Open forum, vol. 26, no. 12 (June, 1949)
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THE OPEN FORUM
Official Organ of THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, Southern California Branch
"When good people in any country cease their vigilance
and struggle, then evil men prevail."
-PEARL Buck
"Vol. XXVI
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JUNE 11, 1949
No. 12
Democracies Must Promote
SPECIFIC, POSITIVE PROGRAMS!
By William O. Douglas
Associate Justice, U. S. Supreme Court
The world is on the edge of great
hange. On all continents a spirit of un-
wt stirs the people and makes rulers
ineasy. It is a protest against illiteracy,
lisease, poverty and misgovernment. It
weeps the world, proclaiming injustice
ud feeding on discontent. ...
While we have given impetus and
itive to the forces of unrest in the world,
le Soviets . . . have activated those
inces with an ideology and with propa-
nda... .
Lasting peace requires that the de-
nocracies regain the initiative. Under
lkmocratic influences the worldwide
witit of unrest can be the means of
nuilding valuable habits of peaceful
wllaboration. ...
We in the United States have work to
(0 at home in order to make these prin-
tiples vital components of our commu-
lity life. . . . The United States has a
ecial responsibility to promote these
tinciples in the international commu-
lity,
But if the democratic nations are to
tke from the Soviets control of the di-
tection of the forces of unrest, more is
weded. General principles must be fur-
ished with specific programs of POLI-
ICAL action. We must translate prin-
liples of freedom and justice into specific
ind concrete ideas-into ideas as definite
bread and land.
That problem carries back to a fair
listribution of the land's bounty; to nur-
ting and conserving the earth against
lhe forces that destroy its fertility... .
the world's problem of poverty and
linger goes back to things other than
ind-to wages, housing, exploitation of
latural resources, and all the many fac-
`ts that bear on the standard of living
ifthe people... . We can take steps to
lave the dollars or technical skills that
`We offer directed against the forces of
leverty, illiteracy, disease and misgov-
`ment. Each new industrialization or
reclamation project must be utilized for
the benefit of the multitude, not merely
for a few at the top.
ATTENTION!
City Council
County Board of Supervisors
Board of Education
All State and Federal Officials
`What do you want me to do next, Boss?'
7 | i
. aS a ) SH
` ey. yen Ag es f
wife
5
ee Pre eA iad td
-Courtesy of the Washington Post
If we neglect these things, we let the
Soviets retain the initiative in directing
the forces of unrest. . . . If we throw
(the weight of our prestige) on the side
of human rights the world over, the tide
will turn and we will salvage even the
wastelands of the world for the demo-
cratic cause. If we throw it on the side
of reaction and vested interests, the dem-
ocratic cause ill lose as steadily in all
areas as it has in China since the war.-
Excerpts from speech delivered at the
dinner-forum of the Nation Associates
and reported in the April 30 issue of the
Nation.
Loyalty Procedures
Should Be Reformed!
ACLU Insists That Most
Checks Be Discontinued ;
Heed Citizen's Rights |
Urging that future loyalty checks of
federal employees should be confined to
"sensitive departments and jobs where a
divided or questionable loyalty is a clear
disqualification," the ACLU addressed
Attorney General Tom C. Clark, May 23
suggesting a seven-point program of re-
forms in the loyalty procedure. The
Union told the Attorney General that it
"of course recognizes the right of the
government to exact unqualified loyalty
from its employees," but that the "prac-
tical question of exercising that right
fairly" has not been resolved. The At-
torney General was addressed as the
President's "legal adviser, concerned with
all phases of the executive order on loy-
alty."
The seven-point program suggested to
the Attorney General covers;
(1) The confinement of future tests of
loyalty to so-called sensitive areas of the
government. (2) Hearings and reviews
on appeal for all employees in all posi-
tions in the government and in private
firms working on government contracts,
whether the charges involve loyalty or
security. (3) Abandonment of the public
listing by the Attorney General of so-
called subversive organizations, or if that
is impracticable, to accord hearings to
all organizations claiming error. The
Union asserted that the lists are used "far
beyond their intent" to create general dis-
crimination against these agencies. (4)
Full revelation of charges and sources of
information so that employees accused
may meet them. (5) Permission for em-
ployees found unfit for "sensitive posts"
to transfer to non-sensitive. (6) Bringing
under the loyalty procedures the four
departments of the government now
exempted by law,-State, Army, Navy
and Atomic Energy, where "most of the
discharges have taken place." (7) Aban-
doning the practice of new loyalty checks
on employees once cleared, when they
transfer from one department to another.
PAGE TWO
The Union's letter was signed by the
-members of a special Committee on Loy-
alty Investigations, headed by Raymond
L. Wise, former Asst. U. S.. Attorney in
New York; James Lawrence Fly, former
chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission; Norman Thomas; John F.
Finerty, lawyer; Prof. Herbert R. North-
rup of columbia University and Frederick
Robin of the Union's Board of Directors.
Wixman Again
Denied Citizenship
On the testimony of men who admitted
under oath that as members of the Com-
munist Party they had been knowingly
disloyal to the United States for a period
of years, Judge Paul J. McCormick a
second time denied citizenship to Samuel
Wixman, a former teacher in Los Angeles
City College.
The substance of Judge McCormick's
first opinion was that one who in a time
of depression voiced doubt as to the
capitalistic order is not sufficiently at-
tached to the principles of the Constitu-
tion to entitle him to become a citizen.
The Circuit Court of Appeals sustained
McCormick's denial of citizenship, what-
ever individual judges may have thought
of his reasoning. In due process the Su-
preme Court of the United States re-
versed his decision and that of the higher
court "for the reason that there is not
sufficient evidence in the record to sup-
port it," and remanded the case to the
court for further proceedings.
The "further proceedings" consisted
largely in testimony from men whom the
Attorney General's department would be
hounding were it not supporting them
as professional witnesses. One had been
thoroughly discredited by Dean Landis,
and by implication by the Supreme Court
that accepted the Landis view in the case
of Bridges vs Wixon. Another told a fan-
tastic story of a course in the Lenin In-
stitute and of his being court marshalled
in Moscow but offered an advance posi-
tion in Communist circles on his return
to the U. S. Yet another was a self con-
fessed cheap spy on candidates for the
Los Angeles Board of Education. Not
satisfied with this the Department of Na-
turalization attempted to smear a witness
for Wixman by using the infamous report
of the House Un-American Committee on
the infiltration of Communism into the
churches of the country-some of which
members of the Committee themselves
repudiated,
(Continued on page 8, column 8)
Chicago Chancellor
Confounds Committee
Illinois Commission
Gets Effective Lecture
On Academic Freedom
Chicago University gave the whole
country an example of how to meet legis-
lative investigations by un-American
committees. Instead of quailing before an
attack the Board of Trustees took the
initiative by issuing a stirring declaration
on academic freedom.
Appearing before the Subversive Ac-
tivities Commission (Boyles Commis-
sion) Chancelor Robert M. Hutchins
gave no indication of a mere defensive
attitude. He spoke out so forthrightly for
American principles that the commission
soon decided to save the Illinois tax-
payers the $75,000 which had been ap-
propriated for an investigation of Chicago
University and Roosevelt College.
"The supoena I received summons me
to testify concerning subversive activities
in the University of Chicago," began the
Chancelor at the hearing. "This is a lead-
ing question; the answer is assumed in
the question. I cannot testify concerning
subversive activities at the University of
Chicago, because there are none."
Naming the 34 trustees to the Univer-
sity Dr. Hutchins defiantly declared, "it
will not be charged that they are engaged
in subversive activities (or) ... that they
would sanction such activities.
Referring to "one of the most distin-
guished faculties in the world" the Chan-
cellor explained, "The reason why the
University has such a distinguished fac-
ulty is that the University guarantees its
professors absolute and complete free-
dom of speech. .. . It has sometimes been
said that some members of the faculty
belong to some so-called "Conmunist-
front' organizations. The University of
Chicago does not believe in the un-Amer-
ican doctrine of guilt by association. .. .
"It is now fashionable to call anyone
with whom you disagree a Communist or
a fellow traveler. .. . One who criticizes
the foreign policy of the United States,
or the draft, or the Atlantic Pact, or who
believes that our military establishment
is too expensive can be called a fellow-
traveler, for the Russians are of the same
opinion. One who thinks that there are
too many slums and too much lynching
in America can be called a fellow-trav-
eler, because the Russians want change
in this country, too."
"The Constitution of the United States
guarantees freedom of speech and the
right of the people peaceably to assem-
THE OPEN FORUM
ACLU Will Aid
Syracuse Student
Irving Feiner, Syracuse University stu-
dent, will be aided by the ACLU in ap-
pealing a 30-day jail sentence for making
an allegedly abusive street speech, on the
ground that the veteran's right to free-
dom of speech was violated.
Feiner was announcing on a residential
corner in Syracuse, N. Y., a last-minute
change in the meeting place where 0,
John Rogge, former Assistant Attorney
General, was to speak on March 8, after
the school board revoked a permit for a
school building.
Two policemen, the only prosecuting
witnesses, claimed that the student was
inciting to riot, blocking traffic and using
abusive language. He was arrested, held
on $1000 bail and refused a jury trial by
Police Magistrate William H. Bamerick,
who sentenced him to 80 days. He is free
on bail pending the appeal.
While in jail after conviction, Feiner
received notice from Syracuse University
that he had been dismissed. He was a
third-year student, a veteran with three
years of service, attending college under
the G. I. Bill of Rights.
The Union stated that "the issue is
clear that the police exceeded their au-
thority in making an arrest under these
circumstances. Feiner and his witnesses
denied the abusive language charged. It
looks as if both the school board's action,
the arrest and the University's action all
stemmed from political prejudice against
the Progressive Party. We defend free
speech on principle, not as partisans, with
equal rights for all parties and indi-
viduals."
ble. The American way has been to en-
courage thought and discussion. We have
never been afraid of thought and discus-
sion. The whole educational system, and
not merely the University of Chicago, is
a reflection of the American faith in
thought and discussion as a path to
peaceful change and improvement.
"The danger to our institutions is not
from the tiny minority who do not be-
lieve in them. It is from those who would
mistakenly repress the spirit upon which
those institutions are built. The miasma
of thought control that is now spreading
over the country is the greatest menace
to the United States since Hiler."
(The above excerpts were culled from
Chancelor Hutchins' complete statemen!
published in the June, 1949 issue of
Tower Topics, 5733 University Avenue,
Chicago 37, Illinois. )
THE OPEN FORUM
PAGE THREE
THE OPEN FORUM
OFFICIAL ORGAN
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BRANCH
AaRrON ALLEN Heist, Director-Editor
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
J. W. MacNarr Rev. ALLAN HunTER
Chairman KATHERINE KILBOURNE
A. L. Wir, Counsel a oe
J. B. Tietz, Treasurer Oe one
Pror. Crarves R. Nixon
FRANKLIN L. ALEXANDER Frep OkRAND
Mrs. JoHN BEARDSLEY Joun C. Packarp
Dr. OriveR H. BRONSON
Dn. E. P. Rrtanp
Epmunp W. Cooks Mrs. Raupu SMITH
FLoyp CovINGTON
Dr. Curnton J. Tarr
Pror. Grorce M. Day
CLorE WARNE
Hucu HarpymMan ExizaBetH A. Woop
Dr. Wo. Linpsay Younc
Published Bi-Weekly at
Room 517, 257 South Spring Street
Los Angeles 12
Phone TUcker 8514
One Dollar the year
Five cents per copy
Entered as second-class matter April 24, 1946,
at the post office at Los Angeles, California,
under the Act of March 8, 1879.
P 60
Los Angeles, California, June 11, 1949
ANTHEM OF THE
UNIVERSAL
One Cosmic Brotherhood,
One Universal Good,
One Source, One Sway
One Law Beholding Us,
One Purpose Molding Us,
One Life Enfolding Us,
In Love Alway.
Anger, Resentment, Hate,
Long Made Us Desolate,
Their Reign Is Done.
Race, Color, Creed and Caste
Fade in the Dreamy Past;
Man Wakes to Learn at Last,
ALL LIFE IS ONE!
-Author Unknown
WueEn the rights of even the humblest
among us are denied, the democratic
security of all is threatened, said Gover-
nor Herbert H. Lehman in the day when
Socialists were being barred from office
and employment as Communists are
today.
WHEN I HEAR another express an
_ pinion which is not mine, I say to my-
self, he has a right to his opinion, as I
have to mine; why should I question itp
His error does me no injury, and shall I
become a Don Quixote, to bring all men
by force of argument to my opinion?-
Thomas Jefferson.
ALERT, CALIFORNIANS!
Keep in touch with your assemblymen
on the notorious Tenney Bills. If any
pass the Assembly write Governor War-
ren asking that he veto them.
FRONT PAGE COPY
The May 19th issue of Conscription
`News reproduced much of the OpENn
Forum analysis of the Hopley Report on
its front page. We are hoping that the
death of Secretary Forrestal will mean
the end of the Hopley program.
COMMUNIST TEACHERS
The American Association of Univer-
sity Professors has taken the following
position officially-"So long as the Com-
munist Party in the United States is a
legal political party, affiliation with that
party in and of itself should not be re-
garded as a justifiable reason for exclu-
sion from the academic profession."
SENATORS-
HONORABLE MEN
California State Senators are honorable
men. As such they take sharp exception
to being smeared by Jack Tenney. But
these very honorable men have perpetu-
ated an un-American committee which
they knew was engaged in smearing men
as honorable, or more honorable, than
they! Indeed they have generously ap-
propriated taxpayers' money to have
their fellow citizens smeared! Just how
honorable are our California Senators?
CLARK PRACTICES
COMMUNIST ETHICS
The U. S. Department of Justice seems
perfectly willing to practice. what is re-
ported to be Communist ethical teaching
-the end justifies the means. On the one
hand it hounds citizens for even casual
association with Communists, and on the
`other hand it cuddles to its bosom the
lowest kind of men-spies and informers,
keeps them on the payroll of the govern-
ment as "clerks," and what not, in order
to use them in court cases that the de-
partment wants to win. Some of them
have confessed under oath that they are
perjurers and that for a period of years
they knowingly lived in disloyalty to the
country whose government is now using
them. No harm that Communist can do
our government is as damaging as such
use of "ex-Communists" by the govern-
ment. And how does the department
know that these very men are not now
of the highest possible service to Mos-
cow?
Japanese Americans
Fear
With the United States Government
confessing its wrong doing, in evacuating
citizens of Japanese ancestry, to the de-
gree that it offers partial compensation
for damages done, the majority of the
victims of our military autocracy now
fear to file claims for fear of further mo-
lestation. Such at least is the explanation
of the relatively few claims filed that is
offered by some competent workers with
years of experience with the group.
That such fear should exist is not
strange not only because of the violations
of human rights in the evacuation itself
but as a result of much harassment while
in our concentration camps. It is reported
that some evacuees were subjected to as
many as 21 "loyalty tests," hearings and
investigations.
Property losses in farms, homes and
business ventures as a result of the short
notice evacuation are estimated at around
$100,000,000. To this must be added a
loss of $250,000,000 in income, not to
mention savings which evacuees were
compelled to use up because the govern-
ment allowed only $15, $16, or $19 per
month for monthly wages for full eight
hour days,
Congress has appropriated one million
dollars to be paid on claims up to $2500.
Even some who have lost a hundred
times that sum are afraid to file claims.
It is difficult to offer proof of exact losses
and claimants fear that a government
which has treated them unjustly in the
past may now pounce on any error as a
basis of perjury charges.
We urge our readers in sections in
which returned evacuees reside to urge
them to file claims. Competent advisors
are available who will be able to prove
their fears to be groundless.
Ams To Communists - Members of
Boards of Supervisors, of City Councils
and of Boards of Education, along with
Mayors and Superintendents of schools,
who have had any part in promoting
"loyalty tests" deserve much of the same
as Manchester Boddy has leveled at Jack
Tenney.
WIXMAN...
(Continued from page 2, col. 1)
That the Supreme Court of the United
States will once more reverse the Los
Angeles Judge is scarcely to be doubted
if enough citizens concerned with genu-
ine Americanism will make available
funds to carry up the appeal. The AMEr-
IcAN Civ, Lisertres Union has spon-
sored the case since the original appeal.
a an ~ oe -
PAGE FOUR
"Debtor Case" Is
Greatly Overplayed
ACLU Investigation Finds
Sensational Newspaper Stories
_ Ignore Facts of Law
The ACLU will not participate in the
cases of three veterans jailed in Vermont
allegedly for failing to pay court judg-
ments, because its investigation shows
that there are no violations of civil lib-
erties, Herbert M. Levy, ACLU staff
counsel, announced May 25.
The men, Ralph J. Fugatt, Springfield,
Mass.; Bernard J. Smith, Jr., Fair Haven,
Vt., and Frederick L. Lapan, Marshfield,
Vt., wer in prison on a "close jail certifi-
cate" because of failure to pay judgments
arising from automoible accidents.
Investigation by attorney Louis Lis-
man, ACLU representative in Vermont,
reveals that there is no "imprisonment for
debt" in Vermont. He said: "The men
were imprisoned because they were
found guilty of a willful and malicious
act which resulted in personal injuries
for which no compensation was made.
They were given a full hearing on the
question of whether their acts were will-
ful and malicious, and were represented
by. competent and experienced counsel."
The hearing was held because the "con-
science of the court" was shocked, he
declared.
It also was stated that there is no pos-
sibility that the men may be imprisoned
for life, as press reports indicated. Under
the Vermont law, once the court decides
that the men have been punished suff-
ciently, they may go free on bail, pro-
vided they do not leave Vermont. They
may also go free if they submit to "sup-
plementary proceedings," a legal inquiry
into their assets to find if they have
transferred their assets to defraud cred-
itors.
Imprisonment for refusal or failure to
pay court judgments is permitted in
many states, according to ACLU counsel,
who see no violation of civil rights in the
procedure.
- SS
"Non-VIOLENT RESISTANCE to taboos
which are themselves a violation of our
basic law is not only not treason; it is a
democratic duty and an essential form of
Christian witness."-The Christian Cen-
tury.
Jack B. Tenney-
"He is the most effective tool
being used today by the Commu-
nist Party of the United States,"
says
Manchester Boddy in L. A. Daily News
"It's a long road that has no turnings"
-sometimes a hairpin turn right at the
edge of the cliff]
There is increasing evidence of Cali-
fornia's turn toward sanity. Whether such
"mentally and emotionally ill-distorted
half men, whose trappings of power only
superficially conceal their deep weak-
ness'-as our professional witch hunters
can take the turn or will go over the
cliff to political oblivion is not the least
interesting question of our times.
In an editorial on Decoration Day the
able editor of the Los Angeles Daily
News compared Jack B. Tenney's pend-
ing "loyalty bills" to poison designed to
kill off liberals and progressives as a fool
would destroy lady bugs when aphis in-
fest his roses. In so many words, Tenney
is held suspect" through ignorance or by
design," of serving Moscow. The U. S.
House Committee on un-American Ac-
tivities accused him of doing so in 1988,
We quote the closing half of the editorial
which may mark an important turn in
California politics: (Subheads ours)
In Pay or Moscow?
"If Jack Tenney were hired by the high
command in Moscow to render the most
effective service possible he could do no
better than to apply a deadly spray (his
so-called "loyalty" measures) against the
liberals and progressives.
"And since that is precisely what he is
doing, it is impossible to escape the dis-
turbing thought that Jack B. Tenney him-
self, either through ignorance or by de-
sign, is serving the gigantic international
conspiracy which is communism.
Jack Once LisTeEp!
"Jack Tenney's position is all the more
disturbing because in the 1938 report of
the U. S. House of Representatives' Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities, testi-
mony was brought out that Tenney was
associated with the extreme left-wing fac-
tion of California politics and spoke for
this factions as a member of the State
Assembly.
THE OPEN FORUM ~
OUR POSITION ON
COMMUNISTS
Tue AMERICAN Crvit Liserties Union
is wholly opposed to all restrictions on
opinion or associations aimed at Com-
munists or any others. It is opposed on
principle, not because of any sympathy
with Communism. .. . It is not as special
pleaders but as defenders of the civil lib-
erties for ALL without distinction, that
we oppose restrictions on Communists
for their opinions and legal activities
From ACLU pamphlet issued by New
York office, April, 1948.
ee
$30,000 STOPS POLICE!
The too common way in which police
"question" known law abiding citizens,
"take in" others and hold them without
permitting them to communicate with
friends, attorneys or employers might be
considerably modified if citizens would
follow the example of a Chicago woman.
She was arrested on a traffic charge a
block from her home, jailed overnight,
refused the privilege of phoning her
young children or her employer. Nor was
she permitted to make bail until the next
morning. Subsequently she was acquitted.
She has now filed a claim with the City
Council for $30,000 for false arrest, ma-
licious prosecution, humiliation and loss
of wages.
Usrs COLORATION
"It is always distressing to learn that a
man in high public office is secretly serv-
ing a subversive group out to destroy
American democracy. But such revela-
tions have been made all too frequently
during the past few years. To protect
itself, the political "aphis" (particularly
the big shots) has found it necessary to
take on more and more of the color of
the plant (democracy) it seeks to de-
stroy. And it is true that since 1938 Ten-
ney has taken on the color of democracy -
which keeps him on the public payroll
in a strategic position for effective work
on behalf of communism.
Dornc Work FoR COMMUNISTS?
"But the time has come when we must
judge all public officials by their acts. In
the measures Jack Tenney is sponsoring
today, he is seeking to destroy the only
effective enemies that the Communists
fear-the liberals and progressives of the
State of California. And we cannot avol
the suspicion that he is doing this under
the direction of the "aphis" leadership
itself,
"In a word, he is the most effective tool
being used today by the Communist
Party of the United States.-M.B."
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