vol. 11, no. 12

AMEHICAN

BPOVEE GIDE lia

UNION - NEWS

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

PHEE oP ei is

FREE Pheag

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Vol. XI.

SAN FRANCISCO, DECEMBER 1946

No. 12

`Renunciation Test Suits Now

Before Court for Decision

The Nisei citizenship renunciation test suits,

known under the title of In re Tadayasu Abo, et

al., were taken under submission by Federal

Judge A. F. St. Sure of San Francisco on Nov-

ember 18. Both sides had made motions for sum-

mary judgment, and the cases will now be de-

termined on those motions. The government was

_ given until Nov. 29 to file briefs, while the re-

nunciants have ten days after that.

The liberty of 400 renunciants who are still

held by the Justice Department is at stake in

these proceedings, as well as their right to re-

main in this country. Also at stake is the citi-

zenship of 5500 persons, who, it is claimed, re-

nounced their U.S. citizenship under duress,

The government has filed affidavits, princi-

pally one by John L. Burling, former assistant to

the director of the Alien Enemy Control Unit of

the Department of Justice, which is 45 pages

long, recounting the history of the renunciation

movement and declaring in effect that there was

no "legal duress." Mr. Burling makes many ad-

missions in his affidavit, excerpts of which ap-

~ pear on page 38 of this issue of the "News."

Wayne M, Collins, attorney for the renunci-

ants, has filed counter affidavits which were

prepared by Tex Nakamura, Ernest Besig and

Masami Sasaki, which recite the facts supporting

the claims of duress.

The preliminry stages af theose famous test

cases are now ended and the court must make

its decision, No decision is expected before early

next year.

The preliminary stages of these famous test

suit with three petitioners was filed in the Fed-

eral District Court in Los Angeles. The purpose

of this suit is obscure, particularly in view of .

the fact that one of the attorneys originally

testified before a Congressional Committee urg-

ing the deportation of the renunciants to Japan.

The Union has been informed that the cases were

solicited and that considerable pressure was

placed on the renunciants to allow suits to be

filed in their behalf.

NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS

DEBATE USE OF LORD'S PRAYER

Reading of the Lord' Prayer, with participa-

tion by students, in New York City schools has

aroused a controversy still unsettled. Complaints

by Jewish and other students prompted the

ACLU to protest to the Board of Education.

School officials stopped it. Protestant religious

agencies urged reconsideration on the ground

that the N.Y, City Charter authorizes the read-

ing of passages from the Bible without com-

ment. It has long been the practice in New York

schools to read the Bible, with selections made

according to the prevailing religious affiliations

of students in each district. It is contended that

reading the Lord's Prayer from the Bible is

merely following precedent. -

The ACLU points out that a prayer partici-

pated in by students is a religious exercise of a

denominational character and is apparently thus

forbidden by the State Constitution.

BOOK NOTE

CITIZEN 13660, by Mine Okubo, Columbia

University Press. A 200 page book of drawings

by a young Japanese-American girl artist drama-

tically portraying the conditions marking the

evacuation and detention of the Pacific Coast

population of Japanese blood, A personal story

of her experiences, told without rancor, accom-

panies the drawings.

Ruling Awaited

By State Committee of Bar

Examiners on Pacifict's Application for License

The California Committee of Bar Examiners

on November 22 reviewed the refusal of its

Northern Sub-committee to approve the appli-

cation of Orval Etter, Berkeley pacifist and sec-

retary of the Northern California Committee of

the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international

organization of religious pacifists. Following a

two-hour hearing, the Committee took the case

under submission. Etter was represented by

Clarence E. Rust of Oakland, attorney for the

ACLU.

The Sub-committee had disapproved Etter's

application on the ground that he had failed to

establish that he was a person of good moral

character, and explained that his "activities dur-

ing the war in advocating and urging, and in

helping others to advocate and urge, non-coopera-

tion and refusal to aid in the war effort of the

United States, and your present belief in such

matters, are inconsistent with the oath required

of a member of the Bar of this State that he

`support the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of California.' "

Sentence of Banishment Ruled

lilegal by Appellate Court

The Third District Court of Appeal in Sacra-

mento decided on October 29 that `floaters', or

suspended sentences under which convicted per-

sons are ordered out of a community forever or

for a definite period of time, are illegal.

The decision was handed down in a habeas

corpus proceeding brought on behalf of Troy E.

Searborough of Stockton, held in the San

Joaquin County Jail. After serving three months

of a sentence for drunk driving, Scarborough was

paroled by the Municipal Court on condition that

he stay out of Stockton for two years.

Following four months of liberty, he was re-

arrested on a charge of violating the conditions

of his parole by remaining in Stockton. The

Court held that in rearresting Scarborough, the

Stockton police had illegally revoked his parole.

"The suspension of sentence was equivalent to

an order granting probation," said the court.

"The condition contained in the judgment that it

would be suspended in part if the defendant left

Stockton and San Joaquin county and remained

away for two years is in effect, an unlawful in-

crease of punishment by banishment not pro-

vided by statute, and therefore void."

At another point in its opinion, the Court

stated: "The same principle which prohibits the

banishment of a criminal from a state or from

the United States applies with equal force to a

county or city. The old Roman custom of ostra-

cizing a citizen has not been adopted in the

United States. The so-called `floating sentence,'

too frequently resorted to in some inferior

courts, falls in the same category. There is no

statute in California authorizing such judg-

ments."

At the moment, the Union has before it the

case of a husband and wife who, following a

violent argument, were each sentenced. to six

months in the county jail for disturbing the

peace. The case was complicated by the fact that

the couple have four small children. After the

mother spent a day in jail, she was released on

`condition that she leave Marin county with her

children and go to Chicago where she has a

grandmother, The County Welfare Society was to

arrange the transportation. The woman came to

- gee the Union which advised her and the Marin

County Probation Department that since banish-

ment is contrary to law, she could not be com-

pelled to leave the community.

The Committee was composed of Charles. E.

Beardsley, Chairman, son of the late Judge John

Beardsley, Frank B. Belcher, Homer D. Crotty,

James Farraher, Eugene M. Prince .and Walter

H. Stammer. Edwin Heafey of Oakland was

absent because of illness. The Committee met in,

the offices of James Farraher in the Mills Tower,

San Francisco.

Etter was questioned at length concerning i

beliefs as a pacifist, and particularly about the

techniques of pacifism. His association with the

Fellowship of Reconciliation and the purpose of

that organization were examined closely. Also,

the meetings of that organization in Eugene,

Oregon, during the war came under close

scrutiny. The testimony disclosed that the FOR

had been investigated by the FBI during the

war and its activities had not been found to be

in violation of law. One member of the Com-

mittee in particular pexsisted in raising a lot of

hypothetical questions as to how Etter would

act in a variety of situations.

During the war, Etter's claims as a conscien-

tious objector were recognized under the Selec- _

tive Service Act, but he was never required to

attend a so-called civilian public service camp.

The Committee wanted to know whether he

would have reported had he been called, but like

many who are opposed to these "slave labor

camps," Etter answered "No."

Like many pacifists, Etter believes in the .

Ghandi technique of non-violent resistance to

evil. During the war, the FOR did not undertake

to interfere with the prosecution of the war, but |

the Committee nevertheless inquired into what

pacifists might have done if they had been

strong enough to do anything.

{fn summing up his reaction to the Committee's

questioning, Clarence Rust emphasized that the

surrender of one's constitutional rights cannot

be made a condition to the practice of law. In-

sofar as Etter's beliefs are concerned, Rust con-

tended that Etter had the constitutional right

to entertain any beliefs he desired. And, as for

advocacy of those beliefs, Rust insisted there

must a clear and present danger to the govern-

ment before they could furnish the basis of puni-

tive action.

Prior to the meeting, the Committee received -

many communications supporting Etter. Some

members of the committee objected to the "pres-

sure,'

concerning the hearing to newspaper reporters.

On the other hand, the "News" believes that the

activities of a public licensing body are open -

to public scrutiny, and that the public has the

right to express its views to such a committee.

The Executive Committee of the ACLU of

Northern California authorized the director to

intervene in Mr, Etter's behalf, and if the Com-

mittee of Bar Examiners rules against him, the

Union will support an appeal to the State

Supreme Court, which has the final word on

such matters.

"The fundamental question raised by this

case," said a letter from Ernest Besig, local

director of the American Civil Liberties Union

to the Committee of Bar Examiners, "is whether -

the State Bar shall discriminate against appli- _

We ~

cants because of their opinions and beliefs.

think such a policy is not only contrary to the

tolerant traditions of this State and Nation,

but that it can find no support in law."

"Tf Mr. Etter's application is denied because

of his pacifist views," the letter went on to say,

"it will be an invitation to a witch-hunt against

the members of such historic peace churches as -

the Quakers, Mennonites, Brethren and Molo-

(Continued on Page 4, Col. 3)

ACLUN_1946 ACLUN_1946.MODS ACLUN_1946.batch ACLUN_1947 ACLUN_1947.MODS ACLUN_ladd ACLUN_ladd.MODS ACLUN_ladd.bags ACLUN_ladd.batch ACLUN_test_batch ACLUN_testyear ACLUN_testyear.MODS ACLUN_testyear.bags ACLUN_testyear.batch add-tei.sh create-bags.sh create-manuscript-bags.sh create-manuscript-batch.sh fits.log and they even declined to give information - |

Page 2

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

Ark. High Court Upholds

Freedom For Negro Press

A signal victory for freedom of the Negro

press in the South was won at Little Rock,

Arkansas, November 11 when the State Supreme

Court there reversed a Pulaski circuit court and

dismissed contempt charges against Daisy and

Christopher Bates, publishers of the weekly

newspaper, The Arkansas State Press.

Both defendants had been sentenced to ten

days in jail and $100 fine by the lower court for

their account of a strike at the Southern Cotton

Oil Company where a Negro picket was killed

and three others sentenced to a year in jail.

The newspaper report was captioned "Strikers

Sentenced to Pen by Hand-Picked Jury."

State Supreme Court, Chief Justice 0x00B0 Griffin

Smith, a former newspaperman, declared, "Such

comment does not create a present danger to the

administration of justice.' The Court further

held that there is "no rule of law permitting of

sentences and court fines merely because a news-

paper thinks some judge has mistakenly stated

the law."

SO. CAROLINA JURY FREES COP

The American Civil Liberties Union and the

National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People today are pondering the next

move in the first federal civil rights case ever

heard in South Carolina, that of Isaac Woodard,

Jr., Negro war veteran of New York, versus

Police Chief Linwood Lanier Shull of Batesburg.

_ The federal government filed criminal charges

against Police Chief Shull, accusing him of hav-

ing "beaten and tortured" Woodard, now per-

manently blinded. Woodard was taken off an

inter-state bus on complaint of the driver and

turned over to the police.

Charges were not upheld at the trial, however,

for on November 5 an all-white, all male jury

took twenty-five minutes to acquit Chief Shull

on the charge of violating the right of a citizen

"to be secure in his person." According to Claude

Sapp, U. 8. District Attorney, who handled the

prosecution, the government cannot appeal the

jury verdict. That Chief Shull struck the blows

that blinded the N. Y. war veteran was undis-

puted. Said the police officer on trial, "I'm sorry

I hit the blow that blinded him."

jury that Woodard belongs to an "inferior race,"

appealed to them to protect their homes, wives

and children by clearing the white man in the

case.

sy

F. B. I. DENIES LISTING RADICALS

IN LABOR UNIONS

A syndicated newspaper column story to the

_ effect that the F.B.I. was engaged in listing

"every pro-Communist and fellow-traveler in

American labor" drew an inquiry of J. Edgar

Hoover by the ACLU with comment on the ille-

gality of any investigation into political opinion.

Mr. Hoover replied that the story was wholly

erroneous and agreed that `investigation and

listing of any person merely because of his poli-

tical opinion, whatever his character, would be

highly objectionable and is not done by the

EB."

U. S. SUPREME COURT WEIGHS NEW

YORK BAN ON CRIME STORIES

Whether stories dealing with "bloodshed, lust

or crime" may be suppressed by a New York

_ State law was argued before the Supreme Court

on Noy. 19th with the ACLU supporting the ap-

peal of Murray Winters, publisher of Headquar-

ters Detective Magazine, from a conviction upheld

by the New York Court of Appeals in July, 1945.

When the case was heard before eight justices

last year, a 4 to 4 deadlock resulted, With Justice

Robert Jackson back on the bench, a full court is

expected to hand down a clear-cut decision

`shortly.

The Union's brief was signed by Emanuel Red-

field, Osmond K. Fraenkel, and Morris L. Ernst,

all of New York City. Mr. Redfield shared the

argument in behalf of the convicted publishers.

He said "This is one of the most important cases

ever to come up before the Supreme Court in-

volving freedom of publication. If this section

of the New York State law is left to stand un-

challenged, any publisher or writer carries on at

his own peril his profession of bringing news to

the public. This prohibition is couched in such

broad and sweeping language that it encompasses

the vast majority of publications

essere care ny nee ase

Constitutiona

Law Will Be Re-Tested

lity of California's /

lien Land

in U. S. Supreme Court

Attorneys for Fred Y. Oyama have announced

that an appeal will be taken to the U. S. Supreme

Court from the recent decision of the California

Supreme court upholding the State's Alien Land

Law. The decision was handed down on October

31, a few days before the election in which

Proposition 15, relating to the Alien Land Law,

was up for consideration. The fear that the de-

cision in the Oyama case might work in favor .

`of Prop. 15 proved groundless, because it is ex-

pected that the official vote will show that Prop.

Expressing the unanimous opinion of the 15 was defeated by 300,000 votes.

Before the Oyama case goes to the U. S.

Supreme Court, the State Supreme Court will

consider a petition for a rehearing now before

it, which undoubtedly will be denied. (Note: The

petition was denied on November 25.)

The Oyama decision fortifies California's legal

measures to take title to agricultural lands oper-

ated by aliens ineligible to citizenship but held

in the names of their American-born children.

In California alone, farm lands estimated at more

` than $1,000,000 are involved. Seventeen other

` states have similar alien land laws.

WHO BLINDED NEGRO VETERAN }

The opinion in the case was written by Jus-

tice Douglas L. Edmonds and it was concurred

in by three justices. Chief Justice Gibson and

Justice Carter failed to record their position in

the case, although they heard the oral argu-

ments. Justice Traynor concurred~in the de-

cision, `on the ground that the decisions of the

United States Supreme Court cited in the main

opinion are controlling until such time as they

are reexamined and modified by that court."

The court rested its decision on cases that up-

held the constitutionality of the Alien Land Law

twenty-five years ago,-right after the law was

enacted. The state, said the court, "has the

power, in the absence of a treaty to the con-

trary, to forbid the taking or holding of property

within its limits by aliens." _The court rejected

the contention that recent amendments to the

Naturalization Act, permitting the nauralization

of Japanese who honorably served in the armed

forces, changes them from the status of persons

ineligible to citizenship under the Alien Land

Law to persons eligible to hold agricultural land

under that law. The Court also turned down the

contention that a statute of limitations applies

erence Colne ete Crirnih cemmding the - oe oe Oe be

The ACLU brief to have the alien land law

declared unconstitutional charges it discriminates

against persons of Japanese ancestry solely on

the basis of race by denying them the "equal

protection of laws" as guaranteed by the Consti-

tution. It also contends that under recent

amendments to the federal naturalization law

Japanese aliens are no longer ineligible to citizen-

ship on the basis of their race. It holds that it is

illegal to presume that land paid for by a Japa-

nese alien and held in the name of a citizen

is a maneuver to evade the law.

On the same day the State Supreme Court was

handing down its decision in the Oyama case.

it agreed to hear an appeal in the case of

Palermo v. Stockton Theatres. This is another

Alien Land Law case, involving commercial

property. The trial court had held that because

of the abrogation of the treaty of trade and

commerce between the U. 8S. and Japan in 1940,

alien Japanese are prevented from using and

enjoying residential and commercial property in

this State. The net effect of that decision would

be to exclude alien Japanese from the State, be-

cause obviously there is no way of their residing

here without using or enjoying real property.

The Third District Court of Appeal on Septem-

ber 6 reversed the decision of the Superior Court

on the ground that "the Alien Land Law in-

corporated the then-existing provisions of the

treaty and retained them after the treaty was

abrogated .. ." The same four judges who

agreed in the Oyama case ordered the hearing

in the Stockton Theatres case.

Referring to the treaty between the U. S.

and Japan, in the Oyama case, the court noted

that `"`The treaty ... provides that citizens

of Japan residing in the United States may

lease land for residential and commercial pur-

poses, but it contains no provision authorizing

an alien of the Japanese race to lease or acquire

land for agricultural purposes. Consequently the

initiative alien land law . . . prohibits the acquisi-

tion by such alien of any agricultural land situ-

ated in this state.' The abrogation of this treaty

on January 26, 1940, has no effect upon the _

rights of the parties in the present litigation."

We wonder whether the court will hold otherwise

in the Stockton Theatres case? If so, it will

mean the banishment of alien Japanese from

California.

PUERTO RICAN SPANISH

- LANGUAGE BILL VETOED

After holding for almost three months a bill

passed by the Puerto Rican Legislature to make

Spanish rather than English the official lan-

guage of instruction, President Truman on Oc-

tober 25th vetoed it on the ground that its ap-

proval would complicate the larger issue of

Puerto Rico's political status. He held that this

issue should be first decided. His action makes

unlikely any change in the teaching of all sub-

jects in English, which under present law, could

be accomplished by the Commissioner of Educa-

tion. The President has before him the appoint-

ment of a commissioner to the office which has

been headed by an acting commissioner for two

years,

His action will also probably end the teacher's

court proceedings in Puerto Rico, backed by the

ACLU, which sought to declare the law in ef-

fect, since the President had not acted, as re-

quired, within the ninety days after its passage.

It is understood that the Dept. of Justice holds

that the ninety days run from the time of receipt

of a bill by the President, not from its passage.

The President got it August 5th. The ACLU had

urged him to sign it to give Puerto Rican chil-

dren the right to learn in their own language.

The Union commented on the President's ac-

tion that "it is difficult to see the relation be-

tween settling the future of Puerto. Rico and

teaching in the accustomed native language.

From an educational viewpoint the case for the

bill is self-evident."

TWO COLUMBIA, TENN., -

NEGROES WIN NEW TRIAL

New trials for Robert Gentry and John Mc-

Kiven, the two Columbia, Tenn. Negroes con-

victed in the recent Lawrenceburg trial in which

22 others were acquitted, were granted by Circuit

Judge Joseph M. Ingram on October 26. The

judge declared that he was not satisfied with

the evidence presented in the. trial as to their

participation in an attack on policemen. He con-

sented to the motion of NAACP attorneys ten

minutes after it was presented.

`Objector' Paroles Show

Large Increase

The population of conscientious objectors in

federal prisons had been reduced on November

first to 582 Jehovah's Witnesses and 80 others,

a total of 662, according to records of the De-

partment of Justice made available to the ACLU.

The number in prison has been cut in half in three

months time due to automatic paroles of all

those who have served eighteen months. The

paroles do not now carry any special restrictions

as formerly. ae

Outside the recognized conscientious objectors,

the Department reports that the score or more

Puerto Rican nationalists who refused military

service have already been paroled, together with

those few American Indians, Negroes and Japa-

nese-Americans who refused to be drafted on

political grounds. . =

It is expected that about 200 more of the

Jehovah's Witnesses will be paroled this month

under the eighteen months' rule and that speedy

consideration will then be given the remaining

men on an individual basis. Action apparently

depends somewhat upon whether the War De-

partment resumes drafting men after January

first. The draft has been suspended until that

time. The population in Civilian Public Service

camps has been reduced to about 800.

Thank You!

The office takes this means of thanking

its 400 supporters (a record number), who

last month sent in contributions toward our

$8800 budget for the fiscal year ending

October 31, 1946. We appreciate your loyal

support, and hope you won't mind our not

sending you thank you notes. We trust that -

those who have not yet contributed toward

our budget drive will do so without delay.

About 100 of the 350 persons whose

' memberships expired last month have not

yet gotten around to sending in their re-

newals. May we urge such persons to do it

NOW!

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

Some of the Cases Members

Don't Ordinarily Hear About

This monthly "News" does not chronicle all

of the business which comes to the doors of the

ACLU. We are constantly besieged with letters,

telephone calls and visitors asking help on issues

which have nothing to do with civil liberties. In

such cases, the best we can do is to tell the

applicant where he can secure help, and maybe

throw in a bit of advise to boot.

Here is a sample of some of the requests for

help that have come to us in recent days:

An impecunious woman wants to know

whether we can provide an attorney for her to

secure a divorce. A man asks us to recommend

an attorney in a particular field. to whom he

may turn in case of anticipated trouble. A couple

of people in state institutions, who were duly

committed, ask us to secure their release. A

couple of inmates of our state prisons seek our

assistance on technical legal issues in connection

with their convictions. A woman writes us. to

inquire what she can do about the desecration

of her family's graves. A man telephones to

complain that the cleaning and pressing shop

where he took the family laundry has been

closed, and the laundry where the work was done

won't take his money and release the ten sheets,

a dozen shirts, etc., until the cleaner pays his

bill. A woman wants to know what can be done

for her part-time cook who has four small chil-

dren and who has been forced to go on relief

because her husband is spending six months in

jail for accepting unemployment insurance when

Ke

he wasn't entitled to it. Three men come to the ~

office to complain that a private carrier of

Workmen's Compensation has required over 30

men to leave their families and come to San

Francisco from distant places in California in

~. order to receive medical treatment for injuries

suffered in the course of their employment. A

refugee wants to know whether he can adopt his

20-year-old niece now in Germany through legal

proceedings in this State, and then secure her

admission to the United States. An Indonesian

seaman complains that the Immigration Service,

which sought to deport him, has lost his trunk.

A minister complains that a county board of

supervisors refuses to rezone a residential and

' farming area to permit him to build a church.

- Someone at Station KLX telephones to ask what

they should do about the Negro woman who

- complains that a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi

is scheduled to be hanged early in December.

And, of course, there is always the psychotic

man or woman who is suffering persecution of

one kind or another.

These are the complaints outside the field of

civil liberties that have come to us just during

a week. Life at the ACLU office is never dull,

uninteresting, or without work.

WAR DEPT. BAN ON AMERICAN-

GERMAN MARRIAGES QUERIED

A complaint from a Jewish civilian employee

of the War Dept. in Germany that he was for-

bidden to marry a German girl to whom he has

been engaged for nine years brought an inquiry

by the ACLU of the Secretary of War concern-

ing the system in effect in Germany for U.S.

personnel. It is understood that no marriages

with Germans may be contracted without per-

mission of the military authorities and that ex-

ceptions are rarely made. In the instance com- _

plained of the officials refused even to hear it.

Marriage without permission would subject the

offender to immediate recall to the U.S. without

his bride.

The ACLU has intervened to remove this

restriction along with many others which it re-

gards as unreasonable. The marriage had pre- -

viously been forbidden in 1936 by Nazi race laws

whith banned marriages between Jews and non-

Jews in Germany.

Contributions Received In Memory of

Simon Katten, Richard Neustadt

and Col. C. E. S. Wood

During the past month the Union received four

contributions in memory of Simon Katten of

Berkeley, who was one of the Union's staunch

supporters.

The Union also wishes to acknowledge a recent

contribution in memory of Richard Neustadt, also

of Berkeley, and likewise a firm believer in civil

liberties.

Sara Bard Field has sent the Union a check

for $100 in memory of Col. Charles Erskine Scott

Wood, our former Committee member, whose

`passionate and life-long interest in civil liberties

is well known.

The Union is grateful for these gifts because

their receipt enables us to advance the cause of

liberty which these men held so dear.

Nisei Citizenship

We wish we had the space to print in its

entirety the 45-page affidavit signed by John

L. Burling, who at one time was Assistant to the

Director of the Allen Enemy Control Unit of the

War Division of the Department of Justice,

which was submitted to District Judge A. F. St.

Sure by Justice Department attorneys in the

Nisei citizenship renunciation test suits. Mr.

Burling undertook to recite and analyze the

history of the renunciation movement. He ad-

mits many of the charges the ACLU of Northern

California has made, but he ends up by saying

there was no legal duress. |

Apparently, the only thing that would satisfy

Mr. Burling would be evidence that someone

stood beside each renunciant with a club and

told him to sign or else he would be beaten up.

We venture to say that the courts will take a

much broader view of what is duress, and that

they will not only recognize the actual violence

which Mr. Burling overlooked, but that they will

also recognize the more subtle methods of

duress, the art at which the Nazis and Russians

are said to be masters. Then, too, we think the

courts will take cognizance of some of the facts

which Mr. Burling did not get in his few weeks

at Tule Lake and his much longer time in his

comfortable swivel chair in the Department of

Justice in Washington.

A few excerpts from Mr. Burling's affidavit

follow: :

Although the opinions of the various officials

and others differed widely as to the social con-

siderations leading to renunciation and as to the

proper policies to pursue, no official at this time

ever stated or suggested to me in any way that

coercion, as that term has been understood in

the law for centuries, was a factor of any sig-

nificance. It was the universal opinion that the

population of the Tule Lake Center, consisting

as it did of 18,000 persons taken from their

normal homes and occupation, and placed in a

wired-in area of about six square miles of black

voleanic ash, and living in uncomfortable black

tar-paper barracks, under a pall of black smoke

in winter and ash and dust in summer, with

wholly inadequate occupation to keep them busy,

and with substantially no effective contro] by the

Government as to what activities were carried

on inside the fence, had become highly emo-

tionally excited. It was universally agreed that

the rush toward renunciation was illogical and

unreasoned and that many of the young men

who were now marching up and down between

the barracks with the Japanese emblem sten-

ciled on their sweatshirts had been, before the

war, loyal American citizens and that the as-

serted loyalty to Japan was often a kind of

hysteria. It was a commonplace witticism among

the officials of the center at the time. of these

hearings that the population of the center was

largely mad and that the center might properly

be taken from the management of the War

Relocation Authority and transferred to the

Public Health Service to be run as a species of

mental institution. All of the discussion and

speculation as to the reason for the unforeseen

volume of renunciation related to the reason for

this hysterical public behavior and none of it

related to coercion and it was never suggested

contemporaneously in any way that it might be

due to coercion ....

Lastly, it is affiant's opinion that an entirely

irrational mass hysteria activated the people to

a very great extent. There were in the center

18,000 persons with wholly inadequate. work or

occupation, living under not cruel but certainly

unpleasant circumstances. The center had no

dividing fences or walls and the people were free

to do substantially whatever they liked within

`the outer fence, which had a perimeter of over

five miles. While fhere were Caucasian staff

members in the center during working hours,

there were substantially no staff members inside

the fence during the evening and at night and

during Sunday except a few guards patrolling

in automobiles. Although there was some en-

tertainment, there was not much. These people

had been in detention for 2% years and inside

the Tule Lake fence for more than a year. Al-

though they had access to newspapers and

magazines, to a very great extent these were

disbelieved as American propaganda. Rumors of

the most foolish or fantastic nature circulated

widely and were given wide credence. .. . Given

all these social conditions and a group of 18,000

substantially idle persons, most of whom had

suffered racial discrimination for years and who

had just been the victims of what must have ap-

peared to them as the most outrageous incident

of racial discrimination in American history, it

Gov't Makes Important A

issions in the

Renunciation Test Suits

was foreseeable that a state of very great emo--

tional excitability would be created. Given fur-

ther a nucleus of genuinely pro-Japanese leaders,

it seems, at least in the light of hindsight, also

foreseeable that this group could be whipped

up into a sort of hysterical frenzy of Japanese

patriotism. In fact, it was to be expected that

boys from 18 to 20 having little or nothing to do -

would adhere with great fervor to some cause

and, since the cause perforce was Japanese, it

was expectable that they would shave their heads

to emulate Japanese soldiers and wear a uniform -

with the Rising Sun on it and engage in drilling

and Japanese ceremonial exercises. Indeed, these

Japanese patriotic activities carried on by these

persons behind barbed wire fences may be likened

to a very high degree to the hysterical "yam-

mering" which sometimes occurs in ill-run

prisons...

It is patent, however, that all renunciants at

Tule Lake were confined in a concentration camp

at the time they renounced. Realistically, either

they or their parents had chosen to go there, - 4

but nevertheless, at the time of that choice, they

had been in another concentration camp. The

only choice was whether to remain in a relo-

cation center with the hope of relocation in a

part of the country other than that where their

home was or to proceed to the Tule Lake Center

for segration during the war. It is also true that'

no court has ever passed upon the constitu-

tionality of detention at Tule Lake. It is also

patent that there was existing at Tule Lake

at the time described a very high degree of ex-

citement whipped up by organizations admitted-

ly extremely pro-Japanese. It is also true, as has

been stated, that most of the renunciations took

place at the time when the renunciants and their

families were in extreme fear of being forced

out of the center into a hositle community and -

when they believed that the only way of making

sure of protective detention during the war was

to make themselves eligible for Department of -

Justice internment. If these factors and this

hysteria render the act of renunciation by per-

sons detained under these circumstances void,

`then the renunciations are void. If the court

is now to hold that the totality of the circum-

stances described in this affidavit constitutes

coercion, then these renunciations were coerced.

In affiant's opinion, it is a legal act which

cannot be set aside by recourse to any existing

legal concept. Such renunciation could not be

set aside as a result of a determination that legal

coercion existed but only as an expression of the

regret of the American people over the original

act of evacuation ,and detention. If the renun-

ciations are ultimately set aside, in affiant's

opinion, the ultimate decision will only be justi-

fied as a determination that the persons of

Japanese ancestry resident on the Pacific Coast

were so goaded that some of them took the

foolish step of renunciation and that, because

the moral blame is ultimately elsewhere, these

persons shall not suffer the legal consequences

of their own acts.

ACLU URGES CHANGES IN

U. S. TRUSTEESHIP DRAFT

The draft of a proposal for exclusive U. S.

trusteeship of the Pacific Islands taken from

Japan and formerly held under Japanese man-

date from the League of Nations is defective,

according to the ACLU, in not providing for

civil instead of navy control of the native peoples

and in not guaranteeing to them the use of their

own languages in education and public business.

The Union takes no position on the merits of _

the proposal for trusteeship, which is a political

issue, but insists that the civil liberties of native

peoples be protected.

The draft included sections aimed at assuring

civil rights but was silent on the crucial issue -

of naval vs. civilian rule. In view of the long

arbitrary naval rule of Samoa and Guam it is _

assumed that the Navy intends to exercise exclu-

sive control under which native rights though - :

formally recognized, exist only under the "un-

reviewed will of a naval commander."

The ACLU is preparing to join with other

agencies in backing in Congress a new bill to

give all the native peoples a "bill of rights',

similar to the measure introduced in the last ses-

sion by Rep. Andrew Biemiller of Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, representations have been made to

the American delegates to the U. N. General

Assembly urging amendment of the draft pro-

posal. :

Page 4

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

American Civil Liberties Union-News

Published monthly at 461 Market St., San Francisco, 5

Calif., by the American Civil Liberties Union

of Northern California.

Phone: EXbrook 1816

ERNEST BESIG ........ Editor

Entered as second-class matter, July 31, 1941, at the

Post Office at San Francisco, California,

under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year.

Ten Cents per Copy. 151-

Financial Report For Fiscal

Year Ending Oct. 31, 1946

By reason of a contribution erasing a deficit

of $39.86, the ACLU of Northern California bal-

anced its books at the end of the fiscal year on

October 31.

Receipts were $1,600 more than ever before,

but the increased cost of doing business kept

pace with the growing income.

The Union also ended the fiscal year with the

largest paid-up membership in its history. There

were exactly 1,058 members in good standing,

besides 201 separate subscribers to the "News."

The branch has shown a substantial growth in

its membership ever since October 31, 1943, when

the membership stood at 624. The following

year it had grown to 742; in 1945 it stood at

871: while on October 31 it stood at 1,058.

The Union's membership and subscribers are

located in 27 states, besides the District of Co-

Jumbia, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Scotland

and Palestine.

The Thomas T. White and Reserve Funds, as

of October 31, showed a cash balance of $901.03

and four U. S. Treasury bonds valued at $2,000.

Here is the way your money was spent from

November 1, 1945, to October 31, 1946:

Income

General Receipts $7,989.24

Expenditures

Salaries 3 $4,937.10

Printing and Sta._._.... 1,534.30

Rent 2s 544.10

Postage = 6 329.64

Wel and Tel... 159.27

Draveling 2 125.43

Taxes and Insurance.....- 164.35

Miscellaneous ..........-.-- 60.49

Momiture = 111.07

Publications. =... + 23.49

$7,989.24

Cash on hand October 31.......... 0.00

ACLU APPEALS SENTENCE

OF "MYSTERY GIRL'

Susan Bower, a hitch-hiker, was picked up

near Hackensack, N.J., on October 5 by a police

car when she sought a lift before she saw its

uniformed occupants. Booked on a charge of

disorderly conduct, she was given a six months'

sentence in Bergen County jail, apparently for

refusing to tell her right name or address.

Maximum sentence for hitch-hiking in New

Jersey is 15 days or $50.00. Emphasis through-

out by the authorities was not on Miss Bower's

hitch-hiking but on her refusal to tell all about

herself.

Press and radio dramatized Miss Bower as the

"mystery girl' because she withheld her true

identity. The Civil Liberties Union then inter-

vened through its Hackensack counsel, James A.

Major. He secured a reopening of her case and

the reduction of her sentence to 40 days. She

was released on November 8, still withholding

all information about herself. But an appeal will

be taken in an effort to reserve the dangerous

precedent of long jail terms for refusing to di-

vulge identity.

Her sentence commuted, Miss Bower may con-

tinue on her way to Florida, her destination

when she ran into trouble with the New Jersey

police.

-U. S. SUPREME COURT TURNS

DOWN ILLINOIS VOTE CASE

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on October 28

to rehear a suit by three Illinois taxpayers to

declare unconstitutional the Illinois apportion-

ment of Congressional districts. A petition

brought before the high court to reconsider its

4 to 3 decision of last June had been supported

by an ACLU brief.

Union officials have been hopeful that a full

court might reverse the earlier ruling. The litiga-

tion was based on the inequality of population

in Illinois Congressional districts, varying from

112,000 to 900,000. A favorable decision would

have aided court contests of the poll tax.

Nation's First Radio Talk

On the Subject of Atheism

On November 17 at 8:30 a.m., the nation's

first radio broadcast on atheism was made over

Station KQW in San Francisco by Robert Harold

Scott. The station agreed to grant a half hour

of free time and to invite comments on the ad-

dress from listeners. Within thirty days, the

station will advise Scott whether any further

broadcasts by atheists will be permitted over the

station.

Within three days, KQW received 3,200 letters

from listeners. Twenty-four per cent upheld

Scott's right to speak while 76 per cent favored

denying him access to the radio.

In the opening sentences of his address, Mr.

Scott stated as follows:

"On July 19 of this year the Federal Com-

munications Commission handed down a decision

with regard to radio broadcasting which is a new

milestone on the highway of freedom of speech.

With an eye on our Constitutional Bill of Rights,

and in recognition of the fact that the existence

of a God is neither a self-evident nor a demon-

strated truth but is purely a matter of opinion,

the Commission pointed out that `freedom of

religious belief necessarily carries with it free-

dom to disbelieve;' and it affirmed that im-

munity from criticism is dangerous, dangerous

to the institution or belief to which the im-

munity is granted as well as to the freedom of

the people generally.

"IT do not throw stones at church windows. I

do not mock at people kneeling in prayer. I

respect everyone's right to have and to express

the belief that a God exists. But I require re-

spect for the corresponding right to express dis-

belief in such a being."

Despite the ruling of the Federal Communica-

tions Commission, stations KPO and KFRC have

refused to grant time for the presentation of

talks on the subject of atheism. Mr. Scott will,

therefore, renew his petition to revoke the li-

censes of those stations. The case is being sup-

ported by the American Civil Liberties Union of

Northern California.

VOTERS BAN CLOSED

SHOP IN THREE STATES

Voters in three states, Nebraska, South Da-

kota and Arizona, outlawed the closed shop by

substantial majorities in the elections on Novem-

ber 5th, Massachusetts voters approved a mea-

sure requiring unions to make public financial

reports as a condition of operating. Two other

states had previously adopted closed shop bans

by popular vote,-Florida and Arkansas. All the

measures were constitutional amendments. They

will be challenged in the federal courts.

The ACLU holds that "no issue of civil Li-.

berty is involved in the claims of non-union

workers against a closed shop agreement ex-

cept where they may be excluded from union

membership by reason of any arbitrary or un-

reasonable restriction on membership." The Un-

ion has not participated in court actions in-

volving the public policy of outlawing contracts

between employers and employees based on re-

quired union membership.

STOWAWAY PROBLEM STUDIED

BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

In response to pleas from the ACLU to permit

stowaways in American ports to ship to coun-

tries in South America for which they have ob-

tained visas, the Department of Justice has re-

: plied that it is studying the problem in the light

of the effects of leniency on the resort to illegal

entry by others, and in justice to the thousands

of other refugees in Europe desirous of coming

to the U. S. legally.

The Department is hesitant, according to a

spokesman, to permit those who hold So. Amer-

ican visas to use them when most of the 200 now

held in ports cannot get such visas. Preferential

treatment for those who happen to have friends

able to assist them, the Department holds, would

not be fair to the others, and would put a pre-

mium on stowaway methods as against legal

entry. But the Department is also disinclined to

send any refugees back to countries where they

would be persecuted.

The ACLU has urged allowing any refugee to

go to any country where he can obtain admission,

and in the cases of those without such relief, to

cover them by. special private bills in Congress or

by amendment of the immigration act. Attempts

in the last Congress to get such action failed he-

cause of the fear of encouraging stowaways.

Pacifist Awaits Ruling by

Comm. of Bar Examiners

(Continued from Page 1, Col. 3)

kans, who are already engaged in the practice

of law in this State."

The letter declared there was no precedent

in California for excluding pacifists from admis-

sion to the professions. "As a matter of fact,

on April 1, 1942, Attorney General Earl Warren

ruled that a bona fide claim as a conscientious

objector under the Selective Service Act does

not justify revocation of a teacher's credentials

for violation of the State's loyalty oath." Also,

efforts-at the 1945 session of the State Legis-

lature to exclude from public jobs pacifists who

had claimed exemption from military service

during World War II were declared to be un-

constitutional by the Legislative Counsel as

being "discriminatory as to persons on the sole

basis of a religious belief." A revised bill, re-

quiring applicants for public jobs to answer the

question, "If necessary, are you willing to take

up arms in defense of the United States'"', was

vetoed by Gov. Earl Warren because it would

hold up to public scorn persons who merely

exercised their constitutional and _ statutory

rights. The veto was sustained. ie

A year, ago,'in a 5 to 4 decision, the U. S.

Supreme Court upheld the refusal of Illinois to

allow .a pacifist to practice law, because he

could not in good faith take an oath to support

the Illinois Constitution requiring militia service

of all able-bodied males between the ages of

eighteen and forty-five resident in the State.

The law made no provision for conscientious ob-

jectors. In California, however, there is no Con-

stitutional provision for compulsory military

service.

In his petition for review, Mr. Etter declared

that `Several lines of reasoning have led me to

the pacifist position. The simplest of these to

explain starts with principles of the Christian

religion as set forth in the New Testament.

Unless it is immoral to take the teachings of the

New Testament seriously and make them a guide

for one's conduct, a case can be made, particu-

larly in the age of atomic warfare, that the non-

pacifist and not the pacifist position is the one

that is immoral. Before the bar examiners pass

on the question whether I am morally unfit to

practice law because I am a pacifist, I should

like an opportunity to present that case to them.

If they finally determine that I am unfit in that

respect, then they should realize that by the

same standard persons such as the clergymen

Harry Emerson Fosdick~ and John Haynes

Holmes, the scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, the

missionary E. Stanley Jones, the social worker

Jane Addams, the writer Romain Rolland, the

seminary president Albert Palmer-none of these

nor any of a galaxy of other prominent and

widely respected persons who are or during

their lives were pacifists could ever establish

sufficient moral character to practice law in

California."

SCHOOL BUS CASE ARGUED

BEFORE SUPREME COURT

The appeal of New Jersey taxpayers from a

decision of the state's highest court upholding a

law of 1942 providing for public payment of bus

fares to private schools, was heard in the U. 8.

Supreme Court on November 20, supported by @

brief by the ACLU. Briefs favoring the law were

filed by six states and by two national Catholic

organizations.

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