Open forum, vol. 6, no. 13 (March, 1929)

THE OPEN FORUM

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

Vol. 6

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 30, 1929

No. 13

THE TYRANTS OF TORONTO.

A (very) Light Opera, by Guillem and Silliman

(No rights reserved)

Act I.

Enter Chief Inspector Swellman in full uniform:

Recit. ;

1am the very model of a modern chief inspector;

When sedition lifts her head I can instantly detect

her;

I know the devious ways of each bolshevist and crim-

inal,

And comprehend the workings of their processes sub-

liminal;

Be their colour what it may, red or orange, I can tell

The quintessential nature of their politics by smell;

They may shout in Greek or Hebrew to the limit of

their lungs,

It's all the same to me for I've got the gift of tongues;

For custom law and precedent I do not give a damn;

I am the constitution-I am the great I am.

Chorus of Policemen:

He is the great I am

He is the great I am,

Tis greatly.to his credit

That he himself has said it,

When he might have been a Rooshian,

A Frenchman or a Prooshian,

A Nigger, Chink or Jap,

Or some other foreign chap,

He still remained the great I am,

He still, he still, he still

remains the great I am.

Chief: Very good, boys. I know my place, and I

hope you know yours.

All: We do!

Chief: What is the whole duty of a policeman?

All; To stop parking, and stamp out Communism!

Chief: Quite right, boys. Now listen to me care-

fully.

All: We do!

Chief: Who are the tyrants of Toronto?

All: The Reds!

Chief: Quite right, boys. How can you tell a Red?

All: He can't speak English, and he doesn't wash.

Chief: Right, boys. Now, take notice. Irish is

English and Scotch is English and Welsh is English;

but American is not English, French is not English,

Yiddish is not English. Wherever you hear man,

woman, child or dog speaking anything but English,

smell them and run them in.

All: We will, sir!

Chorus with trumpets :-

Torahn-to-rahn-to-ra! To-rahn-to-rahn-to-ra!

Toronto shall be free, :

From the center to the sea;

Toronto shall be free, shall be free;

From every scurvy Red,

For we'll knock 'em on the head,

Torahn-to-rahn-to-ra!To-rahn-to-rahn-to-ra!

Chief: Now boys, Toronto expects every man to do

his duty.

All: She does!

Chief: Go and do it.

All: We will!

(Hxzeunt Omnes)

A GESTE:

hte an

ner Chief Constable Murphy, perplexed and an-

noyed:

Recit;

aS Constabulary duty to be done,

a: lot is not a happy one.

ie i red is eine from denunciation,

oe te honest citizens to crime,

Thine ae, the wretch amassing education

athe ee pies at closing time,

And the oe has ceased from his CommUniGe.

ct Will he le ` tired of jumping on the rich,

White - a his piuaky violin a-tuning,

chee ae mends his trousers stitch by stitch.

Wh the wily Jap quite an inoffensive chap,

euron 9 eee :

ae fnterprising Jew wants to fraternize with

?

And displays an inclination to embrace you like a

brother,

What is the obvious duty to be done?

Oh, take one consideration with another

A policeman's lot is not a happy one-happy one!

inter three sergeants.

C..C. Murphy: Well, boys, how's the great cam-

paign going on?

Ist Sergeant: Not so well, chief, not so well. Since

the big boy put a ban on lip-sticks I've been hard at

work but I can't do a thing. They're bootlegging lip-

sticks by the carload, selling 'em at five bucks a stick.

2nd Sergeant: I've rounded up the School of Seven

and bound them over not to put any more red in

their pictures, but the O.S.A. was full of red this

year. You can't stop the women from wearing red

hats. They pay their fines and laugh at the mag-

istrate.

3rd Sergeant: Why, the latest dodge of the Reds is

to catch all the kids they find loose on the streets

and to dye their heads red. I wish I'd never joined

the force.

C. C. Murphy: Come, come, boys, don't be down-

hearted. The chief's got a new scheme. AIl the Reds

are to be rounded up on April 1st and washed in the

public swimming pool. His theory is that their color

is only skin-deep. When they've all been scrubbed,

and got a skin you love to touch and that schoolgirl

complexion, they'll become decent members of society.

The three Sergts: with deep conviction: Nothing

doing, chief. Count us out. We didn't join the force

to wash a gang of stinking Reds. e

C. CC. murphy: Steady, boys, not so fast. The

chief's a jump ahead of you there. He's put up the

job for public tender, and a big Chink laundry's

taken on the job at ten cents a head. AIl you have

to do is to round them up.

The three sergeants dance round C. C. Murphy and

chant :-

Oh my! What a surprise!

Soap in their mouths, and ears and eyes!

Tub them and rub them, and scrub them well,

Never mind how loud they yell;

Give them their fill of freedom of speech.

Here's an infallible way to teach

Toronto's tyrants to bow the knee

To the British Constitution free.

Here's to good old soap and water! ~*

Laughter's a better way than slaughter;

A whiff of genuine British humor

Is fatal to seditious rumor.

ACT III:

Scene: Public swimming pool. Large crowd of spec-

tators. Police. vans drive up and discharge

load of Reds. As Reds arrive they are seized

by Chinese laundrymen, ducked and scrubbed,

amid roars of laughter, in spite of frenzied

protests and invocation of British freedom.

Chorus of Chinese laundrymen chant as they scrub:

Chinaman muchee washee led,

Allee get ten cents a head,

Led no like muchee washee,

Say him allee same time bolshie.

Final Chorus of repentant Reds, accompanied by

Chinamen beating basins:

We've seen the error of our ways,

And now we sing Britannia's praise;

We here renounce our atheism,

And bless the shorter Catechism.

In future we will pay our taxes

Whenever the collector axes;

We promise to obey the laws,

Nor ever give policemen cause

To doubt our fervent loyalty

By disrespect to Royalty.

Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,

Britons never, never shall be slaves,

In good King George's golden days.

Enter Chief Inspector Swellman. The Reds fall on

his neck and all dissolve in happy tears. They all

sing `God Save the King'.

CURTAIN -The Canadian Forum.

Schwimmer Case Before

Supreme Court in April

The hearing of the case of Madame Rosika

Schwimmer before the United States Supreme Court

which will determine whether or not a non-resistant

pacifist is eligible for United States citizenship is

scheduled for the week of April 8. `The American

Civil Liberties Union says that the decision in this

case will determine the same issue in relation to

several religious objectors to war who have been

denied citizenship on similar grounds.

In the Schwimmer case the Government appealed

to the United States Supreme Court from the Cir-

cuit Court of Appeals at Chicago, which reversed a

District Court decision which refused Madame

Schwimmer citizenship because she failed to give

a satisfactory answer as to what she would do to

defend the lives of American soldiers in a military

hospital when threatened by the approach of an

enemy. The judge's question assumed that Madame

Schwimmer, as a Red Cross nurse, would be in a

position to protect her charges by the use of fire-

arms. Her statement to the court was to the effect

that she would not take life even to defend her own.

The Circuit Court of Appeals, in reversing the

decision, held that granting or denial of citizenship

should not be made to depend upon the applicant's

ability to answer conundrums.

The Government's appeal to the United States

Supreme Court grants that Madame Schwimmer

would be disqualified by both age and sex from bear-

ing arms in war, but urges. that her pacifism would

make her a dangerous citizen because of the influ-

elce she wouid have as a propagandist.

Senate Bill Gives Death

Blow to Third Degree

A bill has been introduced in the Senate at Sacra-

mento, California, which aims to do away with the

vicious "third degree," practiced so extensively by

the police. It provides that a confession- obtained

from a prisoner by a policeman shall be inadmissible

as evidence in the courts. This measure is spon-

sored by the Los Angeles Bar Association, whose

committee on constitutional rights has for months

been gathering data on the subject in Los Angeles.

They have found an abundance of evidence that the

police have greatly exceeded their authority in beat-

ing up helpless men, arresting them without war-

rants, holding them incommunicado for long periods,

searching premises without warrants, failing to ar-

raign prisoners promptly before a magistrate and

otherwise disregarding their civil rights. Altogether

a most shameful regime is found to exist in this city.

Herbert Goudge and Hubert Morrow, two of the

ablest members of the association, have been par-

ticularly vigorous in prosecuting the campaign to

eliminate these abuses of our fundamental liberties.

Lovers of fair play will do well to write their legis-

lators at once urging them to pass this Dill.

Uncover New Perjury

New hope for liberation of two unjustly impris-

oned men rose in the wake of a claim by Estelle

Smith, a major witness, that Thomas Mooney and

Warren K. Billings were "framed" when tried for

murder in 1917.

Mooney and Billings, both Labor agitators, were

convicted of a San Francisco preparedness day

bombing July 22, 1916, in which ten persons were

killed.

Testimony of Miss Smith sent Billings to Folsom

prison for life. She said he was the man she saw

in the doorway of a building in which a bomb was

planted. In an affidavit made March 21 she said

this testimony was false and that it was inspired

by Charles M. Fickert, then district attorney, while

she was under the daily influence of drugs.

Mooney's known connection with Billings paved

the way for his conviction, although Miss Smith ap-

peared in the Billings case only.

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

TIN TOME eal bie eee te ee Ue ee es 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, MARCH 23, 1929

a '6

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.

e e

What's Social Equality?

Suppose we listen to the definition of the

most rabid Negro opponents. What say John

Sharp Williams, Pat Harrison, Thomas Dixon

and their ilk? With tongue and pen they cry

out to the high heavens against the Negro

aspiring to become educated, to vote, to do

the most skilled work, work which they dub a

"white man's job." It is clear, then, that to

the Negrophobist, educational opportunity is

social equality; that political opportunity is

social equality; that economic opportunity is

social equality. Hence to deny that you want

social equality is to admit that you don't want

educational, political and economic opportunity.

In other words, you admit you feel that you

should apologize for living, for without the

above opportunities, life is impossible. The

logic of Cole Blease and the Ku Klux Klan is

sound. You cannot educate a person or race

in the same things in which you are educated

and continue to convince him, or it, that he

or it is inferior to you.-A. Phillip Randolph.

F ear Free Thoughts

TOKIO-(F.P.)-To combat the growth of labor

doctrines among Japanese youth the Government

this year includes in its budget a large appropriation

for "thought guidance." Accounts of just how the

"dangerous thoughts" are to be guided into oblivion

differ widely. Official sources speak of appointment

of "men of sound views" to university professor-

ships, where their wisdom can check undesirable in-

novations in thought through lectures and teaching.

Others ask sharply whether the duties of the wise

men are to include espionage and the arrest of

radically-minded students. Japanese prisons hold

scores of young people whose only offense is that

they talked socialism or attended Labor meetings.

If we did not have imagination to foresee some-

thing better than we now possess, this would be

tragedy indeed.-Elbert Hubbard.

National Bank

of Commerce

(Formerly Peoples National Bank)

Escrows

Safe Deposit

1

Commercial

Savings

Domestic and Foreign Exchange

439 SOUTH HILL STREET

_ Adjoining the Subway Terminal

N. Y. Police Stored

For Strike Arrests

For the second time in recent weeks, Police Com-

missioner Grover A. Whalen has been censured by

attorneys for the alleged "high-handed and lawless

tactics" his policies are held to encourage among

members of the New York City police force. Police

activity in the recent garment makers' strike is the

occasion for this latest protest, which is sponsored

by the American Civil Liberties Union and signed

by Arthur Garfield Hays, its counsel; Dorothy Ken-

yon, Morris L. Ernst and Walter Frank.

The lawyers' letter to the commissioner calls at-

tention to the fact that during the four weeks of the

recent strike, approximately 1350 arrests were made

by the police. Most of these arrests, according to

the attorneys, were made in haphazard fashion and

on trivial grounds. Charges were promptly dismiss-

ed in the magistrates' court in about sixty per cent

of the cases. Only five persons were held for the

grand jury.

"We very respectfully submit,' the letter of pro-

test states, "that the condition herein outlined calls

for remedy. The police should be instructed that

they have no right to make arrests for disorderly

conduct where there is no disorder; that the courts

have determined that it is not disorderly for picket-

ers to walk four abreast, provided their conduct does

not create any disturbance, and that `congregating

on the street' is not a criminal offense unless the

offenders refuse to move on when ordered by the

police; and that in general their power of arrest

should not be exercised on a mere assumption that

striking workers are potential criminals or misde-

meanants who ought to be dealt with severely with-

out regard to their civil rights."

Birth Control Case Up

On Appeal in California

A legal fight over the question of birth control

in California awaits on the appeal of Carl Rave to

be heard in Redwood City, Calif., before the Supe-

rior Court. Rave was arrested for distributing a

pamphlet written by Margaret Sanger, tried under

an 1874 statute, which makes it an offense to `"wil-

fully and lewdly distribute obsence and indecent"

writings. He was found guilty and sentenced to a

$500 fine plus a three months' county jail sentence.

Austin Lewis, attorney for the American Civil Liber-

ties Union, will argue the appeal.

Prof. Gaetano Salvemini

Formerly of Florence, Italy, on

HOW THE FASCIST DICTATORSHIP

AROSE IN ITALY

April 7th

and

IS ITALIAN FASCISM A SUCCESS?

April 14th

at

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall

233 South Broadway

7:45 P. M. Admission 35c

PARIS COMMUNE CELEBRATION

Sunday Night, March 31

Music Art Hall, 233 So. Broadway

Concert by ILYA BRONSON

Pageant Speaker

Auspices I. L. D. and A. C. L. U.

Admission 35c Unemployed Free

HAVE YOU ANY BOOKS YOU DON'T WANT?

The Universal Book Shop Needs Them for

Its Circulating Library

Phone MUtual 7445 and we will call for them

- Address: PAUL C. REISS, Manager

225 West Second Street Los Angeles, Cal.

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Music Art Hall

233 So. Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

March 24-THE OPPOSITION IN THR SOvip

UNION, by Sam Rukin, who visited Russia Last yoy

and who has made a special study of the Trotshy

Stalin controversy that has disrupted the Commu,

ist ranks in both Russia and America.

March 31-THE PARIS COMMUNE. This tng,

ing will be a joint one with the I. L. D. and wijy,

in the nature of a celebration of this important oy,

in French history. A fine musical program wit)

put on in which artists like Iya Bronson, fam,

*cellist, will participate. There will be a short gi

dress. An admission fee of thirty-five cents yj

be charged.

Shelley Club

The next meeting of the Shelley Club will be hai

on Wednesday, March 27, at 1 p. m. in the Tunp

rein Building, 986 West Washington Street. Speake

will be Lona I. Robinson: a review of Hrnest Dey.

nit's "The Art of Thinking."

Coming Events

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

Bryson Building, Second and Spring Streets, fit

reading room open every day; business mectit

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

INTL LABOR DEFENSE BRANCH, busines

and educational meetings every first and hit

Thursday, at Rooms 113 and 114 Stimson Buildin,

Third and Spring streets.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discls

sion every. Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertarlal

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Winter

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday il

month.

I. W. W. OPEN FORUM (Reorganization fit

gram), 224 So. Spring Street, every Saturday, $!

M.-Questions and five-minute discussion.

FREE CLASS IN MECHANICS OF LITERATUR

conducted by Mortimer Downing every Thursdy a

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

SOCIALIST, PARTY, headquarters 430 Dough

Building; R. W. Anderson, Secretary. VErmont 6g

County Central Committee meets second and fou

Mondays.

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD WEL

ASSOCIATION, 107 Marchessault, opposile

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

ihe

nt

UNIVERSAL BOOK SHOP, 225 West Se

Street. Circulating library. Subscriptions taken (R)

all periodicals. Paul C. Reiss, manager.

oe

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On "Strange Interlude"

"Strange Interlude" is an innovation in the theater

Jd evoking serious and extensive discussion. The

many interesting problems, centering about strange

scurrents of human emotion, were discussed by

an ent speakers at a recent meeting at the Bilt-

worl

compet : : ate

more Theater. Most interesting were the opinions

of Paul Jordan Smith, Dr. A. J. Rosanoff and Upton

sinclair.

mm essence Paul Jordan Smith said: "The tragedy

of `Strange Interlude' is the tragedy of life; not the

Greek type of tragedy, but the neurotic type, charac-

teristic of civilization. It is a masterly presentation

of sick and weary life, showing that whatever we

try to do is motivated by our own intellectual limita-

tions." Whatever we do that we think right may

turn out wrong. There is no standard of right and

wrong, and when we try to make our aunts and

grandmothers happy, we make a sorry mess of

things. Hach of the characters tried to do right,

put the pious psychology of saving other people's

souls, and of solving other people's problems with a

universal rule, has made each of them unhappy. "We

can all do the best we can by looking at the universe

ironically, not bitterly, not with a standard of judg-

ment, but with infinite pity and sympathy."

Of outstanding interest was Dr. Rosanoff's con-

tribution as a psychiatrist. The play deals chiefly

with love and procreation and shows that human

happiness depends upon that fundamental adjust-

ment. There is a conflict between biologic purposes

and social exactions, which may be solved by com-

promise, defiance, or submission. These types of

reaction are Shown in the play. Nina, endowed with

a great capacity for intelligent and independent

thinking, suffers upon the death of Gordon a psychic

trauma, which transfers her libido from Gordon to

her child. She is 90 per cent mother and 10 per cent

mistress. "Good old: Charlie" is suffering from a

mother fixation which seeks aesthetic sublimation.

Sam, descendant of a line of insanity, is the cause

of tragedy to all. Better if he had never been born.

`Being happy may be the nearest we can come to

knowing good," but only education can gradually

eliminate the sort of chaos portrayed in the play.

Most delightful of all the speakers was Upton Sin-

clair. While he had no quarrel with the play as a

work of art, yet, inasmuch as it offered no social

solution, it represented the breaking down of a social

order. What does O'Neill show? `That no matter

what one does, nothing comes out right, nor does

it end in happiness for anyone. "Repression in

Charlie leads to the dried New Englander. Freedom

in Darrell leads to his capture by a parasitic crea-

ture of terrific dangerousness. MHappy-acting Sam,

4 failure in college, descendant of a line of lunatics,

a boob who raises another's child; he, typical of

America, makes a million dollars, owns an apart-

ment on Park Avenue, owns a private yacht and is

the only sane one of the bunch."

Nina, with the vanity and ego of woman, is look-

ing for attention, not sex. The only useful thing

she does is trying to work in a hospital, and she

makes a mess of her life there, and later she once

lalks of making a salad. She has learned nothing

from life, and proceeds to spoil the life of her son,

as her father has spoiled her life. All the characters

produce nothing, and spend their lives in sexual ex-

perience, and so make a mess of things for them-

selves and others. "Life is optimism, and faith and

action. It is possible to know what is right and

What is wrong. That alone has made' survival pos-

sible." Hearty applause indicated a concurrence of

pinion. SOPHIE FEIDER.

_ Government by Spies

WASHINGTON - (F.P.) -Forced resignation of

ee Snook at the Atlanta Federal penitentiary,

a ie his refusal to cooperate with the spy and

ae ace system introduced there by the Depart-

then 9 asiee, has led to an outbreak of resent-

and . this government iby spies,' in the press

hiena a Republican politicians. Senator Borah,

ee get believes that the administration is

notte - forced to abandon the system. He de-

The i as irresponsible and vicious.

a aay mcluded the deliberate falsifying of

: oni S by judges, in order that spies might

allegeg ed to prison as criminals, to betray the

Confidence of other prisoners.

CO

More Advice Regarding

Our "Noble Experiment"

Editor The Open Forum:

My good friend David Eccles' criticism of Upton

Sinclair's prohibition views is logical and extremely

interesting to those of us who prefer temperance to

prohibition. Temperance is self-government, prohi-

bition is politiciam government. The former is from

within, the latter from without. One frees us, the

other enslaves.

Though so temperate that I use no intoxicants

whatever-not even tea or coffee-because they in-

jure health, yet I would not force others to do like-

wise, but by clearly showing my reasons therefor I

would try to persuade others, restraining them only

when they so abuse their liberty as to injure or en-

danger their own or others' lives or safety, by be-

coming intoxicated.

Rightly used matches are beneficent, but incen-

diaries do immeasurable injury with them. Yet we

don't prohibit the use of matches but only the wrong-

ful use of them. Why not do likewise with alcohol?

Punish not the seller nor beneficent user thereof but

only the abuser. For if no one used it then no one

would make or sell it. The alcohol user causes the

moonshiner and the bootlegger, and when you pro-

hibit the abuse of alcohol you have done all any sane

man can rightfully desire. So the habitual drunkard

should be restrained from the use of alcohol by

imprisonment at useful labor daily. He should be

fed a restricted, health-promoting diet, including no

luxuries like tobacco, coffee, tea, ete., until he is

cured of his bad habits. A second conviction should

confine him twice as long; a third, four times as

long, etc. Then tax distillers heavily as formerly to

get enough money to make alcohol pay all the ex-

penses that its use creates.

D. WEBSTER GROH.

Hagerstown, Md.

They Pass

Two fine women who worked together in the old

radical movement have just lately passed away,

within two days of each other-Lillian Harman in

Chicago, sixty-odd, and Lillie D. White in Los An-

geles, seventy-four, among the last of the brave

people who many years ago helped that grand old

man Moses Harman to put out his sex-reform paper

Lucifer, published for a while in Los Angeles. In

his old age he went several times to prison for

articles declared to be immoral and obscene be-

cause be used plain language in his attacks upon

sexual abominations. Lillian Harman, his daughter,

came into prominence once and went to prison her-

self for asserting her right to contract a domestic

partnership with a man without calling in the state

to bind them. Lillie D. White wrote for his paper-

fine stuff, both sensible and original. She was a

sister of that Lizzie Holmes, who would have been

hanged with the other Chicago Anarchists if the

authorities had not feared to put a woman `on trial,

and of that C. F. Hunt, who sometimes contributes

a good letter to these columns.

The radical who needs a little encouragement

might do worse than get a few copies of the good

old paper and note that many articles are being

written today in language just as plain without any

threat of prison about it and that the abominations

Moses Harman attacked are gradually being got rid

of as regards their worst forms. In considerable

part that progress has been due to the devoted peo-

ple who in spite of threats, abuse and filth, per-

sisted in their propaganda. A man may well be

proud who can say that such people were his

friends. ete eae

Albert Weisbord Held

HAVERHILL, Mass.-(F.P.)-Albert Weisbord,

secretary of the National Textile Workers' Union,

was arrested as he was about to speak to a meet-

ing of shoe workers, and taken to New Bedford on

a warrant charging conspiracy in connection with

his participation in the New Bedford textile strike

last summer.

It is now believed that the New Bedford authori-

ties, who failed to arrest Weisbord when he recent-

ly spoke there, may have actually mislaid the war-

rant against him, as they alibied.

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

Without Fear or Favor

Editor The Open Forum:

Personal liberty exponents may as well argue in

behalf of theft, murder and rape as to argue for the

return of the liquor traffic; liquor makers, sellers

and drinkers are just as much outlaws, under the

Constitution, as are thieves, murderers and rape-

fiends. To ask modification of the prohibition law

so as to permit the sale and consumption of light

wine and beer is just as reprehensible, with condi-

tions as they are in the United States, as to demand

moderate laws governing theft, murder and rape.

This whole prohibition agitation involves not so

much the question of personal liberty as it does the

legal right of the individual to get drunk. Whenever

the proponents of personal liberty, or the opponents

of prohibition, can satisfy the responsible rulers of

this nation that the individual should have the legal

right to commit crime, minor or major, then they

may hope for a reversal of the law of evolution and

a rescission of the Highteenth Amendment.

Human advance is not made through exclusively

intellectual channels. The material conditions of

life contribute vastly more to human progress than

do the activities of the human mind. Prohibition

came not because of high moral conscience, or be-

cause of an educational drive, but because of the

necessity of the social and economic conditions of

our time. American capitalism simply cannot func-

tion efficiently or continue its development with a

liquor handicap.

Weak-minded persons to show conceit or assuage

a thirst violate the prohibition law. Shall this law

be repealed because of its occasional violation? Its

disapproval by certain perverse or degenerate citizens

warrants not its repeal, but its rigid enforcement.

This nation is fully committed to prohibition. Con-

ceivably it were just as easy to overthrow capitalism

as to weaken or annul the prohibition law. Those

who imagine otherwise not only poorly observe the

trend of events, but they utterly misjudge the temper

of the American people. Violators of the law, if

caught, may prepare to pay fines, therefore, or go to

jail. The day of argument has gone; the day of

judgment is here! G. E.'S.

An Objection

Editor The Open Forum:

I note the announcement that next Sunday there

will be a joint celebration (35 cents admission) of

the anniversary of the Paris Commune by the Civil

Liberties Union and the International Labor De-

fense. I submit respectfully that such an arrange-

ment is altogether an improper one for the Civil

Liberties Union, common ground for so many differ-

ent schools.

I do not mean that the Civil Liberties Union

should never celebrate anniversaries. But the Com-

mune was an affair in which not merely one politi-

cal party but all radicals alike are interested. Why

then this arrangement whereby the Communist

Party is given what amounts to an exclusive op-

portunity of exploitation? Why the Communist

Party rather than the others? The rising in Paris

was not for Communism, but for the Commune; the

men who made it were not Communists but Com-

munards. Its meaning is still quite absurdly mis-

understood. It was not to establish Communism

(the money in the banks remained there in safety

throughout the struggle); it was an attack upon

centralized government as it existed and still exists

in France (and in Russia); and if any one radical

movement can claim it more than another it is very

evidently the Libertarians. Certainly the S. P., the

S. L. P., the I. W. W. and the Libertarians have all

of them at least as much claim as the Communists;

and if the Civil Liberties Union wanted to celebrate

the affair it ought to have been done with repre-

sentatives speaking from all those bodies.

The I. L. D. will, of course, say that it is not

the Communist Party, but no well-informed radical

mistakes it for anything but what it is-a distinctly

Communist body working so that the credit goes

to the Communist Party, and the collections-well,

look up that recent letter of Tom Mooney.

I trust that the authorities of the Civil Liberties

Union will act in future with more judgment.

'Fraternally,

AY SE SBE

2

| Peund Coal a Iron

Police Bill Inadequate

Governor Fisher's coal and iron police bill, intro-

duced into the Pennsylvania House of Representa-

tives by Representative M. A. Musmanno, is under

fire from the Constitutional Rights Committee of

Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh branch of the American

Civil Liberties Union and various Labor groups.

Meanwhile, indictments for murder have been re-

turned by the grand jury against the three coal and

iron policemen responsible for the administration's

sudden interest in placing some restraint on the

private police bodies. The three men, Lieut. W. J.

Lyster, Harold Watts and Frank Slapikas, are

charged with beating to death John Baroski, a coal

miner.

The administration's bill, which the Civil Liber-

ties Union and other organizations are opposing as

not being drastic enough, provides for placing every

private policeman under $2000 bond and limits his

activity to within 1000 feet of the property of the

company by which he is employed. The bill also

gives the Governor the power to investigate the

conduct of policemen and empowers him to dis-

charge at will.

"The administration measure on the coal and iron

police is totally inadequate and an insult to West-

ern Pennsylvania,' declares Frederick E. Woltman,

secretary of the Pittsburgh branch of the American

Civil Liberties Union, who is standing for total aboli-

tion of the private police system. It would not have

prevented the murder of John Barkoski."

It is also pointed out by those objecting to the

proposed measure that the provision limiting the

police to within 1000 feet of company property would

not have met the conditions existing during the re-

cent big coal strike. In many instances the strik-

ing miners, evicted from company houses, erected

barracks close to the company property, although

not on company land. Under this bill, the police

could still invade the miners' dwellings and employ

their lawless tactics in dealing with the strikers.

Hoover Hesitates on

Alvan T. Fuller Plum

BOSTON-(F.P.)-That Herbert Hoover wants to

reward former Gov. Alvan T. Fuller, the original

Hoover fan in Massachusetts, by naming him am-

bassador to France, but hesitates, is the gist of an

inspired story appearing in the Boston Herald. The

Paris embassy has been coveted by Fuller for years

as the capstone in his record of "public service,"

extending from the lower house of the Bay State

Legislature to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.

But the enmity of large sections of the French

populace, including the workers of Paris, to Fuller

as responsible for the legal murder of the two

Labor men, is causing Hoover to hesitate before

throwing the embassy plum into Fuller's lap. Con-

sequently, it is hinted that instead, he may `be made

envoy to Spain, Italy or Germany.

Hoover is said to be awaiting the arrival of Henry

L. Stinson, new Secretary of State, before reaching

a final decision on Fuller's reward. Stinson, says

the Boston paper, may prefer someone else, but in-

asmuch as Hoover is understood to be in active

charge personally of American foreign affairs, opin-

ion in Boston veered to the suspicion that other

obstacles lie in the path of Hoover.

Whether the French Government would be willing

to assure the safety of Fuller in a nation that was

stirred as no other by the electrocution of Sacco and

Vanzetti under Fuller's direction, is the open ques-

tion. When Fuller visits France, it is under the

assumed name of Peter Bond. He returned last

month from France, and retired to his Florida

estate, awaiting Hoover's decision.

Defeat Is Foreseen for

Reactionary State Bills

Opposition in the Ohio House of Representatives

to the bill for establishing a state constabulary

and opposition in the Colorado Senate to that state's

proposed criminal syndicalism law are both so strong

that neither measure is expected to pass, accord-

ing to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The state police bill has already been approved

by the Ohio Senate, however, and the syndicalism

law has received the sanction of the Colorado House.

The Union is fighting both measures through its

friends in the respective states.

A Program for Peace

(Summary of Address by Norman Thomas)

The things we have heard discussed tonight (tar-

iffs, imperialism, sea law) are of especial importance

because they are neglected or ignored by so many

well meaning friends of peace who expect to achieve

their cure of war by some incantation or pious reso-

lution like the Kellogg Pact or by some panacea-

like disarmament or adherence to the World Court.

Now I believe that we must do everything possible

to avert particular wars or to make war less likely

while we seek to change the system that is the

mother of war. For instance, we ought to be work-

ing toward disarmament, especially toward the dras-

tic limitation of navies. I do not believe we must

wait for a new naval conference until the sea law

is settled. Much less till every other economic prob-

lem is cleared up. At the same time I know that

disarmament will not be lastingly achieved unless

we can handle the difficult economic problems that

are the basis of so many rivalries and hates in the

world today.

In other words, to work for peace is to work for

a philosophy of world co-operation which requires

not panaceas but a program. This program must

find expression in the conscious political life of our

country. It was a shocking thing that lovers of

peace in America did not make even the feeblest

effort in the last campaign to commit either candi-

date or either of the old parties to any sort of

rounded program for peace or even to any discussion

of it. They were too busy deciding how r-a-d-i-o

should be pronounced and other equally burning

issues. Perhaps they were too afraid to face the

economics of peace. Yet not the best intentions in

the world will avail us much unless we are willing

to face questions of tariffs, economic imperialism,

the allocation of raw materials, debts and repara-

tions, with a realistic knowledge that there is a

price of peace and that no nation can play, the role

in world affairs that unconsciously America is as-

suming without grave danger.

When mankind went in for the use of machinery

on a large scale it set before itself the necessity of

cooperation on a world-wide scale or destruction.

There is no adequate recognition of that fact. There

is indeed a growing internationalism of capital of

which the proposed new international bank may give

a possible dangerous example. It is questionable

whether such internationalism of capital can really

check the rival imperialisms of rival capitalists. If

it succeeds at all it will be at the price of such a

complete domination not only of the working class

but of what may be called proletarian nations that

it will only intensify a bitterness that sooner or later

will turn class struggle into class war. We who do

not believe in salvation by catastrophe cannot af-

ford to let the dominant internationalism be an in-

ternationalism of bankers.

Rather is it our task to work for an internationat-

ism in point of view among the producing masses

and the patient building of machinery of coopera-

tion between nations. None of this can be done if

we persist in seeing in tariffs only a domestic prob-

lem, in "backward nations" only a problem for the

marines, and in the law of the sea only a means to

assert our own interests.

Union Reviews Liberty

Situation for February

The first lynching in two months was reported in

February from Florida, according to the report for

that month.just issued by the American Civil Liber-

ties Union. The lynchers succeeded in taking their

victim from the jailer by means of a ruse.

Condemnation of the Pittsburgh police by the

press and that city's law department for breaking

up a meeting in a private hall was one of the more

outstanding vindications of the Union's stand dur-

ing the month. The charge that New York City

police were showing discrimination and attempting

to prevent picketing was made by the left wing

dressmakers' union following the arrest of hundreds

of their members on the picket line. As a result

of its own investigation, the Civil Liberties Union

has since backed up the strikers' charges.

Other events of the month affecting civil liberty

were the banning of Margaret Sanger in Boston, the

refusal of Governor Roosevelt of New York to ex-

tradite Fred Biedenkapp and Paul Crouch of the

Workers Party at request of the state of Massachu-

setts, and the refusal of citizenship to Martha Gra-

ber, a Mennonite, at Lima, Ohio, when she declared

her unwillingness to kill in case of war.

NEWS AND VIEWs _

By P. D. NOEL

Heywood Broun Says

" One may not follow this columnists idea

generally, but at least can give him credit fo

age and candor. While stating that religious

tion is deeply rooted in American tradition, he add

apropos of Al Smith's defeat: "But of Course `e

doesn't go for Catholics." At the same time ay

8 Very

T Coup.

tolerg.

must concede that membership in that body jg

} a |

distinct asset to prospective office-holdergs jp th

of our large cities. "In a general gort of Way the

United States can be divided into two Doliticgy

camps-the city Catholics against the agriculturg)

Protestants."

7 Tax Evasion

Most of our taxes are shifted by those Who pay

them to the shoulders of the consumers, But taxes

on land values, income taxes and inheritance taxes

cannot be so transferred. Though the Republican

majority in the New York Legislature iy bent on

abolishing the direct tax on real estate, the ten.

dency over the country is to put the burden of

government on those best able to bear it-thoy

who are benefiting from monopolies and special

privileges. The greater part of our Federa] revenues

are derived from income taxes, two and a hal

BILLIONS this year. Up to about a decade or typ

ago our national revenues were procured from in.

port duties, internal revenue taxes on alcoholic

liquors and tobacco, ete. At first the income ta

was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Cour,

but that has been overcome. Some day we will he

wise enough to tax our. millionaires out of existence,

Immigration

The Fellowship of Reconciliation announces a

four-day conference beginning May 2. i Many good

speakers are on the program, including Paul Schar-

renberg, the secretary of the State Federation of

Labor. Most of them will be idealistically in favor

of no bars against Asiatic or any other kind of imni-

gration. However, Scharrenberg will give the Labor

and practical end of the question. | It will be well

worth attending.

The Labor Movement

In the March number of the American Mercury is

an interesting article by Earl W. Shimmons entitled

"Twilight of the A. F. of L." Well-wishers of Labor

must admit that his facts are facts, and that bis

conclusions are logical. He shows the virility of

the Gompers regime a thing of the past, with Presi:

dent Green a tool of dubious Lewis of the Mie

Workers, and Woll a clever "borer from within' fo

the capitalistic National Civic Federation. It is 10

bad, but true.

Equality

While the Typographical Union is considered a

being quite conservative, it lives up to the prindile

of no discrimination on account of sex-more than

`can be said of many other unions which profess the

y the

Jar

les

same doctrine. Its women members get exactl |

same wages and hours as do the men doing sil

work. In last month's report of the Los Anse

group half of the new members initiated welt

women,

The Negro Problem

Randolph, the president of the Pullman Po

Union, was the speaker at last week's meetile 0x00B0

the Forum of the City Club. He is as forceful at

intelligent as any speaker who has evel spoke

there. He thinks little of Huxley's ideas regardls

the biological difference between the alleged infer

races and the whites, and quotes practically all y

standing scientists to uphold his contention. 1) 0x2122

unfortunate that the question regarding segregati:

of the races was taken by him in a local manne

such as we have in cities and communities in this

country, rather than on a large national scale i

separate states or countries. It is doubtful i Fy

Negroes will ever be anything more than a re

nated-against people in this country. where

races, so different that they will not intermally, i`

ist in the same land, one will dominate and |

other be subservient.

ters

ie Ne

Whilst freedom is true to itself, everythine

comes subject to it-Edmund Burke.

aly