Open forum, vol. 2, no. 9 (February, 1925)

`door address is carried on.

- THE OPEN FORUM

The Devil Is An Ass.- Emerson.

Vol. 2.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 28, 1925

_ Washington's Birthday

as In Los Angeles

Los Angeles kept Washington's birthday. Espe-

cially the Police Department. The celebration began

a whole week in advance, Sunday February 15th,

it appears.

There is no such area for free speech in Los An-

geles as Hyde Park in London. But there has been

until this present celebration of Washington's birth-

day a small approach to it, in that the little plaza near

the Post Office has had a very limited Free Speech

Area. Even at this point, the only open space in

Los Angeles where the non-orthodox might speak

out their rationalism or radicalism with something

faintly resembling freedom, even at this point the

religious conservatives have usurped much of the

space and have carried on an ignorant and ill-tem-

pered propaganda on behalf of their obsolete ortho-

doxies.

It was to be expected that under such circum-

stances there would be some give and take of ques-

tion and remark, something approaching the "heck-

ling' which is an accepted thing in Hyde Park,

London, or wherever else in the civilized world out-

But here in this Mecca

of American Moronism and Sanctified Silurianism the

apostles of theological troglodytism wanted no ques-

tions and would tolerate no interrogating, nor admit

of any word of dissent from their dogmatisms. So

_ they appealed to some of the High Priests of Funda-

mentalism and these, it is reported, brought pressure

to bear upon the Police Department, which is always

glad to~have an excuse for making a show about

nothing at the expense of the working people of

5 the town in order to cover up their utter incompe-

tence in dealing with the open and notorious law-

lessness of the city. Thereupon-two dozen men

were seized, two dozen workingmen, mind you, on

Sunday, February 15th, and railroaded into the jail

and the police court on a pretense of having violated

Section 302 of the State statutes which is plainly

intended only for the reasonable protection of regu-

larly-housed religious gatherings `against violent or

indecent interruption. Some of these, not knowing

their rights, or having no means with which to de-

fend themselves, were persuaded to plead technically

guilty, and were fined in sums of Ten or Twenty-

Five Dollars each, whereas the policemen were the

men who should have been fined in ten or twenty

times that amount. Attorney Leo Gallagher volun-

teered his services and many of the men demanded

trial, either before a justice or before a jury. These

were released, generally on Twenty-five Dollars cash

bail in each case.

AS ministers of The Church of the New Social

Order, as well as representatives of The American

Civil Liberties Union Dr. Taft and Robert Whitaker

decided that it was time for them to join these

preachers of the Plaza in exercising a bit of con-

stitutional freedom in this pocket-borough of the

American Plunderbund. So we also joined, willingly

enough, busy ag we are, in celebrating Washington's

birthday. Our service at the Plaza was called for one

o'clock Sunday afternoon, the 22nd. We gave public

notice of it, and at the time and place appointed,

Robert Whitaker made an address, lasting half an

hour or more, on "Jesus and Free Speech." This

was followed by a second address, given by Dr. Taft.

Both of us spoke from a platform kindly loaned to

us by a Mr. Frank Rogers, who has been accustomed

to preach at the Plaza from week week. His

platform is illustrated with texts and diagrains, and

it may be said that theologically he is quite as cu..

Servative as the Fundamentalists themselves, though

_ his conservatism does not happen to be of just their

antique vintage.

When Dr. Taft had concluded his address he called

upon Attorney Gallagher to speak, as we believe in

letting "laymen" exercise their "pulpit gifts." Gal-

lagher is a medium sized, quiet voiced, scholarly

type, and began his address by inquiring in a spirit

of simplicity and sincerity which ought to have dis-

armed all hostility. `Are there any plain-clothes

men here this afternoon; if there are will they hold

up their hands?" The crowd was very large but

no hands went up. "Why should there be any plain-

clothes men here?" Gallagher went on. "When

American citizens are quietly gathered in orderly

exercise of their constitutional rights of free speech

and free assembly in an area given to such privi-

leges why should it be thought necessary to have

plain-clothes men on hand?"

The question was answered promptly enough, and

in a very different manner and spirit from that in

which it had been asked. One of the "officers of the

law" who has been peculiarly offensive before for

this kind of work pushed his way roughly to the

platform and said abruptly, "You are under arrest."

"What for?" asked Gallagher, facing the officer.

"Never mind what for' said the official autocrat, dis-

daining to give any reason since he was nearly

twice the size of Gallagher and had the consciousness

of having the whole official machine behind him,

with its backing of Big Business. "I demand a war-

rant, or to know the charge against me," insisted

Gallagher, stoutly. Again the officer contemptuously

refused to consider either reason or right. A bully

is never so much a bully as when he has a badge

on him, as the daily story of the American police

illustrates. So Gallagher was seized violently and

literally dragged from the out-door pulpit and dragged

across the street and there hustled into the patrol

wagon which was suspiciously on hand in a moment.

Someone in the crowd started up "My Country, 'tis of

Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, of Thee I sing." And

honestly, one of the police officers whom -we faced

in the Police Court a few minutes after charged us

with singing a "wobbly song,' though this was the

only song used that whole afternoon. Whereupon

Mrs. Whitaker remarked to three of the officers, in-

cluding the official ignoramus who had made this

charge, "It would seem that it might be a part of the

education of a police officer to instruct him that

`America' is not a wobbly song."

There in the Police Court also the officer had the

audacity to tell us that Gallagher was himself an

I.W.W. And when he was reminded that a lawyer

would not be received aS a member of the I.W.W.

because he was not an "industrial" he said stupidly,

"Well, anyway he defended the I.W.W." `And hasn't

a lawyer a right to defend whom he will?" I asked.

Blank silence wag the reply.

This same officer, within the hearing of us all,

talked frankly enough over the telephone, evidently

to his superior, and was heard to confess, "I have

gotten myself into a hole and don't know how to

get out." And then he proceeded to fill the telephone

with an utterly false report of what had gone on. It

is obvious from what appeared in the Los Angeles

Times the next morning that the same sort of

lying stuff had been given The Times. The Exam-

iner's briefer report of the matter was only a little

less misleading and mendacious than that of The

Times. Douglas W. Churchill, "The Man in the

Street," of The Illustrated Daily News had such a

sensible comment upon the matter that we are quot-

ing it in another column. Churchill has shown him-

self before a man of courage aid rare common Sense.

Monday morning two of the men arrested Sunday

afternoon, John Cummings and A. Schram, were re-

leased without any charge being made against them.

They had been held in jail, incommunicado, over-

The Illustrated News

Speaks Out

"No state shall make or enforce any law which

shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens

of the United States.'-Article 14, Section 1, of the

amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Under this quotation from the above mentioned

document writes my friend L. O'Dell, whom I have

never met. But I feel that he is my friend, for he

is out on bail after having insulted a cop while

being arrested on suspicion of being a radical or a

liberal or a heathen or something. Anyway, he is

charged, technically, with disturbing a religious meet-

ing, after having made a few wise cracks to a soap-

box minister, who was ranting in one of the ranting

spaces of a large California city.

He is not complaining, this fellow O'Dell for he

has a sense of humor and the whole thing seems

ridiculous to any person so gifted.

But, neither is he looking at the matter in the

right light, for, from his letter, I gather that he

expects justice from the court or the city prosecutor,

who is handling the case, or from some remote and

rather intangible source. And if O'Dell has the same

opinion of various laws as have I, he will know

that under the criminal syndicalism act it is next

to impossible to secure justice.

As a matter of fact, do you realize that I can be

seized and thrown in jail for the above paragraph?

Do you realize that without a newspaper behind me,

I would not dare say anything about laws and courts?

Because of the publicity which would follow they

do not molest me, but the tactless fellow who utters

these sanie thoughts to a crowd of 50 people in a

public park immediately is thrown in jail as the

most vile criminal.

It is such laws as this that are forcing radicalism

on a country where only mild liberalism would pre-

vail otherwise. If there is ever a social revolution

in this land, it will be the most unwarranted and

criminal thing in the history of the nation, for it is

not needed nor wanted by anyone-not even by the

radicals-and will only be fostered and inspired by

the mossbacks who are today stifling free speech.

-Douglas W. Churchill.

night, under conditions no really civilized community

would tolerate in a City Prison, in a room in which

there were thirty-six "beds" and forty-three prison-

ers. The pretext on which they were held was

"suspicion of criminal syndicalism.'"

And against this utter lawlessness of the Los

Angeles Police, where workingmen are _ involved,

there seems to be no defense, and for it no redress.

But there is the avenue of publicity, a thing that

tyrants big and little alike dread. Turn up the

stones, let in the light, and the bugs will run for

their holes. So we are asking papers east and

west, north and south to pass on this word of the

manner in which Washington's birthday was kept

in Los Angeles. Meanwhile we warn anybody against

coming here who is disposed to sing the one time

honored song, "America," now described by the

Police Department of this metropolis of California

as a "wobbly song."

Incidentally we might also mention that word was

passed on to us at the Open Forum last night that

because Dr. Taft and I had stood up to the officers

in the afternoon and told them the exact character

of their lawlessness one of the policeman was heard

boasting outside of our hall that they "would get

the ropes on us `yet.'

Well, we are here to stay as long as there are a

few real Americans to work with us and stand by

us in doing what can be done for a genuine exhibit

in this city and this state of the spirit of George

Washington. Only sometimes I wonder if he were

here today would he think Valley Forge worth while.

The American Empire

Comes On

By Laurence Todd

Federated Press Staff Correspondent

| Washington-An atmosphere of profound pessim-

ism on the part of progressives, and of confident ae

gressiveness on the part of outspoken reactionaries

and crooks, marks the approach of the Coolidge in-

auguration ceremony. For on March 4 ue ae

Congress will take office, the administration will

attempt to force the new Senate to confirm the

nomination of Warren to be attorney general, and

the two political parties financed by special privilege

will unite their organizations to rivet the Garrett-

Wadsworth "shackles" amendment upon the federal

constitution.

Of this "shackles" amendment, the legislative

committee of the American Federation of Labor says,

in a special plea to the House:

"It ig revolutionary. If adopted, 13 states could

defeat any future amendment. In these days

when great interests command powerful engines of

propaganda, it is not necessary for us to tell you

how easy it would be, under Mr. Garrett's proposal,

to defeat an amendment drawn in the interests of the

people. -Thirty-five states might have ratified such

an amendment with substantial unanimity. Those

35 states might represent four-fifths of the popula-

tion of the nation, but nevertheless all hope of se-

curing the desired reform would be destroyed the

instant the 13th state interposed its veto.

"Much has been said about the referendum feature.

: It merely declares that if a legislature

RATIFIES, the action of the legislature may be re-

ferred to the people. But if the legislature RE-

FUSES to ratify, the people would have no oppor-

tunity to express their will."

Accordingly, and because this scheme for perpet-

ual defeat of constitutional changes has had no

serious chance of debate in Congress, the A. F. of

L. asks for delay.

Progressives in Congress say the measure is not

so much revolutionary as it is a breeder of revolu-

tion. If the constitution is not to be subject to

improvement, a restless and discontented people will

some day deal with it in this country as they have

dealt with "perpetual" institutions everywhere else.

But the Old Guard led by Longworth and Madden -

and Gillett, and the Bourbons led by Garrett and

Blanton, propose to crush out industrial radicalism

and political progressivism for a hundred years by

applying handcuffs to the law.

As a further safeguard to special vested privilege,

the G.O.P. of the Senate will caucus on Feb. 23 on

the question of abolishing the seniority rights of

LaFollette, Norris, Frazier, Ladd, Brookhart and

possibly one or two others. Hiram Johnson and

Borah will protest, from outside the caucus room.

The new Senate will fight the thing out, and its vote .

will determine what part this progressive group will

play in creating a new national party.

Confirmation of Woodlock to be a member of the

interstate commerce commission, and of Humphrey

as a member of the federal trade commission, is now

anticipated. Most of the Democrats and some even

of the Progressives have lapsed into the irrespon-

sible mood of saying, "Let Coolidge go the limit;

that's what the people voted for; let them get their

bellyful for once. We warned them with the cases

. of Fall and Daugherty and they came back hungry

for more of the same. Well, Coolidge is giving

them another Daugherty, and Woodlock and Hum-

phrey ought to be able to break the record."

Political Washington is reaching a dangerously

reckless moral level, ag regards the interests of nine-

tenths of the nation.

-$----_.

Our Glorious Government

Forty or more witnesses, whose railroad fare costs

$250 each, and whose hotel bills are mounting up-

likewise at government expense-have been brought

from Montana to Washington by the administration

in its attempt to "get" Sen. Wheeler on a technical

charge of violation of the federal leasing act. Sen.

Walsh of Montana has complained to the department

of justice that a mysteriously furnished supply of

liquor in the hotel where the prosecution witnesses

are kept has led to riotous parties which disturbed

the sleep of neighbors. J. F. Platt, the same at-

* * * ox * * x *

Listen, Los Angeles!!!

SCOTT NEARING

IS COMING

NEXT MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

GET YOUR [TICKETS

* * * * * * * *

RESOLUTIONS

Passed at the Open Forum Meeting

Feb. 22, 1925

Whereas Washington's birthday in this notoriously

lawless city of Los Angeles was celebrated by an

utterly outrageous interference of the police with

an orderly and peaceable religious meeting conduct-

ed by Rev. Robert Whitaker and Dr. Clinton Taft

of the Church of the New Social Order, at which

meeting Attorney Leo Gallagher, one of the invited.

speakers was at the outset of his quiet and alto-

gether lawful remarks dragged forcibly from the plat-

form by Police Officer Mack, without warrant and

without reason, and was subjected to the humiliation

of being carried to the Police Station in the Patrol

Wagon where he was absurdly charged with inter-

fering with a religious meeting, although the police

officer himself was the only man who had created

any disturbance, and

Whereas, this lawlessness on the part of the police

was a sequel of like lawlessness on their part on

Sunday, February 15, 1925, when more than a score

of men were similarly arrested without any decent

cause for such outrageous violence on the part of

the police, and

Whereas, it is currently reported that this whole

procedure against peaceful and orderly working

people who are exercising their guaranteed rights

within an area publicly given to free speech is due

to the instigation of certain reactionary religious

leaders in the Ministerial Union of Los Angeles who

apparently want no one to be heard. in this city who

does not shibboleth their shibboleth, now therefore

be it,

Resolved, That the Open Forum of Los Angeles,

meeting every Sunday evening in Music Art Hall

in this city, does hereby express its hearty con-

demnation of this lawlessness of the police depart-

ment, at whosesoever suggestion the thing is done,

and in particular at this desecration of Washington's

birthday in this public manner, and further be it

Resolved, That this body calls upon the Los An-

geles Ministerial Union to formally disclaim its re-

sponsibility for any such. conduct on the part of the

police, and put itself on record as emphatically on

the side of real religious freedom and equality for

everybody in religious discussion whether at: the

park or wherever general public meetings are allow-

ed. And be. it further

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be sent

to the Los Angeles Police Department, to the Minis-

terial Association of Los Angeles, and be given to the

public press.

torney whom Daugherty set on the trail of Wheeler

last spring in Montana, is in charge of the present

effort to get an indictment against the Senate in-

vestigator. Asst. Atty. Gen. Donovan, who was an-

nounced as being in charge, has stepped out of the

picture, and one Stuart, alleged to be "prominent"

in St. Paul, and a Democrat, has taken his place at

Platt's elbow. Nobody from Minnesota at the capital

seems ever to have heard of Stuart. However, the

hasty retirement of Donovan is regarded as signifi-

cant. The case ig in danger of collapse.

--Federated Press.

`be comfortable.

BRISBUNK

|

One of the greatest delusions in the world is the

over-valuation of sincerity.

think this an awful thing to say because sincerity

is so indispensable in all our social dealings, anj

so beautiful in itself. Nevertheless its value is te.

ribly over-done. A fool isn't any less a fool fo

being sincere.

enables him to get away with his folly.

How lightly nature holds sincerity we have tragic

proof every day. A woman at an Irish wake in Say

Francisco drank from a bottle of embalming fiuid

thinking it was whiskey. She was quite sincerg

about it. Also she was quite dead an hour late,

A minister in Tacoma, walking home at night, step.

ped on to what he sincerely believed was a well.

laid sidewalk. It proved to be the crumbling edge

of an unguarded excavation. He didn't intend any

harm; neither did the city. But he was an invalid

suffering excruciating agonies thereafter for years,

Nature made no more of his sincerity than as if it -

The captain of the Titanic was

had not been there.

sincere when he rammed into an iceberg in the

North Atlantic. So were those who trusted in him,

and went down with him that dreadful night. Where

hypocrisies kill-one, mistaken sincerities kill a thov.

sand. The way to hell is not only paved with good

intentions, it is bedded deep in sincerity.

The whole theory of democracy rests on an over:

valuation of sincerity. It is commonly assumed

among us that one man's opinion is just as good

as another's. But the thing is obviously absurd.

"Can you play a piano, Pat," someone asked an

Irishman. "I don't know," replied the Irishman,

"faith and I never tried." Everyone else knew hoy:

ever. Also it requires no argument to satisfy any

one of sense that the man who has had no ex:

perience in music is not equal in judgment as to

what music is with the man to whom music has been

the occupation of a lifetime.

Why should we think that a man's opinion at

any point has any more value than the measure in

which it speaks for reality? It is not a matter of

his feeling about it at all, except as that feeling

helps him to get next to the facts, or makes him

more complacent in his ignorance of them. Length

of experience, intimacy of experience, andlysis of

experience all tend to enlarge the area of a man's

response to reality. But none of these guarantee

it. The test is always the measure in which a mat

does in fact know and act upon reality.

Here is one of the objectors to a recent article in

this paper who criticizes the writer of it for his want

of "faith." But what is faith? Too often what the

small boy said about it is true, "Faith is believing

what ain't so." Probably the larger part of faith has

been just this, "believing what ain't so." Some

times the belief was in the direction of something

unrealized that was so, as in the case of Columbus.

Yet it was not his faith that saved hig voyage from

being utterly in vain, it was the fact that there was

a body of reality in the direction in which he moved.

Had his faith been wiser, that is more in accor

with facts, he would have worked less disaster both

for himself and for others.

Most of our talk about faith is BRISBUNK, thai

is high power nonsense. There have been a thou

sand failures through faith to every success. There

is much more of mischievous faith than there is of

helpful faith, except possibly for the common levels

of our daily trust in one another. And even there

it is a serious question whether most of the world's

mistakes do not grow out of our trusting our parents,

and trusting our teachers, and trusting our institu

tions when we ought to be earnestly and critically

seeking after reality.

Good people are the damnation of the world be

cause they care so much more for feeling than they

do for fact. They are sincere enough, mostly sincere

fools.

If they were as devoted to reality as they are

to respectability and good breeding the world woull

get somewhere, instead of being forever on the slip:

pery sides of the abyss.

`But it "' " {tactful to say these things. So lon

as Jeople are sincere, let them sleep. Let's kiss anl

What of it if the temperature i

dropping, and there are ice-bergs just ahead.

"On with the dance, let joy be unconfined."

How we do love-BRISBUNK.

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

"k ok a

1924 Profits Are Juicy

By Leland Olds

Federated Press Industrial Editor

Take a look at the 1924 profits of the 10 indus-

trial companies listed below and then try to figure

how long a system so top heavy with profits can

endure. These are not the profits of a boom year

put a year in which over 1,000,000 factory workers

were forced to join the large army of unemployed,

in which hundreds of thousands of. railroad men

and coal miners were laid off and the country's

monthly payroll reduced by nearly a quarter of a

billion dollars.

U. S. Steel made a 1924 net profit of $152,937,130

equal to $11.07 on each $100 share of common stock.

That common stock was originally all water, its

`present value being due entirely to the huge accumu-

Jation of undivided profits. U. S. Steel continues

its extra dividends.

Inland Steel made a net profit of $5,517,299, equal

to $16.28 on each $100 of common stock. Only in

1917 has this company made a better record and

in that year it exploited the war emergency to the

tune of $42.15 on each $100 of common stock.

United Fruit, exploiter of the slaves of Central

America, made a net profit of $17,294,208 equal to

$17.29 on each $100 of common stock. But in view

of the 100 per cent stock dividend in 1921 this means

a return of $34.58 on each $100 invested. Regular

dividends are paid at the rate of $10,000,000 or 20

per cent on the par value before the stock dividend.

The 1923 profits were so huge that 1924 dividends

were paid in advance and now that they have been

paid over again the stockholders have the equivalent

of a $10,000,000 cash bonus.

Swift and Co. made net profits of $14,125,987 equal

to $9.41 on each $100 share of common. But as

the federal trade commission discovered, the $225,-

000,000 capitalization represents less than $90,000,000

put in by investors. The remainder represents the

capitalization of profits in excess of legitimate divi-

dends. In other words Swift's profits for 1924 would

be over $20 per $100 of real investment.

National Biscuit Co. made net profits of $12,881,-

530 equal to $21.76 per $100 invested in common

stock.

Ward Baking Corporation made net profits of $4,-

369,739. The 312,714 shares of preferred stock rep-

resent the entire real investment so that the report

of $2.98 per share for each of the 500,000 shares

of Class B common stock means nearly $1,500,000

of. sheer velvet over and above the legitimate 7 per

cent dividends on preferred.

William Wrigley, spearmint king, made net profits

of $8,539,313, equal to about $57 on each $100 of

stock. The year's cash dividends were at the rate

of nearly $36 on each $100 of investment proving

that chewing is a profitable habit but not altogether

to the chewer.

Manufacturers of wearing apparel were not be-

hind the rest in profits. Hart, Shaffner and Marx

made $2,041,383, equal to $13.46 on each $100 share.

National Cloak and Suit made approximately $12 a

share, bringing the total earned on each $100 in

the last 3 years to over $38. And Endicott Johnson,

company union shoe manufacturers, made an operat-

ing profit of $6,360,518, equal to $16.08 per $100 in-

vested.

---_e-_-_-----_

WHERE ARE WE?

"It would help your friends if you would put your

proper address on your stationery. I wanted to call

at your office and no one, not even the policemen,

could tell properly where the `Tajo Bldg. was. After

being misdirected several times I quit in disgust.

This building stuff was alright 20 years ago but isa

perfect nuisance today."

AS the courts say, "Objection sustained." We are

at First and Broadway. Will the police please take

notice.

2

Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of

Columbus Hall, Los Angeles. Season ticket, with

ae months' subscription to Open Forum, One Dol-

ar.

The New Social Order

A Suggestion

By Fred K. Gillette

Towering over down town Los Angeles, is the

"Bible Institute." A fortune in oil put the great

building there, with its lofty illuminated sign to be

seen by the passing, growing throngs of the city.

When Theodore Parker, the great American liberal

preacher, lay dying in Florence, Frances Power Cobb,

Englishwoman, editor of an edition of his works,

asked him: "Is not the Bible a great book?"

With passionate effort arousing himself, he re-

plied: "Yes! When men get over the superstition

of it.' This prophetic death-bed scene in Italy, took

place but barely two generations ago, and already

we see the added growth of the superstitiion, in the

recent and pending legislation against the progress

of natural science in the public schools of the United

States.

The great world of orthodoxy, protestant and

catholic, encompassing us, based and buttressed in

the Biblical superstition that so early usurped the

place of the natural interpretation of the Hebrew and

Christian writings, is holding on with a fond death-

grip in face of growing science; that is disclosing

the attested physical and moral order of the universe,

in which the open-minded modern man is finding

himself.

Over. against the belated admixture of truth and

superstition serving as religion to the social and

business world, still prevailing around us, is the

steadily growing alienation of the economically dis-

franchised world of the workers.

They, to whom natural religion would have been

understood, now reject, with growing impatience, as

spoiled phraseology the words "Church": and. re:

ligion." To speak to this great growing host even of

natural religion, one runs the risk of being received

with a scarcely concealed impatience; or at best out

of politeness, with chilling unresponsiveness.

To such a pass, the Bible superstition has brought

us! This brings us to the purpose of this article in

the "Open Forum": The coming of the co-operative

commonwealth, the workers understood and believed -

in.

Another great building set over against the Bible

Institute (and if possible near it) carrying high in

the air the words placed at the head of this article,

the workers would understand and flock into it, as

a bee-hive center of activity of all affiliated social

workers, of the present and coming city.

Can there then be found the Founder, whether of

oil or other source of wealth, of the building for the

new departure of the workers in Los Angeles? One

who escaped in boyhood being sunday-schooled in

Bibliolatry?

SZ

KING WILLIAM JOSEPH

Washington.-If not satisfied with membership in

the Ku Klux Klan, which claims to be the Invisible

Empire, you can now join the Knights of the Flam-

ing Sword, whose subtitle is "A Division of The

Hidden Host," and bow the knee to Supreme Mon-

arch William Joseph Simmons, formerly imperial

wizard of the Klan but now running a rival show.

Copies of Simmons' "royal proclamation" have

been mailed to press correspondents in the capital,

`so that the country may know of `our devout, de-

termined intention to serve and, if need be, to

suffer" in order that the "treason" alleged against

Simmons by the Klan management may prevail. A

special pamphlet reciting the illustrious deeds of

"traitors" such as Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Lin-

coln and Simmons, is sent along with the proclama-

tion, with the royal compliments.

In the proclamation, King William Joseph assails

commercial greed, religious doubt, economic uneasi-

ness and social confusion, "together with the per-

nicious propaganda and insidious influences of alien

and Bolshevik interests," which have poisoned the

nation.

Federated Press.

Constitutionality Of

Criminal Syndicalism

Laws

By R. W. Henderson

Statutes aimed against industrial and social propa-

ganda of a radical character were adopted in some-

thing like half of the states of the Union during' the

World War and the two succeeding years. The

acts are variously referred to as "overthrow,"

"Criminal Syndicalism," and "Sabotage" laws. Their

constitutionality has been passed upon by the highest

courts in twelve states. The New Mexico Supreme

Court, in the case of State vs. Jack Diamond held

the law of that state was unconstitutional as for-

bidding peaceable opposition to the government.

`The Supreme Court of New Jersey has invalidated

one section of the statute of that state, on the

same ground. The courts of New York, Tllinois,

Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Idaho, Washing-

ton, Oregon and California have upheld the the sta-

tutes.

The Supreme Court of the United States has not

passed on any of these acts. The case of Gitlow vs.

New York has been twice argued; but no decision

has been rendered so far. The case of Whitney vs.

California has not been argued. The cases of Burns

vs. United States, Rutherford vs. Michigan, and

Fiske vs. Kansas are in various stages of appeal to

the highest court in the land. The general question

in all of these cases is whether this new species of

criminal law is so vague and uncertain as to

punish many utterances which come within the con-

stitutional guaranty of free speech. The most im-

portant secondary question is whether a law can

constitutionally be passed holding every member of

an organization or a meeting responsibile for prin-

ciples in which he has not acquiesced or of which

he has not known. The very essence of civil liberty

is at stake in these cases.

a

GET BEHIND THE PRESIDENT

By Laurence Todd

(Federated Press Staff Writer)

Washington-Cal. Coolidge's hobby-horse, present-

ed to him by Dwight Morrow, partner in the banking

house of Morgan and Co., was a deep dread secret of

the presidential dressing chamber until the Cautious

One attempted one of his official denials by pressing

the Stop and Gallop buttons at the same instant.

Then, whether for lack of oil or other reasons, the

electric-power-fed beast went smash, and was sent

to the navy yard shops for repairs. A mechanic

possessing a sense of humor on the issue of economy

gave a hint to a newspaper, and the story broke

out on front pages all over the country. Millions

of robust Americans laughed at the imaginary pic-

ture of this purse-lipped little man, clad in under-

clothes and dressing gown, solemnly riding a rocking

horse in his own room, and possibly casting suspici-

ous glances at the walls and ceiling for stray wit-

nesses of his frivolity.

There is in Washington this winter a former

vrogressive writer who has seemingly undertaken

to explain away, apologize for, or boldly deny as

untrue and blasphemous, anything and everything

spoken or written in disparagement of the glory of

Coolidge, Hughes, Dawes, Longworth, the Italian

fascist ambassador, Stone, Warren, and so on ad in-

finitum. He has outdone even Sen. Spencer of

Missouri, whom Jim Reed declared to be worthy of

a tombstone inscribed with the names of Daugherty,

Fall, and the rest of the men whom he whitewashed,

with the legend: `He found no wrong anywhere."

Upon this court apologist, who has just assured a

credulous public that Warren is white as snow and

that Coolidge is innocent of ill intent toward Sen.

Wheeler, the burden of hushing up the laughter of

America at the hobby-horse will logically fall.

And when the ingenuity of the whole administra-

tion has been expressed in this blast of anti-laughter

publicity, the society columns of Washington news-

papers will tell the world who gave a tea or a party

in grateful acknowledgement.

paar CCE TE SATE MK NRG

et Se ae

Srisnande as " a - --

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836.

MANAGING EDITORS

Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft

LITERARY EDITOR

Esther Yarnell

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman

Doremus Scudder

Ethelwyn Mills

Fanny Bixby Spencer

Leo Gallagher

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

Two Cents Each.

Advertising Rates on Request.

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

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, FEB. 28, 1925

COMING EVENTS

KK KR BK KK Kk

Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of

Columbus Hall, Los Angeles. Season ticket, with

three months' subscription to Open Forum, One Dol-

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Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

South Broadway, Sunday evening at 7-30 o'clock.

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At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

All are Invited to Attend

Geo. McCarthy and J. Eads How, Committee

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OPEN FORUM every Saturday evening at 8:00 P.M.

I.W.W. HALL, 224 S. Spring Street, Room 218. In-

teresting Speakers-Interesting Subjects.

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PROLETARIAN FORUM

Every Sunday at 8 P. M.

ODD FELLOWS HALL

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Questions and Discussion Freely Invited

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Hear Scott Nearing, March 2, 3, 4 at Knights of

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EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION

At Eight O'clock

A Free Education is Offered at

EDUCATIONAL CENTER

By Industrial Workers of the World

HEALTH TALKS: The entire field of health, all

isms, fads, cures, and common sense of health

matters are being covered in a series of Lectures,

being delivered every Tuesday night. No Admis-

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Program for Ensuing Month Announced Soon

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PROGRAM FOR MARCH, 1925

March 2-"The Radical as a Religionist" by Frank

Reed.

March 9-``The Influence of Nietzche on Modern

Thought" by E. A. Cantrell.

March 16-"Starving on Three Meals a Day" by Dr.

Haskel Kritzer, M.D. :

March 23-`"`What is Wrong with the World?" by

Dr. Charles James.

March 30-"Gandhi-Soul Force Versus Physical

Force" by Miss Hthelwyn Mills.

A Warless World

Do We Went It? How Are We

Going To Get It?

There is a wide-spread and ever increasing demand

for a WARLESS WORLD. The demand grows in

intensity, but it grows also in complexity. - Many

who utterly repudiate pacifism are among the prom-

inent proponents now of a world that is insured

against war. The militarists themselves deny that

they are militarists and contend that theirs is the

real program of world order and world peace. The

financiers are for some manner of world organiza-

tion that will give them security against another

international holocaust. England, the center of the

world's mightiest empire, is clamoring for world

disarmament now, or the concentration of such

armament under Anglo-American control. Meanwhile

the sweep of anti-war sentiment in the realms of

religion is forcing even the churches to recognize

the disciples of moral resistance, who in growing

numbers are ready to go to prison and to death

rather than give countenance to international vio-

lence again. Finally, there is the startling phenom-

enon of the Red Army of Russia leading the labor

world in education for peace, and warring against

war not by the ordinary military methods of bloody

victories won on fields of battle in dramatically

destructive campaigns of brief duration but by a

continuous course of peaceful propaganda on behalf

of war-abandonment and the abandonment of the

economic slaughter and devastation characteristic

of our daily life under capitalism which is the chief

provocative to the violence of arms.

There are few who understand how imperative is

this issue today, how divergent and irreconcilable

are the lines of approach, and how slight is the mea-

sure of popular understanding of the facts.

Therefore THE CHURCH OF THE NEW SOCIAL

ORDER, which holds its meetings every Sunday

morning, at 10:45 o'clock in SYMPHONY HALL,

232 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California, will

devote the FIVE SUNDAY MORNINGS of March,

1925, to an extended discussion of these questions:

A WARLESS WORLD. DO WE WANT IT? HOW

ARE WE GOING TO GET IT?:

The particular subjects to be considered from Sun-

day to Sunday will follow the lines indicated in the

analysis set forth above.

March. 1. THE APPEAL TO FEAR.

March 8. The APPEAL TO FINANCE.

March 15. The APPEAL TO SUPERIOR

PEOPLHES.

March 22. THE APPEAL TO FAITH.

March 29. THE APPEAL TO SOCIAL REVOLU-

TION.

So far men have very much predominated at our

meetings, a curious commentary on the conservatism

and timidity of women. Also our attendance, like

that of other churches at this point, has been almost

exclusively made up of white people of the Caucasian

stock. We want everybody, men and women, white

and black and brown and yellow and red races, and

folks of every faith and no faith at all. A particular

invitation is extended to Negroes and to Japanese

and Chinese. Let us get together and face the facts.

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IF IT'S INSURANCE

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OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O0x00B0CLOCK

MAR. 1-`THE RACH BETWEEN EDUCATIOy

AND CATASTROPHER" by ROBERT WHITAKER

Field Sec'y of the American Civil Liberties Union, _

This subject will be treated in Mr. Whitaker's usual

vigorous, searching style. Hducators especially ar

urged to hear it. Music by MISS SOPHIE S'REN(0,

whistling soloist and pianist.

MAR. 8-"`THE KU KLUX KLAN FROM A CATH

OLIC STANDPOINT" by JOSEPH SCOTT, who

a prominent Los Angeles attorney and an official jy

the Knights of Columbus. Inasmuch as the Catholic

Church is one of the objects of offense to the kj

Kluxers it will be interesting indeed to hear hoy

Mr. Scott views the movement. Music by RUDOLPH

LIEBICH, pianist. Z

MAR. 15-`"THE LABOR PROBLEM IN INDIA'

by LENA MORROW LEWIS, for many years a plat:

form worker in behalf of socialism. Why is there

unrest anrong India's millions? What is the British

Government doing to relieve the situation? We

Americans ought to know more intimately the situa

tion in the far Hast. SANDER SHOR, violinist, will

give the musical program.

MAR. 22-"`SHOULD CAPITAL PUNISHMEN?

BE ABOLISHED?" by Attorney 8S. S. HAHN. Ther

is a new bill now before our legislature proposing

to do away with capital punishment in this state

Many are stirred up over the execution of criminals

Mr. Hahn, who is a criminal lawyer of wide experi-

ence, should be able to throw much light on this old

question. We shall have the pleasure of listening

to BERNARD COHN, a young pianist of much ability,

in the program of music preceding the address.

MAR. 29-DEBATE "RESOLVED THAT THE

ATTACKS OF THE LIBERTARIANS ON RUSSIA

ARE JUSTIFIED." The affirmative will be taken

by THOMAS BELL, and A. PLOTKIN will uphold

the negative. When two such doughty antagonists

get together the fur is sure to fly-and some ney

facts touching a long-continued controversy among

liberals will be brought out undoubtedly. MR. M

FISH will be heard in a number of Russian songs,

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