Open forum, vol. 2, no. 9 (February, 1925)
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`door address is carried on.
- THE OPEN FORUM
The Devil Is An Ass.- Emerson.
Vol. 2.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 28, 1925
_ Washington's Birthday
as In Los Angeles
Los Angeles kept Washington's birthday. Espe-
cially the Police Department. The celebration began
a whole week in advance, Sunday February 15th,
it appears.
There is no such area for free speech in Los An-
geles as Hyde Park in London. But there has been
until this present celebration of Washington's birth-
day a small approach to it, in that the little plaza near
the Post Office has had a very limited Free Speech
Area. Even at this point, the only open space in
Los Angeles where the non-orthodox might speak
out their rationalism or radicalism with something
faintly resembling freedom, even at this point the
religious conservatives have usurped much of the
space and have carried on an ignorant and ill-tem-
pered propaganda on behalf of their obsolete ortho-
doxies.
It was to be expected that under such circum-
stances there would be some give and take of ques-
tion and remark, something approaching the "heck-
ling' which is an accepted thing in Hyde Park,
London, or wherever else in the civilized world out-
But here in this Mecca
of American Moronism and Sanctified Silurianism the
apostles of theological troglodytism wanted no ques-
tions and would tolerate no interrogating, nor admit
of any word of dissent from their dogmatisms. So
_ they appealed to some of the High Priests of Funda-
mentalism and these, it is reported, brought pressure
to bear upon the Police Department, which is always
glad to~have an excuse for making a show about
nothing at the expense of the working people of
5 the town in order to cover up their utter incompe-
tence in dealing with the open and notorious law-
lessness of the city. Thereupon-two dozen men
were seized, two dozen workingmen, mind you, on
Sunday, February 15th, and railroaded into the jail
and the police court on a pretense of having violated
Section 302 of the State statutes which is plainly
intended only for the reasonable protection of regu-
larly-housed religious gatherings `against violent or
indecent interruption. Some of these, not knowing
their rights, or having no means with which to de-
fend themselves, were persuaded to plead technically
guilty, and were fined in sums of Ten or Twenty-
Five Dollars each, whereas the policemen were the
men who should have been fined in ten or twenty
times that amount. Attorney Leo Gallagher volun-
teered his services and many of the men demanded
trial, either before a justice or before a jury. These
were released, generally on Twenty-five Dollars cash
bail in each case.
AS ministers of The Church of the New Social
Order, as well as representatives of The American
Civil Liberties Union Dr. Taft and Robert Whitaker
decided that it was time for them to join these
preachers of the Plaza in exercising a bit of con-
stitutional freedom in this pocket-borough of the
American Plunderbund. So we also joined, willingly
enough, busy ag we are, in celebrating Washington's
birthday. Our service at the Plaza was called for one
o'clock Sunday afternoon, the 22nd. We gave public
notice of it, and at the time and place appointed,
Robert Whitaker made an address, lasting half an
hour or more, on "Jesus and Free Speech." This
was followed by a second address, given by Dr. Taft.
Both of us spoke from a platform kindly loaned to
us by a Mr. Frank Rogers, who has been accustomed
to preach at the Plaza from week week. His
platform is illustrated with texts and diagrains, and
it may be said that theologically he is quite as cu..
Servative as the Fundamentalists themselves, though
_ his conservatism does not happen to be of just their
antique vintage.
When Dr. Taft had concluded his address he called
upon Attorney Gallagher to speak, as we believe in
letting "laymen" exercise their "pulpit gifts." Gal-
lagher is a medium sized, quiet voiced, scholarly
type, and began his address by inquiring in a spirit
of simplicity and sincerity which ought to have dis-
armed all hostility. `Are there any plain-clothes
men here this afternoon; if there are will they hold
up their hands?" The crowd was very large but
no hands went up. "Why should there be any plain-
clothes men here?" Gallagher went on. "When
American citizens are quietly gathered in orderly
exercise of their constitutional rights of free speech
and free assembly in an area given to such privi-
leges why should it be thought necessary to have
plain-clothes men on hand?"
The question was answered promptly enough, and
in a very different manner and spirit from that in
which it had been asked. One of the "officers of the
law" who has been peculiarly offensive before for
this kind of work pushed his way roughly to the
platform and said abruptly, "You are under arrest."
"What for?" asked Gallagher, facing the officer.
"Never mind what for' said the official autocrat, dis-
daining to give any reason since he was nearly
twice the size of Gallagher and had the consciousness
of having the whole official machine behind him,
with its backing of Big Business. "I demand a war-
rant, or to know the charge against me," insisted
Gallagher, stoutly. Again the officer contemptuously
refused to consider either reason or right. A bully
is never so much a bully as when he has a badge
on him, as the daily story of the American police
illustrates. So Gallagher was seized violently and
literally dragged from the out-door pulpit and dragged
across the street and there hustled into the patrol
wagon which was suspiciously on hand in a moment.
Someone in the crowd started up "My Country, 'tis of
Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, of Thee I sing." And
honestly, one of the police officers whom -we faced
in the Police Court a few minutes after charged us
with singing a "wobbly song,' though this was the
only song used that whole afternoon. Whereupon
Mrs. Whitaker remarked to three of the officers, in-
cluding the official ignoramus who had made this
charge, "It would seem that it might be a part of the
education of a police officer to instruct him that
`America' is not a wobbly song."
There in the Police Court also the officer had the
audacity to tell us that Gallagher was himself an
I.W.W. And when he was reminded that a lawyer
would not be received aS a member of the I.W.W.
because he was not an "industrial" he said stupidly,
"Well, anyway he defended the I.W.W." `And hasn't
a lawyer a right to defend whom he will?" I asked.
Blank silence wag the reply.
This same officer, within the hearing of us all,
talked frankly enough over the telephone, evidently
to his superior, and was heard to confess, "I have
gotten myself into a hole and don't know how to
get out." And then he proceeded to fill the telephone
with an utterly false report of what had gone on. It
is obvious from what appeared in the Los Angeles
Times the next morning that the same sort of
lying stuff had been given The Times. The Exam-
iner's briefer report of the matter was only a little
less misleading and mendacious than that of The
Times. Douglas W. Churchill, "The Man in the
Street," of The Illustrated Daily News had such a
sensible comment upon the matter that we are quot-
ing it in another column. Churchill has shown him-
self before a man of courage aid rare common Sense.
Monday morning two of the men arrested Sunday
afternoon, John Cummings and A. Schram, were re-
leased without any charge being made against them.
They had been held in jail, incommunicado, over-
The Illustrated News
Speaks Out
"No state shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States.'-Article 14, Section 1, of the
amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
Under this quotation from the above mentioned
document writes my friend L. O'Dell, whom I have
never met. But I feel that he is my friend, for he
is out on bail after having insulted a cop while
being arrested on suspicion of being a radical or a
liberal or a heathen or something. Anyway, he is
charged, technically, with disturbing a religious meet-
ing, after having made a few wise cracks to a soap-
box minister, who was ranting in one of the ranting
spaces of a large California city.
He is not complaining, this fellow O'Dell for he
has a sense of humor and the whole thing seems
ridiculous to any person so gifted.
But, neither is he looking at the matter in the
right light, for, from his letter, I gather that he
expects justice from the court or the city prosecutor,
who is handling the case, or from some remote and
rather intangible source. And if O'Dell has the same
opinion of various laws as have I, he will know
that under the criminal syndicalism act it is next
to impossible to secure justice.
As a matter of fact, do you realize that I can be
seized and thrown in jail for the above paragraph?
Do you realize that without a newspaper behind me,
I would not dare say anything about laws and courts?
Because of the publicity which would follow they
do not molest me, but the tactless fellow who utters
these sanie thoughts to a crowd of 50 people in a
public park immediately is thrown in jail as the
most vile criminal.
It is such laws as this that are forcing radicalism
on a country where only mild liberalism would pre-
vail otherwise. If there is ever a social revolution
in this land, it will be the most unwarranted and
criminal thing in the history of the nation, for it is
not needed nor wanted by anyone-not even by the
radicals-and will only be fostered and inspired by
the mossbacks who are today stifling free speech.
-Douglas W. Churchill.
night, under conditions no really civilized community
would tolerate in a City Prison, in a room in which
there were thirty-six "beds" and forty-three prison-
ers. The pretext on which they were held was
"suspicion of criminal syndicalism.'"
And against this utter lawlessness of the Los
Angeles Police, where workingmen are _ involved,
there seems to be no defense, and for it no redress.
But there is the avenue of publicity, a thing that
tyrants big and little alike dread. Turn up the
stones, let in the light, and the bugs will run for
their holes. So we are asking papers east and
west, north and south to pass on this word of the
manner in which Washington's birthday was kept
in Los Angeles. Meanwhile we warn anybody against
coming here who is disposed to sing the one time
honored song, "America," now described by the
Police Department of this metropolis of California
as a "wobbly song."
Incidentally we might also mention that word was
passed on to us at the Open Forum last night that
because Dr. Taft and I had stood up to the officers
in the afternoon and told them the exact character
of their lawlessness one of the policeman was heard
boasting outside of our hall that they "would get
the ropes on us `yet.'
Well, we are here to stay as long as there are a
few real Americans to work with us and stand by
us in doing what can be done for a genuine exhibit
in this city and this state of the spirit of George
Washington. Only sometimes I wonder if he were
here today would he think Valley Forge worth while.
The American Empire
Comes On
By Laurence Todd
Federated Press Staff Correspondent
| Washington-An atmosphere of profound pessim-
ism on the part of progressives, and of confident ae
gressiveness on the part of outspoken reactionaries
and crooks, marks the approach of the Coolidge in-
auguration ceremony. For on March 4 ue ae
Congress will take office, the administration will
attempt to force the new Senate to confirm the
nomination of Warren to be attorney general, and
the two political parties financed by special privilege
will unite their organizations to rivet the Garrett-
Wadsworth "shackles" amendment upon the federal
constitution.
Of this "shackles" amendment, the legislative
committee of the American Federation of Labor says,
in a special plea to the House:
"It ig revolutionary. If adopted, 13 states could
defeat any future amendment. In these days
when great interests command powerful engines of
propaganda, it is not necessary for us to tell you
how easy it would be, under Mr. Garrett's proposal,
to defeat an amendment drawn in the interests of the
people. -Thirty-five states might have ratified such
an amendment with substantial unanimity. Those
35 states might represent four-fifths of the popula-
tion of the nation, but nevertheless all hope of se-
curing the desired reform would be destroyed the
instant the 13th state interposed its veto.
"Much has been said about the referendum feature.
: It merely declares that if a legislature
RATIFIES, the action of the legislature may be re-
ferred to the people. But if the legislature RE-
FUSES to ratify, the people would have no oppor-
tunity to express their will."
Accordingly, and because this scheme for perpet-
ual defeat of constitutional changes has had no
serious chance of debate in Congress, the A. F. of
L. asks for delay.
Progressives in Congress say the measure is not
so much revolutionary as it is a breeder of revolu-
tion. If the constitution is not to be subject to
improvement, a restless and discontented people will
some day deal with it in this country as they have
dealt with "perpetual" institutions everywhere else.
But the Old Guard led by Longworth and Madden -
and Gillett, and the Bourbons led by Garrett and
Blanton, propose to crush out industrial radicalism
and political progressivism for a hundred years by
applying handcuffs to the law.
As a further safeguard to special vested privilege,
the G.O.P. of the Senate will caucus on Feb. 23 on
the question of abolishing the seniority rights of
LaFollette, Norris, Frazier, Ladd, Brookhart and
possibly one or two others. Hiram Johnson and
Borah will protest, from outside the caucus room.
The new Senate will fight the thing out, and its vote .
will determine what part this progressive group will
play in creating a new national party.
Confirmation of Woodlock to be a member of the
interstate commerce commission, and of Humphrey
as a member of the federal trade commission, is now
anticipated. Most of the Democrats and some even
of the Progressives have lapsed into the irrespon-
sible mood of saying, "Let Coolidge go the limit;
that's what the people voted for; let them get their
bellyful for once. We warned them with the cases
. of Fall and Daugherty and they came back hungry
for more of the same. Well, Coolidge is giving
them another Daugherty, and Woodlock and Hum-
phrey ought to be able to break the record."
Political Washington is reaching a dangerously
reckless moral level, ag regards the interests of nine-
tenths of the nation.
-$----_.
Our Glorious Government
Forty or more witnesses, whose railroad fare costs
$250 each, and whose hotel bills are mounting up-
likewise at government expense-have been brought
from Montana to Washington by the administration
in its attempt to "get" Sen. Wheeler on a technical
charge of violation of the federal leasing act. Sen.
Walsh of Montana has complained to the department
of justice that a mysteriously furnished supply of
liquor in the hotel where the prosecution witnesses
are kept has led to riotous parties which disturbed
the sleep of neighbors. J. F. Platt, the same at-
* * * ox * * x *
Listen, Los Angeles!!!
SCOTT NEARING
IS COMING
NEXT MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
GET YOUR [TICKETS
* * * * * * * *
RESOLUTIONS
Passed at the Open Forum Meeting
Feb. 22, 1925
Whereas Washington's birthday in this notoriously
lawless city of Los Angeles was celebrated by an
utterly outrageous interference of the police with
an orderly and peaceable religious meeting conduct-
ed by Rev. Robert Whitaker and Dr. Clinton Taft
of the Church of the New Social Order, at which
meeting Attorney Leo Gallagher, one of the invited.
speakers was at the outset of his quiet and alto-
gether lawful remarks dragged forcibly from the plat-
form by Police Officer Mack, without warrant and
without reason, and was subjected to the humiliation
of being carried to the Police Station in the Patrol
Wagon where he was absurdly charged with inter-
fering with a religious meeting, although the police
officer himself was the only man who had created
any disturbance, and
Whereas, this lawlessness on the part of the police
was a sequel of like lawlessness on their part on
Sunday, February 15, 1925, when more than a score
of men were similarly arrested without any decent
cause for such outrageous violence on the part of
the police, and
Whereas, it is currently reported that this whole
procedure against peaceful and orderly working
people who are exercising their guaranteed rights
within an area publicly given to free speech is due
to the instigation of certain reactionary religious
leaders in the Ministerial Union of Los Angeles who
apparently want no one to be heard. in this city who
does not shibboleth their shibboleth, now therefore
be it,
Resolved, That the Open Forum of Los Angeles,
meeting every Sunday evening in Music Art Hall
in this city, does hereby express its hearty con-
demnation of this lawlessness of the police depart-
ment, at whosesoever suggestion the thing is done,
and in particular at this desecration of Washington's
birthday in this public manner, and further be it
Resolved, That this body calls upon the Los An-
geles Ministerial Union to formally disclaim its re-
sponsibility for any such. conduct on the part of the
police, and put itself on record as emphatically on
the side of real religious freedom and equality for
everybody in religious discussion whether at: the
park or wherever general public meetings are allow-
ed. And be. it further
Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be sent
to the Los Angeles Police Department, to the Minis-
terial Association of Los Angeles, and be given to the
public press.
torney whom Daugherty set on the trail of Wheeler
last spring in Montana, is in charge of the present
effort to get an indictment against the Senate in-
vestigator. Asst. Atty. Gen. Donovan, who was an-
nounced as being in charge, has stepped out of the
picture, and one Stuart, alleged to be "prominent"
in St. Paul, and a Democrat, has taken his place at
Platt's elbow. Nobody from Minnesota at the capital
seems ever to have heard of Stuart. However, the
hasty retirement of Donovan is regarded as signifi-
cant. The case ig in danger of collapse.
--Federated Press.
`be comfortable.
BRISBUNK
|
One of the greatest delusions in the world is the
over-valuation of sincerity.
think this an awful thing to say because sincerity
is so indispensable in all our social dealings, anj
so beautiful in itself. Nevertheless its value is te.
ribly over-done. A fool isn't any less a fool fo
being sincere.
enables him to get away with his folly.
How lightly nature holds sincerity we have tragic
proof every day. A woman at an Irish wake in Say
Francisco drank from a bottle of embalming fiuid
thinking it was whiskey. She was quite sincerg
about it. Also she was quite dead an hour late,
A minister in Tacoma, walking home at night, step.
ped on to what he sincerely believed was a well.
laid sidewalk. It proved to be the crumbling edge
of an unguarded excavation. He didn't intend any
harm; neither did the city. But he was an invalid
suffering excruciating agonies thereafter for years,
Nature made no more of his sincerity than as if it -
The captain of the Titanic was
had not been there.
sincere when he rammed into an iceberg in the
North Atlantic. So were those who trusted in him,
and went down with him that dreadful night. Where
hypocrisies kill-one, mistaken sincerities kill a thov.
sand. The way to hell is not only paved with good
intentions, it is bedded deep in sincerity.
The whole theory of democracy rests on an over:
valuation of sincerity. It is commonly assumed
among us that one man's opinion is just as good
as another's. But the thing is obviously absurd.
"Can you play a piano, Pat," someone asked an
Irishman. "I don't know," replied the Irishman,
"faith and I never tried." Everyone else knew hoy:
ever. Also it requires no argument to satisfy any
one of sense that the man who has had no ex:
perience in music is not equal in judgment as to
what music is with the man to whom music has been
the occupation of a lifetime.
Why should we think that a man's opinion at
any point has any more value than the measure in
which it speaks for reality? It is not a matter of
his feeling about it at all, except as that feeling
helps him to get next to the facts, or makes him
more complacent in his ignorance of them. Length
of experience, intimacy of experience, andlysis of
experience all tend to enlarge the area of a man's
response to reality. But none of these guarantee
it. The test is always the measure in which a mat
does in fact know and act upon reality.
Here is one of the objectors to a recent article in
this paper who criticizes the writer of it for his want
of "faith." But what is faith? Too often what the
small boy said about it is true, "Faith is believing
what ain't so." Probably the larger part of faith has
been just this, "believing what ain't so." Some
times the belief was in the direction of something
unrealized that was so, as in the case of Columbus.
Yet it was not his faith that saved hig voyage from
being utterly in vain, it was the fact that there was
a body of reality in the direction in which he moved.
Had his faith been wiser, that is more in accor
with facts, he would have worked less disaster both
for himself and for others.
Most of our talk about faith is BRISBUNK, thai
is high power nonsense. There have been a thou
sand failures through faith to every success. There
is much more of mischievous faith than there is of
helpful faith, except possibly for the common levels
of our daily trust in one another. And even there
it is a serious question whether most of the world's
mistakes do not grow out of our trusting our parents,
and trusting our teachers, and trusting our institu
tions when we ought to be earnestly and critically
seeking after reality.
Good people are the damnation of the world be
cause they care so much more for feeling than they
do for fact. They are sincere enough, mostly sincere
fools.
If they were as devoted to reality as they are
to respectability and good breeding the world woull
get somewhere, instead of being forever on the slip:
pery sides of the abyss.
`But it "' " {tactful to say these things. So lon
as Jeople are sincere, let them sleep. Let's kiss anl
What of it if the temperature i
dropping, and there are ice-bergs just ahead.
"On with the dance, let joy be unconfined."
How we do love-BRISBUNK.
Doubtless many wil
And oftentimes his sincerity is wha
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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS
"k ok a
1924 Profits Are Juicy
By Leland Olds
Federated Press Industrial Editor
Take a look at the 1924 profits of the 10 indus-
trial companies listed below and then try to figure
how long a system so top heavy with profits can
endure. These are not the profits of a boom year
put a year in which over 1,000,000 factory workers
were forced to join the large army of unemployed,
in which hundreds of thousands of. railroad men
and coal miners were laid off and the country's
monthly payroll reduced by nearly a quarter of a
billion dollars.
U. S. Steel made a 1924 net profit of $152,937,130
equal to $11.07 on each $100 share of common stock.
That common stock was originally all water, its
`present value being due entirely to the huge accumu-
Jation of undivided profits. U. S. Steel continues
its extra dividends.
Inland Steel made a net profit of $5,517,299, equal
to $16.28 on each $100 of common stock. Only in
1917 has this company made a better record and
in that year it exploited the war emergency to the
tune of $42.15 on each $100 of common stock.
United Fruit, exploiter of the slaves of Central
America, made a net profit of $17,294,208 equal to
$17.29 on each $100 of common stock. But in view
of the 100 per cent stock dividend in 1921 this means
a return of $34.58 on each $100 invested. Regular
dividends are paid at the rate of $10,000,000 or 20
per cent on the par value before the stock dividend.
The 1923 profits were so huge that 1924 dividends
were paid in advance and now that they have been
paid over again the stockholders have the equivalent
of a $10,000,000 cash bonus.
Swift and Co. made net profits of $14,125,987 equal
to $9.41 on each $100 share of common. But as
the federal trade commission discovered, the $225,-
000,000 capitalization represents less than $90,000,000
put in by investors. The remainder represents the
capitalization of profits in excess of legitimate divi-
dends. In other words Swift's profits for 1924 would
be over $20 per $100 of real investment.
National Biscuit Co. made net profits of $12,881,-
530 equal to $21.76 per $100 invested in common
stock.
Ward Baking Corporation made net profits of $4,-
369,739. The 312,714 shares of preferred stock rep-
resent the entire real investment so that the report
of $2.98 per share for each of the 500,000 shares
of Class B common stock means nearly $1,500,000
of. sheer velvet over and above the legitimate 7 per
cent dividends on preferred.
William Wrigley, spearmint king, made net profits
of $8,539,313, equal to about $57 on each $100 of
stock. The year's cash dividends were at the rate
of nearly $36 on each $100 of investment proving
that chewing is a profitable habit but not altogether
to the chewer.
Manufacturers of wearing apparel were not be-
hind the rest in profits. Hart, Shaffner and Marx
made $2,041,383, equal to $13.46 on each $100 share.
National Cloak and Suit made approximately $12 a
share, bringing the total earned on each $100 in
the last 3 years to over $38. And Endicott Johnson,
company union shoe manufacturers, made an operat-
ing profit of $6,360,518, equal to $16.08 per $100 in-
vested.
---_e-_-_-----_
WHERE ARE WE?
"It would help your friends if you would put your
proper address on your stationery. I wanted to call
at your office and no one, not even the policemen,
could tell properly where the `Tajo Bldg. was. After
being misdirected several times I quit in disgust.
This building stuff was alright 20 years ago but isa
perfect nuisance today."
AS the courts say, "Objection sustained." We are
at First and Broadway. Will the police please take
notice.
2
Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of
Columbus Hall, Los Angeles. Season ticket, with
ae months' subscription to Open Forum, One Dol-
ar.
The New Social Order
A Suggestion
By Fred K. Gillette
Towering over down town Los Angeles, is the
"Bible Institute." A fortune in oil put the great
building there, with its lofty illuminated sign to be
seen by the passing, growing throngs of the city.
When Theodore Parker, the great American liberal
preacher, lay dying in Florence, Frances Power Cobb,
Englishwoman, editor of an edition of his works,
asked him: "Is not the Bible a great book?"
With passionate effort arousing himself, he re-
plied: "Yes! When men get over the superstition
of it.' This prophetic death-bed scene in Italy, took
place but barely two generations ago, and already
we see the added growth of the superstitiion, in the
recent and pending legislation against the progress
of natural science in the public schools of the United
States.
The great world of orthodoxy, protestant and
catholic, encompassing us, based and buttressed in
the Biblical superstition that so early usurped the
place of the natural interpretation of the Hebrew and
Christian writings, is holding on with a fond death-
grip in face of growing science; that is disclosing
the attested physical and moral order of the universe,
in which the open-minded modern man is finding
himself.
Over. against the belated admixture of truth and
superstition serving as religion to the social and
business world, still prevailing around us, is the
steadily growing alienation of the economically dis-
franchised world of the workers.
They, to whom natural religion would have been
understood, now reject, with growing impatience, as
spoiled phraseology the words "Church": and. re:
ligion." To speak to this great growing host even of
natural religion, one runs the risk of being received
with a scarcely concealed impatience; or at best out
of politeness, with chilling unresponsiveness.
To such a pass, the Bible superstition has brought
us! This brings us to the purpose of this article in
the "Open Forum": The coming of the co-operative
commonwealth, the workers understood and believed -
in.
Another great building set over against the Bible
Institute (and if possible near it) carrying high in
the air the words placed at the head of this article,
the workers would understand and flock into it, as
a bee-hive center of activity of all affiliated social
workers, of the present and coming city.
Can there then be found the Founder, whether of
oil or other source of wealth, of the building for the
new departure of the workers in Los Angeles? One
who escaped in boyhood being sunday-schooled in
Bibliolatry?
SZ
KING WILLIAM JOSEPH
Washington.-If not satisfied with membership in
the Ku Klux Klan, which claims to be the Invisible
Empire, you can now join the Knights of the Flam-
ing Sword, whose subtitle is "A Division of The
Hidden Host," and bow the knee to Supreme Mon-
arch William Joseph Simmons, formerly imperial
wizard of the Klan but now running a rival show.
Copies of Simmons' "royal proclamation" have
been mailed to press correspondents in the capital,
`so that the country may know of `our devout, de-
termined intention to serve and, if need be, to
suffer" in order that the "treason" alleged against
Simmons by the Klan management may prevail. A
special pamphlet reciting the illustrious deeds of
"traitors" such as Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Lin-
coln and Simmons, is sent along with the proclama-
tion, with the royal compliments.
In the proclamation, King William Joseph assails
commercial greed, religious doubt, economic uneasi-
ness and social confusion, "together with the per-
nicious propaganda and insidious influences of alien
and Bolshevik interests," which have poisoned the
nation.
Federated Press.
Constitutionality Of
Criminal Syndicalism
Laws
By R. W. Henderson
Statutes aimed against industrial and social propa-
ganda of a radical character were adopted in some-
thing like half of the states of the Union during' the
World War and the two succeeding years. The
acts are variously referred to as "overthrow,"
"Criminal Syndicalism," and "Sabotage" laws. Their
constitutionality has been passed upon by the highest
courts in twelve states. The New Mexico Supreme
Court, in the case of State vs. Jack Diamond held
the law of that state was unconstitutional as for-
bidding peaceable opposition to the government.
`The Supreme Court of New Jersey has invalidated
one section of the statute of that state, on the
same ground. The courts of New York, Tllinois,
Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Idaho, Washing-
ton, Oregon and California have upheld the the sta-
tutes.
The Supreme Court of the United States has not
passed on any of these acts. The case of Gitlow vs.
New York has been twice argued; but no decision
has been rendered so far. The case of Whitney vs.
California has not been argued. The cases of Burns
vs. United States, Rutherford vs. Michigan, and
Fiske vs. Kansas are in various stages of appeal to
the highest court in the land. The general question
in all of these cases is whether this new species of
criminal law is so vague and uncertain as to
punish many utterances which come within the con-
stitutional guaranty of free speech. The most im-
portant secondary question is whether a law can
constitutionally be passed holding every member of
an organization or a meeting responsibile for prin-
ciples in which he has not acquiesced or of which
he has not known. The very essence of civil liberty
is at stake in these cases.
a
GET BEHIND THE PRESIDENT
By Laurence Todd
(Federated Press Staff Writer)
Washington-Cal. Coolidge's hobby-horse, present-
ed to him by Dwight Morrow, partner in the banking
house of Morgan and Co., was a deep dread secret of
the presidential dressing chamber until the Cautious
One attempted one of his official denials by pressing
the Stop and Gallop buttons at the same instant.
Then, whether for lack of oil or other reasons, the
electric-power-fed beast went smash, and was sent
to the navy yard shops for repairs. A mechanic
possessing a sense of humor on the issue of economy
gave a hint to a newspaper, and the story broke
out on front pages all over the country. Millions
of robust Americans laughed at the imaginary pic-
ture of this purse-lipped little man, clad in under-
clothes and dressing gown, solemnly riding a rocking
horse in his own room, and possibly casting suspici-
ous glances at the walls and ceiling for stray wit-
nesses of his frivolity.
There is in Washington this winter a former
vrogressive writer who has seemingly undertaken
to explain away, apologize for, or boldly deny as
untrue and blasphemous, anything and everything
spoken or written in disparagement of the glory of
Coolidge, Hughes, Dawes, Longworth, the Italian
fascist ambassador, Stone, Warren, and so on ad in-
finitum. He has outdone even Sen. Spencer of
Missouri, whom Jim Reed declared to be worthy of
a tombstone inscribed with the names of Daugherty,
Fall, and the rest of the men whom he whitewashed,
with the legend: `He found no wrong anywhere."
Upon this court apologist, who has just assured a
credulous public that Warren is white as snow and
that Coolidge is innocent of ill intent toward Sen.
Wheeler, the burden of hushing up the laughter of
America at the hobby-horse will logically fall.
And when the ingenuity of the whole administra-
tion has been expressed in this blast of anti-laughter
publicity, the society columns of Washington news-
papers will tell the world who gave a tea or a party
in grateful acknowledgement.
paar CCE TE SATE MK NRG
et Se ae
Srisnande as " a - --
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
Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Leo Gallagher
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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, FEB. 28, 1925
COMING EVENTS
KK KR BK KK Kk
Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of
Columbus Hall, Los Angeles. Season ticket, with
three months' subscription to Open Forum, One Dol-
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South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
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I. B. W. A. FORUM
At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.
Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
All are Invited to Attend
Geo. McCarthy and J. Eads How, Committee
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OPEN FORUM every Saturday evening at 8:00 P.M.
I.W.W. HALL, 224 S. Spring Street, Room 218. In-
teresting Speakers-Interesting Subjects.
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PROLETARIAN FORUM
Every Sunday at 8 P. M.
ODD FELLOWS HALL
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Questions and Discussion Freely Invited
Admission Free
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Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of
Columbus Hall, Los Angeles. Season ticket, with
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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
HEALTH TALKS: The entire field of health, all
isms, fads, cures, and common sense of health
matters are being covered in a series of Lectures,
being delivered every Tuesday night. No Admis-
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Program for Ensuing Month Announced Soon
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224 South Spring Street, Room 218
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PROGRAM FOR MARCH, 1925
March 2-"The Radical as a Religionist" by Frank
Reed.
March 9-``The Influence of Nietzche on Modern
Thought" by E. A. Cantrell.
March 16-"Starving on Three Meals a Day" by Dr.
Haskel Kritzer, M.D. :
March 23-`"`What is Wrong with the World?" by
Dr. Charles James.
March 30-"Gandhi-Soul Force Versus Physical
Force" by Miss Hthelwyn Mills.
A Warless World
Do We Went It? How Are We
Going To Get It?
There is a wide-spread and ever increasing demand
for a WARLESS WORLD. The demand grows in
intensity, but it grows also in complexity. - Many
who utterly repudiate pacifism are among the prom-
inent proponents now of a world that is insured
against war. The militarists themselves deny that
they are militarists and contend that theirs is the
real program of world order and world peace. The
financiers are for some manner of world organiza-
tion that will give them security against another
international holocaust. England, the center of the
world's mightiest empire, is clamoring for world
disarmament now, or the concentration of such
armament under Anglo-American control. Meanwhile
the sweep of anti-war sentiment in the realms of
religion is forcing even the churches to recognize
the disciples of moral resistance, who in growing
numbers are ready to go to prison and to death
rather than give countenance to international vio-
lence again. Finally, there is the startling phenom-
enon of the Red Army of Russia leading the labor
world in education for peace, and warring against
war not by the ordinary military methods of bloody
victories won on fields of battle in dramatically
destructive campaigns of brief duration but by a
continuous course of peaceful propaganda on behalf
of war-abandonment and the abandonment of the
economic slaughter and devastation characteristic
of our daily life under capitalism which is the chief
provocative to the violence of arms.
There are few who understand how imperative is
this issue today, how divergent and irreconcilable
are the lines of approach, and how slight is the mea-
sure of popular understanding of the facts.
Therefore THE CHURCH OF THE NEW SOCIAL
ORDER, which holds its meetings every Sunday
morning, at 10:45 o'clock in SYMPHONY HALL,
232 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California, will
devote the FIVE SUNDAY MORNINGS of March,
1925, to an extended discussion of these questions:
A WARLESS WORLD. DO WE WANT IT? HOW
ARE WE GOING TO GET IT?:
The particular subjects to be considered from Sun-
day to Sunday will follow the lines indicated in the
analysis set forth above.
March. 1. THE APPEAL TO FEAR.
March 8. The APPEAL TO FINANCE.
March 15. The APPEAL TO SUPERIOR
PEOPLHES.
March 22. THE APPEAL TO FAITH.
March 29. THE APPEAL TO SOCIAL REVOLU-
TION.
So far men have very much predominated at our
meetings, a curious commentary on the conservatism
and timidity of women. Also our attendance, like
that of other churches at this point, has been almost
exclusively made up of white people of the Caucasian
stock. We want everybody, men and women, white
and black and brown and yellow and red races, and
folks of every faith and no faith at all. A particular
invitation is extended to Negroes and to Japanese
and Chinese. Let us get together and face the facts.
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To Talented Children of Parents who
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IF IT'S INSURANCE
Confer with
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OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O0x00B0CLOCK
MAR. 1-`THE RACH BETWEEN EDUCATIOy
AND CATASTROPHER" by ROBERT WHITAKER
Field Sec'y of the American Civil Liberties Union, _
This subject will be treated in Mr. Whitaker's usual
vigorous, searching style. Hducators especially ar
urged to hear it. Music by MISS SOPHIE S'REN(0,
whistling soloist and pianist.
MAR. 8-"`THE KU KLUX KLAN FROM A CATH
OLIC STANDPOINT" by JOSEPH SCOTT, who
a prominent Los Angeles attorney and an official jy
the Knights of Columbus. Inasmuch as the Catholic
Church is one of the objects of offense to the kj
Kluxers it will be interesting indeed to hear hoy
Mr. Scott views the movement. Music by RUDOLPH
LIEBICH, pianist. Z
MAR. 15-`"THE LABOR PROBLEM IN INDIA'
by LENA MORROW LEWIS, for many years a plat:
form worker in behalf of socialism. Why is there
unrest anrong India's millions? What is the British
Government doing to relieve the situation? We
Americans ought to know more intimately the situa
tion in the far Hast. SANDER SHOR, violinist, will
give the musical program.
MAR. 22-"`SHOULD CAPITAL PUNISHMEN?
BE ABOLISHED?" by Attorney 8S. S. HAHN. Ther
is a new bill now before our legislature proposing
to do away with capital punishment in this state
Many are stirred up over the execution of criminals
Mr. Hahn, who is a criminal lawyer of wide experi-
ence, should be able to throw much light on this old
question. We shall have the pleasure of listening
to BERNARD COHN, a young pianist of much ability,
in the program of music preceding the address.
MAR. 29-DEBATE "RESOLVED THAT THE
ATTACKS OF THE LIBERTARIANS ON RUSSIA
ARE JUSTIFIED." The affirmative will be taken
by THOMAS BELL, and A. PLOTKIN will uphold
the negative. When two such doughty antagonists
get together the fur is sure to fly-and some ney
facts touching a long-continued controversy among
liberals will be brought out undoubtedly. MR. M
FISH will be heard in a number of Russian songs,
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