Open forum, vol. 7, no. 47 (November, 1930)

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_ THE OPEN FORUM

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

Vol. 7

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER 22, 1930

No. 47

Did You Give to the Chest?

By GEORGE H. SHOAF

Some one asks, "Why write nothing but tales of

woe? Can't you do anything else but howl calamity?

Your yarns reflect the suspicion that you are afflicted

with an incurable bellyache and that possibly a

liberal dose of castor oil might do you good. Snap

out of it, if you can, and smile. The poor and op-

pressed were here a long time before you were born,

and they will be here long after you are dead. What

do you get out of it, anyway? Why make it your

business to criticize or interfere with conditions you

can't remedy? It looks like something was the

matter with your head!" :

I was pondering the implications contained in the

foregoing paragraph, sent by an unknown corres-

pondent, and wondering if, after all, they did not

include a large element of truth, when the door bell

rang. Answering, I discovered the visitor to be an

authorized agent of a local firm calling to collect a

bill. While polite in his initial request, the pallor

of his countenance and the firmness and brevity of

his remarks indicated that he was either laboring

under the weight of some responsibility or had ex-

perienced a recent bereavement. In the conversa-

tion that ensued between us he finally admitted he

was mad.

"It's that damned Community Chest," he said. "I

could forgive a hungry man for robbing me at the

point of a revolver, but when a rich corporation

tells me it's either a day's wages for the Chest, or

my job, then my dander rises."

Interested, even if it was none of my business, I

asked for particulars.

"Well, you know the Community Chest," he

began; "this scheme by which the rich are supposed

to give charity to the poor. Instead of being per-

sonally bothered by Tom, Dick and Harry, the idea

of the rich was and in theory still is to shift the

whole matter of charity to the Chest, thereby en-

abling them to contribute without coming into

actual contact with the objects of their charity. So

long as the rich maintained the Chest it was not

so bad, even though it is a bitter pill for the poor

to have to accept charity. But what have the rich

done? They are now getting out from under by

making the employed workers support the Chest.

That's what gets my goat."

"What is the latest development?" I inquired.

"Tl tell you," my caller continued. "Ten days

ago when the matter of funds for the Community

Chest was announced, the company for which I

work posted a notice that this year employe sup:

port would be purely voluntary. A few gave, but

most did not. But funds for the Chest are not

coming in as lively this year as last, as you may

have observed from the papers, and so this morning

another notice was posted to the effect that every

Person who worked for the company either had to

contribute one day's wages, or get out. Of course,

. We all contributed.

"My wages, by closely figuring, just keep myself,

my wife and two kids going. I have been working

for this company eleven years, and do you know I

am still paying rent? I have never been able to

Scrape together enough to make a first payment on

a home. My wife saves and I skimp, but we simply

just can't get anything ahead. If I were to lose my

job now I don't know what we would do.

"Naturally, hard times and the sight of so many

able-bodied men on the streets looking for work,

with many of them starving, have made me do a

little thinking. This job of collecting takes me

through the sections where the rich live, and some-

how or other I have lately commenced to pay more

attention to their lavish displays of wealth. With

hard times now on the country and with so much

misery among the poor, I can't help but observe the

difference between the wealth of the rich and the

poverty of the poor, and I also notice that hard

times seem to cut no figure with the rich in their

Manner of living. They have everything they want

to the point of extravagance; while down in the

Slum district men and women actually are fighting

__ for places in the bread line.

"Until now I don't suppose I ever had a rebel

idea in my head; but this morning when I was

ordered to give up a day's wages to help my boss

put across his quota for the Community Chest-I

a poor man with only a lousy job and he a rich man

with more money than he can count-I saw red. I

fairly trembled with rage. I could hardly contain

myself. I longed to get hold of something and

strike out. If it had not been for my helpless fam-

ily I really believe I would have secured a window

weight and gone after the big man in the inner

office. When I think of the sheer injustice of the

thing I grow so mad I get sick."

Following the departure of my rebellious visitor,

I reviewed my cogitations begun before he rang the

bell. It was getting late in the afternoon and I

decided to take the air. In the next block down

the street I stopped to chat with some friends,

among whom was the woman of the house who

worked as bookkeeper in a local bank. My friends

were engaged in a heated conversation when I en-

tered. Their faces and tones of voice disclosed that

something unusual had happened. I soon found out

what it was.

"Do you know that the boss at the bank made

every employe contribute a day's wages to the Com-

munity Chest this morning!" exclaimed my woman

friend. "He just called us all into the counting

room and told us it was either a day's wages or a

discharge. I tell you it is an outrage. We are all

up in arms about it. Here we are just barely mak-

ing both ends meet, needing every penny we can

get together, when this thing occurs. The bank

I am working for is one of the richest in the com-

munity, and I know for a fact it is amply able to

care for its quota for the Community Chest, and

yet it makes its half-paid employes divide up their

earnings and go without real necessaries so that it

can boast about its contributions to charity. I tell

you I am mad clean through!"

Later in the evening I visited a friend who runs

a small store near the outskirts of the business dis-

trict. Concerning the Community Chest he said:

"Did I give to the Chest? Ill say I did. I had

no option in the matter. Those in charge of the

Chest put it up to me not as a matter of charity or

patriotism but purely as a matter of business credit.

If I refused, I was given to understand that the

Chamber of Commerce would blacklist me, the

wholesalers would discriminate against me and my

landlord would be forced to raise my rent at the

termination of my present lease. And I was not

permitted to give what I could afford. I was told in

black and white just what I was expected to give;

and it was plenty. My business was assessed in pro-

portion to that asked of my wealthy competitor

down the street. But, whereas my competitor em-

ploys six hundred persons in his store and I only

one, he makes up his contribution from among his

employes, while I had to dig mine up from my

meager profits. Between the two of us I estimate

that proportionally I gave a thousand percent more

than did the big man. Am I mad? I'm nothing

else but!"

Finally, as I sometimes do, I went over to a radi-

cal meeting where from the platform I heard this

language from an agitator:

"It's a fine thing the capitalists have devised-

this Community Chest. They exploit the workers

of eighty percent of the product, and when the

workers' wages are insufficient to enable them to

buy back the products of their toil, and the piled-up

surplus compels a suspension of industry, thereby

creating an army of starving unemployed, what,

then, do the capitalists do? Why, they establish a

Community Chest through which to relieve the vic-

tims of their exploitation; but, instead of them-

selves financing the project, they force the em-

ployes still working to do it for them. Some system!

"The productive workers by their labor not only

support themselves, such as it is, but they also

bring into being the tremendous wealth owned by

Student Body Attempts to

Oust Member for Article

Because of an article published in the Raleigh

News and Observer in which he set forth the find-

ings of a research conducted by a member of the

faculty, Milton A. Abernethy, a student at North

Carolina State College, was tried November 8 before

the "court" of the student body and recommended

for suspension from the college for two years. The

"court" also recommends that he be re-admitted only

on condition that he shall not write about the col-

lege during the period of his suspension. The article

revealed that a big majority of students is opposed

to compulsory military training and a large number

to fraternities, that about half the students go to

church regularly and that cheating is "unequalled

by any other sport."

This exposure of cheating aroused a storm among

the students. Abernethy wrote that "seemingly the

student who does not cheat is dropped by the way-

side, for although the percentage of cheating among

freshmen is only twenty-one, for sophomores it is

fifty-eight, for juniors sixty-one, and for seniors

sixty-five. His article concludes with the comment:

"This cheating game is a game. They have the

honor system, 'tis true; but the faculty has the

honor and the students have the system.

The student council tried Abernethy on a charge

of "offensive conduct likely to affect the reputation

of the college and to bring discredit on the student

body." Finding him guilty of this offense they

recommended his suspension.

Assisted by Dean Taylor of the Graduate School,

other faculty members, newspapers and student

friends and the Civil Liberties Union, Abernethy is

now demanding a re-hearing by the student council.

Convicted of Assembling

Six Communists, the first group of those arrested

September 1 to be tried, were sentenced by Munici-

pal Judge Wood as follows:

Jack Olson, Pat Chambers and E. Yamaguchi,

seventy-five days; Thorsten Anderson and Harry

Schneider, sixty days; Ann Raynor, forty days. They

were found guilty by a jury, after an hour's deliber-

ation, of assembling to disturb the public peace and

failure to disperse upon lawful command of a public

officer. Leo Gallagher of the International Labor

Defense represented the defendants.

Hight additional persons arrested on Labor Day

and charged with other misdemeanors went on trial

November 13 and November 17.

the master classes. On top of that they are com-

pelled, additionally, to support by enforced charity

those whom the capitalist system has reduced to

unemployment. I tell you, my comrades, that the

Community Chest is a menace to the employed and

an insult to those out of work. What the unem-

ployed want are jobs, not charity. If capitalism

can't supply the jobs, then it is high time that the

workers organized to change the system and inaugu-

rate one that will."

On my way home after the meeting I was accosted

no less than seven times by men who begged for

money and by women who were willing to sell their

bodies for the price of something to eat. I hesi-

tated to cross dark intersections for fear of getting

sandbagged for my pocketbook. When, at last, I

crossed the threshold of my door I sagged to my

room heavy-hearted with the experiences of the

afternoon and evening.

This is free America, I ejaculated. This is the

home of brave men and fair women for which my

fathers bled and died. This is the land of Hoover

opportunity where the government acts as an im-

partial umpire in the grand foot-race for life, liberty

and the pursuit of happiness. There are a few poor,

of course, but they brought their poverty on them-

selves. The Community Chest will take care of the

situation. All is well with America, and every pros-

pect pleases. Only I am vile, if I dissent from con-

ditions and seek to give expression to that dissent!

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 1022 California Building

Second and Broadway,

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836

Clinton J. Taft Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills P. D. Noel

Lew Head

John Beardsley

Edwin P. Ryland

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Entcred as second-class matter Dec. 13, 1924, at the

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1930

Be l6

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.

Police Brutality No Myth

For a long time we have been exposing the brutal

tactics of the Los Angeles police in handling so-called

Reds. We have decried all third-degree methods and

have appealed to the officials to do away with them.

Not long ago we took a man before the police com-

mission and had him strip to the waist and exhibit

to them the bruises on his body received at the

hands of one of the Cossack cops. But the only

answer we got from the commission was: "The

more the police beat up the Reds the better we

like it."

With such hearty approval from their superiors it

is no wonder that beating up prisoners has continued

unabated. It was done under Chief Davis, and it is

still done under Chief Steckel. If you have any

doubt about the matter read our first-page story this

week, written by a victim, Clarence Cowan. It is

one of the clearest cases of sheer brutality that we

have yet investigated. The constitutional rights

committee of the Bar Association has been asked to

look into the case and do something about it.

An affidavit stating what happened to Cowan has.

been filed with the police commission. But we have

little hope of any action from that quarter.

A suit against Officer William Cuthard for from

$10,000 to $25,000, charging him with false arrest

and assault upon a prisoner, will be much more

effective. Such a suit it is expected will shortly be

filed by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties

Union. -C. J. T.

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Revolutionary Poet Released

Robert Paisons, known also under the pen name

of Marcus Graham, will not be deported, the Immi-

gration Bureau has just decided. It will be recalled

that Parsons, the editor of a volume called "An

Anthology of Revolutionary Poetry', was arrested at

Yuma last July and held for deportation. A copy of

his book found on his person was the basis for a

charge against him of "anarchy." He was further

charged with having illegally entered the United

States from Canada and of having paid an illegal

visit to Juarez, Mexico. He applied to the Southern

California Branch of the American Civil Liberties

Union for help. The Union furnished him an attor-

ney-John Beardsley-and put up $1000 bail de-

manded. Negotiations were at once begun with the

Washington authorities for his release, and after

more than three months' effort they have proven

successful.

F. O. R. November Dinner

The regular monthly dinner of the Fellowship of

Reconciliation will be held Monday evening, Novem-

ber 17, at 6 o'clock, in the First Universalist Church,

13873 South Alvarado Street, the women of the church

serving a 60 cent dinner. Dr. Robert Whitaker will

speak on "What Can We Do for World Peace?"

Phone reservations to WAshington 5116 by noon of

November 15.

INDIA IN REVOLT

MEETING AT TRINITY AUDITORIUM

Ninth and Grand

Sunday, November 16, at 3 P. M.

Speakers:

Dr. Robert Whitaker: "India and the Dis-

solution of the British Empire."

Dr. Dalip Singh Saund,

Author of "My Mother India":

"Why Gandhi Did Not Go to London."

Prof. S. G. Pandit, attorney: "Indig As She

Was, As She Is, and As She Will Be."

Meeting Will Be Thrown Open for Questions

Auspices: Hindusthan Sudhar Association

of Southern California

PUBLIC INVITED NO ADMISSION

~ CELEBRATE

13th Anniversary of the First Workers' Re-

public. Creative spirit of Soviet Union in song,

dance and oratory, Friday, November 21, 8

P. M., German Turnverein, 936 West Washing-

ton Street. Admission 35c.

THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

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"United States Jails Poet."-L. A. RECORD

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OPEN FORUM

Music Art Hall

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Come at 7:30 if you would not miss the tremen

dously interesting and instructive talks on current

events with which the meetings are opened each

week by Prof. Arthur E. Briggs.

Nov. 16-THE EMANCIPATION OF THE EAST,

by Prof. Bernard C. Ewer of Pomona College, who

is just returned from a year's study abroad. The

casting off of western domination in China anq

India will be described by the professor, who says,

"I have been much impressed by this great world-

movement."

Noy. 23-RUSSIAN LITERATURE, by Mrs. Irene

Morska, actress and playwright, who once lived in

Russia. Her address will deal comprehensively with

the subject, showing what Russian literature wag.

like (1) under the whip and lash; (2) during the

transition period; and (3) under the hammer and

sickle. As Mrs. Morska is a highly cultured woman

speaking four languages, a most illuminating lec

ture is anticipated.

November 30.-`CAN THE POWER TRUST BE

BEATEN?" by Carl D. Thompson of Chicago, secre-

tary of the Public Ownership League of America.

For years this doughty champion of the people's

rights has been fighting the power trust and leading

the forces in America who want to see the greatest

trust of all time defeated. He knows the subject as

no other man in this country does. Don't miss hear-

ing Carl D. Thompson, former member of the Wis-

consin legislature and a man with a great message.

A Business Opportunity

The Forestry Department reports the loss by

fire in grass, brush and forest in the millions ,

annually, also scores of lives.

I claim to have plans for a different equip-

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fires that will cut that loss in half at least.

I invite the investigation of any reliable

party who has funds to have drawings made

to apply for patent and build working model.

PROMOTER WANTED

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to whom you may entrust all your jewelry

needs, be it the purchase of an expensive

diamond, an insignificant repair job or en-

graving.

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Coming Events

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W., 483

Bryson Building, free reading room open every

day; business meeting every Tuesday, 7:30 P.M.

MOONEY-BILLINGS BRANCH, I. L. D., business

and educational meetings every first and third

Tuesday, at 120 Winston Street.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discus:

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertarian

Center, 2528 Brooklyn Avenue; dance and entertain-

ment last Saturday in month.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 429-30 Douglas

Building. Telephone, MUtal 7871. Office open from

9 a.m. to 10 p. m., except Sunday. Circulating libra-

ry. Young Socialist League meets every Wednesday

night.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY, headquarters 230

Douglas Building, Third and Spring. Meetings every

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Talk of Peace, Act for War

Editor The Open Forum:

Today we read the speeches of Hoover, MacDonald

and Hamaguchi on naval limitation. To be sure that

does not mean much, when total disarmament is

what was promised us once upon a time. But when

Russia, the one and only country, took us at our

word, and said, "Yes, we are willinge-"' she was

ousted from the Peace Conference at Geneva. Mac-

Donald even says, "What a happy day for the world

will be the day of that agreement!" Well, all he has

to do is to say it will be done, and lo, all other na-

tions will follow suit.

There is no greater stupidity in the minds of our

leaders than the idea of any kind of armaments to

settle disputes between man and man. Their talk is

childish. We have spent millions, yes, billions, on

buildings to talk in, and where are we today? We

have settled nothing. World affairs are more chaotic

than ever before in the world's history, and the daily

newspapers keep us posted about riots, revolutions

and world-wide discontent. Yet we go blandly on

hoping for a better day, but doing nothing to avert a

catastrophe that already is at the door of every capi-

- talistic country.

' On the same page, in headlines, we read, "Secre-

tary of the Navy, Charles Francis Adams, urges

strong navy ... perfect fleet, insurance against war."

Was there ever a more irrational statement than

that? Yet it has been repeated over and over again,

until unthinking people are led to believe it. Things

are made for use. If they are not to be used, then

they belong on the scrapheap, and no further blood-

money should be squandered on them.

- Admiral Plate lost no time in telling the radio

world that the Navy was free from communism,

anarchy, or revolutionary tendencies! Yes, quite so;

the sailors are protected, fed, clothed and housed;

but what about the millions, actually grubbing in

garbage-cans, walking the streets, waiting in bread-

lines, sleeping in parks-and the only cure our ad-

mirals can suggest for unemployment is to speed up

the naval building programs. As the need for them

has been wiped out, in our pacts outlawing war, why

push willful waste? But even so, Secretary Adams

expressed confidence that the people of the country

will provide funds for a Navy second to none!

After we kill mothers' sons, we give the mothers a

trip to Europe, that they may weep at the sight of

hundreds of thousands of dazzling white crosses,

marking the graves of our country's best! The sight

froze the marrow in my bones. Where is the thing

that they gave their lives for-democracy, self-deter-

mination, and no more war?

America's real foes are not the "reds" or Com-

munists. It is corruption in our political life, the

betrayal of public trust, big business which exploits

the worker, on whose life all business depends.

There is a good deal of truth in what Mussolini says

about hypocritical Hurope, which talks Peace at

Geneva, yet prepares for war at home.

K. C.-G.

October 28, 19380.

South Carolina Student

Quits on Compulsory Chapel

A sophomore of the University of South Carolina,

La-Bruce King, resigned November 4 after a faculty

committee denied his petition for exemption from

compulsory chapel attendance.

King contends that since Jews are exempted at

the university, he also should. be exempt because

he is not a member of any church. He appealed to

L. P. Parker, dean of students, who referred the

question to a faculty "discipline committee." They

tuled against King and informed him that continued

absence from chapel would cause his suspension.

Kimg then resigned from the university. He issued

a Statement in the student publication, branding the

action of the officials as "rank discrimination" and

the compulsory chapel regulation as `unconsti-

tutional." He threatens to take legal action against

the school.

Battleships

All the labor used in the construction of battleships,

Which means employment in mines, chemical services,

Steel and iron works, the engineering, joinery, car-

bentry, plumbing and painting trades, can be trans-

ferred to the building, say, of houses, and a great

Variety of work which represents enduring forms of

National wealth J. R. Clynes.

FROM V

We welcome communications from our read-

ers for this page. But to be acceptable letters

must be pointed and brief-not over 500 words,

and if they are 400 or less they will stand a

better show of publication. Also they must be

typewritten-our printers can't take time to de-

cipher hieroglyphics.

How Christian Science

Combats Hard Times

Editor The Open Forum:

In an article entitled "Why Unemployment and

Hard Times?" in your issue of November 8,

"Veritas" referred briefly to Christian Science, but

the comment was misleading because it implied

mistakenly that Christian Scientists ignore indus-

trial depressions.

Please let me state that Christian Scientists deal

`with unemployment and hard times, as well as with

pecuniary difficulties, through the same spiritual

method as they utilize to heal disease, but in neither

case do they ignore the discordant condition.

Even though discord seems real and serious to

material sense testimony, Christian Science pro-

claims the nothingness of evil. Is not this con-

clusion logically drawn from the Bible teaching

that God made all and made it "very good"

(Genesis 1:31), and is not evil proved unreal when

it is annihilated?

Distressing conditions usually come from fear,

and when fear is conquered through spiritual under-

standing the distress is alleviated pr destroyed. Job

saw the contagious nature of fear when he said,

"For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon

me" (Job 3:25). However, Christ Jesus, the Way-

shower, knew the truth of John's statement, "There

is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out

fear" (I John 4:18); and from the depth of his

infinite spiritual understanding, Jesus repudiated

fear by his commands: "Fear not" (Luke 8:50); "Be

of good cheer" (Mark 6:50); and "Be not afraid"

(Matthew 28:10).

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of

Christian Science, stated in the textbook, "Science

and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 447),

"Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease

in all their forms, but realize no reality in them"

and (p. 410) "The more difficult seems the material

condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger

should be our faith and the purer our love."

Consecrated students of Christian Science are logi-

cally refuting mesmeric arguments of fear and lack

by gratefully accepting the government of inex-

haustible divine Love in their human affairs, with

the result that they are enjoying far-reaching bene-

fits. Little by little they are proving that Christ

Jesus offered the panacea for unemployment, hard

times, and financial lack when he said: "Be not

therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or,

What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be

clothed? ... But seek ye first his kingdom, and his

righteousness; and all these things shall be added

unto you" (Matthew 6:31, 33, Rev. Vers.)

Yours truly,

ALBERT E. LOMBARD,

Christian Science Committee on Publication for

Southern California.

Many Citizens Protest

Lawlessness of Police

Police Commissioner Mulrooney of New York City

has been urged in a letter just sent through the

American Civil Liberties Union, signed by twenty

leaders in civic affairs, "to act and to act promptly

to end repeated exhibitions of police lawlessness."

The letter explains that an unprejudiced study of

events of the last year reveals clear-cut police dis-

crimination against Communists and cites the case

of a Communist leader who was recently beaten up

in City Hall by police after his ejection from a

Board of Estimate meeting at which he was de-

manding relief for the unemployed. In every clash

with Communists, the letter says, the police, disre-

garding orders to refrain from violence, have

severely beaten up many men and women

demonstrators. Investigations of such actions have

invariably resulted in "whitewashing" of the guilty

police and failure of the department to take a defi-

nite stand against this brutality.

ARIED VIEWPOINTS

Couldn't Have Been Russia

Editor The Open Forum:

The papers recently stated that Representative

Fish of New York accused the Soviet Government of

having dumped great quantities of grain in this

country in order to increase the so-called economic

depression. Now while we are sure that the Soviets

would be capable of making the effort to cheapen our

food supplies we must nevertheless, in this one

case at least, believe that it would not be possible

for them to do so. Have not our Best Minds re-

peatedly told us through our honest and loyal press

that a government of working men and women, such.

as Soviet Russia, can not successfully compete with

an efficient and well organized capitalist nation?

Since our Best Minds all agree that Soviet

Russia's "Five Year Plan" is impossible of realiza-

tion and that therefore Russia cannot supply its own

needs, let alone trying to supply the needs of

America or any other foreign country, it is perfectly

obvious that if there has been any dumping by

Russia the goods must have been supplied by a

capitalist power jealous of our Great Prosperity. It

can hardly have been France, since France has no

unemployment and consequently can have no over-

production which needs to be dumped. And Ger-

many is too busy paying off the war debts of the

allied nations. Therefore it must surely be either

Mussolini or Great Britain. England must have a

great store of overproduction and to prevent its

getting into the hands of hungry Englishmen and

women, and thereby create a bad example by per-

mitting the violation of the sacred scriptural in-

junction that no working man shall eat unless he

labor for it, it is not likely that her highly sophisti-

cated government may have dumped the goods on

the United States? Anyway it is obviously impos-

sible for a Soviet government ruled by the un-

sophisticated working men to be able to produce

goods in sufficient quantity to feed themselves, let

alone to dump on the United States. It would be

a terrible thought to believe that our Best Minds

had erred in their judgment of the capacities of a

Soviet government of working men. Perish the

thought! Let's wave the Flag while we sing "Amer-

ica, God Save the King." CECELIA ST. CLAIR.

Says Only United States

Can Stop Next World War

WASHINGTON-(FP)-Only the United States

can prevent the coming of another world war-this

one the final war because it will destroy the civilian

populations as well as the armed forces of the vari-

ous nations, leaving no victors-Arthur Meighen,

former Tory premier of Canada, told a big gathering

of foreign envoys and peace workers in Washington.

The occasion was the Armistice dinner of the Good

Will Congress of the World Alliance for Inter-

national Friendship. Meighen was the Canadian

spokesman at the Versailles peace conference.

He declared that war was an immediate menace,

and "well nigh certain," because the nations had

added hundreds of millions of dollars to their army

and navy budgets since the world war, and this

competition in armaments had run ahead of the

series of peace treaties which included Locarno and

the Pact of Paris. In the next war, he said, defense

of cities against attack from the air will be impos-

sible; the only way to meet such offensives will be

retaliation against the cities of the enemy peoples.

Millions of lives will be snuffed out by new weapons

-poison gas, shells dropped from the air fleets, and

other wholesale means of slaughter. Blockades will

be enforced more scientifically, from the air as well

aS from land and sea. What the 100,000,000 people

of the Central European powers suffered while the

Allied blockade starved them into submission will

be a mere trifle, he asserted, in comparison with the

effects the next embargo will secure. And above

all, no government will abide by any pledge to

forego the use of any weapon; "Necessity knows no

law."

Meighen laid down the proposition that all nations

must join in an organized obligation against any

warfare. The old privilege of national sovereignty,

to fight one's neighbor, must be given up because

science has rendered it a menace to humanity. If

civilization is to continue, all nations, including

especially the United States, must join the common

organization. If the United States fails to do this,

then it will determine the destiny of the human

race by that inaction. And the competition of

armaments, sweeping on, will "at no distant time

send civilization to its-doom."

2

Tom Mooney Asks Hearing

Before State Pardon Board

By MIRIAM ALLEN DeFORD

SAN FRANCISCO-(FP)-Following the election

by an overwhelming vote of Mayor James Rolph, Jr.,

aS Governor of California, things began to move

again in the Mooney-Billings pardon appeals. Rolph

beat Governor Young in the primaries, largely be-

cause of Young's attitude in the famous Labor case.

The California Supreme Court is still delaying

action on Warren K. Billings but Tom Mooney,

through his attorneys Frank P. Walsh and Cyrus

King, has asked for a hearing before the advisory

pardon board. He claims that although the Supreme

Court hearings in August and September were sup-

posed to deal only with Billings' case, as a matter

of fact much testimony for and against Mooney him-

self was introduced and he has a right to a personal

hearing such as Billings received at Folsom peniten-

tiary.

The eight points brought up against Mooney in

the Billings' hearing can be disproved, Tom says.

He will waive all technical objections relating to

his radical activities and opinions, he adds, even

though these points have no direct bearing on the

question of his innocence of the Preparedness Day

bombing in 1916.

Attorneys Walsh and King expressed a belief that

Governor Young might pardon Mooney before leav-

ing office, but this is not seen as likely as the Gover-

nor has often said he would not act before the

Supreme Court decision on Billings, which cannot

possibly be rendered until after Young's term ex-

pires.

Estelle Smith, the notoriously unreliable witness

who testified against Billings both at his trial and

at the Supreme Court hearings last summer, has

been arrested on vagrancy charges in a Chinatown

hotel, together with a white man, a Chinese and an

Indian woman. She was registered with a man as

his wife and is suspected of opium smoking. In her

repudiation of testimony given at the trial she con-

fessed to using dope.

Estelle is indignant at "being arrested like a com-

mon person," claims to have been framed-up and has

obtained the protection of her old standby, Police

Captain Charles Goff, who also calls the arrest a

frameup, although he denied the Mooney-Billings

case is a frameup. He succeeded in releasing Estelle

from the ordeal of "quarantine"-the physical exami-

nation given women arrested in raids on disorderly

houses-but she is still in jail without bond.

Chief Justice Waste of the Supreme Court has an-

nounced his advocacy of a change in the law to

allow retrials of defendants where later testimony

is discovered in their favor. As it is the appellate

court cannot go outside the trial record in consider-

ing a case under appeal-which is the crux of the

Mooney-Billings situation. No change can be made

now in the verdict of the lower court unless some

error can be found in the conduct of the case or in

the record.

Danville Strikers Stand Firm

By JOHN W. EDELMAN

DANVILLE, Va.-(FP)-With a bitter, hurricane

rain sweeping down from the hills around Danville,

scene of the strike of 4,000 cotton mill workers, all

through the cold, dark night, not a single one of the

more than 300 pickets scattered at some thirty sta-

tions in a ten-mile range deserted his post. Nor was

there a single absence reported today in the con-

tinuing storm as I made the rounds of the picket

captains.

Although this strike has been the most peaceful

ever witnessed by experienced observers, the county

board has passed a law and order resolution de-

manding that Danville city authorities cooperate in

a move to hire deputies and sluggers. The reso-

lution of course purports to express neutrality but

it is full of weasel words insinuating that intimi-

dation is being practised. So far the move seems

to have been stalled, but will no doubt be pressed.

Gas is being cut off by the city-owned works to

strikers in town. There is talk of cutting off light

and water also. The strikers are going to the next

meeting of the city council in a body to take up

this matter. In the mill village, the company has

not cut off lights, and the water is from pumps.

Evictions will start in the village when the com-

pany begins to realize that the labor movement is

back of these workers.

Financial aid has been coming in very slowly, be-

cause of the depression. But this strike must be

won. These people are above average in intelli-

gence, and can function as an organization. There

Organizers Expect Lynchings

By GRACE HUTCHINS

NEW YORK-(FP-`Certainly there is a prob-

ability of a lynching when the Atlanta case comes

to trial, and it may come any day now. The bosses

fear us because we are organizing the Negro work-

ers, but they can't stop us even with lynchings."

Herbert Newton, editor of the Liberator and

national organizer of the American Negro Labor

Congress, just starting for the national convention

of that organization, held in St. Louis, Mo., Novem-

ber 15-16, had no illusions about the justice he may

expect as a defendant in the employers' courts or

at the hands of 100% American mobs. Five lynch-

ings in two days recently in Georgia and another at-

tempted lynching in Atlanta this month form the

stage-setting, he states, for a legal or an illegal

lynching of the six Atlanta defendants. Yet Newton

and his fellow organizers are continuing their work

undaunted.

Word from Atlanta, from Attorney W. A. Mc-

Clellan acting for the International Labor Defense,

warns the defendants that the Atlanta court an-

nounces each Kriday the coming week's calendar of

cases and may give only three days' notice of the

date. He expects the six workers' case to go on

the calendar any day now. One postponement has

led many sympathizers to relax their efforts for the

defense in the Atlanta case, on the easy theory

that it may never be called. Recent events, how-

ever, indicate that the stage is set for a conviction,

and conviction may mean the electric chair for New-

ton and his co-defendants.

"In the case this month of a sixteen-year old

Negro boy, Marion Peters, charged with robbery and

rape, only the prompt action of a white worker, a

Communist, saved him from lynching,' explained

Newton. `The white worker mixed with the crowds,

heard the lynching talk and then organized other

white workers as witnesses in Peters' defense. They

testified in court on his behalf; the false charges

were dropped and Peters was released."

Newton and the other five defendants in the

Atlanta organizing case were arrested and charged

with "inciting Negroes to riot" and "inciting to in-

surrection" under a Civil War statute, dating from

1861. Powers and Carr, two of the defendants, were

arrested in March for holding a mixed meeting of

Negro and white workers. Newton, Henry Storey,

Anna Burlak and Mary Dalton were later arrested

for the same offense and for organizing the Fulton

Bag and Cotton Mill workers. Conviction may carry

the death penalty.

As part of their plan to secure conviction, prose-

cuting attorneys demand a separate trial for the two

Negro organizers, Newton and Storey, who will be

called first, while the International Labor Defense

has held out for one trial of all six defendants. The

determination of the prosecution may be judged by

the words of Assistant Attorney General John H.

Hudson who stated at the time of the indictment:

"As fast as these Communists come here and

publicly preach their doctrine, we shall indict them

and I shall demand the death penalty in every

case."

Book Review

MUTUAL SERVICE AND COOPERATION by

Charles T. Sprading. The Libertarian Co., Los An-

geles, $1.00. "To one who wishes to get a birdseye

view of the cooperative movement in this country

and Europe this book will be a boon. In 125 pages

the author traces the idea of mutual service from

the lowest forms of life to the highest, devoting

five of the eight chapters to modern cooperation. It

will doubtless surprise many who are unfamiliar

with the situation to know how far the cooperative

movement has gone and what a success it has be-

come both in the production and distribution fields.

Mr. Sprading is to be congratulated upon having

written a volume that so clearly states within a

small compass the advantages of cooperation over

against cut-throat competition.

Cr te

is leadership among the rank and file, especially

among the women workers. Just now the need is

for clothes and shoes. In the rain paper shoes have

fallen apart by the hundreds. Pickets have wet

feet. Children are running barefoot in the cold.

Women are held at home. Clothes of any kind will

be a big help. e

The spirit seems amazingly high in this sixth

week of the strike, with almost nothing happening.

No one expects the strike to end quickly. But they

are not worried at the prospect of keeping up the

fight indefinitely.

SONI ere

----------

NEWS AND VIEWS

By P. D. NOEL

Sumptuary Legislation

The above phrase is one of the favorites of the

wets in their criticism of the prohibition law. Just

where our individualistic friends would draw the

line against legislation for the protection of the

people is uncertain, even to them. We have laws

infringing upon our liberties such as those prohibit.

ing narcotics, spitting on sidewalks, the keeping of

bees, chickens, cows or dogs under certain cop.

ditions, regulating to the limit housing, the purity

of foods, quarantine, building, traffic, plumbing, wir-

ing, cold storage and disposal of garbage. It is just

a matter of degree, and no two persons will be in

perfect agreement as to when "sumptuary" is the

proper appellation.

Even Handed Justice

On Armistice Day in a small town in Ohio a mob

of American Legion men boldly entered a chain

store which refused to close for the holiday, and

compelled a shut-down by the use of tear bombs

and threats. The bombs were obtained from the

sheriff's office, and the local authorities were ag

quiescent as are the peace officers in a southern

town when a Negro lynching is in process. The

incident is much like the Centralia outrage in Wash-

ington, except that the manager of the store did not

have the nerve to defend his house, as was done by

the I. W. W.'s_ Possibly this immensely wealthy

corporation will refuse to accept such treatment-

only proper for common workers-and make an

example of these scofflaws.

An Economic Waste

Last year there was spent more than a billion of

dollars in advertising in papers and magazines in

this country. One of the results has been the orgy

of installment buying, the break-down of which had

much to do with the financial crash of last year. A

very good object lesson as to the absurd and wrong-

ful economic system under which we live.

The Dole

In last week's Citizen (the Labor paper) was an

article by Agnes Downing, an old-timer in the So-

cialist movement and one of the best informed

women on economics in California, on the unem-

ployment situation in England. Contrary to the

ordinary belief, the dole is not a form of charity

or alms giving, but unemployment insurance, the

funds for which have been obtained by levies on

the workers, the bosses and the state. According to

Margaret Bondfield, the Minister of Labor, 60 per-

cent of those receiving this help have not been idle

as long as a month.

Feeble Minded

One of our greatest burdens is that of institu

tions for the insane and other subnormals. Little

is done to stop the increase of this menace by pre-

venting the feeble minded from propagating. Cali-

fornia is away to the front in sterilizing these un-

fortunates, having up to date performed nearly 7,000

of the 10,000 operations accomplished in the whole

of the United States. One wonders what is the mat-

ter with the Record, so right usually, that it is so

sensationally and frantically antagonizing our legal

assexualization.

Latins -

A special writer in the Times-Fred Hogue,

usually correct-in speaking of the numerous South

American revolutions contrasts the habits of the

peoples there with our more stable methods in

these words: "The Latin races proved too volatile

for the exercise of such tenacity and fixedness of

purpose." The inhabitants of these countries are of

almost pure Indian blood, only the exploiting upper.

classes having considerable European extraction.

Light Wines and Beer

Much loose talk is extant regarding the temperate

ness of the French people when it comes to booze.

The fact is that they consume more hard liquor than

hard-drinking England, or than we did before Pro-

hibition.

When there are no soldiers there is no war; where

nobody is loaded nobody explodes.-Starr Jordan.

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