Open forum, vol. 2, no. 14 (April, 1925)
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Life itself is the great Educator.
a
Vol. D3
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 4, 1925
The New School
THE NEW SCHOOL is the child of THE NEW
AGE.
Age 1S NOT peculiarly and emphatically
ieee Gfought. The past produced as great
Thinkers aS any the present can show. Nor is the
New Age, so far as can be proven, especially an
age of Character. The moral leaders of yesterday
loom larger than the moral leaders of today. It
ig hardly enough to describe the New Age even as
an age of Deed. Men achieved as heroically and as
dramatically centuries ago as they do in our own
times.
The New Age IS peculiarly and emphatically an
age of WOR K-the age of the TOOL. At this point
there is no questioning our superiority. Herein lies
the difference between yesterday and today. The
increased numbers of mankind, the wider distribu-
tion of man over the earth's surface, and the greater
intimacy of his contacts in the civilizations of today,
the very destructiveness of modern warfare and its
menace to the present world order all proceed direct-
ly from man's inceased command of industry and
commerce through the enlargement of his tool-
making and tool using powers.
The INDUSTRIAL emphasis of the New Age has
widely affected education throughout the more ad-
vanced industrial nations. The standardizing of the
mechanical process has been followed naturally by
the standardizing of the educational process. _ This,
also quite naturally, has led to certain revolts in the
educational field on behalf of individuality, spon-
taneity, and variety in the cultural life.
These revolts, however, have confined themselves
to exceptionally circumstanced individuals, or to the
years of immaturity, and have as yet shown little
understanding of the revolutionary character of that
educational transformation which a real industrial
control is bound to command. Such instances as
have been widely cited in the extraordinary edu-
cational achievements of young Sidis and the Stoner
girl mean little or nothing for the new education
which the workers of the world are going to create
and direct. Neither is Organic education a serious
approach to the great change in the school field,
inasmuch as it is but a new version of the old
ideology which finds in the unfolding of the indi-
vidual the hope and progress of the world.
The same objection holds even more emphatically
against the much vaunted Vocational Training, fos-
tered by the masters of the industrial world in
the interests of a more serviceable body of trained
0x2122 workers for the creating of greater profits on the part
of those who exploit labor. Neither this specialism
in the field of merely mechanical efficiency, nor the
more academic specialism of educators and _ scien-
tists who have reacted in the intellectual world to
the division of labor in the industrial world, can give
us the cue to the new education that is to be.
Even the Labor College is not the New School.
It is too academic still, or too much enveloped in
the academic atmosphere. The Labor College, as
we of the western world know it, is not, and cannot
be on any large scale a part of the common day's
program by which the common people get their
daily bread. If groups of them try to make it so
by featuring it as a part of especially-created work-
ing-class communities, isolated communal experi-
ments, economic monasticisms as it were, they are
compelled to forego a full subsistence in most cases,
or if they get this much, abundance of daily bread,
they must get along without that wealth and variety
of social cultural experience which is necessary to a
real abundance of life. The New School does not
build on separateness, either the academic separate-
hess which has too much characterized education
ae far, or an artificial non-conformity of economic
e,
`The New School is rather the union of the in-
dustrial and the educational process in the actual
Hela of everyday human operations. It is the com-
bination of study and work, of the whole range of
the cultural life with the whole range of man's
material activities. The tool is primary and funda-
Daniel not secondary and incidental to it, and is
aa noHs control in it, not a plaything of the
were grades. The New School will be of the
vance Bane by the working class, and for the
sigalg ne ane and not the special creation of and
eer tc a eel aristocracy, nor a concession from
make oe escents who must needs be trained to
DOHtOSs to. oe or especially coached as com-
he places of power.
MMOs ie
Headquarters, Room 506, Tajo Building,
First and Broadway, Los Angeles, California
The I. P. U. is, to give the name in full, THE IN-
TERNATIONAL POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.
It was organized in San Diego, California, in April,
1924. The expansion of its work has called for a
more centrally located headquarters, therefore the
removal to Los Angeles, to the address given above.
The incorporation is under the laws of the State of
California. The names of the Directors and Officers,
as also of the INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF AD-
VISERS, will be found on the letterhead, or supplied
on request.
As the name indicates the I. P. U. is, both as to the
spirit of the undertaking and the field of its opera-
tions, INTERNATIONAL. Although its present head-
quarters are in California certain of the most active
of its promoters and co-operators, it will be ob-
served, are resident in an Hastern state, and the
intended location of its immediate educational work
is in Russia, or within the territory somewhere of
the U. 8. S. R., that ig The Union of Socialist Soviet
Republics.
The reasons for this location of the educational
plant are such as should make wide appeal to men
and women of quite varying political belief, and
without reference to the measure of their consent
to the particular political institutions of Russia
at the present time.
Beyond question Russia, or more properly the ter-
ritory of the U. S. S. R. presents today a unique
educational opportunity for those who would stress
the international field and the industrial method, in
other words for those who have in view the New
Education.
Nowhere else in the world is there to be found
such a large body of economically undeveloped peas-
antry as the 120,000,000 Russian peasants affords.
Nowhere else in the world is there such an incal-
culable wealth of unexhausted and almost untapped
natural resources as in the vast region, three times
the area of the United States of America, over which
the Russian government presides.
Nowhere else is there such an opening for the
introduction of modern machinery and improved in-
dustrial technique on all lines.
Nor is there anywhere on the planet such a call
to practical philanthropy, the development of a peo-
ple who are ever and anon subject to the ravages
of famine on a world menacing scale to the point
where they can not only regularly and assuredly
support themselves but can also contribute enor-
mously to the productive wealth of the whole world.
At the same time, and because of the items men-
tioned above with others which might be enumerated,
there is opportunity in Russia at the present mo-
ment, as perhaps nowhere else on earth, for trying
out on a large scale a new self-supporting educational
program. What Hampton Institute and Tuskegee
have done so admirably and with such wide-spread
benefits here in the United States, in the field of
Negro education, there is reason to believe can be
surpassed in the field of inter-racial education and
in relation to the greater opportunities which Russia
presents.
If for humanitarian reasons only this work ought
to appeal to all. It has been demonstrated by com-
petent investigators and experimenters that the
Russian farmer, if trained to the use of up-to-date
machinery and in the technique of western farming
can overcome the periodic famines of his section of
the world field, and that instead of millions dying
of starvation he can feed himself and innumerable
millions more. A dollar invested in such self-sustain-
ing and world-provisioning work in Russia is better
spent than in spasmodic, emergency relief, on the
one hand, or in furnishing to the well fed merely
academic education. It is certainly one of the su-
preme opportunities of the hour.
Our work can claim for itself that it is philan-
thropie in spirit in the best sense of that word, as
this is not a money-making adventure, nor do the
promoters of it seek dividends or profits for them-
selves. It is an educational enterprise not an invest-
ment scheme for the exploiting of the Russian peo-
ple or any other people.
Also it is being conducted on conservative lines,
with a minimum of over-head expenditure for the
development of the work, and through the care-
fully worked out plans of men who have studied
the Russian field at first hand, and know not only
the conditions there but have long experience in
the field of education and agricultural enterprise
here.
No. 14
ie ask ae
the TS SR
Whether the government of the United States of
America ghall recognize the government of the Union
of Socialist Soviet Republics is an.issue which does
not concern us here. There are many conservative
Americans, including many American capitalists and
big business men, who believe that such recognition
is sensible and inevitable, and does not involve any
endorsement of Bolshevism at all. But with that
question this article has nothing to do.
Neither are we discussing here whether the course
of the Bolshevik government with respect to polit-
ical prisoners in Russia has been decent or defens-
ible. There are many out and out friends of Rus-
sia in the United States of America who think that
the treatment of political dissent there at the pres-
ent time is both unfortunate and unjustifiable.
The issue here is not political, it is economic.
The United States of America, whether politically in
advance or behind Russia, has on the economic side
two things that Russia needs, and that Russia must
have, whether it stays Bolshevik or not, if Russia
is to feed, and clothe and house, and educate her
people. The first is capital, that is money. The
second is industrial technique, that is modern ma-
chinery and machine organization. The two are
here as they are nowhere else in the world. The
radicals of Russia recognize this fact as frankly
as do the conservatives. They know that if Rus-
sia ig to solve the primary problem of giving de-
cent living conditions to her millions of workers, es-
pecially the peasant class, 120,000,000 strong, she
must look to the United States for the financial and
the technical equipment necessary to the moderniz-
ing of her economic life.
Many Americans who are skilled in the use of
modern tools, and who could do a work of practical,
everyday education in Russia of incalculable value
have not the money to finance themselves and the
equipment which they would require if such service
is to be done. Russia has not the money to put in
their hands. Get this in mind. Russia cannot buy
ability just now. She has not the money to finance
her own men and women of ability, much less to
invest in imported brains and experience. Those
who would give their hands and brains to Russia just
now must bring their tools with them, and by tools
is meant the whole body of material equipment that
it ig necessary to import from the outside, and the
money to keep the plant going until it can support
itself.
Russia can give land, rich land, capable of enor-
mously increased production under the application of
scientific use. Also, in many instances, Russia can
supply buildings, if these are needed and can be used
to full advantage. But bare hands, or skilled brains,
without the tools to make the hands and brains
effective, and the money to feed the worker till he
can raise food for himself, Russia cannot yet employ.
But a few experts, with a moderate amount of
capital, can get access to natural resources, to com-
mon labor power, and to marketing opportunities in
Russia today in such measure and under such con-
ditions as to make possible miracles of human Servy-
`ice there.
"I know what can be done," says an experienced
California agriculturist and commission man who
has made marked success on both lines here in
America. "I have been there, within the past year,
and studied the situation at first hand in a thor-
oughly scientific way. I know the soil there, the
markets, the whole field. I know that a certain big
estate that was offered us, worth half a million now,
can with a Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars to
handle it, be made to double its value in a season,
and can be within a year made self-supporting as a
kind of agricultural normal-training center where
young Russian peasants can be quickly schooled not
only into self-support, but into instructors of other
peasants all over Russia, so that famine there need
never happen again even in the most unfavorable
years. The land is to be had; the buildings are to be
had, with much other equipment of immense value;
and the workers are to be had, young men who will
be detailed to study scientific agriculture as young
men are detailed elsewhere to get military training.
The opportunity is simply beyond words. All that
we need is a few thousand dollars, nothing to the
tens of thousands thrown away now on _ sporadic
famine relief."
And this man has himself subscribed Ten Thou-
sand Dollars to the I. P. U., which he means to dou-
ble and treble as quickly as he can, and will give
himself, as well as his funds.
SER TOF Re we mer Se et er Ore RSC US Ter eres MER eet eee
Z
Aims and Ideals of the
International Polytech-
nical University
By Dr. Charles Kuntz
"Knowledge is Power .. Education Imparts it."
Positive Knowledge is the Power for Good, and Posi-
tive Education Imparts it.
All knowledge is objectified in the cultural environ-
ment into which man is born, and within which all
nature conquered by man throughout the ages of
his evolution is reflected. Manifestly for education
to fill its appointment, it must so shape the life of
the growing generation as to enable it to gain com-
plete knowledge of and thereby absolute control over
the ever-growing social environment, the product of
man's creative genius.
The vast cultural inheritance is like life itself,
which is dynamic, never to stand still. Human en-
ergy is indeed the mainspring, the make and break
switch, as it were, in the endless process of the
transformation of energy. Human Power is there-
fore forever the indispensable link in this Process,-
a link that turns the entire chain of transforma-
tion of energy, into an ever expanding cultural
environment.
In the long course of history, human gociety has
become stratified. It has fallen to the lot of the
lower strata to furnish the man-power that trans-
forms all energy into culture, while the mastery, and
hence the enjoyment of the latter, has remained the
privilege of the upper strata. Knowledge has thus
been estranged from those directly creating its prod-
ucts, and has been mystified for and by those fully
enjoying them.
The advent of the Industrial Age introduces new
factors both into the methods of applying man-power
in the process of culturizing the transformation of
energy, and in the inter-relations of the social strata
among themselves. The result is a different ap-
proach both to the acquisition of knowledge, and
to its distribution. Education becomes a problem,
a complete problem in a socially stratified state; it
becomes an industrial problem of how to render man-
power most efficient in the transformation process:
known as production; it becomes a human problem
of how to educate man fully to live and. to enjoy
his creation,-the cultural environment.
To the student of Sociology, it is obvious that in a
socially stratified state the human aspect of the
problem is the less capable of solution, the more its
industrial aspect is stressed by the upper strata.
The result, therefore, is a truncated system of lower.
and higher education, the lower made in part ac-
cessible to the masses, the higher left open to the
few who are able to pay for it. That such a system
of education is anomalous is no less obvious than
would be a system of bringing up children to the
age, say, of 12 or 14, upon biologically unfit food, and
permitting their growth at that time to be arrested.
The abolition of social stratification in Russia, con-
sequent upon the breakdown of `the economico-
individualistic basis of her state structure has
brought to life the imperative demand for a cardinal
change of the system of education. The gap _ be-
tween lower and higher education is being bridged
over, and education like its substratum organic
growth is to progress along a continuous evolutionary
line. Methodology, therefore, is so directed as to
enable the pupil to acquire knowledge while creating
cultural values; in other words, the new education
in Russia is seeking to impart knowledge through
the medium of the cultural environment, wherein the
knowledge of age lies embodied. It is the new
methodology that determines the organization of
the new school. It promises to render universal
higher education possible; it points the way how
to organize production ag an educational factor. It
further suggests that while production is rendered
educational, the school can be so organized as to
make education self-supporting and thus universally
accessible.
Now it is characteristic of knowledge that it knows
no national boundaries. This is particularly true
of its refined precipitate, science,-this concentrated
reflex of the cultural environment. Science ig truly
international. It is not limited by time or space.
Every bit of archaeology reveals this truth; ethnol-
ogy confirms it; history teaches it.
Archimedes said: Give me the fulcrum and I shall
lift the globe. Education in Russia offers the ful-
crum where the proper lever, properly applied, will
This Week's
"You can like it or you can dislike it, but you can't
Issue
ignore it." This, which was said originally about red
hair, applies more emphatically to what is going on
in Russia today. Russia touches everybody. to the
quick. Every time we have Russia as the subject
of discussion in our Music Art Hall Forum, Sunday
nights, we have a crowded house, as last Sunday
night when the debate between Bell and Plotkin
crowded the house to the fullest capacity. So also
when Anna Louise Strong spoke before the City Club
the attendance filled the gallery as well as the floor.
Because these things have happened here, and be-
cause the subject is so tense with life, we are giving
this issue of THE OPEN FORUM very largely to
matters concerning Russia. But it is not Russian
politics, where the battle rages, that we are stressing,
but Russian Education, and education at the point of
world production and world feeding. The letter ad-
dressed to Upton Sinclair we have had in our hands
a couple of weeks, the fine article by Dr. Kuntz,
Educational Director of The I.P.U. for two months,
and for a longer period people have been asking for
data from all over the field, as far north as Seattle,
concerning the I.P.U. itself. The purpose of this is-
sue is not controversial, but to set forth the im-
measurable educational and humanitarian opportun-
ity which Russia presents just now. Bundle copies
of this issue will be sent out, at the rate of 2 cents
per copy, as long as they last. Get your orders in
soon. Look for other special issues on special lines
soon.
See se ve Sy eee
"There is nothing much that interests me just now
except what is coming out of Russia. As to the rest,
I feel like one who is watching a lot of men labor-
iously picking out wall-paper patterns for a house
that is burning down."-A New York Newspaper wo-
man to a Western Editor.
--_-_.%-______
Service, Not Profit
The Russian peasant sows his grain with a religious
feeling that he must do this in order that others may
eat. This is far removed from the money-making
spirit of the cities, and despite the shrewdness that
is the other side of the countryman's nature every-
where, if the Communists keep on sincerely trying
to organize life for mutual aid, the peasant will not
hinder them.-Harry F. Ward, of the American Civil
Liberties Union, after a tour of Russia.
Federated Press.
aid in lifting man out of the narrow nationalist rut
into the empires of humanism.
To help in this work, a group of educators and
sympathizers have organized the International Poly-
technical University, with the object of enlisting sup-
port, both material and spiritual, of all those who
earnestly desire to contribute to the advancement of:
man through the channels of education.
The ultimate goal set by the International Poly-
technical University is to build on an agricultural
basis an economico-educational institution, gelf-sup-
porting in the above sense. The Soviet Government
has declared its readiness to transfer for the purpose
of building such an enterprise one or more of its
nationalized estates, with all the inventory thereon.
Likewise, the Soviet Department of Education is
ready to give its educational support.
The International Polytechnical University for its
part proposes to invest in the enterprise within a
certain specified time a given sum of money-say
from one-fourth to one-half million gold rubles. This
will be expended for Agricultural and Industrial ma-
chinery; technical and scientific educational ma-
terials; and in any and all other necessary equip-
ment, as well as in the salaried personnel, and in
organizational and operating expenditures necessary
for initialing and carrying forward its part in the
realization of the aforesaid goal.
The International Polytechnical University further
proposes that all moneys invested in, and all surplus
accruing from, the successful operation of the enter-
prise, shall become an economico-educational exten-
sion fund. The same to be used by the Institution
for enlarging its agricultural base, improving its
educational facilities, and extending and multiplying
its industrial activities so as to. gradually develop
into an ever more efficient economico-educational
unit.
Anna Louise Strong
on Russia
Anna Louise Strong, well-known writer, anq auth,
or in particular of that remarkable book on Russia
"THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY," was in Log 4),
geles and vicinity last week, and is now in Seattle
for a brief visit. While here in Southern Californiy
she spoke for the First Congregational Church it
Pasadena, the First Congregational Church jn Long
Beach, and at the University of California, Southey
Branch. Also she addressed The City Club of [y
Angeles, Wednesday noon-tinmre, March 25th. The
following excellent resume of her address _befoy
The City Club is from The City Club Bulletin.
"I went to Russia in August, 1921, at the be.
ginning of the greatest famine in her history,
with the Friends Relief. I had the good fortune
to take the first relief cars in. Since that time
I have travelled throughout European-Russig
from the Artic to the Black Sea." Thus simply
did Anna Louise Strong, special correspondent
of Hearst's International Magazine in Russia jp.
troduce herself to the City Club on Wednesday,
Then for fifty minutes she told us, quietly and
impressively, of what Russia has been doing for
three years since she has had peace.
What impressed her most in Russia was the
speed and popular zeal for reconstruction. The
great war brought in its train for Russia, invo-
sion, civil war, blockade, and the greatest epi:
demic since the middle ages, plus the worst re.
corded drought in her history. The civil war was
a real war, with fighting in every town. One
town, for instance, was taken and_ re-taken
seventeen times. In the words of the John Bull
Magazine, published in England, Russia has en-
erged in three years from chaos to order in
most spectacular fashion. In 1924, for instance,
the increase in planted acreage was 8 per cent,
in live stock 25 per cent, in industrial products
35 per cent, in transportation 35 per cent and in
currency 250 per cent.
Today Russia has been recognized by all other
nations, including Italy, England, France and
Japan. Only the United States has come to no
understanding with the Soviet republic.
The spirit of the people in Russia is a reyela-
tion. They find that reconstruction ig romance.
The newspapers give over the principal space to
reconstruction items. One Moscow newspaper
has increased its circulation, because of a recon: -
struction contest, from 80,000 to 500,000 in ye ee
years. "
sia is the question of what contribution ; `
making to progress, if any, and what dires:
She is taking as a nation. I come from a fam!
said Miss Strong, which came to our Atlantic
shores in the seventeenth century, and continued
going west until it landed in Seattle. The devel:
opment of the west in the United States has
taken something like a century. Russia is the
great new west. It has the greatest extent of un
occupied soilin the world. It has more land, more
timber, more natural and mineral] resources than
any other nation of today. Russia will develop
much more quickly than we did, because we have
changed from a craft to an industrial age. In
the United States individualism was basic in our
development. The individual took and kept what
he discovered in the way of natural resources.
We developed initiative by this process, and tre
mendous industrial progress. It is for this that
we are known in the world.
Russia is beginning with a new theory, namely,
that natural resources are the property of the
entire people, no matter who finds them. They
can be leased temporarily, but not alienated.
This attitude has become the accepted psychol:
ogy in Russia, namely, that social wealth belongs
to society, and to municipalities belongs the it
crease in land values made by the existence of
the city. It will be most interesting to discover
just what this new theory will mean in the dcent
velopment of the new Russia of tomorrow.
Miss Strong paid particular attention to the
educational movements such as the children's
farm on the Volga, in which she is particularly
interested, and to the Big Brother and Sister
Movement now going on. It is for this childret's
farm that she is at the present in the United
States,
Miss Strong's address is 508 Garfield Street,
Seattle, Washington.
American Militarism
and American
Education
Here is a letter from one of the finest and bravest
women it has been my privilege to know, and that is
Criminal Syndicalism
In California
(Cal. Defense Committee)
i; Right Out of Russia
The following letter tells its own story. a was
written in this present year, as the date indicates,
d came from a group of Pacific Coast people who
A te iece of practical educational work
ye trying out a pi :
ttle . Russia educational in the big, broad, human sense
Mig :
uth.
Sia,
The members of the Judiciary committee of the
California legislature have once more tabled a bill
aimed at the repeal of the Criminal Syndicalism law.
Its realism will appeal to all
L th
Oly
Ler")
of the New Education.
who are trying to
on in the land whi
world today.
understand sincerely what is going
ich is the "`trying-out" place of the
saying a good deal, for she is by no means the only
worth-while woman I have known. She is Jane
Garrott of Seattle, and the letter which follows here-
with is one which she recently sent to The Union-
As most of you will remember, a similar action was
taken two years ago. This time, however, the ex-
ponents of slavery did not go to the extremes to
Loy : ; 5 z g which they went two years ago in order to crush
The Commune "Seattle," Record of Pat Cre ae pe mae whtiolt ae any signs of sympathy that members of the legisla-
fore Station Tzelina, Russia, Garrott deals = ene wan ae coe HAS LoSen aki ture might have for the four score innocent workers
January 20, 1925. pains " be entirely familiar, and it oe oe ye o who are rotting behind the bars of California prisons
i ur. Upton Sinclair, there is eromeugous need wn Te sabe hie ar because they had the courage to protest against serv-
dona. Callt: the public. While Russia is marshalling her soldie's itude. They did not purchase front page space in the
y Fert : into agricultural schools, and training them to hate shat : : : 5
le Dear Comrade:- wamate ts se ttok for tis abolitioA. our ainthiovtties es os truth BUDD eSsOrs in which to run iat es,
: We have received your letter and the books are bribing the young men of America to become Pe ee ee De ee oF
? for which we wish to thank you. They are help- the puppets of a New Prussianism, and the swash- a ides ial ea deca Seas se ae
; ing uS a great deal to pass our time during the buckling boot-lickers of predatory wealth. ent at the hearing to denounce organized labor and
, winter months. "The most impressive sight I saw in Russia," re- eulogize Greed. They had the judiciary Committee
y, Comrade, Sinclair, you have once lived in a marked an American who recently returned from that too well trained for that this time, and they knew it
d commune so we will tell you what we have ex- country, "was the Red Army, marching on a ape ag wasn't necessary.
r perienced ~ a Lb eee eee = eve, with books under their arms oe Bee ibe" cule Halle sopposition- te. the-veeaaione oe
commune life in Bo ae ae a cae One might say that the most depressing Se in open hearing held March 9th came from the Shipping
Rs composed of the following: DET SCRBEWERES America is the strutting militarism that preval's 0x2122 Interests. That combine was represented by an At-
3 loggers, 10 per cent small farmers, 10 per cent our schools of Higher Learning, and which 1s infect- torney. Daniel Ryan, and W. J. Peterson, whom
2: miners and the balance is gombeped of people ing even the grammar grades. The American plun- many will remember as a former chief of police of
`i who have followed different trades. All these derbund have not invested in education for nothing. Oakland, and who is now in charge of the sailors
i eG cron Now ee a Editor Union Record: fink hall in San Francisco. These worthies had evi-
; Nome. We are of five different nationalities. The bribes that college authorities, in part- Sen ee Vere
n None of us have had any higher education. At nership with the army machine, are offering to from memory most of the stock-in-trade taischoode
present there are 135 people in all-67 men, 29 students are working. Our students are given ; :
i] | eae ee eee shed 1ibiiey,"and eubsistence; if as delivered by those stool-pigeons in the court rooms
1- women and the : cee Oy aes BONG A nip Lewis for the of this state, for the sum of two hundred and fifty
; Our purpose is to try and prove eh a com- peat id ag Nao a Sadie oSb lone Brady, at our dollars per day.
t a As - Aaeus ae University, says eo percentage of R. O. - be The California State Federation of Labor and the
8 taining about 13,000 acres, 100 miles southeast _men who have Sigtiod Uprir She Shae San Francisco Labor coe were represented by
n of Rostov on the Don, on the Vladicaucasian creasing. Paul Sharronpure and John O'Connell, who went be-
Heo As times get harder and jobs become scarcer fore the Committee oo `Upor ously supported Assem-
| those student-officers who are willing to live in blyman Hornblower am his effort to secure sufficient
y Before the war this country was the home of idleness at the expense of the tax-payers may support in the Committee to get the bill onto the
d floor of the Legislature. The Committee, however,
or.
eS ee On
ee ee ee
ee ee OS OS Oe re Oe re eee
the well-known Don horses. Cattle and sheep-
raising was carried on quite extensively also.
Grain raising was only a side line then but now
it takes the lead. We came to Russia with the
latest American agricultural machinery amount-
ing to $120,000.
So far our attainments have been: The first
year's crop was. 950 acres; the second year's
crep area was 3240 acres; and our plan for next
is 5400 acres. The principal crop is wheat.
have met with many difficulties. About
`Y of our members have left for different
of the world with tales of woe. The main
" _ reasons are: Malaria and the lowered standard
of living and also their lack of faith in a com-
mune. This caused quite a bit of discouragement
among the remaining members but in spite of all
this we have laid a firm foundation for a home-
like commune.
We manage our affairs by having a soviet
composed of six members and the chairman, who
is also the manager of all the business affairs.
All of the work is divided into different depart-
ments. Hach department has its own manag-
Ing committee. These committees form the gen-
eral work council. Then we have the revision
committee, medical unit, school committee, enter-
tainment committee, etc., and sectors of the
Many different organizations in Russia.
The commune takes care of all the members'
needs.
The lack of capital hag caused us many diffi-
culties. It forced us to bring our standard of
living down about 40 per cent `at first, but now
we have already been able to raise it consider-
ably. One of the most difficult problems we en-
countered wags how to get dairy stock, but we
have just about overcome it now. At present
our stock amounts to: 115 head cattle, 250 sheep,
i ae 15 horses and poultry 800. Our largest
cen y Income go far has been grain, prin-
Ee y wheat. Even if we were in last summer's
ught area we were able to supply the sur-
roundi :
unding peasantry with twenty carloads of seed
wh : , :
eat. This was a triumph of power farming.
F : : 0x00B0 :
Tom the war-time ruins we have torebuild
e : :
Aes since nearly all of the buildings were
estroyed then.
be expected to increase unless the students them-
selves take some action against militarism.
In Yale University the bribes have been sugar-
coated. Says the editor of THE NEW STUD-
ENT:
"The notion of catching them young has evi-
dently appealed to the Deans at Yale. Special
pains have been taken to equip the R. O. T. C.
so that the heart of every Freshman will skip
with joy. Freshman have been promised horses,
polo ponies, field guns, pistols and uniforms."
Still a few students have rebelled, and relig-
ious leaders are occasionally courageous enough
to help them. Sherwood Eddy, prominent officer
of the Y. M. C. A., is going about the country
telling students this: "A TIME COMES WHEN
A MAN CAN BEST SERVE HIS COUNTRY BY
RESISTING ITS GOVERNMENT."
The whole world is looking for boys who have
the bravery and the manliness to oppose an un-
just demand of their own government. What
shall be their answer to the challenge?
Jane Garrott
We are conducting propaganda work in the
vicinity to quite an extent. Our place is the
center of this neighborhood and the peasantry
come from far and near to the programs and
celebrations. Once a week we have moving pic-
tures and also on holidays.
great help here to enlighten the peasants. Most
of the films circulated in country places are of
agriculture, stockraising and education and use-
ful hints of the every-day needs of the peasant.
We are planning to have a reel of films taken
of our operations. This, if carried out, will be
quite a treat to the comrades in America for
they can see how communes really operate here
in the republic where workers and peasants rule.
Comrade Sinclair, we invite you to pay a visit
to this strange land and also our place, for we
are sure that you will find many new and inter-
esting facts to write about.
With greetings from all of the comrades,
Fraternally yours,
(MISS) KERTTU LEINO.
PS: Allow us to hope that in the future we will
receive your new works which are a rare treat
to us. Same.
These films are. x"
had simply granted the open hearing as a means of
pacifying the craft union element of the state. Never
at any time was there any doubt as to the outcome.
Among the members of the Committee was a gen-
erous sprinkling of lawyers, who are on the pay-roll
of various large California corporations. Naturally,
those arguments which decided their decision were
not heard on the floor of the public hearing.
An article appearing recently in the San Francisco
Daily Herald stated that it would be ridiculous for
anyone to assume that a legislature that had so little
sense as to pass such a law, could be expected to re-
peal it. We wholly agree with them, and will go as
far as to state that, had the Criminal Syndicalism
law been repealed by the state legislature, we would
expect some other just as vicious anti-labor measure
to come into being.
For the benefit of any who might not be familiar
with the California Criminal Syndicalism law, we will
state that this statute was enacted during the post-
war hysteria, in 1919. It was rushed through with-
out argument, and the man who introduced the bill
has admitted that he had not read it, and did not
know what it contained at the time he brought it
before the legislature. To date, one hundred and
forty four members of the I.W.W. have been sen-
tenced to prison under this law. More than eighty
are still behind the bars, convicted solely on the tes-
timony of the treacherous characters mentioned
above. These men were rail-roaded to prison in an
attempt to preserve the present decaying order of
society, and to allay the fears of the ruling classes:
The function of the state is to regulate the relations
springing between the masses and the masters in the
present system of production for profit; and to AL-
WAYS adjust things in the interests of the Masters.
We cannot expect any consideration from the ma-
chinery built up and developed by the Master Class
for their own protection. We are not dissappointed
by the action of the California Legislature. The only
hope of freeing our Class War Prisoners lies in the
hands of Labor.
AGITATE - EDUCATE - ORGANIZE - STRIKE!
--_-___ e-_-_----.
Every great cause has to fight its way against the
leaden apathy or the vitriolic antagonism of a host
of those who ought to be its most ardent supporters
and most self-sacrificing friends.
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California
Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.
Phone: TUcker 6836.
MANAGING EDITORS
Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft
LITERARY EDITOR
Esther Yarnell ;
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Leo Gallagher
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. 138, 1924, at
the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the
Act of March 3, 1879.
SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1925
COMING EVENTS
KALKI KI KK OG ok
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
a
Free Workers Forum meets Monday Nights at
8:15 o'clock at 420 N. Soto St., (one block north of
Brooklyn Ave.).
APRIL 6-"THE WORLD LABOR MOVEMENT,"
by A. Plotkin.
i
Education for the Daily Life
Los Angeles just now is in the midst of a civic
campaign. The man who is most prominently ad-
vertised for the office of Mayor, and who has re-
signed from the Federal Bench, a life office worth
Ten Thousand a year, for the uncertainties of this
mayoralty campaign, represents a remarkable com-
bination of "the moral forces" of the city with the
backing of predatory wealth here. Big Business is
behind him, and also the Big Churches. He poses
as a Christian man, through whom the bad fame
of the city for individual lawlessness and crime is
to be redeemed, and he is obviously a social reaction-
ary of the most pronounced type. Conservatism,
which is another name for the exploitation of the
common man, is the Defender Of Personal Morality
and the champion of Personal Religion. Therefore
the Ministerial Union of Los Angeles shuts its eyes
to social plunder and lines up with the plunderbund
to save the individual morality of the town.
With municipal politics this paper is not concern-
ed, nor is "The Church of the New Social Order."
But that church is otherwise known to its own
people as "The Congregation of the Daily Life.' It
was intended as announced last week, to discontinue
indoor meetings with the end of March, but for rea-
sons not necessary to stress here, it has been de-
cided to stay indoors at least another month. So
the Sunday morning meetings will be held as usual
at 10:45 o'clock Sunday mornings through the month
of April in Symphony Hall, 232 South Hill Street, and
Robert Whitaker will give the morning address.
And the subjects this coming month will deal with
personal rather than social and economic issues, or
rather, with personal problems in the light of social
and economic understanding. Here they are, the
subjects to be discussed week by week.
WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?
WHAT ABOUT FAMILY LIFE?
WHAT ABOUT GETTING ON IN THE WORLD?
WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL RELIGION?
All of these subjects discussed in a quite unchurch-
ly untheological, way, and always in the light of
modern social science and the new order that is to
be.
An Appeal to the
Courts
The education of the American people through
their courts of law is going on apace. Much of it is
an education in lawlessness, class feeling, and the
ruthlessness of power which our owning classes will
live to regret, or will compensate for in the calamities
of their children in days to come. The Ford and
Suhr, Billings and Mooney cases in California, with
a hundred less notorious miscarriages of justice in
this state, are instances in point. Outside of Cali-
fornia there is no better known case of conspicuous
judicial lawlessness than the Sacco-Vanzetti prose-
cution in Massachussetts. Concerning all these cases,
and a multitude more in our America, the remark of
a New York minister of prominence might well be
taken to heart by our conservative classes.
"The courts of America," he said, with deep feel-
ing, "are giving the workers some dangerous train-
ing in lawlessness, training which will return to them
with fearful interest to pay thereon before many gen-
erations have passed."
At the crowded mass meeting of the American
Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles Sunday eve-
ning, March 28, 1925, the following resolutions were
unanimously passed.
"Whereas we the members of the American
Civil Liberties Union, Southern California
Branch, believe that a great injustice has been
committed in the name of the state of Massa-
chussetts, by railroading Nicola Sacco and Bar-
tolomeo Vanzetti to prison for an offense which
has not been justly and conclusively proved, and
Whereas, efforts have been frustrated time
and time again in an attempt to gain a new trial
in spite of new evidence brought forward to
prove said men not guilty of the offense as charg-
ed, and
Whereas, we believe said Sacco and Vanzetti
were victims of prejudice against them as radi-
cals and foreigners, and
Whereas, we believe that it is the duty of the
State of Massachussetts to grant a new trial im-
mediately, by reason of these facts, lest justice
be trampled upon once more,
Therefore be it resolved that we urge and re-
commend that a new, fair, and impartial trial
be granted these men at once."
--
Insurance is Promising Field for
Soviet Co-operative Work
MOSCOW-(FP)-Insurance is a rapidily develop-
ing activity of the co-operative movement in Russia.
At a delegate meeting of the All-Russian Co-operative
Insurance Union reports showed more than twice
the number of fire insurance policies issued than
during the previous fiscal year, and the same is true
of transport policies. There was a corresponding in-
crease in premiums collected upon all forms of insur-
ance. Insurance in industrial and credit co-operation
much more than doubled. The union has 114 agen-
cies throughout Russia and extensive plans have been
drawn up to develop the movement in the rural dis-
tricts.
Federated Press.
tae SN eee ee,
The report in the Jewish Daily Forward of New
York stating that the All-Russian Clothing Syndicate
is bankrupt was again denied by Hillman. Amalga-
mated members are largely interested in the syndi-
cate through the Russian-American Industrial Corp.,
which was organized by the union in 1922 and is a
big factor in the syndicate. "Two factories in the
syndicate chain in Russia were not doing as well as
they might,' Hillman explains, "but the making of
clothing in Russia is on a sound basis. It happens in
every industrial undertaking that a unit or two will
limp even while the industry as a whole is advanc-
ing soundly.. The syndicate made good clothing and
declared a profit last year, and the Russian-American
distributed a 5 per cent dividend to its stockholders."
Federated Press.
Yt
NHW YORK-The last craft among laundry work-
ers is facing displacement by the machine. The
shirt ironers, organized for 40 years or more, face
extinction by mechanical pressers. Shirt ironers in
2,000 of the 4,000 or more little "hand laundries" of
New York are organized.
Los Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway |
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for April
APRIL 5-"THE NHW REGIME IN MEXICo" by
PROF. CHARLES EH. MARTIN, Associate Professs,
of Government at the Southern Branch of the $j
University. Mexico seems to be forging ahead. What
has happened down there to account for the ny
progress? Are the mining and petroleum interes,
of the United States helping or hindering our Sister
republic? Music by MISS EMMA HARDY and yq
AARON KRELL, artist pupils of MAX AMSTp,
DAM, violinist.
APRIL 12-`RADICALISM AND THE BAST
MESSAGH," by ROBERT WHITAKER. All th
churches today are stressing their belief in immorty
ity. What significance hag the doctrine for radicaly
Is there any scientific proof of life beyond thig muy,
dane sphere? What effect upon the present life doy
belief in a future life have? Music by MR. and MR0x00A7
J. A. HLFENBEIN-vVocal and violin numbers,
APRIL 19-"WHAT ARE THE VITAL ISSUES jy
THE PRESENT MUNICIPAL CAMPAIGN. by ATTY
J. H. RYCKMAN. This is regarded as the most jp.
portant campaign that hag occurred in Los Angels
in many years. Tremendous interests are at stak.
What are they? What does Bledsoe really repr.
sent? What are Cryer and the other candidate
standing for? Music by MAX AMSTERDAM, one oi
the first violinists of the Philharmonic Orchestra,
APRIL 26-"THE WORLD COURT?" by MR. BER.
NARD BRENNAN of the University of Southen
California Law School. Mr. Brennan has _ pr.
sented this subject to many groups thruout Californi:
and the Northwest. He hag given it careful study,
and will give both the pros and cons of the argi
ment. Music by BERWYN B. RISKH, baritone, ani
FRANK K. LUNDY, students of the U. S. C.
eS ees
"It is always a pleasure for me.to meet peopl
with ideas, and I am occasionally under the delusioi
that I have a few myself." And the woman wh
wrote this, mind you, was a Roman Catholic.
FH -----_-
"There is only one thing in the world that wil
make as big a fool-of a man as religion, and thal
is-irreligion.'"-Dr. W. H. Robinson.
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