Open forum, vol. 5, no. 37 (September, 1928)

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~ THE OPEN FORUM

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Vol. 5

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEMBER 15, 1928

No. 37

WORKERS VOTE FOR YOURSELVES

By GEORGE H. SHOAF

Politicians, preachers, newspaper editors and their

sponsors and financial backers, the big industrial

posses, sneeringly assert that the American working

classes have little courage and less sense; that they

are merely mules to be worked in the mines, fields

and factories; to be herded into the polls and voted

as their masters wish; to be driven to the battle-

fields of war to die, if necessary, that their masters

might live and the system that enslaves them might

survive.

_ Many persons either ignorant or inspired by ul-

terior motives will question this statement or de-

nounce it as cynically false. If any worker doubts

it let him, if he can, insinuate himself into the so-

ciety where politicians, preachers, newspaper editors

and the bosses congregate and where, out of sight

and away from the dirty presence of the working

mules, these snobs of wealth and power exchange

opinions and speak their mind.

Words are totally inadequate to express the con-

tempt with which the working people of this coun-

try are held by the lickspittle satellites of the mas-

ter classes and more than words would be required

to convey an idea of the abhorrence felt for the

workers by those who own and control the nation's

wealth.

Hven among the workers themselves certain ones

arrogate a superiority as invidious as it is absurd.

At no time in the black record of the class strug-

gle have the bosses shown their hand so plainly

and so brazenly as in the present lineup and aitti-

tude of the two political wings of American capi-

talism-the Republican and Democratic parties.

Heretofore our political dictators deemed it expe-

dient to differentiate the two major parties by op-

posing issues; in this campaign issues have been

thrown boldly into discard, so sure are they of the

asininity and gullibility of the workers, and two

hand-picked henchmen-notorious champions of

labor's enemies-have been nominated, either of

whom will serve the interests of the plunderbund.

Moral Issue Paraded

Hoover's election will be construed by the bosses

as a mandate from the people to forget what has

been left of the original principles of our republican

form of government and to begin an immediate drive

toward the consummation of a plutocratic dictator-

ship. Smith's ascension to the presidency, it is

said, might delay the program, but his administra-

tion under capitalism, in the very nature of things

and ignoring his barren record in public office, can-

not and will not redound to the benefit of the work-

ing class. The election of any capitalistic candidate

simply strengthens the hands of the bosses in their

determination to make capitalism supreme. Liquor

and Teligion have been injected into the campaign

to divide suckers over so-called "moral issues" and

to Prevent the discussion of matters fundamental.

Every Practical politician and experienced econo-

pe knows these facts and admits them; only the

re ae prejudiced and those blind to the develop-

ay of the hour attempt to make denial.

"if poe is the challenge hurled into the teeth

ihe 8 disinherited. Congratulating themselves

ia ee we workers starved and intimidated

sapien fy ees and that the parasites of

bisa (c) So-called middle classes, are too fee-

iH The 0 take notice or object, the buccaneers

Leshan ruite have decided to discard the old

`SHE hee i henceforth openly and quickly slam

sone a to complete political and industrial

ae at will regard the election of either

win a a as their warrant to go ahead.

bate? a ee accept the challenge and strike

Infamous in a they the guts to resent this most

Have thaip as ever offered in political history?

Tams atrophied and their backbones

turned

their to mush? Are they really the human mules

t masters acclaim?

`

Pai Remember the Alamo!"

think ye ation like this the brain almost ceases to

: only feelings are aroused. How any work-

er with a memory, and a perspective of the program

of repression and oppression as it has been prac-

ticed in the development of American capitalism,

can conscientiously withhold a radical vote is be-

yond comprehension. As the Texans went into the

battle of San Jacinto with the cry of "Remember

the Alamo!" on their lips, so should the workers in

this election go to the polls bent on avenging the

outrages inflicted on their class by the Myrmidons

of capitalism. What worker can recall the horrors

of the Idaho Bull Pen without registering a political

protest? Who can remember the betrayal of the

A. R. U. strike without doing his bit to defeat the

political parties that applaud it? How can any

working man or woman tie up with a political move-

ment-Republican or Democratic-whose leaders

or henchmen always, at the instance of the bosses,

have hamstrung and crucified every organization

that seriously undertook the emancipation of labor?

Every vote cast for Hoover or Smith is an out-

1ight endorsement of the judicial murder of Sacco

and Vanzetti. Such a vote sanctions child labor and

guarantees the continuance of an unemployed army

of four million men. A Republican or Democratic

victory means increased insecurity for those who

toil and a probable repetition of the world war.

The very least the worker should do, if he will not

vote for the party of his class, is to register a nega-

tive vote by remaining away from the polls.

No Socialist of breadth and understanding will

begrudge the growth of the Communist and Socialist

Libor parties. They represent an element of con-

scious and constructive protest on the part of the

proletariat. The Socialist party is here urged upon

the workers for the reason it contains a practical

program peculiarly adapted to conditions as they

exist in the United States and is the best American

expression of the international movement for world-

wide working-class emancipation.

In voting the Socialist ticket the workers do not

seek simply to elevate a set of candidates to political

jobs. Rather does the act serve notice that those

who ballot thus have decided to take the first step

in .a journey which eventually will free them from

being the kitchen mechanics and janitors of capi-

talism.

For once in their lives the workers should forget

personal ambitions, cease their picayunish strife

among themselves, present a united front at the

ballot box and honor themselves by voting for the

party of international socialism, calling for a war-

less world of the workers, by the workers, for the

workers.

Union Fights Fascisti

Bullying of Americans

In an effort to combat attempts of the Italian

Government to "intimidate American citizens of

Italian birth who happen to be anti-Fascists," the

American Civil Liberties Union has sent out an ap-

peal to anti-Fascist newspapers in the United States

for evidence of such interference by Italian consuls.

Four specific instances in which Italian consular

authorities are known to have put pressure on Amer-

ican citizens to desist from any activities or connec-

tions against the Fascist Government have already

been reported to the Union.

The cases cited include those of Italian-American

anti-Fascists who have been citizens of the United

States for as long as thirty years. They involve

arbitrary questioning and investigation by Italian

consular agents, threats by the Italian authorities

to "get" American citizens for anti-Fascist activity

in the United States, and in one case loss of a job

through pressure exerted by an Italian consul.

Asserting that "such activities by agents of a for-

eign government are violations of the rights of

American citizens and of the treaties between the

United States and Italy," the Union's letter says

that "they must be fought, and the American Civil

Karolyi Lands at N. Y.;

Seeks to Lift Visa Ban

Confidence that the State Department's ban on

his visiting the United States will soon be lifted was

expressed by Count Michael Karolyi, first President

of Hungary, as a result of interviews with State

Department officials September 1, when he came

ashore at New York from a liner bound from Mex-

ico to Spain. Count and Countess Karolyi, who are

political refugees from the Horthy Hungarian dicta-

torship, have been denied visas by the State Depart-

ment since 1925, because of alleged radicalism.

Despite its three-year ban on Count Karolyi's en-

try, the State Department made no objection to his

landing for the fifty-one hours his ship was in port.

The Count was welcomed on the dock at an open-

air meeting arranged by a reception committee of

Hungarian and American liberals, sponsored by the

American Civil Liberties Union. After the meeting

he and his attorney, Morris L. Ernst of New York,

took an airplane to Washington for the scheduled

conferences.

Returning to New York the following day, Count

Karolyi expressed appreciation of the changed atti-

tude of officials, who formerly refused to see him

but now seemed willing to discuss his case. From

the parleys the Count carried away the impression

that the visas will be granted within a reasonable

time after he makes formal reapplication. Only un-

conditional leave to enter would be accepted, he

said, recalling that he was admitted to see his sick

wife in 1925 only after promising to refrain from

political activity.

Fhe American Civil Liberties Union, which -pro-_-

tested the exclusion of Count Karolyi in 1925 and is

now making efforts to have him admitted, says in

regard to the State Department's stand:

"The State Department's ban on Count and Count-

ess Karolyi was due to what officials regard as their

`communist views.' This is plain nonsense. Neither

the Count nor the Countess has ever been a Com-

munist. They are pacifists and liberals. But they

are both enemies of the dictatorship now in control

of Hungary, and the Hungarian Government has_

naturally opposed their stirring up opposition to it

in the United States and elsewhere. The State De-

partment has. been obviously sympathetic with the

attitude of the Hungarian ambassador at Washing-

ton.

"Continued exclusion of Count and Countess Kar-

olyi looks a little absurd in the light of the atti-

tude of both the French and British Governments,

which permit them freely to enter and depart, and

to reside where they wish. Neither of them has

abused the hospitality extended to them as political

refugees. The bars are up only here in the United

States, a land until recent years hospitable to politi-

cal exiles. If the Count is not dangerous for fifty-

one hours while he is in the port of New York as

a traveler, just how long would he have to stay to

be dangerous?"

Showdown Expected in

Schwimmer Case Soon

The Department of Labor has until September 29

to appeal to the United States Supreme Court the

decision of the Court of Appeals at Chicago directing

that citizenship be granted Madame Rosika Schwim-

mer, Hungarian peace advocate, according to ad-

vices received by the American Civil Liberties Union

from Olive H. Rabe, Chicago attorney, who is hand-

ling the case.

Unless an appeal is taken by that date the stay

of mandate granted by the court to Fred J. Schlot-

feldt, : naturalization examiner, who seeks to bar

Madam Schwimmer from citizenship for her pacifist

views, will be vacated and Madame Schwimmer will

be admitted to naturalization.

Liberties Union will fight them." The Union is pre-

paring a statement to be presented to the Secretary

of State.

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

GhintOns Jeqhat (sels te eS RO he a Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder

P. D. Noel

Fanny Bixby Spencer

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills

Lew Head

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

per Copy. In bundles of ten or more to one address,

Two Cents Each, if ordered in advance.

Advertising Rates on Request.

Entered as second-class matter Dec. 12, 1924, at

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 38, 1879.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1928

This paper, like the Sunday Night Forum, 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-

ions appearing in signed articles.

Prizefighter, Minister,

Spy, Under Observation

OAKLAND, Cal.-(F.P.)-Fred R. Wedge, the

Presbyterian minister and ex-prizefighter, who be-

came notorious when he acted as a spy and provo-

eateur in the I. W. W., has been committed to an

Oakland hospital for observation. The insanity war-

rant was sworn out by another minister to whom

Wedge had written, threatening suicide. At the

same time he wrote a number of newspapers and

the University of California, making the same

threat. Wedge, for a time a member of the I. W.

W., left it and made his living by going about the

country `exposing' the radical labor organization.

"The power of the judiciary has been steadily

creeping and growing until today it has established

itself a super-government answerable and responsi-

ble. to no one. * * * I submit it was the intention

of the framers of the Constitution that the federal

courts should dispense justice and should not be

made the adding machines of greedy corporations."-

Representative Fiorello La Guardia of New York.

John J. Raskob, Democratic national chairman,

believes that prohibition has made one law for the

rich and another for the poor. Whatever these laws

may be, there's no arrest for the wary.-Judge.

I have made an extended study of the death pen-

alty, and have come to the conclusion that it would

better serve the cause of justice if it were done away

with entirely -Frederick L. Hoffman.

INSURANCE

Fire and Automobile

Best Board Companies

P. D. NOEL

301 WEST AVENUE 43 GArfield 4338

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" has expired.

Paciosed find: $.21i...-2.-.5. -23 for which continue my

h

Subscription to the paper foY......---------------+ ae 2

INA Ors eee et ca ee eee th eR NG NS te a BIE Es

PRL OTOS 5 ee acres eames.

Dailies Create Mood

For Anti-Labor Drive

By MARTIN A. DILLMON

ST. LOUIS.-(F.P.)-Is big business in cahoots

with the St. Louis newspapers to create a poisoned

public sentiment preparatory to an onslaught on

union labor? This big city lately has been the

scene of many bombings, everyone of which the

newspapers, without evidence, brand as "labor trou-

ble."

The last explosion was at a saloon and grocery.

The Globe-Democrat, reactionary sheet, assigned it

to labor trouble. It was found by this paper that

the owner several days previous had painted his

coal shed without calling a union painter to per-

form the stupendous task.

The moonshine industry in St. Louis is gigantic

in scope and the possibility that competing boot-

leggers are resorting to dynamite to reinforce their

argument against rivals is brushed aside by police

and newspapers alike to place the biame at the

door of organized labor.

A barbecue parlor in the course of construction

was blown up. The newspapers said it was due to

labor trouble. A police investigation disclosed be-

yond a doubt that the job was pulled by rivals in

the field who employed dynamite to choke off com-

petition. The papers had carried the labor trouble

story on the first page. One sheet buried the new

findings inconspicuously on an inside page. The

other papers ignored it.

Another bombing assigned to labor trouble proved

to be the result of a whisky war.

Police Use Tear Bombs

On Sacco-Vanzetti Meet

The American Civil Liberties Union has offered its

services to take into the courts the action of St.

Louis police, who on August 25 broke up a Sacco-

Vanzetti memorial meeting arranged under Workers

party auspices in a private hall.

Twenty policemen arrived some time before the

meeting was to open and locked the doors of the

building. As those taking part in the meeting ar-

rived, mounted police came up and rode their horses

through the crowd, while the first squad threw tear

gas bombs.

No matter how easy may be the yoke of a foreign

power, no matter how lightly it sits upon the

shoulder, if it is not imposed by the voice of his

own nation and of his own country he wilt not, he

_ cannot, and he means not to be happy under its

burden.-Daniel Webster.

Russian lessons desired. Call ANgelus 7008.

(Pcoples

National Bank

Bank/

409 So. Hill St.

a

a.

~

Election Rally and Workers Press

Picnic

WILLIAM Z. FOSTER

President Candidate

Workers (Communist) Party

Will Speak

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1928

Whiting Woods

Montrose, California

Admission 50c-Including Round Trip

DIRECTIONS-By Auto: San Fernando Road

to Verdugo Road to Montrose City, Left to

Picnic Park. Busses Leave 9 A. M. and 11

A. M., Co-operative Center, 2708 Brooklyn

Avenue, and Party Headquarters, 122 West

Third St. Return from Picnic Grounds at

5:30 and 6:30 P. M.

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Lincoln Hall

Walker Auditorium Building

730 South Grand Ave.

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

September 9.-TOLSTOY ANNIVERSARY. Fann

Bixby Spencer, for years a student of the life of th

great Russian, will speak. Luther Hoobyar, ten

who has just returned from six months' study it

Cologne, will sing.

Sept. 16-SECULAR FREEDOM by Frankly

Steiner of Chicago, secretary-treasurer of the Amer.

can Rationalist Association.

A Big World

A few days ago I attended a baseball game, tl:

first in years. The skill displayed by the players

throwing, catching and judging the parabola of,

fly ball, almost from the instant it left the bit,

brought to mind that this is an age of specialization,

The psychology of the crowd, as shown by the tho.

sands present, was most interesting. The partisan

ship and unfairness displayed by many in the aut

ence through shouts and insulting epithets, in e

deavoring to "rattle" certain players, showed a lack

of true sportsmanship fraught with danger. It this same spirit which prompts officers of the lay

and unthinking mobs to deprive radical and minorlty

groups of rights which are supposed to be guarat:

teed by the Constitution. It would be well for many

of our radicals, who are in a rut, to attend now ani

then great masses of their fellow citizens when "1

gaged in various recreations or other mass aciiti

ties.-P. D. N.

$8,500-Terms; artistic hilltop home and garagi,

Silver Lake and mountain view; large lot, shingle

and cobblestone house, five rooms, sleeping portl,

large cobblestone fireplace, tile bath and sink, elecent:

tric dishwasher, extra toilet, laundry tubs, auto

matic water heater, fruit trees, shrubs, fountail _

and pool, log cabin studio or play room; 16 mil

utes from town. Owner, 2460 Hidalgo Avenue.

I have a terrible conviction that if the human ratt

in peace had ever been willing to undergo half tlt

sacrifices-even the money sacrifices-which it wa

willing to undergo in time of war, we should have

had Utopia painted on the map of the world lo

ago.-Robert Lynd.

Coming Events

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W., il!

Bryson Building, Second and Spring Streets, fi

reading room open every day; business meetill

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

WOMEN'S SHELLEY CLUB, second and four!

Wednesday, 936 West Washington Street, fifty cel!

luncheon, 12:30. Lona I. Robinson, president, 3H

N. Maryland Ave., Glendale. Telephone 768-W.

LOS ANGELES FORUM, Masonic ''emple, Twelfl

and Central Avenue, Sunday, 4:30.

WORKERS' BOOK SHOP, Room 101, 122 We

Third Street. Open Wednesdays, Fridays and S#

urdays `until 9 P. M.; other week days, until 6 P. ih

ENGLISH SPEAKING BRANCH, I. L. D., pusine

and educational meetings every first and this

Thursday, at Room 218, 224 So. Spring St.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and disc

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertall"

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Wial

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday M

month.

I. W. W. OPEN FORUM (Reorganization !"

gram), 224 So. Spring Street, every Saturday, 8

M.-Questions and five-minute discussion.

GENERAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE, Local NO!

meets first and third Mondays of each month, 8p.

701 Bryson Building, Los Angeles, Calif.

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

CALIFORNIA

PROGRESSIVE

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Progressives, having endorsed Al Smith for

the Presidency, will meet at their regular quar-

ters-

ARBOR CAFETERIA

309 West Fourth St.,

Tuesday Evening,

Sept. 18th.

The subject for discussion on this occasion will

pecs

POLITICAL ISSUES IN WHICH

THE PROGRESSIVES ARE

MOST INTERESTED.

These will include, among others, Religious

Freedom and Tolerance, Real Temperance or

Prohibition, and the Power Trust Problem in

Government.

Interesting and competent speakers have been

invited and those present also will have oppor-

tunity to express themselves.

Come Yourself! Invite Your Friends!

Anna L, Thompson Lew Head

Secretary Chairman.

The Libertarians

It is noticeable that we are not reading now in

The Open Forum so many glowing descriptions of

magnificent progress in "Communist" Russia. At

one time The Open Forum, a paper published to

advocate free speech and civil liberties, seemed to

think it did that best by reporting splendid success

obtained in a country where these things were ab-

solutely suppressed.

As an instance of that splendid success we quote

from an article in last week's Jewish Review writ-

ten by a visitor to the Jewish colonies in Southern

Russia:

"Russia will hunger this winter. It may not reach

the acute hunger stage of 1922, when people died

in the streets, but there will be a sharp want of

bread. Already in the month of July, in Ukraine

and Crimea, bread allotments of one pound per day

are being portioned out-and then only to members

of cooperatives. ... It leaves you with a sad, dis-

mal feeling to see that queue, stretching for hours

on end outside the cooperatives, waiting for their

turn for an allotment of bread that contains more

straw than flour... . The Jewish colonist shares in

this unhappy prospect."

The Russian people have submitted to more than

ten years of terrorism to obtain such a result. Could

liberty have given them any less?

At the Free Workers Forum, 800 North Evergreen,

Monday, September 17, "Food-A Factor in Our So-

cial and Economic Problems," Mrs. Carque. Wed-

hesday, September 19, "The Significance of Mutual-

ism," Clarence Lee Swartz.

AU. MC AS Hall, 435 Boyle avenue, Saturday,

September 22, Tolstoi Centennial celebration, in Rus-

sian,

WEVD License Renewed

Gane By Debs Memorial Radio Station at New

i - a BY: on the air after September 1, accord-

a ecision of the Federal Radio Commission

August 22. This action followed nation-wide

Ne labor and liberal groups at the proposed

vocation of WEVD's license, along with those of

scor ; :

ao of other Stations characterized as "unneces-

ie ae Rion ruled that WEVD is being oper-

aaieemes = Interest of public convenience and ne-

ane rs te eiunced that it would not exclude

"substanti ation acting as the mouthpiece of a

aiatigng a Political or religious minority." Such

one coe oe their licenses, however, must not

with due a with the lave but "must be conducted

{Bets es a for aoe opinions of others." These

hth ons. (c) commission, had been met by WEVD,

pursued a very satisfactory policy."

ot Hepes EK FP)-Despite standardizing efforts

United ee pover, half the productive energy of the

form and ie is thrown away through lack of uni-

Simple method, asserts a Popular Science

Month] ' :

ii eo writer. With Standardization, the working

uld be eut to four hours.

Tolerance Put to Test

In Political Campaign

By LEW HEAD

In the treaty of the United States with Tripoli,

negotiated in the year 1796, George Washington

caused the insertion of the following:

"The Government of the United States is

not, in any sense, founded upon the Chris-

tian religion."

One hundred and thirty-two years later ,what a

different conception many in our midst have con-

cerning the secular form of this government. We

discover the erudite "Bob" Shuler declaring that it

will be treason for any voter to support one candi-

date for President, because such action will betray

the "protestant founders of the American republic."

Friends of The Open Forum, I am finding the po-

litical situation today the greatest test of tolerance

I have ever met in my life. Were you to receive

letters that contain paragraphs like the following,

would you not also begin to wonder what had be-

come of the Constitution of the United States? Here

it ais

"Al Smith's Roman Catholic affiliation

is his most objectionable feature. Rome is

trying to dominate the United States just

as it did South America, and Smith did all

he could in New York."

To J. P. Castler, signer of this letter, which con-

tained other statements as sensible, I commend the

reading of the First amendment to the Constitution

of the United States, declared in force December

15, 1791. For his information and the information

of others, let me quote it:

"Congress shall make no law respecting

an establishment of religion, or prohibiting

the free exercise thereof, or abridging the

freedom of speech or of the press; or the

right of the people peacably to assemble and

to petition the Government for a redress of

grievances."

Castler would, I half fear, completely nullify the

spirit of this fine amendment to the Constitution,

as well as dispute the words of George Washington.

So would "Bob" Shuler, I fully believe. In either

instance, who is the closer to the crime of treason,

this man Shuler and this man Castler, or the man

who stands upon both the words of Washington and

the Constitution, believing that religion is not now

and never should be any test of the right of any

man to hold public office in the United States?

Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, at Springfield,

Ohio, last Saturday, speaking as the representative

of the Department of Justice to two thousand Meth-

odist ministers, demanded that they enter their pul-

pits and preach the doctrine: "Keep Governor

Smith out of the White House!" This brilliant wom-

an is appealing to the same religious hatred that

"Bob" Shuler is in this city, for it is a well known

fact that the Methodist church is the outstanding

protestant enemy of Catholicism in America. Both

of them are preaching to the anti-Catholics, using

prohibition as a camouflaged text. Mrs. Willebrandt

is certainly completely out of spirit with the very

Constitution she is sworn to uphold.

Just a word to "Bob" Shuler! The Methodist

church, to which you belong, was the outstanding

denomination that remained loyal to King George

III in the days of the Revolution! Members of that

church wrote to John Wesley from this country com-

plaining that they were being harassed by the

"rebels" of the new country and asking him to plead

with King George to help them defend themselves!

Oh, yes, Bob! Read John Wesley's diary and find

out for yourself what kind of Americans you Method-

ists were in the days when America was fighting

for freedom. Most of the Methodists have changed.

You have not, but remain the same sort of a Red-

coat your people were then!

Now that Americans are fighting for the twentieth

century kind of religious freedom, guaranteed to

them in the eighteenth century, it is not much of

a surprise to find men of the type of Shuler and

Castler still battling against the principles of the

Constitution that also protects them in the un-Ameri-

ean things they shout and write.

Shuler ought, once in a while, to remember that

Trinity M. E. church, where he makes his living, is

the recipient of the charity of a generous public.

The property on which that church stands is valu-

able. It does not pay a cent of tax for the fire,

Socialist Labor Party

Karl Marx said: "In the social production which

men carry on they enter into definite relations that

are indispensable and independent of their will;

these relations of production correspond to a definite

stage of production. The sum total of these relations

of production constitutes the economic structure of

society-the real foundation on which rise legal and

political superstructures and to which correspond

definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of

production in material life determines the general

character of the social, political and spiritual pro-

cess of life. It is not the consciousness of men that

determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their

social existence determines their consciousness. At

a certain stage of their development, the material

forces of production in society come in conflict with

the existing relations of production with the

property relations within which they had been at

work before." ji

Under the government set up by the American

Revolutionists, a government based on the right to

private ownership of property, material forces of

production have so developed that those means can

be neither individually created nor individually oper-

ated; on the contrary these functions constitute a

social affair. But the tools of production with which

they must be performed are privately owned; nor

can they be changed to social ownership, as the

S. L. P. proposes, otherwise than by revolution. The

government as now constituted is firmly established

on a private property basis.

All political parties grow and develop out of the

economic conditions of their time. It is so with the

Socialist Labor Party, which is but an American

product of twentieth century capitalism. As Benja-

min Franklin said: "You cannot solve an economic

question until it finds a political expression, and

once that is found its solution is not far distant."

The Socialist Labor Party is but the political ex-

pression of the economic question that confronts the

wage earning class of America.

The Socialist Labor party, strictly Marxian,

stands soundly on the platform of the unconditional

surrender of capitalism and the establishment of the

workers' Socialist Industrial Republic; has no re:

form demands and no compromises; builds on Ameri-

can foundation an open and'above ground political

battle with agitation and organization to capture and

abolish the Political State; condemns the A. F. of L.

as outworn and obsolete, and advocates uncompro-

misingly a classconscious Social Industrial Union

whose function it will be to take and hold industry,

to reorganize society after the political revolution

and operate industry and constitute the foundation

for the new Social Industrial Government.

Information and Literature at 2138 West 3d Street.

police and other protection it receives from Los An-

geles. Property on all sides of it makes up for the

cost that Shuler's church has never paid. Just an-

other example of the patient, long-standing kindness

of the American people. Just another object of

public generosity such as is extended to our hospi-

tals, poorhouses, insane asylums, detention homes,

comfort stations, baths and the like.

Read this, Bob: "The divorce between church

and state ought to be absolute. It ought to be so

absolute that no church property anywhere in the

state, or in the Nation, should be exempt from equal

taxation; for if you exempt the property of any

church organization, to that extent you impose a

tax upon the whole community." These are the

words of James A. Garfield, in Congress, June 22,

1874.

President Grant also paid his respects to the

churches, when he sent a message to Congress in

1875, calling attention to the rapid increase in the

value of church property that was going untaxed,

to the extent, he declared, of becoming a serious

menace. In 1950, Grant said, untaxed church prop-

erty was valued at $87,000,000; in 1860, over $160,-

000,000, and in 1870, it was over $354,000,000. Grant

estimated church property, untaxed, would exceed

$3,000,000,000 in 1900. As a matter of fact, it so far

exceeded $3,000,000,000 that figures are almost im-

possible to obtain today from any source.

Church and state should be so infinitely separated

that the former should be compelled to stand upon

its own feet. If the church cannot stand without

the aid and assistance of the Government, let it

fall!

Me

_TOLSTOY AND THE TOLSTOYANS

By FANNY BIXBY SPENCER

(The writer of this article has been a student of

Tolstoy for thirty years. Moreover, she has tested

his teaching in her own life, and is therefore pre-

pared to speak concerning him as few people are.

The following paper was read by Mrs. Spencer be-

fore the Los Angeles Open Forum last Sunday night

upon the one hundredth anniversary of Tolstoy's

birth.-Hditor.)

It is in keeping with the cynicism of the time

that the majority of people who have a general

knowledge of the life and work of Tolstoy should

regard him as un-Tolstoyan, a man who never

achieved in his own life the ideals which he taught.

It is consistent with the sophistication of the age

to look upon the avowed followers of Tolstoy as

dreary doctrinaires, boresome to Tolstoy himself

and too naive to be of much value to society. Tol-

stoy was undoubtedly many-sided, but Tolstoy had

one overwhelming characteristic and that was a ten-

dency to experiment with life, and whether one ap-

proaches him critically as an opponent of his ideas,

reverently as a devotee of his gospel, or indifferently

as a dabbler in his philosophy, one is forced to ad-

mit that as Tolstoy developed his doctrines, he at

least made an attempt to apply them. Those who,

like Maxim Gorky, consider him a poor example of

Tolstoyanism may know his writings well; they

may even have had a personal acquaintance with

the man, but they speak from the point of view of

non-Tolstoyans. Those who recognize Tolstoy as a

prophet of the new dawn, accepting him as a spir-

itual mentor and moral guide, have a very different

view and consequently a less misanthropic approach

to his thought. They look upon the inconsistencies

of his life as vicissitudes in the course of his own

development, the zig-zag path of a ship tacking in

the wind, but sailing ever toward the point for

which it set out. In this way, we regard Tolstoy

as a consistent exponent of his principles. Tolstoy,

like his disciples, had to become a Tolstoyan.

It is true that the followers of Tolstoy are less

rugged and morally aggressive than their leader.

This is so with the followers of any great leader.

Tolstoy launched upon uncharted seas in advancing

his ideal of social morality. He let loose of all his

~ moorings-the established virtues of ambition, pa-

triotism, and religious conformity-and put to sea

fearlessly and alone. Those who come after, trail-

ing in the wake of his genius, are inevitably hesi-

tant and uncertain, for they see their captain often

foundering in vortices of doubt.and perplexity. Thus,

we Tolstoyans or semi-Tolstoyans are doctrinaires.

We cannot deny it and we cannot help it. We find

Tolstoy a bleak experience, and when the storm and

stress of the Toystoyan life becomes too rigorous for

us to weather we take refuge in theoretical dis-

cussion.

I venture humbly upon the subject of Tolstoy, be-

cause Tolstoy has influenced my life to some de-

gree. During the thirty years that I have been read-

ing his works, I have sought to find the fundamental

principle of his teaching and to apply it as best I

could in my own individual life, as Tolstoy sought

to find the fundamental principle of the teaching of

Christ and apply it in his individual life. That I

have fallen far short of this ideal goes without say-

ing. It is no easier for me, or anyone else, to be a

practical Tolstoyan than it was for Tolstoy to be a

practical Christian, for the Tolstoyan concept is not

a simplification of Christianity but rather an am-

plification of it. Tolstoy has created a philosophy

of his own with very positive ramifications. It of-

fers no basis for a Tolstoyan Christian sect with

creed, ritual and codes of discipline. Every indivi-

dual Tolstoyan must be his own interpreter, and we

who are truly striving to bring about an active reali-

zation of Toystoy's message to the world find a pro-

vocative spur in the opinions of those critics who

are skeptical of Tolstoy's sincerity. We are forced

to measure both Tolstoy and ourselves by a rigid

gauge, which penetrates deep into the realm of spir-

itual consciousness. I cannot discuss the life and

works of Tolstoy with analytical exactness. I am

forced to speak from personal experience and to

deal with Tolstoy as an element in my own mental

growth.

When I was a girl in boarding school, I was

browsing about the school library one day, when I

came upon a book called "My Religion,' by an au-

thor of whom I had never heard, Leo Tolstoy. I

took it from the shelf thinking that it was no doubt

some trite and orthodox dissertation on a subject

of which I was getting very tired, but unconsciously

hoping that it might give me some light on the

question with which my mind was vaguely strug-

gling, "Why am I alive?"

Dipping into it, I caught a glimpse of a personal

experience. The author at the age of fifty had gone

through a spiritual revolution. He had discovered

that the moral law of human conduct, both individ-

ual and social, was contained in Jesus' "Sermon on

the Mount," and that the epitome of this moral law

was "Resist not Evil." This idea appealed to him

as perfectly simple, rational, and practical, applic-

able to human life under any and all circumstances,

an idea which the church as well as the state had

been ignoring and violating throughout the ages, an

idea which present-day society took no cognizance

of, but which if understood and practiced by indi-

viduals would finally reconstruct society. His rea-

soning was unusual and interesting, but I had no

time to go into it then, being pressed with the daily

grind of memorizing the intricacies of Latin gram-

mar, demonstrating the propositions of geometry

and digging out the meaning of Milton's "Paradise

Lost." I might have forgotten all about this strange

Russian if I had not, a short time later, happened

upon a reference to him in another book.

I was then in the midst of a mental rebellion

against the religion with which I had been sur-

feited. I had never been really oppressed with the

fear of hell and the necessity of my soul's salva-

tion, having had a liberal bringing up religiously,

but religion was ever to the right of men and the

left of men in forms which I resented. My father

had read Darwin when "The Origin of Species" was

the book of the month, and I had absorbed the idea

of evolution from my earliest years, but I had come

in contact with every form of orthodoxy from the

Roman Catholicism of my Irish nurse in childhood

to the emotional evangelism of the small town in

which I grew up. My mind was confused and an-

noyed as to religion, and I decided to investigate

atheism. Surreptitiously I procured a book of essays

by Robert G. Ingersoll and plunged into it with a

defiant mind, having taken the precaution to lock

the door of my room. An eighteen-year-old girl in

a proper New England boarding school must be cir-

cumspect. Puritan ancestry also demanded it,

After reading some very satisfying denunciations of

the superstitions of mankind, I came upon an essay

on Tolstoy. Tolstoy, Ingersoll said, was a Christian

something like Christ, who believed in the non-

resistance of evil and would not commit violence

even to save his own family from outrage and

death. Ingersoll did not agree with Tolstoy, but

he painted a magnificent picture of him. I was

filled with curiosity to know more of this singular

person, this Christian something like Christ, this

rich young man who had gone away sorrowing at

the demands which Christ made upon him, but had

finally succumbed to them. Ingersoll had really in-

troduced me to Tolstoy, and it was a stimulating

introduction, for Ingersoll, the idealistic infidel, was

challenging Tolstoy, the practical Christian. I must

find my own ground by delving more deeply into

Tolstoy.

(To Be Continued)

Canton Steel Workers

Fined for Picketing

Fifteen steel workers, arrested at Canton, Ohio,

for "disturbing the peace," have been fined amounts

up to $150 and held in bail varying from $300 to

$1500. They were picketing their jobs at the Cen-

tral Alloy Steel Corporation, from which they have

been absent four weeks on strike against a wage

cut.

Canton police have not molested strikebreakers

who, urged on by employers, have committed pro-

vocative assaults on strikers. But three strikers

were arrested and held for several days "on sus-

picion." They have not been able to get an answer

to their question, "Suspicion of what?" The Inter-

national Labor Defense is appealing all cases and

has secured the release of the prisoners on bail.

"So long as all the increased wealth which mod

ern progress brings goes to build up great fortunes,

to increase luxury, and make sharper the contrast

between the House of Have and House of Want,

progress is not real and cannot be permanent."-

Henry George.

==,

_NEWS AND VIEWS.

By P. D. NOEL

Where Are the "Americans?"

As front page news we have a double-header Dage

ball game in the close of the season. Here are thy

names of the prominent players: Meusel, Romny

Pipgras, Gehrig, Lazzeri and Koenig. The Atlan

coast states from Maryland north are Populate.

mainly by immigrants ,or one generation remoyp

If you want typical Yankee or Anglo-Saxon Dame

you will have to come west.

* * *

She Exposes Al

Mrs. Willebrandt's talk before the Methodist mj,

isters' convention debunked the protestations of No

York's Governor that he will enforce the Volsteai

Act if elected President. This expose comes jij

extra force so soon after White's recital of Smit;

record in the New York legislature.

The last time I saw Mabel Willebrandt was,

number of years ago on Spring street. She and My

Schontz, who served for a short time as City Cle;

by appointment of Mayor Snyder, were rather jj

consolately discussing the lack of life in the wome

movement. Soon after she was appointed ag

of the assistants to the Attorney General at Wasi.

ington. Now she is in charge of prohibition

forcement for the Department of Justice . If gy

was given a free hand and the backing of the (yj.

ernment the idea that the dry law cannot be

forced would be driven into the discard.

* * *

Immigration

According to Congressman Johnson, the matter (

restricting Mexican immigration will be taken w

in the coming session of Congress. It will be hanilei

in connection with the revision of the quota pw

visions of the present statute. It is suggested thi

the feelings of our Latin neighbors be appeased bi

providing that as many immigrants from a giv

country be admitted as will correspond with th

number of Americans who have entered that nation,

Of course, large numbers of "wet" Mexicans wil

come in, but the change will be decidedly for the

better. Like prohibition or the laws against sted!

ing or murder, there will be many breaches of thi

statute, but its effect as a whole will be good,

* * *

The Movietone

New mechanical inventions are constantly je0

ardizing the jobs of men and women who consider

themselves safely settled. The movies displace

thousands of actors in the spoken drama, and 10

the highly paid, "beautiful but dumb" screen sta

are to be ousted by those who can speak as vel

as act, and in English at that.

The very latest victims are the musicians. In Chi

cago the new mechanical methods have brovgli

things to a head. It would seem to an outsider thi!

the union is making impossible demands on the the?

ter owners, who naturally want to take advantag

of cheaper production. In the early days of i

chinery the workers tried to meet the situation ly

smashing the machines, but evolution was too mut!

for such tactics. The printers used _ their heats

when their livelihood seemed doomed by the invel

tion of the typesetting machine. They took [0

session of the invention by immediately learuil!

how to operate the linotype. Now they have olt

of the strongest unions, and their wages and conti:

tions are unusually good.

* * *

Persuasion Vs. Environment

The president of the British Trades Union (0

gress deplores the drinking and gambling habils ob

the workers. In that nation of poorly paid and fel

people he claims that $3,000,000,000 a year is spel

by his fellow workers for these vices. However!' 0x00B0

is against prohibition, advocating "education" as the

remedy. There is no better line of conduct !

humans than the Golden Rule advocated by Jes

but how far have we got as real Christians in tl

last 2000 years? Why not stop preaching and

providing good environments? Humanity is not bat.

Surround human beings with good conditions ant

they will react accordingly.

Appeals Four-Year Term

Appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court !*

been taken on behalf of Steve Mendola, insurge!!

miner of Wilkes-Barre, who recently began servile

a four-year term for alleged complicity in the shoot

ing of Frank Agati, conservative union official.

defense charges unfairness by the trial judge 2"

perjury by prosecution witnesses.