Open forum, vol. 2, no. 23 (June, 1925)
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The Best Reward for Good Work is More Work.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JUNE 6, 1925
NG. 23
and
How Los Angeles Can
Turn The `Tide
BY FRANK E. WOLFE
In The Labor Press, Los Angeles
Frank E. Wolfe was managing editor of the Los
Angeles Herald when it was a morning paper. At
the present time he is editor of the Independent
Oil and Financial Reporter, published at Fort Worth,
Texas. To use a Slang expression, Mr. Wolfe "knows
his stuff,' as will be seen by the following article,
written by him for the International Labor News
Service and forwarded by the latter to the "Labor
Press":
* * % *
Riding along on the crest wave of a protracted
period of prosperity, Los Angeles slumbered in that
feeling of security which comes to those who become
saturated with self-complacency. Then came an un-
pleasant awakening. A crop failed. The tourists
who had automatically turned westward with the
first flurries of snow did not turn. There were rea-
sons, of course, but these were not immediately
discernable.
Los Angeles saw a great flow of winter traffic turn
to Florida and they saw such propaganda in favor
of that State as they never dreamed possible. Frank
Wiggins, the veteran secretary of the Chamber of
Commerce, passed away a year or so ago. He left
a vacancy that will long remain vacant.
The realtors of another section had the inside run
on the realtors of the southern coast of California.
The Floridians took a leaf from the book of the
Californians. In fact, they stole the entire book.
They outboosted, outboomed, outkiwanied, outlioned
and outrotated the Los Angeles outfit.
The Hastern real-estate sharks used all the ways
and wiles they had learned from the Westerners.
In fact, some of the smoothest, cleverest go-getters
from Southern California went to Florida, and they
are there now booming the game and coining a lot
of money from the sale of town lots, swamps and
Sandy places. Miami is full of the fellows who used
to stand out on Ventura Boulevard with a circular
and map in one hand and a red and yellow pennant
ay the other, Selling, selling, gelling. Now he stands
Hoy front of a stucco coop on the Dixie Highway,
Waving a florid Florida circular in one hand, with
a blue and gold badge in the lapel of his white
flannel coat, Selling, selling, selling, the whiles the
Classic purlieus of Hollywood know him and his voice
no more,
Miami has a winter climate-and it had the propa-
ganda,
wae flood of tourists turned south and it flowed
: y during the winter-albeit there was a back-
ee the broke and the bewildered-but the tide
Muha ae Strong and cross-rips did not check it.
rhage oF dollars are buried, like Captain Kidd's
Siffre in the sands of Florida's sun-baked and
i` ee BHOres." Millions of dollars did not flow
~- hern California,
that : Los Angeles awoke to the grim realization
the ae had been working her own side of
the ae : eae go-getters had gone and got and
he a were dark and dreary for the realtors in
@ where the name and the game was in-
vented, 0x00A7
How cone?
Winter anq
She has,
Didn't Los Angeles have the best
Summer climate on earth? She did and
tia euro s
Butyshe had been caught napping.
eas was San Francisco, long slumbering
land ue awe cent. Again, there are Seattle and Port-
sant oth t Northwestern cities that are up and
ng and a') making a bid for the Westward turn-
ing tide of colonists and all getting far more than
the share Los Angeles had allotted them.
Los Angeles is awake. She has gone at the prob-
lem with that tremendous energy which has made
her great. Old-timers are taking the rubber band
off their pocket-books, dug up the silver in the weasel
skins and unlimbered the redoubtable check-books.
They have raised a tremendous fund for publicity.
They started out to raise a million and will get three
millions. We respectfully submit that is some dinero
and we don't have to prove that it is a powerful
puller. It will get results.
A million dollars will be spent to tell the world,
and the world will be told and it will respond. Ad-
vertising sent out in mid-winter numbers will not
bring in the side meat. It has to be broad-casting
of a far more readable and reliable sort. They will
have to soft pedal on the stuff about this being a
successful Labor-hating town. They will have to
boom with all their populace and not the employing
portion alone. There is a powerful force that has
worked against them that could be made to work
with them. They need, and doubtless will get,
team work. They will if they have a spoonful of
sense and a grain of reason.
Los Angeles has the most wonderful summer cli-
mate of any section of the United States. It has
a magnificent deep harbor. It has a vast and grow-
ing manufacturing business. From a commercial and
population standpoint it is one of the most rapidly
growing communities in the world. It is a great
exporting and importing center. It is advantageously
located between the. mountains and the sea and
can be and will be made one of the greatest and
most happily situated centers of population in the
whole world.
In order to turn the tide, and it will be turned,
Los Angeles will have to get on a basis of telling
the truth. It cannot deceive the world when it has
widespread disemployment and suffering and woe
from that source. It cannot dissemble the fact that
a large portion of its leaders in industries are bit-
terly prejudiced against the working people organ-
izing.
One cannot sprinkle the flowers on a windowsill in
that thriving burg without wetting the hat of a
kiwani, a lion or a rotarian. It is the most organized
community in the world and it is all right until
Labor takes a try at it. Then it is all wrong.
The Merchants and Manufacturers' Association has
done more to smirch the good name of Los Angeles
than all the I. W. W.-Syndicalist-Communists in the
State, and the latter groups are not inactive. There
has been a backfire of propaganda that has to be
reckoned with and dealt with. It is a phase of the
problem that the "All-Year" Club may take into con-
sideration.
Southern California has more good points to boast
of than any section of the world. Florida as a com-
petitor is a huge joke. There igs no serious con-
tender. Los Angeles hag the problem within her
own gates. If she will deal fairly, get on a basis
of truth and honesty and square dealing she will
go ahead with the same speed.as of yore. We want
to see her go, but we want to see her go straight!
2
If you would achieve undying fame, attach yourself
to the most unpopular righteous cause.-George Wil-
liam Curtis.
THE WOODEN CROSS
By Esther Yarnell
There is a little wooden cross
That marks a soldier's grave;
The trees above their branches toss;
The grasses 'round it wave.
I know that life is meant to give,
But, oh I loved him go.
I know through death we sometimes live,
But this I also know-
A little homely wooden cross
Is all that's left for me.
I know his death `to me is logs,
However else it be.
And when I think how nations count
Their gains in blood and gold;
How rulers see their treasures mount,
Through agonies untold-
I ask, O little wooden cross,
-Is this defeat again?
Is this another treachery
Of masters unto men?
But were I sure a better day
Were coming through my loss,
I think that I could carry then
The little wooden cross.
-From the ANTHOLOGY OF VERSE, Published by
The Verse Writers' Club of Southern California,
1919.
"
and
"
OOS
Esther Yarnell
It is with inexpressible regret that we announce
the passing of Esther Yarnell, whose name has ap-
peared on the staff of THE OPEN FORUM since
its initial number. Miss Yarnell was profoundly in-
terested in our paper, and planned before the first
number appeared to be regularly with us at least
one day a week, although her residence was out-
side of the city. Illness prevented her from carry-
ing out this program, except for a single visit to
the office in connection with the first issue. She
has been hopeful, however, of complete recovery and
of assuming an active part with us, and we have
cherished, the expectation with her, never for a
moment imagining that she was soon to pass on.
The end came on Friday, the 29th of May, 1925, at
the White Memorial Hospital in this city, where she
had gone for an operation. The funeral `service
was held today, Monday, June 1, at "The Little
Church of The Flowers" in Glendale. Although
many of those who knew her and loved her had not
so much as heard of her passing away the church
was crowded with her friends and admirers. The
poem, which we are publishing in this issue is
from her pen,. and was read at the funeral. For
the present her name will continue to appear as
one of our staff, as we feel that "she being dead,
yet speaketh," and her policy with respect to the
quality of the verse we put forth will continue to be
the policy of the paper. Modesty on her part is the
reason that her verse has not appeared here earlier,
as we have again and again requested some direct
contribution from her of her own work. We hope
within the next few weeks to publish several of her
best known poems. To her loved ones we offer
warmest sympathy and jcin with them in tenderest
appreciation of her beautiful spirit and the fine
work she has done.
Ra We
TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?
By R. W.
VI
The Appeal To Labor
Both the good and evil of our present civilization
are largely the product of labor. There has never
been a successful revolution for which labor did not
pay the bill, both in blood and money. However
restricted and: ineffective the ballot may be, the
extension of its use, as to the number of those who
have it, and as to the range of the issues which are
submitted to determination at the polls, is to be
credited to labor. It was the industrial man who
gave us manhood suffrage, and it is the industrial
woman who has brought to pass universal, or sexless
suffrage. Likewise labor has been the most potent
factor in the spread of popular education, and the
enlargement of the appeal to reason.
ern sciences, to a degree realized by every few of
the scientists themselves, are the outcome of the
industrial revolution and the expansion of commerce
consequent upon the increase of manufacture. And
finally, the appeal to the modern Caesar, the present
.ruling class, gets whatever strength it has from its
industrial background, from the fact that most of
the masters of business today have been laborers
themselves, or have a labor ancestry not more than
a generation or two removed, and from the even
more influential fact that every capitalist knows his
son or his grandson may be back in the ditch or at
the workingman's bench again. And it may be added
that rare and few as heroes and martyrs are, and
always will be, there is more of social solidarity
among the workers than with any other class in
modern society, and the martyrdoms of the common
people on behalf of each other far outrun the sacri-
fices and concern of the higher-ups for even their
own kin.
But if the credit of labor is great for the best
things in the life of today, its responsibility for the
-mischiefs and menace of our contemporary world
situation is also large. The major part of this
responsibility of labor for the ills of civilization is
unintentional, and in the main unrealized, and _ it
may be granted that up to this point it has been
practically unavoidable. Whether it is still unavoid-
able, or to what extent labor has an increased op-
portunity, and therefore an increased responsibility,
is to be considered a little farther on in this argu-
ment.
The immediacy and immensity of labor's res-
ponsibility for the maladjustments of civilization
grow out of the fact that the primary needs of life
are those with which labor has so much to do. It
is labor that provides us food and clothing and shel-
ter, and all that material equipment of life that is
vital to the whole order of civilization. When, on
the occasion of the General Strike in Seattle in 1919,
labor stopped functioning for even a very few days
in one of the moderate-sized cities of America there
was an appalling exhibit of the dependence of civil-
ization upon the workingman. When the scavengers
of New York City went on strike in November of
1911 there was a panic of fear and concern lest the
city be devastated with pestilence. If all the world's
labor laid down its tools for a week there would be
no civilization at the end of the seven days.
But this is only stating in part the significance or
labor in relation to world life as we know it. The
one big item wherein the world of our time differs
from the barbarian world of say fifty thousand
years ago is the difference with respect to man's
making and using of tools. The two foremost issues
of our day, both threatening the very life of civiliza-
tion are the issues of internationalism and industrial-
ism, and both are industrial at the bottom. Inter-
national conficts are struggles for trade control
more than they are anything else. And industrial
"class-struggles" are what they are today because
the productive process at the point of the making
and moving of goods is so enormously different
from what it was even an hundred and fifty years
ago. It is the manipulation of human labor that is
the primary factor in the whole world mix-up now.
Those who ask us what reason we have to believe
that the appeal to labor will be any more effective
for world welfare than the appeal to any other
class have confidence in their query to the extent
that they have ignored or failed to understand the
primacy of the material process, and especially of
Even the mod-
that part of the material process where labor func-
tions in the whole order of our daily life. They
insist, with much show of reason, that labor does
not use the ballot intelligently, that labor is no more
rational in its approach to public issues, if it is even
as much so, as the more educated middle and upper
classes, that the individual workingman is quite as
selfish in his reactions to his own hopes and fears
and loves and ambitions as are other men, even
though there may be a greater comradeship as a
whole among the oppressed than there is community
of mutual suffering with the exploiting classes or
the timid middle class, and that all our experiences
in America with working class governments in the
great cities have shown them to be quite as corrupt
and undependable as.any governments we have had.
The case against labor is not at all difficult to make
out as a very heavy and serious indictment indeed.
But all this sort of thing is after all quite super-
ficial. Nobody with any intelligence claims that
the workers are individually a superior sort of folks.
They would make no better kings, if the kings were
all chosen from them, than would the candidates for
royalty picked out of the upper classes. Nor would
they function better as priests and preachers prob-
ably, nor as educators, editors, or politicians. As a
matter of fact we know from a pretty generous trial
that workers lifted to positions of special privilege
or exceptional power have not proven to be of any
great excellence, nor have they functioned more
effectively on behalf of the great masses who still
remained submerged. To the extent that war has
become mechanical, that is, dominated by workman-
ship, it has become more terrible than when it was
more aristocratic. Capitalism, the profit system, run
by the workers would be a worse hell than capitalism
administered by the "nobilities," or the "intellectual
elite." But the appeal to labor 1s not, fundamentally,
that kind of an appeal at all.
Gas Rule In Next War
"The real value of freedom of speech is not to
the minority that wants to talk, but to the majority
that does not want to listen," according to Professor
Zechariah Chafee of the Harvard University Law
School whose article on "Propaganda and Conscrip-
tion of Public Opinion in the Next War,' has just
been published in pamphlet form by the American
Civil Liberties Union.
Pointing out that the supression of free speech in
war-time cannot kill ideas, Prof. Chafee states that
"men are imprisoned, but their words spread the
wider for that fact. The mere publication in a news-
paper of the statement of a leading radical-I am
for the people, and the Government is for the profit-
eers'-was considered so dangerous to the morale of
soldiers who might read it that she was sentenced
to ten years in prison, and yet her words were re-
peated by every important newspaper in the country
during the trial."
The phamphlet also declares that gag rule is harm-
ful not only during the war, but even more after the
war. "A nation which indulges in an orgy of intoler-
ance will continue after the cessation of hostilities
to suppress those whose opinions are distasteful. In-
tolerance produces an uncritical public opinion and
intense satisfaction with one's views."
On the basis of the national hysteria and intoler-
ance fomented by propaganda and persecution during
the last war, Prof. Chafee states that after the next
war, critical thinking in this country will be prac-
tically impossible.
Copies of the pamphlet may be obtained for ten
cents from the American Civil Liberties Union, 100
Fifth Ave., New York City.
-_---1+_+-____.
I ask you to think with me that the worst that
can happen to us is to endure tamely the evils that
we see; that no trouble or turmoil is so bad ag that;
that the necessary destruction which reconstruction
bears with it must be taken calmly; that everywhere
-in state, in church, in the household-we must be
resolute to endure no tyranny, accept no lie, quail
before no fear, altho they may come forth before
us disguised as piety, duty or affection, as useful
opportunity and good nature, as prudence or kind-
ness.-William Morris.
---$--s ;
Bryan On Evolution
MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 13 (By AP).-When J, 1
Scopes, science teacher, is called into court in thy
little town of Dayton, Tenn., to face a charge of
violating the Tennessee law against teaching evoli
tion in the public schools, the case will have paggaj
beyond the borders of state interest and an array y
nationally known individuals and organizations yj
be found lined behind the prosecution and defengy
The latest prominent individual to enter the lists
is William Jennings Bryan, foe of the theory oj
evolution. He announced in Pittsburgh yesterdy
that he had accepted an invitation to represent th,
World's Christian Fundamental Association in ty
prosecution of Scopes.
The organization also asked the Commoner to
tour the colleges and universities of the country aj
present the arguments of fundamentalists befor
the student bodies and reply to advocates of th
theory of evolution.
"I have been aSked to help in the fight to pr.
serve the integrity of that law (Tennessee eyoly.
tion law) and I am going to do it," Bryan said in a
address to the Pittsburgh Presbytery after the jp.
vitation had been received.
Bryan asserted that "carefully prepared figury
indicate that among freshmen who enter collegy
15 per cent are without religious faith.
"The attack being made right now upon those who
stand squarely for the Christian faith of their father
is not an attack on orthodoxy. It is an attack om
religion.
"There are about 5000 scientists in the United
States, and probably half of them are atheists. Are
Wwe going to allow them to run our schools? We ar
NOt.
A Stinging Rebuke
A special program recently. was.held. in a.Chatta:
nooga, Tenn. grammar school in connection with the
presentation of a flag and a Bible to the school.
One of the speakers of the day was Dr. J. N. Bull
pastor of the Hast Chattanooga Baptist Church, 4
cleric apparently of the Ku Klux Klan persuasion.
For in hig address, he thanked God that Govern0l
Peay had signed the anti-evolution bill, denouncel
those who do not accept literally every word in the
Holy Writ and wound up his address by an assallll
on other religions.
Sitting on the same platform was Commissionel
of Education Fred B. Frazier. He was the neil
speaker. When he arose, he turned directly to tht
Rev. Bull and said:
Doctor, you have just said you hoped no one
would be allowed to teach in the public schools
except those who stand for 100 per cent Amer
icanism.
I want to call your attention to the fact that
when this flag was born and the constitution
of the United States adopted, America invited
the oppressed peoples of every country to this
land of freedom. We promised them political
and religious liberty. We held out to them the
privilege of worshipping God each according 1
the dictates of his own conscience.
Real Americans have not changed in this pal
ticular. We admit to our public schools, with
hearty welcome, people of all creeds and faiths.
We welcome Catholic and Protestant, Jew and
Gentile. Neither you nor I shall say to the
how they shall worship. Neither you nor |
shall prescribe or persecute them. `They #e
all Americans.
What will be the outcome if the children 4!
taught hate, and suspicion and religious intol-
erance?
The flag stands for things of immeasurable
importance in our individual life; and it should
never be forgotten that it is not the exclusive
possession of any one race or creed ir America:
aL MS
Good for Commissioner Frazier! +e
1e af
The Rev. Bull must have had th'*-jde of a 0x2122
nocerous not to have felt some of t@yy sting of this
deserved rebuke. ' U.
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poet i
We want letters.
Lots of them.
From lots of people.
On lots of subjects.
BUT NOT LOTS OF WORDS.
Make them "Century Letters,"
that is letters of not more than
One Hundred words.
Write on subjects of general
interest.
Typewrite your letters,
if possible. If you are
interested in anything worth-
while, say so. But say it in
as few sentences as you can.
Sign your name. It will not be
used if you do not wish it
published, provided you say So.
Let's make "SAY SO" the best
page of this paper. Mind you,
be brief. And again, BE BRIEF.
oO A]
Kditor "Say So," Column,
Open Forum:
Basing his deductions on conversations had with
"two or three members of the I. W. W." and a
member of the Los Angeles police force at San
Pedro, whom he credits with making the statement
that, "They ain't around here any more (meaning
members of the I. W. W.); we won't stand for it,"
BE. 0x00A7. Green, whose communication appeared in a
recent issue of The Open Forum, would seem to
have concluded that the I. W. W. is, at least tem-
porarily, somewhat in eclipse in San Pedro.
My object in writing to your Open Forum is to
attempt to place this gentleman right in his appar-
ently well-meant efforts to learn the truth regarding
the San Pedro situation with respect to the I. W. W.
and the fight against the Criminal Syndicalism law.
The I. W. W. never gives up a fight in any part
of the world, once it is started. Their slogan "we
never forget" is something more than an empty boast
or threat, as the history of the organization will
show.
Frank Little, I. W. W. speaker and organizer, was
hanged by a paid gang of corporation gunmen at
Butte, Montana, and in later years the organization
was So warred on through the instrumentality of the
blacklist, and other corporation devices, that it was
hard to find much more than a handful of avowed
members anywhere in the copper camp. But sur-
face evidences in Butte, with respect to I. W. W.
strength and activities, are deceiving, as well as
`San Pedro. In the hearts and minds of all those
rebels who have suffered for their efforts for eco-
nomic freedom in Butte or San Pedro or Centralia
or Patterson, or any other place where the I. W.
W. membership has been crucified, the longing for
freedom stil] smolders and will break again into
*conomic revolt upon the industrial field whenever
the I. W: W, raises its banner of industrial freedom
through peaceful industrial organization and calls
for action. The I. W. W. strength can not be
measured by its physical expression. The strength
ee I W. W. is its physical membership and
ae ae plus that spiritual reaction of rebel work-
`ee onsite tyranny which expresses itself
vanes a admiration and secret support in such
Padre' industria] persecution as Butte and San
aneaee support which flames into open activity
2 a Strikes or other forms of economic crisis
upon the workers.
co and his minions of terrorism within
a = Het Legion and the Ku Klux Klan can not
ing the Sane of progress in San Pedro by scald-
Soe ildren of the J. W. W. and tarring and
their elders.
The Scalded litt!
Scars, anq their
harrieg Out of th
I the prison hell
eeuro ones still suffer and bear their
elders, many of them, have been
euro land or railroaded to long terms
all othantas S of this state; but Mr. Green and
ae a Well-wishers of the I. W. W. can rest as-
gout at the I. W. W. "never forgets" and that it
dead in San Pedro.
The great majority
of those six hundred rebel
Water-front Strikers of
San Pedro who were cast
"he would like to see them.
into the foul dungeons of the Los Angeles medieval
jail and had the hot steam turned on them until
many fainted and some were injured for life, did
not go back home with love in their hearts for
their industrial and political oppressors, nor an oOver-
weening desire to lay down and give up the struggle
for living wages and decent working conditions.
Neither did they go back to their humble homes
with hatred in their heart for the I. W. W., as it
was the only organization that had ever had the
courage to come to them and offer a chance for bet-
terment: of conditions through peaceful industrial
organization and action. They still love this rebel
organization; but they can not give expression to
their feelings and adherence openly and live and
support their families in San Pedro. Jake Hammond
of the California Lumber Trust and the other great
allied shipping and lumber interests still have their
"Wink Hall," and the blacklist against all who are
known to be members of the I. W. W. still flourishes
in San Pedro. Rebel men in San Pedro must remain
silent or suffer the penalty of starvation for them-
selves and families and the loss of their little homes.
Even in the case of the rebel sailors of the I. W.
W. who sail into this stronghold of industrial tyranny
on ships from the seven seas, it is necessary that
all organization activities on their part be "soft-
pedaled" or they will be liable to arrest and depor-
tation if they happen to be of foreign citizenship, or
jailed or blacklisted if they belong under the starry
banner of free America. Silence on the part of
workers in the golden state is not exactly golden,
but it spells discretion.
Redoubled efforts aimed at the release of the I.
W. W. victims of corporate rule in California from
the state' prison hells and the repeal of the Criminal
Syndicalism statute are now being made by the
I. W. W. and the Civil Liberties Union.
If Mr. Greene and men and women of like trend
will come to the support of these movements of the
respective organizations it will hasten the day when
some small measure of freedom of speech and press
and assemblage for rebel workers can be had in
California.
JACK BLAIR.
* * * *
2279 W. 20th St., Los Angeles, Cal.
American Civil Liberties League,
Los Angeles, Calif.
Dear Sirs:
An item appeared in your valuable paper in the
issue of May 23rd over the signature of one E. S.
Green, in which he bewails the fact that the I. W.
W. members are not going to jail as assiduously as
It seems as though Mr.
Green would like to see members of the I. W. W.
going to jail in large numbers every day. So would
many others, notably A. B. Hammond, Harry Chand-
ler and the rest of "Our Best People." Mr. Green
says that we of the J. W. W. have given up the
fight against the Criminal Syndicalism law. Not so
Oswald. It is true that there are no members at
present waiting trial under this nefarious law. But
this is not due to the fact that the I. W. W. have
given up the fight, nor to a change of heart on the
part of the exploiters. It is due to the publicity given
to the law by the members of the I. W. W. and others
interested in civil liberties.
Mr. Green says that the I. W. W. themselves admit
defeat at San Pedro. Again Mr. Green you are
mistaken or misinformed. We have not given up
the fight in. that stronghold of the Shipping Com-
bine. But even if we had given up and admitted
defeat, would this be surprising? Hight hundred
members arrested in one summer; at least three
men and one woman dead as a result of the perse-
cution, one man in the insane asylum, six men tarred
and feathered, and several little children scalded by
a mob. Can any other organization show such a
record? Where was Mr. Green while all this was
going on? Has he gone to jail as a protest?
Mr. Green hopes that the Civil Liberties Union
has not given up the fight against the Criminal
Syndicalism law. He reminds us of the, all too
common, unorganized workers in the lumber camps
of the Northwest who exclaim, "I wish the I. W. W.
would come in here and clean things up."
Yes, Mr. Green, we have men on the water front
of San Pedro, and on the ships that ply the waters
of the Pacific, we're not divulging their names even
to such a staunch defender of civil rights as you.
Have you ever heard of the black list? Others are
anxious to know if there are any members in San
Pedro. The spies of the master, like the evil one,
are every where in divers disguises, so one must
be careful if he wishes to work in San Pedro and
bui`d up a working class organization.
Sincerely yours,
ARCHIE SINCLAIR.
* * * *
301 N. Avenue 66, Los Angeles, Cal.
May 13, 1925.
Editor of Open Forum, Los Angeles, Cal.
Oear Sir: |
It was during the month of April,.1925, that I had
the pleasure of meeting the evangelists, Mr. and
Mrs. Herbert Ireland, at the Garvanza M. EK. Church,
corner of 66th Ave. and Pasadena Ave., and during
a talk with them I inquired if they had read any of
Mr. Wm. Morris' works. No, but they would like to
do so. I therefore left them a copy of News from
Nowhere, with the following letter:
"My Dear Friends Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Ireland:
"T am pleased to leave you the book `News from
Nowhere' by Wm. Morris. Poet and artist and
staunch friend of the people, whose whole life was
devoted to the uplifting of the masses, during my
travels abroad I had the pleasure of meeting Mr.
Morris at his studio in London, England, and be-
came a member of his Club, `The Kelmscott.' I
also met Mr. Wm. Stead, author of the noted book-
`If Christ came to Chicago.' At that time Mr. Stead
was editor and owner of The Pall Mall Gazette, an
English newspaper, and for writing an article for
that paper, viz.: London's Virgin Tribute to Babylon,
was tried and sentenced to prison. I'm afraid that
these same judges would place Christ behind the
bars for his teachings. We have some modern jn-
stances of justice? in the United States-when Judge
Landis of Chicago fined Bro. John D. Rockefeller
$27,000,000 for illegal rebating, he remarked `you
will be a long time dead judge before that fine is
paid." He then got another Federal Judge, named
Krauskoff to reverse the sentence. Let me ask-
Is a millionaire a law unto himself, that he can
have the power to reverse a just sentence? Is not
that an anarchistic proposition? `Every man unto
himself a law.' Are we corrupt and content that
nothing will shock our sense of honest dealing? Not
even a case like the stealing of the Teapot Dome
oil property, on illegal profits of which have been
built an expensive church in this city which should
be dedicated to the memory of Teapot Dome.
"We have fallen among thieves, whose head-
quarters are in Wall Street and let us ask the good
Creator for the will and power to destroy this
robber system which corrupts and governs the
nation, and is responsible for the terrible evils of all
the poverty, crime, war and pestilence in the world,
"The work of Wm. Morris had no beneficial effect
on Mr. H. Ireland and Co. so far as I could see
after reminding him of the 600,000 Mary Magdalenes
in the U. S. whose souls and bodies are in need of
Salvation of some kind. See B. Shaw in Mrs. War-
rens Profession,
"= 0x00A76Yours truly,
sOWe E. HAYWOOD"
yen * * *
Editor Open Forum:
The degree of intellectuality in some brands of
patriotism is evidenced by the way some parents
allow their boys to run around in the uniform of
private military schools, being entirely unaware that
in so doing, they, the parents, advertise to the
world that they consider this country's war to abol-
ish war to have been a complete failure. And,
though their own action supports the contentions,
so dense in comprehension are they that they will
become very angry if it is intimated that the victory
we celebrate on Armistice Day, was in reality a de-
feat.
L. O'DELL.
* * * *
Mr. Robert Whitaker, 506 Tajo Bldg., Los Angeles,
California.
Dear Robert Whitaker:
We have recently received several very interesting
news articles clipped from California papers, brimful
of propaganda for a naval war with Japan. We have
already made use of some of these and we plan to
use others in our work.
We should greatly appreciate if you would be so
kind as to send us what you have on hand (from
time to time) of clippings regarding any striking or
sensational news on matters such as the naval man-
euvers in the Pacific, any unusual group resolutions ,
drawn up in protest of militarization propaganda,
and other matters along the same lines.
Sincerely yours,
NEVIN SAYRE
THE OPEN FORUM
Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,
First and Broadway
Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California
Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.
Phone: TUcker 6836.
MANAGING EDITORS
Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft
LITERARY EDITOR
Esther Yarnell
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
J H. Ryckman
Doremus Scudder
Ethelwyn Mills
Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Leo Gallagher
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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, JUNE 6, 1925
COMING EVENTS
I SK I I OR OI IE a
Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall. 233
South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.
1 r- -___-__
EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION
At Eight O'clock
A Free Education is Offered at
EDUCATIONAL CENTER
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
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be ee
I. B. W. A. FORUM
At the Brotherhood Hall, 508 Hast 5th St.
Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.
All are Invited to Attend
John X. Kelly and J. Eads How, Committee
+ -______
NEW YORK, (FP)-Carlo Tresca,
Martello, Italian radical weekly, was
Atlanta penitententiary May 6 on completion of the
4-month term to which his one year sentence had
been commuted by President Coolidge.
convicted on a federal statute on'a charge of pub-
lishing a small birth control pamphlet advertisment
in his paper. The statute had never previously been
enforced in such a case but light was shed on the
reasons for the prosecution when the U. S. District
Attorney's office said the original complaint was
made by Mussolini's ambassador Gaetani. Tresca
will be a guest of honor at the Comppunity Church,
June 12, 8 P.M., where the story of his persecution
and that of Roger N. Baldwin and seven Paterson
silk strikers, sentenced for a free speech meeting,
will be told.
editor of Il
recued from
Federated Press.
Ht
Nothing would seem to be more certain than that
the inhabitants of the United States have i
the right to advocate peaceable changes in our Con;
stitution, law or form of government, although such
changes may be based upon theories or principles
of government antagonistic to those which now, serve
as their basis. And it seems equally certain that an
organization advocating such changes may adopt a
flag or emblem signifying its purpose and that the
display or possession of this flag or emblem cannot
be made an unlawful act.
--Calif. State Supreme Court in declaring the Los
Angeles Red Flag ordinance unconstitutional.
$$ f1-_-______
No practise of government has been followed so
often and with such uniform results as the practise
of attempting to stamp out by force the expression
of ideas and doctrines condemned by official author-
ity or by temporary majorities. In every case, under
every form of government, at all times and in all
places, such repression has, in the end, increased
and strengthened the very evils against which it was
directed. In every country reform movements have
always been increased in bulk and momentum by
efforts to suppress them; while eruptive and destroy-
ing theories have been rendered comparatively harm-
less by permitting their advocates to exploit them.
-Sen. Albert J. Beveridge Before the American Bar
Association,
Tresca was -
A Piece of Impudence
The following Open Letter from Henry W.
Pinkham, of Boston, Mass., to President Coolidge
is a sensible and courageous and much needed
protest against the despicable defacement of
private correspondence by the military arm of
our government. Pinkham is entirely right in
calling it "a piece of impudence."' Hven a
Quaker cannot send a letter, or receive one
in the United States today without having it
conspicuously stamped with the legends of war.
It is a colossal impertinence and there ought to
be tens of thousands who will join in this pro-
test. Write the President how you feel about it.
--. Wa
President Calvin Coolidge,
Dear Sir:
Every leter that comes to me is postmarked with
the words: "Let's Go! Citizens' Military Training
Camp." I suppose that every letter I send takes to
its recipient the same exhortation. Thus against
my will I help to advertise something in which I do
not believe.
Am I mistaken in my opinion that the
business of the Post Office is to handle
matter, not to make itself a propagandistic
in behalf of a policy on which the people
country are not agreed?
proper
mailed
agency
of this
The wholesale killing of fellow-men is the defiance
of common sense and the denial of common human-
ity. The training of men in the art of collective
homicide, that is to say, military training, is intellec-
tually stultifying and morally degrading. Benjamin
Franklin was right when he said: "There never was
a good war or a bad peace." Calling it self-defense,
or "a war to make the world safe for democracy,"
or any other euphemism, does not change the grim
reality. War is, always was, always will be, in its
very nature, the extreme of human foolishness.
There is always a preferable alternative. For war is
itself the supreme evil. To tesort to it to avert
some threatened wrong is like committing suicide
to ward off small-pox.
The World War was so effective an object-lesson
of the asininity of mass-killing as a method of real-
izing nob'e ideals that a rapidly growing number ot
the people in every country have decided that they
are done with war forever. The most encouraging
sign of the times is the spreading revolt of youth
against war. Multitudes of them are announcing
their determination never to engage in the wholesale
killing of fellow-men, no matter what may be the
commands of their government.
To the large number of people who are done with
war because it is such abysmal foolishness should
be added the great body of Christians who have
come to see that collective homicide can by no
possibility be reconciled with the explicit teaching,
not to say the spirit of Jesus, and who have resolved
that if through the folly of their government they
are compelled to choose between Christ and Caesar
they will follow Christ by refusing to engage in the
killing of fellow-men,
That postmark is a piece of impudence, a serious
affront to a very large and a fast increasing portion
of the people of this country. Therefore it should
cease to appear.
Will you give to this matter your personal atten-
tion? [I do not exaggerate its seriousness. Con-
sider the effect upon foreign peoples, the Japanese,
for example, of seeing such an appeal on every let-
ter that enters their country from ours. I pray you
to put an end to this impudent and mischievous pros-
titution of the public service to the support of that
ugly anachronism, that extreme of human folly, that
sum of all villainies called war.
Sincerely yours,
HENRY W. PINKHAM.
7 Wellington Terrace,
Brookline, Mass.
April 30, 1925.
-_-_-_-_--_1%-
So long as all the.increased wealth which modern
progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes,
to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast
between the House of Have and the House of Want,
progress is not real and cannot be permanent. The
reaction must come. The tower leans from its foun-
dations, and every new story but hastens the final
catastrophe.-Henry George.
Los Angeles
OPEN FORUM
MUSIC ART HALL
233 South Broadway
SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK
Program for June
JUNE 7-"`IMPERIAL AMERICA AND THR NEX)
WAR" by FRITZ KUNZ, an American young may
who has traveled extensively and has made {iry,
hand acquaintance with the peoples of severa] CON.
tinents. He has made a special study of the presen
drift toward another disastrous war, due to economy
maladjustment, selfishness and fear.
aim to show how that war can be averted, Baritone
selections by MR. M. FISH, accompanied by PROF
VON LIEBICH.
JUNE 14-"BEHIND THE SCENES IN GERMANY,
FRANCE AND ENGLAND" by Dr. LINCOLN |,
WIRT of San Francisco. This address was to hay
been given on May 24th, but Dr. Wirt failed to fin
the hall through a misunderstanding.
teresting evening may be expected as the docty
"knows his stuff," having recently been in Hurop
and having many times previously visited that ani
other parts of the world. MR. CARL ROSSNER
Cellist, will play for the occasion.
JUNE 21-"FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS" by
DEAN ARTHUR BRIGGS of the Los Angeles Lay
School.
will make this an appealing subject, and Mr. Briggs
is just the man to present it; he is a thoroughgoing
student and a most pleasing lecturer. Music by
MR. AND MRS. J. A. ELFENBEIN-Vocal and in-
strumental,
JUNE 28-`RADICALISM AND BOLSHEVISM'
by WILLIAM CANFIELD. To flaunt these terms be
fore most people is to wave a red flag and stir w
prejudice. What do the words really stand for
Are they synonymous? What is back of them? Mn.
Canfield will try to enlighten us on the _ subject,
Music by WILBEN HOLTHER, boy pianist, and IR:
VING HARDON, baritone, pupil of Prof. Von Liebich.
*
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