Open forum, vol. 2, no. 2 (January, 1925)
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THE OPEN FORUM
and
A thing IS what it DOES. -- William James
Vol.*2:
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 10, 1925
No. 2
Sinclair
as Governor
New York, Dec. 27, 1924.
Upton Sinclair,
Pasadena, Calif.
"Governor-elect Bingham of Connecticut will serve
only one day as governor, January 7th, when he
will resign to become a United States Senator. He
plans to do nothing except go through routine of
inauguration and appoint a personal staff. The leg-
islature will be in session for that day. The WORLD
would like to know what you would do if you had
only one day as governor of Connecticut. Please
wire answer collect.
New York WORLD."
Sinclair's reply read as follows:
N. Y. WORLD
New York City.
If I were governor of a state for twenty-four hours
I would abolish the capitalist system. I would not
become governor for any other purpose, for no other
purpose is worth twenty-four hours of my time. I
would issue a proclamation declaring a state of pub-
lic emergency, owing to the fact that the great mass
of the useful workers were being exploited by a small
group of idle parasites. I would declare the great
basic industries . ~70x00B0-state: incitding rairoads, ei-
egraphs, telephones, gas, light, power and all banks
to be the property of the state, to be administered
from that hour by executive boards composed of
representatives of the state, of the organized workers,
and of the managing and technical staffs. All pres-
ent boards of directors would be dispossessed ; stock-
holders would receive compensation for the actual
physical value of the properties, the compensation
to be in state bonds to be paid out of future profits.
All technical managers would have their salaries at
once doubled, in order to make certain of their
loyalty during the critical transition days. Depos-
itors in banks would receive their actual investments
in state bonds; the funds of the socialized banks
would be used to finance the transition emergencies.
The: police power of the state would defend the new
executive committees in their management of the
newly acquired properties. Being once in possession,
the people would not easily be put out-at least not
if they had any conception of fundamental Amer-
icanism, and the revolutionary principles of our fore-
fathers. I point out that all this is entirely consti-
tutional; it is nothing but martial law, which the
capitalist class has declared a thousand times when
it has wished to put down strikes of the workers.
UPTON SINCLAIR.
----_----_e-_-___-_-
Judge Bledsoe orders an investigation of alleged
third degree work by officials in the treatment of
federal prisoners. The judge is quoted to the effect
that "somebody will lose his job" if choking and
beating of prisoners be substantiated. Nobody ap-
parently cares much how prisoners are treated in
jail. Every police reporter in the country knows
that police frequently punish prisoners with violent
physical force. It usually is pretty safe to batter
up a prisoner. He has little or no recourse din jail
and after he comes out he may not wish to tell
people about it, and if he does, not much attention
is paid to him.
-Los Angeles Record.
1
; One of the most pitiful things about the churches
is the way in which the plain teachings of Jesus
are set aside without the quiver of an eyelash when
there is some selfish interest to subserve, while every
letter of even dubious interpretation is insisted upon
with sanctimonious rigidity when the question is
one of a bit of ceremony or ecclesiastical custom.
Doll- House Prayers
There was a great fire in a great city. Men of
means losing the accumulations of years, food,
clothing, books, treasures of art, all were ruthlessly
swept away. Factories where thousands of workers
earned their livelihood were soon smouldering heaps
of ruins. Homes were consumed like wisps of straw,
and their residents, men, women, and children were
driven unsheltered into the streets. It was a dark
and desperate day, illumined with red glare of the
flames, and with the fine courage of those who risked
their own lives to save the lives and properties
of others.
In the city there was a little girl, a favored child,
whose fond father had made her a pretty play-
house, for herself and her dolls. The little girl
gaw the smoke of the great fire, heard the shout-
ings of the people who ran through the streets, and
was afraid for her doll-house. So because she was
a good little girl, and had been taught to pray, she
got her little girl friends around her, and they
prayed that God would put the fire out, or so direct
it that the doll-house would be spared. And the
doll-house was saved. And the little girl's Sunday
School teacher praised her because she had shown
such faith in prayer.
The great coal strike was on. Hundreds of thou-
sands of men, deeply stirred with wrongs they could
no longer endure, had lain down their tools and
at the cost of their daily wages had withdrawn from
work. There was much suffering among them, which
theys-bore fur-each otters' sake. wide-
spread suffering elsewhere, for it was December,
and a fuel famine was already on. Factories were
closing and throwing other thousands out of work,
schools were compelled to shut their doors, and
in the homes of the poor especially the aged and
the enfeebled were in danger of freezing to death.
There was
Now it. happened that a Convention of Christian
Young Men had been called. There was danger
that ghe Convention could not be held for lack of
fuel to warm the building where the meetings were
to be. So groups of the young men met in prayer,
twice every day, earnestly asking God that the
coal strike might not interfere with their plans
which looked so promising. And it was even so,
for the coal strike was "compromised" before the
days of the Christian Young Men's Convention had
come. Whereupon the young men rejoiced with each
other for their faith in prayer, and their secretaries
wrote, "We truly have come a long way spiritually,
and we are hoping to go much, much further."
So the toilers underground who had risked their
little all that they might ameliorate each other's
conditions went back to the bondage wherein they
had slaved for an unconcerned Christian public,
all these many years, and the coal barons proceeded
to pile up more millions out of which to spare a
few thousands now and then for various and sundry
Christian Associations of young men.
And the little girl, who was at least innocent of
having either started or apologized for the fire,
thanked God for her doll-house. And the young men
thanked God for the fine Convention they had held.
R. W.
-- 2
This is the tragedy of the centuries
That every good cause
In its own generation
Has had to fight its way forward
Against the passive indifference, at least,
Of most of those who were its beneficiaries,
And against the active opposition
Of many of the eminently intelligent,
Vigorously moral,
And sincerely religious people of the day.
And this also is the deepest tragedy of our own
times. -R. W.
a
There are long reaches of the commonplace be-
tween the high peaks of every heroic life.
Child Labor
Must Go
By Kate Crane Gartz
The other day I was horrified to hear the secre-
tary of the Los Angeles Woman's City Club-Mrs.
Davis, who admitted she was a parent and a teacher
-gtand up and defend child labor. And that, after
listening to Helen Todd tell of the terrible condi-
tions under which children work in mines, mills
and factories!
For 25 years I have watched and waited for re-
sults of the efforts of Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop,
Florence Kelley and Helen Todd in their child wel-
fare work, and we still have the problem with us.
If there is a more terrible indictment of our 100%
Americanism, I should like to know what it is.
Nothing except war! I can never be patient or
patriotic until these black crimes are written off
our books. I want a country of which I can be
proud, all along the line; so that I can stand up and
wave the flag and sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee."
remember when the Government, under
Taft, after much pleading allowed Julia
$75,000 a year for a "Children's Bureau."
We had had a "pig's bureau," and an "agricultural
bureau" for which we allow many millions. But
only a few thousand for education-I suppose it
would be "unconstitutional" to give more! Our
children are left to the mercy of factory owners,
headed by the National Association of Manufactur-
ers, which is waging war against the proposed Fed-
eral amendment to prohibit child labor.
In 1860 we of the North demanded the freedom
of the slaves in the South and fought a disastrous
war for it; isn't it time we demanded the freedom
of little children, everywhere, now? It seems to
be up to the radicals to fight the battles for humani-
ty, and to counteract the perfidy of conservative and
recationaries who wage wars for commerce and
imperialism, and mow down our children in doing
so.
re can
William
Lathrop
The Full Dinner Pail
NEW YORK.-When Wall Street balanced books
last Saturday night it found that $3,000,000,000 had
been added to the market value of the securities
listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Of this, at least $1,000,000,000 went to the rail-
roads.
* * *
WASHINGTON.-Prices are going up and the
value of the dollar is going down, according to No-
vember wholesale price statistics issued by the U.
S. department of labor. The report shows the general
average of wholesale prices 52.7% above 1913 com-
pared with 51.9% in October and 44.6% in June.
This means an increase of more than 544% in the
last five months.
Food prices were 144% higher in November than
in October and 1314% higher than in June. The in-
creases from October to November in the prices of
clothing materials, metals, chemicals and drugs were
all more than 1%.
The wholesale price level is also slightly higher
than in November, 1923. Yet there is an increasing
volume of wage decreases. Textile workers facing
a deluge of wage cuts are noting that the prices of
clothing materials are among the leaders in the up-
ward movement.
-Federated Press.
tt
The notion that you can better serve men by giv-
ing them sugar-coated attenuations of your convic-
tions is a notion which ought not to be so much as
suggested to a real public teacher.
(RR ag aR a SF
: " ss
ee eS . , - a
BRISBUNK
"As the old year died away there were many signs
of prosperity,' remarks Arthur Brisbane in his
"Today" for January 1, 1925. "Stocks and bonds,
wheat, corn, cotton and copper were all going up
when the bell rang and 1924 dropped into the grave.
The right mental attitude, plus common sense, will
keep things going up through 1925. The President's
excellent supply of New England common sense will
help. May he live long and prosper."
Was there ever a paragraph penned, unless by
Brisbane himself, which had in it more of contemp-
tible flunkeyism and shallow economic reasoning
than this? When you read that passage carefully it
is enough to make a man wish that when "1924
dropped into his grave" he had taken with him more
company than he did. We are carrying over into
1925 frightful liabilities in the newspaper world.
"The right mental attitude, plus common sense."
Just what is the distinction then between common
sense and a mental attitude? And the President's
"New England common sense," how does that differ
from common sense in New York or the New Hebri-
des or New Zealand, or anywhere else? Was that
the common sense that led Massachusetts recently
to vote down the Child Labor Amendment to the
Constitution by a vote of three to one in favor of
child slavery? Is it that kind of common sense
which has made New England the favorite picking
ground of Presidential nobodies in the two great
crises of our national history within the memory of
living men? Is it common sense, of New England
brand or any other real brand, which keeps "stocks
and bonds, (notice the order), wheat, corn, cotton
and copper, going up" when all of these which the
common people ever had in their own hands have
safely passed into the hands of the manipulators and
monoplists? And the "prosperity" of which there
were so "many signs," in the last days of 1924,
whose was it, that of the working people of the
United States, or that of the financial pirates who
have looted the people to the tune of literally bil-
_ lions of dollars since the election of Calvin Coolidge
gave them the signal to go im and get the goods at
their own sweet will? When one thinks of this as
an exhibit of "New England common sense" three
centuries after the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plym-
out Rock it is hard not to sympathize with the man
who lamented that Plymouth Rock had not landed
on the Pilgrim Fathers before they got us into this
mess.
This sickening worship of prosperity, and of the
"common sense" which is quiet, moderate, reserved,
and proper, while the spoilers of men and nations
build up their rotten temples and palaces of finance
to the point where they collapse and carry whole
civilzations with them, has always posed as some
great thing which only the reckless and the extrava-
gant in speech would gainsay. Doubtless our words
will be so regarded by the worshippers of the "safe
and sane" today. If we are prosperous, ag the mighty
count prosperity, is not that enough? You can tell
the people something in times of hardship and
panic and obvious financial confusion and loss. But
whoever told them anything as long as things were
going prosperously, however rotten with social in-
justice and the promise of common disaster the
prosperity was?
The year 1925 is not going to be a prosperous year
in the United States, from the viewpoint of any
real prosperity for the great body of the work-a-day
people of the land. The crew who are in the saddle
here may spare us something from their exploiting
of the earth. But even at this point our money
masters have not the sense to divide with the
common people of the country as generously as they
could well afford to do, as a purely defensive policy
on their part. Perhaps it is fortunate that such
is the case. If the crusts tossed to us from their
tables were a little more liberal in size and quality
we might be willing to overlook indefinitely the
world stealings out of which their charity to home
labor comes. -
Real prosperity is not here, and is not coming
to us until we seek it on the lines of a real pros-
perity for all the peoples of all lands and every
blood. And those who like Brisbane, preach to you
the self-complacencies of a shallow satisfaction with
things as they are in the United States are, fittingly
enough, the very people who are urging us to spend
our substance in getting ready to fight it out with
all the earth.
Free Press Policy
By Doremus Scudder
Many thanks to Judge Ryckman for proposing
the question of Open Forum policy, and also for his
nine propositions. His succinct suggestion of the
objectives at which a distinct policy should aim
holds within itself one ofthe best evidences of the
wisdom of a truth seeking and truth telling journal's
determination to keep out of the policy business.
If it is the highest duty of a man to maintain an
open mind on all questions why not a newspaper's?
The trouble with nearly every paper in this country
is "the closed mind'-its policy. Journals, whose
pages are on the qui vive for new views of truth or '
for views which are offered as candidates for that
evanescent crown, which we dub truth, are the great-
est desideratum of our day. Such a paper might
with perfect loyalty to truth advocate one proposition
today and then convinced by experience or further
consideration champion its opposite tomorrow and
never lose caste but only gain in the estimation
of all honest souls.
Take Judge Ryckman's nine propositions. Coula
the editorial personnel of the Open Forum agree
upon all of them as worthy of a place in the social
program demanded for today? The third for ex-
ample. What is meant by the "products of labor?"
The phrase bristles with differing definitions over
which the best of men will fight one another to a
finish. Then again there is the proposal to substi-
tute functional for regional representation in our
legislatures. Even among believers in this change
the question of how to get at it fairly swarms with
debatable solutions.
The Judge's proposal raises the inquiry: What is
the essential nature of a free press, and in raising
it answers it. A trade paper or a propaganda peri-
odical is not free. It must stick to its job which
is to win converts to its special ism and that task
is on the whole a healthful one, namely to help
people to detect the truth or fallacy in its special
hobby. This is done best when it is free to talk
itself out. In America these ism sheets, especially
those whose ism it is to make money, have invaded
the. realm. ofthe ves press.and haxe..begun~ to
dream that they can suppress those who do not
agree with them by majority power. That is per-
haps the greatest menace in our national life today-
the suppression of "dangerous thoughts" as the
Government of Japan puts it. The only way to sup-
press really dangerous thoughts is to let them loose.
Free air will kill them. What liberal papers most
need to do today is to make impossible the charge
of propaganda against them, to be free, to serve as a
platform for discussion, in themselves to dmon-
strate that the Right to freedom of the press is one
great essential of liberty. That is the sphere of
the Open Forum and that becomes impossible as
soon as the paper ties itself down to a practical
program which it wishes to put over. In other words
an ideal paper must be a mirror in which the thought
of the day is honestly reflected, conservative
thought, liberal thought, reactionary and radical
thought. If our daily press were thus free most of
our national difficulties would gradually resolve
themselves into wisely solved problems.
Meantime Judge Ryckman's article renders a real
service in proposing debate upon the question, What
sort of a platform should a Progressive party in
American political life propose. The last election
emphasized what the conflict of 1912 also suggested
that a progressive platform should not be too in-
clusive, that it should propose advance steps which
are takable and not get too far ahead of the think-
ing of the people. What is the irreducible minimum
demanded of such a party? Or should it be content
to be always ahead and gradually pull its conserva-
tive rival along to better things while remaining
itself out of office? :
One misses from Judge Ryckman's list of proposi-
tions, first and most essential, a proposal covering.
the demands of the international spirit, second, Goy-
ernment ownership of natural resources, and third,
reform of our system of justice. Inasmuch as free
trade is the most tabued and at the same time most
essential step toward "No more war," "How aim at
it" has become as fundamental an issue as our
nation faces. The Republican appeals locally to the
selfishness of Southern California were perhaps the
most noticeable and the most efficacious pleas in the
recent campaign here. The electorate must be edu-
cated to bonafide self denial before ever free trade
will be possible in America. Must that come through
armed or economic conflict or both or through de-
veloped conscience? To a consideration of all of
which the Judge has invited us. Whence our grat-
itude to him.
THE VIOLENCE
OF THE RESPECTABLE
--|
Some of the patriotic orders published last yea;
as a New Year greeting words from Mark Twain
and other eminent Americans, that seemed to fit iy
with the spirit and purposes of these organizations
The Federated Press comes back with a New Yea;
greeting for 1925 in which the following passages
mainly from Mark Twain are given.
* * *
A Prayer for Christian Militarists
Mark Twain said of this prayer, "I have told the
whole truth in that and only dead men can tell the
whole truth in this world. It can be publishei
after I am dead." `
And it was.
"QO Lord our God, help -us to tear their soldiers
to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover
their shining fields with the pale forms of their
patriotic dead; help us to drown the thunder of .
the guns with the cries of the wounded, writhing
in pain; help us to lay waste their humble home
with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts
of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;
help us to turn them out roofless, with their little
children to wander unfriended through wastes of the
desolated lands, in rags and hunger and thirst, sport
of the sun, flames of summer and the icy winds of
winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, implor.
ing Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-
for our sakes, who adore Thee Lord, blast their hopes,
blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage,
make heavy their steps, water their way with tears,
stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded
feet! We ask of One who is the spirit of love and
.who is the ever faithful refuge and friend of all
that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and
contrite hearts. Grant our prayer, O Lord, and Thine
shall be the praise and honor and glory now and
ever. Amen."
* * *
Christian Efficiency
"Now," said Satan, "you have seen your progress
down to the present, and you must confess that it is
wanderful-in its way. We must now exhibit the.
future." ***** "Cain dids-his- Ger with a club;
the Hebrews did their murders with javelins and
swords; the Greeks and Romans added protective
armor and the fine arts of military organization and
generalship; the Christian has added guns and gun-
powder; a few centuries from now he will have so
greatly improved the deadly effectiveness of his
weapons of slaughter that all men will confess that
without Christian civilization war must have re-
mained a poor and trifling thing to the end of time."
+ ree ol Ve Or Six thousand years five or six
high civilizations have risen, flourished, commanded
the wonder of the world, then faded out and dis-
appeared; and not one of them except the latest ever
invented any sweeping and adequate way to kill peo-
ple. They did their best-to kill being the chiefest
ambition of the human race and the earliest incident
in its history-but only the Christian Civilization has
scored a triumph to be proud of. Two or three cen-
turies from now it will be recognized that all the
competent killers are Christians; then the pagan
world will go to school to the Christian-not to ac
quire his religion, but his guns. The Turk and the
Chinaman will buy those to kill missionaries and ~
converts with."'
-from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger."
* * *
``Parlor Provocateur'"'
A couple of years ago, in a California city, a din-
ner was held at which were present prominent Amer-
ican and Japanese business men. A few days later
the local post of the American Legion adopted the
following resolution:
"RESOLVED, That we look with disfavor and:
disapproval upon any gathering intended to promote
GOOD FELLOWSHIP and social affiliation between
the Japanese and our own people."
* % *
A Soldier Speaks
Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough
The land and not the sea,
And leave the soldiers at their drill,
And all about the idle hill
Shepherd your sheep with me.
Oh stay with company and mirth
And daylight and the air;
Too full already is the grave
Of fellows that were good and brave
And died because they were.
-From "LAST POEMS"
By A.B: Housman, author of
"A SHROPSHIRE LAD"
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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS
"K * *K 8
From the Other Side
of the Pacific
Federated Press Service
JE peo
Declare Against War
By W. Francis Ahern
MELBOURNE, Australia-At a huge antiwar
demonstration in Melbourne, the principal speaker
was Labor premier Prendergast of Victoria who said
that wars were invented to make greater wealth
for the capitalists. He stated that the masses had
never gained from the war, but merely became the
machines of massacre.
The following resolution carried unanimously:
"This demonstration of Australian citizens, rep-
resenting the majority of the people in this country,
sends forth our fraternal greetings to the people of
all other countries, and declares our determination
to join hands and hearts with them in the great fight
to abolish militarism and war, believing that justice
and freedom can only be achieved and maintained
through permanent international peace
"Believing that the manufacture of naval and
military arms and equipment is a certain incentive
to war, this mass meeting of citizens joins in calling
upon the governments of all countries to give im-
mediate effect to a policy of complete disarmament.
"Believing that any constructive effort to create
the necessary antiwar psychology must pay atten-
tion to the education of the children as well as
adults, we therefore call upon all governments to
discourage the policy of war glorification and nav-
al and military hero worship through the columns of
the textbooks and school papers of.our country, and
substitute in its place the fostering of the spirit of
international peace."
i
Prefer Fines to Drill
WELLINGTON, New Zealand.-The unpopularity
of the compulsory Defense training scheme for boys
in New Zealand is shown by the fact that during the
second week of October, 54 boys were brought be-
fore the courts and charged for evading the com-
pulsory drills. All were fined.
Since the compulsory defense act became law in
New Zealand the number of convictions for. offences
against the provisions of this law total something in
the vicinity of 30,000, and periodically, when the
, Magistrates are particularly bilious, there is a fury
of disfranchisements in addition to the usual pains
and penalties
If familiarizing lads with the courts is an evid-
ence of popular approval of the law, the defense act
is the most successful measure on the New Zealand
statute book. There is certainly little else to com-
mend it,
On all hands, the act is regarded as a nuisance
and a farce. It is an extravagant device, not for
providing defense-it is a howling joke in this res-
pect-but for harrying young folk for the benefit
of brass hats for whom more useful occupations
should be found.
we
Church for Peace Now
SYDNEY, Australia.-At the annual conference of
the Congregational Church Union, held at Sydney, it
was decided as a general principle that war, as a
method of settling international disputes `or for na-
tional aggression and aggrandisement, is opposed
to the spirit and teaching of Christianity and there-
fore stands condemned in the eyes of all who are in
Sympathy with that spirit and teaching.
The Conference asked the state governments to
make provision in the school curriculums for definite
instruction in the principles of peace and _ inter-
national relations, also that the federal government
appoint a peace committee, which shall act as a pub-
licity bureau for the Commonwealth in the interests
_ of peace.
BORAH PROPOSES A PLAN
FOR WORLD PEACE
Senator Borah of Idaho, now holding the impor-
tan post of Chairman of the Foreign Relations Com-
mittee in the United States Senate, recently has set
forth both the fiasco of international relations which
is going on under all our present peace talk, and
what he considers to be the primary factors in a real
world peace program.
"To talk of leagues and courts while pursuing a
deliberate policy of violence and vengeance," Senator
Borah declared, "is to trifle with greatest prob-
lem now before us for settlement.
"We confine our love of peace to paper, our war
spirit find its expression in deeds. We profess friend-
ship and practice vengeance. Under such policies
and practices, leagues and courts not only prove in-
effective, but hope sickens and the morale of the
whole human family is broken and demoralized.
"There is no hope for peace," he asserted, "so long
as great powers will that there shall be no peace."
He listed a number of international incidents since
the World War which he said have involved `a resort
to violence and force upon the part of great and
powerful nations against the unarmed and helpless."
Among the incidents cited were Nicaragua, Vera
Cruz, Santo Domingo, Amritsar, the Ruhr, Corfu and
Hgypt.
"In all these instances,' the Idaho Senator said,
"the aggressor nation was strong enough to have
invoked conciliation, adjustment and arbitration and
thus have set examples and established precedents of
more value to the cause of peace than any peace
plan."
He suggested that the phrase, `"Outlawry of War,"
be dropped for "substitution of law and judicial tribu-
nals in international affairs."
The plan should be considered, he said, as three
separate propositions:
Creation of a body of international law, involving
-"eoing as far as humanly possible to reduce inter-
national relations to established rules of conduct.
"Hstablishment of an independent tribunal with
jurisdiction and power to determine all controversies
involving construction of international law _ or
treaties; and
"Declaring by said tribunal that war is a crime
no longer to be recognized at any time as a legitimate
instrument for settlement of international disputes.
"In other words,' said Senator Borah, "if war
`comes, it must be without the shield or sanction of
law, but in violation of it, as piracy or slavery, or
peonage, or murder."
ee
One of the commonest mistakes in the world, and
one of the most mischievous is the notion. that
social progress is in danger of moving too fast. The
truth is that no civilization has ever moved fast
enough to avert the catclysm, and there is no indi-
cation that our own civilization is going to be any
exception to the rule. Conservatism always holds
back till the whirlwinds of destruction are let loose.
Australian Labor Votes Against War
MELBOURNE, Australia.-At the All-Australian
congress of the Australian Labor Party, held at Mel-
bourne, the following important resolution was
carried unanimously:
"That this conference, convinced that with an-
other great war the horrors and terrors of the last
war will be eclipsed affirms it to be the duty of the
Australian Labor movement to declare that under no
circumstances should the workers take up arms in
the interests of international rivalries, but, instead,
join with the workers of all countries in striving
wholeheartedly for peace by international action."
It was also decided that the Australian Labor party
shall convene a Pan-Pacific conference in Japan in
order to promote a closer understanding of the labor
movements in the countries bordering the Pacific
ocean.
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Who is My Neighbor?
A little book has recently appeared under the
title, "And Who Is My Neighbor?" which deals very
graphically with the Phariseeism of our reactions
here in the United States to the "foreigner," though
foreigners but a little ways removed we all are our-
selves. The Christian Century culls these incidents,
from the book, which we gladly pass on.
3 * * a
An elderly teacher, born in Russia, was teaching
algebra and Russian in a private school when the
place was raided by agents of the department of
justice. The man was so viciously beaten that he
received a fracture of the head, left shoulder, and
right side. But the same people who had thus vic-
timized him released him after he had been taken
to their headquarters for examination.
* * * *
A professional visitor found a young married
woman, a Russian Jewess, living in a quarter largely
inhabited by Gentiles. The girl was desperately
lonely, and about to become a mother. The visitor
advised her, in case of sudden need, to ask one of her
neighbors to telephone for help. ``There isn't anyone
to call,' she answered; `all the people who live
around here are Christians."
* * * *
A representative of a government bureau was lec-
turing to Russians in a Pennsylvania city on "Abra-
ham Lincoln and American Democracy." Because
he spoke in Russian he was put in jail, and it took
the government itself 36 hours to' free him. Nor
would the mayor then allow the delivery of the
lecture. -
* * * *
A colored man from the north was convalescing
in a hospital in a southern city. Allowed to go for
a short walk, he passed slowly along the street
steadying himself by holding the fence. "Ks a wiite
man passed he unintentionally and lightly brushed .
against his coat. The colored man took off his hat,
bowed and exclaimed, "I beg your pardon, sir.' The
white man vehemently cursed him. Southern Negroes
assured him that there would have been no trouble
if, instead of using the correct social form, he had
said, `"'Scuse me, boss, 'scuse me!"
* * * *
An Italian was thrown into jail, charged with
murder. He denied the charge, and was terribly
beaten by the police. After two nights of such
beating, he was found hanging in his cell, and sui-
cide was reported. The public health commissioner
said when examining the body that the man had
been beaten to death. Nothing was done about it;
the man's wife and child were left in destitution.
* * * *
A Negro physician, after complete training, re-
turned to the town in which he had grown up and
began practice among his own race. The other
medical men in the town told him to leave, and he
felt that he had no alternative but to go.
* * * oe
A Jewish doctor undertook to take his interne's
training in a hospital with anti-Semitic traditions.
He was made the butt of all sorts of insults, until
he was finally driven out. Nor were such references
given him as would make possible admission into
another hospital. His professional career was there-
fore abandoned.
* ok * *
An East Indian applied for a room in a dormitory
of the university where he was a student. He was
told that there was a rule against giving such
quarters to foreign students. Later he found there
was no such rule. College authorities refused to
answer the letter he wrote concerning the matter.
He left the school in disgust.
* * * *
The American-born wife of an American of Italian
birth was snubbed in a San Francisco hotel by an
American woman with whom she had previously been
friendly. The cause turned out to be her having
given dramatic lessons to a Japanese girl of marked
talent.
* * * *
Another young Hast Indian was turned away from
the public library of a southern city. He explained
his race, and stated that he was a university grad-
uate, but the chief librarian warned him against
coming to the library again.
E. M.
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THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
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Phone: TUcker 6836.
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1925
TO A REDWOOD
By Jim Seymour
Lone, misplanted redwood of the arid lands, whose
foliage warded off the scorching sun and cooled my
throbbing brain; whose fallen needles, blunt and
sharp, have gently pricked me on to further effort;
whose lofty top has climbed, is climbing, slowly, sure-
ly, serenely, toward the firmament of dawn, of justice
sure to be; whose roots are woven, deep beneath the
cowing surface parch, with vitalizing moisture of a
stratum dimly felt; whose dreamy barcarole, power-
fully sweet and melodious, has floated down from
heights of future brightness, bearing lyric wonder-
tales of crystal springs beneath the dust:
"Through a thousand years and more the battles
cruel rage; blighting flames in anger roar, my mil-
lion swords engage. Dig, oh dig, with zeal un-
flagging, for the streams below; scorn fatigue and
comrades' lagging, scorn sirocco's blow; note that
here I stand-how I have grown since birth; life
`may but exyand from roots within the earth. Dig,
oh dig for lfe's streams; dig, oh dig for your dreams
-iear the dying calling."
I dig.
a
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Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
January 11th, "Unemployment and the Law"
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January 18, "The Rise of Industrial Democracy"
J. C. Coleman, Dr. R. Kirchner
January 25, "Life, Labor and Dramatic Art"
Chas. James and Tom Longthorp
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teresting Speakers-Interesting Subjects.
Subjects for the Month
Jan. LO--Hrench Syndicalism.2.2. Tom Bell
Jan. 17-"Things as They Are'. Robert Whitaker
Jan. 24-Non-resistance-a Revolutionary
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By Attorney R. W. Henderson
The court battles that have raged around the
prosecutions of members of the I. W. W. in this state
are apt to be thought of as primarily affecting that
militant organization and its members. An article
in the California Law Review for November, 1924,
points out that the attempt to substitute proceedings
for contempt for the Criminal Syndicalism law, un-
der the famous Busick injunction, is no more than
the most extreme point in a general and dangerous
movement to substitute courts of equity for the reg-
ular procedure of the criminal courts. Organized
labor had long recognized the danger of the use of
the power of courts to enjoin.
The conviction of Tom Connors for an alleged at-
tempt to corrupt a juror, because of certain litera-
ture' which the office of which he was in charge
issued concerning the injustice of the operation of
the Criminal Syndicalism Law, was an attempt to
prevent any public discussion of any law which was
being applied in the courts. In the past two years,
labor editors-editors of A. F. of L. papers-have
been prosecuted for contempt for criticising certain
judges in connection with pending litigation. The
reversal of the Connors case is a distinct victory for
freedom. Its affirmance would have established a
precedent which would soon have been applied to
others than members of the I. W. W.
That vague and fearful thing called conspiracy
has formed the basis of the most important prosecu-
tions of members of labor organizations for two cen-
turies. In the Criminal Syndicalism trials all over
the country, the prosecuting attorneys have con-
tended that the conspiracies charged were of such a
nature that the ordinary rules of evidence should be
extended in their favor. The majority of trial judges
have seemed to agree with them.
Fortunately, the appellate courts of California, as
well as those of other states, have checked the appli-
cations of this new rule.
The big question under the Criminal Syndicalism
law concerns itself with whether criminal knowledge
and criminal intent must be shown to establish guilt.
On this question, two of our District Courts of Ap-
peal have met in head-on collision. It is now up to
the state Supreme Court to settle the matter. If our
Supreme Court follows the Sacramento District
Court of Appeal, a most serious innovation will have
been established. If our highest court over-rules the
reversal in the McClennegen case, it will not be long
before every member of a labor union will be held
responsible for every crime of any fellow member
independently of their guilty knowledge or intent.
The above questions are all technical and not
readily understood by those unlearned in the law;
but the prosecutions of the I. W. W. in California
must be considered not primarily as an attempt to
destroy a radical and unpopular organization. Those
prosecutions are significant because they have been
based upon an attempt to establish as part of our
law principles which if legally sanctioned can be
applied against all labor organizations whose activi-
ties threaten vested interests. The injunctive power
has been dangerously extended; the rules of evi-
dence have been but slightly warped. The attempt
to throttle public discussion has failed. The ques-
tion as to the extension of the doctrine that crime
may be committed without any guilty knowledge or
intent is still undecided.
----h-___-_
Church of the New Social Order
Walker Auditorium, Cleveland Hall
730 So. Grand
Sunday Morning Service: 10:45 o'clock
January 11-RELIGION AND SCIENCE, A Study
of Miracles.
January 13-SAMSON AND THE PHYSICAL
CULTURE FAD
January 25-JONAH AND THE PRODIGAL SON,
A Study in Religious Exclusiveness.
Services open at 10:45 A. M. Come early if you
want to get a seat.
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OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
JAN. 11-"SHALL WE GIVE THE NEGROES OF
THIS COUNTRY A SQUARE DEAL?" There will
be two speakers, MRS. LILLIAN WILLIS on "FUN-
DAMENTAL WRONGS," and DR. H. C. HUDSON on
"THE DIFFICULTIES AND HOPES OF THE NE:
GROHS." The latter is the newly-elected president of
the local branch of The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. Both are excel-
lent speakers and will strongly present the case of
the black man. Th program will begin with music
by colored people, the names of the artists to be an-
nounced later.
JAN. 18-"BIRTH CONTROL," by MARGARET
SANGER of New York-yes, we mean the original
and only Margaret Sanger, the one who has pio-
neered and suffered through the years in her insist-
ence upon the right of women to know how to con-
trol the number of their offspring. She is coming to
the Pacific Coast to deliver a number of addresses
and will give the first one at our Forum. Music by
MISS HELEN MUCHNIC, child violinist
JAN. 25-DEBATE: "RESOLVED, THAT THE
1924 IMMIGRATION LAW SHOULD BE SO AMEND.
ED AS TO ADMIT JAPANESE ON THE SAME BA-
SIS AS EUROPEANS." Students of the University of
Southern California will be the debaters, the affirma-
tive being upheld by LELAND TALLMAN and AL W.
GRIEWE; and the negative, by RAYMOND BREN-
NAN and ADNA LEONARD, JR. This is one of the
questions that will not down; come and hear both
sides of it discussed. Music by students of the
School of Music connected with the UeSiee
Sinclair's Standing
in Europe
A Seattle friend, himself a Y. M. C A. worker and
therefore not to be reckoned as a radical, told his
friends on the Pacific Coast when he returned in the
late summer of 1923 from an extended tour through
Europe that the American writer who was most
widely read all over Europe was Upton Sinclair. The
following, from the pen of Louis Untermeyer, in The
Saturday Review of December 13, 1924, is a remark-
able confirmation of this interesting and important
report. Will the Los Angeles papers please copy.
"The story of Sinclair's tremendous following on
the continent, from Scandinavia to Italy, is not a
new one. But never has Sinclair's popularity been
greater than today-especially among the defeated
nations who see in the author of "Jimmy Higgins,"
"100%," "Samuel, the Seeker" and others (all of
which can be had anywhere abroad in English as
well as the language of the country) a spokesman for
a different peace from the one they "enjoy." Even
a book as old as "The Jungle" has a steady sale, not
as an expose of a certain phase of corruption in
America, but as record of a period in the develop-
ment of these times. Sinclair is read, with seem-
ingly equal enjoyment, by Huropean high-brows and
low-brows. Neither class is disturbed by his style or
his lack of it. The average reader relishes Sinclair
for his directness, his energy, his lack of intellectual
sententiousness; the literati-men like Werfel, Kai- |
ser, Toller-care for him not, they will tell you has-
tily, as an artist, but as a writer who has something
vital to say to everyone, who, in spite of errors in
taste and proportion, is one of the courageous spirits
of our day."
Louis Untermeyer in The Saturday Review,
----_+-________
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