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HE OPEN FORUM

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

-

Vol. 5

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 17, 1928

No. 11

ee

RECOGNITION FOR BLACK AMERICANS

IN FACT AS WELL AS THEORY URGED

By LEW HEAD

Injustice toward the Negro in the United States

has partaken more of the prejudicial than legislative

or judicial. Despite all of the platitudes to which

the American people have given utterance in the

last half century, the fact is still apparent that they

bear a residual prejudice against the Negro that is

not at all in consonance with the equal measure of

fairness accorded him by the laws of this country.

In fewer words, the Negro is a freer man by theory,

in the United States, than he is in fact.

This prejudice is pure prejudice and not justified

by any calm and analytical observation of the facts

and figures in the premises. Inasmuch as the com-

ing of the Negro to this territory that we now call

the United States of America is almost, if not quite,

contemporaneous with the coming of the Caucasians,

`if not as voluntary, it is well that this unfair preju-

dice should be destroyed. It is an individual obli-

gation to do this; the mass will follow as it always

does. The most unthinking and inexcusable influ-

ence in this country is the mass.

May I suggest thoughtful consideration of a few

facts and figures that American men and women

seldom hear, infrequently see and persistently fail

to understand?

The population of the United States by the 1920

census was 105,710,620. Of that total 10,463,131 were

Negroes. In round figures, the Negro population

was ten per cent of the total. As a consequence

of this figure it is not less or more than fair that

the Negro race in the United States should be judged

on no less a basis than 10 to 1, as compared with the

whites. This ratio also holds true of the popula-

tion of the earth.

mated at 1,748,000,000, of which 179,000,000 are of

the Negro, Bantu, Malay and' Polynesian races, all

black and brown.

If this ratio of treatment of the Negro had pre-

vailed, there should have been lynched in the United

States, from the year 1885 to 1926, a total of 32,050

white people. Instead there were only 1045 whites

thus summarily dispatched, while 3205 Negroes

were done to death.

Of the total wage earners of the United States,

by the census of 1920, there were 4,824,151 Negroes

out of 41,614,284, showing the Negro slightly more

industrious than the whites.

In the matter of school attendance in the United

States, we find that ofa total of 21,373,976 from the

ages of five to twenty, who were attending urban and

rural schools, 2,030,269 were Negroes. This main-

. tains the standard of the Negro educationally.

In the South, where education is more neglected

than in the North, and the Negro population is the

object of greater discrimination, 69.4 per cent of

the school population, between the ages of five and

seventeen, attends school, while the Negro percent-

age is only 30.6 per cent. On the other hand, there

are 143,811 white teachers, with 35,842 Negro in-

structors, indicating that the Negro personnel of

teachers is far in excess of the ten per cent ratio.

Under the Julius Rosenwald Fund, in co-operation

with fourteen southern states, there have been estab-

lished 3769 Negro schools, costing $17,000,000, em-

ploying 10,131 teachers and a pupil capacity of 455,-

895. One of the conditions of this fund is that the

Negroes shall secure equal contributions from other

Sources. Thus far, as of July 1, 1927, the Negroes

contributed $3,550,763, the whites $784,861, and there

has been derived from public funds $10,273,529. The

Rosenwald fund has paid in $3,032,511. The Negroes,

therefore, at the last accounting, were about half a

A dollars ahead of the Rosenwald contribu-

ions.

I often ask myself how far the white race of the

The earth's population is esti--

United States would have advanced had _ they

emerged for the first time into the realm of racial

liberty half a century ago. In comparison with the

only other semi-native race of the United States,

the :' American Indian, it is interesting to compare

the advancement made by the Negro with the retro-

gression of the Indian.

The white population increased in the years 1910

to 1920 about seventeen per cent; the Negro in-

creased about seven per cent; the Indian decreased

from 265,683 to 244,487, about ten and a half per

cent.

All in all, the Negro population of the United

States has maintained its identity more satisfactorily

than has the Indian, a ward of the Government, who

is passing away.

The Negro possesses every legal right and privi-

lege, under the Constitution, that the whites enjoy.

There is no substantial reason for and should be no

real objection to their equal social recognition. The

true American will grant it and aid in securing it.

Pennsylvania Troopers

Break Up Meetings

John Brophy and Pat `Toohey, leaders of the

bituminous miners' insurgent forces in Pennsylvania,

were arrested and beaten up by state troopers who

broke up a meeting they were addressing at Renton,

Pa., March 6, according to a telegram received by

the American Civil Liberties Union. Brophy is for-

mer president of District No. 2, United Mine Work-

ers, and is now chairman of the Save the Union

Committee, which opposes the policies of the John

L. Lewis administration.

Telegrams of protest against the continued break-

ing up of such meetings have been sent to Gov. John

S. Fisher of Pennsylvania and Senator Burton K.

Wheeler of the Senatorial Coal Strike Investigation

Committee by Dr. Harry F. Ward, chairman of the

American Civil Liberties Union. The telegram to

Governor Fisher requested that the Governor issue

an executive order to protect the meeting at Renton

on Tuesday evening.

The telegram also informed the Governor of the

breaking up of meetings by state police during the

past three days in six towns in the Pittsburgh dis-

SLICh:

The Governor's secretary wired in reply to the

message that "an inquiry has been ordered into the

circumstances of the matter referred to." However,

the Renton meeting was broken up and Dr. Ward

announced March 7 that the Union plans "to proceed

through its attorneys into the courts by suits for

illegal arrests or damage to halls. If the practice

continues we will seek injunctions."

Dr. Ward's telegram to Senator Wheeler follows:

"In last few days Pennsylvania state police have

broken up meetings of miners at McDonald, Burgetts-

town, Broughton, Mollenauer, Renton and Morgan.

Yesterday at Renton, John Brophy and Pat Toohey

were beaten and arrested and now cannot be located.

This condition seems to invite attention of the in-

vestigating committee."

"In all my experience in Congress, covering a

period of thirty-two years, during which I have had

continuous service on the naval committee, I have

never known such a widespread protest to be regis-

tered against any measure under consideration or

about to be considered. These letters and telegrams,

all voicing opposition to the bill we now have be-

fore us, come from all over the United States."-

Chairman Butler, House Naval Committee.

Powers Hapgood Jailed

in Free Speech Parade

Mourning bands on their arms with inscriptions

reading "Free Speech Is Dead,' "We Mourn Free

Speech" and "We Mourn Civil Liberties,' caused the

arrest of Powers Hapgood, Mary Donovan Hapgood

and John Licata at Pittston, Pa., March 4 on charges

of "inciting to riot." The arm bands were displayed

on the street in front of the Pittston Armory, where

a miners' defense meeting scheduled for that day

had been prohibited by the mayor. Hapgood, `a

miner, is chairman of. the committee: organized: to

defend Sam Bonita and two others charged with the

murder of a mine union official in the strife between

insurgents and officials. The authorities had for-

bidden all mass meetings in Pittston following `the

murder on February 28 of-two insurgents, Alex

Campbell and Pete Reilly.

The three were held without bail by the authori-

ties, who at first refused to reveal where they were.

Bail was later set at $1000 each. 'The American

Civil Liberties Union has engaged a Wilkes Barre

attorney to handle the case. Robert W. Dunn, a

member of the Executive Committee, has gone to

Pittston to aid the campaign being launched there

for the defense committee meetings.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hapgood and Licata were not ar-

rested for attempting to hold a meeting, as no such

attempt was made," according to a correspondent

of the Union, who was present when the arrests took

place. A meeting had been widely advertised to take

place in the armory, but was subsequently called off

on the advice of Roger N. Baldwin, director of the

American Civil Liberties Union, who went to Pitts-

ton at the Defense Committee's request. He found

the feeling so tense that he counseled against hold-

ing any meeting in defiance of the authorities of

Pittston or Luzerne County. He advised them, how-

ever, that the wearing in the street of mourning

bands bearing inscriptions would not violate the au-

thorities' injunctions.

Prof. Harry F. Ward, chairman of the Union, said

in a statement made later, "This is the kind of a

test we welcome. We propose to protect the rights

of these people to defend the insurgent miners who

are facing trial there. Th authorities showed wholly

unwarranted nervousness in making arrests merely

for the wearing of armbands of protest against the

closing of defense meetings.

Eight Miners Sentenced

For Violating Injunction

Anthony P. Minerich, chairman of the Pennsyl-

vania-Ohio Miners' Relief Committee, and seven

other miners were held guilty of violating a federal

injunction and sentenced to jail by Judge Benson

W. Hough at Columbus, Ohio, on March 1. Judge

Hough is the author of the anti-picketing injunctions

which the miners were accused of violating.

Minerich received forty-five days in the Muskin-

gum County jail. The others drew thirty days, with

the exception of John Karlich, 18, who received five

days because of his youth.

Charles P. White, United States marshal, and

Colonel Caldwell of the Ohio National Guard were

the chief witnesses against the men, who were ar-

rested at a meeting at Huasing, Ohio, on Feb-

ruary 17.

wy

"I was kicked out of the Republican caucus.

proud of it.

Iam

I do not belong to the Wall Street

party. I was kicked out of the Senate. I am proud

of that. The reason I was kicked out was because

I did not belong to the Wall Street party on either

side of this chamber. There are only two parties in

the United States now. One is the Wall Street

party and the other that is opposed to it.'-Senator

Smith W. Brookhart of Iowa.

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

eOMETON deb attiycr cues tte .Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills Robert Whitaker

P. D. Noel 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 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 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.

W. O. W. Hall

LEAP YEAR PARTY

SATURDAY NIGHT, MARCH 10

Music by Royal Negro Jazz Orchestra

Entertainment as Dancing

Brilliant Mock Wedding

EVERYBODY INVITED Admission 35c

Auspices English Speaking Branch, I. L. D.

1040 So. Grand Avenue

DR. CG. J. TART:

Director A. C. L. U., Southern Branch

"Civil Liberties and Labor Defense"'

Cleveland Hall, 730 South Grand Ave.

THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 8 P. M.

Auspices English Speaking Branch, I. L. D.

{Peoples ff

National Bank

Bank/

@ 409 So. Hill St.

Correction

In our last week's issue, Lew Head should have

been credited with having written the page one arti-

cle,

"Power Bandits Invade Coast, etc."

SS

71}

oslovakia.

Banned from Boston and Glasgow.

Queens!

William McFee:

Clarence Darrow:

aie

"Story-telling with an edge on it.

panorama of Southern California life."

Boycotted by Los Angeles Newspapers !

The Best-Selling Novel Throughout the World

Do you know that the most widely read novel in the whole world to-

day deals with Southern California life, and that the newspapers of

Southern California, with few exceptions, have boycotted it?

OIL!

By Upton Sinclair

Author of ``The Jungle'', "The Brass Check'', Etc.

Fifty-five thousand sold in first three months in Germany. A best-

seller in Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Australia and Czech-

Running serially in the biggest papers in Paris and Copenhagen.

All the world is reading about California Oil-Kings and Movie-

Johan Bojer: `This novel is created by a great poet, a great artist,

and a great heart. Since Emile Zola I can't remember a similar work."

A marvelous

"Few novels have impressed me as much as

Arthur Conan Doyle: `I was amazed at the power of the book."

SO NG

Price $2.50. At all book stores. Or order from A. and C. Boni, 66

Fifth Avenue, New York, or from Upton Sinclair, Station B.,

Long Beach, California.

-

p

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.

HINClOSCds TN) S-es --2~-5--she08-- for which continue my

Subscription: to the paper for.2:.22:222 2 ..5e2ci.-6e van

NIETO Gee serie ssa lie Eo AC a cea cae edetecebaplcebasteses toe

OUT OS Si tens otiuc eter ceceeton gece wn eaguctan. ey aueeen ls

Bases

N. S. REICHENTHAL

GENERAL INSURANCE BROKER

130 S. Broadway

501 Southwest Building

Phone: VAndyke 5835

iss

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Lincoln Hall

Walker Auditorium Building

730 South Grand Ave.

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

March 11.-THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF ART

by Prof. Frederick Schwankovsky, head of the

Manual Arts High School Art Department and a lec.

turer for the University of California Extension Dij-

vision. This lecture will be illustrated with exam.

ples of modern art.

March 18.-ECONOMICS AND THE RACE QUES.

TION, by George S. Schuyler, editor of The Messen.

ger, a Negro magazine, and contributor to many

publications.

March 25.-DEBATE: Resolved, That the Probhi-

bition Laws of the United States Have Proven More

Beneficial `Than Detrimental, by Lucius C. Dale, af.

firmative, and Lew Head, negative.

April 1-THEH AMERICAN FRAME-UP SYSTEM,

by James P. Cannon, national secretary of the In.

ternational Labor Defense, who started a coast-to-

coast lecture tour in February, which will end in

May. This meeting, under joint auspices of The

Open Forum and the International Labor Defense,

Los Angeles branch, will be held at Music-Art Hall,

233 South Broadway. Admission 25c, which will in.

clude a three months' subscription to the Labor

Defender.

As long as nations meet on the fields of war-

as long as they sustain the relations of savages to

each other-as long as they put the laurel and the

oak on the brows of those who kill-just so long

will citizens resort to violence, and the quarrels be

settled by dagger and revolver.-Robert G. Ingersoll,

e

Coming Events

FREE CLASS IN ENGLISH, Room 218, 224 South

Spring Street, Tuesday and Friday, 8 to 9 P. M,

Mortimer Downing, teacher. Administration mat.

ters conducted by class.

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W., 701

Bryson Building, Second and Spring Streets, free

reading room open every day; business meeting

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE educa

tional lectures on peace and war: Public Library

Lecture Hall, Wednesdays, 8 P. M.; Hollywood

Library, Mondays, 4 P. M. ;

WOMEN'S SHELLEY CLUB, second and fourth

Wednesday, 936 West Washington Street, fifty cent

luncheon, 12:30; MUtual 3668 for reservations. Iona

G. Woodard, president, HUmboldt 7668-W.

NEGRO FORUM, Masonic Temple, Twelfth and

Central Avenue, Sunday, 4:30.

WORKERS' BOOK SHOP, Room 101, 122 West

Third Street. Obtain books-keep pace with Work:

ers' Movement progress. Same address: The Daily

Worker and Circulating Library.

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

and educational meetings every first and_ third

Thursday at Cleveland Hall, Walker Auditorium, 730

South Grand Avenue,

PROLETARIAN PARTY Economics Class, Thurs: -

day, 8 P. M.; Saturday Night Forum, 8 P. M., at

Cooks' Union Hall, 337144 South Hill Street. Admis-

sion free.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 418 Bryson

Building; R. W. Anderson, Secretary. VErmont 6811.

County Central Committee meets second and fourth

Mondays.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discus:

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertarial

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Winter

(Bo can):

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

Odious Comparisons

Curtis D. Wilbur,

Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

Why compare anything as safe and sane as "candy

eating" and "beauty parlors" to your destructive pro-

gram of battleship building? Do you think that the

world will accept such comparisons as logical or

justifiable? Only yesterday, at Long Beach, I was

confronted with the agonizing spectacle of that giant

forty-five million dollar airplane carrier, surrounded

by six little giant cruisers, and tonight the reverber-

ations of those twelve-inch guns resound miles away,

rattling our windows and doors and striking terror

to our innermost souls. Of course, we thought it

was an earthquake, a freak of nature we cannot com-

bat; but no, it was a freak of man's to rid the world

of the flower of our youth, leaving it to the unfit.

I could only wonder at the caliber of men that we

have running our affairs in Washington who dare

to print figures and facts of their infamous squander-

ing of our money, to say nothing of the hurt to the

faith in Government promises to its people. Why

after a war to end war do we need all this arma-

ment? If our policies are right we need fear no

enemy. If your excuse is self-defense it would be

walls you would be building and not ships to sail

away to other people's countries.

Public sentiment in America is for disarmament.

If you want the good opinion of the people, and as

a Sunday school teacher, you will bend your ener-

gies toward a Christian and not a heathen solution

of world affairs.

Sincerely,

How Come?

Editor The Open Forum:

In a recent debate in your paper on ``Prohibition"

between Lew Head and P. D. Noel, the latter con-

cludes his polemic with this statement: "It all sim-

mers down to this: Am I my brother's keeper?

I don't hesitate to say that I consider it my duty

so to be."

I hope it has not escaped Mr. Head (who, inci-

dentally, has quite demolished Mr. Noel's other con-

tentions) that the foregoing is the most vulnerable

of his opponent's arguments. Who, I may ask, has

imposed upon Mr. Noel the duty, and therefore ac-

corded him the right, to become my jailer? I pro-

test that I have not voluntarily placed myself in

his custody, nor do I know of anyone else who has

appointed him my turnkey. Of course, his code of

ethics, and that blighting religious superstition from

which it is derived, give him all the authority he

wants to assume control over my private affairs,

but I refuse to submit to such authority, and I deny

his or any other person's right to the assumption

of it. As long as I do not invade the person or

property of my fellow man, I maintain that Mr.

Noel has no right to decide for me what I shall see,

hear, feel, taste or smell; and that, when he arro-

gates to himself the right of guardianship over my

private life, he becomes a criminal of the most

Sinister type.

CLARENCE LEE SWARTZ.

3715 Folsom Street, Los Angeles.

Evils of Alcohol _

Editor The Open Forum:

"Prohibition" as discussed by P. D. Noel and Lew

Head is very interesting to those who do not read

the `country's daily papers and do not know the

prevailing evils which are directly traced to alcohol;

to such as read the newspapers, Lew Head must be

prejudiced. One who is prejudiced should not im-

pose his oginions on a thinking public. The Open

Forum deserves its title while its pages are open

to the pro and con of any public question.

GLENGARRY.

Correction

In the first line of paragraph seven of last week's

installment of,Crime and Criminals, New York Her-

ald. should have: been New York World, due to an

error.

Dry Law Violation

Opposed by Sinclair

In connection with the recent visit of Count Key-

serling to Los Angeles and his thousand-dollar speech

before the Friday Morning Club, the following dis-

patch appeared in various papers in this section

served by the United Press:

"An invitation to a dinner to Count Keyserling

was declined by Upton Sinclair, who protested that

he is not interested in a philosophy `which has to

be nourished on champagne and adolescent feminity.'

"`T have received from a magazine editor in New

York,' Sinclair wrote the count, `a telegram asking

me to meet you at dinner, and in reply I wrote and

offered you our hospitality in California.

" "Since then I have seen the stipulations sent out

to your hosts, which include champagne. It is point-

ed out to you that this requires a violation of our

law, and your reply is, "You all do it."

"`T think this is an occasion for one American to

inform you that you are mistaken. Some of us obey

the laws of our country, and we consider it a piece

of unpardonable insolence for a stranger to come in

and publicly defy these laws.

"Tt invite you to consider how you would feel if

I, an American author, were to go to your country

to gain large sums of money and should make it a

condition of my entertainment that my German hosts

should violate the laws of Germany for my comfort.

""T have today declined an invitation to meet you.

I inform you that I have no interest in any philos-

ophy which has to be nourished on champagne and

adolescent femininity, and I do not wish to meet any

such philosopher.' "

Reorganize for Miners

Editor The Open Forum:

This is to announce that at the March 2 meet-

ing of the Colorado Miners' Strike Relief Confer-

ence a reorganization resolution was passed as fol-

lows:

Whereas, the Colorado strike is at an end and

after adjustments are made need for relief will

lessen; and,

Whereas, the Pennsylvania and Ohio coal miners

are still fighting and suffering is great among their

families;

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that we reorganize for

the purpose of jointly aiding the Ohio, Pennsylvania

and Colorado coal miners.

The Ohio and Pennsylvania miners have been on

strike for over eleven months. Thousands are de-

pendent upon the American Labor movement for

maintenance. If the strike is to be victorious there

must be solidarity within the ranks of the working

class. Therefore, we appeal to all Trade Unions and

other organizations sympathetic to Labor to send

delegates to the Conference. Also, we urge that in-

dividuals who can contribute time and energy to

this relief work come to our regular meetings, which

are held every Friday night at 701 Bryson Building,

Second and Spring Streets, 8 P. M.

We are planning many activities in Los Angeles

and ask for the same support that has been given

in the past.

SPHBEIR. HIGHT IS OUR BIGH Dy

Fraternally yours,

Pennsylvania-Ohio-Colorado

Miners' Relief Conference.

M. KUPERMAN,

Secretary.

Injunction Judge Admits

He Owns Coal Property

Judge J..N. Langham of Indiana County, Pennsyl-

vania, author of stringent anti-union injunctions, in-

cluding the one against hymn-singing by the mem-

bers of the Magyar church at Indiana, has issued a

denial that his holdings in coal property amount to

$60,000. He was quoted as having admitted this to

members of the Senatorial Investigating Committee,

In correcting this report he. said that he told the

Senators his holdings were "inconsiderable."'. His

total. interest, it was figured out, was about $6000.

In this country justice is open. to all-like a Ritz

Hotel.-Christian Register.

factories and "hard times."

e e e

Charged With Sedition

Rebecca Grecht of New York, a secretary of the

League for the Protection of Foreign Born Workers,

with headquarters in New York City, was arrested

at Burgettstown, Pa., March 6, while addressing an

audience of 800, and lodged in jail on a charge of

sedition. The meeting was broken up by a squad

of Pennsylvania state police, who took her before

Justice of the Peace J. A. McNight of Houston. -She

was formally charged with sedition in an informa-

tion made out by Sergeant William Jones of the

state police.

Miss Grecht was accused of "attacking consti-

tuted authority." State police declare that union

officials of the John L. Lewis administration denied

that meetings addressed by her have the sanction of

their organization. The sedition charge against Miss

Grecht is the seventh such case brought in the first

few years in Pennsylvania, according to the Civil

Liberties Union, which declares that Pennsylvania

is the "only state of the thirty-four with such stat-

utes still in use."

"Why Breadlines '-Dreiser

NEW YORK.- (F.P.) -"Nowhere in Russia,

whether the nation is prosperous or not, will you

find men without overcoats standing in bread lines,"

declared the novelist, Theodore Dreiser, upon his

return from Europe. Dreiser went to Russia on the

invitation of the International Workers Aid.

"TI wasn't a Communist when I went abroad, and

I don't return as one,' Dreiser emphasized. "I can-

not agree with the over-emphasis of labor as a

class." But he thinks Communist principles will

vastly change the social and economic life of the

world.

"Why should there be bread lines in a nation as

rich as America?" asked Dreiser of reporters who

met him. `America has enough to give every human

being in the country food, shelter and clothing. Even

in Russia no one is waiting for a handout.

"Between the free and uncontrolled grafting we

face here daily and a regulated accumulation cen-

tered in the Government, I prefer the Russian sys-

tem," declared Dreiser. He approved of the placing

of all art in Russia in public museums instead of

hoarding it in private collections as here.

Perhaps no good man ever succeeded wholly; but

assuredly no good work done with a man's whole

heart and strength in a good cause is ever wasted.-

Michael Collins.

(Continued from Page 2)

he fled to this country, making his home in Los

Angeles. The same element which had used the

powers of our national Government against the lib-

erals who were trying to oust Diaz got him a job

with our Federal espionage service. It is rather

strange that none of the relatives of his thousands

of victims ever tried to "get" him. Humans are

certainly long-suffering beings.

* ok *

Return of Socialistic Sentiment

Though the Socialist Party has dropped to a very

small membership, its ideas are being adopted quite

generally, though not under that label. The present

unemployment situation is causing many public men

and women to advocate measures which a few years

ago would have been anathema.

Senator Wagner of New York and `other leaders

are boldly declaring that it is the duty of govern-

ments to supply every adult who desires it a job

at decent wages and conditions. The quite gener-

ally accepted idea that prosperity depends on the

masses having good wages and a great purchasing

power is nothing more than a partial recognition of

the doctrine of "surplus value" of Karl Marx.

The Hearst papers publish on the front page an

editorial signed by him, entitled "To Maintain Pros-

perity Maintain Employment," in which is said, "As

long as we have general prosperity we will have

large and growing consumption." A half truth. Un-

less the workers get back in wages `the full product -

of their toil,' so that they can consume all that

they produce, we will have the old piling up of

goods for which there is no purchaser, with closing

a

CRIME AND CRIMINALS _

By GEORGE SHOAF

(Continued from Last Week)

With private property and the system that sus-

' tains it primarily responsible for crime and war,

several minor contributions to criminal activity may

be considered, such as sensational journalism, sug-

gestive movie pictures, unjust administration of the -

law, police brutality, bad prison conditions, question-

able tactics in the professions, unethical business

transactions and military training in the public

schools. When analyzed and understood, however,

it is evident that everyone of these minor and con-

tributing causes springs from, depends upon and is

inspired by the institution of private property.

Denunciation of the yellow press for its sensa-

tional crime columns is popular, and it is manifest

that the moral life of the nation is being vitiated

by these publications. As long as editors find read-

ers and advertisers derive huge profits through wide-

ly circulated papers, who will deny the right of the

scandal-mongering press to exploit sensationalism

to the legitimate limit? What care publishers about

the morals of the people where profits are concern-

ed? What legislators would pass laws adversely af-

fecting the interests of the press when the very

political lives of the legislators depend upon the

support of the publishers and their capitalist allies?

If a legislator summoned the temerity to defy the

crime-inspiring news agencies of this country what

would be his fate? Probably that of Governor Alt-

geld of Illinois or Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin,

both of whom were hounded to untimely graves.

Censors have been appointed to restrict the out-

put of salacious and crime-suggesting pictures, but

when the censors find it more profitable not to cen-

sor than to censor, why enforce the law? Movie

picture censorship is akin to inspection in the pack-

ing houses of Chicago and other meat packing cen-

ters, where inspectors receive two salaries, one from

the Government to inspect and one from the corpo-

rations not to inspect; obvious results show who

wins this inspection game.

Anything for Profits

Volumes might be written concerning the conduct

of business under capitalism, how false to even the

conventionally established standard of ethics most

business is, how repugnant to the tender conscience

of youth the transaction of business appears when

the boy first makes its acquaintance, and how

speedily he puts' conscience aside with every con-

ception of high moral principle when, in imitation

of the legal performances of business men, he turns

himself loose upon the community in the illegitimate

fields of crime.

Take real estate and the sharks who handle it,

and what rotten graft shows here, my countrymen!

The multiplicity of promotion propositions, all with-

in the law and everyone criminal in conception and

execution, annually filch from the pockets and. bank

accounts of helpless age, inexperienced widows and

gullible men and women of toil money sufficient to

finance and construct the Boulder Canyon Dam.

The story of Standard Oil is a record of crime.

Not without criminal. complexion is the simple busi-

ness of buying and selling vegetables in Southern

California. In the field the producer gets for twenty

bunches of turnips what one bunch on the market

sells for-ten cents. In any department store the

purchaser pays ninety dollars for a woman's gown,

the wholesale price of which is less than fifteen

dollars.

This recitation of business enterprise might be

elaborated with infinite detail and its criminal char-

acter disclosed. I do not believe there is an honest

man or woman in `America, acquainted with the

facts, who will deny the truth of this indictment,

or who can successfully refute the charge that vir-

tually all business under capitalism savors of dis-

honesty, and in many instances the transaction

thereof. depends | upon. the actual commission of

crime. That the wide-awake high school boys and

university graduates of this country are alive to

the situation, and are emulating our business men

and their crooked deals in promoting and carrying

out still more heinous crimes of robbery and mur-

der, likewise are facts which cannot with truth be

contradicted on denied.

Justice Dispensed With

Before prohibition increased the opportunities for

corrupting public officials charged with law enforce-

ment, city, state and national authorities had suc-

cumbed to criminal blandishment and were selling

LS ET aE er a ect oe ala iaedeamneaecuaieedananaidaieeaeamaaanlll

out the administration of justice for a price. It is

notorious that a rich man can with impunity escape

punishment for a crime, the commission of which

would send a poor man to jail. Hickman in all prob-

ability will justly hang for an offense no more flag-

rant than that committed several years ago near

Los Angeles by the natural son of United States

Postmaster General New, who was sentenced to ten

years' imprisonment for his crime, and, who, it is

generally believed, was released at the end of a

year. Injustice such as this is not calculated to

inspire in the young much respect for the law.

Training for Murder

The Western Christian Advocate of recent date

quotes Dr. Hough, a Detroit minister, as saying:

"Before the war, less than two hundred officers

were engaged in giving military training in our

schools. Now there are nearly two thousand....

Germany in its most belligerent days never gave

military training to the boys corresponding to those

in our high schools."

This war psychology generated in the minds of

growing boys, and a direct consequence of military

training and preparation, undoubtedly is having a

tremendous influence in breeding criminals and in-

creasing crime. In the high school the boy is given

a gun with bayonet fixed. Escorted to the training

ground, he is shown a sawdust dummy which he is

told represents an enemy soldier. In directing the

youth to charge bayonet, the military instructor

orders him to perform as in actual battle, to nerve

himself as if it were for a crisis, and to register

hate in his countenance as he hurtles forward to

thrust and twist his arm of steel into the vitals of

his foe.

Brutalized with this blood-letting psychology and

fresh from military training and its familiarity with

guns, how much inducement would be required to

impel this same boy to highway robbery and mid-

night murder should the necessities of life or the

exigencies of the occasion demand lawless action?

In the Last Analysis

Crime is the product of conditions for which, it

is declared, all society is responsible . If our fore-

fathers were justified in killing the Indians and

taking their land why can't we justly invade and

govern Nicaragua regardless of the blood we may

have to shed? Did we not conquer Mexico and an-

nex portions of her territory? Are not the Philip-

pines some of our spoils of war?

What, really, is it all about, this-crime and war?

First, last and all the time, it is the individual

and national struggle to get and hold private prop-

erty, and deny it if you can!

Analyze this unsocial phenomena as you may,

trace to its last impulse the motive prompting the

young man to rob and kill, or ascertain the greater

and more complex causes driving nations to war,

and in every instance the reasons and causes back

of these crimes find their roots in private property

and the human desire to possess it.

The very fact that the institution of private prop-

erty creates a condition wherein one man, by rea-

son of his ownership of a public necessity, finds

himself empowered with authority to employ or dis-

charge a fellow man, is able to give or withhold

a job, of itself constitutes a combination of circum-

stances which beget class division, class inequality,

class injustice, class hatred and crime.

Crime and war will never cease until all property

is public. There must come a sweeping change of

base in our social and economic system, competition

for private profit must give way to co-operation for

the public good, and industrial democracy must re-

place political government, an institution whose

present need is doubtful and whose future is fast

becoming a curse: When all the people in their

collective capacity own all property and in truly

democratic fashion administer it in the interests of

all the people, politicians will no longer take orders

from private capitalists, workers will never again

be brow-beaten by private employers, youth will not

be incited to crime by the conscienceless activities

and examples of irresponsible business men, and all

cause for crime and war will vanish.

Why are the Los Angeles police daily jailing and

driving out of the city workless men? For amuse-

ment? No; its' the orders of the Chief. Why is

the Chief of Police interested in dispersing vagrants?

Because he has been instructed by the Police Com-

mission to get busy. Who gave orders to the Police

Commission? None other, it is claimed, than those

in authority in the Los Angeles Chamber of Com-

Serer cme aa

News and Views

By P. D. NOEL

Darrow Again Running Amuck

Certain types of individualists or anarchists, thoge

who are consistent and live up to their philosophy,

are apt to be as dangerous to the community as are

certain religionists. In their intense desire to pro.

tect the individual in his alleged "rights," the wel.

fare of the race or nation is overlooked.

A concrete instance is the reported opposition of

Clarence Darrow to a pending sterilization law in

Kentucky. If there is one thing more needed thap

another in these modern days it is the prevention

of the unfit from. breeding. But here the extreme

individualists step forth and throw monkey wrenches

into the machinery of human welfare and progress,

offering as an excuse the chance that an incorrect

diagnosis may be made now and then and some in.

dividual suffer an injustice. It's the same old story;

Isn't the welfare of millions of greater consequence

than a possible injury done to a few?

x * *

Bigotry?

It is a prevalent idea that there is no reason for

drawing religious lines in politics. In a recent num.

ber of The Nation the contrary argument is quite

well stated by Heywood Broun.

Under ordinary conditions and for all positions

except the very highest, it is hard to see where any

great danger would lie in electing a Catholic. But,

to place an Al Smith in the Presidency might be a

risky proceeding. Imagine him confronted with the

present religious issue in Mexico. Would he resist

the demand of the Knights of Columbus and the

mass of the Catholics for intervention? The status

of that denomination is quite different from that of

the Protestant sects and other religious bodies in

that it is exceedingly well organized ,and has a head

in another country. As an ex-Catholic, I am cogni-

zant with the strength of the loyalty of the mem:

bers of that faith to the Pope, and am doubtful of

the issue when a decision must be made between

the church and the Nation. :

Along the same line, one may fairly draw the re

ligious line if a Christian Scientist is aspiring for

office; in fact, there is more reason for opposition

there than when a Catholic is the candidate. This

is owing mainly to the danger to the public health

when recognition is given to that sect's opposition -

to modern health and sanitary methods. Smallpox,

diphtheria, typhoid and numerous other "plagues"

are now a thing of the past when vaccines, serums,

antiseptics and other scientific methods are used,

but imagine the danger to the city, state or nation

if officials are in control who deny the existence of

germs and pronounce these scourges purely mental,

or even imaginary.

* * *

The End of a Butcher

The papers announce the peaceful death, in the

midst of his large family, of Colonel Kosterlitzky.

His biography gives the average reader the idea

that his career was a useful and praiseworthy one.

If there ever was a human butcher of his fellowmen,

this was one.

During the long and bloody regime of Diaz, this

man was at the head of the rurales, who were the

scourge of the border Mexican states. The slightest

expression of dissatisfaction with the Diaz tyranny

or desire for a popular government meant arrest,

death against a 'dobe wall, or bullets in the back

"while trying to escape." Thousands lost their lives

through this barbarian.

With the advent of a more liberal administration,

(Continued on Page 3)

merce and the Merchants and Manufacturers Asso-

ciation. And why do these gentlemen object to the -

presence of an army of unemployed? Because the

sight of these dirty bums is an eyesore and a sign

of hard times to possible investors from the East!

Property interests always!

I am scientist sufficient to forecast a future of

continued social and economic evolution and optim-

ist enough to believe that the future belongs to the

working class. Society will go forward, not. back-

ward. The last black drop of selfish blood will be

squeezed from humanity's veins and a purified and

intelligent race of men and women some day will re-

joice in the sunshine of the Co-operative Common-

wealth! :

But, honestly, I don't expect that day to be ushered

in four o'clock next month by either the Socialist

or Communist: Parties!' ; ie Te ae