Open forum, vol. 6, no. 9 (March, 1929)

"THE OPEN FORUM

3

LQ

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

eee

Vol. 6

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 2, 1929

No.9

ee oo

Suppression Still Rife, C. L. U. Report Shows

The most important item in the January report

of the American Civil Liberties Union is the de

cision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sustain-

ing the state sedition statute which will undoubt-

edly have far reaching effect on the anti-radical

campaign in that state, now the worst for civil lib-

erty prosecutions. The Workers' Party continues

to be the chief target of the police in civil liberty

prosecutions there as in other states and is, in fact,

the only group contesting their rights in an aggres-

sive manner.

The free speech controversy between the Lynn,

Massachusetts, City Council and the Mayor growing

out of the latter's ban against textile strikers' meet-

ings resulted in an adverse decision by the State

Supreme Court on the ground that the meeting was

"a plain instance of obstruction of a public high-

"

way

Meetings

OHIO.-Two Workers' Party meetings. were for-

hidden by the Mayor of Bellaire, during the month,

one under the auspices of the All-America Anti-Im-

perialist League and another arranged by the Negro

members. Joe Webber, local organizer for the party,

was arrested and found guilty on disorderly conduct

charges for calling the Mayor prejudiced and dicta-

torial for refusing the permit. Legal action to break

down the ban is being instituted.

MINNESOTA.-Minneapolis police forbid a meet-

ing of Negro members of the Workers' Party on

January 21 and locked the doors of the hall which

had been rented for the meeting. Later a protest

meeting was held in Labor Lyceum.

Criminal Cases

OHIO.-Eleven members of the Workers' Party

were arrested at Cleveland on January 12 while

holding a demonstration before the British Con-

sulate demanding the release of Jack Johnstone,

American Labor leader now in jail in India, and

denouncing the American invasion of Nicaragua.

Charges of "incitement to riot" against I. Amter,

organizer of the Workers' Party, growing out of the

police interference with a meeting at Martins Ferry

last October, have been dropped by the authorities.

The grand jury failed to indict. :

MASSACHUSETTS.-In a decision rendered Jan-

a 4 the State Supreme Court upheld the convic-

tion of Stephen J. Surridge of Lynn, on charges of

obstructing a public highway while addressing an

ne air meeting last August. The case had been

carried to the Supreme Court as a test of the Mayor's

ban against meetings during the recent textile

Strike,

NEW YORK.-Two members of the Workers'

a Were arrested at the New York City demon-

Station before the British Consulate demanding Jack

Johnstone's release from jail in India. They were

Dayicted on disorderly conduct charges.

ce anti-Fascists arrested on disorderly

Balho Be arges at a demonstration against Italo

`ae ou! emissary, were released in the magis-

Ourt on January 10.

Say Ware Dennett, leader in the birth con-

ae ae Naas indicted at New York City on

aie a Sending her pamphlet, "The Sex Side

noe eae the mail. Mrs. Dennett pleaded

ies ae the charge of poatline cers matter"

PENNSYLVANIA. $2500 Se yon cane trial.

Wy 10, the a -In a decision Rendered on Jan-

viction of ae ate Supreme Court affirmed the con-

the ae er Muselin pus two other members of

ing Prince convicted in 1927 for distribut-

tionality aes erature, and uenels the constitu-

Albert are soivanig sedition act.

Wy 4 on a ne of Reading was arrested on Jan-

arge of blasphemy for saying "To

. n that" when asked to take an oath on the

bl

He wag released on bail.

tr

, Micangay Academic Freedom

-Under pressure of the Employers'

Association of Detroit, the Independent Students'

Liberal Association has been denied the use of the

hall at the Detroit City College and at the City

Library for the liberal and radical speakers sched-

uled to speak before the students. Roger N. Bald-

win and Scott Nearing are among the banned

speakers.

TENNESSEH.-Charges of violating the state anti-

evolution act were made against Elmore Gentry,

principal of the Fentress County High School at

Clark Range, for the use of text books forbidden

by the law. The charges were placed before the

Board of Education by the parents of two boys who

had been expelled from the school.

Censorship

NEW YORK.-The issue of Il Martello, anti-Fas-

cist paper banned from the mails by order of the

New York postal authorities because of an editorial

attacking Italo Balbo, was accepted for mailing after

the editorial was eliminated.

Injunction Legislation

Off Congress Calendar

WASHINGTON. - (F.P.) - Anti-injunction legisla-

tion will not again be considered in the House and

Senate judiciary committees until the American Fed-

eration of Labor shall have reviewed its own posi-

tion on that issue. That is the situation in Congress

as the session dies and the committees face reor-

ganization for the coming two-yeazxs. -

The House committee has waited for action in the

Senate. Hearings before the Senate committee, be-

gun late in the session of 1927-28 and completed in

the session now closing, resulted in a deadlock as

to a remedy for the evil. The Shipstead bill propos-

ing that Federal courts be deprived of the equity

power as to enjoining interference with property that

is not "tangible and transferable,' was rejected by

the subcommittee which was ordered to draft legis-

lation. Senators Walsh of Montana, Blaine and Nor-

ris, the subcommittee, agreed upon a bill which speci-

fically forbade the enjoining of certain acts by

strikers. It sought to create a Bill of Rights for

Labor which would prevent the issuance of Labor in-

junctions. This bill was rejected by the executives

of the American Federation of Labor and by the

Federation's convention at New Orleans, at the de-

mand of Andrew Furuseth of the Seamen's Union.

Furuseth sponsored the Shipstead bill.

Deadlock in the Senate judiciary committee fol-

lowed. Finally President Green of the Federation

notified the Senate committee that the Federation

would review its own position at the present session

of its executive council at Miami. That meant that

the attempt to secure anti-injunction relief from this

Congress was abandoned.

Since the new Congress will be more reactionary

than the one now expiring, hope of anti-injunction

action is transferred from the committees of the

Senate and House to Hoover. Green will try to get

Hoover to make this issue his own.

Needle Workers Arrested

I. Klein was arrested February 22 by the Los An-

geles police Red Squad while on his way to work

on a battery charge. Klein, who was released on

$100 bail and whose hearing was set for February

26, is a worker in a Needle trades Workers' Indus-

trial Union shop but is not involved in the strike

recently called by that union. According to Klein,

he was arrested merely for membership in the local.

Blanche Cohn and M. Wasserman were arrested

Friday evening and May Lebow was arrested Satur-

day morning, charged with distributing, without a

permit, circulars announcing a meeting.

May Lebow's bail was set at $100.

Jury trial will be demanded by Leo Gallagher, at-

torney for the International Labor Defense, repre-

senting the workers.

Thinking Vs. Drinking

Polite society, so-called, requires of its members

an avoidance of controversial matters; really it is

considered vulgar to discourse on any subject that

will provoke conflict of opinion, or cause brain fag.

You may be excused if you appear to look profound,

provided you refrain from imposing your profundity

on others, but the moment you attempt to ventilate

your wisdom, or give expression to unpopular views,

that moment you are persona non grata.

In certain circles, which by no means include the

majority of the people of the United States, it is

quite the proper thing to ridicule and denounce the

prohibition amendment to the Federal Constitution.

With this attitude issue is taken here, though it

brings down upon the writer's head a storm of radi-

cal disapproval.

Prohibition of the liquor traffic is now constitu-

tional law. As citizens, axiomatically every one

should obey the law, reserving, however, the ancient

constitutional right to challenge the law, to criticize

it, to amend or abolish it. Evasion or violation is

not only reprehensible, but citizenship is degraded

thereby. Nations, to maintain their integrity, must

assert their rights as well as perform their duties,

and if they can make laws, clearly their right as

well as their duty is to enforce the laws they make.

Those who disregard the law well know they do so

at their peril. `

This proposition of personal liberty-the alleged

right to do as one pleases-is both illogical and

idiotic. Were men and women as perfect as Jesus

Christ is said to have been, and were they placed

in a paradise where creature comforts in profusion

were theirs without the burden of toil, it is possible

that some measure of personal liberty might obtain.

But human beings are gregarious. Modern industry

has caused society to develop away from the _in-

dividualism of the past. Instead of a heterogeneous

collection of competing and fighting units, each na-

tion now tends to become a social organism. Indeed,

notwithstanding the probability of future wars, the

international drift is toward international comity

and understanding destined ultimately to unite all

nations under the banner of one vast commonwealth.

Personal liberty of opinion and expression are in-

violable; free investigation of fact and theory and

the unlimited exchange of thought shall not be de-

nied; but personal liberty to do those things or en-

gage in activities which hurt the individual or en-

danger the nation's good is not an inalienable right,

and should be prohibited. Right of discussion and

criticism of every institution and idea known to

man are not only permissible but should be guaran-

teed and maintained; but no one has a right to lower

the physical, moral and intellectual character of the

race with the poison of alcohol. As well condone the

use of narcotics as permit the legal sale of intoxi-

cating liquor. When considered in their far-reaching

implications, compared with liquor drinking, highway

robbery is a virtue, murder a misdemeanor and rape

a pleasant sport.

Deliberately and defiantly the challenge is hurled

into the teeth of liquor drinkers and liquor cham-

pions that, excepting recreancy to principle, there

is no crime, carrying with it personal responsibility

and guilt, greater than the crime of getting drunk.

A thousand volumes could be written to support

this challenge. Atheists may claim that corrupting

- the mind of youth with religion is a criminal offense

more heinous, and religious zealots. may counter

with their preachments against atheism, but so far

as the moral, mental and physical efficiency of the

people is concerned, there is no doubt that where

atheism and religion have slain their thousands,

alcoholic drunkenness has slain its tens of thousands.

Really, this liquor question is hardly debatable.

Evidence to prove the evil of its manufacture and

consumption is overwhelming. Those who point to

the writings of Edgar Allen Poe as being liquor-

inspired should visit his grave in Baltimore and

(Continued on page 3)

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. Latt-.. Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

yen.eo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills 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, FEBRUARY 23, 1929

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 elit:

ions poepertpg in plane': articles.

Extra Nearing Talk

on Russia Tuesday

By special request, Professor Scott Nearing will

remain in Los Angeles for a lecture on "What's Do-

ing in Russia," Tuesday evening, February 26th, at

8:00 o'clock, in Lincoln Hall, Walker Auditorium

Building, 730 South Grand Avenue. Admission fifty

cents.

What is the use of preaching social equality to

the indigent and miserable? How can men combine

and organize when their one thought is for their

daily bread, and that secure only for a day?-Thor-

old Rogers.

Bad men spring from bad things; hence let us

correct the things.-Victor Hugo.

Brutal Murderin Penn. (c)

May End Police Reign

Three coal and iron policemen wider charge of

murder, an entire state stirred with horror and Gov-

ernor John S. Fisher demanding facts in an official

investigation, are the immediate results of one of

the most brutal killings ever reported from the coal

regions of Pennsylvania. The final outcome may be

the abolishment of the whole private police system.

John Bercoveskie, a farmer-miner for years em-

ployed by the Pittsburgh Coal Company, was beaten

to death in the police barracks at Imperial, Pa.,

where he had been taken following a quarrel with

two drunken troopers. Lieutenant W. J. Lyster of

the coal company's police is alleged to have beaten

Bercoveskie into unconsciousness with a poker and

then stamped upon his body, crushing the miner's

ribs and inflicting fatal internal injuries. Lieutenant

Lyster, and two troopers, H. P. Watts and Frank

Slapikas, who it is alleged were drunk and adminis-

tered a preliminary beating for no reason at all be-

fore bringing Bercoveskie to the barracks, were

charged with murder by Coroner McGregor.

Governor Fisher has demanded a complete report

from the Pittsburgh Coal Company. While the com-

pany hires and pays the men, the State of Pennsyl-

vania deputizes them, and therefore is responsible.

The American Civil Liberties Union has demanded

that the Governor take immediate steps to `eliminate

the entire coal and iron police system. Allegheny

county members of the state legislature, roused by

the murder of Bercoveskie, are expected to lead a

fight to wipe out the system. A bill for this pur-

pose, sponsored by the Union, has already been

drafted by Assemblyman M. A. Musmanno and will

be introduced in the lower House.

One monster there is in the world-the idle man.

-Carlyle.

National Bank

of Commerce

(Formerly Peoples National Bank)

Escrows

Commercial :

Safe Deposit

Savings -

Domestic and Foreign Exchange

439 SOUTH HILL STREET

Adjoining the Subway Terminal

FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22-

TUESDAY P: M., FEBRUARY 19

SEND IN ORDERS EARLY

Lectures by PROF. SCOTT NEARING

LINCOLN HALL, WALKER AUDITORIUM BUILDING

730 SOUTH GRAND, LOS ANGELES

Auspices American Civil Liberties Union, So. Calif. Branch

SUNDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 17.-

THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER:

MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 18-`"Where Is Civilization Going?"

TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 19-"World Economy"

WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 20-

THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21-0x00B0The Revolt of Labor"

"Man Under the New Social Order''

ECONOMIC CONFLICT:

MONDAY P. M., FEBRUARY 18-`"Economic Determinism."

"The Class Struggle"

WEDNESDAY P. M., FEBRUARY 20-"Working and Owning for a Living."

THURSDAY P. M., FEBRUARY 21-"The World Struggle for Raw Materials"

FRIDAY P. M., FEBRUARY 22-"Economic Citizenship."

SUNDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24th

"Will There Be Another World War?"

Evening Lectures, 8:00 O'clock; Afternoons at 5:00

PRICES: Evening Course on New Social Order, 5 lectures, $2.00-

Afternoon Course on Economic Conflict, 5 lectures, $1.00-

Sunday Evening lectures, fifty cents each-

Single Admission to any evening lecture, fifty cents-

No single admission tickets to afternoon lectures-

Combination tickets good for all twelve lectures, $3.00.

of New York

"WHITHER CHINA?"

"Transition to the New Social Order'

1022 CALIFORNIA BLDG., LOS ANGELES

bors, and is spent in insulting them.-Godvwin,

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Lincoln Hall (c)

Walker Auditorium Building

730 South Grand Ave,

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

Feb. 24.-WILL THERE BE ANOTHER WOR)

WAR? by Prof. Scott Nearing-a tremendously it

esting address, and one that no student of Worl

events should miss.

March 3.-LATIN AMERICA'S. ATTITUDE TV.

WARD THE UNITED STATES, by Prof. Orwyp 1.

E. Cook of the University of International Relatig,

U. S. C. Professor. Cook has lived in Mexico a

has made an intensive study of the other Latin

American countries, including Nicaragua, and unjp.

stands their estimate of Uncle Sam's imperialigy

Wealth is acquired by over-reaching our ne),

Shelley Club

The next meeting of the Shelley Club will be helt

on Wednesday, February 27, at 12:30 Dp. m. in tly

Turnverein Building, 986 West Washington Stree

Speaker will be Robert Whitaker on "Lincoln,"

Coming Events

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

Bryson Building, Second and Spring Streets, fre

reading room open every day; business meetity

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

INT'L LABOR DEFENSE BRANCH, busines

and educational meetings every first and thitd

Thursday, at Rooms 113 and 114 Stimson Buildin,

Third and Spring streets. ' ;

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and distls

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertaria |

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Winter

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday) |

month.

I. W. W. OPEN FORUM (Reorganization Pr

gram), 224 So. Spring Street, every Saturday, 0x00A7}

M.-Questions and five-minute discussion.

FREE CLASS IN MECHANICS OF LITERATUR

conducted by Mortimer Downing every Thursday #!

8 p. m., 224 South Spring Street, Room 118.

`SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 418 Bri

Building; R. W. Anderson, Secretary. VErmott pil

County Central Committee meets second and four

Mondays.

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Plaza, open forum, Sundays, 3 p. Mm.

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War Talk Abominable

Editor The Open Forum: ae

` protest against such an article BE DOA Ete in. The

Open Forum as that by G. H. S., "Capitalism's Next

: flict." Articles encouraging the notion that other

a ear. all waiting like wolves to get a bite at

uncle Sam should be left to Bee who makes a

specialty of that. The Open Forum is no place for

them. I protest emphatically eee ee ee

misstatement that "war between British ae Eos

can imperialisms undoubtedly would be hailed with

acclaim by the workers in each." That sort of talk

is abominable.

For the benefit of native Americans who have

never been to Britain let me tell them, as British-

porn myself, that the people of Great Britain have

not only "forgotten the war which released the colo-

nies from the British crown," but that a large por-

tio of them at that time hailed enthusiastically

every victory of the colonists as one strengthening

freedom in Britain. The war of 1812, so important

in American history, was one in which the United

States was only one of half a dozen enemy nations

and of so little comparative consequence that the

British people even then were hardly conscious of

it, And it was opposed in America by as large a

proportion of the population as that which in Britain

had opposed the first war.

It is true that fruit from California has been dis-

placed by fruit from British colonies. These colo-

nies accept British manufactured goods with little

or no tariff, whereas the tariff before they can reach

California is next to prohibitive.

But to read J. H. S. one would suppose that

eating a Canadian apple implied a thirst for Ameri-

can blood!

He even imagines that if British Labor gains vic-

tory at the polls the aristocrats (who, he has been

telling us, hate the Americans so) will call upon the

"captains of American industry for help." What

sort of prejudice is this! War, somehow or other,

must be had.

T. HASTIN.

(Continued from page 1)

meditate upon the ruin of the man. Did Grant win

battles by reason of his penchant for whisky? No;

butcher that he was, he won because behind him

were the resources of a world which he massed with

abandon against the armies of the South bled white.

Alexander lost his power and his life through

drunken debauch. The industrial interests as well

as the womanhood of this country are dead set

against the liquor traffic, and reactionary though

both interests and women may be, their joint opposi-

tion has sealed its doom. Labor has nothing to lose

an everything to gain in standing firmly for pro-

hibition, and why the Labor press does not unitedly

and actively champion the cause can be accounted

for only on the ground of the anomaly of one-

hundred per cent Americanism.

Publisher Hearst, probably to prolong the con-

lusing issue of liquor into the next presidential cam-

Palen, offers $25,000 to the one who can solve the

Yexatious problem in an article of one thousand

Words. In words far less the following solution is

Suggested,

ace and mercilessly enforce the law. If nec-

re ee penalties more severe than those

a eae If the police and local constabulary

eae euro or unwilling to act, let the governors of

Ti ae States roe out the militia, ond if abe

Ist the a Rot and will not cope with the situation,

national eurosident of the United States call out the

guard. If martial law becomes imperative,

d. Undoubtedly the majority of the

Deo :

Dle of this country indorse this law and want it

enforced,

through gh

Cedure, or

"hole syst

annels of prescribed constitutional pro-

until revolution successfully subverts the

ie ee of law and government, this prohibi-

lite ot pert Should be enforced if it requires the

dtinier # Y liquor maker, liquor seller and liquor

Tom New York to Chicago and back again.

is ee a radical whose antipathy to capitalism

lessly pice tae that he would instantly and ruth-

`democracy oy it if the new social order of industrial

inely to cy ud all it implies, could be made genu-

(c) take its place-G. HL S. :

Until the law is altered or abolished -

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

The Libertarians

We are glad to report a great improvement in

the Russian situation. It appears that the capitalist

powers have lately been sending secret agents to

the big cities in Russia with instructions to eat all

the bread they could. The result of this inhuman

villainy was that the workers had to wait in long

queues for long hours before obtaining their bread

ration of a pound and a half. Some of the people,

it is said, have been looking ag if they would like

to grumble. It is even asserted that in the queues

there have been occasionally individuals (no doubt

paid by the Anarchists) who have been heard to

insinuate in whispers that if Russia were a free

country it would be able to raise so much grain that

everybody could have all the bread he wanted. Need-

less to say that if any such scoundrels are caught

they will be packed off at once to exile in Siberia.

But the Government now has become alert to the

danger and finally with the aid of the best minds

among the Bolshevik statesmen a solution has been

found. A bread card is to be issued to everybody.

This will no doubt relieve the situation. Some of

these statesmen are even so optimistic that they cal-

culate that the bread ration may be increased by

two ounces-in 1956, if all goes well. But the gen-

eral feeling is that gluttony should not be encour-

aged.

Without these great minds to guide and protect

them whatever would the poor Russian people have

done?

The Biology class (by Ray Chase, Thursdays, at

8:30) is proving quite a success.

Who Will Stop Lynching?

Editor The Open Forum:

Have just read in the Chicago Defender the true

story of a Mississippi lynching. It is the most hor-

rible and blood-curdling story I have ever read. Not

Satisfied with burning alive this human being, just

before the torch was put to the gasoline-saturated

wood to which the victim was tied, a white man, an

American citizen, a husband and father, a church

member claiming to be a civilized Christian, jumped

upon the helpless creature and with his pocket knife,

sharpened for the purpose, cut off his ears, laughing

and cursing as he did so. A number of women

watched this horrible scene with shouts of glory.

Tre white Americans hold the reins of govern-

ment, they have the power, they claim to be a civ-

ilized Christian nation. Church spires by the thou-

sands pierce the sky and prayers are made by the

millions, and yet what are we doing to stop lynch-

ing? I say, nothing.. How can any government or

any minister invoke the blessing of God, and expect

Him to heed, when in their own dooryard they have

witnessed the burning alive of a human being? In

my opinion, every American citizen who does not

do all in his power to stop such brutality is as

guilty as are the members of the mob.

Cannot the white people see that they are sowing

the seeds of another rebellion? Just what you have

measured to these black people will be measured

back to you in full. You cannot disregard the com-

mand of the Divine law in one instance and expect

its blessing in another. Ignorance of the law ex-

cuses no man. There is only one way to appease

the resentment of the oppressed and that is to give

them their rights. Youth is questioning the Church,

and well it might. Never in the history of the

world was there a greater need for brotherly love,

and we, the recognized Christian leaders, the recog-

nized world power, are building our house upon the

sands of greed and selfishness.

DR. ELZORA GIBSON.

"We find that in all ages only those people have

had a measure of justice who were in a position to

compel it. All classes are organizing on the theory

that in unity there is strength, and in order to be

better equipped to hold their own and to secure jus-

tice in the fierce struggle that is going on in the

world. The only hope of the laboring man in this

country lies in organization."-John P. Altgeld.

Co-operation is not a sentiment-it is an economic

necessity.-Charles Steinmetz.

Socialist Labor Party

"Classic theory and classic experience combine to

impress the necessity of strict adherence to the

scientific principle that the `Proletariat' does not

mean the ash barrel of society, and that the emanci-

pation of the proletariat must be the work of the

proletariat itself, combined with the equally scien-

tific principle that the slum is the quarter of greatest

danger to the revolution, a foe upon which the plu-

tocracy leans, a reserve army which the plutocracy

stores up for its last recourse."-Daniel DeLeon.

"The American Daniel DeLeon is the only one

since the time of Karl Marx who has added any-

thing to Socialist thought."-N. Lenin.

DeLeon has written the best modern literature on

Socialism, its tactics and goal. His pamphlets are

for sale by the S. L. P. and range in price from 5e

to 25c. Some of the titles are, "What Means This

Strike," "The Burning Question of Unionism," `In-

dustrial Unionism," "Socialist Reconstruction of So-

ciety," "Two Pages from Roman History," `Social-

ism vs. Anarchism," "Reform or Revolution," "Anti-

Semitism,"' "Fifteen Questions," "Russia in Revolu-

tion," "Unity," `""`Watson on the Gridiron."

You are invited to visit our headquarters, Room

233 Douglas Building, Third and Spring streets, and

look over our scientific Socialist literature. Section

Los Angeles meets every `Thursday at 8 p. m. Liter-

ature for sale at 213 West Third street. Read-the

Weekly People, our official organ.

Burden of Militarism

Felt in Treasury Raid

WASHINGTON, D. C.-``A peculiarly insidious

and dangerous raid on the treasury of the next ad-

ministration" is being made by the shipbuilders in

demanding that Congress appropriate money now

to start ten cruisers instead of five, says Gerald P.

Nye, United States Senator from North Dakota, in a

statement given to the press. It is "insidious," Sen-

ator Nye says, "because the initial appropriations

would be relatively small, while in 1931 we should

have to devote nearly $120,000,000 to construction

alone."

"The demands of the shipbuilders are alone re-

sponsible," says Senator Nye, maintaining that this

is "not a sufficient reason to justify hamstringing

all constructive measures during the first two years

of Mr. Hoover's administration." His statement

follows:

"The shipbuilders want Congress to appropriate

money now to start ten cruisers instead of five. This

is a peculiarly and dangerous raid on the treasury ~

of the next administration because the initial ap-

propriations would be relatively small, while in 1931

we should have to devote nearly $120,000,000 to con-

struction alone. The present figure for increase of

the navy is approximately $50,000,000. Even then

._ the total Navy appropriation will be $360,000,000 or

about a million dollars a day.

"Worse still, each cruiser built will add to the

expense of maintenance. We shall be asked to add

to the Navy soon 500 or 600 men for each of the

eight big cruisers now under construction. `That

will require 4,000 or 5,000 additional men because

there are no cruisers being replaced from which we

can transfer men to the new ships. If we now

make appropriations for ten additional cruisers and

an airplane carrier, we shall find ourselves con-

fronted with the expense of adding between five

and six thousand more men to the Navy for the

cruisers and some 1,400 additional for the single

air plane carrier.

"The staggering burden of militarism is becom-

ing intolerable enough by its ordinary stages of

growth without rushing it forward like this. The

demands of the shipbuilders, and their demands

alone, are responsible for this effort to start ten

cruisers practically at once. This is not a sufficient

reason to justify hamstringing all constructive mea-

sures during the first two years of Mr. Hoover's ad-

ministration. If we are to go forward during those

two years we must block this devastating raid on

the treasury now." ;

It is all right to preserve freedom in constitutions,

but when the spirit of freedom has fled from the

hearts of the people, then its matter is easily sacri-

ficed under law.-Bancroft.

The Libertarian Idea

To claim a reply to an article so kindly and gen-

erous, so tolerant and so interesting as that of G.

H. S., Anarchist vs. Collectivist, must. appear ungra-

cious. I can claim it only because it is not a ques-

tion between two individuals but between two

schools. I trust I am not unreasonable therefore

when I want to point out some serious misrepresen-

tations, serious none the less because they are un-

intentional, in that article.

G. H. S. tells with his usual humor how he adopted

Anarchism till the shot was fired at Buffalo, when

he went into hiding. He speaks also of "the futility

_of murder as a social nostrum."' But such references

would surely convey to any of your readers not well

informed that the Anarchists killed McKinley and

supported political assassination. G. H. S. himseif

knows well enough, I am sure, that Czolgosz, who

killed McKinley, was not an Anarchist and that the

Anarchists had nothing to do with the affair save

to suffer the onus. The police wanted to blame the

Anarchists; and in proof of their prisoner's Anarch-

ism they presented his paid-up card of membership

in the S. L. P.

It is true that G. H. S. pays a noble tribute to

the Anarchist martyrs of Chicago; but why just after

it does he speak of "the folly of saving civilization

by blowing it up with dynamite?' Had he forgot-

ten just then that the Chicago, Anarchists were

hanged not because they advocated dynamite, but

because they had taken the lead in advocating the

eight-hour day?

It is true that Anarchists in countries where all

expression of opinion was suppressed have resorted

in indignation to the pistol and the bomb. So have

the Catholics. (One hundred thousand mourners the

other day followed in the funeral of Toral in Mexico

City.) So have all other bodies, sometime, some-

where. But the Anarchists no more than the others

have advocated violence when expression was free.

"And a considerable proportion of them have thought

violence always inconsistent with their principles or

always inexpedient as a policy, even when expres-

sion was not free.

I have no doubt that G. H. S. really did think

himself an Anarchist at one time. That old presen-

tation of it by Kropotkin, which gave equal import-

ance to Communism (Anarchist-Communism), at-

tracted many people who grasped the Communism

all right, but nothing at all of the other part. But

all Anarchists are not Communists; some of them

are Individualist-Anarchists, some Mutualists, some,

im fact, among the Spanish Anarchists, have called

themselves Anarchist-Collectivists. I myself, like

many others of the present day, find enough to do in

advocating the "Anarchist" part-Libertarianism-

without troubling about the acceptance in the future

by everybody of one particular scheme.

That G. H. S. never did understand the Anarchist

or Libertarian part of the hybrid is shown by his

island illustration. When we have two individuals

on an island, he says, "the two must reach agree-

ment and the moment they reach agreement gov-

ernment is established." Tut, tut, G. H. S. Think

a bit now. Let me tell you how government is estab-

lished on that island. It is established when one

of the two men, the bigger, stronger or sharper of

the two, appears with a club in his hand and orders

the other fellow to go to work. Isn't that right.

If "agreement" has the same meaning to you as

government, then the language you speak is not

English.

I do not mean, as a critic of mine says some-

where, that "the state is paramount ,that it creates"

capitalism instead of being created.' Neither is the

parent of the other; they appear at the same time.

In the beginning there was War. Then War got into

touch with Conquest, and from War and Conquest

came Government and Enslavement-twins. "Today,"

says G. H. S., "the owning classes in every nation

are the ruling classes and they rule by reason of

their ownership. The working classes are the sub-

ject classes because they are disinherited." Quite

true. But just as true reversed. Today the ruling

classes in every nation are the owning classes and

they own by reason of their rulership. The working

"classes are disinherited because they are the sub-

ject classes. Just as true. The military organiza-

tion of the conquerors which won their privileges

_ became the state which maintained them.

I do. not mean, of course, that government always

Tom Mooney

By WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

Tom Mooney sits behind a grating, beside a cor-

ridor. (He's waiting.)

Long since he picked or peeled or bit away the last

white callous from his palms, they say. The crick

is gone from out his back;

And all the grease and grime gone from each finger-

nail and every knuckle-crack. (And that took

time.)

Tom Mooney thinks behind a grating, beside a cor-

ridor. (He's waiting.)

Tom Mooney free was but a laboring man: Tom

Mooney jailed's the Thinker of Rodin. The work-

ers in ten nations now have caught

The roll and rhythm of Tom Mooney's thought-

By that earth-girdling S. O. S.,

The subtle and immortal wireless of man's strong

justice in distress.

Tom Mooney talks behind a grating, beside a cor-

ridor. (He's waiting.)

You cannot get quite near against the bars to lay

your ear:

You find the light too dim to spell the lips of him.

But like a beast's within a zoo

(That was of old a god to savage clans), his body

shakes at you-

A beast's, a god's, a man's! And from its ponder-

ous, ancient rythmie shaking,

Ye'll guess what 'tis the workers now are making.

They make for times to come from times of old-

how old!-

From sweat, from blood, from hunger and from

tears, from scraps of hope (conserved through bit-

ter years despite the might and mockery of gold)

They make, these haggard men, a bomb-these hag-

gard men, with shawl-wives dumb and pinched-

faced children cold, descendants of the oldest,

earth-born stock, gnarled brothers of the surf, the

ice, the fire, the rock, gray wolf and gaunt storm

bird.

They made a bomb more fierce than dynamite-

They weld a Word.

And on the awful night the Gold-men set Tom

Mooney grinning (if such an hour shall be in

truth's despite)

They'll loose the places of much underpinning in

more than ten big cities, left and right.

starts on an island with two or that the Anarchists

want to live on an island by twos. (I have to say

that because my critics when I give or accept any

simple illustration always scoff at me as wanting

only a very simple life. When I mention a plough

as an example of the means of production, I am ac-

cused in the next number of wanting to grow pota-

toes with a hoe). Yet our government did originate

on an island, you know-when the Norman gentlemen

arrived in England and after that little discussion

at Hastings in 1088 established themselves as the

protectors of the country while the Saxons undertook

to do the work (and a good deal of the fighting, too,

when they were told). I suppose G. H. S. would

say that they reached an agreement. Much later in

this country, in 1776, some of the privileges main-

tained by the successors of those protectors were

objected to by so many of the folks protected that

the protection was taken over by a native enterprise.

But the privileges were taken over, too! There lies

the trouble. Some attempt, it is true, was made at

the time to curtail them a bit. Its success may be

judged by the fashion in which an arrogant and

ignorant captain of police here in Los Angeles as-

serts his right to beat up prisoners, while another

has the insolence to suppress a peaceable meeting

called to protest the judicial murder of two men

who spoke the truth too plainly-outrages which

George III never would have dared to venture in

Boston-and by the fact that the great bulk of the

wealth which these captains and others like them

throughout the country protect belongs not to the

people whose labor produced it, but to a privileged

class much smaller in numbers than were the Nor-

mans of William when they first went into the busi-

ness and took over England

EH BM:

ae

NEWS AND VIEWs _

By P. D. NOEL

License

The play at one of the local theaters styled

Front Page" is an illustration of presen;

generation. It is interesting and informat

why indulge in the rough and obscene lan

the gutter? Though we may be of a hig

animals, the fact remains that we have Certain hip

logical functions which are rather offensive, Mal

ters of this kind, while recognized as facts, are cent

sidered as too coarse and indelicate for Conversation

in our modern, refined civilization. In our Strivingy

for freedom of expression and action the Pesult fhe

quently is providing opportunity for the abnormg|

and degenerate of humanity to gain publicity,

"The

day q,

Ie, Dut

BUlage of

h type of

On:

Schnapps

Light wines and beer are held up to us as the

proper solution of the liquor problem. The Cer:

manic nations, especially, are cited ag examples of

real temperance. Since the advent of CommMereia).

ism there seems to have been a change in the ten.

perament and drinking custom, even over there,

Hard liquors are superseding beer, or at least, he.

coming a common adjunct to the milder booze,

Recent figures show Pilsen, the old Bohemian town

as the greatest producer and consumer of beer ie

capita in Europe. But, also, the consumption of al

cohol through hard liquors exceeds that imbibe

through the so-called mild drinks. Even in bulk the

"schnapps" are fast climbing up on beer.

Mexico and the Clericals

The new president of our neighbor on the south,

Portes Gil, seems to have hit upon a remedy for the

menace of sporadic bombings, murders, banditry,

and small uprisings. He now threatens to hit the

pocketbooks of the upper class groups who ar

fomenting these attacks. Their factories, commercial

establishments and great ranches will be confiscated

and distributed to the peasants and urban worker,

As there is nothing so sensitive as the pocketbook,

this new system seems destined to bring peace (0

Mexico. Incidentally, the word "revolution" does no!

seem to frighten the Mexicans as it does here, since

it is constantly used by the leaders there to keep tle

ideais of democracy and freedom before the people,

Worth Studying

The great map of the Water Board showing the

country from the Colorado River to the Pacific is

display in the Forman building at Seventh and Hill

As it is on the ground floor, there is a good atteit:

ance all day. It is true to scale, not only horis0t

tally, but in the matter of all elevations. Howevel

one must remember that the scale for elevations

about ten times larger than that for flat distances,

thus making the hills and mountains appear mutl

steeper and higher than they are as compared with

the horizontal distances. One can get a wonderfil

idea of the Boulder Dam situation, showing the

ious proposed routes for aqueducts, power lines, eto,

Considerable Bunk

Much talk is heard regarding the solution of

Labor problem through the workers gradually oh

taining control of the industries by becoming stock:

holders. The United States Department of Labor

shows that only four and one half per cent o the

workers own stock, and they are mostly the pelll

officials and clerical help. As a rule they do not t##

any interest in the annual elections, not ou nol

attending, but seldom sending in their proxies:

the other hand, it seems likely that the bosses et

obtain greater power over the workers through ie

company unions, which seem to be supplant

regular trades unions in many of the large industt*

The Truth

Rather surprising was this statement by

recently at the middle class City Club: The 1

men should be allowed to work for whomeve?

please, whenever they please, and for wha 00

please is a most dangerous doctrine. The? a

such thing as free labor. The vast army s a

employed, constantly seeking honest labor abe

any price, disproves the theory of free labo!

a gpeakel

idea tht

ihe

If you would know what a war

the terms of peace.-H. A. Brailsford.

Qn |

at they

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was about atoll |