Open forum, vol. 2, no. 6 (February, 1925)
Primary tabs
THE OPEN FORUM
To Understand Reality is Education.
a.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 7, 1925
BROTHERS OF DIVES
In the field of social subserviency and protest here
in America today few things are more remarkable
than the manner in which Mrs. Kate Crane Gartz
has challenged and does challenge the leaders of
the master-class in this community. Southern Cali-
fornia is pre-eminently THE PARADISE OF AMER-
ICAN PARASITISM. Nowhere in the world is cap-
italism more arrogant, more intolerant, more con-
temptuous of all reason and decent restraint. Not
less in evidence is the apathy and cowardice of the
general public here. Los Angeles, more than any big
city in the world is a magnified GOPHER PRAIRIE,
the WESTERN END OF MAIN STREET. American
moronism is rampant here. Therefore, the master
class are able to lord it over the community very
much to their heart's desire.
That in the midst of this situation there should
appear a woman of the "upper class," who in the
spirit of Moses despises "the riches of Egypt" and
dares to talk back to her own class like one of the
Hebrew prophets is a fact of more than local and
incidental significance. It is drama of a high so-
cial order which needs to be viewed with a cer-
tain detachment to realize its meaning and value.
And that the fine emotional quality of Mrs. Gartz'
appeals, illumined as they are with the burning
compassion of one whose reaction is always human,
tender, and yearningly personal rather than coldly
intellectual or rigidly economic, gets such slight
response from those to whom she makes her in-
sistent appeals is a far more damning indictment
of them than anything that she or any of us can
say to them. How set the owning classes are on
their *own way, how determined upon their own
destruction nothing could more conclusively dem-
onstrate than the deaf ear which they turn to this
voice of our day, the "voice of one crying in the
wilderness,' and crying apparently to those who
cannot and will not understand. Here is food for
study which all of us may well take time to digest.
THE EDITOR.
(R) * * *
1/1/24.
J. A. Graves,
Los Angeles, Calif.
Dear Sir;
Although I realize that it is futile for a Radical
to argue with a self-confessed Conservative, I will
just register my protest against your "Reflections"
in today's Times. You are a Conservative because
you have not allowed a new idea for a better, saner
social system than the one we are now struggling
under, to penetrate your cranium.
Just what is radicalism that you, better, bigger
business men so fear? Define the word and try to
understand what it's all about and tell us why you
are a Conservative, and what do you wish to con-
serve-surely not the Constitution for you made of
that a scrap of paper during the war, and the radi-
cals went to jail for living by its precepts.
Most people would consider LaFollette in good
company with "the demagogue" Thomas Jefferson,
and when you voted for Coolidge you sanction cor-
ruption which for forty years never touched La-
Follette. He was essentially a people's candidate
and not big business, but the masses were frightened
about their jobs the last minute by the propaganda
of your "brass check" newspapers.
As for the Supreme Court, composed of mere
men, like other men, just as fallible as other law-
yers, judges and statesmen-otherwise why are so
many constructive measures that the people want
always declared unconstitutional? You also con-
demn the Adamson bill, that we Radicals approve,
ant uphold the smashing of strikes by federal troops,
instead of going to the root (radicalism) of the
grievance and eradicating it. No, Radicalism is not
Suppressed and will never die, so long as such in-
justices exist and you Conservatives continue to ig-
nore them.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE-GARTZ.
* * *
Jan. 6th, 1925.
Kate Crane-Gartz,
The Cloister,
Altadena, California.
Dear Madam:-
Of course it would be impossible for you and I
to agree on these questions, as we are not walking
upon common ground.
It is, however, very gratifying to me to know that
but four million voters in the United States were
for the doctrine of LaFollette and yourself.
While it may not be easy to define a Radical, their
actions always betray them. For instance, they ad-
vance money for the I.W.W., who are confessed crim-
inals. If you know anything, you know that, dur-
ing the war they destroyed fruit trees, burned hay
stacks, destrcyed thousands of acres, in the north-
west, of growing grain. We people, who claim not
to be Radicals, look upon it as our duty to suppress
rattlesnakes and mad dogs, whether in human form
or not.
Very respectfully,
J. A. GRAVES.
JAG.B.
January 7, 1925.
Mr. J. A. Graves,
Farmers and Merchants National Bank,
Los Angeles, California.
Dear Sir;
Yes, of course it would be impossible for you and
I to agree, because we have no "common ground."
However, I cannot let your statement that the I.
W.W.'s are "confessed criminals" go unchallenged,
so I will endeavor to set you right on a point or
two. First, by enclosing a letter that came in the
same mail with yours.
San Quentin, California.
January 5, 1925.
Mrs. Kate Crane-Gartz,
Pasadena, California.
Dear Madam;
Mr. Matt Smith of this place informs us that you
have sent us a Christmas present through his sister.
We have asked' that it be given to a fellow worker of
ours, Jim Roe. Mr. Roe was released from here De-
cember twenty-sixth last, upon completion of a four-
year term. He is a very old man, 72, and due to his
hard life as a miner and the rigor of a prison term,
he is in bad shape physically; he will not be able to
work any more now.
Jim Roe's deeds as a_ class conscious rebel have
placed him beyond any praise that we might give.
.. We thank you for having made this service pos-
sible and wish you a Happy New Year,
Yours for a better world,
SAN QUENTIN WOBBLIBS.
Per. John McRoe.
Now Mr. Graves, I ask you if any of your banker
friends could compete in magnanimity with these
"confessed criminals," "rattlesnakes and mad dogs."
Also, I am enclosing some of their literature that re-
futes your statements about "violence and _ gsabot-
age." If, after reading this literature, and especially
the sentences I have marked with red-you are not
a more understanding and less prejudiced `Better
American" than when you penned those lines of
hatred, it is because you do not want to be. It
might be prejudicial to your interests. Perhaps you
might lose your job, and become a hobo or an I.W.
WS then, and then only, would you understand the
working class psychology, and the growing revul-
sion against the tyranny of the master class which
holds their very lives, and those of their families
in the hollow of its hands.
The better elements of this country recognize this
fact, and are trying to change it. LayenFollette, for
instance. But unfortunately, they are in the min-
ority as you realize when you rejoice because he
received only 4,000,000 votes. But despite your an-
tagonism, and the attacks of the enemies of jus-
tice, the wheels of progress are turning, and we may
live to see an order of society in which every man
may stand on his own two feet and defy another
man to deprive him of his right to "life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness," which our Constitution
writes on paper, but fails miserably to make into a
reality.
If you really understood radicals you would want
to be one, for all they want is fundamental justice,
and all you conservatives want is better, bigger busi-
ness, with nothing but the dollar in your psychology.
You do:not take into consideration the human suf-
fering in the world, or that there is reason for so-
cial and economic reconstruction.
I do not condone violence or sabotage committed
by the I.W.W. renegades,-now employed by the
state--no more than I condone it when committed
by the class at the opposite extreme, such as the
ship builders who burned millions of dollars worth
of lumber, right in the sight of the Capitol, under
the cost plus plan-payioteers and dollar a year
men! Neither do I condone the government which
conscripts. our children and sends them across the
sea to murder other children in the name of
patriotism!
T have found no such cruelty in my acquaintance
with the I.W.W.'s. I find them renouncing indiv-
idual glory, I also find them self-sacrificing in their
devotion to the common good, believing that "an
injury to one is an injury to all'; so that when one
man is sent to "solitary" for some little infraction
of prison authority, they all go too, and refuse to
eat or drink until their comrade is reledsed!
They visualize a tranquil, helpful, co-operative
world, all sharing and enjoying life to the fullest
extent. Because they go on strike to make known
their wishes, desires, and needs, the militia is called
out to "preserve order" and they are clapped in jail.
The whole world knows that there are innocent
men in jail today, eighty in San Quentin, and others
in Folsom; and yet we cannot get them out, because
of the blind selfishness of those in power. They will
not even permit them to form this new "structure of
society in the shell of the old,' but ard@ driving
them to revolt against these unjust persecutions of
innocent men whose only weapons of defense against
exploitation is their own solidarity.
I try not to lose hope in human nature and so-
called Christianity. But I see we cannot look for
deliverance from the cruel domination of the em-
ploying class, who seem to be frenzied by fear of the
dawn of a new day in our modern "civilization" and
resort to suppression and cruelties that belong to
the dark ages. We radicals simply want radical
changes for the better; better living and working
conditions for 100% of the human race, not just for
about 5% as now. You have really nothing to fear
from radicalism, but you have everything to fear
from your own self-righteousness and indifference
to the common good.
KATE CRANE-GARTZ
* * *
January 27, 1925.
Kate Crane Gartz,
The Cloister,
Altadena, Cal.
Dear Madam:
I herewith return you your letter and enclosures,
which I confess I have not read. I am busy and no
useful service will be subserved by either of us by
continuing a correspondence begun by you.
Yours truly,
J. A. GRAVES.
* * *
Do you remember that in the story of `The Rich
Man and Lazarus," the rich man lifted up his eyes,
in torment, and asked for a cooling drop of water
on his tongue from the finger of Lazarus, the beggar
who had sat at his gate. And when Abraham ex-
plained to him that there was "a great gulf" between
them so that Lazarus could no pass, the rich man
petitioned,
"Well, then, let him at least carry word back to
the earth to my five brothers who are there, that
they come not here to this place of torment."
And Abraham said, "But why should I send Laz-
arus to tell them what is already told? They have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them."
"No, no," said the rich man, "that isn't enough.
I had Moses and the prophets too. But if one could
go to them from the dead they would take notice."
"Not at all,' replied Abraham. "If they will not
hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be per-
suaded though one rose from the dead."
Neither would the "brothers of Dives'
living in Los Angeles today.
who are
Man and His World
By Robert Whitaker
IV
THE EPOCHS OF HISTORY
Human history is so large a subject that for the
sake of convenience in the study of it the field as a'
whole is divided into sections, known as periods, or
epochs. These divisions themselves, indicate, how-
ever, the lines of our approach to the study of man.
The first emphasis of CHRONOLOGICAL, by per-
iods of TIME. The ordinary division is three fold,
ANCIENT HISTORY, MEDIEVAL HISTORY, MOD-
ERN HISTORY. Sometimes lesser sections are em-
phasized; as for instance, The History of the Nine-
teenth Century. This way of viewing history is
obviously quite artificial and arbitrary, as much so
as would be the effort to consider a hundred miles
of the Mississippi River by itself. History is a con-
tinuous current, and its ramifications are greater
than those of any river system on the earth.
Not much' more satisfactory is the GEOGRAPHI-
CAL emphasis in the analysis of history, that is the
study of history by COUNTRIES. Commonly. this
- course is followed not only as a matter of conveni-
ence but because man has thus far been a very much
localized being. Patriotism is a term of geographi-
cal origin, and while"for most men it represents a
certain expansion of interest, beyond the self and
beyond the family or tribe; it is nevertheless a re-
stricted and restrictive term.
The geographical emphasis runs naturdlly, and al-
most inevitably into the POLITICAL analysis of
history. Although we use the names of countries
when we talk of American History, or English His-
tory, or the History of France, and Germany and
Holland, or Greece, or Egypt, and although we talk
as if our loyalty was to place, local feeling having
in fact much to do with it, the larger fact is our
actual emphasis of the STATE, that is of the politi-
cal entity. It is the American State we are really
talking about, and the GOVERNMENT of England,
or the BRITISH EMPIRE which we have in mind
when we talk of the History of America or the His-
tory of England. This we recognize in a way in our
Own case by describing "American History" more
specifically as "The History of the United States."
So when we speak of The History of Rome, it is not
so much Rome as a city we have in mind, as it 1s
Rome as a State, a Government. Or if we use the
BIOGRAPHICAL emphasis in our divisions of human
history, and speak of The Age of Pericles, the Age
of Augustus, the Age of Charlemagne, the Age of
Elizabeth, the Age of Louis XIV, the Age or Epoch
of Napoleon, or Metternich, or the Victorian Age,
the real emphasis is political. Very few people
realize to what extent the STATE ig IT in the tell-
ing of the story of man. Washington and Lincoln
are our foremost American heroes, not because they
were better thinkers, or better men than thousands
of others who have lived and labored in America, but
because of their prominence in relation to the Amer-
ican STATE.
In a way the scientists have been the leaders in
helping us to get away from such superficial and
artificial lines of historic emphasis. They have
stressed the history of the earth itself through the
millions of years in which the setting of human his-
tory was in the making. We are not concerned here
with the geological divisions of the earth's story.
But compared with these ages of earth history what
we call, in the story of man, Ancient History is a
tale of yesterday. The earth was very much longer
in getting ready for man than man has been yet at
the job of using it.
And the story. of this job the scientists tell much
better than ordinary historians do. Modern science
was born of the modern industrial revolution, and is
"much more directly indebted to it than either the
scientists themselves or scholars in general have any
idea is the case. Perhaps it is an unconscious or
. subconscious recognition of this fact which has led
the scientists to talk of human history in terms of
man's weapons and tools. The PALEOLITHIC, or
the OLD STONE AGE, the NEOLITHIC, or THE
NHW STONE AGH, and THE BRONZE AGH, THE
IRON AGH, THE AGE OF STEAM, and like terms
which the scientists use, all are industrial in their
emphasis. They have to do not with an arbitrary
- chronology, ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, and MODERN;
not with a slightly less arbitrary but hardly less
_ Superficial geographical sectionalism, by countries;
and not with the mischievous over-emphasis of the
/
political STATE; but they deal with an approach at
least to the real process of history, MAN'S ACTIVE
ATTITUDE TOWARD NATURE, AND HIS DEVEL-
OPMENT AND USE OF THE PRODUCTIVE PRO-
CESS.
Social science, in the main, has been slower thus
far to. recognize the real determinants of human his-
tory than have been those whose province is the
natural sciences, with whom the anthopologists gen-
erally belong. But social science is turning toward
industrial emphasis, and will certainly make that
emphasis more and more pronounced as the workers
of the world come into larger control of the govern-
ments and the business of the world. Even now the
lines of such a science are quite plainly marked out.
Human history from this viewpoint falls into two
great periods, of indeterminate length. In the first
period, which may have covered hundreds of thou-
sands of years, man was a FOOD-GATHERER, as
are the other animals to this day. In the second
period man has been and is the FOOD-PRODUCER.
In the earliest stages he is not so very different from
the bees and the ants, except that he might be re-
garded as backward compared with them both. He
lives upon fruits and nuts, perhaps in some meas-
ure upon the roots of the ground, and on such ani-
mal food as he can get with his own unaided hands,
or with the most primitive of weapons. As a whole,
this is the epoch in which man is without tools, and
has not yet assumed that active attitude toward
nature which has since marked him out from every
other creature. He takes what nature gives him,
and immeasurably less than nature is willing to give
him when he is ready.to assume for himself a crea-
tive part. It is man as CREATOR with whom real
human history begins.
All that lies before this may be described as the
ARBOREAL PERIOD of man's story. This would
include also man's experience as a hunter, before he
had learned the domestication of animals, and the
cultivation of the ground.. How long a time this was
nobody knows, and concerning what went on we can
only draw upon our imagination, as Jack London
has done in his well-known story, "Before Adam."
That is hardly, however, a scientific treatise.
There follows the PASTORAL PERIOD, when man
had learned a richer and a more stable food supply
by the domestication of animals. This life in many
of its aspects is fairly familiar to us by reason of
the Old Testament stories, and other records of
pastoral life. It has, indeed, come down to our own
time, and there are still nomadic peoples who have
hardly passed beyond this stage of human history.
It is enough here to say that man's debt to the
domesticated animals is very large; it can be said
with confidence that primitive man rode through the
gates of civilization upon the backs of the lower
animals. It was the want of domesticable and
domesticated animals in the New World in the per-
iod before the coming of the Europeans which had
as much to do as any one thing, probably, with the
backwardness of civilization upon this side of the
sea. This, and the want of the most important
cereals which the Old World had, wheat, and oats,
and barley, and rye, and rice.
It is with the cultivation of the cereals that the
third stage of man's story gets fairly under way, the
AGRICULTURAL PERIOD. Man merely as hunter,
man as a gatherer of fruits and nuts, even man as
the user of roots, gets very little above savagery.
The roots call upon his effort more than do the other
processes of food-getting named above, but very lit-
tle, though in a way it may be conjectured that the
stirring up of the soil in getting at the roots was
one of the earliest stages of agriculture. But with
the cereals it is quite another story. The earliest
civilizations we know were in great grain raising
belts, the valley of the Nile, the basin of the Tigris
and the Huphrates, the valleys of India and China
farther east with their immense rice-eating popula-
tions. Such civilizations as there were in America
previous to the coming of the white man were lar.ze-
ly identified with the distinctive cereal of the New
World, maize, or Indian corn, and with such veget-
ables as melons, pumpkins, and squash, and beans.
Agriculture must always be basic to any civiliza-
tion as without it no civilization can live, unless man
learns, quite improbably, to use creative chemistry
so as to supersede the processes of the fields. But
although agriculture is still with us, and long will be,
we are in a later stage of the human process. Only
as we understand this, and can fairly measure it can
we know the world in which we live today.
Our's is the MECHANICAL AGE, the only period
of man's history which we can even approximately
measure in terms of years, and the epoch, however
recently begun which has witnessed greater miracles
of progress than all the preceding ages of man.
The MACHINE has made man a producer as he
never was before. We have THREE BILLION MAN
POWER IN THE UNITED STATHS, thirty times
our population. This is the key to modern history,
as nothing else is.
`vails.
|
| BRISBUNK
|
The birthday of Abraham Lincoln is at hand again,
It falls in the same month with the birthday
George Washington. Also there are several othe
Americans of note whose birthdays fall within the
month of .February. Yet there is hardly an Ame.
ican child, or for that matter an American adult
who could name one of them. James Russel4 Lowell
was born on Washington's birthday, February 2)
1819. Dwight Lyman Moody was born a week befor
Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 5, 1837
These two will suffice to indicate what wealth oj
biographical material we might find if we followe
February, the month of Lincoln and Washington,
into the lives of other men just as worthy to be
remembered as either the first or the sixteenth
president of the United States. Bid
Lincoln's fame is the most remarkable exhibit in
the whole field of American biography. There js
very much about his reputation that is fortuitoys
and artificial. One can say that, without in the leas
discounting the greatness and goodness of the man
himself. It ig the very excellence of Lincoln which
has made him such capital material for the ex
ploiters of other men's fame. His character is one
of the richest assets that has fallen to the fortune
of the Republican Party, and the American plunder.
bund, whose political hired men the politicians of
the dominant Republican regime are. They have
exploited that fame with as little conscience ag did
John D. Rockefeller the oil resources of America in
the days of Standard Oil railway deals and rebates,
And they have done more harm with Lincoln's fame
than the oil monopolists and exploiters have done
the. American people.
Truth telling about Lincoln is very rare. And
that, not because there is anything to tell about
Lincoln of which any decent man or woman need be
ashamed. If it were a mere matter of substituting
scandal for praise there would be no profit in it :
anyway. Who wants to depreciate Lincoln, and to
what advantage would depreciation work? No, the
difficulty of telling the truth about Lincoln is. not
that it would depreciate him, but that it would show
the American people themselves in a less flattering
light. It would reveal him as the outstanding Amer.
ican pioneer, and would give a different picture of
the pioneer as a type from that which commonly pre-
Perhaps the pioneer would not be a less
heroic figure, but he would certainly stand out a far
more pathetic figure. The short-comings of America
today are largely the hertiage of the limitations, out-
ward and inward, of the pioneer.
The truth about Lincoln would spoil our supersti-
tious lip-service of the Constitution, and the fathers
of the Republic. Had they done their work better,
Lincoln would have had no such impossible task on
his hands. The truth about Abraham Lincoln would
give us an altogether different story of the war be
tween the States from that which we have in our
school-histories, either North or South. It would be
a different story of New Engiand as well as of Vir-
ginia from that which is told to the children of
either section now. It would be a tale of Pennsyl-
vania and the mining and manufacturing lords there,
not a whit more flattering to them than was Uncle
Tom's Cabin to the slave-oligarchs of South Carolina
and the Gulf States. It would be a different account
of the years from 1861 to 1865 than that which
Grand Army veterans have been spreading abroad
in the sixty years since then. A real story of Lin
coln would, if published in our leading newspapers in
everyday English, stir up more consternation among
the money oligarchs of our time, their lackeys and
apologists, than would be the landing of a Russian
Army in Alaska.
But the real story of Lincoln igs, not going to be
told in our day. There are not many who could tell
it, and not one of them is to be found in the list of
our recognized historical writers or our teachers of
American history. And if they could tell the story,
and did tell the story, it would not be published, or
if published it would be suppressed by one hundred
per cent mobs.
Yet Lincoln would appear in such a story an evel
more appealing figure than he appears today. His
chi'dhood and youth would be not merely hig own
tragedy, but that of innumerable millions who have
fought the fight of the American frontier, with the
difference that he escaped from it, while they did
not. His manhood would add chapters not. less
tragic in their revelation of what the actual "win:
ning of the west" has been. And his presidency, if
intelligently and honestly viewed, would be as su:
premely pathetic as the closing years of Woodrow
Wilson.
No, the story will not be told. The BRISBUNK
about him pays too well, and is too altogether valu:
able as a smoke screen for the pirate fleets of Amer:
ican profiteers who are looting his reputation only
that they may the more effectually loot the world.
But someday, perhaps a distant day yet, when the
workers have the world in their hands, and need no
more to gloss over wage slavery and its long, bloody
record than they do now to gloss over the facts
about chattel-slavery, someday the real story of Lin
coln will be told. And then he will be not a hero,
but something much better,-he will be one of the
common folks whose cause he sincerely loved. Until
then we shall have our. yearly dose of BRISBUNK it
his name. ~ '
gain,
othe
1 the
mer.
Ldult,
well
y 2d,
ofore
1837,
h of
dwell
ton,
O be
enth
Ty,
ren
fis
wil
ve
lid
388
in:
if
Su
OW
TK
lu:
er'
ily
ld.
he
no
(ly
ts
in'
"0;
he|
til
in
`Months'
FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS
Scott Nearing is
Coming
The GREAT EVENT for the forward-minded folks
of the Pacific Coast: this spring is the tour of the
Coast by SCOTT NEARING of New York. He is to
be in Los Angeles March 2, 3, 4, Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday. He will give three lectures in
Los Angeles, at the Knights of Columbus Auditor-
ium, 612 South Flower Street, under the auspices of
The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Cali-
fornia Branch. The general subject of the course
is:
`"HCONOMIC CHAOS AND RECONSTRUCTION."
Here are the lecture subjects in particular:
Monday evening-"THE DECAY OF CAPITAL-
ISM
Tuesday evening-"WHERE IS CIVILIZATION
GOING?"
Wednesday evening-"LEAGUE OF NATIONS OR
LHAGUEH OF INDUSTRIES?"
To hear Scott Nearing is an education in itself.
You can get this whole course, including a Three
Trial Subscription for yourself or your
friend to THE OPEN FORUM, for ONE DOLLAR.
A single lecture will cost you THIRTY-FIVE
CENTS. Send in your orders for tickets now. Let
us give NEARING the largest hearing the hall will
accommodate. We bespeak for him a big hearing
all along the Coast. He is to be in Seattle and San
Francisco prior to his dates in Los Angeles, at the
end of February and on the first day of March.
Remember the dates here, March 2, 3, 4. BETTHR
THAN ATTENDING THE PRESIDENTIAL IN-
AUGHRATION AT WASHINGTON MARCH 4, IS
THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A REAL COL-
LEGE COURSE UNDER SCOTT NEARING THAT
WEEK. AND ALL FOR ONE DOLLAR, WITH A
SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION TO THE OPEN FORUM.
HIE, THERE! LISTEN WORLD!
XY,
ey
The End of the
W orld--- Feb. 6th!
The following article appeared in one of the L. A.
papers last week:
A celestial kingdom in Southern California, over
which Jesus Christ will sit in judgment, is seen by
followers of the faith in the statement of Dr. B. E.
Fullmer, 1112 Gower Street, self-styled "Apostle of
the Derelicts," yesterday, defending the prediction
that-
"The world will end February 6. Human life will
be wiped from the earth for 1000 years. During
that time Christ will sit in judgment. Afterwards
the elect will live forever."
Reconsideration of the finding in Santa Barbara
about a year ago of two prehistoric skulls which
some persons said may have been those of Adam
and Hve, has lent strength to the belief of some that
the heavenly kingdom would be located in the South-
land should the prediction come true.
The prediction was made in November, 1923, by
Mrs. Margaret W. Rowen of Hollywood, prophetess
of the Reformed Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Mrs. Rowen said last night that she is still firmly
convinced the end of the world is coming one week
from next Friday.
Strange things come out of Hollywood! But after
all it is only of a piece with numerous pre-millenial
predictions that have appeared repeatedly ever since
the death of Jesus. In the year 1000 A. D., many of
the saints were sure the Messiah would return, and
having disposed of their earthly possessions they
went forth to meet him, arrayed in white.
But He did not come, and He has not manifested
Himself on subsequent dates that have been set for
fier etna will He appear on February 6, 1925.
: will rise and set that day as usual, things
wy move on in their regular channels,-and the day
will end with another prophetess discredited.
e
ok
TAINTED EDUCATION
"Tainted money" is bad enough, but tainted edu-
cation is worse. Here are two items, one showing
the fine fashion in which the United Mine Workers
of Pennsylvania have repudiated the "education"
offered them by their masters, the other dealing with
the sort of intellectual espionage program which is
being carried out by the University of California in
its public school teachers' examination. The first
item is furnished us by the Federated Press. The
second one, the "Final Hxamination" came to our
hands indirectly from a school-teacher who was put
through this capitalistic grilling within the past two
weeks.
R. W.
* * * *
Poisoned Education
CARBONDALE, Pa.-The Hudson Coal Co.'s
monthly banquets to the anthracite miners in the
Powderly and No. 1 Collieries of the company are
educational in purpose. So the company says.
Local 877, United Mine Workers of America, ob-
jects to this kind of education. At an all night ses-
sion, attended by several hundred coal diggers, the
union unanimously passed a resolution forbidding
any union member to attend any more of these ban-
quets on pain of union discipline. Pickets will watch
the banquet hall entrance.
Hudson coal employes have numerous grievances,
similar in part to those against which the Pennsyl-
vania-Hillside men are now striking and which
threaten to engulf the entire district in strikes.
* * *
GROUP ik
1. Give five views of the origin of the state.
Discuss one in detail. Which view greatly influenced
political thought in the U. S.
2. Discuss American citizenship from the follow-
ing standpoints (a) sources; (b) process of acquisi-
tion; (c) rights; (d) responsibilities. (Note. This
refers to one's status as citizen).
3. What are the rights and limitations of the
states under the federal Constitution?
4. Discuss and explain the following terms: bill
of attainder; ex post facto law; writ of habeas cor-
pus; treason; original jurisdiction; equity; letters
of marque and reprisal; due process of law.
GROUP II.
1. Write for or against the proposition that the
United States should change its form of government.
Compare with the main features of leading Euro-
pean governments.
2. Discuss the proposition that the Supreme Court
should be denied power to declare void acts of the
Congress of the United States. Support your dis-
cussion by referring to cases which have resulted in
disallowing acts of the Congress.
3. Outline a plan for teaching the Constitution
to students of any age you Select.
Answer three questions in Group I, and two ques-
tions in Group II.
Nevertheless, the world
Nothing is surer than this-I mean the present
world order-the world of big business that is shot
thru and thru with the practice of exploiting human
kind. That world is doomed to pass away in favor
of a worthier world, an equitable, brotherly, gener-
ous world in which man shall count for more than
things.
"A celestial kingdom in Southern California!"
Can you envisage such a reality in a section where
now Satan's seat exists almost supreme? Yes, it
will come at length, for as Blisha said to the aft-
frighted young man in the beleagured city of ancient
Israel, "They that be for us (the new and better
order), are more than they that be against us."
The very "stars in their courses" are fighting
against the continuance of: the present evil world;
subtle forces, often unobserved, are gnawing away
at the very vitals of the discredited system of things
as they are. It requires no prophet with a divine
gift of penetrating the veil of the future to forecast
the doom of such a world. The person with half an
eye who uses it to follow the course of events in the
past and the trends now discernible in current his-
tory can safely predict the end of our world.
Yes, the end of the old selfish, profiteering world
is surely coming-but not on Feb. 6, 1925!
C.. J.T.
"k
is coming to an end! |
Mrs. Spencer
Speaks Out
One of the bravest utterances made in California
in many a day is this from Fanny Bixby Spencer.
The report given here is from the Hearst papers,
and should be read as coming from the daily press.
But whoever can read Mrs. Spencer's words with an
open mind will thrill to them, not only for the rare
courage they exhibit, but for their evident fidelity
to reality and common sense.
SACRAMENTO, Jan. 29.-Attacking the Star
Spangled Banner as "Bombastic, fraticidal and blood
lustful," Fanny Bixby Spencer, an author who lives
at Costa Mesa, Orange County, today petitioned
State educational authorities to take steps toward
preventing children from singing the National an-
them in the public schools.
In a letter to Will C. Wood, State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Mrs. Spencer declared her
proposal is in keeping with David Starr Jordan's
assertion that peace must be promulgated through
popular education.
GLORIFIES WAR
The author charged that the Star Spangled Ban-
ner glorifies war and "hatred of the English."
Her demand for elimination of the anthem from
the schools will be referred by Superintendent Wood
to the State Board of Education. Here is her letter
written from Marina Vista Ranch, Costa Mesa:
"Since David Starr Jordan has shown the
necessity of promulgating the ideas of peace
through the channels of popular education, I
think it auite appropriate to bring to your at-
tention the matter of the use of the American
National anthem in the public schools.
"It is generally recognized that music exerts
a great influence on children and young people
and that words frequently repeated to music
sooner or later become a part of the conscious-
ness of those who repeat them.
WORDS `MALICIOUS'
"The rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting
in air,' are words which have only one signifi-
cance, namely, the glorification of the killing of
man by man. A subsequent line of this same
song, `their blood has washed out their foul foot-
steps pollution,' expresses hatred of the English
in terms so malicious as to make one blush with
shame for a country that would perpetuate
them.
"The Star Spangled Banner is unquestionably the
most bombastic, fraticidal and blood lustful of any
National anthem in the civilized world today. If it
is given to the children of the Nation, generation
after generation, as milk from the mother's breast,
how can we hope for peace? The time has come for
those in charge of public instruction to take steps
to discontinue the singing of this song in the
schools."
When Labor Speaks For Itself
CHICAGO-Five per cent wage increases without
vital changes in working conditions have been
granted to the locomotive engineers and firemen on
the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. This agree-
ment is another blow at the vanishing prestige of
the U. S. rail labor board which attempted to fore-
stall the triumph of the brotherhoods on western
roads by hastily granting an increase which it took
away in the same decision by making revolutionary
changes in working rules.
"The new agreement follows the Southern Pacific
agreement," declared Chairman Maguire of the engi-
neers on the Northwestern system. `The labor board
had nothing to do with the new contract and its re-
cent decision did not affect our negotiations."
Northwestern earnings in 1924 were $1,500,000 larg-
er than in 1923.
Federated Press.
4
"Oh, of course, I have made mistakes. Take
the mistakes out of my life and I wouldn't have
six bits left.'-Joaquin Miller.
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California
Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.
Phone: TUcker 6836.
MANAGING EDITORS
Robert Whitaker `Clinton J. Taft
LITERARY EDITOR
Esther Yarnell
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
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 3, 1879.
SATURDAY, FEB. 7, 1925
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By Robert Whitaker
There is no name in all our country's story
So loved as his today:
No name that so unites the things of glory
With life's plain, common way.
Poor as the poorest were his day's beginnings,
The earth-floored cabin home.
And yet, compared with his, our rich men's winnings
Are fleeting as the foam.
His was a tragedy such deeps concealing
All eyes with his grow dim.
And his a humor so sincerely healing
_. The whole world laughs with him.
He knew the doubter's doubt, the restless heaving
Of the swift waves of youth.
He knew the calm of faith, the strong believing
Of him who lives the truth.
So manifold his life, the great-souled Lincoln
Makes every life his own.
Therefore of all our heroes whom we think on
He has a place alone.
a
APPARITIONS
By Thomas Curtis Clark
Who goes there, in the night,
Across the storm-swept plain?
We are the ghosts of a valiant war-
A million murdered men!
Who goes there, at the dawn,
Across the sun-swept plain?
We are the hosts of those who swear:
It shall not be again!
(From The Christian Century.)
a
Church of the New Social Order
Symphony Hall, 232 So. Hill St.
Sunday Morning Service: 10:45 o'clock
y Web. 80x00B0 WHY DO" THE "CHURCHES TALK: SO
MUCH ABOUT JESUS' DEATH?
Feb.15. WHAT DID JESUS REALLY TALK
ABOUT?
Feb. 22. WAS THE SPIRIT OF JESUS MILD OR
REVOLUTIONARY?
FREE VIOLIN LESSONS
To Talented Children of Parents who
are unable to pay
MAX AMSTERDAM
Prominent Violin Teacher and Soloist
2406 Temple St. - - "- - - "= DRexel 9068
Reasonable Rates to Beginners
COMING EVENTS
kkk kw kk kk kK
Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233
South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
----_ 4
[Ba We, Ae PORDLIVE
At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.
Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
All are Invited to Attend
Geo. McCarthy and J, Eads How, Committee
24
OPEN FORUM every Saturday evening at 8:00 P.M.
IL.W.W. HALL, 224 S. Spring Street, Room 218. In-
teresting Speakers-Interesting Subjects.
----_-_ +--____-_
PROLETARIAN FORUM
Every Sunday at 8 P. M.
February 8th
THE MARXIAN METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING
G. Hvans
ODD FELLOWS HALL
220% South Main Street
Questions and Discussion Freely Invited
Admission Free
SS EINES GlneEneeeeeeeee
EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION
At Eight O'clock
A Free Education is Offered at
EDUCATIONAL CENTER
By Industrial Workers of the World
Program for February, 1925
Organizing to Consume, or How to Solve the Eat-
ing, Question,: Krank Cassidy =... i. 2.. | February 7
A:%.esson in Psychology for the Working Class,
E. A. Cantrell oa February 21
THE REVOLUTION NON-RESISTANT, Fanny
Bixby Spencer February 28
HEALTH TALKS: The entire field of health, all
isms, fads, cures, and common sense of health
matters are being covered in a series of Lectures,
being delivered every Tuesday night. No Admis-
sion Fee.
Program for Ensuing Month Announced Soon
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
224 South Spring Street, Room 218
-_-__ -______
FREE WORKER'S FORUM
420 N. Soto St., Los Angeles, Cal.
(One block north of Brooklyn Avenue)
Program for February
Feb. 9-Debate: "Resolved that the Present Dic:
tatorship in Russia is Justified."
Affirmative-Harry Larner.
Negative-Clarence Alpert.
Feb. 16-"Food as a Cause of Disease," by Dr. Axel
EK. Gibson.
Feb. 283-Speaker and subject will be announced later.
HE
SHELLEY CLUB LUNCHEON
Mrs. Julia Bracken Wendt noted Los Angeles
sculptor, will be the speaker at the Womans' Shelley
Club luncheon, Wednesday noon February 11th. The
luncheon will be at Rector's, 21514 West Fourth St.,
60cent a plate. Phone early for your reservation to
Mrs. Woodard, Humboldt 7668-W. All are welcome.
es
The men who talk most against revolution are
the men who are making it most necessary, if utter
stagnation or world destruction is not to win. Vio-
lence ig the child of repression.
Bind herewath $".......... as payment for... ......
{ Yearly
Six Month
Three Month
subscriptions to THE OPEN FORUM.
INA es Oe a elie en i eee eae ee ae
A COT CSS ac oe ea lyin Meee ee one re
Date oye en ees Seay are
Linotyping and press work done in Union
Shops. The make-up is our own.
fee Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for February
FEB 8-`MAMMONART" by UPTON SINCLAIR.
This address will reveal the way in which the money
power has controlled literature and the arts dow)
through history. For years Mr. Sinclair has bee,
investigating along this line and has secured much
data on the subject. His new book bears the same
title and will be on sale the night that he speaks,
it is expected. MR. MAX AMSTERDAM, talente
first violinist, of the Philharmonic Orchestra yill
provide the program of music.
FEB. 15-`AMBERICA'S SERVICE IN THE NEAR
EAST" (Illustrated by two reels of motion pictures)
by MRS. JEANNETTE WALLACE EMRICH, for
many years a resident of Asia Minor, and well-in.
formed as to the currents and counter-currentg of
life that have run through that bloody area for
centuries. What is at the bottom of the ancient
quarrel between the Turks and the Armenians? Hoy
does Greece enter into the problem? What construc.
tive work is going forward over there today? These
and other matters will be discussed. A program
of Armenian muSic will be furnished by MRS. PRA.
PION, a singer in native costume, MR. K. VRONYfR,
violinist, and MRS. M. G. FERRAHIAN, pianist.
FEB. 22-`THE MENACE OF FUNDAMENTAL
ISM" by MAYNARD SHIPLEY, of San Francisco,
President of the Science League of America. Should
the fundamentalists be allowed to block the prog.
ress of science? Are laws likely to be passed in Cali-
fornia forbidding the teaching of evolution in the
schools? Whither are we drifting? and what should
be done about it? CARL ROSSNER, 'cellist, will
favor us. with some of his excellent music.
i
He That Will Not Toe The Mark
Neither Shall He Eat
NEW YORK-Everyone wiust register with the
police and carry an identification card bearing his
photograph and finger prints, with duplicates on file
at police headquarters, if police commissioner En:
right is successful in putting through the plans
he brought back from South America. Enright
announced his program at a banquet tendered him
at the Waldorf-Astoria.
Blacklist possibilities were plainly indicated by
Enright in describing the Buenos Aires system. In
Buenos Aires employers refuse to hire anyone no
having an identification card and the police. refuse
to furnish cars to persons with "criminal records.'
Prisoners arrested for picketing, violation of injuncent
tions and other class "crimes" would `produce a large
number of workers without identification, that is,
employment cards.
Federated Press.
3.
As Competition Works
INDIANAPOLIS-The superior court of Indianap0
lis refuses to recognize the validity of the contrat
made by the prison trustees of Indiana with a Nev
York garment company for convict labor to be use!
in making clothing. An injunction will-be issued
to forbid trustees from carrying out the contract.
This legal victory in the fight of union labo!
against convict cut-throat competition marks a vital
stage in the campaign jointly waged by union gat
ment manufacturers, the organized needle trade
workers and the trade union public. For years
the dangers of prison-made garments have _ beel
painted to consumers. Tuberculosis and venereal
disease germs have flourished in the products and
there has been no adequate protection of the wearel'
against infection.
Prison labor is usually furnished to the contracto!
at a loss to the state and at a cost far below tb?
prevailing wage of free labor. The effect has bee!
that the state uses its criminal population to throv
its law-abiding workers out of jobs and to enrit!
the profiteers, usually from other states, that ente!
the degrading business of prison labor exploitatiol
Kate Richards O'Hare, who herself bent over #
prison sewing machine for several years, has le
the fight against the evil since her release.
Federated Pres.
aah
a