Open forum, vol. 14, no. 43 (October, 1937)

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THE OPE

FORUM

F ree Speech - Free Press - Free Assemblage

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

Vol. XIV

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 23, 1937 _

No. 43

REJECTS PLEA FOR ACTION IN.

MEMPHIS ANTI-UNION VIOLENCE

Governor Gordon Browning of Tennessee

has turned down the American Civil Liber-

ties Union's request for an immediate in-

vestigation of the severe beating of Nor-

man Smith, organizer for the United Auto-

mobile Workers, by unidentified thugs in

Memphis recently. Shortly after receiving

_ the governor's letter, the A.C. L. U. learned

that Smith had been attacked a second time

_ypon his return to Memphis to conduct a

drive among employees of the local Ford

plant.

In a letter to Harry F. Ward, chairman

of the American Civil Liberties Union, Gov-

ernor Browning declared:

"The Mayor of Memphis has given assur-

ance that he will furnish protection for

every organizer in the lawful conduct of his

mission. The officials of Memphis have in

the past been sympathetic with all fair de-

mands and improvements of working con-

ditions of employees. The State govern-

ment has confidence that the city govern-

ment of Memphis will give every lawful

protection from conditions that hinder

labor in its proper activities."'

Governor Browning further assured the

A.C. L. U. that the Grand Jury "`will cer-

tainly receive any complaint against indi-

| viduals for any unlawful conduct."'

Following the first attack upon Smith, the

Civil Liberties Union posted a reward of

$1,000 for information leading to the arrest

and final conviction of any person partici-

ae in the attack. No arrests have been

made,

Myrtle Eggleston, president of the Mem-

phis local of the International Ladies Gar-

ment Workers Union, and Jack Butler

charged last week that thugs had tried to

drag them out of a taxi and warned them to

get out of town "before we get you like we

| got that other guy."

MEMORIAL DAY RIOT INVESTIGATED

BY COMMITTEE OF U. S. SENATE

Everyone interested in the welfare of

labor should read the 540-page report re-

tently put out by the LaFollette Committee

ofthe U. S. Senate dealing with the Chicago

Memorial Day massacre at the Republic

Steel Plant. This is the 14th volume which

has been issued by the committee appointed

by the 74th Congress to investigate viola-

tions of the right of free speech and assem-

bly and interference with the right of labor

lo organize and bargain collectively.

The report quotes the testimony of police

`nd others involved in the bloody struggle

of last May. It is a most revealing docu-

Ment. The exhibits alone which are in-

tuded in the appendix of the book cover

i Pages and include 27 photos taken at

euro time of the riot. Some of these snap-

`tots show beyond any peradventure the

`'agery with which the minions of the law

ittacked the workers on the picket line.

Beat readers are urged to write Senator

wibert LaFollette at Washington, D. C.,

Threading him for the excellent work

Ith he and his committee are doing.

"a him a word of cheer immediately, and

ta he same time suggest that the commit-

ih Would do well to come to California and

..estigate "goon squad"' outrages, violence

"connection with the aqueduct strike, and

ey other unseemly things which have

"1 Occurring in this state.

_ ADVANCES ON FREEDOM'S FRONT

We are happy to be able to give you this

week news of several notable victories on

the battle-front of freedom. Bans have been

removed from the showing of several im-

portant films, new units of the A. C. L. U.

have been set up in Texas and Ohio, and

laws to protect labor more adequately have

been recommended by the Pennsylvania

Bureau of Civil Rights. . ee

After a re-showing of "Spanish Earth,"

attended by Governor Earle, Pennsylvania's

Board of Censors has reversed its ban on

the Joris Ivens-Ernest Hemingway docu-

mentary film depicting the civil war in

Spain. The grounds for the original ban

were alleged scenes of "horror." Governor

Earle has contended that the "horror

propaganda" was against war, and as such

was legitimate.

Decision on the appeal in the ban on an-

other film, "Spain in Flames," has been re-

served. The National Committee on Free-

dom from Censorship has co-operated in

the cases. ,

No grounds were stated by Pennsylva-

nia's Board of Censors when it barred a

public showing of "Millions of Us," labor

film, under the auspices of the Steel Work-

ers Organizing Committee, C. I. O., at Pitts-

burgh last week. An appeal for re-exami-

nation is planned.

In Dayton, Ohio, after the State Board of

Censors barred "Spain in Flames," the Day-

ton Film Society succeeded in presenting

the film at a private showing without inter-

ference after the board had been notified

of the showing.

NEW CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS IN

SAN ANTONIO AND YOUNGSTOWN

Under the leadership of Congressman

Maury Maverick, more than fifty lawyers,

businessmen, educators and ministers have

organized a branch of the American Civil

Liberties Union at San Antonio, Texas, re-

cently the scene of a flagrant police raid on

Workers Alliance headquarters. In answer

to Mayor C.K. Quin's attack on the Union as

"subversive," the San Antonio branch is-

sued a statement declaring that police vio-

lations of civil rights have reflected the

need of the organization.

At Youngstown, Ohio, scene of the re-

cent Little Steel strike, another local unit

of the A. C. L. U. has been formed, with

Geoffrey Burke, father of Robert Burke,

C. I. O. leader, as president. More than 200

people attended the organization meeting.

LABOR LAWS PUSHED IN PENN.

Legislative recommendations for the

preservation of labor's rights in Pennsyl-

vania are being prepared by the State Bu-

reau of Civil Rights, as an outgrowth of the

Bureau's investigation of strike violence at

Elkland, a shoe company town, last July,

the Civil Liberties Union has been informed.

The proposals, based on conditions exist-

ing in Elkland at the time of the leather

workers' strike will be placed before the

coming special session of the Pennsylvania

legislature.

The Bureau; in its report on the Elkland

investigation recently released, concluded

that "there is no doubt that every conceiv-

able effort was made to deny and thwart

the right of unionization and collective bar-

gaining, that in the process the rights of

individuals were largely ignored, and that

various unlawful practices were engaged in

on behalf of the company. ... The investi-

gation showed conditions which are almost

unbelievable in a civilized community."

A. C. L. U. TO FIGHT DEPORTATION

OF EDITOR MARCUS GRAHAM

Marcus Graham, the editor of a monthly

Magazine called MAN, was released from

the Los Angeles County Jail last week, Fri-

day, following the posting of a $1,000 bond

by the American Civil Liberties Union. He

is charged by the immigration authorities

with illegal entry and is to have a hearing

Wednesday, Oct. 27.

At the time of his arrest his room was

searched and many of his private papers

were seized. He asked the four officers who

made the arrest for a search warrant. They

showed none but brushed him aside rough-

ly, and then put handcuffs on him and led

him away to jail.

Away back in 1919 Graham was first

grabbed in the East by Federal officers and

held for deportation. But he was later dis-

missed as the government could not prove

from what country he came. He was seized

in New York City in 1921, beaten up by the

bomb squad and detained for six months.

Then in 1930 he was taken into custody

in Yuma, Ariz., and was charged with hav-

ing left the country by visiting Juarez,

Mex., and re-entering illegally. He was also

accused of being a Communist because the

arresting officers found in his pocket a copy

of "The Anthology of Revolutionary

Poetry," a book of which he himself is the

editor and which contains some 400 poems

from the pens of authors like Burns, Shel-

ley, Emerson, Shakespeare, etc. He was

taken from Yuma to El Centro, Calif., and

later was removed to our County Jail here

in Los Angeles.

Attorney John Beardsley defended him,

and the A. C. L. U. put up $1,000 bail for

him. In a series of hearings before the

immigration officials he easily proved that

he had not left the country illegally, and

that he was not a Communist. In three

months he was released.

At the time of his 1930 arrest a commit-

tee of rebel poets was organized for his de-

fense. The committee gave national pub-

licity to his case and bombarded Washing-

ton with appeals for his release. Such a

committee is again in process of formation

and will do its utmost to secure his release,

believing, as does the A. C. L. U., that he is

being persecuted by the authorities, and

that this sort of persecution jeopardizes the

freedom of thought and of the press of all

rebels.

Graham would be ealled a philosophical

anarchist we presume. One of his friends

describes him thus:

"An ascetic, spare and thin, with the eyes

of a dreamer, the smile of a friend to all

men, the jaw of a fighter, and the hands

of a worker, gentle in his manners and

burning fiercely in his resolves."

Sas a ea Oe ae

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`THE OPEN FORUM ~

Published every Saturday at 624 American Bank Build-

ing, 129 West Second Street, Los Angeles, California,

by the Southern C@lifornia Branch of The American

Civil Liberties Union. Phone: TUcker 6836.

Winton Laluos i cuet clue ee codec oes ce lle "--Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder;;. A. A. Heist . Carey McWilliams

Leo Gallagher -_-s Ethelwyn Mills Ernest Besig

--Jonn Packard "Hawi pound. ty land: -

"Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year. Five Cents

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

post office of Los Angeles, California, under the Act

`of March 3, 1879: 0x00B00x00B0 ,

"LOS ANGELES, CALIF., OCT. 23, 1937

EB 36

BAN ON KLAN PARADE IN

"+= TOLEDO CONDEMNED BY UNION

The American Civil -Liberties Union,

which has long fought the Ku Klux Klan,

came to its defense last week on an issue

of civil rights in Toledo, Ohio, where City

Manager John Edy has just denied the Klan

a parade: permit. - - Poe

-:.In :a telegram to City Manager Edy

signed by Harry F. Ward, chairman; Ar-

thur Garfield Hays, counsel, and Roger N.

Baldwin, director, the Civil Liberties Union

mcclreu,

"9 - TF "democratie institutions are to be

maintained, the right of free speech and

assembly must not be infringed even for

those whose doctrines should be vigorously

opposed. The Civil Liberties Union urges

withdrawal of the ban on the Ku Klux Klan

parade solely on the ground that suppres-

sion of free speech for one group inevitably

leads to a breakdown of the civil rights for

Ls el es

~ The Union backed the prosecution of

Klan members in Tampa, Florida, where

the trial for the murder of Joseph Shoe-

maker in the 1935 floggings of three ``Mod-

ern Democrats'' was recently held. Six men

charged with second degree murder were

acquitted by a directed verdict. ,

~*~ Frequently assailed by red-baiters as de-

fending only radicals, the Civil Liberties

Union has come to the aid of the Ku Klux

Klan on several other occasions in the past

notably in: Boston some years ago when the

Union fought a denial of rights to the Klan

by. a Catholic mayor. -

~~ Several months ago the Union urged the

Kenosha, Wis., city council to rescind a ban

on-a meeting of a local Nazi group. |

_ THE CONSTITUTION AND LIBERTY

'., , (Concluded from Last Week)

There is far more danger of Fascism, which

does not apparently change the present

system, but fastens definite control in the

hands .of small, intolerant and _ vicious

groups. Even today in small localities we

have a species of Fascism under which the

executive is in supreme .control-such as

Harlan and Bell Counties in Kentucky. It

is not wholly a matter of chance that the

highest standards of living in the world to-

day -are:found in countries of democratic

Peritious.,

The rights won by Anglo-Saxons are

worth preserving. Whatever may seem to

be the: immediate consequences, we should

be-so regardful of the principles underly-

ing our Bill of Rights, that we must attack

violation in whatever form it may appear.

In the memorial address to the Great

Assembly of the Commonwealth of Vir-

ginia, James Madison said:

v.04 "Tt dg-proper to take alarm at the

' first' experiment upon our liberties.

--We hold this prudent jealousy to be

the first duty of citizens and one of the

noblest. characteristics of the late

Revolution. The freemen of America

did not wait until usurped power had

_- strengthened itself by exercise and en-

tangled the question in precedents.

They saw all the consequences in the

, prineiple and they avoided the conse-

quences by denying the principle. We

A Tale of Two Continents

(This is the Story of a 20,000 Mile Journey Through 25 States of America and

12 Foreign Countries)

By DR. CLINTON J. TAFT

V.

Canada

From Monroe, Michigan, we proceeded

to Detroit and then on over the Ambassa-

dor Bridge into Canada. The Province of

Ontario looked green and lovely. It changes

very little with the passing years through

this section. There are the same quiet

towns and the small farms just as I saw

them years ago. Almost no new buildings

were going up. It rained part of the time

as we moved on toward Niagara Falls-

the first rain we had encountered since we

left home.

The Great Cataract

But when we reached the International

Bridge over the Niagara River the skies had

`cleared and the sun was shining again. The

great cataract roared over the precipice as

usual, sending a cloud of mist into the air

that caught the rays of the late afternoon

sun and split them into myriad rainbows for

our delight. So we just had to stop for a

little and drink in the beauties of the charm-

ing river scenery. Ever since I was 11 years

old I have been making excursions to Ni-

agara Falls to look upon that mighty nat-

ural spectacle.

On into New York State we sped, keep-

ing close to the southern shore of Lake On-

tario. This is a fruit country here, and as

the cherries were just getting ripe we

stopped at a roadside stand and bought a

quantity of them. What delicious fruit is a

big black cherry just off the tree!

Better Road Markers

The road is poorly marked at several

points along this route. As we passed

through some of the villages we missed the

main thoroughfare and found ourselves off

on side roads... Will the Auto Club of New

York State please take note of this fact and

remedy the condition before we

pass that way next time.

Daylight saving time is in use pretty gen

erally throughout the East. A few of th

more conservative towns, however, cling ty

the old standard time and that makes 4

have ty

~ eonfusing.- I believe that daylight Saving

time is a step in advance and should he

adopted by every community in a state

where it is in vogue.

Old Home Town

Finally we arrived at Fulton, my birth.

place, just as darkness was coming On, and

we remained there a few days visiting ol

friends. How good it is to be back among

the acquaintances of one's childhood again

to be entertained in their homes and to talk

with them about old times and new times,

I was privileged to speak to these friends

and neighbors twice while I was there, [y

the first address I told them about affairs

in general throughout Europe, as I had wit.

nessed them the summer before, and in the

second one I described for the benefit of the

local Kiwanis Club conditions in Russia,

You should have seen with what rapt at.

tention those businessmen listened to me as

I explained the country of the Bolsheviks!

At the close of my talk they gathered

around me and thanked me again and again

for what I had told them. I felt a good deal

like a returned missionary. Indeed, I have

often experienced that feeling when I have

addressed such groups. The ignorance and

misinformation concerning the U. S. 0x00A7S. BR.

among such people is usually quite amaz

ing. But when a fellow stands up before

them in whom they have confidence and

gives them first-hand facts out of his own

experience, they react in a way that is quite

heartening. Again and again I have spoken

to such groups and by using tactful methods

I always get good results.

(To be continued next week.)

MASS RALLY

Aaron Allen Heist, C. I. O. public rela-

tions director for Southern California, and

W. W. Betts, noted lecturer, will speak on

the C. I. O. and the International Situation

at a mass meeting to be held under the aus-

pices of the Mooney-Billings Branch, I. L.

D., at the Progressive Trade Union Club

Hall, 54614 So. Spring Street, Wednesday,

Oct. 27, 8 P. M. Music by members of the

Freiheit Mandolin Club Orchestra.

`revere this lesson too much, soon to

forget it."

Instead of turning our minds to the past,

let us look to the future. In expressing rev-

erence for the Constitution let us pledge

ourselves to the principles underlying it.

The ideal of America, as expressed in the

Constitution and Bills of Rights, is liberty.

Our institutions are based on the theory

that order is best maintained through lib-

erty. As was once said by Mr. Justice

Brandeis:

"Those who won our independence

by revolutions were not cowards. They

did not fear political change. They did

not exalt order at the cost of liberty."

We have come together to express our

reverence not for words of a written Con-

stitution, but for rights guaranteed by that

Constitution. Our sincerity is attested, not by

oaths, but by our faithful adherence both in

word and act to its ideals.

Protests at the slightest infringement, a

capacity for indignation, courage, faith in

democratic processes, vigilance, are neces-

sary if we are to maintain liberty,

| HARD TIMES OFFER

Because of the continued financial depression

we are going to make you a very special offer-

THE OPEN FORUM eights months to new sub-

scribers for only fifty cents. Get busy and flood

us with new subscriptions.

THE OPEN FORUM

624 American Bank Building. Los Angeles

Ss J

"RUSSIA REVISITED" =~

Next Sunday, Oct. 24, Dr. Clinton J. Taft

will speak over Radio KFVD, the station in

the center of the dial-1000 kilocycles. The

broadcast will be at 1:00 P. M. and will

concern conditions in the Soviet Union,

which the speaker visited again this

summer.

Also on Saturday evening of this week,

Oct. 28d, Dr. Taft will address the Sever-

ance Club at the Ontra Cafeteria, 8th and

Vermont, on his experiences in the

U.S. 8S. R,

"o

"THE FLIVVER KING:

A Story of Ford-America"

By UPTON SINCLAIR

This is a brand new novel from the

pen of America's foremost writer on

subjects of social interest. Says the

author: "The American people believe

Henry Ford a great idealist. Once he

was that; now he is the owner of a bil-

lion dollars. What that money has

done to him is a fascinating story.

have written it in time for the big fight

aie ie Ford and the union, due this

all.

Only 25c! Order your copy now

from The Open Forum, 624 American

Bank Bldg., Los Angeles.

N whine

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