Open forum, vol. 3, no. 38 (September, 1926)

ee

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.-Milton

Vol. 3 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEMBER 18, 1926 No. 38

Pe he

Interesting Observations

(By One of Our Contributing Editors on Her

Summer Vacation.)

We are glad to welcome home Mrs. Gartz, who

jas just returned from an automobile trip to Van-

"waver covering 28 days. Mrs. Gartz had some very

| interesting experiences while away, visited a number

it lumber camps and obtained important first-hand

| formation as to the labor conditions in those

| amps, and in Centralia called upon Elmer Smith,

| wll mown everywhere as the courageous lawyer

vto stood the brunt of the battle in the savage

ya waged in recent years against the I. W. W.s in

ihe State of Washington. While in Centralia Mrs.

| wtz gained some interesting information as_ to

| the status of the eight men in state prison for long

ms as a part of the aftermath of the great World

| Wa, It is interesting to know that tireless efforts

ae being made to secure the release of these men

fon prison. She learned that on June 14, 1926,

wme eighteen relatives, wives and children of the

eight men, railroaded to the Walla Walla Peniten-

ary from 25 to 40 years as an outgrowth of the

Amistice Day tragedy in Centralia, Washington,

(N19, appeared before the Parole Board at Walla

Vala. They presented a written petition request-

ig the Parole Board to recommend a complete par-

im of these men, to the Governor of the State of

Washington. The petition absolutely established the

imocence of these men, and among other things,

wtained a letter from each of seven of the trial

- jors-in-the-case asking the Governor to release

hese men and giving their reasons for asking such

release,

The oral presentation of the petition was made

iy Miss Jean Stovel of Seattle, Washington, at the

aquest of the Centralia Publicity Committee. For

tote than an hour she very eloquently drove home

he ugly facts of the Centralia case. The Parole

board gave every opportunity to present the mat-

tt thoroughly and exhaustively. Mr. E. E. Sweit-

i, representing the seven jurors requesting the

| tease of the Centralia defendants, accompanied the

Ielatives and appeared personally before the Board.

About July 1 the Parole Board issued a press

`hhouneement that they would render their decision

7," the petition September 16, next, when they meet

a This announcement was undoubtedly made

eve persons and organizations a chance to pro-

igs. ie so desired. There have been no pro-

rade the Secretary of the Centralia Publicity

ie lvlee 1s convinced that there will be no pro-

| At, from Centralia. The labor boycott

ei ve So strong against Centralia that business

entralia want the matter closed.

ut ner that the Parole Board has designated

rei members to make an investigation of the

| es case and especially of the facts stated in

/ h that lon and the authenticity of the documents

connection.

pe of the Centralia boys are very hopeful,

ae overlooking the fact that the action of

Masi, Py be unfavorable. In that event all

`86 Wil] : defense committees interested in the

tate Pe une in a united campaign such as this

Bening never seen, in the hope that a mighty,

Pi surging tide of truth will compel action

. officials,

`i a Francisco Mrs. Gartz visited Miss Kath-

t The `ily who sends greetings to the readers

httbey ee Forum. At a number of the large

bthen we ct which Mrs. Gartz visited she found

tiven re ing ten hours a day, the excuse being

le umber ne ereency existed for immediate

hig Production. No I. W. W.s were found

ployed and when Mrs. Gartz inquired the

| Tason

"| hj ey a foreman suggested that they were not

(9 }

: on how and that if she was an organizer

ihieh she 4 Move on. She moved on to Red Bluff,

Me nidns ound occupied by the American Legion.

a tught orgies of the Legion members of

Life of Sacco-Vanzetti

Witness Extended

BOSTON.-(F.P.)-Celestino Madeiros, who has

confessed that he and the Morelli gang committed

the South Braintree murder for which Nicola Sacco

and Bartolemeo Vanzetti were convicted, will not

be rushed to the electric chair before he has had

an opportunity of giving his testimony before the

hearings for a new trial for the two working men.

The new trial hearings were set for September 13,

but Madeiros was slated for execution the week of

September 5-11 for the Wrentham Bank murder.

William G. Thompson, Sacco-Vanzetti attorney, pro-

tested the move to kill his star witness the week

before the new trial hearings and Governor Fuller

finally granted a respite till October 27.

For a time it looked as though Madeiros would

be electrocuted before the hearings. Attorney Gen-

eral Jay R. Benton ,after promising to obtain a re-

spite, backed down. Thompson appealed to the gov-

ernor, protesting that in a hundred years no At-

torney General had refused to respite a murder wit-

ness under such circumstances. But Fuller re-

buffed him, referring him to Judge Thayer, who pre-

sides at the Sacco-Vanzetti hearings. Thayer recom-

mended the extension and Fuller granted the respite

of execution.

With Madeiros dead the defense would have only

his affidavit of confession. His personal appearance

in the court room will be far more effective. Earlier

in the year District Attorney Wilbar of Norfolk

County was quoted as saying that he would de-

mand Madeiros' prompt execution, saying that with

Madeiros executed the Sacco-Vanzetti case could

then more quickly be disposed of.

Vanzetti does not expect justice from the courts.

"Only the will and action of the workers" can save

them, he declared. He has lain in prison for six

and a half years for the crime that Madeiros con-

fesses to.

The New International

Steel Trust

It is announced that plans are now perfected for

an international iron and steel trust between German,

French and Belgian interests. To the producers of

each nation a definite quota is assigned. Some hope

is felt that Poland, Austria and Czecho Slovakia

may come in. Great Britain is definitely out. The

United States is not in (except insofar as Ameri-

cans may have acquired interest in German com-

panies), but it is said that the combination is not

directed against the United States.

From one point of view a combination like this

is good, or at any rate better than a trade war be-

tween rival steel interests of Germany and France.

Such a trade war might well be a great factor in

bringing about international war. A Europe divided

like a crazy quilt by ten thousand miles of boun-

daries having little relation to economic facts must

make international economic agreements across na-

tional lines or perish. From this point of view the

new steel trust is an aid to peace.

Danger arises from two quarters: (1) The Euro-

pean nations not in the agreement, and (2) the fear

that this new trust will be even better able to grind

down the workers than the competitive national com-

panies have been. An effective international union

of the workers must be the answer to this union of

the bosses.

which she was an unwitting and unwilling witness

can not be recited in these columns. Such things

are also an aftermath of the great World War,

which left beneath the sod of France 100,000 in-

nocent American boys and moralized those who sur-

vived. Deel.

Labor Retires Judge Busick

By MAX STERN

SACRAMENTO.-The working folks of this coun-

ty are not only crowing over the defeat of the

labor-baiting governor, Friend Richardson, and his

playmate, Frank Merriam, candidate for lieutenant

governor.

They have retired Judge Chas. O. Busick, the

superior judge famous all over America for hay-

ing sent to San Quentin more than a score of

I. W. W., issued the notorious "Busick Injunc-

tion' 'and again and again exhibited the bitter-

est animus toward radical working men.

Busick. was defeated last Tuesday by Assistant

District Attorney Romeo Hughes. And along with

Busick the workers fired District Attorney J. J.

Henderson, Busick's companion in arms.

Busick was called `the prosecuting judge." His

complex on "reds" amounted to a mania and dimmed

his judicial sense so that again and again the

higher courts reversed his decisions. .

In 1921 two "wobblies" were being tried in Bu-

sick's court under the California criminal syndical-

ism law. Accused of no crime other than member-

ship in the I. W. W., the defendants called into

court 15 of their fellows to testify as to their char-

acter.

One by one as these left the witness stand they

were arrested and charged with a felony under the

"C, 8." law. They were tried in two batches of 10

and 5 each in Busick's court, and were all convicted

and sent to state's prison. Three of them were con-

vieted on identical testimony, which had freed them

in Los Angeles county. During the trial Busick

held that a general strike might be held in violation

or the: ""G, So" laws

In 1923. Busick issued the injunction which de-

clared in contempt of court all members of the I.

W. W. (some 50,000 at the time). This would have

denied a jury trial to those arrested for holding an

I. W. W. card. Only one man was arrested under

this injunction and sentenced to serve in the local

county jail by a police judge.

In 1925 Tom Connors, secretary of the California

Workers' Defense Committee, issued a number of

pamphlets concerning the abuses under the "C. Sg

law. One of these happened to fall into the hands

of a Sacramento man who later was impaneled as

a venireman. Connors was arrested for attempting

to tamper with a jury.

During his trial in Busick's court Judge Busick

had himself sworn by the clerk as a witness, and

in his own court, with no other judge sitting, he

testified against Connors. Connors was convicted

under the strange charge and is actually doing time

in San Quentin today. A young man, his hair has

turned white from his experiences.

The American Civil Liberties Union has just or-

ganized a new branch in California, and one of their

first jobs will be the release of the victims of the

"Cc, S." law and its repeal at the coming legisla-

ture. -(Los Angeles Record.)

Liberty

"The right to think, to know, to utter," as John

Milton says, is the dearest of all liberties. Without

this right there can be no liberty to any people;

with it, there can be no slavery. When you have

convinced thinking men that it is right, and the

humane men that it is just, you will gain your cause.

Men always lose half of what is gained by violence.

What is gained by argument is gained forever. Let

us believe that the whole of truth can never do harm

to the whole of virtue. ... The last lesson a man

even learns is that liberty of thought and speech

is the right of all mankind; that the man who denies

every article of our creed is to be allowed to preach

just as often and just as loud as we ourselves.-

Wendell Phillips.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the

funniest joke in the world.-Bernard Shaw.

bo

Will Censors Bar Workers'

Historical Movie from U. S.?

By ESTHER LOWELL, Federated Press

NEW YORK.-Are American workers to see the

film which has won Douglas Fairbanks' highest

praise? Repeatedly since the movie star saw Po-

temkin in Berlin he has declared the picture "the

greatest ever made." Berlin audiences are seeing

a modified version of the original playing in Rus-

sia. London and other English cities will not see

it at all because of the censor. American cities may

suffer the same fate.

New York journalists who saw the film in a show-

ing arranged by Amtorg Trading Corp., holder of

American rights of the film, and the Film Arts

Guild, were enthusiastic, but did not put their opin-

ions into print to help batter down the censorship.

Potemkin is a page from history graphically and

beautifully presented. The armed cruiser Prince

Potemkin lay off Odessa when the 1905 revolution

was attempted in Russia against the czar. The

sailors heard of the stirring ashore and rebelled

against their harsh officers, bad conditions and par-

ticularly the maggoty meat which the ships' doctor

passed as fit food. When the officers ordered the

shooting down of discontented ones, one sailor cried

out to the firing squad not to shoot their brothers

and the fight was on. The sailors seized the ship

from their officers and threw them overboard along

with the wormy meat. They elected a committee

of 26 to take charge.

But the sailor who had cried "Brothers" had been

shot dead by the chief officer before the latter was

seized. The sailor's body was taken ashore at night

-one of the finest pieces of photographic artistry

in the film-and left on the fishermen's dock with

an explanatory note pinned to his breast. All day

long lines of workers, men and women, filed down

the seemingly endless steps and out the breakwater

to view the body. Then the Cossacks came and

all night there was firing in the town. Workers

were shot down in cold blood-helpless mothers and

children. When the sailors on Potemkin heard of

it they turned their guns against the palaces on

the hilltop and bombarded them until there was

quiet among the sharpshooters and Cossacks.

Officers from the ship had managed to swim

ashore, however, and summoned the rest of the Ad-

miral's fleet. Potemkin turned its nose seaward

and when within range signaled for the sailors on

the other ships to join them. In fear the fleet of-

ficers ordered their ships to right-about. The film

ends suddenly with the sailors shouting "Hurrah"

to one another from ship to ship and only the final

caption gives brief indication of the historical end

of the incident. The caption says that Potemkin

was finally interned in a Rumanian port.

What happened in history was that Odessa fell

into the hands of the army and the sailors could

no longer get food from ashore. They steamed to a

Rumanian port and were refused aid. They went

back to Theodosia, a Russian port, and commanded

food with their guns, but when a group of the sail-

ors tried to seize three coal barges for much needed

fuel they were shot down. The ship returned to

Rumania and through Christian Rakovsky, now am-

bassador from Soviet Russia to France, who was

then in Rumania, the sailors negotiated the turn-

ing over of the ship to Rumanian government.

That is the story of the film and that is history,

but whether it is acceptable history to the censors

of movies in the United States remains to be seen.

As for its being a work of art, censors seem to

know nothing of art in their choice of what the

American film public may see. Potemkin is a thrill-

ing working class picture of historical value as well

as artistic value and American workers should de-

mand that they not be deprived of this film, made

by Sov-Kino, the Russian movie trust.

The scientists at the Williamstown Conference

have been giving gloomy figures as to the com-

paratively small store there is left in the world of

oil, coal and metals. Then they bid us be of good

cheer and trust the chemists and physicists to find

substitutes and especially to release atomic energy.

That's all very well, but our trust in science is no

reason for continuing the dangerous waste of nat-

ural resources which is inevitable under our profit

system. As for atomic energy, if the profit system

is still in control of international politics, it's all

too safe a bet that our first use of the new energy

will be to blow each other up. Then nobody will be

left to worry about waste. -Norman Thomas.

Washington Gossip

WASHINGTON. - (F.P.) - Triumph of Senator

Sam Shortridge of California in his campaign for

renomination at the hands of the Republican voters

of this state has been met by groans from the vet-

erans of the Senate press gallery. Not because

Shortridge is a reactionary, whose devotion to the

service of the Southern Pacific Railway and to the

big banking magnates of California is canine in

its completeness. The Senate has always had its

majority of servants to big business. The reason

why newspaper correspondents hoped that Short-

ridge would be lost somewhere outside the Golden

Gate is because he is the dullest bore among all

the tiresome persons in that assemblage.

Tall and cadaverous, with a solemn, horse face

which is apparently incapable of a glint of humor

or a gleam of enthusiasm, Shortridge rises in the

midst of almost every serious debate to ask, pomp-

ously, some silly question. Sometimes he repeats

his query three or four times, in a measured voice

and with slow gestures which he considers impress-

ive to his fellow-senators. Usually his question stops

the debate for five or ten minutes, because he never

is satisfied with an answer such as the mental qual-

ity of his interruption warrants. Jim Reed of Mis-

souri once became so irritated at the showoff tactics

of the Southern Pacific senator that he remarked

that "No man in human history has ever been so

wise in fact as the Senator from California looks."

Whereupon Shortridge assumed a lordlier pose than

before.

Russia Serene, Envoy Insists

Recent reports of revolutionary activities in Rus-

sia were a pack of lies, originating no one knows

-where, declared Michel S. Pereferkovitsh of Moscow,

manager of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the

Russian Department of Agriculture, upon his ar-

rival at the Biltmore yesterday.

"There were certain changes of government

heads, but there was nothing revolutionary about

it," said Pereferkovitsh. "Russia is tranquil, there

is no unemployment and loyalty to the government

has never prevailed to the extent it does today. The

whole psychology of the people is different from

that of the prewar period. Every citizen regards

himself a part of the Soviet government and con-

tributes what he centan to its progress."

PARTY'S PERSONNEL

Pereferkovish is accompanied by Stepan S. Odin-

zow of Rostrov, manager of the North Caucasian

district of the agricultural department; Jacob W.

Slodkewitch, specialist in sheep breeding of the de-

partment, and J. W. Pincus of the Amtorg Trading

Corporation of New York, who acts as interpreter.

None of the Russians speaks English.

"We represent the Russian government in the

purchase of high-grade sheep in the United States,"

said Pereferkovitsh. `We have already purchased

1300 head in Ohio, Wyoming and Utah, and hope

to complete our purchases in California and other

Southwestern states. More than 3000 head of such

sheep were purchased last year in this country and

we have also obtained animals from Australia and

England."

LAUDS SOVIET REGIME

Speaking of conditions generally in Russia, Pere-

ferkovitsh spoke especially of the strides being made

educationally. `At the time of the revolution, 90

per cent of the Russian population was illiterate,"

he said. `"`Now all the members of the younger

generation can read and write and the schools con-

stitute one of our most active forms of endeavor.

There are many newspapers and other publications

throughout the country, served by at least 100,000

correspondents."

He denied that the Soviet government is seeking

to oust religion from Russia.

"There is no connection between church and State,

but everybody has the privilege of believing as he

pleases in religious mattres," he declared. `Where

cases of persecution of priests have been reported,

they have had their origin in the efforts on the part

of the clergy to foment revolution under the guise

of exercising religious privileges."

During their visit here the Russians will study

agricultural products and methods in California.

Among other things, they will attend the State Fair

now in progress at Sacramento.

-(Los Angeles Times.)

Articles "just dashed off' are usually in need of

another dash-into the wastebasket.

Five Union Miners Fyeeq _

From W. Virginia Pe,

MOUNDSVILLE, W. Va. - CEP.) ae hi

union labor defense case is drawing to a dice

the release of five Pennsylvania mhineks "

Moundsville penitentiary. Joe Tracz-seryin tom

eight-year term-is the only remaining retest an

of the 43 sentenced in Moundsville in 1999 cane

ing part in the march over the state line into _

little seab town of Cliftonville in the West Virg; i"

panhandle. sou

The Cliftonville battle was one of the bloodiest +

the history of miners' marches. Twelve Mare

guards and a West Virginia county sheriff aa

slain and seven union miners died on that memor.

able July 17, 1922. Hundreds of miners were Ge

arrested in Washington County, Pennsylvania and

taken over the line to Wellsburg, county at of

Brook County, W. Va. Two hundred and ten men

remained in jail a month; thirty more Were sen.

tenced to three-year terms; seven to terms of four

to seven years and six to eight to ten-year terms,

The men were gradually released on parole.

The march on Cliftonville illustrated the high fight.

ing spirit of the Pennsylvania miners. The great

strike wave had swept over union and non-union

fields of Pennsylvania and the West Virginia pan-

handle. Then suddenly the Richland Coa] company,

in West Virginia, but in the same union district

(No. 5) of the United Mine Workers, began scab.

bing. Strike breakers were imported; union fami-

lies were evicted and took up quarters in a near-by

tent colony. Company guards flooded the country-

side and insulted the women and beat up the men,

Strikers were barred from the public road that

passed in front of their tent colony.

Late the night of July 16 the Pennsylvania min |

ers began marching from the little town of Avella,

Washington County, Pennsylvania, ten miles from

Cliftonville. Nearly a thousand. were together,

Dawn found them atop the hill behind Cliftonville.

Six seabs approached the tipple and a deputation of

union miners stepped forward and asked them not to

work. Then the guards opened fire from a near-by

shack and an aged miner fell dead. The men fired

back from. the hill and the guards were chased away.

Later came reinforcements and the miners retired.

Arrests followed subsequently.

The prisoners just released are George Cratz, Joe

Diacz, John Kaminske, Pete Radianko and Teddy

Ruraumsky. The prisoners' families have been

cared for by the Cliftonville Relief Committee, rep-

resenting the local unions about Avella. Fred Siders,

president of the Duquesne local union, heads the

committee.

Injunctions Outlaw Peaceful

Picketing

That there is no difference between "peacefil

picketing" and any other kind is the opinion of Vice

Chancellor Berry of Trenton, N. J., in advising Ad

taurant owners to secure a permanent injunction

restraining members of the Greek Restaurant

Workers' Club from interfering with Newark eit

ployees. The club is trying to unionize Newark

restaurants. "Restraint of the mind is just as potent

as a threat of physical violence," said the Vice-Chat-

cellor. A law passed by the 1926 Legislature i

New Jersey, effective from July 5, specifically pe

mits "peaceful picketing." :

One hundred and sixty Greek restaurant owners

in Chicago have secured an injunction through ihe

Hugo Friend prohibiting the Hotel and Restaura"

Employees' International Alliance from ace he

form of peaceful picketing. The injunction

any form of communication with restaurant i

ployees at any place or any action that may Oi

"hatred, criticism, censure, scorn, disgrace anny

ance" to them.

BS ene Re rc SO ors ee

For the 999th time it is announced that a te

ernment is going to speed up the case BEE

and Doheny. Some of you old folks will i oug

the names. Sometimes we are optimistic ie end

to think that our children will live to eel

of this famous case. Justice in America nes

blind; she is lame in both legs.

Norman Thome

t

ean t cane

He that will not reason is a bigot; he Hea is

reason is a fool; and he that dare not 0x2122

slave.-Drummond.

o.oo ee ee eee

Pile a Yanan age Ne ns ae re

Pata Sy aay See

SE a ey ee eS eee ae Soren Ae

Pe ny ee ee er,

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8k as CO,

The Monetary Unit

September 7, 1926.

The Open Forum:

August 28th issue you published a let-

m Hopeful Skeptic on "Machinery and Birth

Bditor

In your

ter fro

a the four things which vey* says we must do

immediately, No. 3 is "Immediate disarmament";

nearest way we can do that is by getting the

e of this country to so thoroughly believe in

hat they will see that the Frazier Consti-

Amendment is adopted by the national and

the

peop

peace t

tutional

tate legislatures.

No. 2 brings us to the question of whether land

should be owned at all, or be free to whoever will

se it; and also to the question of whether we can

have any kind of taxation and have equal freedom.

When we understand that human work is the

oly thing that human beings can properly own-

ie only thing they have a natural right to ask

hers' work for in return-we will see that land

should be free. And, as to tax is simply to take,

there could be no taxes if we had equal freedom.

As to No. 1, it seems to me that it is an ideal we

are not likely to realize until we have made our

monetary unit (the dollar) issuable and receivable

SOLELY for one hour of adult human work.

`And as to No. 4, I do not see how it is to be

realized as long as we use a monetary unit that

puis a price on what is NOT human work, for

sich a monetary unit leads people to do things "for

money, 'regardless of whether they harm others or

not.

VAUGHN BACHMAN BROKAW,

R. 4, Box 225-A, Phoenix, Arizona.

*Vey is a common, third person, pronoun mean-

ing EITHER "he" or "she." .

Insulting Your Superiors

What is the latest news on the Los Angeles pro-

gam of progress? Here it is: "Los Angeles Police-

men Adopt Military Salute." Aint' that grand?

Something entirely new. Wonder why? Maybe

Police Chief Davis is kind of stuck on himself for

being the highmucker just now, and it may give

him secret satisfaction to know that he doesn't

lave to salute anybody,;except in a sort of con-

descending, "Yes-my-good-man" way. There must

be something of a kick in having "subordinates" kiss-

1 ing or kow-towing to or saluting you-if you like

that sort of thing.

Maybe Chief Davis is one of that kind. We don't

now. Maybe he hasn't a bit of conceit or pride

or that "I and Gott" feeling in his 100 per cent

Nordic blood; which would, of course, be a very

lare thing in a Nordic. But if he isn't that kind

oan American, then there ,must be some other

ttason for this fine and dandy saluting stuff.

Maybe, for all we know, it's just a part of a

lation-wide program to militarize every last one of "

ls American sentimentalists who hate materialism

, and who can be militarized only in a gradual

Vay. The more we think of it, the more stock we

lake in this idea and the more we discount the "`con-

teited-chief theory."

As a matter of fact, ever since the "war to end

Yar and militarism," we have grown into a military

class all our own, and the rest of tne countries fear

`S today as they once feared Germany. America

Ss Spending more money today for military purposes

than Germany did before the war, and like Ger-

many, We are militarizing our youth, our schools,

"it police, our newspapers, our women and mothers,

and even our churches.

ee are surely degenerating fast. In the old days

mi high sign" was to hold up the hand as the

lans did, or as clergymen do, unconsciously point-

'g toward heaven, as it were, greeting a man with

"Sort of "God bless you." No harm in that. That's

as stuff-if you mean it. But this saluting stuff

Bate the opposite. A man, instead of being free

ence and naturally courteous and well inten-

a ae it. does it altogether under compulsion,

i i ea machine or a dummy. Instead of point-

aa ove with a blessing on our lips to remind one

iy ha of blessed things, we are going ahead, stead-

tasty ne our children and our policemen the

my abit of making a snappy, mechanical ges-

A feping close to earth, just as if to say to the

`t fellow, "So much for you!"

ee Way we are teaching our policemen and

Brey to greet one another! As for myself,

never insult anybody that way.

our

Ky S. E.

Sinclair to Mencken

September 2, 1926.

H. L. Mencken, 2

Baltimore, Maryland.

My Dear Mencken:

As an active American Socialist you have made

me the target for some of your shafts, so you must

not be surprised if I turn some of them around and

send them back at you.

In the September American Mercury, reviewing a

life of Thomas Jefferson, you say as follows:

"Government has now gone far beyond anything

dreamed of in Jefferson's day. It has taken on a

vast mass of new duties and responsibilities, etc.

. -. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning,

the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious

and decent men."

Now as a Socialist it goes without saying that

those sentences excite my disapproval and I am

tempted to ask you to read them over in a calm

moment and see if they do not make you ashamed

of your reckless language .

Do you consider that when the government

brought your magazine to me it was acting as "the

common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and

decent men?' Do you consider that w'hen it issued

a postal order and brought you my money for a

subscription, it was so acting? Do you consider

that it is so acting when it comes to put out a fire

in your house? Do you consider that it was so act-

ing when army officers in its pay discovered the

germ of yellow fever? Or when, day by day, its

health officers keep watch in various Southern cities

for the mosquitoes that carry this disease?

I have named five activities of government. It

would be an easy matter to name five thousand

concerning which your statement would sound just

as reckless and absurd.

Sincerely,

UPTON SINCLAIR.

Hey, Mr. Priestley!

Editor, The Forum:

I have just read in your May issue the article by

an English gentleman who thinks that writers in

active rebellion against their time cannot ever pro-

duce literature. As an American writer in active

rebellion against his time, I list a few writers barred

by the Englishman from the realms of "literature":

Aristophanes, Euripides, Juvenal, Dante, Michael

Angelo, Cervantes, Moliere, Rosseau, Voltaire, Mil-

ton, Bunyon, Swift, Burns, Byron, Shelley, Blake,

Hugo, Heine, Whitman, Whittier, Tolstoi, Zola, Bar-

busse, Rolland, Gorki,: Wells, Shaw, Nexo, Toller,

Werfel, O'Neill, Sinclair Lewis, Dreiser, Anderson,

and, yours humbly,

he UPTON SINCLAIR.

: (From our Rostrum, The Forum).

Pasadena, Cal.

Christian Scientist Replies

to Mr. Whitaker

September 10, 1926.

EDITOR THE OPEN FORUM:

In his "swan song" in a recent issue the former

acting editor of The Open Forum gave an erroneous

Impression regarding our church.

Financial success is not the motive behind

Christian Science. The whole trend of Mrs. Eddy's

teachings is toward spiritual development and away

from the love of money and other forms of ma-

terialism.

Anyone who has developed spiritually is entitled

to prosperity and clean, attractive, harmonious sur-

roundings. Christ Jesus, Himself, wore the most ex-

quisite garment to be obtained; namely, the "seam-

less robe." Would He be criticized for thus proving

the bountiful abundance of God?

Our religion is founded on the teachings of Christ

Jesus. He said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,

and His righteousness; and all these things shall

be added unto you." Respectfully,

ALBERT BH. LOMBARD,

Christian Science Committee on Publication for

Southern California.

In the government of men a great deal may be

done by severity, more by love, but most of all by

clear discernment and impartial justice, which pays

no respect to persons.-Goethe.

The Tired Radical

By L. PR. RINDAL

The tired business man and the tired preacher

have many sympathizers in this misruled world. But

so is not the case with the tired radical, if the atti-

tude of 600 people assembled at Music-Art Hall, Sun-

day night, September 5, counts for anything. The

subject dealt with by Paul Jordan Smith was: "The

Tired Radical." Socialists, Anarchists and Single-

Taxers, many of whom supported Woodrow Wilson,

have grown tired, the speaker said. Some Anarchists

of the Emma Goldman brand have even become

Presbyterian preachers, he pointed out. Radicalism

is a product of conservative homes, religious intol-

erance and economic injustice. Not all economic

victims become radicals, however, because many

workers are not healthy enough-mentally-to re:

volt. Another reason for the making of rebels is

emotionalism. But many idealistic preachers, etc.,

turned into beasts during the World War. They were

worse than Hottentots in the jungle.

Economic fear, position of responsibility and gen-

eral hopelessness on account of slow progress, were

other reasons mentioned why radicals are getting

tired.

This explanation, however, does not suit Robert

Whitaker of the International Labor Defense. At

the time of his retirement a week ago from the A.

C. L. U. he made a radical speech and said: ``Rad-

icals are getting tired because they never were rad-

icals. A real radical never gets tired."

Smith's position was not quite clear to the audi-

ence at first. But a friend of his clarified matters

when he got the floor. "Years ago,' he said, "the

speaker of the day and myself used to talk about a

Red Army. Now what about China? According to

the Times, the Reds are ruling part of that great

country with an iron hand, and in Shanghai Russian

singers (of the White Guard variety) can't get an

audience-they are starving. Russia, the new turn

of affairs in China and the news from Mexico ought

to be inducement enough for tired radicals to come

back to active work in the ranks of labor."

Mexico a the Catholics

Dear Mr. Editor:

We want to tell you how tremendously glad we

are for that article, straightforward and true, "Mex-

ico and the Roman Catholic Church,' 'and that The

Open Forum gave it space. It is safe to say no

other paper in California would have printed it.

The menace of the Roman Church to our lives and

liberties is not confined to Mexico. Even now this

church is engaged in an effort to secure an amend-

ment to the California Constitution exempting Par-

ochial schools `from taxation. If Catholic school

buildings and lands claimed to be incident thereto

can be exempt from taxation, the Catholic Schools

can then compete with public schools in educa-

tional matters and all Catholic children and found-

lings turned over by the public authorities, already

subservient to that powerful church, will be "edu-

cated" by that church, whose boast it has: always

been that if the church has the control of the

child for the first seven years of its life it will

have no fear of losing it. The proposed Constitu-

tional amendment is:

"Any educational institution of collegiate grade,

within the State of California, not conducted for

profit, and any educational institution of secondary

grade, within the State of California not conducted

for profit, and which shall be accredited to the Uni-

versity of California, shall hold exempt from taxa-

tion its buildings and equipment ,its grounds with-

in which its buildings are located, not exceeding a

hundred acres in area, its securities and income used

exclusively for the purpose of education."

TWO GRATEFUL SUBSCRIBERS.

Tickets for the opening night of Earl Carroll's

elaborate girl show brought $100 apiece; that is,

New York's tired business men for one night's en-

tertainment paid about one-sixth of the money in-'

come that the average farmer receives for a year's"

labor. Unemployed coal miners, exploited textile

workers and deflated farmers will kindly take notice

that this is the best of possible worlds.

-Norman Thomas.

"We hold it demonstrated by experience that

foolish and violent speech is less dangerous than -

the attempt to control it by repressive legislation or

bureaucratic restrictions.'-Harry F. Ward.

|

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 1022 California Building,

Second and Broadway,

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836.

Clinton J. Taft Editor

e CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Wpton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz J. H. Ryckman

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills Robert Whitaker

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. 18, 1924, at

the nost office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1926

16

This paper, like the Sunday Night Forun, is

carried on by the American Civil Liberties

Union to give a concrete illustration of the

value of free discussion. It offers a means of

expression to unpopular minorities. The or-

ganization assumes no responsibility for opin-

1ons appearing in signed articles.

COMING EVENTS

ewe KK kK kk Kk

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

South Broadway, Sunday Evening at 7:45 o'clock.

oH

PB. .W: A; FORUM

At the Brotherhood Hall, 420 Stanford Ave.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

Other meetings every Thursday at 7:30 p. m.

All are Invited to Attend

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I. W. W. OPEN FORUM

(Emergency Program)

224 South Spring Street, Room 200

Los Angeles

EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT AT 8

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NEGRO FORUM-Sundays, at 4:30 P.'M., Masonic

Temple, 12th and Central Avenue.

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PROLETARIAN FORUM

Every Saturday, 8:00 P. M.

224 South Spring Street, Second Floor

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SOCIALIST PARTY DIRECTORY

Headquarters, Room 418 Bryson Bldg., corner 2nd

and Spring Streets. R. W. Anderson, Secretary, City

Central Committee, Phone VErmont Sil Ce.6. GC:

meets second and fourth Mondays. Branch Central

meets every Tuesday evening at Headquarters,

ee ate ee

Robert Whitaker announces regular meetings of

the Congregation of the Daily Life, Sunday mornings,

11 o'clock sharp, and the Cosman Class, Thursday

evenings, 8 o'clock sharp; both at Rowland Hall,

Columbia Building, 318 West Third Street, Los An-

geles. No charge for admission. Collections.

_ Addresses and discussions concern the better un-

derstanding of the world in which we live in the in-

terests of the everyday life of each and all. You

are invited to attend.

FREE VIOLIN LESSONS

To Talented Children of Parents who

are unable to pay

MAX AMSTERDAM

Prominent Violin Teacher and Soloist

CAUOLemple st, eye = Uo Decal ONES

Reasonable Rates to Beginners

Fined $500 for Riding in

Puliman

For riding in a Pullman car through Florida, Mrs.

Blanche Brookins of New York City, a Negro, was

arrested and jailed for a night. She was tried the

next morning before County Court Judge J. G. Cal-

houn of Patalaka, Fla., and fined $500 and costs for

violating the Florida "Jim Crow" law. Mrs. Brookins

had bought a through ticket from New York to Or-

landa, Fla. At Jacksonville she was ordered by ,the

conductor to retire to the Jim Crow car. When she

refused she was taken from the car by police. After

imposing the fine, Judge Calhoun declared: "That

happens to be the maximum penalty or it would be

more."

Negroes in Virginia are barred from joining any

insurance fraternal order in which the majority of

the membership or of the officers are white, ac-

cording to the interpretation of the State Commis-

sioner of Insurance on insurance legislation recently

`passed.

Abolition of Compulsory

Military Service

Influential men and women of fifteen countries

have united in a petition to the League of Nations

to propose the abolition of compulsory military serv-

ice in all countries "as a first step toward true dis-

armament." Woodrow Wilson at one time suggested

this plan. Of course the abolition of compulsory

military training would not of itself guarantee

peace. It would, however, destroy a singularly ef-

fective tool for militarizing the minds of the peo-

ple. It would make it harder to declare war on

the spur of the moment before the forces of con-

ciliation were put to work. This proposal therefore

should be emphatically backed in America, where

fortunately the custom:of compulsory military serv-

ice is not yet established. The boys who are soon

to go back to compulsory training in our schools

and colleges, however, will know that we have taken

a long step toward the thing against which these

leaders of the best thought of the world now pro-

test. -Norman Thomas.

Some 4000 young pacifists, mostly French and

German, got together in France. They don't seem

to have done anything very startlingly radical, but

that they met at all was worth while. What is more

astonishing, they staid in army tents and were fed

by army kitchens. We Americans have been in the

habit of regarding France as too militaristic, but

can you imagine our War Department rendering a

similar service to a young folks' conference on

peace? Remember the aid it did render to the

jingoes who nearly broke up the Concord peace con-

ference! Maybe the Europeans aren't so militaristic

nor our own countrymen so peace-loving as we naive

Americans sometimes assume.-Norman Thomas.

Rabbi Magnin to Speak

Before F.O.R.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation will resume its

monthly meetings on Monday evening, September

27, when Rabbi Magnin of B'nai B'rith Synagogue

will speak, following a fifty cent dinner at the Blue

Triangle Club, 631 South Spring Street. He will

take for his subject: `How Can Jew and Gentile

Arrive at a Better Understanding of Each Other?"

Phone reservations to either WAshington 5116 or

TUcker 6836. Dinner at 6:30 o'clock.

Workers' Bookshop and

Library

322 West Second Street (Near Hill)

Phone MEtropolitan 3265 Los Angeles, Calif.

Call, phone or write for latest books for workers.

Subscriptions taken for radical papers.

EXPIRATION NOTICE

Dear Friend: If you find this paragraph encircled

with a blue pencil mark it means that your sub-

scription to "The Open Forum" expires next week.

Enclosed find $__..--_-_-~-~--s for which continue my

: months

subscription to the paper for year

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Address

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OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

Sept. 19-"The Recent British Labor Crisis"

Mortimer Downing, who was in England before, d

ing and after the so-called Genera] Strike,

his eyes and ears open and has returned with quite g

different version of the affair than most people ie

Although we have already had two discussions i

this subject at the Forum, we welcome Mr. Down.

ing's further contribution to our knowledge of this

matter which startled the whole world. Musi

Mr. H. L. Nettler, baritone.

by

w-

He kept

C by

World Finance and the

Working Class

Last Sunday evening at the Open Forum to a large

audience George Frankel, a German journalist of

wide travel and experience, delivered a very inter-

esting address on the above subject. The speaker

said the biggest problem confronting the world to-

day is the stabilizing of the world's money and that

the burden of so doing is upon the shoulders of the

international bankers. The chaotic condition of the

circulating medium in France, Italy, Poland and other

countries of Europe is cause for genuine alarm and

seems to be beyond the skill of the bankers to bring

about stabilization. England had to borrow $200,-

000,00 in gold from Wall Street to put the British

Empire again on a gold basis. Wall Street also lent

$600,000,000 to put German industry agoing, and now

these same private capitalists are discovering that

they can't get their interest on this enormous invest-

ment if Germany is to pay reparations under the

Dawes plan. So also the same banking group in-

duced our government to fund the Italian debt to us

on a 25% basis, so they could lend $100,000,000 to

Mussolini to stabilize him, but it has failed to stabi-

lize the lira.

on the dotted line, and France will probably not sign

at all. We won't know, however till Mellon returns.

The German Emperor started out to smash inter-

national exchange. Woodrow Wilson started out to

make the world safe for plutocracy. Both succeeded.

At the. outbreak of the war we were a debtor

nation to the tune of $4,000,000,000. We now have

wiped out that indebtedness and are a creditor nation

to the extent of four times that amount. Hence the

fearful financial dislocation of every country pal-

ticipating in the World War. The war cost $337,

000,000,000. When it broke we had a gold reserve of

$1,750,000,000 out of a total in the world of $4,677-

000,000. At the end of the war we had $4,750,000,000

in gold reserve and the rest of the world had $419,

000,000. This explains the dislocation and accounts

for our prosperity and Europe's misery. The bank

ers of this country now with this vast gold reserve

are aiming to establish a super-banking system for

ihe whole world and, of course, must go into the

League of Nations by the front door or any old do0!,

so they get in, to save their investments abroad.

He says Borah and Johnson are paltry politicians

and back-numbers. Self-preservation is the first law

of life; also of American bankers. The speaker es

no faith in the gold standard. The basis of 4 cit-

culating medium should be a unit of labor energy,

controlled by the workers themselves. The preset!

world chaos in finance proves that the bankers cal

not be trusted. The address was well ae

J. H. and

Re _pavid

Corrupted free men are the worst of slaves.-Dav!

Garrick.

OS ene

Peoples

ig National Bank

~

Bank/

@ 409 So. Hill St.

~~

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Now the English are sorry they signed

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