Open forum, vol. 2, no. 20 (May, 1925)
Primary tabs
"THE OPEN FORUM
War today is Hell raised to the nth power.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MAY 16, 1925
No. 20
War As Self Defense
By Henry W. Pinkham
Secretary, The Association To Abolish War
Mr. John W. Davis-you may recall that he was
the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1924
-sgaid in a speech at Sea Girt last August, (c) Luere
is no instance in recorded history when any civil-
ized nation has admitted that it was engaged in war
for any purpose but self-defense." All the belliger-
ents in the World War entered this plea of justifica-
tion. In 1915 Bertrand Russell said: `Serbia is
defending itself against the brutal aggression of Aus-
tria`Hungary. Austria-Hungary is defending itself
against the disruptive revolutionary agitation which
Serbia is believed to have fomented. Russia is de-
fending Slavdom against the menace of Teutonic
Germany is defending Teutonic civiliza-
tion against the encroachment of the Slave: "Hisance
is defending itself against a repetition of 1870. And
England which sought only the preservation of the
status quo, is defending itself against a prospective
menace to its maritime supremacy.'"' When the
United States joined in the general madness, we
made the same plea of self-defense!
aggression.
The trouble with that plea is not only that it be
"comes absurd: when made by all -the-belligerents on
both sides in every war, but also that experience
demonstrates that war affords no real defense. War
is in itself the supreme evil, comprehending as it
does every kind of wickedness, of suffering and of
loss. The military outcome-victory or defeat- is
relatively of slight importance. Both sides sacrifice
their most precious possession, human life, in approx-
imately equal measure. To engage in a war for the
sake of self-defense is like committing suicide in
order to ward off the smallpox.
One of the main reasons why self-defense is so
generally regarded as a justification of war is the
prevalence of a code of national honor corresponding
to that of duelists, according to which a nation must
violently regent certain wrongs or even discourtesies,
or itself lose caste. What is that sensitive thing
called national honor? It is something quite indef-
inite. But this is certain, that a country's true hon-
or can not be tarnished by anything that a foreign
country can do, but only by its own acts. In old
days the duelist thought he must fight in certain
circumstances to keep his self-respect. When en-
abled to reach a finer self-respect, it was impossible
for him to enter a duel. President Wilson before
he succumbed to the war-madness said: "There is
Such a thing as a nation being too proud to fight."
Verily, there is! And some of us hoped, when he
Said the words, that ours was such a country, with
too much proper pride, too much self-respect, too
much common-sense to degrade itself by entering
the European slaughter-house. But we were disap-
pointed.
: When one is struck, retaliation, blow for blow, is
instinctive, The man who is assaulted resists auto-
matically, having no time to deliberate and apply to
Hee ination the principles of ethics or the considera-
. Of expediency. But this is no justification of
ak. nation should and can take time to deliber-
ves = the sensible king in the parable of Jesus
= ea down and takes counsel whether he is able
in oh aaene to meet him that cometh against
i Ka eheaead thousand. What and the likelihood
ites ee What will Fe the cost of victory? Are
mated cent " at stak. ccent "nimensurate with that esti-
io. Sa. ane what assurance is there that vic-
biter ponect xe these alues? May not concession
restinis nee et KOs tS aggressor promise better
Suet a the en than risistance? Instinct can not
ed. tt a sjuestions. But they ought to be answer-
| Ibe the part of wisdom not to yield to the
hot-headed clamor: "We have been defied, our hon-
or is at stake, our flag has been insulted!" There
is always a better way out of every difficulty than
the way of war, war being in itself the sum of all
villainies and the cumulation of all evils. One of
the wisest men America has produced was Benjamin
Franklin. He was not given to exaggeration. He
meant it when he said: "There never was a good
war, or a bad peace."
At present all armaments are maintained ostensi-
bly for self-defense only. Military men in this coun-
try when addressing the public frequently utter an
apologetic note, as indeed they ought. They take
great pains to represent themselves as defenders of
their country. They would like to have the army
and navy known as the Department of Defense. They
roundly condemn aggressive war. But the main-
tenance of armament is itself aggressive. It is an
accusation of other nations, presupposing evil inten-
tions on their part, and virtually charging them with
hypocrisy inasmuch as they, like ourselves, deny any
purpose of aggression. Well said Nietzsche, a Saul
among the prophets: "The doctrine of the army as
a means of self-defense must be abjured as complete-
ly as the lust of conquest. Better to perish than to
hate and fear, and twice as far better to perish than
to make oneself hated and feared-this must some
day become the supreme maxim of every political
community."
Perhaps a nation, as Nietzsche forecasted, will
some time have courage enough to disarm without
waiting for the other nations to do likewise, trusting
in the justice which it does to all peoples, in the
good-will which it feels toward all, as its sure de-
fense. Such trust will not be in vain. So Emerson
taught in the finest piece of pacifist literature Amer-
ica has produced, in which he said: "Whenever we
see the doctrine of peace embraced by a nation, we
may be assured it will not be one that invites injury;
but one, on the contrary, which has a friend in the
bottom of the heart of every man, even of the violent
and the base; one against which no weapon can
prosper; one which is looked upon as the asylum of
the human race, and has the tears and blessings of
mankind."
Fh
Where Men Are Men And
Bosses Govern
By Sydney Warren
HORNE LAKH, B. C.-(FP)-This is what condi-
tions are like at Horne Lake logging camp: "Camp
conditions here are extraordinary rotten. Board
$1.35 a day; Chinese cooks and waiters; food cheap-
est grade, lacking both in quantity and quality. The
cookhouse is a quarter of a mile from the sleeping
quarters, walking through mud and water to your
boot tops for your meals. Insufficient seating ca-
pacity at the table to accommodate those who have
to tolerate such abominable, unsanitary surround-
ings.
"The sleeping quarters consist of small boxcar-like
pens, with nine men in each, and not sufficient space
to shelter more than four; there are three shower
baths but never any hot water, except you heat
it yourself. Two wash tubs serve 200 men. No dry-
house. It is entirely impossible to keep clean here.
Bunkhouse is seldom swept out, and to all appear-
ances has never been scrubbed since it was built."
This is out in the tall and uncut where `men are
men,' and their bosses pluck 'em!
Federated Press.
Gas Laws
On Teachers Growing
A survey of the restrictions on teaching in schools
and colleges just completed by the Amenican Civil
Liberties Union shows that more restrictive laws
have been passed during the last six months than at
any time in American history. These laws prohibit
the teaching of evolution, require compulsory reading
of the Bible and forbid the employment of radical
or pacifist teachers.
The survey shows that Congress passed one such
law as a rider to the 1925 appropriation bill for the
District of Columbia, providing "that no part of this (c)
sum shall be available for the payment of the salary"
of any educational director `""`who permits the teach-
ing of partisan politics, disrespect of the Holy Bible,
or that ours is an inferior form of government."
This law is now in force in the District of Columbia,
If a similar attempt is made to attach a rider to the
appropriation bill in the next Congress, it will be
fought, according to the Civil Liberties Union, which
did not learn of the rider on the last bill until it had ,
been passed.
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia and
Kentucky have laws requiring the daily reading of
the Bible in public schools ``without comment," and
providing for the discharge and revocation of the
certificate of a teacher who does not conform to the
act. Similar bills have been introduced in the legis-
latures of Virginia, Texas, New Jersey and Washing-
ton.' A' test of `this' `type of statute was made in
South Dakota in March, where Judge McNenny ruled
that a school board has the authority to expel high
school students who leave the class room during
Bible reading. Thirteen students were expelled in
this controversy. The test was brought by a local
Catholic group. The Civil Liberties Union will join
in appealing the decision to a higher court.
The first state law prohibiting the teaching of the
doctrine of evolution in public schools and colleges
was passed in Tennessee in March. Resolutions of
state boards forbidding the teaching of evolution
were previously adopted in North Carolina and Flor-
ida.
Missouri state colleges and schools are forbidden
by a rider to the appropriation bill recently passed
to employ any person "who teaches, or advocates in
public or private that the citizens of this state should
not protect the government of the United States
from aggression by other nations." In the recent
Ohio legislature a resoultion was introduced author-
izing an investigation of members of the faculties
of three state universities, with the object of ousting
"radicals and atheists.' This resolution was killed
by the Senate Committee to which it was referred.
"Bfforts to get court action on all these restrictive
laws will be made through our attorneys," the Civil
Liberties Union announces. "The constitutional guar-
antee of separation of church and state, it is believed,
offers a ground for contesting the laws requiring
Bible reading. The U. S. Supreme Court already
has before it one restrictive school law passed in
Oregon and aimed at abolishing the parochial schools.
The chief sources of inspiration for this new and
unprecendented crop of gag laws on teaching are
the Ku Klux Klan, the Fundamentalists, and the
professional patriotic societies. The Klan is back of
the compulsory Bible reading and anti-parochial
school laws, the Fundamentalists back of the anti-
evolution bills and the professional patriots back of
the anti-radical and anti-pacifist measures."
a
WASHINGTON-(FP)-Progressive leaders seek-
ing to re-establish orderly government in China are
reported in letters received in Washington from
American sources in China, to be shocked at recent
tendencies in the United States.
Two outstanding phases of American retrogression,
as seen by the Chinese, are the wholesale disregard
of the prohibition law, and the general rejection of
the child welfare amendment to the constitution.
Federated Press.
Rei Re Te) ne See RSA w
CS
ae
re
TO WHOM
SHALL WE GO?
By R. W.
Ill
The Appeal To Reason
It is an accepted principle in law that no man's
judgment can be trusted where his economic interests
are involved. It is likewise a matter of common ob-
servation and experience that most men are more
affected by an immediate interest which seriously in-
volves present comfort and well-being than they are
by arguments which have to do with more general
and more remote concerns.
It has already been shown that the appeal to the
ballot in our American affairs of State is very in-
frequent, very indirect, and in every way so circum-
scribed that the most vital issues are not brought
within the exercise of the common man's initiative
and consent.
It has also been indicated that even if the ballot
were allowed to be used for the direct expression of
the people's judgment upon momentous issues there
would be no fair and square use of its power unless
there were given to the one side, such an equal op-
portunity to argue its case before the people as is
given to the other side. The ballot is not equally our's
unless the opportunities for arriving at intelligent
judgment are equal to the opportunities of recording
it when such judgment is made. If I am given a
sword equal in size and suppleness and sharpness
with my opponent we are still not equal if my arm is
. bound to my side while his arm is left free.
Nor is this all the case against the appeal to the
`ballot and the appeal to reason as we commonly
affirm them. If the unanimous and continuous exer-
cise of the franchise were granted the people, with
respect to real issues and immediate decisions upon
all vital questions, and if for the making of such de-
cisions intelligently the side of popular interest were
given as great freedom and opportunity for expres-
sion as is now afforded the special interests and their
pleas, the appeal to the vote, and to rational judg-
ment behind the vote would still fall short under our
present economic arrangements. For reason itself is
never free except where there is a fair measure of
actual economic equality, except as the items with
which reason happens to deal have no economic con-
nections. And it is to be doubted whether that is
ever true of any question that is of real importance
to man,
The most serious fact to be considered with respect
to the whole cult of democratic government as we
have it today is that there can be no equality of
rational appeal in a society which is built upon vast
and serious differences of economic interest. The
more powerful economic interests will not only dom-
inate those who are directly and excessively profited
by them but they will generally control the great
mass of the people who are in a dependent and sub-
ject relationship to the favored few. The general
and ultimate interests of the many may be, almost
certainly will be against the projects and programs
of the ruling minority, but the ruling minority will
be in such position of power that they can make it
to the immediate and individual interest of millions,
including most of those who would be the natural
leaders of the majority, to stand in with the policies
of those who are actually in power.
Illustrations of this are so abundant, and so easily
understood that it is not necessary to wait for further
philosophical statement of this most important fact.
The great mass of the white people of the Southern
States in the days before the Civil War had either no
property in slaves, or their holdings were so unim-
portant that they could easily have afforded to sell
them out. As that notable southerner, Hinton Rowan
Helper, demonstrated in "The Impending Crisis of
the South" the slave system was not to the advan-
tage of southerners in general, and had they sought
their own larger interests they would have favored
manumission in some form, even if they had not
made common cause directly with the abolitionists of
the North. The majority interest of the majority of
the southern people was against the continuance of
slavery. But their immediate interests were in-
dividually so entangled with standing in with the
slave oligarchy that even had they been allowed to
vote on the issue of abolition, and allowed something
like fair and full discussion of the question, it is
altogether likely that the appeal would have been
lost, because so over-weighted with self interest from
so Many angles of personal employment and associa-
tion. .
There can be no denying the fact that such is the
situation today with respect to the far more difficult
problem of dealing with the wage and profit system.
The bright boy or the bright girl of our time who
wants to "get on in life' must stand in with the
American plunderbund or wage an almost hopeless
battle for recognition and success. Is the youngster
gifted in music? Then he, or she, must cater to the
"better classes," to the people who have money, to
the beneficiaries of profit and privilege on every
hand. Is it education the workingman wants for his
children? He must send them to capitalist schools, to
be taught by capitalist teachers, to wave capitalist
flags, to take capitalist military training, and to be
daily under the pressure of the whole social environ-
ment of a capitalist society. The three things with
which every young person naturally deals, the play
life, the sex life, the vocational life, all tend to draw
the youngster from the rational protest of his father
and mother against the higher-ups and constrain him
or her to ignore such issues or to take the side of
those in power. Even in the Christian ministry the
child will find that the way of pleasantness and peace
and "influence" is by preaching doctrines that do not
endanger special privilege, or pretty moralities and
safe sentimentalisms which involve him in no bat-
tle for the disinherited and the oppressed.
In other words, to put it plainly, the immediate in-
dividual interest of the vast majority of the people
under any system:of special privilege is in standing
in with the owners and dispensers of privilege, and
letting those who make protest go to jail or to the
stake, or at the least to social ostracism and prac-
tical ruin. The appeal to reason, under capitalism,
is aS big a sham as the appeal to the ballot, for the
average man is more concerned to be comfortable, to
get on in life, to stand well with his neighbors, to
play safe in a word, than he is with abstract reason-
ing about what is good and what is right.
a
Too Bis To Catch
WASHINGTON-(FP)-Commissioners Humphrey,
Van Fleet and Hunt of the federal commission have
outvoted commissioners Thompson and Nugent on
the issue of punishing wholesale frauds, when the
offenders are business concerns which deliberately
misbrand their products and induce consumers to pay
for something they do not get. This majority in
the commission is the Coolidge Republican element;
the minority happens to be western progressive
Democrats. The minority has issued another protest
against the Humphrey-Coolidge idea of letting the
big thieves go free, on their word of honor to be
good.
Recently Thompson protested against similar leni-
ency toward a firm which had sold fake "wax" can-
dles to Catholic and other churches. Now the dis-
senting opinion deals with the Mallinson "Silk" con-
cern, which advertises enticingly and at generous
rates in the big magazines. Mallinson and Co. have
entered into an agreement, approved by Humphrey
and his associates, that the terms on which the
complaint against them is dropped shall be kept
secret.
Thompson and Nugent show that Mallinson and Co.
have been making textiles in their factories in
Astoria and Brooklyn, N. Y., in Trenton, Paterson
and West Hoboken, N. J., and in Allentown and
Hrie, Pa., and have been selling these goods as
"Mallinson's Silke deLuxe" and under other names
indicating them to be silk, when in fact they are only
part silk.
Meanwhile formal orders to "cease and desist,"
which have the effect of a public condemnation,
have been made by the commission against smaller
firms in the near-silk industry. Thompson and
Nugent declare that the Mallinson company knew it
was violating the rules and cheating its customers,
and should not be given favorable discrimination as
against its smaller competitors.
When Humphrey, the corporation lobbyist, was
confirmed as a member of the federal commission
some months ago, the Federated Press noted that
this brought to an end the useful service of the com-
mission to the public; henceforth it would protect
the bandits of the commercial world from drastic
punishment.
Federated Press.
nights worrying over his future.
Big Ben Becomes A .
"Has Ben'"'
In our issue of April 25th The Prognosticator gy
forth his estimate of the candidacy of Jujy
Benjamin Bledsoe for the mayoralty of Los Angele
in the following laconic fashion: :
"Harry calls him Ben'-The Opposition.
"Everybody calls him Ben'-His Supporters,
|
"Bverybody will call him, Has Ben.'-The Prog. |
nosticator. |
And Tuesday, May 5th, when the electors voicg |
their preferences at the primary election, they dep, |
onstrated that The Prognosticator was indulging jj
no mere "old wives fables' when he made hig pre
diction concerning the former occupant of the fg.
eral bench-the dignified, injunction-vending, gsimo
pure, 100% American, Benjamin F. Bledsoe. |
|
|
|
Mayor Cryer was re-elected hands down. fh
distanced Bledsoe by nearly 15,000 votes, and wor
over all his competitors by a majority of 3973. The
people who voted at this election are to be con
gratulated upon showing such wise discrimination,
Cryer may not be all that we wish he were, but
he has at least demonstrated constant and vigorous
friendship for the peoples' interest by furthering in
every way possible the municipal water, light ani |
power projects during his four years in Office.
Bledsoe, on the other hand, by his decisions om
the bench and his public utterances again and again,
has shown himself to be hand in glove with the big
business interests that are all the while exploiting
the laborers and robbing the people of their natural
resources. It would have been most unfortunate
to have such a man at the head of the Los Angele
city government for the next four years-little shor
of a calamity from our viewpoint. Let him go
away back and sit down and reflect soberly upon his
repudiation by the voters. May.he do "works mee
for repentance'-and also the bunch of `"non-par
tisans" that put him forth from behind closed doors
as their champion.
As a matter of fact, however, we have no hope
that either he or they will do any substantial repent
ing. They may feel chagrined that they spent s0
much time and money in a vain attempt to capture
the political mechanism of a great municipality, bu
there is no likelihood that they will repent (change
their minds and turn about, as the word literally
means.) Rather they will probably simply change 0x00B0
their tactics and concoct a new line of attack upo
the people's interests. Big business never repents
nor relinquishes its strangle-hold upon the under ~
dogs of civilization.
And big business will take care of its protege,
Bledsoe. He may for the moment feel like a "Has
Ben," but we venture that he is not lying awake
He's out of a
Federal job just now-a rather lucrative one t00,
that enabled him to tuck away $7,500 annually il -
his jeans-but you won't find him down among the
60,000 jobless men of this city, frantically hunting -
a job at the State Employment Agency or one 0
the private concerns on Towne Ave. No, he will be.
taken care of in handsome fashion. Just keep youl!
eye on him and you will doubtless soon see hil
"spreading himself like a green bay tree" again, il
the rapturous consciousness that he has become
counsel for some big, profiteering corporation.
"Has Ben" is a melancholy thing to think abot!
for a few days after an election. "Of all sad wor
of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, `It mighl -
have been'." "If only Ben could have pulled dow!
the mayoralty plum, then four years hence he might
have reached up and plucked the governorship; 4
eight years hence he might have been chosen chiel
executive;of the U. S. A.! Who knows? Such 8s
quences are not altogether uncommon in this cowl
try. Look at Coolidge, for example; he came out
obscurity by just leaps and by the grace of Prov! |
dence! Indeed, Ben had even a better start toward
fame and fortune. But now, alas, he's a "Has Ber
politically; no more will politicians bet on such #
loser. No a la Bryan career for him. History ha |
put her mark on him as a "Has Ben." |
Code t
----- |
x
WASHINGTON-(FP)-State department officials
explain the intervention of the American ministe!
to Honduras, in demanding treatment as comm!
criminals of revolutionists who enter Honduras fro!
Nicaragua and commit "offeng2s," as quite natural.
They point out that American marines are still 0x2122
Nicaragua. Hence American auth. rity is still looked
to, in Central America, to offer "advice" on serious
problems.
; Federated Press
dge
ley
big
ing
ral
ate
les
ort
pound0
his.
ect
yal
ors
' 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
ve []
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 4
published, provided you say so. |
Let's make "SAY SO" the best
page of this paper. Mind you,
be brief. And again, BE BRIEF.
CD ee -com-"
Pen Punctures by K. C. G.
May 5, 1925.
Arthur Brisbane,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
"Twenty-five thousand men wanted to hear Debs
in New York last Sunday" (May 3, 1925). You say
he is "utterly mistaken," `off the track." We say,
he is years ahead of these cruel, barbarous times.
A man of peace, crucified by ignoble rulers using
their power to hurt and harm, instead of healing
` and helping.
He exorts the workers `not to fight in any war;"
so did Christ two thousand years ago and we have
not progressed very far, notwithstanding the millions
of dollars we put in churches to promulgate those
ideals of "peace on earth good will toward man."
(Our workers did not fight in the last war because
. "they wanted to,' if you remember, they were con-
scripted. ) ts
Because we are remiss in our treatment and
promises to our Indians-and because England rules
India with an iron hand-that does not justify the
imperialistic methods of the ruling nations.
And finally, we were conscripted to fight the last
war to make it the last. So, let us attend to that
job and not try to find ways and means to massacre
afew more millions of our best young men (leaving
the unfit to people the world with unfits), scatter-
Ing widows and orphans over the land, filling insane
asylums, and suicides' graves.
Surely Debs is so far ahead and above and beyond
you and all others, who cannot see and will not
find the better way, that you cannot touch his beau-
tiful clear-visioned soul.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE-GARTZ.
f May 38, 1925.
Better Americans, e
Los Angeles, Calif. `
Dear Sirs:
sano' it is only to be expected that your organi-
iain pa be the one to find something to com-
Whole lif m Anna Louise Strong, a woman whose
ee ei has been devoted to the welfare of the
hnmes aia but your organization can't understand
erty inte ributes, your business is to conserve prop-
dean' rests-and any one who thinks above: the
evel of property rights is a red.
T have the honor to be,
One of them,
KATE CRANE-GARTZ.
May 3, 1925.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr.,
Los Angeles, Calif.
Dear Sir:
Your editorial of May first from New York evinces
the fact that you, as well as the U. S. Navy, are
very much "stirred" by the presence of a Japanese
naval tanker on the Pacific Ocean. Have they not
as much right on the high seas as we, with their
one little tanker "with its picked crew and choice
men," that frightens you, while we have 125 battle
ships and 40,000 men, trying to show or rather
menace them with our superior power? Have they
not their interests to conserve as well as we.
You even resent the formation of a National Com-
mittee for a better understanding between us; you
even go so far as to say "anyone with two grains of
sense would keep his name off such a committee!"
(G. W. Wickersham). That does not sound very
well coming from a young man who has chosen for
his motto "the people be served."
Why should the state of California drive the Jap-
anese off the farms where they have served us so
well, and crowd them back into the city slums; that
is the stupid thing the immigration law, which you
uphold, has done. You are bound to make them
enemies whether they will or no. [I am sorry to
see it coming from you of whom we had dreams of
better things.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE-GARTZ.
May 3, 1925.
Harry Carr,
Los Angeles,
Dear Sir:
Will you give the definition of Communism as
found in the dictionary and then explain your idea
about it in your column, and just why the men
(like Christ) who invented it are ``wretched insects?"
What would you call the ones who invented the sys-
tem we are now struggling under-millions unem-
ployed, poverty, wars and corruption? Ye gods, the
Russians were weary of it all and are trying out
a new and more humane system, but the rest of the
world-the capitalists world-do not want to see
anything new, or old, or different succeed, so they
suppress or pervert the truth and call everything
"red" for the lack of a more expressive or more
comprehensive term. I like the word red, altho my
favorite color is blue. I would not like to be called
by it nor any other color-green or yellow-but red
-that stands for the red blood of all humanity.
All humanity is one, as the Creator intended we
should be, or else there is none.
Have you noticed that the "traitors" (the reds)
have been coming back into the fold to sit in the
seats of the mighty? MacDonald in England, Cail-
laux in France---thus acknowledging that they were
right (opposed to war). Soon it will be or should
be Debs in our own America, for who else in this
country has shown such a Christlike spirit as he?
And still he is persecuted by the hysteria of war.
Surely no ministers in the churches. Who has shown
such great pity and compassion for the oppressed
and downtrodden as Debs? Surely not the so-called
Christians. He is beloved by children and .by all
who wish to understand; he is only feared and mis-
understood by those who are more interested in pro-
tecting property than they are in helping human
beings. That is the difference and the only difference
between "red"? and any and every other color.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE-GARTZ.
4
Refused Citizenship In The U. S. A.
`Yhe Open Forum:
I have just taken the naturalization course. In
the classes I availed myself freely of all invitations
to ask questions. One question I asked was: "Can
I be naturalized if I affirm loyalty to a government
of, by, and for the people as opposed to a government
of, by, and for the profiteers and grafters of the
country?" Mr. C. C. Kelso, director of the natural-
ization classes, said, "No." After class he asked
me to remain till the others had gone. Then he
spoke not very approvingly of my asking the question
in the class, said he had noticed I was given to
theorizing, and recommended diplomacy. On May
"Son of Light"
By Louis Adamic
The sun robed with noons on the pulpit of heaven,
Like an anchorite preaching his faith of light to
listening space.
And I am one of the sun's lost words,
A ray that pierces through endless emptiness on
emptiness,
Seeking in vain to be freed of its burden of splendor.
A pick and shovel man wrote that; a wop, a for-
eigner-Pascal D'Angelo. I take it from "Son of
Italy," the recently published story of his life. (The -
Macmillan Co., New York, $2.) The book undoubtedly
is one of the most remarkable autobiographies in
American literature. Bok's and Pupin's volumes
seem to me dull stuff in comparison with D'Angelo's
story. I know of nothing finer, more thrilling and
moving. As Carl Van Doren, who was instrumental
in the discoverey of D'Angelo, says in his introduc-
tion, "It is a record of enormous struggles against
every disadvantage. Some incalculable chance had
put the soul of a poet in the body of an Italian boy
whose parents could not read nor write and who
came into no heritage but the family tradition of
hopeless labor. To this was added the further com-
plication that he had to leave his native country
for another, there to master an alien tongue and
employ it for its utterance. No American
hereafter, watching a gang of brown Italians busy in
a ditch, can help asking himse!f whether there is
not some Pascal D'Angelo among them, perhaps
reasoning thus, `Who hears the thuds of the pick
and the jingling of the shovel? Only the stern-eyed
foreman sees me. When night comes and: we all
quit work, the thuds of the pick and the jingling of
the shovel are heard no more. All my works are
lost, lost forever. But if I write a good line of
poetry-then when the night comes and I cease
writing, my work is not lost. My line:is there. It
can be read by you today "and by another tomor-
row. But my pick and shovel works cannot be
read either by you today or by anyone else tomor-
row.' ae
The following is from a letter Pascal D'Angelo
wrote a couple of years ago to the New York "Na-
tion" submitting some of his poems for the maga-
zine's Poetry Prize:
"T hope you will consider them (the poems) from
a viewpoint of their having been written by one who
is an ignorant pick and shovel man-who has never
studied English. If they do not contain too many
mistakes I must warmly thank those friends who
have been kind enough to point out the grammatical
errors. I am one who is struggling through the
blinding flames of ignorance to bring his message
before the public-before you. You are dedicated
to defend the immense cause of the oppressed.
This letter is a cry of a soul stranded on the shores
of darkness looking for light-a light that points out
the path toward recognition, where I can work and.
help myself. I am not deserting the legions of toil
to refuge myself in the literary world. No! No!
I only want to express the wrath of their mistreat-
ment. No! I seek no refuge! I am a worker, a
pick and shovel man-what I want is an outlet to
express what I can say besides work. Yes to ex-
press all the sorrows of those who cower under the
crushing yoke of an unjust doom. 4
Pascal won the prize! Recognition. A degree of
fame. Now this precious book. Read it!
1st, I appeared before Judge McCormick. On. my
petition for citizenship I had asked if the U. S.
constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, and, if
so, why such questions (as are asked on those peti-
tions) are asked there. At the court I was required:
to tell why I had asked that question, whether I
was an anarchist, whether I sympathized with radi-
cal organizations, and whether [I thot the present
government was of, by, and for the people. Not
being an anarchist, I said so. I said I strongly sym-
pathized with radical organizations and that I had
my doubts as to the government. Judge McCormick
then refused to naturalize me.
One applicant was asked to compare the present
government of Russia with that of the U. S. Doing
it to the satisfaction of the Judge, he was granted
citizenship. Severai times we were informed in
class of the futility of seeking citizenship in case
of having asked exemption from military service.
The education test for citizenship, and the citizen-
ship classes, it appears from these cases, are in-
tended to exclude from citizenship aliens who have
thots unfavorable to the continuance of capitalism,
one's education and understanding of government
having practically nothing to do with it.
S. GARBORG.
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
Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Upton Sinclair
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 38, 1879.
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1925
COMING EVENTS
kK wen Kk kk kk
= 6
Los Angeles Open' Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233
South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
rs
EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION
At Eight O'clock
A Free Education is Offered at
EDUCATIONAL CENTER
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
224 South Spring Street, Room 218
ht
I. B. W. A. FORUM
~ "At the Brotherhood Hall; '508 East 5th St.
Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
All are Invited to Attend
John X. Kelly and J. Eads How, Committee
oe
China At The F. O. R. Meeting
The Fellowship of Reconciliation at its meeting in
the Blue Triangle Club, 631 S. Spring St., next Mon-
day night, May 18th, will consider China-her own
problems and her world relationships. Mr. Harvey
House will be the principal speaker. He is a chem-
ical engineer, who was born in China, has taught
there and lived there most of his life. His sub-
ject will be: "China, the Field for a New Human
Enterprise." He is greatly interested in the indus-
trial development of this mighty, awakening giant
of the far Hast, and will devote much of his talk to
that phase of the matter. Others will speak briefly,
dealing with China's relations to Japan, Russia, In-
dia, the great powers of Hurope and our own nation.
It promises to be an exceedingly interesting eve-
ning. Successively the Fellowship has been taking
up the various nations bordering on the Pacific with
the idea of learning the inside facts concerning
them and their mutual relationships. It has proven
to be a most worthwhile series of studies.
A fifty-cent supper will be served as usual, pre-
ceding the meeting. If you desire to attend please
phone in your plate reservations either to 560-448
or TUcker 6836. Any who cannot get there in sea-
son for supper, will be welcome at the program,
beginning about seven o'clock.
--_ 4
BOSTON-(FP)-A drop of about one-half `per
cent in employment in Massachusetts factories from
February to March shows that Coolidge's little boom
is collapsing in his home state. The state depart-
ment of labor shows employment more than 7 per
cent below the 1922 average and 314 per cent be-
low March, 1924. Average weekly wages remained
at $24.17. Hight establishments report wage cuts.
The boot and shoe industry is particularly dull with
29 per cent fewer workers than in 1922. This marks
a reduction of over 15 per cent from March, 1924.
Other industries showing a heavy drop from a year
ago are men's clothing 20 per cent, women's cloth-
ing 7% per cent, electrical manufacture 8 per cent,
foundries and machine shops nearly 18 per cent.
Federated Press.
Send Your Protest
To San Quentin
Among the prisoners confined in San Quentin are
to be found a number of innocent workers, members
of the I.W.W. confined there because they preached
the Unity of Labor. Those men have always been
the victims of the warden's and guards' wrath. Many
times have they been beaten and thrown in the Hell-
hole, called a dungeon, merely to satisfy the tor-
turous craving of officialdom. All of that they stood.
Then their organization papers were denied them.
That was not so bad, as at that time, other radical
papers and publications were admitted. The new
warden stopped that too, so that now the men can
receive practically no magazines or newspapers other
than the fiction or "Brass Check" of other states.
Even then, things were still in a condition where
at least the men could receive personal letters.
However, someone gave orders. They did not
wish members of the I.W.W. to have any rights;
they did not want them to hear from anyone on
organization matters. So now their mail is held
up, especially such mail as is sent them from the
defense office. We are informed that mail sent from
this office seldom reaches them.
In that act of the warden in holding up this mail,
he has cut the last straw. It was the one means
which the men had of learning news from the out-
side world, and of the cause which they had fought
so valiantly and are now suffering for. To say that
the warden is inhuman by giving such an order is
putting it mildly. We cannot allow this usurpation
of power and denial of rights to pass unchallenged.
We are protesting and will endeavor to take the
matter still higher. You must aid. We may be able
to take the matter to the courts, but funds must be
had. Besides that, a protest may help. Sit down at
your first opportunity and write a protest to the
warden of San Quentin prison, and ask that he
return the privileges to all of the C. S. prisoners
that they were allowed during the regime of the
former warden.
Calif. Defense Bulletin
Farm And City
By Leland Olds
(Federated Press Staff Writer)
Diversion of the country's income from agriculture
to city products is preparing the collapse of the great
empire capitalists are organizing under industrialism.
The increasing burdens of the farmers lead to steady
deterioration of the soil and migration to the cities.
This means that the country is not paying enough
for food to insure good farming, which includes rota-
tion of crops, fallow acreage each year and the old
custom of manuring. It is also not paying enough
for a country standard of living to compare favor-
ably with that in cities. The resulting limitation
on food production is coming to be thought essential
for even the present unsatisfactory standards. Says
the chief of the U. S. bureau of agricultural eco-
nomics:
"Too many people on farms results in an excess
of farm products sold at unremunerative prices.
When the movement from country to city goes on
at a sufficiently rapid rate there will not be a surplus
of farmers and farm prices will be adequate to
maintain the desired standard of living on farms."
He points to the drop in the percentage of those
gainfully occupied in agriculture from 87 per cent
in 1820 to 26 per cent in 1920 and says the propor-
tion will probably be further reduced and should be
because otherwise we would have too many people
in agriculture and the cities would be lacking in
labor.
This viewpoint is produced by an unhealthy eco-
nomic condition. The diversion of an excessive
proportion of the country's spending power to the
products of mechanical industry arises because
mines, factories and transportation afford the basis
for huge profits on the people's consumption. A
self-contained agricultural community with its home
industries affords. small opportunity for large com-
mercial profits. Capitalists have built up factory
production and transportation not primarily to pro-
vide people with essentials but to force an increas-
ing tribute.
It is because the owners of railroads, mines and
factories can levy unlimited tribute that agricul-
ture finds the flow of income diminished.
The time is coming when the swollen cities will
look to the land~-with its fertility exhausted and its
agricultural population drained away to find that
food production is insufficient to cover normal de-
mands. :
Los Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for May
May 17-"THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF Tuy
MODERN WORLD". by EDWARD CAND.
RELL. Our audience is well acquainted with the
lecturer who has twice before appeared on the Forun
platform. He knows how to handle his Subject wal
Music by J. M. FIX, a violinist of the olq school
He made his own instrument and will play pieces
that were popular a hundred years ago.
May 24-"FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS" by
PROF. ARTHUR BRIGGS of the Los Angeles [ay
School. Everyone should be familiar with the Freui.
ian philosophy whether he takes any stock in it or
not. Dean Briggs is ably qualified to make this 4
most interesting evening. Music by BERNAR)
COHN, phenomenal boy pianist.
May 31-"THE PRICE OF LIBERTY" by ROBER?
WHITAKER." During the days when America was
carried away with the World War there wag much
talk of liberty, from `Liberty Bonds" to "Liberty
Steaks." Of recent years liberty and democracy
both seem to be at a discount. What is liberty?
What is the movement of the world today, toward
liberty, or away from it? Are we ever going to
get liberty, and when, and how? All who know If,
Whitaker know that what he has to say on thew
lines will be outright, and interesting. Nobody is
asked to agree with him, but everybody is welcome
to hear him.
Sa gee
Hiding Their Holdings
How multimillionaires hide their enormous holt:
ings in vital industries is revealed by a sudden
change in the number of shares of American Tele
graph and Telephone stock held by the George I.
Bakers. Last year it was 53,306 shares for the father
and 11,194 shares for the son. This year the father's
"holdings are' down `to 35,161 Sharesand''the son` fails
to qualify as one of the 20 largest owners.
But Baker is chairman of the board of the First
National Bank of New York. And the New York
Times notes a significant jump from 15,600 to 27,692
shares in the holdings of the assistant cashier while
another minor member of the bank staff. suddenly
appears with 25,000 shares. Says the Times: "I |
stead of having sold stock it is probable the Bakers
have merely had part of their holdings put in other
names." This of course cuts the income subject t0
surtax and incidentally helps give the public al
impression of the growth of popular ownership.
EXPIRATION NOTICE
Dear Friend: If you find this paragraph encircled
with a blue pencil mark it means that your sub:
scription to "The Open Forum" expires next week.
We hope that you have found it indispensable, and
will therefore immediately fill out the blank below
and send it in to us, together with the money f0
the continuance of your subscription.
Hnelosede find $0. anos for which continue 1)
subscription to the paper for ~ = ean
Name. ae ee
Address. ee
WILSHIRE UNDERTAKING
and Ambulance Company
Atlantic 1698 -- Phones -- Atlantic 3709
717 West Washington St., Los Angeles
Walter C. Blue Ella L. Purcell Blue
Our Sympathetic Understanding of the needs of the Wor
ing People tinables Us to Give You the Best Service:
FREE VIOLIN LESSONS
|
To Talented Children of Parents who
are unable to pay
MAX AMSTERDAM
Prominent Violin Teacher and Soloist
2406 Temple St. oth State att rane
Reasonable Rates to Beginners |
Linotyping and press work done in Unio!
Shops. The make-up is our own.
ea
DRexel 9065