Open forum, vol. 7, no. 13 (March, 1930)

THE OPEN FORUM

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

oe

Vol. 7 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 29, 1930 No. 18

-

Police Commission Approves

Cossackism in Los Angeles

"fhe more the police beat up and wreck their

yeadquarters the better. Communists have no con-

ditutional rights, and I won't listen to anybody who

jefends them," said Mark Pierce, one of the Los

{ngeles Board of Police Commissioners, at a hear-

ing last week on the brutal and illegal manner in

yhich the Red squad handled the Communists at

iieir March 6 demonstration in behalf of the un-

enployed.

Director Taft of the American Civil Liberties

(nion had asked the board for an opportunity to

jddress them on the subject and they granted it.

but when he appeared and began to read affidavits

showing the barbarous way in which the police had

noceeded to search homes, make arrests, drag away

noperty, wreck the offices of the I. L. D. and Com-

mmist party, and beat up people, Pierce broke in

with the above remark. Coe and Thorpe, two other

members of the commission, gave their hearty O. K.

i) the sentiment expressed by Pierce, and tried to

wevent Mr. Taft from continuing his talk, but he

- iasisted that the commission had granted him twenty

minutes to address them and that they must honor

their promise. He proceeded therefore, with vari-

ws interruptions, and at the close filed his com-

plaints with the board.

There were some hectic moments before the

hard got back to "regular business." Leo Galla-

sher, attorney for the I. L. D., and a member of

| the American Civil Liberties Union executive com-

nittee, and P. D. Noel, another member of the same

wmmittee, took part in the discussion. But the

wlice commission appeared only more irritated the

larder they were pressed to take up the matter of

police outrages. Messrs. Drake and Coe, the two

ther members of the board, did not actually say

hat they approved what the police did, but on the

ther hand neither did they condemn it. So there

' Dpears to be no hope of any cessation of such cos-

`ackism while the present board is in power.

For that reason' Director Taft has sent the follow-

ig letter to Mayor Porter:

Mayor John C. Porter:

Last Tuesday I appeared before the Board of

`lice Commissioners and entered formal complaint

`Sto the conduct of the police in connection with

ihe so-called "req" riots here February 26 and March

, By means of affidavits, letters of eye-witnesses,

4 doctor's certificate, photos, etc., I showed how the

Wlice-especially members of the Red squad-had

itushed aside ruthlessly the Constitutional rights of

`ountless people, invading their homes and offices

"ithout search warrants, removing valuable prop-

"ly and in some cases wrecking the places which

they Visited ; arresting innocent people and throw-

tg them into jail for several days without placing

ma charges against them, for the purpose of ter-

`Orizing them; and beating up a number of men,

| Me of them very badly.

All of these occurrences were substantiated by

red :

as evidence. But to my amazement, as soon

0x00A7 I gas f

week Communists were the ones who had been

* victims of these police outrages, one of the com-

iss zi ; :

_ "SSloners, Mark Pierce, interrupted me with the

I on :

Mark ; The more the police beat them up and

ir '

Meck their headquarters the better. Communists

Ve no Constitutional rights, and I won't listen to

| k

'Yoody who defends them." He even proposed a

. for Lieutenant Hynes and his Red squad and

8 present in the hand-clapping. Commis-

i 8 Coe and Thorpe manifested their hearty ap-

al at the stand taken by Pierce.

a Sa flagrant violation of the oath which these

; Commissioners have taken to uphold the Con-

j :

"ons of the United States and State of Califor-

wt et a Communist and I hold no brief

. a doctrines, but the fact that their ticket

tere he ballot in thirty-eight states at the last

election gives them a legal standing. To

Four Flats and a Soft Spare

Last week the police commission passed

resolutions commending the police department

for beating up citizens during the unemploy-

ment demonstration in the neighborhood of

the city hall on March 6.

Yesterday the police commission indicated

clearly that it is not only backing up Chief

Steckel and Lieutenant "Red" Hynes in riding

roughshod over the rights of citizens; it will

insult anybody who attempts to protest at

such un-American intolerance and cossackism.

The Reverend Clinton J. Taft, whose fore-

bears have been Americans since 1688, ap-

peared before the commission as director of

the Southern California branch of the Ameri-

can Civil Liberties Union, to protest against a

number of illegal raids, without search war-

rant, staged on the eve of the demonstration.

He charged that property had been stolen by

the police raiders, and that unarmed men and

women had been beaten and clubbed.

A commission majority, William G. Thorpe,

Mark Pierce and Clarence Coe, showed from

the start that it had no intention of being

called to account by citizens for wholesale

violation of constitutional rights, if it could

help it.

Taft was told he should present his com-

plaint to a committee of the commission, or

else to the police department itself. And then,

because this American citizen dared to assert

that even criminals and Communists had cer-

tain inalienable rights in a country founded

upon the principle of freedom, the same com-

missioners began belaboring him with insults

and sought to shut him off by a motion "to

proceed with regular business."

It isn't difficult to understand why the police

commission en bloc has acted with such con-

sistent stupidity and arrogance in its dealing

with the so-called "red" problem.

Its members, with the exception of Francis

Drake and the doubtful exception of Edgar

Wehn, who says nothing, are simply devoid of

the necessary intelligence to deal with any

social problem.

Drake undoubtedly knows better, but he

seems to have lost his old-time backbone.

Only with the greatest difficulty can the be-

fuddled minds of the commissioners cope with

even the simplest of problems of legal routine.

Even with a deputy city attorney constantly

at their elbows to advise them, they don't

know the first thing about the meaning or

legality of most of their own acts.

It is not to be expected that such men could

understand or handle with any wisdom or

sagacity social problems of vital importance

to the very fundamentals of American liberty.

-Los Angeles Record.

With Charity Toward None

By GEORGE H. SHOAF

With malice in her heart and the dagger of

assassination in her hand the Los Angeles Times

again runs true to form. Champion of reaction, de-

fender of special privilege, eternal enemy of every

man and measure pledged to popular rights, this

Black Maria of American journalism springs into the

breach as the self-appointed protector of plutocracy,

and shrieks aloud her battle-cry. It is indeed fitting

that the Los Angeles Times is leading the local

movement for religious liberty in Soviet Russia!

Who was it thirsted for the blood of Eugene Debs

when he organized the Santa Fe employes into the

American Railway Union? Who fought the printers

to a standstill, initiated the movement for an open

shop, sponsored the execrable Better America Fed-

eration, opposes every material advance by the work-

ing class, and more than all other agencies com-

bined burned the brand of scab upon the brow of

Los Angeles? Who in every issue where property

rights conflict with human rights invariably sides

with property against the people? Who wanted

Davis kept chief of police? Who led in putting over

the Mines Field fiasco? Who condones the perpe-

tration of private graft by unjailed thieves with

which this community abounds? Who is wrong on

every question pertaining to the public good and

right when it relates to political rascality and plun-

dering privilege?

To every question here the answer is the Los

Angeles Times!

Who in the beginning of the world war went to

the editorial defense of Kaiser Bill, sent her crack

scribe behind the German lines and kept him there

until Wall Street decided to help the Allies? What

newspaper throughout America, outstanding and out-

spoken, more defiantly challenges the progress of

democracy than any other that can be named?

Again the answer is the Los Angeles Times!

Fearful that the despotic religion of the Czar may

lose its hold upon the Russian workers, and enable

them to win their fight for political and economic

freedom, the exploiting capitalists of this country

and the world are up in arms. It was patriotically

proper for the flag of Washington and Lincoln to

drape its folds about the banner of the czaristic

dictatorship, stained as that banner was with the

blood of Cossacked serfs, but Heaven forbid that

the Land of Uncle Shylock and the Almighty Dollar

shall besmirch its escutcheon with the recognition

of the Soviet Republic!

The United States is now in the agony of an un-

employment crisis, incident to overproduction and

underconsumption, due to economic inequity. War

with Spain relieved a similar crisis which began in

the summer of 1893 and continued until the jobless

workers, put into concentration camps and fed with

embalmed beef, like flies during the fight to

(Continued on Page 3)

commend the police for beating them up and other-

wise disregarding their `Constitutional rights is mon-

strous and a matter of which you should take cog-

nizance as the executive head of Los Angeles.

I understand that Mr. Pierce has tendered his

resignation to take effect at the end of this month.

That is fortunate. Los Angeles can well dispense

with the services of a man who holds such distorted

American views. I hope you will appoint in his

place a bona fide believer in the principles of free-

dom upon which this Government was founded.

It seems to me that it is your duty to inquire

into the attitude of Coe and Thorpe on this ques-

tion of police observance of the Constitution, and

if you find the facts as I have stated them I believe

you should demand their resignations at once, and

replace them with men who will direct the police

department of this great city in a lawful way.

We are being scandalized by these repeated out-

rages by the police. As near as I can learn there

was no violence contemplated or practiced by the

Communists on either February 26 or March 6. A

peaceful demonstration in behalf of the unemployed

-of which there are something like 100,000 in Los

Angeles at present I am told-was all that the Com-

munists had in mind. Those arrested were not

found to be armed, and the only real violence on

either occasion was that committed by the police,

who were evidently acting under the instructions

of the police commission. They certainly gave us

one of the most disgraceful exhibitions of cossack-

ism ever staged in any American community.

You are the responsible head of this city, and in

the future it is up to you to see that such affairs

are handled in a manner that will do credit to our

American form of government.

Sincerely yours,

CLINTON J. TAFT.

fe

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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

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Leo 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. 18, 1924, at

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 8, 1879.

SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1930

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.

Three Hundred Suppressed

Nearly 300 civil liberty prosecutions were reported

during the month of January, on charges ranging

from criminal syndicalism to "failure to treat the

American flag with respect." This number involves

more cases in some places than in any single month

for years. One hundred and fifteen arrests were

made at meetings and demonstrations and 167 in

strike cases. Eleven arrests were made under the

criminal syndicalism law in Michigan, the first in

that state since 1922. New York City police were

unusually violent in their attacks on left wing strik-

ers and Communist demonstrations. Their brutal

handling of a City Hall Communist meeting aroused

widespread protest.

Georgia's first lynching since 1926 is reported for

this month when 1,000 Citizens beat, burned and

hanged a Negro. California race problem broke out

in serious anti-Filipino riots resulting in the death

of one and serious injury to several.

A parade of young Communists in the financial

district was broken up by the police. It was feared

that the youngsters would go to Wall Street and

abolish God.-Howard Brubaker in The New Yorker.

National Bank of Commerce

(Formerly Peoples National: Bank)

Commercial Escrows

Savings Safe Deposit

Domestic and Foreign Exchange

439 SOUTH HILL STREET

Adjoining the Subway Terminal

Wiggins Suits to Be Pushed,

Killers' Acquittal Scored

Following the acquittal of the five men charged

with the shooting of Ella May Wiggins, Gastonia

strike leader, the American Civil Liberties Union

requested J. Frank Flowers, Charlotte attorney, to

push the civil damage suits on behalf of Mrs. Wig-

gins' five children now pending in the North Caro-

ilna courts.

The Union has issued a statement over the signa-

tures of its chairman, Dr. Harry F. Ward, and its

general counsel, Arthur Garfield Hays, charging the

Gastonia mill companies with hampering the prose-

cution, and stating that it is "as yet impossible in

North Carolina to convict those guilty of violence

against strikers and only too easy to convict strik-

ers."

The statement said in part: "The prosecution was

directed by the Attorney General, but the mill in-

terests of Gastonia confused the evidence so that

conviction was impossible. Important witnesses

could not be found. The Union employed H. G.

Gulley of Raleigh. He prepared a conclusive case,

but found some of his witnesses scattered or intimi-

dated. Even the Union's offer of $1,000 reward for

conviction failed to: counteract the maneuvers of

the powerful mill interests."

Decision Pending on

Mooney Envelope Appeal

Following argument by Arthur Garfield Hays, gen-

eral counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union,

the United States Circuit Court of Appeals has re-

served decision on the Mooney-Billings envelopes

which were barred from the mails because they

called the case a frameup, and spoke of it as "Cali-

fornia's Shame."

Postal authorities declared the envelope unmail-

able because it libeled the State of California. Mr.

Hays argued that there is no such thing as libel of

an abstraction such as a state; and contended that

since there was no person named on the envelope,

it could not be held libelous.

Charge: Wearing Button

Fred Dewey, wearing a button on which was

printed, "I am Looking for Work," went for a walk

about 10 o'clock Sunday evening. A policeman spied

the butten and arrested him.

"Five days for being idle and a vagrant," said the

night judge."

"But I'm not guilty," replied Dewey.

"Bail set at $500."

Dewey was acquitted of the serious charge when

he appeared with Leo Gallagher, attorney for the

International Labor Defense, in court March 6.

Nature created community; private property is the

offspring of usurpation.-St. Ambrose.

SIDNEY L. JANOW

Tel. TUcker 6789

A working jeweler, a confidence-inspiring man

to whom you may entrust all your jewelry

needs, be it the purchase of an expensive

diamond, an insignificant repair job or en-

graving.

611 Jewelers Bldg. 747 So. Hill St.

"MOUNTAIN CITY"

A New Novel by

UPTON SINCLAIR

The Inside Story of Denver and the Rocky

Mountain Region

Price $2.50

ORDER FROM THE OPEN FORUM,

1022 California Building, Los Angeles

tee BRE. COPY.

for five new subscriptions to THE OPEN FORUM;

for $3.00 we will give the book and one new

`annual subscription.

Paris Commune Celebration

SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 7:30 p. m.

W. OOM. Temple? 121 W-. 18th St.,

near Main

ONE-ACT. PLAY

THE LAST DAY OF THE PARIS

COMMUNE

Workers' Choruses and Orchestra

35cent in advance - 50c at

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TICKETS:

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Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Music Art Hall

233 So. Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:30 O'CLOCK

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

dously interesting and instructive talks on current

events with which Prof. Oscar L. Triggs, formerly

of the University of Chicago, opens the meetings

each week.

March 23.-THE PRESENT SITUATION IN

INDIA by Dalip Singh Saund, who resides in Los

Angeles and took his doctor's degree in mathematics

at the University of California at Berkeley. He has

the scientist's approach to the present momentous

conflict in his native India.

March 380-RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN Rus.

SIA by Robert Whitaker. How much truth is there

in the press reports we are getting concerning the

situation? Is the closing of the churches justig-

able? What should be our attitude toward the mat-

ter? Mr. Whitaker will discuss it in his usual frank

way.

Washington on Capitalism

ls the paltry consideration of a little dirty pelt

to individuals to be placed in competition with the

essential rights and liberties of the present genera-

tion, and of millions yet unborn? Shall a few design-

ing men, for their own aggrandizement, and to

gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric

we have been rearing at the expense of so much

time, blood and treasure? And shall we at last

become the victims of our own abominable lust of

gain? Forbid it Heaven!-George Washington on

American capitalism, quoted from Rupert Hughes'

biography.

We are all of us more or less pleased with what is

mediocre, for it leaves us at peace-giving us a sort

of comfortable feeling we experience in the society

of kindred spirits-Goethe.

INSURANCE

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Coming Events

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W., 43

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

Wednesday, at Rooms 113 and 114 Stimson Building,

Third and Spring streets.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discus:

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertarian

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Winter

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday iD

month.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 429-30 Douslas

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 3%

Douglas Building, Third and Spring. Meetings evel'

Thursday, 8 p. m. Daytime call at 213 W. Third St.

--

EXPIRATION NOTICE

ircled

Dear Friend:If you find this paragraph aoe ale

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Hnelosed fnd-$.-2. for which continue

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Subscription to the paper for.....--------------7777 year

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`Sang Them, It Is Cheaper"

pditor The Open Forum:

It was with regret and amazement that the writer

noted in the last Open Forum a cry for the blood

of al unfortunate victim of society.

jn the column conducted by P. D. Noel a refer-

ence is made to Alphonse Reilly who was hanged

vfarech 14 in San Quentin prison.

Mr. Noel admits that Reilly has a brother who is

wnfined in an institution for the insane and that

nig mother is under observation for the same ail-

nent. He continues in part: "He (Reilly) had been

, free member of society for years, apparently as

normal as any of us. So why shouldn't he pay the

price?" Further, he brings up the argument, even if

sane it is better to hang him than place him in

ai asylum, because it is cheaper.

Sych a statement places Mr. Noel in the category

of those Who have not even a fundamental sense of

justice. "Hang them, it is cheaper." Some logic

there.

If the conditions imposed by society had been

sane, the boy Reilly would have remained sane and

yould never have been driven to the obviously in-

yne act for which he was hanged.

Born in poverty, thrown out totally unequipped

fo the struggle for existence, without work or

fiends to turn to, a homesick, desperate youth,

little wonder the insanity strain came forward.

The shoe clerk's death, regrettable as it is, should

be charged to the system that produced Reilly. He

was a victim too.

That The Open Forum even indirectly condones

sich murders by the State is beyond understanding.

The writer has been a reader of the publication

since its beginning but can no longer have the same

regard for it. Of course one may say that the views

are Mr. Noel's, not The Open Forum's, but Mr. Noel's

column is a recognized part of the paper, although

he is obviously unfit for such recognition.

This is no sentiment for Reilly personally. The

same system killed Sacco and Vanzetti and tried

hard to do the same to Mooney and Billings. Good

people on the sidelines used Mr. Noel's judgment

"Hang. them, it's cheaper. If they didn't com-

nit this crime they will commit others later. _Elimi-

nation at less cost."

A society that makes rules to break the weak,

then demands and takes the life of the unfortunate,

is the debtor, and not poor insane boys such as

Reilly was.-C. BE. S.

The Hindus and Pan-Europa

Malik-Verlag

3 Passauer Str.

Berlin 50 W.

Dear Comrades:

Ihave your letter of February 24, with regard to

iy letter to the paper in India.

Let me explain that I was not trying to suggest

`0 them a complete social program, as they had

ilready given one in detail, therefore, I was merely

tying to supplement it by the birth control sug-

gestion, this being an important feature which they

tad omitted. The title, "How to end Famine and

War,"" was not written by me but by the editor of

ihe little paper in Los Angeles which printed the

letter, My reprint was made from his type. I would

lot have sanctioned the title, and I would have

struck it out of the copies I sent to other editors

fl had noticed it. I do not regard birth control

`Sa way to end famine and war, but merely as one

`etal of man's control over the forces of nature.

lt happens to be one which we can apply at present,

stead of waiting for social action, and that makes

It especially important.

With regard to the European situation and the

eed of "Pan-Europa," what I was trying to convey

"s the following:

a nS of those old fashioned persons who are

oping that Socialism can be brought about

Parliamentary action and without civil war. But

a as as only possible provided that war be-

ites pe countries can be avoided. Any great

dee Which go to war will be certain to have bol-

ne pepoately afterwards. The fact that the

me 8 know this, seems to me the one real hope

ace in Europe.

UPTON SINCLAIR.

Th

. ` freest government cannot long endure when

at fndency of the law is to create a rapid accumu-

0 ` 5 :

1 of Property in the hands of the few.-Daniel

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.

Single Tax and Employment

Editor The Open Forum:

This paper, I judge, believes in upholding the

rights of working men and women to unionize and

maintain Labor headquarters in which to meet; to

strike against unjust conditions and to be allowed

collective bargaining for wages. Now it is plain

that unemployment weakens Labor's chance to keep

wages up to a decent standard of living; that the

present phenomenon of thousands of unemployed

men, coupled with thousands of idle lots and acres,

must have an economic cause, and an economic

remedy. Probably half the sponsors of this paper

and half its readers know that the true remedy

would be for the idle men to have free access to

the unused acres and lots on payment to the com-

munity of the rental value under the equitable con-

ditions which Henry George set forth as the first

step or foundation of a scientific economic structure.

Many others dimly recognize something of the sort

in connection with socialism. Why then is Mr. P. D.

Noel allowed a free hand to attack virulently the

Henry George remedy in the same tune that the

worst elements of conservatism chant when they

league together to defeat a Single Tax campaign?

If this paper wants that sort of thing I have stacks

of it put forth by ex-Senator George W. Cartwright,

Clyde L. Seavy, Philip D. Wilson, Dr. Milbank John-

son, Stoddard Jess, E. P. Clark and others who are

bitter against Labor unions, and who can do a more

complete job in that line than Mr. Noel. Also clip-

pings from the L. A. Times or the Bitter America

Federation might help. Mr. Noel should take a few

days off and learn what every realtor knows: that

it is the presence and activities of the people col-

lectively that give value to land, the value of which

belongs to the community and should be collected

for public expenses. Individuals should not be al-

lowed to hold out the land for speculation. Mean-

while as this system is more and more intensified

the ranks of unemployed increase. But as a sub-

scriber to The Open Forum I protest against space

being given to mystify or discourage Labor.

LONA INGHAM ROBINSON.

Book Review

`People vs. Wall Street" by William Floyd. The

Vanguard Press, New York, $2.50. In 275 pages the

author has presented a mock trial in which Big

Business is haled into court and given such an

examination and cross-examination as it never was

subjected to before. One after another its vaunted

claims. are proven false, and it is shown to be a

looter rather than a servant of the public. There

is much humor running through the book, but withal

a serious setting forth of facts supported by the

testimony of the biggest men in Big Business-men

like Gary, Ford, Schwab, etc. You will decide after

reading this volume that the people have a real

case against Wall Street-C. J. T.

Suit Against Detective

The American Civil Liberties Union will cooperate

in a damage suit against Detective Mowitsky, of

Norfolk, Va., for the beating-up of Joe Keen, an

organizer of the Trade Union Unity League, which

took place in Norfolk a few days ago.

Keen was beaten up during a raid on a small

meeting at the house of a Negro worker in which

several white workers were participating.

Police Beat Children

MILWAUKEE-(FP)-Police beat and abused

eight children, arrested with sixty adults in the un-

employment demonstration March 6, it was revealed

when the demonstrators were released from the Mil-

waukee jail. Twenty-five of the adults were charged

with rioting and thirty-five with vagrancy, presum-

ably because of their unemployment. Six were

given six months in jail as one way of solving their

individual unemployment problems and eighteen got

three months each.

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

The Times Prates of Love

The `Times,

Los Angeles, Calif.

Dear Sirs:

Are you who write against the `"godlessness of

Russia," in your editorial today, an example of the

"living love of God?" Can they hate more than

you do?

"Stalin is ruthlessly employing the Cheka;" Los

Angeles is ruthlessly employing the Red Squad.

"The (Cheka seize, condemn, imprison;" the Red

Squad seize, confiscate, beat up, imprison.

Why fear red communism, when Christ was a

Communist? He didn't believe in churches, nor

moneychangers. "Killing religion in Russia." Every-

body tells us religion has never been tried, so there

is nothing to kill. It were better to turn our churches

into graneries, as you say they are doing in Russia,

when just now news from China tells us that the

people are devouring each other, while we do not

know what to do with our surplus wheat. What is

our Christianity doing for us or the world? Why

not "explode a belief' without any foundation in

fact and substitute a little "humanism'-the new

religion?

"Teons destroyed." Why not.

man made _ superstitions-substitutes

facts?

"They remove religious teachers from schools."

We remove Socialist teachers from schools.

Their Saint is Lenin, because his soul was always

torn by the miseries of the masses. Let `them have

him without ridicule. He is made "immortal" by

something greater than "chemistry." Other people

have their saints-Gandhi; in India, also trying to

lead his people out of bondage. Who is ours?

Where is the "Divine Providence who shapes our

ends?" Was there ever a time in the history of

the world when there was such a groping for a

way out of a muddled civilization? Here we are

burning up our resources, killing off our best. Even

Hoover admits our war burden is $5,200 per minute!

Surely we can believe a woman like Anna Louise

Strong, who has lived in Russia several years, when

she says she cannot lose touch with the Russian

experiment long enough to come home. "It is too

exciting to watch how the Russian people are crowd-

ing the work of three centuries into a decade!"

Our "statesmen," in London, are making a farce

of the disarmament conference; instead of tararms

disarmament they are simply trying to decide on

the size of the guns (or battleships or submarines)

with which they propose to annihilate us! It does

not behoove us so very much to criticize others who

are at least trying.

Of what use these

for facing

K. C-G.

March 16, 1930.

(Continued from Page 1)

possess Cuba for the sugar trust. Hard times again

prevailed for several years before the outbreak of

the world war, when that international catastrophe

came to the rescue of the American industrial situ-

ation.

Real patriots should not permit themselves to be

deceived. They should investigate the sources and

animus of the news published in this country relat-

ing to religious persecution in Soviet Russia. They

should recall the atrocities ascribed to the hideous

Huns, the stories of Belgian babes mutilated by

German soldiery, and not forget that after the war

every one of these yarns was disproved. They should

further remember that this propaganda of cruelty

and hate was paraded in the public prints, reflected

from the movie screens and dinned into their ears

by mile-a-minute orators purely to mislead them and

inflame their passions for war.

Many leaders of these demonstrations for free re-

ligion in Soviet Russia have no more interest in

the ethics of Jesus or Buddha or any other religious

teacher than a Mexican peon has in the fourth de-

mension. They are terrified at the prospects of Soviet

suecess, and afraid of working class discontent at

home. They are out to save themselves, their stolen

wealth and power, and they figure that by maneuver-

ing America into a war upon Soviet Russia, driv-

ing the workers into fighting bloody battles, them-

selves keeping out of the fight, their positions or

privilege will be secured. Under the guise of mak-

ing the world safe for religion they are really intent

only on making capitalism safe for themselves.

Who is foolish enough to fall for this propaganda,

especially in Southern California, when it is pro-

moted chiefly by the Los Angeles Times?

For Freedom of Speech

Julius Moser

1340 Walton Ave.

Bronx, New York.

Dear Comrade:

I have your letter of February 24, in which you

inquire concerning my attitude toward the policy of

the Communists in breaking up public meetings

where they do not approve of the speaker.

In answering, let me explain to you that I have

been, ever since its founding, a member of the

American Civil Liberties Union. Seven years ago,

on the occasion of my arrest for attempting to read

the Constitution of the United States at a strike

meeting in Los Angeles harbor, I founded the South-

ern California Branch of this Union. Our declared

purpose is to defend all persons in the United States

in their civil rights, which includes the right to

hold public meetings and there to voice to audiences

whatever opinions on public questions they consider

worth voicing.

We should stand by the program of the Civil

Liberties Union to defend such rights for every one

-quite regardless of whether we agree with the

opinions. Thus, when the police arrested the Salva-

tion Army people for holding street meetings in

Los Angeles, we did what we could to defend the

arrested persons. In Boston we defended the right

of the Ku Klux Klan to hold meetings, even though

these people were denying the same rights to the

Catholics. It is our belief that the way to protect

and further the truth is to preserve freedom of dis-

cussion. If you do not like what the other person

is saying, call another meeting of your own and ex-

pose his false statements, and you can be sure that

in the end the truth will prevail. But, if you have

the right to shut up the other man and forbid him

to speak, no one will ever know what the truth is--

not even you yourself. :

I believe in this principle. I have advocated it and

practiced it all my life, and I propose to stand by it.

I quite understand that most of the attacks upon

Soviet Russia which are being made in the United

States at the present time are dishonest in motive,

and that they are based in great part on falsehoods;

nevertheless I defend the right of the speakers to

say what they please, and I tell my Communist

friends that when they attempt to break up the

meetings of these speakers, and even do physical

violence, as they did in San Francisco, they are

making a very foolish tactical blunder.

In the first place, they advertise the speakers and

create public sympathy for them. In the second

place, they weaken their own moral position, and

make it very difficult for us of the Civil Liberties

Union to defend Communists, when Communists are

deprived of their rights to freedom of expression.

You have a hard enough job as it is, without mak-

ing it harder for yourselves by alienating that small

but powerful group of persons who are trying to

preserve civil liberty and the rights of minority

opinion in this country.

I have written you thus at length because you

ask me whether I have repudiated the opinion of a

lifetime, and I want to make clear to you that I am

advocating exactly what I have always advocated.

The question has nothing to do with my attitude

toward the factional disputes inside the working

class movement. I greatly deplore these, and often

have a hard time making up my own mind as to

just where the balance of rightness lies. But I

never change my mind as to the advisability of

permitting all sides to have a hearing; and if it was

the Socialists who adopted the policy of breaking up

Communist meetings, I would protest just as earnest-

ly against that mistake.

Let me add that I have a sincere and deep appre-

ciation of the heroic work that Communists are

doing in defending the rights of the unemployed in

all our cities, and also in defending the poorest-paid

groups of workers, as in the cotton towns of the

South.. I want this work to go on, and I will help

it with voice and pen to the utmost of my ability.

I put it up to you, as a question of practical tactics,

whether it would not be wiser to let a few poor

back numbers from Russia talk their heads off, and

not waste the time and energy of the Communists in

breaking up their meetings, and thus destroy the

moral strength of the Communist defense of the

exploited masses. Speaking for myself, I did not

know that Chernoy was in the United States until

the Communists advertised his meeting; and I think

this was true of ninety-nine per cent of the people

in America.

Sincerely,

UPTON SINCLAIR.

New York Anti-Red Drive

Results in Many Protests

New York is suffering a serious aftermath of

"Red Thursday,' March 6, when police broke up

with great brutality an attempted parade and arrest-

ed the committee of five Communists representing

the unemployed, holding them on felony charges.

Both the police violence and the illegal treatment

of the five prisoners have resulted in widespread

protests in the press and from groups of citizens,

notably the faculty of Columbia University Law

School. The American Civil Liberties Union has

moved through its attorneys to prepare damage suits

on behalf of persons assaulted by the police; to sub-

mit formal charges for the removal of Police Com-

missioner Grover Whalen for his long record of law-

less police brutality; and to lodge charges with the

Supreme Court against Chief Magistrate William

McAdoo for unlawful conduct in refusing to admit

the prisoners to bail. A petition to the Mayor to

remove Police Commissioner Whalen was also pre-

pared and sent by a group of citizens headed by

Norman Thomas.

Various suggestions for legal action against the

blacklisting of Communist workers by Police Com-

missioner Whalen are being examined by the Union's

attorneys. A luncheon meeting at which the issues

were discussed was organized by the Union at which

William Z. Foster, spokesman for the group of Com-

munist prisoners, spoke, together with a representa-

tive of the Police Department. Films showing police

brutality were shown.

The five Communists arrested for their attempt

to parade without a police permit have been held

on charges of unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor,

and conspiracy to commit an assault, a felony,

based on a police officer's being hit on the head

with a stone during the police attack in Union

Square. Each is held in the high bail of $12,500,

covering both charges. The charge of unlawful as-

sembly will be tried first.

Mayor James J. Walker to whom the Civil Liber-

ties Union appealed for a public hearing on the

charges against Commissioner Whalen has ignored

that and other appeals, and has made no comment

on the handling of the demonstration or the prison-

ers. If Mayor Walker does not act the charges will

be placed before Governor Roosevelt, who has

authority under the law to remove local officials.

The complaints against the conduct of Chief Magis-

trate McAdoo have also been forwarded to the Bar

Association by Arthur Garfield Hays and Morris L.

Ernst, attorneys for the Civil Liberties Union.

Bill for Alien Registration

Hits Snag in Public Hearing

The Blease bill for the voluntary registration of

aliens, originally passed by the Senate without de-

bate, but recommitted on motion of Senators Cope-

land and Wagner, hit a snag at the Senate Immigra-

tion Committee's public hearing on March 12 when

it encountered the well-organized protest of many

organizations.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the League

for American Citizenship, the Amalgamated Cloth-

ing Workers, the National Council of the Protestant

Episcopal Church, the Foreign Language Information

Service, the Steuben Society of America, the Ameri-

can Committee against Alien Registration, B'nith

Abraham, B'nai B'rith, and the American Jewish

Congress were among the organizations represented

in protest against the measure.

Amos Pinchot, New York lawyer representing the

American `Civil Liberties Union, pointed out that the

country is on record as opposed to compulsory regis-

tration, and that the passage of the Blease bill for

voluntary registration can only lead to compulsory

registration. Mr. Pinchot said:

"The bill introduced by Senator Blease will in-

evitably result not only in compulsory registration

but in other things of a still more deplorable char-

acter. If this bill is passed, pressure will be brought

upon all aliens to register; and, if they do not do

so, the great employers of labor will discriminate

against the unregistered alien; the police of our

cities will force the alien to register by letting him

feel that he is under suspicion if he does not

register."

The hearing was short and only three senators

attended. The advocates of the bill were Captain

John B. Trevor of New York, appearing for various

"patriotic" societies, and a representative of the De-

partment of Labor. The committee did not indicate

what action would be taken.

-

NEWS AND VIEWs

By P. D. NOEL

Colonies

Tom Bell's article in answer to the one fulsom|

praising the Llano Colony in Louisiana reminds me

of my own investigations. In my early days the

colonies at Ruskin, Tenn., and Equality, Wash., Were

visited, and in later years Job Harriman's Llano

Colony out in the Mojave desert became well known

to me. Through many old timers here [ became ac.

quainted with the tragedies of Kaweah, in the High

Sierras, and Topolobampo, on the West Coast of

Mexico. It is extremely doubtful if any socialistic

or communistic colony can long survive, unless the

members concede unlimited leadership to some king

of a dictator or despot on religious lines. Present

day civilized humans are too individualistic and

quarrelsome to be successful in a really democratic

colony.

ely

ee

Police Commission

Our protest against the beatings of citizens by

the police in the alleged "red riotings" was the first

opportunity I have had to see the above body in

action. With one exception, the members are

typical "Iowa''-Mayor Porter bunch, evidently with

not the faintest idea of the basic principles upon

which this nation was founded. Fortunately, the

city editor of the Record was present. His editorial

in the issue of the 19th, entitled "Four Flat Tires

and a Soft Spare," is rich, and gives one a good

idea of the happenings. Every endeavor was made

by the members to sidetrack our protest by dragging

in communism and the religious question. Even

Drake evaded the main issue of civil liberties and

the beatings, delivering a long homily to Leo Galla-

gher on the virtues of tolerance.

Amusements

Judge: You are convicted of beating your wife,

and I fine you $3.30.

Prisoner: That's all right, your honor, but what

is the thirty cents for?

Judge: That's the amusement tax.

Possibly the revenues of the City might be en-

hanced by enforcing this tax against the police who

had such an enjoyable time whacking the heads of

the unemployed demonstrators.

The Unemployed

It is quite evident that Hoover and other states-

men, aS well as the captains of industry, have very

little idea of economics. With millions of men and

women out of work and rapidly approaching the

time when they must become public charges, our

national leaders can suggest nothing more than

temporary measures of relief, knowing that this

same condition will recur regularly. There is 10

plan in our economic system, production being left

to the individual with only the idea of profits in

mind, the needs of the people as consumers being

given little thought. The solution seems so simple.

Here are millions of persons who need and desire

all kinds of products which they are capable of pro

ducing from our great natural resources by the aid

of machinery and modern industrial methods. All

that is needed is a plan and technical men and

women to put it in operation. Of course, that would

be socialism, so the profiteers persuade the masses

that it is dangerous and bad.

City Congestion

One of the principal factors in deciding our future

as a people and a nation is the herding of millions

of humans into small spaces. New York is our most

horrible example. The skyscrapers have made me

fight for light and air so fierce that the authorities

and city planners are discussing the advisability of

allowing unlimited heights to only 25 per cent of

the lot area. Among examples cited is the Marr

hattan Life Building which paid $700,000 for all

rights over adjacent five-story buildings, and the

Equitable Life which has a twenty-one year lease igh

the space over the Morgan Bank.

In the Near Future

John Dewey, our greatest political economist, 80x00B0

this: `We are in for some kind of Socialism, a

it by whatever name we please, and no matter wha

it will be called when it is realized. Economic bi

terminism is now a fact, not a theory." We mus

choose "between a socialism that is public and

that is capitalistic."

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