Open forum, vol. 15, no. 2 (January, 1938)

THE OPEN FORUM

Free 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. XV

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 8, 1938

HAGUE CHALLENGE TO INVADE

JERSEY CITY ACCEPTED BY HAYS

Declaring that he was quite willing ``to

take the chance that my friends will not see

me for a long, long time,"' Arthur Garfield

Hays, counsel for the Civil Liberties Union,

has accepted the challenge of Mayor Frank

Hague to deliver an anti-Hague speech in

Jersey City. In a letter to the Boss of Hud-

son County, N. J., Mr. Hays asked Mayor

Hague to state when and where the attor-

ney may make his speech and to guarantee

that he will not first be deported to Hobo-

ken.

Mayor Hague's invitation was originally

tendered to Morris L. Ernst, C. I. O. special

counsel, who is also counsel for the Civil

Liberties Union, the mayor promising that

"I will guarantee that his friends will not

see him for a long, long time."'

Mr. Hays' letter to Mayor Hague de-

clared:

"In endeavoring to bring back civil

rights to Jersey City, Mr. Ernst probably

has more important duties to perform than

to accept this challenge. I offer myself as a

substitute. I should like to come to Jersey

City and deliver an anti-Hague speech, and

am quite willing to take the chance that my

friends will not see me for a long, long time.

"Will you let me know when and where

I shall have the opportunity to make this

speech? I ask this, first, because owners of

halls in your city are apparently so intimi-

dated that without your cooperation it

would be impossible to obtain a place to

make this speech; secondly, the streets and

parks are under control of your police, so

they are not available without your permis-

Sion; and thirdly, I should like an assurance

_ that I will not be thrown into Hoboken be-

fore Ihave had an opportunity to make the

Speech."

Last January, Mr. Hays opened a new

method of attack against Mayor Hague's

Dicketing ban by filing suit in Federal

Court for $30,000 damages against Hague

and other city officials charging assault and

battery following police interference with

his attempt to picket. "TI regard the right of

an American citizen to be arrested as

fundamental," declared Mr. Hays at the

Ime. "If the police will not arrest you, you

are denied the right of habeas corpus and

he right of trial by jury."

GRAHAM DEPORTATION CASE

SET FOR TRIAL ON JANUARY 11

_ After pleading not guilty to the criminal

Information filed by the United States At-

torney in behalf of the Department of

abor against him, charging Marcus Gra-

4am with contempt of federal court, Gra-

am's case was set for trial before Judge

fon R. Yankwich on Tuesday, January

lith, at 10:00 a. m.

In a special "plea in bar'' filed by Gra-

aa before Judge Yankwich, Graham con-

ceedin to assert that the deportation pro-

constites over a period of eighteen years

brocess euro persecution and a denial of due

as guaranteed by the Constitution.

of this contention on J anuary 11th.

j ig UABe Yankwich will pass upon the mer-

LABOR AND LIBERAL FORCES

FIGHT PICKETING MEASURE

Last Monday the battle to prevent the

drastic anti-picketing ordinance passed by

the Los Angeles City Council on December

29th from becoming a law was resumed in

the office of Mayor Frank L. Shaw. A unit-

ed delegation representing both sections of

the labor movement, the American Feder-

ation of Labor and the Committee for

Industrial Organization, conferred with the

mayor and presented arguments why he

should refuse to sign the ordinance..

The mayor has heard also from various

other organizations that are opposed to an

ordinance of this kind. The American Civil

Liberties Union has urged Mayor Shaw to

use his veto power to kill the measure on

the ground that it is un-American, unconsti-

tutional and unnecessary because of so

many laws already on the statute books to

control the conduct of strikers.

Los Angeles at the present moment is

fairly seething with revolt against an ordi-

nance that would do away with effective

peaceful picketing. Hundreds of solicitors

are ready to go out upon the streets and se-

cure signatures to a petition that will refer

the ordinance to the voters for acceptance

or rejection at the next general election in

case the mayor puts his name to the ordi-

nance. He has ten days in which to decide

the matter. As yet he has given out no defi-

nite statement as to whether or not he will

O.K. the measure.

When this proposed law came up for

final vote in the Council on December 29th

it was supported by Messrs. Brainard,

Burns, Buyer, Cunningham, Davis, Gay,

McAllister, Sanborn and Wilson, and was

opposed by Messrs. Baumgartner, Bennett,

Hyde, Lewis, Tate and Thrasher.

Mayor Shaw has been told that if there

were not already plenty of laws available to

govern picketing the judges of the Superior

Court of this county are ready to issue

Sweeping injunctions against workers, and

have already done so in numerous in-

stances, limiting the number of pickets to a

very small number and ruling that picket-

ing was possible only when a bona fide

strike was in progress and was to be for-

feited when strikers had been replaced by

scabs.

Other Southern California cities have

been wrestling of late with this question of

prohibiting peaceful picketing. Early in

December Huntington Park passed an ordi-

nance practically prohibiting such picket-

ing. A test case has now arisen under the

new law and is being carried to the higher

courts for a decision.

In San Diego three attempts were recent-

ly made to get passed an anti-picketing

ordinance but they all came to frustration.

The ordinance was finally tabled by a

unanimous vote of the Council upon motion

of Councilman Sibert.

In Northern California the people have

emphatically expressed themselves against

ordinances of this kind. The matter came

to a public vote in San Francisco a few

months ago and an antipicketing ordinance

was overwhelmingly turned down. The

judges in Northern California also are more

liberal in this matter. When recently thir-

ty-two automobile salesmen of the Howard

Automobile Company sought to prevent

picketing by the Retail Automobile Sales-

men's Union Local No. 1067, Superior

Judge Morris T. Duling refused to follow

the lead of Judge Wilson of Los Angeles

and ruled that peaceful picketing is per-

fectly legitimate under our constitution,

and that "the appeal for public support in-

volved in peaceful picketing is not an ac-

tionable tort (wrongful act), even though

the picketing union represents no em-

ployees of the picketed business and there

is no dispute between the picketed em-

ployer and his employees."

WIRE-TAPPING DECISION TERMED

VICTORY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

The Supreme Court's seven-to-two ruling

that evidence obtained by tapping tele-

phone wires is inadmissable was hailed by

the Civil Liberties Union as upholding the

"right of privacy against investigation by

governmental agencies or others."

The decision was handed down in the

first test of whether the Federal Communi-

cations Act forbids the government to use

evidence secured by listening in on tele-

phone conversations. The court, in effect,

reversed its attitude of nine years ago when

it held that a Washington State law insur-

ing secrecy of telephone and telegraph

messages did not bar convictions.

Commenting on the decision, the Union

declared:

"The Supreme Court has taken a position

on tapping telephone wires which should

satisfy every defender of civil rights. It af-

firms the view which the minority in the

previous 5 to 4 decision sustained - the

right of privacy against invasion of govern-

mental agencies or others.

"If the law is right in prohibiting the use

of telegrams by others than the sender or

recipient and in forbidding the opening of

first-class mail without a warrant, it is

sound in protecting the privacy of the tele-

phone. No argument can be made for open-

ing the telephone to government agents

which cannot be made for opening letters

and telegrams.

"Apparently under the decision, govern-

ment agents can listen in on conversations

but they cannot use in court the information

they secure. They may use it as tips to be

verified by evidence to accomplish the pur-

poses of a criminal prosecution. Even that

power, desirable as it may seem in criminal

cases, is open to grave abuse. No real pro-

tection can be afforded without statutes

making criminal the tapping of telephones.

But the decision is a great advance and will

doubtless curtail a practice indefensible in

principle."

WOMAN DENIED CITIZENSHIP

FOR REFUSAL TO BEAR ARMS

Because she declared she was unwilling

to bear arms in defense of her country, but

would be willing to perform noncombatant

service, 72-year-old Louise Maria Hoffman,

of Lowell, Fla., has been denied citizenship

in the U.S. District Court at Jacksonville.

The Civil Liberties Union is offering its co-

operation to Mrs. Hoffman in prosecuting

her petition for naturalization.

Mrs. Hoffman is American-born, but her

husband is a naturalized German. Her peti-

tion, filed June 22, 1937, remains pending

for final adjudication by the court.

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THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 524 American Bank Build-

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

by the Southern California Branch of The American

Civil Liberties Union. Phone: TUcker 6836.

MESA GL colo eck Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder A. A. Heist Carey McWilliams

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills Ernest Besig

John Packard Edwin P. Ryland

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

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of March 3, 1879.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., JAN. 8, 1938

EBB 36

MAHONEY DRUNK CHARGE IN COURT

The drunk charge against Harry Ma-

honey, police brutality victim, came on for

hearing before Judge H. B. Landreth in Di-

_ vision 7 of the Municipal Court on Jan-

uery Srd.

Evidence at the former trial held on

December 3rd having disclosed that Ma-

honey was drunk at the time he was arrest-

ed but complained of no injury at that time,

the boy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. George F.

Mahoney, and the A. C. L. U. decided that

young Mahoney should plead guilty to the

drunk complaint and ask a suspended sen-

tence. The court imposed a sentence of 180

days but suspended sentence in accordance

with the request.

On the occasion of the former trial, after

the case had lasted four days, Judge C.

Newell Carns granted a request of the A. C.

L. U. counsel, A. L. Wirin, for a mistrial.

Mr. Wirin had protested against remarks

made by the judge to the jury which he

charged to be misconduct by the court.

In the meantime, a Citizens Committee,

consisting of Attorney Morey Stanley Mosk,

Rabbi Jacob Kohn, Rev. George T. Ashley,

Miriam Crenshaw, Ernest Dawson, Attor-

ney Norbert Baumgarten, Professor Samuel

Wixman, Rey. John B. Soule, and Floyd

Covington is preparing a report on the Ma-

honey case, including the conduct of the

city attorney's office and district attorney's

office in white-washing the case.

FEDERAL THEATRE

MAYAN: 1040 South Hill, PR. 0039.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!" amusing musical

comedy, is slated to play through Jan-

uary 9.

HOLLYWOOD PLAYHOUSE, Vine near

Hollywood Blvd., HI. 5752. `"Androcles and

the Lion,' comedy by George Bernard

Shaw, continues through January 16,

played by an all-Negro cast.

wR Tale of Two Continent

-.

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

12 Foreign Countries)

By DR. CLINTON J. TAFT

XVI.

Producer Co-ops

They have ventured into the producing

end of cooperation also. We visited a big

factory where four kinds of food were being

put up-bake-stuffs, meats, fish and cof-

fee. The machinery was of the latest type

and the processing was intensely interest-

ing. Human hands scarcely touched any of

the produce. A restaurant furnished meals

to the operatives at cost.

Not far away was another factory, also

run by the co-ops, where electric bulbs

were being fabricated. Formerly the Swed-

ish people were at the mercy of the inter-

national electric light trust and were com-

pelled to pay 37c for a 25-watt bulb. The

cooperative society conceived the idea of

making bulbs for their members. It first

made a careful investigation of the matter

and decided that considerable reduction in

the price of bulbs could be effected. When

it actually started to build and equip a bulb

manufacturing plant, representatives of the

electric light trust laughed and declared

that the enterprise would result in failure.

The cooperative society, however, was

not daunted. It kept right on building the

factory. Then the trust tried to buy them

out, but were told that the new factory was

not for sale. The cooperative movement in

Sweden has been blessed with some very

wise leaders, men of large capacity and ex-

perience. That accounts in no small degree

for the success which they have attained.

When the factory was completed and

gotten into operation, the price of bulbs

came down from 37c to 17c and the

strangle-hold of the electric light trust over

Scandinavia was broken.

Galoshes used to cost the Swedes an un-

conscionable sum. They are one of the ne-

cessities of life in that cold, snowy country.

Something had to be done about the matter,

so the cooperative society began to manu-

facture galoshes and the price dropped

$1.20 a pair.

Agricultural Cooperation

The farmers became cooperative-minded.

They lost that high-powered aloofness that

has kept farmers apart in loneliness and

unprofitable isolation in so many countries

of the world. They decided that they could

do things together politically and economi-

cally. So they formed an agricultural

party and elected quite a bloc to represent

them in the national parliament. They also

began to market their grain and hay and

fruits together and found that an ad-

`vantage.

Finally they decided that they were pay-

ing too much for commercial fertilizer, and

set up a plant of their own where nitrogen

was taken from the air and combined with

certain limestone products. And thus the

fertilizer trust was busted.

(Cz

SC

`UNITED MASS MEETING

Sponsored by the

American Civil Liberties Union

American League for Peace and Democracy

Methodist Federation for Social Service

PHILHARMONIC. AUDITORIUM

TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 18 -:-

Address by

DR. HARRY F. WARD

of New York

(National Chairman of the three sponsoring organizations)

"DEMOCRACY UNDER FIRE"

Chairman: J. FRANK BURKE, KFVD "Editor of the Air"

(Brief Remarks by Well Known Representatives of Labor and Affiliated Groups)

ADMISSION 22". 2 5cent. 5 55c0x00B0-. S110

Tickets for sale at 524 American Bank Bldg., 129 West 2nd St. -:- TUcker 6836

~"

8:00 O'CLOCK

-__iy

Cooperative Housing

The history of cooperation in Scandi.

navia reads almost like a fairy story. One

success after another has been recordeq

Fifteen per cent of Stockholm's people liye

in houses cooperatively built. Some of them

are small homes and others immense apart

ment houses.

Those "incredible Swedes" seem to have

a genius for cooperation. When they eni.

grate to America they bring it with them

and have built here in Wisconsin, Minne.

sota and the Dakotas some of the most suc-

cessful co-ops to be found in the United

States.

Public Ownership

The idea that the economic resources of

a country belong to the people as a whole

took root in Sweden a long time ago. For

over 300 years the forests - one of their

principal assets-have been controlled by

the state. Trees are not cut ruthlessly by

conscienceless lumber companies who rush

in to appropriate the first growth timber

and ruin much of the second growth in

doing so, and perhaps leave the soil ex.

posed to erosion. Instead, a conservation

policy has been enforced during these three

centuries. Scientific forestry has been the

rule. Trees are cut only when approved by

the Forestry Department, and are replaced

by seedlings set out and tended with great

care.

Certain of the mineral deposits also are

owned by the state and are mined scientif-

cally. The railroads are nearly all govern

ment property. So also are the telephone

and telegraph lines. You can send a toll

message in Stockholm for from one-fifth to

one-third of what it costs here in Los An

geles. Liquor is a government monopoly. It

has been since 1865. The Gothenberg sys-

tem obtains there and seems to be working

well. Strictly enforced regulations have

been thrown around the traffic in intoxi-

cants, requiring that those who buy liquor

shall with each purchase present a book in

which the sale is entered. A limited amount

per week is allowed each customer. No

drunks are served and no consumption on

the premises is allowed.

The sale of tobacco is likewise a govern-

ment monopoly. So is the broadcasting of

radio programs. If you own a receiving set

you pay about $2.50 a year tax. Thus the

programs are financed and you are saved

the agony of having your symphonies and

sonatas scrambled with a lot of abominable

advertising. (`Hear it Fizz," etc. You know

what I mean.)

(Continued next week)

GEORGIA POLL TAX UPHELD

Legality of Georgia's $1 poll tax, a requl

site to vote in national elections, has beet

upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court. The

Civil Liberties Union supported Nolen RB.

Breedlove of Fulton County in the fight on

the tax.

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