Open forum, vol. 8, no. 44 (October, 1931)

THE OPEN FORUM

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

Vol. 8

OCTOBER .31,.1931,.LOS. ANGELES, CAL,

No. 44

HARLAN - BLOODY TRAVESTY OF `LAW AND ORDER'

OUR United States Senators and eighteen oe

EF ing American business men, clergymen, oe

and educators were invited by Theodore Dreis-

erin telegrams sent recently to join him and a group

of writers from the National Committee for ce De-

tense of Political Prisoners, of which he is chairman,

ina delegation to Harlan, Ky., where they will make

an investigation of the denial of "all constitutional

and civil rights as well as ordinary human rights

to 18,000 American miners and their families held in

the grip of a frightful reign of terror imposed by

thugs and jailbirds.'" The delegation will meet in

Lexington, Ky., on November 5 and proceed in a

body to Harlan on November 6 to make a free open

inquiry for the besieged community. Besides Sen-

ators Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin, James R.

Gowens of Michigan, Henrik Shipstead of Minne-

sota, and George W. Norris of Nebraska, Mr. Dreis-

er has invited in the name of the National Com-

mittee:

Roy Howard of the Scripps Howard Newspaper

Syndicate; Daniel Willard, president of the Balti-

more and Ohio Railroad; William Allen White of the

Emporia, Kansas, Gazette; Felix Frankfurter of the

Harvard Law School; Colonel Henry W. Anderson,

attomey of Richmond, Va., and member of the

Wickersham Commission; Charles P. Taft -II, son

of the late President. Taft and former prosecuting

attorney of Hamilton County, Ohio; E. C. Lindeman,

New York educator and editor, director of the Wil-

lard Straight Foundation; Charles Clayton Morrison,

of Chicago, editor of the Christian Century; Dr.

Arthur Broden, president of Transylvania College,

Lexington, Ky.; Dr, Will. Hutchins, president of

Berea College, Berea, Ky.; Bruce Crawford, editor

of Crawford's Weekly, Norton, Va.; Bishop William

H. DuBose of Sewanee, Tenn,; Daniel S. Meeman,

editor of the Knoxville News-Sentinel; and Dr.

Alonzo W, Fortune, of the Christian Church of Lex-

ington, Ky,

Mr. Dreiser's telegram calls Harlan County an

"armed camp" full of "legalized gunmen who have

shot two newsSpapermen to prevent publication of the

truth, have kidnapped other investigators, dynamited

arelief kitchen, and shot down unarmed men."

Meanwhile, according to the Dreiser telegram,

Women and children "are suffering from cruel evic-

tion and a hunger disease of bleeding bowels."

`Thittyfour miners charged with murder on ridicu-

lous evidence," the telegram continues, "have been

transported for trial to counties 200 miles away,

ind deprived of defense because they are penniless

itd cannot pay to transport witnesses.

`Free speech, free assembly, and the United States

Onstitution have been suspended, calling for a del-

"sation to go to Harlan to investigate."

Simultaneously with the telegram, Mr. Dreiser is

ding a letter to each of the men invited to join

@ delegation outlining in detail, incident for inci-

ent, the story of the Harlan reign of terror.

ane letter describes such episodes as these:

ae, Wholesale evictions, in some cases with

r aa ee porice. The law requires sever-

bidee a ae One miner not allowed to cross a

lovee evicted, but forced to ford a river with

rn old effects,

ane instituting terror interfere with due de-

10859 to nited States mails by forbidding miners

nee eee ouces located in company stores.

EWS and of nee 10 Bet mail jabbed in ribs with

"wld otherwise threatened,

ee dD: The Battle of Evarts.

Machine gun fire.

roy j

, creased,

0

e

th

d

Miners raked

Deputies and miners killed.

ines i Selecting Grand Jury, Circuit Court

Msatistactoy on actually refused to read off names

Teturneg ct : : Im. Hand-picked Grand Jury

Indictments ms triple murder indictments, thirty

for minal g i banding and confederating,' and one

Teturneg em There were no indictments

Detrateg oth St those who killed miners and per-

iia: *T outrages against them.

i pane Bill Randolph kills Chasteen, a

i Sympathy with the miners. Ran-

dolph's arrest insisted upon by the National Guard.

Randolph jailed, allowed a private room, a radio,

and other unusual privileges. Randolph later ac-

quitted.

"July 23: Jessie Wakefield's car dynamited. Mrs.

Wakefield brought relief to starving prisoners' fami-

lies. No arrests following the dynamiting of her

car-and. no investigation.

"July 25: Twenty-eight additional thugs imported

to augment sheriff's staff sustaining `law and order.'

Among these were gunmen from Breathitt County

who were known to be $50 killers-that is, they

would kill a man for $50. At least two or these

Why Don't You Speak For

Yourselves?

Two people as far away as Washington and

Massachusetts have been among those who

have responded to our call for funds during

the past week This is heartening. When men

and women as far away from Southern Califor-

nia as that feel enough interested in our af-

fairs to send money `with which to help break

the reign of terror here, surely the residents

of California themselves ought to come for-

ward with gifts sufficient to enable us to keep

the American Civil Liberties Union function-

ing. If you are so hard up that you absolutely

cannot give us anything, then go out among

your friends and solicit some money for the

cause. Get some organization with which you

are connected to make an appropriation toward

our work. Give a "pink tea" at your home

and take up a collection to assist us. Do some-

thing-please do something right away that

will be more than lip service in behalf of free-

dom in benighted, barbarous Southern Cali-

fornia.

thugs were pardoned from the West Virginia Pen-

itentiary on condition that they join the `deputies'

terrorizing the mine community. Prosecuting At-

torney Will Brock of Harlan told the above to Arnold

Johnson, theological student and field worker for the

American Civil Liberties Union, and that criminal

dockets were closely watched and deals made with

notorious murderers if they would join the sheriff's

group of terrorists. (Yes, Harlan is in Kentucky,

and Kentucky is in the United States of America.)

"July 28: Bruce Crawford, editor from Norton,

Va., shot. Arnold Johnson told he would be killed

the next time he crossed a certain bridge and his

house dynamited if he remained.

"July 30: Wholesale raids on homes in Wallins

Creek, cars stopped, all passengers subjected to il-

legal searching. These raids continued for four

days in a wave of increased terror. Property and

homes destroyed, men, women and children bullied

and brutalized-all this by way of trying to halt the

miners' convention.

"August 8: Henry Thornton, Negro organizer of

the National Miners Union, taken from his home

by four deputy sheriffs, threatened with death, sever-

ely beaten and slugged with guns on lonely mountain

road; then brought to jail with gaping scalp wounds,

charged with drunkenness, held for fourteen days,

tried by a jury which included deputies, found guilty

and fined.

"August 9: McKinley Baldwin taken from home

at night, carted away by deputies, chained to a tree

and beaten.

"August 10: Strikers' soup kitchen dynamitea and

completely demolished. This kitchen had been feed-

ing 400 women and children every day.

"August 30: Deputy Sheriff Lee Fleener makes

night attack on soup kitchen, driving up without

warning, turning his headlight into the faces of three

men at the kitchen, immediately opening fire-kill-

ing Joe Moore and Julius Baldwin and shooting Jess

Baldwin in the back. Fleener never indicted and now

at liberty.

"First we have the terrors of feudal industrialism:

starvation wages, inhuman conditions, cheating

check-weighmen, company shacks and profiteering

company stores-all making for the strike. Second We

have the terrors of modern industrial strife, the su-

Spension of civil and human rights, the due process of

law being perverted and subverted into an attempt to

kill and coerce striking miners. Third we have a

sustained terror of starvation directed noi only

against the miners, but against their women and

children.

"There are many more actual instances of terror.

Now as to the manner in which this terror is sus-

tained. Upon his own admission, Judge Jones kept

the jury wheel in his office all summer. The wheel

contains the names from which members of all juries

are chosen-and for a judge to have it in his office

is a direct violation of both the letter and spirit of

the law.

"The judicial terror hag used three other means

of attack. First, insisting upon extraordinary bond-

ing requirements. Second, ordering changes of venue

which give distant courts jurisdiction, making it

practically impossible for starving miners to trans-

port their witnesses. Third, requiring defendants to

make promises to leave the county before they

are released from jail.

"The facts themselves form an indictment, a

terrific indictment of those who own and operate the

mines, an indictment of the Harlan authorities who

sustain this bloody travesty of `law and order,'

"A Grand Jury of prominent Americans is going to

Harlan to investigate the details of this indictment.

Will you come along?

THEODORE DREISER."

The National Committee delegation is being form-

ed at the suggestion of the National Miners Union

and the International Labor Defense. Among mem-

bers of the National Committee are Lincoln Steffens,

Harry Elmer Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John

Dos Passos, Franz Boaz, and Floyd Dell. Committee

members already scheduled to make the investigat-

ing tour include Dreiser, Josephine Herbst, Lester

Cohen, Samuel Ornitz, Charles Rumford Walker, all

novelists, and Anna Rochester, coal expert.

Charged With "Sedition" In

Pennsylvania, Dies In Prison

Milan Reseter, Croatian baker and Communist, who

was serving five years for sedition against the Com-

monwealth of Pennsylvania because he had Commu-

nist literature in his possession, died of tuberculo-

Sis in the Allegheny county workhouse October Os

after all efforts to obtain adequate medical treat-

ment for him had failed. Appeals in Reseter's be-

half were made to judges, parole board members,

the workhouse superintendent, and Governor Gifford

Pinchot, according to the International Labor De-

fense of New York, but no action resulted.

Reseter was arrested December 13, 1929, with two

other Croatian workers-Tom Zima and Peter Muse-

lin-in Woodlawn, Pa. Leaflets had lately been dis-

tributed protesting against low wages and bad work-

ing conditions in the Jones and Laughlin steel works,

which dominate the lives of Woodlawn's people.

Literature found in the homes of the three defend-

ants was the principal evidence against them. In

Reseter's room were twenty-five copies of "Blood

and Steel," a description of the steel industry,

Judge McConnel instructed the jury that "inference

may be drawn that pamphlets have been sold," and

the defendants were convicted of utterances intended

to overthrow the government of Pennsylvania.

Efforts to obtain a pardon for Zima and Muselin

are being made by both the I. L. D. and the "A (c):

L. U., and hearing before the parole board is sched-

uled for November.

From Across Seas - The Polls of '32

By DOREMUS SCUDDER

The American Federation of Labor at its annual

meeting issued on October 14 a nine-point program

for dealing with unemployment. All of the sug-

gestions are in the right direction: the most valu-

able are Nos. (1) Maintain `wages; (2) Shorten

_Work Hours; (4) Each employer to take on ad-

ditional workers;, (5) Create work through public

building; (6) Strengthen employment agencies

may mean much or little. If it proposes the back-

ing of private agencies, it is not of much value. But

if it advocates Federal employment bureaus covering

the whole country and dovetailing with local Govern-

ment bureaus. where they exist, common sense

and war-time experience say "Amen" to it.

One misses from this program the fundamental

demand that the Federal government guarantee

work to every adult who needs and cannot find

employment. Russia in her poverty does this, and

if the United States in her vast wealth cannot

achieve this basic economic end, its capitalistic

system must be stamped as "inefficient, outworn and

doomed."

One positive step our Government could immedi-

ately take. It could cut down its work day to six

hours, run a double shift for all of the 608,915 em-

ployes in its civil service, and thus remove an equal

number of persons from the ranks of the unemploy-

ed. Adding this respectable number to the list of

buyers this single move would have an electric

effect upon the present economic depression.*

For some months, here and there, some leading

figure or other in the management of our railroads

has been testing out public opinion as to govern-

ment ownership of these common carriers. If such

a transfer on just terms could be had, and no pre-

ventive reason exists, the same policy of cut hours

and double shift would plus another enormous fig-

ure to the sum total of men and women with jobs

that carry no threat of discharge.

In Europe Vienna has taught the world that a

practically bankrupt city, cursed with the most

wretched system of housing for working men in that

continent, can without incurring indebtedness build

(and pay for as it builds) scientifically the most

remarkable, useful and beautiful housing enterprise

to be found anywhere. Let every city of any size

in the United States inaugurate such an experiment

with double six-hour shifts and fair pay, and another

large slice would be cut from the vast out-of-work

conglomerate, now threatening our nation's eco-

nomic life.

Apply also to the large public works program

already under way or soon to be inaugurated this

expedient of double employment with no wage de-

crease for the individual worker and as a result

the patriotic reaction to the Government's: example

in many of the more important business concerns

throughout the Union would help to place our nation

well out of the reach of future depressions like the

present. Already Russia's discovery of the value

of planning production and her testing out of this

procedure has created a marked influence upon far-

sighted commercial leaders. The haphazardism of

the past must give way to scientific regulation of

products, all of which will work into the scheme of

the employment of all adults.

As to how to finance such a governmental venture

as that outlined above, let it be remembered that

the nation is being asked to face a naval building

program to cost $750,000,000, every dollar of which

`s both a betrayal of humanity in driving it toward

war, and a colossal deceiving of our own people

into constructing ships which when completed will

be fit only for the scrap heap. Let this 750 millions

of dollars be applied to the unemployment problem.

Then cut down to the barest necessity the 750 mil-

lions which it will cost annually to maintain our

present army and navy, and place the excess to the

credit of the movement to end unemployment. The

sum total would be considerably more than a snug

billion of dollars with which to carry on.

If Vienna and a number of other Huropean cities

in their time of direst distress can so raise taxes as

to conduct their housing campaign without any cover-

ing bonded indebtedness; if they can rent the new

apartments for less than $2.00 per month, just

enough to take care of overhead and provide for de-

terioration and repairs with no thought of money

profit to the city for rentals, why cannot American

cities do as well? The reply of course is that the

majority of the people in these over-Sseas munici-

palities have gotten their eyes open, and elect to

office men and women who because they are not po-

liticians but servants of their communities can be

trusted to serve the public and not themselves.

We in America have what we pay for and the peo-

ple are gradually beginning to realize that they have

bought and paid for ten million unemployed or they

would not have them. Now we have got to pay to

get rid of this incubus. It can be done through the

Government and in no other way. The only method

of raising money to pay for the economic system

of "every man at work at a bona-fide living wage"

is through taxation falling upon all with an incidence

rapidly increasing in proportion to individual income.

In war time we taxed ourselves on this principle and

after peace dawned we let Mellon sweep away these

up-to-date means of taxation. If we wish to escape

a revolution we must return to sanity in levying

taxes and seeing that every man and woman who

needs it has a job at a fair wage. Add to this sick-

ness and old age pensions and we shall in America

begin to know what real prosperity means.

* On November 11, 1918 employees of the Federal

Civil Service numbered 917,760. If war could push this

figure so high, peace should far better it.

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds

Ban On School Bible Reading

Refusal of the United States Supreme Court to

sanction an attempt to institute compulsory Bible-

reading and instruction in Washington State public

schools was commended by Forrest Bailey, director

of the American Civil Liberties Union, as a. definite

gain in the fight to safeguard the liberties of Ameri-

cans.

On October 19

an appeal in the

the high court declined to consider

case of Clithero, etc. vs. Showalter,

etc., in which it was contended that a provision in

the Washington constitution prohibiting Bible-read-

ing in the public schools was a violation of rights

guaranteed by the federal Constitution. The appeal

was dismissed for lack of a substantial federal ques-

tion involved.

George Clithero and thirty-six others sued in the

state supreme court in 1930 to compel the state

education board to inaugurate daily Bible instruction

in the schools, the board having rejected such a re-

quest on the ground that it had no jurisdiction be-

cause it raised a constitutional question. The state

court ruled that the petitioners could not maintain

a suit to coerce action by the board unless they show-

ed a pecuniary loss distinct from that suffered by the

public.

"No power to regulate Bible-reading in the public

schools is granted by the federal Constitution," Mr.

3ailey said. `That is left to state legislatures. Such

Bible-reading has been held unlawful in twelve

states, while in twenty it is still considered law-

ful. In New York City argument is soon to be made

in an appeal by the Free Thinkers of America

against an opinion by Supreme Court Justice Ford

upholding compulsory Bible-reading in the schools

under a charter provision requiring it."

University Professors Score

Faculty Gag At Ohio State

Denial of freedom of speech at Ohio State Uni-

versity, as exemplified by the dismissal of Prof. Her-

bert A. Miller last June because of a speech he made

at an Indian freedom meeting in Bombay, is deplored

in a current report by a special committee of the

American Association of University Professors.

The committee cites a statement by the univer-

sity board of trustees that "members of the faculty

have enjoyed, and now enjoy, wide latitude in ex-

pressing their opinions in the classroom" (the em-

phasis is that of the committee.) This, the profes-

sors' committee says, "is the clearest statement on

freedom of speech vouchsafed by the board, and no

faculty would consider this an adequate recognition

of freedom of speech." It goes on to say:

"Until the president and board can definitely as-

sure the faculty that all university procedures and

policies, including decisions of the board itself, are

legitimate topics for orderly discussion and criti-

-cism by the faculty, it is idle to assert that freedom

of speech prevails at Ohio State University.

"Tt is no doubt very unlikely that the present board

will take that one action which will do most to re-

store its reputation for just dealing-namely, the

reinstatement of Dr. Miller. But, unless the board

can satisfactorily clarify its position with respect

to freedom of speech for the faculty within and with-

out the institution, Ohio State will not soon regain

its former prestige aS a university."

NEWS AND VIEWs

By P. D. Noel

A. New Weapon

Maybe because Mooney is Irish it hag been deg

that a new fighting instrument be invoked to aa

his release-the boycott, which wag so effectiyg a

ing Parnell's time. Governor Rolph seems Bar

stalling, just as did Young. Those in Dower sel

place much weight on demands baseq upon he

ple, ethics or morals, but when the pocket} A

0 '

threatened, that is another story. The word js ok i

out to boycott everything Californian-the i!

iad, Ymy.

OLE OB grapes, canned fruit, and oyp Did top

tourist travel. The Chinese are past masters at this

kind of fighting, as the Japanese have discoveroj L

Let us hope that Europe and we can bring thes

oppressers to terms,

In Their True Colors

The Manchuria situation is revealing the Japanesy

in a light which upholds all of the contentions at

those who have opposed their being placed op aN

equality with Huropeans. They have long posed ag

being "insulted" by being placed in the same cate

gory as the Chinese by our immigration laws: 4

being a very ."sensitive"' people; and as resenting

the "intolerable suspicion of our motives," The |

Japanese people may be as fine as many of thei

friends claim, but, like the Germans, at the time of

the breaking out of the World War, they have permit

ted the military caste to control and get the natig

into trouble. Until they rid themselves of that iy

cubus they'll need close watching,

Labor And Booze |

Something must have happened to account for the

recent convention of the American Federation of

Labor taking such a mild position on the side of the

wets. Under Woll's leadership it was going to do the

impossible by repealing the 18th Amendment and the

Volstead Act. Now it defeats by an almost unat:

mous vote a resolution in favor of repeal, and gently

suggests that an attempt will be made in the com

ing Congress to legalize 2.75 per cent beer which wil

be backed officially by the A. F. of L. Possibly :

the fool action of the American Legion at Dettl

had something to do with making Labor realize {hil |

it had more important problems confronting it tha

catering to the weaknesses of its members.

Interest In World Problems

Prof. Jackh of Germany is delivering @ sella

of lectures before many of our colleges and tn:

versities on the situation of Europe and the worll |

generally. At the University of Southern Californit |

the authorities were agreeably surprised at an at

tendance of more than a thousand students at tts

lecture on what is usually considered a dull subitt!

The Herr Professor, at a dinner in his honodl, Ch

pressed his pleasure in having water as the al 5

drink, saying that he was extremely tired of havilt

to drink numerous toasts in beer.

A Few Notes On Russia

Dr. Ryland says he encountered propaganda i }

the Five Year Plan in every direction in Russth |

even the candy wrappers had it printed up0? ie

Court costs, he says, are only nominal, never one

4 per cent of the amount involved. His oe

that the methods and aims of the.U..S. te i

closer to the teachings of Jesus than do those of

professed Christians.

Dr. Y. of the University of California,

he is in close touch with the Russian situa val

tells of the genuine interest displayed by a

all of the young people in world affairs and ' 18

own great experiment. On the other hand, i Al

that "here among young people a moral and me

vacuum" ig the usual display.

aN gals

tion, at

Edison

It is ludicrous how hard the chureh

trying to get a little comfort for their Ne

future life by misinterpreting a few thous at

ed as being uttered by the great inven vet

terialist during his last few tired days: that th!

he had insisted that there is no future "

mind (soul?) dies with the body, and ee

of a soul is a myth. The closest to y stall |

spiritualists got from his last words is ig 110 aft

ment that if there is immortality heh "a nis hy

dence to prove it. He was a great man, 4 i

was a real success.

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Our Reporter Is Called Down

nditor The Open Forum: ae

May I be permitted a word of friendly criticism of

ecount in your issue of October 24, of the final

po l of the Red Flag case in San Bernardino?

pee orter got the facts straight enough, but

a. va a few of the most important facts, such

fe ve prosecution grew out of the maintenance

F Sasa camp for workingmen's children In the

erie near Yucaipa, where the youngsters were

See instruction in radical trade union tactics,

Pedic were taught that the workers of the world

e f one blood and brothers all, and they sang

on songs and put on little home-made skits sa-

tah capitalism. Every morning they ran up the

flag of Russia which is also the flag of the legally

functioning Communist Party in the United States,

and saluted it, reciting their pledge of allegiance

"9 the workers' red flag and the cause for which

it stands, one aim throughout our lives, Freedom for

the working class." That was the last straw. `The

Better America Federation and some of the saan CBD

Legion boys, and the district attorney, Just eae

jet that pass. "Freedom for the working class!

The idea!

And so the Communists and near-Communists were

prosecuted in the first and only case brought under

the Red Flag Law, which has been on the statute

hooks since 1919. Conviction resulted principally

from the district attorney's reading to the jury a lot

of hard-sounding excerpts from papers found in the

camp library, none of which had been brought to the

attention of anyone in the camp. They were just

there. But it was all one to the jury. They would

have convicted their grandmothers-evidence or no

evidence. I hope your reporter will be more ade-

quate next time.

JOHN BEARDSLEY.

P, 8. I'm sure the writer of your story won't re-

sent this criticism. I wrote the story myself!-J.B.

If I Were Dictator

Editor Los Angeles Record,

Los Angeles, Calif,

Dear Sir:

The first and most important thing for any na-

tion to do is to eliminate poverty.

The trouble with the world is that poverty exists

ina world of plenty. That condition must change

and every other trouble will melt away. It was a

sreat mistake for Christ to say that the poor ye

shall have with you always. It makes so many

people think that there is nothing they can do about

it, 80 they shift the burden to the Almighty.

A system that permits one man to accumulate a

billion dollars in a life time while his brother has

no place to lay his head, is a failure and must go.

There ig plenty for all but one man must not be

allowed to accumulate so much of it at the expense

of his fellow man. Man must have work or wages;

0 man can deny him that. We are on the way to

the change. Let us all prepare for that and not

lor any more war.

We must have 1st One flag and one world lan-

guage,

2nd Work op wages.

sr Standardized universal money system,

iit Nationalized: industry as well as public util-

ities,

ts Nationalizeq banking system, no chance of

ure,

Sth No tarige barriers,

nn Pree access to everything, especially to see

the World we live in,

i Strange that we can build prisons for the

i ed and hospitals for the sick, but cannot assure

at bens So simple as bread! The livelihood

er be secure; then only can the people be

M88 gegen NAPPY. The livelihood of chattel slaves

Pah tow the-mwace slave has nothing he

Can @ :

` al] his own. Government must become more

i ee agency, at must be a public service

"oration,

`

K. C.-G.

Bs

Capitalist Civilizati

th On came to a close in Hurope

(R) World War

Melt aderiy cn. It still continues to function

Into movement. Sort of way, like a corpse electrified

its Dlace ' because there is nothing yet to take

COM wl Mt ats day is over and before long the

Composit, * mM such an advanced state of de-

On t

ward, hat it will have to be buried.-W. RB.

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.

Hindu's American Wife Held

Incommunicado In British Port

Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson was asked

by the American Civil Liberties Union on October

22 to investigate a charge that Mrs. Saleindra Nath

Ghose, an American citizen, and her two American-

born children, were held incommunicado by the port

officials of Southampton, England, for at least twenty-

four hours beginning at 10 a. m. on Tuesday, October

20.

Mrs. Ghose, who was born in the United States, is

a resident of New York City. Her husband is a refu-

gee from British rule in India, and has been active

in this country for several years in the cause of free-

dom for India. In going to England, Mrs. Ghose

carried messages from several mayors of large

American cities, and both she and the children were

properly accredited as American citizens.

"We are solicitous," said the Civil Liberties Union,

in writing Secretary Stimson, "that citizens of this

country should be protected against the humiliation

and harshness of this kind of treatment at the hands

of a friendly government."

Backs Amendment To Admit

Alien Pacifists As Citizens

Following the refusal of the United States Su-

preme Court to grant a rehearing in the Macintosh

and Bland naturalization cases, the executive com-

mittee of the American Civil Liberties Union ap-

proved on October 15 a draft of a proposed amena-

ment to the Naturalization Act, which would grant

citizenship to aliens with conscientious scruples

against bearing arms.

This draft was formulated for the Union by

Charles W. Poletti,New York City attorney, who

was associated with John W. Davis in the argument

for Dr. Douglas C. Macintosh before the high court.

The proposed amendment will be introduced in Con-

gress shortly after it convenes in December. Under

its provisions no alien otherwise qualified under

the Naturalization Act could be denied citizenship

because of hig refusal on conscientious grounds to

promise to bear arms, but every alien admitted

would be subject to the same obligation as a native-

born citizen.

Nation-wide support for the amendment is being

organized by the Civil Liberties Union.

Brooklyn Police Accused Of

Aiding Employes' Lawlessness

Brooklyn policemen are accused of aiding Brook-

lyn Edison Company employes in lawless and riot-

ous acts, in a report made by Rev. Eliot White, who

acted as an observer for the American Civil Liberties

Union on October 21, when an attempt was made by

the Brotherhood of Brooklyn Hdison Employes to

distribute copies of its publication, "The Live Wire,"

on the Edison payroll line at Rockwell place and De-

Kalb avenue, Brooklyn,

Mr. White charges that the police refuse to arrest

men who assaylted Rev. David M. Cory and Paul

Porter, field secretary of the League for Industrial

Democracy; that they failed to interfere with many

"thugs employed by the Edison company to prevent

distribution of `The Live Wire,' " despite Judge

George Folwell's decision that the Brotherhood had

full legal right to distribute its organ.

Police Commissioner Mulrooney is being asked by

the Civil Liberties Union to `act against the accused

policemen.

Free speech is about as good a cause as the world -

has ever known. But, like the poor, itis always

with us and gets shoved aside in favor of things

which seem at some given moment more vital. They

never are more vital. Not when you look back at

them from a distance. Everybody favors free speech

in the slack months when no axes are being ground.

-Heywood Broun.

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

A. Visit To Tom Mooney

Editor The Open Forum:

During my recent visit to San Francisco I had

the privilege of interviewing Tom Mooney. His

hearty handclasp and courageous smile well repaid

me for the tedious wait and trying effort to see him.

Physically Mr. Mooney is looking well-eyes

bright and skin bronzed-and in many ways he seems

greatly improved.

`He asked eagerly for all his friends in Southern

California. I believe he has a more complete un-

derstanding of the present economic situation than

most of uS who are free. This is remarkable as he

gets so little reading matter on the subject.

His parole was discussed, and again he declared,

"I will go out of here in a pine box rather than

accept anything but a pardon, for I am innocent."

Such indomitable courage! Ah, for more leaders

like him! There would then be some hope for Labor

in America.

In mentioning the fact that he had been taken

across the Bay twice in fifteen years, a veil of sad-

ness clouded his fine eyes.

I came away with a heavy weight on my heart

and a feelng of deep oppression that such things go

on and on.

Later I visited the Mooney defense committee.

A courageous little band, still carrying on. A most

remarkable fact is, that Mooney is directing the work

of his defense, behind prison bars, by means of only

one letter a day.

Let us hope this new campaign in Mooney's be-

half will never stop until it echoes around the world.

Let us all do anything and everything in our power

to aid his compaign, never stopping until he is a

free man.

MAXINE MacPHERSON.

Boors In Public Office

Editor The Open Forum:

Recently, I read the following in the Los Angeles

Daily News ag part of an editorial: "After all, the

public official is the servant of the people. The peo-

ple pay the salary, rain or shine, in periods of de-

pression, as well as prosperity." . . . Now, through

this unending period of depression, many of us work-

ers have come in contact with some of the public ser-

vants, through the unemployment relief work, or

through the voters' registration bureau, where men

apply for identification papers which are required

to even apply for a prospective job. And what do

we learn about the public servants?

There are two kinds, those affable and those boor-

ish. (We encounter the latter type today). There are

also two reasons for this differentiation. The com-

petent public servants obtain their positions through

their own capacities. They, consequently, possess

a freedom of mind due to some kind of independence

on their part, an independence which is reflected in

their frank dealing, in their affability with the public.

The others, the incompetent ones, generally get

their positions only because of the so-called political

pull. Due to their incompetency, they fear their

superiors, whom they can only please with a low

servility. Possessing an enslaved mind, they, con-

trary to the others, take their revenge on the public

by showing to the latter a boorishness always cor-

responding to the attitude they are showing to their

masters, ,

JULES SCARCERIAUX.

Periodic Depression Must Go

Editor Los Angeles Times,

Los Angeles, Calif,

Dear Sir:

H. G. Wells tells us that Armageddon is just around

the corner, and that we may as well face facts. You,

who have been telling us that prosperity is there,

seem to disparage his statement. But many of us

are-inclined to agree with him, since no one has yet

told us around which corner we may find that unsta-

ble, untrustworthy thing called prosperity. We do

know that doubt, distrust, and distress are just

around everybody's corner, and will be until the ques-

tion of poverty is settled forever.

_ Relief work and the Community Chest are no an-

Swer to the universal cry for justice. Now is the

time to evolve a system that will be all-inclusive.

Periodical depressions must go. No more deadly

worry about jobs or bread,

By the way, what is your program-since you

put yourself in the "enlightened class which refuses

to be perturbed?"

K. C.-G.

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 Bditor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills P. D. Noel

Lew Head

John Beardsley

Edwin P. Ryland

John Packard Charlotte Dantzig

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

per Copy. In bundles of ten or more to one address,

Two Cents Hach, if ordered in advance.

Advertising Rates on Request.

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

post office of Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

OCTOBER 31, 1931, LOS ANGELES, CAL.

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.

Free Speech Test Meeting

Will Be Held In Glendale

A meeting to break the ban on free speech in

Glendale will be held at the Stepper Auditorium,

220 West Broadway, next Monday night, November 2.

It will be recalled that on the evening of October 8

William Busick, organizer for the Socialist Party,

while making a speech in the auditorium of the

Junior College, was pulled off the platform by a

mob of American Legionnaires and threatened with

lynching, and that Chief of Police John Frazer was

present but offered no protection to Mr. Busick. On

October 19 application was made to the Board of

Education for the use of one of the high school aud-

itoriums for another meeting, but the board turned

the request down unanimously on the ground that

they feared the school property might suffer injury

from such a meeting. Shortly afterward arrange-

ments were made to hold the meeting at the Stepper

auditorium. Among the speakers, besides Mr. Busick,

will be Clinton J. Taft of the Civil Liberties Union;

John Packard, who has brought a $50,000 suit against

Frazer, W. F. Hynes of the Los Angeles "Red Squad"

and the Legionnaires, and W. F. Tower, former city

councilman.

Dr. Roman To Address Rally

Dr. Frederick W. Roman will address the first

public rally of the League for Independent Political

Action in Los Angeles on Saturday night, November

7, at 7:30 P. M. in the Friday Morning Club Audi-

torium, 940 South Figueroa Street. Prof. AS

Briggs will preside.

WILL some Liberals furnish outside work, pre-

ferably gardening, on a part-time basis? This will

enable me to get along while I complete my novel

of modern morality. I am ultra-liberal, materialist,

realist, so no old fogeys need reply. For particu

lars address Comrade C. J. L., care THE OPEN

Forum office.

FREE TOM MOONEY and

HARLAN, KY., MINERS!

Attend

Moonry - HartAn Mass MEETING

Philharmonic Auditorium

Sth and Olive Streets

Fripay, Ocroser 30, 8 P. M.

Speakers:

DR. EDWIN P. RYLAND

REV, THEODORE CURTIS ABELL

DR. HERMAN LISSAUER

DR. ROBERT WHITAKER

SAM DARCY.and others

JOSEPH DISKAY

POPULAR RADIO TENOR, Will Sing

Auspices

Jonference-Admission

Mooney Harlan Free

Mooney Meet In Los Angeles

This is just a line to emphasize the extended

report of our great Mooney meeting in San Fran-

cisco, as given in The Open Forum of a week ago.

It was one of the experiences never to be forgotten

to face that vast concourse of people in the Civic

Auditorium of San Francisco.

Southern California friends of the Mooney cause

are going to have a chance to add their appeal to

that so splendidly put forth in San Francisco. The

Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles will not

accommodate the vast crowds we had in San Fran-

cisco, but if it is filled to the exhaustion of stand-

ing room, as it ought to be on Friday evening, Oc-

tober 30, when the Mooney-Harlan mass meeting

is to be held there, the effect will add tremendously

to the work done in San Francisco. This is an

urgent invitation to all who read the Open Forum

to come with us, and to bring their friends. The

Mooney appeal grows in volume every day, and we

want you to be in it as it increases to a world de-

mand which California cannot ignore. Remember

the time and place, Philharmonic Auditorium, Fri-

day evening, October 30. Come early if you want to

get a seat,

ROBERT WHITAKER.

Give us men! A time like this demands

Great hearts, strong minds, true faith and willing

hands,

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor, men who will not lie.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes.

All men were created free, and now they are

everywhere in chains.-J. J. Rousseau.

Emergency Dental Laboratory

Plates Repaired While You Wait

Plates Repolished

D. G. Nadaner, Mgr. 202/7, S. Broadway

INSURANCE

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to whom you may entrust all your jewelry

needs, be it the purchase of an expensive

diamond, an insignificant repair job or en-

graving.

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OPEN FORUM

Music Art Hall

233 So. Broadway

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

dously interesting and instructive talks on Current

events with which the meetings are opened each

week by Prof. Arthur E. Briggs.

Nov. 1-WHAT I SAW IN SOVIET RUSSIA by Dy,

EH. P. Ryland, who was one of the Sherwood Rddy

party that visited Hurope during the past summer

He will give you a picture of conditions in the lang

of the soviets just as he witnessed them-not fro

what he read in a book or paper or what some.

one told him. Dr. Ryland is a keen observer and hag

an unusual ability to impart to others what he hip.

self has experienced. Withal he impresses one with

his absolute sincerity and desire to present a balano.

ed view of Russian conditions.

Nov. 8-OUR PUBLIC ENEMIES by Ed. Morrell,

author of "The Twenty-fifth Man,' and one of the

most famous of San Quentin's ex-prisoners. You will

be stirred by his message, and your eyeg will he

opened to some of the perils confronting us at this

critical time.

Nov. 15-THE MUDDLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE

by Dr. Doremus Scudder, who has just returned from

a residence of more than two years in Vienna, Paris

and London. We have heard the doctor before and

always with profit. He is a keen observer and an

excellent speaker.

Shelley Club

The next meeting of the Woman's Shelley Club

-= 7

|

will be held at Boos Bros. Cafeteria, on Fifth street -

between Hill and Broadway, 1 o'clock, Wednesday,

November 11. Morris Wolfman will speak on "Crime

and Punishment."

STILL MORE LETTERS

A New Book

By Kate Crane Gartz, "World Mother"

Introduction by Mary Craig Sinclair

Order from 1022 California Bldg.

Paper 50c, Cloth $1.00

Copy Given for New Subscription to

Open Forum

Hard Times Offer

Because of the continued financial depression

we are going to make you a very special offer

-THE OPEN FORUM eight months to new

subscribers for only fifty cents. Get busy and

flood us with new subscriptions.

THE OPEN FORUM

1022 California Bldg.

Los Angeles

Announcing

Upton Sinclair's Kaleidoscopic Picture of the

RUM TRAFFIC

The Wet Parade

"His Most Daring Novel"

Order from THE OpeN ForuM

Clothbound cent $2.50

Special Offer

We will give a copy of this thrilling account

of the farcical enforcement of the 18th Amend-

ment for five new annual subscriptions to THE

OpEN Forum or ten new 8-months' subscrip-

tions at 50c each.

Coming Events

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W.

Bryson Building, free reading room open 6vel

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

MOONEY-BILLINGS BRANCH, I. L. D., busine!

and educational meetings every first and

Tuesday, at 120 Winston Street.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 429-30 Douglas

Building. Telephone MUtual 7871. Offices open all

day. Young Socialist League meets every Wedtt

day night. NEW BRA, local Socialist paper 0x00A7

per year.

third

100

FREE WORKERS FORUM, Libertarian Centet

2528 Brooklyn Avenue. Lecture Mondays g:30, Take

B car, get off at Fickett.

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