Open forum, vol. 2, no. 17 (April, 1925)
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~ THE OPEN FORUM |
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Knowledge is Power--- Multiplied Power, when it is Organized.
Pi i ea
Volk 2.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 725, 1925
No. 17
Oiling Up Our Ideals
Washington, (FP)-Of course there is nothing to
this Japanese oil concession, secured from Russia
in the Russo-Japanese recognition treaty to worry
athe Coolidge administration. The White House has
spent the week making that perfectly clear. If
Japan has secured a naval oil supply at her own
door, and if the Soviet Union has thereby made
itself popular in Japan, and if American prestige
in the Far East is thereby somewhat dimmed, what
P ote:
True, the administration is aeeply concerned that
American companies should get as many foreign oil
fields as possible. The race for oil is the race on
which, apparantly, depends the future, commercial
conquest of the world. Sinclair had an even better
concession from the Soviets, in Russian Saghalien,
than has now been given the Japanese. An American
company has a still stronger cinch on an oil field
in China. Sinclair has until January, 1928, so he
contends in a brief filed with the state department-
to make good his concession in Saghalien. He de-
nies that the recent decision of a Moscow court
that he has forfeited his privilege by failure to
overcome Japanese refusal to permit him to bore
for oil, is binding. If the administration were to
recognize the Soviet Union, Sinclair might get half
of that Saghalien oil.
But the Coolidge administration is not going to
be hurried into trading recognition for an oil field
and for development of trade. Not yet.' There is
much to be said on both sides. Just now, recogni-
tion of the Moscow government seems unthinkable
to the Republican leaders. And besides, Mr. Coolidge
has not been shown that Sinclair and Standard Oil
and the Mellon interests have reached an under-
standing. That is an important point. Now, if
Standard had bought control of the Sinclair inter-
ests and had taken the Mellon oil companies into
a merger, there might be a different situation.
Rumors are going around that Standard is going
to do this, after it has swallowed the Doheny con-
cern. Prove to Coolidge that Standard Oil is back
of Sinclair, asking recognition of the Soviet Union,
and he may show that he can act.
Sinclair's concealed press bureau has been rather
mean about trying to hurry Coolidge. While it has
spread the oil uphill from the administration, so
that it may seep down and gradually set the White
House moving toward a Russian treaty, it has like-
Wise exploded a few suggestions under the wall.
For instance, it has brought up the fact that Japan
18 already indignant because the American grand
gpcet is starting maneuvers off Hawaii. It has re-
minded the public that Japanese-American relations
are strained by the unfairness of the immigration
ban, and that only the gentlest tone on the part of
the United States can avert a serious dispute with
Tokyo. It has shown that American interests threat-
"ned by Japan cannot be protected unless the Wash-
`ington government either makes friends with Russia 0x00B0
or takes a chance of war with the Japanese.
Ce Secretary Lansing, who now appears as
nthe ee has filed 2 formal brief and various
nee en arguments with the state department.
ene ae conspicuous as a friend and enter-
hig ees aie monarchist refugees, and hence
any ioge ' o the department SHEROE be tainted with
bases ae the Soviet Union. He speaks as a
hat ake ee for American business interests
Russian ee for profits from oil fields in the
around the Han Ponony, when trying to get
save his of mecca revolutionary constitution and
his ae ae in Mexico, employed MeAdoo as
Tine Inclair, dealing with a reactionary ad-
Mellon oe eet by an admirer of Morgan and
idge is not : a retainer to Lansing. Of course Cool-
Russia, (c) be influenced in his hostility to Soviet
is th But business is business, especially when it
euro oil business,
Federated Press.
The Red Scar
By Jack Blair
Her sallow cheeks stand out in sharp contrast with
the rosy faces of the children with whom She plays
on the days when her "cold" will allow of her ven-
turing out.
She is one of the little scalded children of San
Pedro.
They threw the boiling coffee over her back; it
caught in the folds of her costume and undercloth-
ing; it parboiled the skin and cooked the flesh so
deeply that it fell away in shreds after they got
her out of the clutches of the Klansmen and rend-
ered first aid.
Her whole back from a point near the shoulder
blades down to the calves of her legs is an ugly
red, distorted, twisted caricature of a child's back.
After long months of the most cruel suffering the
little back finally "healed" but it left all that af-
fected area of her body with the surface pores de-
stroyed.
May Sunstedt's back has no surface excretory
organs and the other organs of her body must carry
the load.
Time alone can tell if she is to live to womanhood
and participation in the industrial revolution with
her fellow workers.
The sallow cheeks-the dark-rimmed eyes-the
slim, delicate figure-they all augur against this
happy hope.
In old Pagan times the children's bodies were en-
cased in the finest product of the gold-beaters art
and exhibited by the high-nriests ta gaping poten-
tate and publican.
The children always died, but it gave flair to the
ceremonials, and made secure the golden treasures
of barbaric lords.
They parboiled little May's back and destroyed
a goodly portion of her surface means of poison
excretions-
` That the golden treasures of the overlords of in-
dustrial feudalism may remain secure.
The pagan method was slightly different from
that of the high priests of the K.K.K. but for the
children the result may be the same.
But the blessed law of compensation is at work
in its cosmic way in the body and brain of little
May. 0x00B0
We watched her in repose and we watched her
as her delicate limbs played in unconscious rythm
with the other roly-poly children.
The bright eyes-no longer holding the terror that
shone from them for weeks after that awful night
cf June 14, 1924-are instinct with intelligence-pond-
ering, thoughtful eyes-eyes eloquent of an inquir-
ing, restless brain, awaiting its chance to develop.
Little May must be given that chance.
She must have the best literature telling of the
care of the child-woman body, and the proper foods;
she has a terrible load to carry and she must be
taught how to carry it.
Then she must have the world's best proletarian
literature and the best products of the world's artist-
writers.
You readers of the Open Forum-many of you-
have more of such literature than you need-some
have more than they know what to do with.
If you will send your offerings to Reverend Clin-
ton J. Taft, Secretary Civil Liberties Union, 506
Tajo Bldg., Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., May will
get them.
This is not much to do and it may save a rebel
child's life and fertile brain for the revolution.
We can not tell you where May lives; the arms
of the ruling class of California are long and their
myrmidons of torture are numerous.
Sometime we will tell you about the other little
scalded ones of San Pedro and how they are faring.
In the meantime, let's all do all we can to get
the I. W. W. boys out of the twin prison hells of
San Quentin and Folsom, California.
May has lots of friends in there who would like
to visit her and all the other little scalded children.
Unstressed News From
Japan
By W. P. Calkins
A few days ago there was tucked away in the
inside folds of the great "news" papers of America
the following Associated Press Dispatch from Tokio:
"The House of Peers today passed the manhood suftf-
rage bill. The measure, previously passed by the
lower House, fixes the voting age at twenty-five and
abolishes property qualifications."
If the Japanese government had passed a bill ap-
propriating an equal number of dollars for the con-
struction of aeroplanes as the suffrage bill extended
the franchise to Japanese men, every paper here in
America that so considerately obscured the item
telling of the removal of property qualifications that
enabled ten times as many to vote as previously and
that made Japan as democratic as Hngland, these
same newspapers would undoubtedly have used all
the black-faced type in their shops heralding the
"Japanese Menace."
Is the fact of the Japanese people having by a
peaceful stroke removed a despotic government-a
menace to world peace-of such minor consequence
that it merits obscurity? or is it that publicity
of such foreign news might allay the fears of our
100 per cent Americans to such an extent that they
would paralyze the petroleum market by calling off
the Pacific Naval Cruise and threat to Asiatics?
We leave the question with you.
* * * *
Addenda-iIt is to be noted that in passing this
commendable measure extending the suffrage in
Japan the Japanese authorities also passed a very
strict espionage law which may be used for the
suppression of anything like free discussion or the
effort to get over any real information to the people.
In Japan, as in America, the ballot is to be tied up
as much as possible if the people insist upon having
it. Those who talk most in praise of the ballot are
often those who are most afraid to have the people
enjoy any real use of it-R. W.
From San Pedro
Mind You!
Withdrawal of moral and financial support from
the schools and colleges where evolution is taught
and expulsion from all educational institutions of
those who teach the theory of evolution was de-
manded yesterday in an address before the Bible
Institute by Dr. Martin Luther Thomas of the First
Presbyterian Church of San Pedro.
The speaker attacked the theory of evolution as
"responsible for the spread of Socialism and an-
archy" and declared that Huxley and Darwin had
been substituted for Christ in the educational insti-
tutions.
"The school books of the country will have to be
rewritten if America is to survive,' he declared.
"IT know of no course in any college or university
that is not based on the evolutionary hypothesis of
the descent of man. We are facing the greatest
crisis in the history of religion and our nation be-
cause, while in the past all controversialists appeal-
ed to Scripture, today the authority of the Scripture
is under fire. Our Constitution is based on the
Holy Book and when the Bible goes America falls.
The need of the hour is for Christian men and wo-
men in the biological, geological and all other re-
search departments of our institutions of learning."
The speaker declared that the theories of Huxley
and Darwin, through the influence of Karl Marx and
Bakunin, have wrecked Russia and made Southern
Europe a hotbed of anarchy.
Every sincere evolutionist, in his opinion, Dr.
Thomas said, must either be a Socialist or an an-
archist and every modernist or liberalist igs either
covertly or openly in sympathy with Communism.
PT Lhe TRO REN TES " Ras son een STEED GO cern feo
Ku Kluxism In
Komatose Kondition
A striking decrease in the power of the Ku Klux
Klan is reported by the American Civil Liberities
Union, in a report issued yesterday, based on the
replies of correspondents in Klan territory to a
proposal for holding meetings in behalf of tolerance
in Klan strongholds.
According to most of the correspondents the Klan
is dying out owing to "factional disputes within the
organization, failure of members to pay their dues
and lack of interest in its objects." The Klan has
been further crippled by political failures, `unmask-
ing" legislation and "the general apathy on the
part of the public." Practically all the correspond-
ents advised against holding the proposed meetings
on the ground that they would strengthen the Klan
through opposition and publicity `on which it
thrives."
"The growth of antagonistic factiong in the Klan
is.common knowledge out here,' writes a corres-
pondent from Indiana. "Many of the members have
become discouraged and have quit paying dues."
Another correspondent in Oklahoma writes that
"the Klan is dying and if left severely alone will
be completely dead within another year or two."
The Oklahoma correspondent informs the Civil Lib-
erties Union that "the Klan's state paper, which had
a large circulation, has been suspended and thou-
sands who joined the organization are either pub-
licly withdrawing or are refusing to pay further
dues."
Similar reports have come from Arkansas, Georgia
and Texas. In the latter state "the legislature that
has just adjourned passed an anti-masking law that
virtually puts the Klan out of business." The Texas
correspondent also declares that "one of the Klan
leaders, Billie Mayfield, who published a daily Klan
paper that boasted of 200,000 circulation, and that
one time got out an issue of a million copies, has
just been sentenced to prison for two years, for
slandering through his paper T. W. Davidson, one
of the candidates for Governor. His paper suspended
some time ago for want of patronage."
Correspondents from West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and New York report that "the Klan
is on the wane."
The Klan is reported to be still strong in Alabama,
Colorado, and in parts of several middle-western
states. The conclusions expressed are summarized
by the Civil Liberties Union in saying:
"The peak of Klan membership and activity ap-
pears to be reached the second year of its invasion
of any section, and after that it declines rapidly.
Local political, racial or religious issues have kept
the Klan going strong in a few centers, but these
are all exceptions to the general rule of decline and
decay after the second year."
The Civil Liberties Union, as a result of the
opinions received has decided not to arrange the
proposed meetings in Klan territory.
4
REPORT MELLON FOR RUSS
NEGOTIATIONS
WASHINGTON-Now it is Secretary Mellon, the
actual power in the Coolidge cabinet, who is reported
convinced that American loans must be made to Rus-
sia in order that France and Italy and other EHuropean
nations may be enabled to pay something on their
war debts to the American treasury. This is the
position Borah took a long while ago.
Mellon is said to want to collect from the French
and Italians and other bankrupt debtors. Their re-
pudiation in fact-whatever their pretense of purpose
to pay up-has a tendency to undermine the credit
of world commerce, and to justify the Russian atti-
tude on pre-revolutionary debts of the czar. To col-
lect from France, he must enable France to collect
from Germany. The Germans cannot pay unless they
develop the Russian market for their manufactured
goods. Russia cannot buy in sufficient amounts to
make Germany prosperous unless American gold is
loaned to the Soviet Union at reasonable rates.
In other words, the Dawes plan will not work un-
less Russia be first brought in and given the same
financial "help'' promised to Germany.
Federated Press.
In Woodrow Wilson's
Baliwick
"The Civil Liberties Union will carry up to the
New Jersey Supreme Court the conviction of the
Union's director, Roger N., Baldwin, and the seven
silk strikers charged with unlawful assemblage in
holding a meeting on the City Hall steps at Paterson
on the night of October 6th when they were pre-
vented by the police from meeting in a private hall
which we had engaged. In our judgment the convic-
tion is utterly unfounded in law or in fact, and we
propose to test out the issue in the highest courts.
The case is extraordinary from gceveral angles.
First, it is the only case of its kind ever tried in
New Jersey. It was brought under a statute passed
in 1798 re-enacting the old English common law
offense of unlawful assemblage. The only prece-
dent in New Jersey was a decision in 1913 by Judge
Minturn releasing William D. Haywood on a writ
of habeas corpus because no meeting had actually
been held. Second, the case was tried before Judge
Delaney without a jury and without a stenographer
to take minutes. The decision was rendered without
an opinion after three months' deliberation.
"The Civil Liberties Union accepts full responsi-
bility for the meeting and for the conduct of the
case. All the defendants attended the meeting held
under Mr. Baldwin's direction, acting officially for
the Union. We had gone to Paterson to test the
issue of free speech at the request of the Associ-
~ ated Silk Workers which was then conducting a
strike of 6,000 broad silk workers. Their meeting
hall had been closed by order of Police Chief John
M. Tracey who objected to attacks on local officials
by one of the speakers from New York. The Civil
Liberties Union test meeting was scheduled for the
hall used by the strikers, which the police closed
an hour before the meeting was to be held. In
order to protest illegal police power, the speakers
and audience went to the City Hall Plaza where they
were met by the police with drawn clubs. The
meeting was broken up at its start. Several heads
were cracked by the police. Eleven persons were
arrested and fined in police court the next day.
"The Civil Liberties Union immediately arranged
another meeting for the same hall for the follow-
ing week, addressed by Bishop Paul Jones, Rev.
John Nevin Sayre, Grace Hutchins, Roger N. Bald-
win and two strike leaders. In the face of these
tactics, the Chief of Police surrendered and allowed
the strikers to resume their meetings. Even the
speaker who attacked local officials came back un-
molested. There was no further interference with
strikers' meetings during the strike, which ended
in December. The Chief of Police however went
to the grand jury and secured indictments for un-
lawful assemblage against ten persons. These were
tried from December 15th to 19th. Charges against
two of the defendants were dismissed during the
trial.
4
"The Union will be represented in the appeal by
Addison P. Rosenkrans, the Paterson attorney who
has had charge of all the cases growing out of the
free-speech issue."'
Federated Press.
Treason!
Is The Better American Federation of Los Angeles
going Bolshevik?
Listen to this, right out of their "Weekly News
Letter" of Feb. 3, 1925. Here it is in black and white,
s'ander outrageous and treasonable, about our b'lov'd
Constitution. And horror of horrors, it's true. But
what has The Better American Federation to do with
telling the truth, especially where the Constitution
is concerned? Listen to this scandalous confession
of-fact:
But never before 1787 had the supreme task of
framing a constitutional government been assum-
ed by a group of men acting upon their own ini-
tiative, without any public authorization, under
the seal of secrecy and behind locked doors. Never
before had any body of men called together by
their Government to do a specific work, entirely
abandoned such work and created a totally
different result. Never before was such an ef-
fort consummated in a time of peace and with-
out bloodshed.
"Blessed are the
Peace-makers"'
Following this we are publishing a brief Statemey
from the Hon. Winston Churchill, the Well-knoy,
English statesman, on the much discussed toni
"THE NEXT WAR." The item is packed from fy
to last with an irony so immense that the Daragray,
ought to be preserved in the museums of CON
SERVATIVE CURIOSITIES, or shall we gay, TH
CURIOSITIES OF CONSERVATISM.
First of all is the irony of the title, Honorable, ah
plied to this "great statesman." Was there eyo,
man to whom the title was applied who was yy
a good deal of a boob on stilts? If exceptions gy
pleaded it is quite evident that Churchill is not oy
of them.
Then there is the irony of the fact that after oy
"war to end war" the most discussed question 4
the day is "the next war." Adequate comment i
impossible.
Finally, there is the supreme irony of the conty
sion that our "Honorables," and our "wars to gay
civilization" have resulted in this glorious congy,
mation "the blessed respite of exhaustion." Reali
this is about the finest phrasing of the crown ani
glory of our civilization ever penned. All that
needed is to build us a pyramid adequate to can
the epitaph, and then there should be carved thereon,
in letters large enough for all the world to read:
"HERE LIES THE CARCASS OF CIVILIZATION! |
"In the blessed respite of exhaustion."
* a *
What Another War Means
"All the hideousness of the explosive era will cor
tinue; and to it will surely be added the gruesome
complications of poison and of pestilence scientit
cally applied," is the warning of Hon. Winsto
Churchill, in speaking of a new war.
"Such is the peril with which mankind menace
itself. Means of destruction incalculable in thei
effects, wholesale and frightful in their character;
the march of science unfolding ever more appalling
possibility; and the fires of hatred burning deep
in the hearts of some of the greatest peoples of the
world, fanned by continual provocation and uncess
ing fear and fed by the deepest sense of. nation
wrong or national danger!
"On the other hand, there ig the blessed respite
of exhaustion, offering to the nations a final chane
to control their destinies and avert what may well,
be a general doom. Surely if a_ sense of sel
preservation still exists among men, the preventiol
of the supreme catastrophe ought to be the palt
mount object of all endeavor."
MUZZLES PRESS
BY THREAT
Washington, (FP).-Supt. of Schools Ballou,
the City of Washington, has refused to investigale
and strongly disapproves, the platoon system of
modern primary schools, now established in 92 Amel |
" ican cities and including 90 modern schools in Dt
troit! When Miss Rose Philips, superintendent of
platoon schools in Detroit, was brought to Washie
ton by the League of Woman Voters to give a lectil!'
and show moving pictures of this work-study-pla!
system. Ballou notified the five local newspapers 0
his disanproval. Reporters state that he told the
editors that if this lecture were mentioned in the!
co'umns, either before or after its delivery, it woul
"hurt the building program" under which he expedls
to boss the spending of $15,000,000 on school plats
in the next five years.
As a consequence, when column-long interview'
and articles were writen by the reporters of the
five papers, they were cut down to brief paragrapls
or the fact of the lecture was wholly suppress?(R)
Five hundred educators and friends of modern eit
cation had attended.
Ballou is about to be banqueted in recognition a
his election as head of the division of superinten!
ance, National Education Association.
Federated Press:
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SAY SO
We want letters.
Lots of them.
From lots of people.
On lots of subjects.
BUT NOT LOTS OF WORDS.
Make them "Century Letters," i
that is letters of not more than
One Hundred words. `
Write on subjects of general
( aE
interest.
Typewrite your letters,
if possible. If you are
interested in anything worth-
while, say so. But say it in
as few sentences as you can.
Sign your name. It will not be
used if you do not wish it
published, provided you say so.
Let's make "SAY SO' the best
page of this paper. Mind you,
be brief. And again, BE BRIEF. i
() qmmme comeet eet eet ct st
Co-operative Center in Boyle Heights
Stanislavsky perceived that the basis of the his-
trionic art lies in the actor's ability to lose himself
in a "Creative If." "If I were Hamlet-how would I
act?'-and then the great actor is Hamlet. It seems
to me, that it is precisely this lambent and creative
imagination, which we radicals lack.
True, economic necessity holds us by the heels;
but even when we do create,-how conventional is
our urge and vision! What a pity that an architect
of the future should so have materialized his dream
of a "cooperative centre;" and what is worse, that
this dismal reality with dressmaker's trimmings
should have been accepted and rejoiced over!
There are rumors afloat of the building of a Labor
College in Los Angeles. I hope that it will be built
with the spark of Stanislavsky's "Creative If." "If
the new social order were here, how would I build?"
-and then the great architect will actually build
the future now!
I hope that the college will include courses in
drama, music, aesthetic and interpretive dancing,
and painting, as well as the more academic and nec-
essary courses in philosophy, history, sociology, etc.
Builders of the future world must learn to make
of life an art. First of all, we radicals must free
ourselves from the ugliness we' profess to hate, by
acquiring a knowledge of, and a desire for, the
beautiful. We must usher in the new day with
dance and song!
Sophie Feider
a
How Much Did You Get?
B. C. Forbes says:
Our savings as a people made possible these tangi-
ble additions to our wealth during 1924:
Houses and other buildings $5,500,000,000.
Railroad improvements, $1,000,000,000.
firey utility extensions and improvements, $1,600,-
000.
Additions to manufacturing plants, $1,800,000,000.
Roads, pavements and public improvements other
than buildings, $1,000,000,000.
Automobiles added, $1,500,000,000.
Gold and currency imported, $30,000,000.
Foreign securities imported, $1,000,000,000.
Total, $13,700,000,000.
After making a liberal allowance for duplications
nud replacements, a net total of $11,000,000,000 re-
mains,
ees ae
-
ak pare arrowed their minds, and so fettered
f iY . n the chains of antiquity that not only do
a ae. to speak save as the ancients spake,
th y refuse to think save as the ancients
Ought-Savonarola.
- value of around $238 a share.
The Steal in the
Steel Trust
Workers in the steel mills of the U. S. Steel Corp.
during 1924, turned over to the owners a _ profit
of $153,114,811. Calvin Coolidge's share of this
amounts to $589 while George F. Baker, dean of
New York bankers and largest stockholder, gets
$690,500.
Cal's share on his steel trust holdings just about
equals the wages on which the average steel work-
er's. family is supposed to live for four months.
Baker's haul would cover the entire year's budget
of 387 familes in the steel towns.
Profits of the corporation since its organization
in 1901 have totaled $3,517,348,727 or more than twice
the capitalization, nearly half of which was water.
Out of this enormous total $2,087,771,000 hag been
available for dividends on the preferred and com-
mon stock. This represents about four times the
actual investment represented by stock at the time
of organization. The corporation has paid $1,176,-
473,763 in cash dividends.
The water in the common stock has been squeezed
out by annual appropriations for new construction
out of surplus profits. These have totaled $1,210,-
662,572, thus placing behind the common stock which
originally represented little if any investment a
Thus the real invest;
ment represented by the common stock has been
put in by under-paid workers and overcharged con-
sumers and the $595,960,000 in cash dividends to
common stockholders has been little more than
legalized robbery.
Figures of interest to labor in the last two annual
reports are:
U. S. Steel 1924 1923
Products SOlde. se os $842,969,442 $992,916,162
INStEnDrolihie. mh TOS 153,114,811 179,646,674
Cash dividends... 60,800,852 54,447,071
Undivided: DROUts 1.4 717,960,222 693,650,134
Cash) checking" accts:.. 1, 131,357,416 143,499,628
Totalewa resourses wus 442,458,577 469,502,634
Number of employes... 246,753 260,786
Average wage $1,794 $1,800
Value produced per work-
OMe tite Praia oe ake ate eee Ny 3,417 3,806
Profitsper worker! 3: 621 689
The corporation can continue cash dividends for
a number of years even if it shuts down altogether.
In the last 10 years the average wage paid by the
corporation increased from $925 in 1915 to $2,173 in
1920 and then fell to $1,794. The average worker
employed right through the period received a total
of $15,860 for production worth $38,040. He turned
over a profit of $7,194 to the owners. In the two
years 1916 and 1917 workers averaging wages of
$1,041 and $1,295 provided the owners with profits
of $1,321 and $1,102 respectively.
For the entire period of the corporation's history
the owners sitting in comfort have received 60 per
cent as much in profits as the hundreds of thou-
sands of workers have been paid for 23 years of
gruelling work.-Federated Press.
_
Upton Sinclair's Mammonart
From a column editorial by Ernest Untermann, in
the Milwaukee LEADER, reviewing MAMMONART
by Upton Sinclair:
"The first serious effort in the English language
to view art in relation to the class economics of its
time. An event not only in Anglo-American
literature, but in the world literature of Socialism
We predict that this book will meet with
the enthusiastic reception of the leading Huropean
Socialists, and that it will become a permanent
classic of the world's labor and socialist movement
It is the finest of fine literature, written with
the skill of a man who knows his English, and who
understands the ins and outs of his craft as only
a master can. Intelligent workers everywhere
will spread it and treasure it as one of their rarest
possessions. A veritable encyclopedia of the
personalities, works and social significance of the
great writers of ancient, mediaeval and modern
times. No matter how well versed one may be in
literatvre, this book of Sinclair's will open up new
vistas and stimulate new.thought."
Revolt of Farmers
in America
(By The' Federated Press).
"The danger is that it is already too late to find
a remedy short of revolution," writes Herbert Quick
in his book The Real Trouble With the Farmers. He
sees a class conscious farm proletariat coming into
existence as a result of the increase in land values
due to the complete occupation of all good .farm
land.
Most writers, he says, are "ignoring the fact that
farm tenantry has increased until it is the controll-
ing factor in the condition of the farmer. It controls
the majority of the farms in most of our richest farm-
ing districts. When to the proportion of farms, un-
der tenantry is added the other farm areas which are
mortgaged and the owners of which are in fact if not
in law merely tenants, it embraces a vast majority
of the farms in the United States.
"Harm tenantry increases with such rapidity be-
cause land grows so valuable that a poor man cannot
buy it and pay for it. Farms in good farming
regions are not for people in even moderate circum-
stances, as working people go. Lands which sold for
$5 an acre in my boyhood have been sold in recent
years for $500 an acre. Rich people in towns and
cities bid with unvarying success against the dirt
farmer for the ownership of farms."
Quick points out that this passing of the land into
the hands of the rich is increasing the average size
of farms. The 40-acre and 80-acre farms of yesterday
have been combined into 320-acre farms worth
$100,000 to $150,000. Once young men could buy and
equip a farm with the savings of a number of years'
labor. Now that is impossible where land is good.
The curse of landlordism, he says settles on a
region wherever the land increases in value. It re-
sults in farms which lack flowers, shrubs and fruits.
It produces farms which are merely corn, hog, wheat
and cattle factories.
Remedies such as lower freight rates, diversifica-
tion, farm credits and cooperation, he says, will
eventually only boost the value of lands and the farm-
ers will be no better off. He cites an instance in
-which cooperation with a better system of rural
credits raised the price of land 200 per cent, 300 per
cent and 500 per cent until it became too valuable for
a poor man to hold.
The farm rental system in the United States is
described as the worst in the world. To find one as
bad we must go to prewar Russia. It is rack-renting,
a system in which the landlord has the right to get
as much out of his land as he can. It is filling the
land with people on a peon scale of living.
Crime and Education
The following, published in one of the Los Angeles
dailies under date of March 26, 1925, gives the sub-
stance of a report on the recent criminal record
of that city,
In spring crime is most prevalent in Los An-
geles the survey of crime conditions by Deputy
District Attorney Buron Fitts reveals. The fig-
ures compiled also showed that the average
criminal is single, native-born, a laborer, and
in his early twenties. Likewise, it was shown
that nearly 25 per cent of all crimes were
committed by persons under the age of 21, while
52 per cent are committed by persons under the
age of 29.
Fewer acts of criminality are committed by
persons, in the "educated" class, it was reported
after a study of the records at the county jail.
Crime is less prevalent among school teachers
than in any other vocation or profession, while
common laborers lead the list. Salesmen are
second on the list in criminality reports, with
machinists and mechanics third. Waiters and
street car men are at the bottom of the crime
list in the "unskilled" classification. Engineers
led the "professional list" in criminal acts, with
auditors and accountants second-and _ their
crimes usually are embezzlements or forgeries.
The survey was made into 5441 reported
crimes, of which 27380 were committed between
the period from May to October last. It also
was determined that in proportion to popula-
tion, fewer crimes were committed by natives of
California than from any other state.
a yi ve ee ee ay
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
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Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California
Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.
Phone: TUcker 6836.
MANAGING EDITORS
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LITERARY EDITOR
Esther Yarnell
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
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Doremus Scudder
Kate Crane Gartz
Fanny Bixby Spencer
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SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1925
COMING EVENTS
eR RK I Ke
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eee
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Brooklyn Ave.).
April 27-"The Fundamental Conception of Law," by
Ss. G. Pandit.
Steerer
I. B. W. A. FORUM
At the Brotherhood Hall, 508 Hast 5th St.
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corner of Park under the pepper trees. Bring
a basket lunch,
I can imagine no greater disservice to the country
than to establish a system of censorship that would
deny the people of a free republic like our own their
indisputable right to criticize their public officials.
While exercising the great powers of the office I
hold, I would regret, in a like thru
which we now passing, to lose the
patriotic and intelligent criticism.
President Wilson in "The New Freedom,"
crisis the one
are benefit of
Paces ee ee hay
A number of French professors have heen trying
to find out what women were like 100,000 years ago,
and some very interesting results have followed their
search. They gay that in the days when people
lived in caves woman was the most important of
the two sexes. Men were only tolerated for the
sake of the food and sking they provided. Women
ruled everything, and almost every art and science
we have today is due to the work of the women of
thousands of years ago.
Mussolini Strength
Rests on Bayonets
By Carl Brannin
MILAN, Italy.-The Mussolini government's vote
of confidence in the chamber of deputies on internal
policy might not seem at all strange to a foreigner
traveling through Italy.
quite normal. Trains
On the surface things look
run regularly, streets are
crowded with conventionally clad folk, business seems
as usual. There is much visible evidence in the way
ot posters and proclamations and black shirted men
of fascist predominance, but unless one digs below
the surface one could not full signifi-
cance,
estimate its
Milan, one of the first centers of fascist organiza-
tion, presents an fund of information.
People close to public opinion declare that elections
free from intimidation would give Mussolini 10 to 20
per cent of the vote and no more. A similar state-
ment was made in Rome by a well informed publicist.
The Mussolini government stands on the bayonet
points of the Black Shirt army and behind it stand
the dominant employers and large land-owners who
need a strong man to do their bidding.
interesting
An index of public opinion is given by the circula-
tion of newspapers in, Milan. The net street sale, in-
dependent of subscribers, is: Corriera de la Sera
(Liberal, anti-fascist), 80,000 daily; Avanti (Socia-
list, Maximalist Anti-Fascist), 23,000; Giustizia (Soc.
Reformist, anti-Fascist), 21,000; Unita' (Communist,
anti-fascist), 5,000; Popolo d'Italia, Mus-
solini, Fascist), 7,500.
(organ of
The steady increase in the cost of living (30 per
cent under Mussolini) new taxes (all municipal, fed-
eral and railway employes pay 10 per cent of their
wages as taxes), the decline of the lira, not to men-
worker and unions
tion the destruction of
and co-operatives, create great dissatisfaction.
peasant
this northern
prosecuted for
Strikes involving 12,000 workers in
are either just still
These have been called by the heads
section won or
wage increases.
unions in the hope of keeping their
of the fascist
membership.
While the murder of the socialist leader, G,
Matteotti, was probably no worse than thousands of
similar assassinations committed by the Fascisti, the
disclosure showing Mussolini's connection
make this stand out as a typification of Fascism.
direct
In spite of the unpopularity of the government, as
long as the dominant employers desire its continu-
ance it will go on. As a renegade radical Mussolini
understands mass psychology.
control his Black Shirt army.
have no strong leadership.
that
Mederated
He also knows how to
The anti-fascist groups
The
faces
Communists are a
group with a realities, but the
time is not ripe for it.
program
'
Press,
a ee eee
`There Are First That Shall Be
Last, And Last That Shall Be First''
the International The Uni-
versity of California in that a
"Military Commission" has just arrived in the United
States from Japan, to study in particular the extent
from Department of
serkeley we learn
and character of military training in the public
schools of the United States. The letter informing
us of this was dated April 6, 1925. The following
item, dated one day later, is most significant in
this connection.
a * "
OSLO, April 7.-(Copyright, 1925, by The Chicago
Daily News.)-The cabinet today presented a _ Dill
making refusal to serve in the army unpunishable
if military service is in conflict with the objectors'
convictions.
a I
Features Imperialism and the Next War
CLEVELAND-`"`Imperialism has become enthroned
in America,' declares the Locomotive Wngineers
Journal. "Imperialism is caused," it explains, "by
the lure of larger profits by exploiting a
supposedly inferior people than can be made from
legitimate business enterprises at home. Profit ig
the taproot of the whole imperialistic system."
weak or
--Wederated V regs
Los Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for April
APRIL 26-"THE WORLD COURT?" by MR. Bhp.
NARD BRENNAN of the University of Souther
Jalifornia Law School. Mr. Brennan hag _ pro.
sented this subject to many groups thruout Californig
and the Northwest. He has given it careful study,
and will give both the pros and cons of the argu.
ment. Music by BERWYN B. RISKE, baritone, anq
FRANK K. LUNDY, students of the U. S. C.
eee lh
Bledsoe's Case In Brief
"Harry calls him Ben.'-The Opposition.
"Everybody calls him Ben.'-His Supporters,
"Everybody will call him, Has Ben."'-The Prog.
nosticator.
-_---_4_____
Not Secretary Mellon, But Just Melons
The following incident cited by Mr. Joe Cook,
president of the State Teachers college of Hatties.
burg, Miss., throws an interesting light on the pres:
ent system of marketing farm products:
"Last summer, while in ordered a
portion of watermelon.
Washington, J
It cost me 380 cents. Judging
from the portion served me, I estimated that that
melon would yield 10 portions. The whole melon,
if all sold, would have cost the consumer three (ol-
lars. I made some inquiries and was told that the
car of melons from which that melon came had
been shipped to Washington on consignment, was
turned down by the broker, and gold by the railroad
at auction for freight. It lacked one cent per
melon of bringing the freight. The farmers who
grew the melons not only got nothing for the melon,
but had to pay one cent per melon for the privilege
of giving their melons away, and the people of Wash-
ington who consumed those melons paid at. the
rate of three dollars per melon."
Cx;
WHITH, Hazelhurst, Miss.
a
etn als ee
tS
"In the few intervals in which no striker's head
appeared to serve as a target, Lieutenant Murvin
Woerth varied the action by bringing down pigeons
with his riot gun loaded with buckshot."
Krom New York Tribune, spring of 1917.
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