side. They are now hanging in the
balance in the United States. Which is to triumph?
Los Angeles igs the key city in the struggle. The
eyes of the world are turned toward us because
here municipal, ownership, operation and control of
certain public utilities hag been an outstanding, suc-
cess. By a gigantic engineering feat thought out
by William Mulholland and his
efficient staff, now all supporting Mayor Cryer, water
has been brought 250 miles over gorges and canyons
and rugged mountains, without which this beautiful
city of 1,200,000 people could not have been. Then
in spite of seemingly insuperable obstacles inter-
posed by the forces now back of Judge Bledsoe, a
modicum of heat, light and power has come to be
Owned by the city, likewise scoring a great success
and placing Los Angeles in the front rank among the
sreat cities of the world in municipal enterprise.
The last audit of the books of our Bureau of Power
and Light show a net profit for the year ending June
30, 1924, of $3,051,806, out of gross receipts of $9,-
802,092
and accomplished
" after deducting therefrom the items of opera-
ting expense, maintenance cost, depreciation and
Interest on bonds. Murthermore, we enjoy the lowest
rates of any large city in the United States.
Is Log Angeles, the cynosure of the eyes of the
world, to he longer heralded as a fine exemplifica-
tion of the principle of public ownership vs. private
Ownership? Not if Judge Bledsoe and Harry Chand-
Com, theySouthern Pacific and the Chamber of
Tce can help it. It is often asked by the
ee sticated why Judge Bldesoe should resign a
He position On the Federal Bench worth a minimum
of $7500 per year life to become mayor of
Angeles for four years at $10,000 per. The answer
fl ane pidge Bledsoe ig the only man in this city
Ing the ghost of a Mayor Cryer.
i elected he j four and
0 whom will
millions. If
one
for Los
is easy,
chance to beat
8 taken care of
the Snemies of public
Serve he wil] be worth
defeated he will be put
or more power
Make $7509
Derplexea bec
anc rung for
for
ownership
uncomputed
on the legal
corporations at a that
look like 30 don't
auUSe a federal judge resigns just now
mayor of Los Angeles.
years,
he
staff of
will
be
salary
cents. Please
| charge '
itn Vee "ge that there is a nationwide conspiracy
Al a : : :
W and fo} some time past to discredit the
principle
this cent Of public Ownership of public utilities in
cuntry and that' Harry Chandler and the well
known men back of him are part of that conspiracy
and that Judge Bledsoe has been chosen by them
as the most eligible person with whom to attempt the
first breach in the ramparts of public ownership.
All our natural resources, coal, iron, copper, oil, lum-
ber, land, much water power have passed into the
hands of private ownership. Some Giant Power, like
Muscle Shoals, the Colorado, the Columbia remains.
The fight at Washington recently over Muscle
Shoals disclosed the contending forces and the lines
of contest. On one side the General Hlectric, the
Southern California HMdison and their allied interests
seeking to have Muscle Shoals turned over to them,
and if it had not been for the heroic fight made by
Senator Norris, backed by Senators Johnson, Howell,
Couzens, Ladd, Frazier, LaFollette, Shipstead and
the rest, the effort might have succeeded. When
Congress meets again the effort may succeed. Cool-
idge and his cabinet are opposed to public ownership
and are now lending all possible aid to discrediting
the principle.
Recently there was issued at Washington a broad-
side by the Smithsonian Institution attacking the
Hydro-Electric Power System of Ontario. This
broadside, sponsored by our government and circu-
lated in cooperation with the Nation's Business,
organ of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce with which
the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is affiliated,
with the New England Bureau of Public Service In-
formation and the Illinois Committee of Public Utility
Information-all agents of power companies-is a
tissue of lies, exaggeration, misrepresentations, false
and misleading inference, unfounded and
gross perversion of facts. The Canadian Government
has felt impelled to publish a refutation of this foul
attack upon a governmental department of a friendly
people. This refutation is by Sir Adam Beck, head
of the Hydro-Hlectric Power Commission of Ontario
and well known Southern California. Sir
Adam Beck cannot understand how our government
criticism
here in
can be guilty of such a gross breach of international
amity as to lend itself to such a milignant and men-
dacious attack upon the beneficent
ever undertaken by a great people for the promotion
of their own welfare and happiness.
most enterprise
The Smithsonian
Institution is an agency of our
government, endowed by an WBnglishman named
Smithson to promote science. Its members are the
President and his Cabinet, the vice-president and the
Chief Justice. Sir Adam Beck is so old-fashioned
that he cannot understand how our government can
sanction and circulate
false and exaggerated state-
ments concerning a branch of the Government of
a.friendly neighboring state. A close-up of the
men at Washington would enlighten him. They are
all sincere and honest men, but like Judge Bledsoe
and Harry Chandler, they think public ownership is
a kind of bolshevism, just as the Tories of Canada
who fought Hydro-Hlectric for Ontario called it bol-
and bolshevism makes the blood of stand-
patters run cold, Catch one of them in an alley after
night-fall and shout Soviet at him and he will drop
dead,
shevism
Sir Adam Beck shows the Ontario Giant Power
project represents an investment of $250,000,000, sup-
plying over 880 municipalities with
energy at from 1/5 tol/10 of the
this country by government-regulated public utili-
Notwithstanding these low rates the Power
Commission has collected about $7,000,000 in excess
of and the cities retailing to consumers about
$15,500,000 in excess of cost to them. Thus the con-
sumers are freed for all time from the necessity of
paying profits to private capitalists. Can the plund-
er-bund of the United States permit such a splendid
hydro-electric
rates charged in
ties.
cost
demonstration of public ownership in Canada to poi-
son. the minds of the American people and inoculate
them with bolshevism? Banish the thought. Shall
Los Angeles be a party to socializing the Colorado
river with another example of successful public own-
ership? Let the voters answer.
Mayor Cryer stands 4-square for the Swing-John-
son Bill, which means a 605 feet high dam at Boulder,
built, operated and controlled by the United States
to furnish at cost as in Canada water and Giant
Power to all the people so situated to be served. It
means also an all-American canal which will bring
under cultivation 500,000 acres in California now
without water. Judge Bledsoe says he favors "Boulder
Dam or some similiar project to be carried out pref-
erably under government ownership or supervision."
Ah, there's the rub. We don't want "supervision."
The Edison Co. is now offering to build a high dam
at Boulder under "Government supervision.' The
Hdison Co. knows the "government''-it's Coolidge,
Dawes and Weeks and Wilbur-all deadly enemies
of public ownership.
Who are behind Cryer? Dr. Haynes and Mullhol-
land and Scattergood and Mathews and all the men
who have made public ownership a success in Los
Angeles. Who are behind Judge Bledsoe? The Times,
the Express, the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe, the
Edison Co., and all the forces of reaction that car-
ried to defeat the Water and Power Act at the polls
in 1922 and 1924-an act sponsored by such public-
spirited citizens as Dr. John R. Haynes, William
Kent and Rudolph Spreckels-a Dill designed ``to
conserve, develop and control the waters of the state
for the use and benefit of the people" and declared
by Gifford Pinchot to be the best public ownership
bill ever drawn.
To defeat this bill the power companies expended
more than $500,000 as their agents admitted when in-
vestigated. Much of this fund found its way into
the pockets of the very men and women who are
now supporting Judge Bledsoe. A bill of particulars
will be furnished on request. Futhermore, the
Chandler syndicate owns 800,000 acres of land in
Mexico, only 160,000 of which is under water now
from the canal which serves Imperial valley leaving
the Colorado three miles this side the Mexican line
and running some 60 miles thro Mexico before re-
entering the United States to serve Imperial Valley
farmers. The Swing-Johnson bill proposes to super-
sede this canal with an all-American canal. The
Chandler interests want water for their 540,000 acres
now arid. We want it for a like area in Imperial
Valley. That's the difference. Ask Judge Bledsoe
about it.
The issue is clear. It means public ownership for
service at cost vs. private ownership for profit at all
the traffic will bear. It means maintaining the prin-
ciple of public ownership or yielding it up to the
plunderbund. The former means Cryer for mayor;
the latter means Bledsoe.
- SR scvereniemshans
The order of Cleveland's Public Safety Direetor
in dispersing a communist meeting last Tuesday
held to protest political persecution of communists in
Poland will be contested by the American Civil Lib-
erties Union which today wired its Cleveland attorn-
eys to act in the matter.
According to the information received by the Civil
Liberties Union the meeting was dispersed by the
police when an attempt was made to take a collec-
tion to defray expenses. The meeting was under the
auspices of a branch of the International Red Aid
which had held a similar meeting the day before but
was unmolested by the police.
"Director
warranted,"
Liberties
Barry's action looks to us wholly un-
Roger N. Baldwin, director of the Civil
Union. States, "The communists had a
legal right to hold this meeting and to take up a
collection, Police interference with the meeting was
apparently based on some regulation concerning the
public collection of funds, So far as we know this is
the first radical meeting broken up on such a pre-
text, Whether or not we shall take the matter into
the courts depends upon advice from our Cleve-
land attorneys."
Federated Press
hail its hin whibed e ind " a opera
TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?
By R. W.
It is known to all who are familiar with the stofy
of the American Revolution that Thomas Paine be-
gan his famous series of articles, published under the
title, "The Crisis" with the phrase which became
proverbial, "These are the times that try men's
souls." That was in 1776. Six years later, when
he published the last of the series, he wrote, "7'he
limes that try men's souls are over." How could
he have believed it then? How much less would he
voice such shallow optimism today?
"To whom shall we go?" in the more critical and
more troublous times that are upon us now? Shall
we hark back to our American Revolutionary fath-
ers? And if we do what is the word they have to
say; is it that of the "patriots" or the "rebels" of
our time? Or shall we hie us to the politicians for
counsel and guidance, those who made "manhood
suffrage' their slogan and believed apparently that
the people needed but the ballot in order to settle
all our social problems satisfactorily? - Shall we
"appeal to reason," as even the radicals of a quarter
of a century ago professed to do in strong confidence
that the people only needed to be told the truth in
order to follow it? Or shall we put our trust in
Minltoy and saliriism, `and `heroism'? Or; as
some would have us do, shall we trust that the
strong men of our civilization, our financial over-
lords, will themselves grant the people the relief
that must come to them, and will lead the way into
the better social order that is to be? "To whom shall
we go?" That is the question many earnest folks
are asking most eagerly just now, as they seek for
some way out of the present world mess.
The papers which follow, compact as they are,
cover the main lines of my thinking on these lines
in recent years, thinking which [I have tried to set
out more for the stimulus of other men's thought
than for the insistence upon my own reasoning and
solution, All that is asked for them is a very care-
ful reading, and a willingness to face the issues which
are discussed here without any of that hysteria
which commonly takes the place of reasoning when
we are dealing with social situations in America,
and, if possible, with a fair measure of freedom from
committment to this or that party program or pan-
acea. The first thing that is required of all of us
is that we shall face the facts as courageously and
candidly aS we may.
R. W.
The Appeal To Revolution
It is curious how timid Americans are about the
use of that word, revolution. One might easily imagine
that they had never heard the word until now, and
had never had any experience of the thing itself.
Yet we have talked and written for generations
about the American revolution as if it were the
biggest thing that ever happened. We are immensely
proud of "the revolutionary fathers,' and commonly
capitalize every word of it, that their honor may have
its full importance. And the utmost of American
respectability and the guarantee of American cou-
servatism is to be one of "The Sons of The American
Revolution," or to belong to that other inner frater-
nity of American worthies, the "D.A.R." that is, the
"Daughters of the American Revolution."
The Declaration of Independence affirms plainly or
quite definitely implies these four things, which are
therefore entitled to be regarded as good 100 per cent
American doctrine. (1) The right of revolution.
(2) The right of violent revolution. (3) The right
of such revolution ``"whenever' government fails to
accomplish its true ends, if remedy is not otherwise
to be had. (4) The "whenever" of such failure to be
measured not by political or institutional standards,
but by the issue as to whether government does actu-
ally promote the security, the prosperity, and the
happiness of the people. In other words govern-
ments are to be tried out not by the form they hap-
pen to take, whether monarchy, oligarchy, republi-
canism, or democracy, but on vital and economic
grounds, do they supply the common people with the
reasonable comforts of everyday life? If they do
not, and there is no other effective way of being rid
of them, the people have the right to repudiate them,
and if need be to put them away, even by force.
In his First Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln
re-afirmed this right of the people to "alter or
abolish" their government when it fails to meet the
real ends for which governments ought to exist, the
actual everyday welfare of the people. Lincoln also
contemplated the possibility of violence having to be
used, and did not shrink from it. Woodrow Wilson,
sixty years later, in quite unequivocal terms main-
tained the same right of revolution, and admitted
that our historic origins make it impossible for us
to deny that right. If this is not good American
doctrine there is no doctrine which can bring to its
suport better endorsement, or more of justification in
the actual conduct of American affairs in the great
crises of our national life.
But, it will be said, the right of revolution is only
a majority right. And where the ballot prevails gov-
ernment can be altered or abolished in that way, and
no other way belongs to the people until they have
exhausted that appeal.
Well, let us see whether these positions, reasonable
as they seem, are actually in accord with the facts.
The American people of 1776 were certainly not a
majority within the government of which they were
a part. "Each of the American colonies was at that
time under the government of Great Britain, and so
acknowledged its loyalty to the English throne. The
revolt that was carried out successfully was a minor-
ity movement if we have regard to the subjects of
that throne as a whole.
Moreover it is altogether likely that they were a
minority in the colonies themselves when the revolt
against Britain began. It is a matter of history that
there were at one time twenty five thousand Ameri-
can colonists fighting under the English colors
against the revolt, and that the total of those who
thus fought to put down the revolt was greater than
the total number of Americans that George Wash-
ington ever had under his command at any one time.
The war was really a civil war. The conservatives
on this side of the sea were not for the American rev-
ultion, and the progressives on the other side of the
sea were for it. One Hundred Thousand Americans
left the United States, that is the territory after-
wards organized as such, and made new homes in
Canada and elsewhere under the British flag, rather
than submit to the new government which was born
of the revolution. It is open to question whether
at any time previous to the actual declaration of
independence a majority of the colonists would have
supported independence if the matter had been sub-
mitted to a referendum. But the right of the colo-
nists to be free did not depend upon a majority vote.
Certainly the right of Massachusetts to be free did
not depend upon whether a majority in South Caro-
lina would have sustained that right.
But suppose we come closer to our own times, and '
test the issue as to whether actual human rights de-
pend upon the consent of a legal majority in every
case. The black slaves were not a majority at any
time previous to 1860 in the United States as a whole.
In some states, as in South Carolina, they were
in the majority; in Kentucky they were not. Was
their right to freedom any less in Kentucky than it
was in South Carolina? Was it any less in the
Union as a whole than it was in the blackest belt of
the south? Had John Brown succeeded in leading a
thousand, or ten thousand out to freedom would their
right to freedom have been any the less than that
of ten times or a hundred times that number? Are
human rights majority rights, after all?
However the blacks did not have the ballot. Well,
suppose the ballot had been their's. Would it have
been incumbent upon them to wait for their rights
until a majority of all the voters in the United States,
black and white, had granted them freedom through
the ballot? Or even until a majority of the blacks
themselves had been converted to such an exercise of
their franchise? Would there have been no right of
revolt on' the side of freedom until the majority had
effected political organization and exercised political
action so as to command that result? And let us
go one step farther. What if they had waited until
they had the majority, had voted so, and a white
fascisti had refused them freedom then? What then?
But what about the ballot?
===,
Gallagher Goes Free |
Attorney Leo Gallagher who was arrested in the
police raid upon the open air meetings at the Dlazg
on Washington's birthday was released by Judge
Pope from all proceedings against him when hig Cage
came up before that judge on April 22nd. A pre.
vious trial before a jury, on April 6, had resulted
in a disagreement of the jury, some of them appar.
ently being carried away by the utterly Outragenys
attack of the Prosecuting Attorney upon Mr. Gallo.
gher and the American Civil Liberties' Union, which
the prosecutor insisted upon dragging into the cage,
It is an easy thing these days to wave the red flag
in front of a jury in any case where radicals oy
their friends are involved, and so to stampede their
judgment as to incline the weak-minded among then
to a verdict of guilty whether there is any evidence
to support such a verdict or not. Judge Pope dig.
missed the case after hearing the two chief Witnesses
for the prosecution, without waiting for further testi.
mony, or calling any witnesses for the defense,
Back of this prosecution of Attorney Gallagher
there is an issue of more than incidental and Der:
sonal importance. We recited recently in these C0!:
umns several instances in which attorneys have
been disbarred from further practice in United States
courts because they have been fair enough and
brave enough to dare defend radicals who were on
trial under extreme class-war laws. The most COn
Spicuous instance is that of Attorney Elmer Smith, of
Centralia, Washington, who has suffered this in-
justice at the hands of the legal higher-ups because
he has stood in the way of the higher-ups of the
lumber trust. A similar animus has been manifest
in the attacks upon Attorney Gallagher, who has
been twice arrested now under circumstances that
gave not the slightest justification for such arrest
merely because his courageous and unselfish service
to working-class men who were unwarrantably seized
upon by the police has stood in the way of such
official tyranny being recognized with conviction
in the courts. For similar reasons Roger Baldwin
of New York was arrested by the police of Patter
son, New Jersey, and convicted before a Patterson
judge who has sentenced him to six months in jail,
although Baldwin's only real offense was that he had
dared to defend striking workingmen in the exercise
of their legal rights of assemblage and free speech.
This also is the reason why prosecuting attorneys
are allowed to villify the American Civil Liberties'
Union before California juries, not. because the
American Civil Liberties' Union sponsors radicalism,
as such, for it does not, but because it insists upon
a fair deal for the radical and everybody else. The
dismissal of the case against Attorney Gallagher is
a very welcome emphasis of the fact that there isa
limit to the extent to which our courts can be used
for punishing men who still own their own souls,
and dare speak up for the rights of their fellows
under the most adverse circumstances.
ee ee
ABOUT ROGER BALDWIN
Endorsement of the action taken by Roger N.
Baldwin in the Paterson silk strike last October re
sulting in his sentence of six months for "unlawiul
assembly." and a statement to the effect that "Judge
Deianey convicted the entire American Civil Liber -
ties Union when he sentenced its director," was made
today by John Haynes Holmes on behalf of the Ex
ecutive Committee of the Union.
The statement, which is being sent to the membels
of the Civil Liberties Union, was made by Joli
Haynes Holmes, chairman, Dr, Henry Linville, Wo!
COLULE sPitkiny Be awe Huebsch, Joseph Schlossbers,
Norman Thomas, Robert Morss Lovett, Arthur Gar
field Hays, James Weldon Johnson and John Nevil
Sayre.
"Mr. Baldwin took full responsibility for arrangile
the meeting as our representative," the Union's state
ment declares. "The executive committee authorized
and endorsed what he did and it is therefore the
Civil Liberties Union which was on trial. It is WU
fortunate that we all could not have been tried with
him, and if he has to serve sentence that we all cal
not go to jail too.
"We hope, however, to get a ruling from the Su
reme Court of New Jersey which will settle once am!
for all the issue of police rule in Paterson which '
raised every time there is an industrial strugel
there. Paterson is almost unique among industrial
communities in this form of police dictatorshiP,
backed up by the local officials and the courts. W(R)
regard ourselves as commissioned to stop it, if we
can, and we propose to fight this case with that el)
in view." fs
2
4
/
sm,
al
ils,
ws
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. j
Let's make "SAY SO" the best
page of this paper. Mind you,
| be brief. And again, BE BRIEF.
oO:
A GALAXY OF LETTERS
By Ke GiG;
* * *
Altadena Dec, 13-(To the Editor of the Times):
In your editorial today in regard to Gloria Gould's
indictment of modern society and its foolish foibles
you justify its existence because once in a while it
dances for charity, that the poor Orphans may have
a Christmas dinner and that it also knits sox and
.sweaters for the soldiers. Surely it is a terrible in-
dictment of our present social system that the poor
victims of it should be dependent on such a pre-
carious method for their daily bread.
The State takes our money and squanders it in de-
vious ways-even to the extent of 93 per cent in
recent years- without our consent. The preserva-
tion of the human being is the least of its concern,
although Aristotle said over 2000 years ago that the
function of government is to see first that men live
and, second, that men live well-free from worry.
It can be done, why not try?
If, as you say, working women go to the movies
to see the "simulacra of society and its palatial set-
tings," are they helped or made happy by such ex-
hibitions of the vulgar rich? Noi noteatall: 21cent
seems only to make them envious and discontented;
or more probably disgusted. At least it will set them
to wondering why it is that there are such discrep-
ancies in life and where it comes from and if "God
'8 in His heaven," what is the matter with the world,
that the wicked and unscrupulous succeed and the
s00d and the faithful remain forever on the ground
floor of life.
So I consider your reasoning false and your just-
ification of the present social order a great delusion.
* * * *
April 12, 1925.
American Catholic Weekly,
New York City, New York.
Dear Sirg:
ara think that it is "weak minded and immoral'
to bring unwanted children into this `vale of
t "
ae and that the Catholic church cannot interfere
With "natural law."
Natural law ig indifferent to human welfare so it
are i human beings to do every thing in their
advanta Manage these natural laws to the greatest
ee a Ay the human race. If a human being
all the ee but the church says women must have
of Ginih he the Lord sends, it is nothing short
the "line: to bring them into the world to endure
88 and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Can you ex
"ouraging on}
wh
ig
Plain the object of the church in en-
at life m vy Rumbers regardless of conditions or
ing a aa It is a serious business, this creat-
before i Soul-and woman should consider long
` Ting a soul into the world to face life as
it ig toda
y, and . i
interfere the state or church has no right to
TO CERTAIN COLLECTORS OF FUNDS FOR
ORPHANS HOMES
Pasadena, Oalif.
April 14, 1925
- I feel that my refusal to contribute to the Orphans
Home needs an explanation, so I will enclose a
clipping of a letter that I wrote recently along those
lines.
In the first place, the State takes our money in
taxes and squanders as high as 85% for destructive
purposes. We should insist that these figures be
reversed (15% would be quite enough for destruc-
tion) and begin to build up a society founded on
justice and not on charity. Children, and all the
handicapped, must be taken care of by the State, and
not left to the whims of a few.
The method we use for raising money by all the
different drives is not the right way. It may be one
way of getting indifferent people to think of the
other fellow, but it is too precarious; human wel-
fare must rest on firmer foundations. In the mean-
time, I am glad to see you young society people tak-
ing an interest in your less fortunate brothers and
sisters; but I hope the day will come when you will
take up the fight for fundamental justice in earnest,
and never be satisfied with palliatives.
I dare say you will find plenty of charitable peo-
ple in Pasadena, and will raise your fund easily
where there are so many palaces for God and hovels
for human beings. Surely there will be just as
many who will want food, clothes, and shelter for
children; but as long as we have child slavery, un-
employment, political prisoners, unjust laws, war,
poverty in a land bursting with abundance my sur-
plus must go to help correct these fundamental evils,
and bring about the abolition of their causes.
% * * *
It is with feelings of sorrow and unspeakable bit-
terness of soul that I record my impressions of my
visit yesterday to our City Council and Board of
Supervisors, in company with Mads Howe and others,
in behalf of 55,000 unemployed. We had to wait
and wait and he shunted from one commission to
another while they talked and talked about repair-
ing roads and bridges and even vaccinating dogs,
but the woes of human beings were the very least
"business" they cared to consider. Why should these
disturbing conditions be brought to the notice of
the dispensers of our taxes? Did they ever hear that
the business of government is to see that all is
well with the governed?
Considering our widespread and much vaunted
progress of civilization and brotherhood of mankind,
why is this greatest of all problems left unsolved?
Where is the religious sentiment supposed to be
housed in our hosts of new churches? Truly life
itself no longer counts in the economy of nations.
Let us have big expensive churches to be used four
or six hours out of 168, while the son of man sleeps
on newspapers in the Midnight Mission; and no one
knows a remedy for this horror!
Sunday I heard Clinton N. Howard, Chairman of
the World Peace Commission, use more words against
war than I ever heard propounded by the most ard-
ent war resister, but he spoiled it all by admitting
the right of the state to take the only son of a widow
and drive her to death in an insane asylum!
Monday I heard Judge Bledsoe speak of uphold-
ing the "Majesty of the Law." So far as I have been
able to witness its workings in Los Angeles, and even
in his own court, I could find nothing majestic about
it; in fact instead of being inspired by any majesty
in its performance, I am incensed to the very roots
of my being. We cannot respect anything or any
person that does not merit respect,-not even our
country, not even our government, not even our
flag, when it stands for war, imperialism, or in-
justice.
oH.
About Prohibition
To the Editor of the Open Forum:
In reply to Upton Sinclair, in issue of April 11:
Because the use of alcohol sometimes (not ``often'')
"makes the individual a dangerous criminal or luna-
tic" is not a valid reason for depriving a whole nation
of the liberty to drink what it likes. It should be
safer, saner, cheaper to restrain the criminals and
lunatics.
Are we true friends of the working classes if we
exult over their being prevented from getting some-
thing they want, the value of which to them is for
them alone to appraise? Freedom of the individual
to select his diet at his own cost is more important
than saving a few morons from their appetites; and
the crimes that were due to alcoholism in pre-prohi-
bition days would be a small price to pay now for
freedom from the espionage, assault and invasion of |
the dry agents. Moreover we still have the crimes!
It should be pointed out that to say that "society
has the same right to prohibit the use of alcohol
as it has to prohibit burglary" is virtually to admit
the right of society to prohibit the carrying of I. W.
W. cards. .
The future generations that alcohol may now be
destroying can well be spared. Those that survive
its ravages will be all the more virile.
Finally, I do not think that we are true internation-
alists if we desire this nation to "win out" over
other nations.
Clarence Lee Swartz.
iH
100 per cent American and
1000 per cent Human
Los Angeles, Calif.
. April 20, 1925.
The Open Forum:
I had a friend, who upon the appearance in the
U. S. of the phrase "One hundred per cent Ameri-
can," at once said, "Nationalism is the devil."
He meant: the devil would be to pay if Interna-
tionalism, now in process of practical growth, should
be assailed by an American political party.
In face of the recorded history of the U. S., it seems
incredible that any such fatuous backward movement
could be set on foot!
The Declaration of Independence, as out of a clear
sky, was notification to the world of the arrival of
an one hundred per cent political America; with the
implication that all other peoples should prepare to
do likewise. That this invitation was involved in the
Declaration of the American Fathers is proved by the
instantaneous response it met from around the World.
The conscious seeds had been planted of a confrater-
nity of free nations. Inevitably the leaven worked.
Five generations later it had reached maturity,
when in the World War appeared the Wilson Four-
teen Points. Instantly again came the World re-
sponse. Countries and cities renamed streets and
buildings after the formulator of the far-reaching
World utterance.
At Versailles, not great enough to carry to em-
bodiment his World-acclaimed principles, the World
was left to fall back into the shallows of the old
divisive politics.
But the declaration of 1776 had taken a hand-grip
upon World democracy, supplemented in the Fourteen
Points.
Let the student of modern U. S. and World facts
not turn tail or take cover under a sorry Shiboleth
of "one hundred per cent American", that would think
to defeat the aim of the Fathers toward the World
end and aim.
Face to face, toe to toe, the little American must be
met with the World human goal.
FRED K. GILLETTE.
FH -_____-_
Sold !
Editor, Open Forum:
A few years ago, during the Harding regime, the
Congress refused to allow the Government to sub-
sidize American shipping companies, and the Liber-
als and Progressives rejoiced. It was a victory for
the people; people's money should not be turned
over to private corporations.
Now we hear that the U. S. Shipping Board "sold"
to the Robert Dollar Company seven great liners,
each costing the tax-payers over $7,000,000, for less
than $6,000,000. In other words, it sold them one
ship at the loss of over $1,000,000 and threw in the
other six for good measure.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if I'd read tomorrow
morning that they had sold the Capitol and White
House.
L.A.
wp
Boston University objects to being called a "Babbitt
University" and won't let its reserve officers training
corps be attacked in the school paper The Bean Pot.
Consequently, Henriette Perkins, editor, finds that
freedom of the press is not in her school and is
removed from office.
SSS 7th 550 coe eee
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
First and Broadway
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
J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Leo Gallagher
Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents
per Copy. In bundles of ten or more to one address,
Two Cents Each.
Advertising Rates on Request.
Entered as second-class matter Dec. 13, 1924, at
the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the
Act of March 3, 1879.
SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925
COMING EVENTS
KOK KR OR Kk wo
Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall. 233
South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
es
EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION
At Eight O'clock
A Free Education is Offered at
' EDUCATIONAL CENTER
By Industrial Workers of the World
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
224 South Spring Street, Room 218
a
`Free Workers Forum meets Monday Nights at
8:15 o'clock at 420 N. Soto St., (one block north of
Brooklyn Ave.).
----r------_
I.-B. W. A. FORUM
At the Brotherhood Hall, 508 Hast 5th St.
Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
All are Invited to Attend
John X. Kelly and J. HKads How, Committee
fo
PROLETARIAN FORUM
Every Sunday at 8 P. M.
ODD FELLOWS HALL
220% South Main Street
Questions and Discussion Freely Invited
Admission Free
a aa
Cantrell Will Speak
EK. A. Cantrell, the well-known lecturer, will speak
for the Pasadena Open Forum, in Carpenter's Hall,
Pasadena, on Friday evening, May 1, 1925, at 8 p. m.
Subject-``Radical America."
An Appreciation
The success which is attending the publication of
The Open Forum is a matter of congratulation to its
well-wishers,
How prompt its appearance every Friday morn-
ing! How pithy and pungent the meat it serves its
hungry readers! What a wealth of friends it has, as
indicated by the variety contributing to its peppy
columns. Not only that but notice who they are!
Long life and a bright future to these emissaries of
a better day! Yes, indeed! So say we all but-how
about sending in a bunch of subscriptions or a newsy
little ad? Such encouragements are invaluable and
never forgotton by earnest, over-worked men like our
two faithful editors. Let's really show them how
much we care! Remember it costs only a dollar.
MARY A. HATCH.
FH -
There is a kind of "good" which is the worst ene-
my of the best.
But He Wont
It seems a shame that there will never be
anything done with former Secretary Fall or
any of the other highbinders who gyped the
government in the oil deal. It has been an-
nounced that Fall will refuse to testify at the
hearing of the Teapot Dome case next week
in Cheyenne on the ground that his own testi-
mony may incriminate him.
, Of course, there is no use getting overly ex-
cited over this little steal in which Fall secured
but $100,000, a ridiculously low price, in my
opinion, for what he did. During the Wilson
administration the war grafters looted the coun-
try of millions and millions and no one thought
anything about it. Then along came this gang
of simple souls and got sums ranging from $100,-
000 to half a million, and the country became
greatly agitated.
If I were only a state legislator I wouldn't sell
out at the price some of these fellows did. There
is no use being a crook unless you are going
to be a good one. No one has any respect for
a petty thief, while a high-powered million-dol-
lar looter is the subject of envious eyes.
But in my belief, regardless of the sums Sse-
cured, there will never be any convictions and
the government won't get back any of its oil
leases. Had Fall stolen $10 there might have
- been a chance of convicting him, but under
the present charge he hasn't as much of a
chance of going to jail as I have.
On second thought, taking this comparison
into consideration, perhaps he will go to jail.
-Douglas Churchill in Daily News.
What Ails The World
"What ails the world mainly, at least in the
political sense, is that its governments are too
strong," declares H. L. Mencken, in an editorial in
the current issue of "The American Mercury." "The
American people profess to esteem liberty very high-
ly. They believe that the republic was actually
founded for the sole purpose of giving it to them.
Yet it must be obvious that their hold upon it is
always precarious, and that their government tries
to take it away from them whenever possible-
not completely, perhaps, but always substantially.
`Tg it a fact of no significance that robbing the
government is everywhere regarded as a crime of
less magnitude than robbing an individual, or even
a corporation? When a private citizen is robbed
a worthy man is deprived of the fruits of his in-
dustry and thrift; when the government is robbed
the worst that happens is that certain rogues and
loafers have less money to play with than they had
before.
"The average man, when he pays taxes, certainly
does not believe that he is making a prudent and
productive investment of his money; on the contrary,
he feels that he is being mulcted in an excessive
amount for services that, in the main, are useless
to him, and that, in substantial part, are downright
inimical to him.
"Two gangs thus stand confronted; on the one
hand the gang of drones and exploiters constituting
the government, and on the other hand the body of
prehensile and enterprising citizens.
"The difference between the two gangs-of profes-
sionals and of amateurs-is that the former has law
on its side, and so enjoys an unfair advantage. The
government gang is well nigh immune to punish-
ment. : :
"Government, today, is growing too strong to be
safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world;
there are only subjects."
2
The steel trust and its walled feudal domain: at
Gary is described in the leading article in The In-
dustrial Pioneer for April, published at 1001 W. Mad-
ison St., Chicago. The author is John A. Gahan, who
contributed a brief account of the slave conditions
in Gary to The Federated Press several weeks ago.
Federated Press.
"Beauty And The Bolshevik,' which could not be
given when announced before, will be given at the
Co-operative Center, 2706 Brooklyn Ave., `Sunday,
May 38rd to Friday May 8th. Six Nights-Time, 7:30
p.m.-Admission, 35c; Children, 20c.
Los Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for May
May 3-"CREATIVE CONDUCT AND LIFR, by
JAMES FISHER, former San Francisco editor, j,
has been a close student of affairs and may he y
pended upon to give a vigorous, interesting addrey
Music by SAMUEL JELIKOVSKY, tenor, and Mr
S. MIDDLEMAN, violinist.
May 10-DEBATE on the question, "RESOLYq)
THAT CONGRESS BY A TWO-THIRDS. yor
SHOULD HAVE POWER TO REENACT Lay
MAKING VALID ACTS DECLARED. UNCONST,
TUTIONAL BY THE SUPREME COURT." Affirm,
tive, University of Redlands, Mr. Andrus,. Mr. Orto,
Negative, University of Southern California, Mr. No
Lewis, Mr. William Barber, both students of th
University of Southern California, who have returnej
from an extensive trip among the colleges debating
this question. Music by HOWARD GRIFFIN, violip.
ist, accompanied by MISS CLAUDE WILLIAMS
the piano.
May 17-"THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF TH
MODERN ECONOMIC WORLD" by EDWARD CAN?
RELL. Our audience is well acquainted with thy
lecturer who has twice before appeared on the Foru
platform. He knows how to handle his subject wel,
Music by J. M. FIX, a violinist of the old schoo
He made his own instrument and will play pie
that were popular a hundred years ago.
May 24-"FREUD AND' PSYCHOANALYSIS" by
PROF. ARTHUR BRIGGS of the Los Angeles Lay
School. Everyone should be familiar with the Freut.
ian philosophy whether he takes any stock in it o
not. Dean Briggs is ably qualified to make this,
most interesting evening.
COHN, phenomenal boy pianist.
May 31-"THE PRICE OF LIBERTY" by ROBERT
WHITAKER." During the days when America wa
carried away with the World War there was muti
talk of liberty, from "Liberty Bonds" to "Liberty
Steaks." Of recent years liberty and democrat
both seem to be at a discount. What is liberty'
What is the movement of the world today, towail
liberty, or away from it? Are we ever going ti
get liberty, and when, and how? All who know I
Whitaker know that what he has to say on thes
lines will be outright, and interesting. Nobody i
asked to agree with him, but everybody is welcome
to hear him.
EXPIRATION NOTICE
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