Open forum, vol. 2, no. 2 (January, 1925)

THE OPEN FORUM

and

A thing IS what it DOES. -- William James

Vol.*2:

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 10, 1925

No. 2

Sinclair

as Governor

New York, Dec. 27, 1924.

Upton Sinclair,

Pasadena, Calif.

"Governor-elect Bingham of Connecticut will serve

only one day as governor, January 7th, when he

will resign to become a United States Senator. He

plans to do nothing except go through routine of

inauguration and appoint a personal staff. The leg-

islature will be in session for that day. The WORLD

would like to know what you would do if you had

only one day as governor of Connecticut. Please

wire answer collect.

New York WORLD."

Sinclair's reply read as follows:

N. Y. WORLD

New York City.

If I were governor of a state for twenty-four hours

I would abolish the capitalist system. I would not

become governor for any other purpose, for no other

purpose is worth twenty-four hours of my time. I

would issue a proclamation declaring a state of pub-

lic emergency, owing to the fact that the great mass

of the useful workers were being exploited by a small

group of idle parasites. I would declare the great

basic industries . ~70x00B0-state: incitding rairoads, ei-

egraphs, telephones, gas, light, power and all banks

to be the property of the state, to be administered

from that hour by executive boards composed of

representatives of the state, of the organized workers,

and of the managing and technical staffs. All pres-

ent boards of directors would be dispossessed ; stock-

holders would receive compensation for the actual

physical value of the properties, the compensation

to be in state bonds to be paid out of future profits.

All technical managers would have their salaries at

once doubled, in order to make certain of their

loyalty during the critical transition days. Depos-

itors in banks would receive their actual investments

in state bonds; the funds of the socialized banks

would be used to finance the transition emergencies.

The: police power of the state would defend the new

executive committees in their management of the

newly acquired properties. Being once in possession,

the people would not easily be put out-at least not

if they had any conception of fundamental Amer-

icanism, and the revolutionary principles of our fore-

fathers. I point out that all this is entirely consti-

tutional; it is nothing but martial law, which the

capitalist class has declared a thousand times when

it has wished to put down strikes of the workers.

UPTON SINCLAIR.

----_----_e-_-___-_-

Judge Bledsoe orders an investigation of alleged

third degree work by officials in the treatment of

federal prisoners. The judge is quoted to the effect

that "somebody will lose his job" if choking and

beating of prisoners be substantiated. Nobody ap-

parently cares much how prisoners are treated in

jail. Every police reporter in the country knows

that police frequently punish prisoners with violent

physical force. It usually is pretty safe to batter

up a prisoner. He has little or no recourse din jail

and after he comes out he may not wish to tell

people about it, and if he does, not much attention

is paid to him.

-Los Angeles Record.

1

; One of the most pitiful things about the churches

is the way in which the plain teachings of Jesus

are set aside without the quiver of an eyelash when

there is some selfish interest to subserve, while every

letter of even dubious interpretation is insisted upon

with sanctimonious rigidity when the question is

one of a bit of ceremony or ecclesiastical custom.

Doll- House Prayers

There was a great fire in a great city. Men of

means losing the accumulations of years, food,

clothing, books, treasures of art, all were ruthlessly

swept away. Factories where thousands of workers

earned their livelihood were soon smouldering heaps

of ruins. Homes were consumed like wisps of straw,

and their residents, men, women, and children were

driven unsheltered into the streets. It was a dark

and desperate day, illumined with red glare of the

flames, and with the fine courage of those who risked

their own lives to save the lives and properties

of others.

In the city there was a little girl, a favored child,

whose fond father had made her a pretty play-

house, for herself and her dolls. The little girl

gaw the smoke of the great fire, heard the shout-

ings of the people who ran through the streets, and

was afraid for her doll-house. So because she was

a good little girl, and had been taught to pray, she

got her little girl friends around her, and they

prayed that God would put the fire out, or so direct

it that the doll-house would be spared. And the

doll-house was saved. And the little girl's Sunday

School teacher praised her because she had shown

such faith in prayer.

The great coal strike was on. Hundreds of thou-

sands of men, deeply stirred with wrongs they could

no longer endure, had lain down their tools and

at the cost of their daily wages had withdrawn from

work. There was much suffering among them, which

theys-bore fur-each otters' sake. wide-

spread suffering elsewhere, for it was December,

and a fuel famine was already on. Factories were

closing and throwing other thousands out of work,

schools were compelled to shut their doors, and

in the homes of the poor especially the aged and

the enfeebled were in danger of freezing to death.

There was

Now it. happened that a Convention of Christian

Young Men had been called. There was danger

that ghe Convention could not be held for lack of

fuel to warm the building where the meetings were

to be. So groups of the young men met in prayer,

twice every day, earnestly asking God that the

coal strike might not interfere with their plans

which looked so promising. And it was even so,

for the coal strike was "compromised" before the

days of the Christian Young Men's Convention had

come. Whereupon the young men rejoiced with each

other for their faith in prayer, and their secretaries

wrote, "We truly have come a long way spiritually,

and we are hoping to go much, much further."

So the toilers underground who had risked their

little all that they might ameliorate each other's

conditions went back to the bondage wherein they

had slaved for an unconcerned Christian public,

all these many years, and the coal barons proceeded

to pile up more millions out of which to spare a

few thousands now and then for various and sundry

Christian Associations of young men.

And the little girl, who was at least innocent of

having either started or apologized for the fire,

thanked God for her doll-house. And the young men

thanked God for the fine Convention they had held.

R. W.

-- 2

This is the tragedy of the centuries

That every good cause

In its own generation

Has had to fight its way forward

Against the passive indifference, at least,

Of most of those who were its beneficiaries,

And against the active opposition

Of many of the eminently intelligent,

Vigorously moral,

And sincerely religious people of the day.

And this also is the deepest tragedy of our own

times. -R. W.

a

There are long reaches of the commonplace be-

tween the high peaks of every heroic life.

Child Labor

Must Go

By Kate Crane Gartz

The other day I was horrified to hear the secre-

tary of the Los Angeles Woman's City Club-Mrs.

Davis, who admitted she was a parent and a teacher

-gtand up and defend child labor. And that, after

listening to Helen Todd tell of the terrible condi-

tions under which children work in mines, mills

and factories!

For 25 years I have watched and waited for re-

sults of the efforts of Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop,

Florence Kelley and Helen Todd in their child wel-

fare work, and we still have the problem with us.

If there is a more terrible indictment of our 100%

Americanism, I should like to know what it is.

Nothing except war! I can never be patient or

patriotic until these black crimes are written off

our books. I want a country of which I can be

proud, all along the line; so that I can stand up and

wave the flag and sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

remember when the Government, under

Taft, after much pleading allowed Julia

$75,000 a year for a "Children's Bureau."

We had had a "pig's bureau," and an "agricultural

bureau" for which we allow many millions. But

only a few thousand for education-I suppose it

would be "unconstitutional" to give more! Our

children are left to the mercy of factory owners,

headed by the National Association of Manufactur-

ers, which is waging war against the proposed Fed-

eral amendment to prohibit child labor.

In 1860 we of the North demanded the freedom

of the slaves in the South and fought a disastrous

war for it; isn't it time we demanded the freedom

of little children, everywhere, now? It seems to

be up to the radicals to fight the battles for humani-

ty, and to counteract the perfidy of conservative and

recationaries who wage wars for commerce and

imperialism, and mow down our children in doing

so.

re can

William

Lathrop

The Full Dinner Pail

NEW YORK.-When Wall Street balanced books

last Saturday night it found that $3,000,000,000 had

been added to the market value of the securities

listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Of this, at least $1,000,000,000 went to the rail-

roads.

* * *

WASHINGTON.-Prices are going up and the

value of the dollar is going down, according to No-

vember wholesale price statistics issued by the U.

S. department of labor. The report shows the general

average of wholesale prices 52.7% above 1913 com-

pared with 51.9% in October and 44.6% in June.

This means an increase of more than 544% in the

last five months.

Food prices were 144% higher in November than

in October and 1314% higher than in June. The in-

creases from October to November in the prices of

clothing materials, metals, chemicals and drugs were

all more than 1%.

The wholesale price level is also slightly higher

than in November, 1923. Yet there is an increasing

volume of wage decreases. Textile workers facing

a deluge of wage cuts are noting that the prices of

clothing materials are among the leaders in the up-

ward movement.

-Federated Press.

tt

The notion that you can better serve men by giv-

ing them sugar-coated attenuations of your convic-

tions is a notion which ought not to be so much as

suggested to a real public teacher.

(RR ag aR a SF

: " ss

ee eS . , - a

BRISBUNK

"As the old year died away there were many signs

of prosperity,' remarks Arthur Brisbane in his

"Today" for January 1, 1925. "Stocks and bonds,

wheat, corn, cotton and copper were all going up

when the bell rang and 1924 dropped into the grave.

The right mental attitude, plus common sense, will

keep things going up through 1925. The President's

excellent supply of New England common sense will

help. May he live long and prosper."

Was there ever a paragraph penned, unless by

Brisbane himself, which had in it more of contemp-

tible flunkeyism and shallow economic reasoning

than this? When you read that passage carefully it

is enough to make a man wish that when "1924

dropped into his grave" he had taken with him more

company than he did. We are carrying over into

1925 frightful liabilities in the newspaper world.

"The right mental attitude, plus common sense."

Just what is the distinction then between common

sense and a mental attitude? And the President's

"New England common sense," how does that differ

from common sense in New York or the New Hebri-

des or New Zealand, or anywhere else? Was that

the common sense that led Massachusetts recently

to vote down the Child Labor Amendment to the

Constitution by a vote of three to one in favor of

child slavery? Is it that kind of common sense

which has made New England the favorite picking

ground of Presidential nobodies in the two great

crises of our national history within the memory of

living men? Is it common sense, of New England

brand or any other real brand, which keeps "stocks

and bonds, (notice the order), wheat, corn, cotton

and copper, going up" when all of these which the

common people ever had in their own hands have

safely passed into the hands of the manipulators and

monoplists? And the "prosperity" of which there

were so "many signs," in the last days of 1924,

whose was it, that of the working people of the

United States, or that of the financial pirates who

have looted the people to the tune of literally bil-

_ lions of dollars since the election of Calvin Coolidge

gave them the signal to go im and get the goods at

their own sweet will? When one thinks of this as

an exhibit of "New England common sense" three

centuries after the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plym-

out Rock it is hard not to sympathize with the man

who lamented that Plymouth Rock had not landed

on the Pilgrim Fathers before they got us into this

mess.

This sickening worship of prosperity, and of the

"common sense" which is quiet, moderate, reserved,

and proper, while the spoilers of men and nations

build up their rotten temples and palaces of finance

to the point where they collapse and carry whole

civilzations with them, has always posed as some

great thing which only the reckless and the extrava-

gant in speech would gainsay. Doubtless our words

will be so regarded by the worshippers of the "safe

and sane" today. If we are prosperous, ag the mighty

count prosperity, is not that enough? You can tell

the people something in times of hardship and

panic and obvious financial confusion and loss. But

whoever told them anything as long as things were

going prosperously, however rotten with social in-

justice and the promise of common disaster the

prosperity was?

The year 1925 is not going to be a prosperous year

in the United States, from the viewpoint of any

real prosperity for the great body of the work-a-day

people of the land. The crew who are in the saddle

here may spare us something from their exploiting

of the earth. But even at this point our money

masters have not the sense to divide with the

common people of the country as generously as they

could well afford to do, as a purely defensive policy

on their part. Perhaps it is fortunate that such

is the case. If the crusts tossed to us from their

tables were a little more liberal in size and quality

we might be willing to overlook indefinitely the

world stealings out of which their charity to home

labor comes. -

Real prosperity is not here, and is not coming

to us until we seek it on the lines of a real pros-

perity for all the peoples of all lands and every

blood. And those who like Brisbane, preach to you

the self-complacencies of a shallow satisfaction with

things as they are in the United States are, fittingly

enough, the very people who are urging us to spend

our substance in getting ready to fight it out with

all the earth.

Free Press Policy

By Doremus Scudder

Many thanks to Judge Ryckman for proposing

the question of Open Forum policy, and also for his

nine propositions. His succinct suggestion of the

objectives at which a distinct policy should aim

holds within itself one ofthe best evidences of the

wisdom of a truth seeking and truth telling journal's

determination to keep out of the policy business.

If it is the highest duty of a man to maintain an

open mind on all questions why not a newspaper's?

The trouble with nearly every paper in this country

is "the closed mind'-its policy. Journals, whose

pages are on the qui vive for new views of truth or '

for views which are offered as candidates for that

evanescent crown, which we dub truth, are the great-

est desideratum of our day. Such a paper might

with perfect loyalty to truth advocate one proposition

today and then convinced by experience or further

consideration champion its opposite tomorrow and

never lose caste but only gain in the estimation

of all honest souls.

Take Judge Ryckman's nine propositions. Coula

the editorial personnel of the Open Forum agree

upon all of them as worthy of a place in the social

program demanded for today? The third for ex-

ample. What is meant by the "products of labor?"

The phrase bristles with differing definitions over

which the best of men will fight one another to a

finish. Then again there is the proposal to substi-

tute functional for regional representation in our

legislatures. Even among believers in this change

the question of how to get at it fairly swarms with

debatable solutions.

The Judge's proposal raises the inquiry: What is

the essential nature of a free press, and in raising

it answers it. A trade paper or a propaganda peri-

odical is not free. It must stick to its job which

is to win converts to its special ism and that task

is on the whole a healthful one, namely to help

people to detect the truth or fallacy in its special

hobby. This is done best when it is free to talk

itself out. In America these ism sheets, especially

those whose ism it is to make money, have invaded

the. realm. ofthe ves press.and haxe..begun~ to

dream that they can suppress those who do not

agree with them by majority power. That is per-

haps the greatest menace in our national life today-

the suppression of "dangerous thoughts" as the

Government of Japan puts it. The only way to sup-

press really dangerous thoughts is to let them loose.

Free air will kill them. What liberal papers most

need to do today is to make impossible the charge

of propaganda against them, to be free, to serve as a

platform for discussion, in themselves to dmon-

strate that the Right to freedom of the press is one

great essential of liberty. That is the sphere of

the Open Forum and that becomes impossible as

soon as the paper ties itself down to a practical

program which it wishes to put over. In other words

an ideal paper must be a mirror in which the thought

of the day is honestly reflected, conservative

thought, liberal thought, reactionary and radical

thought. If our daily press were thus free most of

our national difficulties would gradually resolve

themselves into wisely solved problems.

Meantime Judge Ryckman's article renders a real

service in proposing debate upon the question, What

sort of a platform should a Progressive party in

American political life propose. The last election

emphasized what the conflict of 1912 also suggested

that a progressive platform should not be too in-

clusive, that it should propose advance steps which

are takable and not get too far ahead of the think-

ing of the people. What is the irreducible minimum

demanded of such a party? Or should it be content

to be always ahead and gradually pull its conserva-

tive rival along to better things while remaining

itself out of office? :

One misses from Judge Ryckman's list of proposi-

tions, first and most essential, a proposal covering.

the demands of the international spirit, second, Goy-

ernment ownership of natural resources, and third,

reform of our system of justice. Inasmuch as free

trade is the most tabued and at the same time most

essential step toward "No more war," "How aim at

it" has become as fundamental an issue as our

nation faces. The Republican appeals locally to the

selfishness of Southern California were perhaps the

most noticeable and the most efficacious pleas in the

recent campaign here. The electorate must be edu-

cated to bonafide self denial before ever free trade

will be possible in America. Must that come through

armed or economic conflict or both or through de-

veloped conscience? To a consideration of all of

which the Judge has invited us. Whence our grat-

itude to him.

THE VIOLENCE

OF THE RESPECTABLE

--|

Some of the patriotic orders published last yea;

as a New Year greeting words from Mark Twain

and other eminent Americans, that seemed to fit iy

with the spirit and purposes of these organizations

The Federated Press comes back with a New Yea;

greeting for 1925 in which the following passages

mainly from Mark Twain are given.

* * *

A Prayer for Christian Militarists

Mark Twain said of this prayer, "I have told the

whole truth in that and only dead men can tell the

whole truth in this world. It can be publishei

after I am dead." `

And it was.

"QO Lord our God, help -us to tear their soldiers

to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover

their shining fields with the pale forms of their

patriotic dead; help us to drown the thunder of .

the guns with the cries of the wounded, writhing

in pain; help us to lay waste their humble home

with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts

of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;

help us to turn them out roofless, with their little

children to wander unfriended through wastes of the

desolated lands, in rags and hunger and thirst, sport

of the sun, flames of summer and the icy winds of

winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, implor.

ing Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-

for our sakes, who adore Thee Lord, blast their hopes,

blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage,

make heavy their steps, water their way with tears,

stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded

feet! We ask of One who is the spirit of love and

.who is the ever faithful refuge and friend of all

that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and

contrite hearts. Grant our prayer, O Lord, and Thine

shall be the praise and honor and glory now and

ever. Amen."

* * *

Christian Efficiency

"Now," said Satan, "you have seen your progress

down to the present, and you must confess that it is

wanderful-in its way. We must now exhibit the.

future." ***** "Cain dids-his- Ger with a club;

the Hebrews did their murders with javelins and

swords; the Greeks and Romans added protective

armor and the fine arts of military organization and

generalship; the Christian has added guns and gun-

powder; a few centuries from now he will have so

greatly improved the deadly effectiveness of his

weapons of slaughter that all men will confess that

without Christian civilization war must have re-

mained a poor and trifling thing to the end of time."

+ ree ol Ve Or Six thousand years five or six

high civilizations have risen, flourished, commanded

the wonder of the world, then faded out and dis-

appeared; and not one of them except the latest ever

invented any sweeping and adequate way to kill peo-

ple. They did their best-to kill being the chiefest

ambition of the human race and the earliest incident

in its history-but only the Christian Civilization has

scored a triumph to be proud of. Two or three cen-

turies from now it will be recognized that all the

competent killers are Christians; then the pagan

world will go to school to the Christian-not to ac

quire his religion, but his guns. The Turk and the

Chinaman will buy those to kill missionaries and ~

converts with."'

-from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger."

* * *

``Parlor Provocateur'"'

A couple of years ago, in a California city, a din-

ner was held at which were present prominent Amer-

ican and Japanese business men. A few days later

the local post of the American Legion adopted the

following resolution:

"RESOLVED, That we look with disfavor and:

disapproval upon any gathering intended to promote

GOOD FELLOWSHIP and social affiliation between

the Japanese and our own people."

* % *

A Soldier Speaks

Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough

The land and not the sea,

And leave the soldiers at their drill,

And all about the idle hill

Shepherd your sheep with me.

Oh stay with company and mirth

And daylight and the air;

Too full already is the grave

Of fellows that were good and brave

And died because they were.

-From "LAST POEMS"

By A.B: Housman, author of

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

"K * *K 8

From the Other Side

of the Pacific

Federated Press Service

JE peo

Declare Against War

By W. Francis Ahern

MELBOURNE, Australia-At a huge antiwar

demonstration in Melbourne, the principal speaker

was Labor premier Prendergast of Victoria who said

that wars were invented to make greater wealth

for the capitalists. He stated that the masses had

never gained from the war, but merely became the

machines of massacre.

The following resolution carried unanimously:

"This demonstration of Australian citizens, rep-

resenting the majority of the people in this country,

sends forth our fraternal greetings to the people of

all other countries, and declares our determination

to join hands and hearts with them in the great fight

to abolish militarism and war, believing that justice

and freedom can only be achieved and maintained

through permanent international peace

"Believing that the manufacture of naval and

military arms and equipment is a certain incentive

to war, this mass meeting of citizens joins in calling

upon the governments of all countries to give im-

mediate effect to a policy of complete disarmament.

"Believing that any constructive effort to create

the necessary antiwar psychology must pay atten-

tion to the education of the children as well as

adults, we therefore call upon all governments to

discourage the policy of war glorification and nav-

al and military hero worship through the columns of

the textbooks and school papers of.our country, and

substitute in its place the fostering of the spirit of

international peace."

i

Prefer Fines to Drill

WELLINGTON, New Zealand.-The unpopularity

of the compulsory Defense training scheme for boys

in New Zealand is shown by the fact that during the

second week of October, 54 boys were brought be-

fore the courts and charged for evading the com-

pulsory drills. All were fined.

Since the compulsory defense act became law in

New Zealand the number of convictions for. offences

against the provisions of this law total something in

the vicinity of 30,000, and periodically, when the

, Magistrates are particularly bilious, there is a fury

of disfranchisements in addition to the usual pains

and penalties

If familiarizing lads with the courts is an evid-

ence of popular approval of the law, the defense act

is the most successful measure on the New Zealand

statute book. There is certainly little else to com-

mend it,

On all hands, the act is regarded as a nuisance

and a farce. It is an extravagant device, not for

providing defense-it is a howling joke in this res-

pect-but for harrying young folk for the benefit

of brass hats for whom more useful occupations

should be found.

we

Church for Peace Now

SYDNEY, Australia.-At the annual conference of

the Congregational Church Union, held at Sydney, it

was decided as a general principle that war, as a

method of settling international disputes `or for na-

tional aggression and aggrandisement, is opposed

to the spirit and teaching of Christianity and there-

fore stands condemned in the eyes of all who are in

Sympathy with that spirit and teaching.

The Conference asked the state governments to

make provision in the school curriculums for definite

instruction in the principles of peace and _ inter-

national relations, also that the federal government

appoint a peace committee, which shall act as a pub-

licity bureau for the Commonwealth in the interests

_ of peace.

BORAH PROPOSES A PLAN

FOR WORLD PEACE

Senator Borah of Idaho, now holding the impor-

tan post of Chairman of the Foreign Relations Com-

mittee in the United States Senate, recently has set

forth both the fiasco of international relations which

is going on under all our present peace talk, and

what he considers to be the primary factors in a real

world peace program.

"To talk of leagues and courts while pursuing a

deliberate policy of violence and vengeance," Senator

Borah declared, "is to trifle with greatest prob-

lem now before us for settlement.

"We confine our love of peace to paper, our war

spirit find its expression in deeds. We profess friend-

ship and practice vengeance. Under such policies

and practices, leagues and courts not only prove in-

effective, but hope sickens and the morale of the

whole human family is broken and demoralized.

"There is no hope for peace," he asserted, "so long

as great powers will that there shall be no peace."

He listed a number of international incidents since

the World War which he said have involved `a resort

to violence and force upon the part of great and

powerful nations against the unarmed and helpless."

Among the incidents cited were Nicaragua, Vera

Cruz, Santo Domingo, Amritsar, the Ruhr, Corfu and

Hgypt.

"In all these instances,' the Idaho Senator said,

"the aggressor nation was strong enough to have

invoked conciliation, adjustment and arbitration and

thus have set examples and established precedents of

more value to the cause of peace than any peace

plan."

He suggested that the phrase, `"Outlawry of War,"

be dropped for "substitution of law and judicial tribu-

nals in international affairs."

The plan should be considered, he said, as three

separate propositions:

Creation of a body of international law, involving

-"eoing as far as humanly possible to reduce inter-

national relations to established rules of conduct.

"Hstablishment of an independent tribunal with

jurisdiction and power to determine all controversies

involving construction of international law _ or

treaties; and

"Declaring by said tribunal that war is a crime

no longer to be recognized at any time as a legitimate

instrument for settlement of international disputes.

"In other words,' said Senator Borah, "if war

`comes, it must be without the shield or sanction of

law, but in violation of it, as piracy or slavery, or

peonage, or murder."

ee

One of the commonest mistakes in the world, and

one of the most mischievous is the notion. that

social progress is in danger of moving too fast. The

truth is that no civilization has ever moved fast

enough to avert the catclysm, and there is no indi-

cation that our own civilization is going to be any

exception to the rule. Conservatism always holds

back till the whirlwinds of destruction are let loose.

Australian Labor Votes Against War

MELBOURNE, Australia.-At the All-Australian

congress of the Australian Labor Party, held at Mel-

bourne, the following important resolution was

carried unanimously:

"That this conference, convinced that with an-

other great war the horrors and terrors of the last

war will be eclipsed affirms it to be the duty of the

Australian Labor movement to declare that under no

circumstances should the workers take up arms in

the interests of international rivalries, but, instead,

join with the workers of all countries in striving

wholeheartedly for peace by international action."

It was also decided that the Australian Labor party

shall convene a Pan-Pacific conference in Japan in

order to promote a closer understanding of the labor

movements in the countries bordering the Pacific

ocean.

ok

Who is My Neighbor?

A little book has recently appeared under the

title, "And Who Is My Neighbor?" which deals very

graphically with the Phariseeism of our reactions

here in the United States to the "foreigner," though

foreigners but a little ways removed we all are our-

selves. The Christian Century culls these incidents,

from the book, which we gladly pass on.

3 * * a

An elderly teacher, born in Russia, was teaching

algebra and Russian in a private school when the

place was raided by agents of the department of

justice. The man was so viciously beaten that he

received a fracture of the head, left shoulder, and

right side. But the same people who had thus vic-

timized him released him after he had been taken

to their headquarters for examination.

* * * *

A professional visitor found a young married

woman, a Russian Jewess, living in a quarter largely

inhabited by Gentiles. The girl was desperately

lonely, and about to become a mother. The visitor

advised her, in case of sudden need, to ask one of her

neighbors to telephone for help. ``There isn't anyone

to call,' she answered; `all the people who live

around here are Christians."

* * * *

A representative of a government bureau was lec-

turing to Russians in a Pennsylvania city on "Abra-

ham Lincoln and American Democracy." Because

he spoke in Russian he was put in jail, and it took

the government itself 36 hours to' free him. Nor

would the mayor then allow the delivery of the

lecture. -

* * * *

A colored man from the north was convalescing

in a hospital in a southern city. Allowed to go for

a short walk, he passed slowly along the street

steadying himself by holding the fence. "Ks a wiite

man passed he unintentionally and lightly brushed .

against his coat. The colored man took off his hat,

bowed and exclaimed, "I beg your pardon, sir.' The

white man vehemently cursed him. Southern Negroes

assured him that there would have been no trouble

if, instead of using the correct social form, he had

said, `"'Scuse me, boss, 'scuse me!"

* * * *

An Italian was thrown into jail, charged with

murder. He denied the charge, and was terribly

beaten by the police. After two nights of such

beating, he was found hanging in his cell, and sui-

cide was reported. The public health commissioner

said when examining the body that the man had

been beaten to death. Nothing was done about it;

the man's wife and child were left in destitution.

* * * *

A Negro physician, after complete training, re-

turned to the town in which he had grown up and

began practice among his own race. The other

medical men in the town told him to leave, and he

felt that he had no alternative but to go.

* * * oe

A Jewish doctor undertook to take his interne's

training in a hospital with anti-Semitic traditions.

He was made the butt of all sorts of insults, until

he was finally driven out. Nor were such references

given him as would make possible admission into

another hospital. His professional career was there-

fore abandoned.

* ok * *

An East Indian applied for a room in a dormitory

of the university where he was a student. He was

told that there was a rule against giving such

quarters to foreign students. Later he found there

was no such rule. College authorities refused to

answer the letter he wrote concerning the matter.

He left the school in disgust.

* * * *

The American-born wife of an American of Italian

birth was snubbed in a San Francisco hotel by an

American woman with whom she had previously been

friendly. The cause turned out to be her having

given dramatic lessons to a Japanese girl of marked

talent.

* * * *

Another young Hast Indian was turned away from

the public library of a southern city. He explained

his race, and stated that he was a university grad-

uate, but the chief librarian warned him against

coming to the library again.

E. M.

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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

Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Ethelwyn Mills

Upton Sinclair

Leo Gallagher

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

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1925

TO A REDWOOD

By Jim Seymour

Lone, misplanted redwood of the arid lands, whose

foliage warded off the scorching sun and cooled my

throbbing brain; whose fallen needles, blunt and

sharp, have gently pricked me on to further effort;

whose lofty top has climbed, is climbing, slowly, sure-

ly, serenely, toward the firmament of dawn, of justice

sure to be; whose roots are woven, deep beneath the

cowing surface parch, with vitalizing moisture of a

stratum dimly felt; whose dreamy barcarole, power-

fully sweet and melodious, has floated down from

heights of future brightness, bearing lyric wonder-

tales of crystal springs beneath the dust:

"Through a thousand years and more the battles

cruel rage; blighting flames in anger roar, my mil-

lion swords engage. Dig, oh dig, with zeal un-

flagging, for the streams below; scorn fatigue and

comrades' lagging, scorn sirocco's blow; note that

here I stand-how I have grown since birth; life

`may but exyand from roots within the earth. Dig,

oh dig for lfe's streams; dig, oh dig for your dreams

-iear the dying calling."

I dig.

a

COMING EVENTS |

KR OK KOR a OK KEK

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

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

rs

At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

January 11th, "Unemployment and the Law"

Jno. X. Kelly and Others

January 18, "The Rise of Industrial Democracy"

J. C. Coleman, Dr. R. Kirchner

January 25, "Life, Labor and Dramatic Art"

Chas. James and Tom Longthorp

All are Invited to Attend ~

Geo. McCarthy and J. Eads How, Committee

os

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.

Subjects for the Month

Jan. LO--Hrench Syndicalism.2.2. Tom Bell

Jan. 17-"Things as They Are'. Robert Whitaker

Jan. 24-Non-resistance-a Revolutionary

Theory L. J. Greene

--_---

FREE WORKERS FORUM-FOLK SCHULE,

420 North Soto St., Los Angeles

Jan. 12-Place of Karl. Marx in the Labor

Movement G. Evans

Jan. 19-Nature's Way of Turning Disease Into

TO AN psec gen D. J. Haskell Kutzer M.D. .

Jan. 26-The Fetich of Liberty___.__.. Robert: Whitaker

a 2

When a man is a fool he doesn't have to advertise

the fact. But he usually does, and pays for space.

Linotyping and press work done in Union

Shops. The make-up is our own.

YOU NEXT

By Attorney R. W. Henderson

The court battles that have raged around the

prosecutions of members of the I. W. W. in this state

are apt to be thought of as primarily affecting that

militant organization and its members. An article

in the California Law Review for November, 1924,

points out that the attempt to substitute proceedings

for contempt for the Criminal Syndicalism law, un-

der the famous Busick injunction, is no more than

the most extreme point in a general and dangerous

movement to substitute courts of equity for the reg-

ular procedure of the criminal courts. Organized

labor had long recognized the danger of the use of

the power of courts to enjoin.

The conviction of Tom Connors for an alleged at-

tempt to corrupt a juror, because of certain litera-

ture' which the office of which he was in charge

issued concerning the injustice of the operation of

the Criminal Syndicalism Law, was an attempt to

prevent any public discussion of any law which was

being applied in the courts. In the past two years,

labor editors-editors of A. F. of L. papers-have

been prosecuted for contempt for criticising certain

judges in connection with pending litigation. The

reversal of the Connors case is a distinct victory for

freedom. Its affirmance would have established a

precedent which would soon have been applied to

others than members of the I. W. W.

That vague and fearful thing called conspiracy

has formed the basis of the most important prosecu-

tions of members of labor organizations for two cen-

turies. In the Criminal Syndicalism trials all over

the country, the prosecuting attorneys have con-

tended that the conspiracies charged were of such a

nature that the ordinary rules of evidence should be

extended in their favor. The majority of trial judges

have seemed to agree with them.

Fortunately, the appellate courts of California, as

well as those of other states, have checked the appli-

cations of this new rule.

The big question under the Criminal Syndicalism

law concerns itself with whether criminal knowledge

and criminal intent must be shown to establish guilt.

On this question, two of our District Courts of Ap-

peal have met in head-on collision. It is now up to

the state Supreme Court to settle the matter. If our

Supreme Court follows the Sacramento District

Court of Appeal, a most serious innovation will have

been established. If our highest court over-rules the

reversal in the McClennegen case, it will not be long

before every member of a labor union will be held

responsible for every crime of any fellow member

independently of their guilty knowledge or intent.

The above questions are all technical and not

readily understood by those unlearned in the law;

but the prosecutions of the I. W. W. in California

must be considered not primarily as an attempt to

destroy a radical and unpopular organization. Those

prosecutions are significant because they have been

based upon an attempt to establish as part of our

law principles which if legally sanctioned can be

applied against all labor organizations whose activi-

ties threaten vested interests. The injunctive power

has been dangerously extended; the rules of evi-

dence have been but slightly warped. The attempt

to throttle public discussion has failed. The ques-

tion as to the extension of the doctrine that crime

may be committed without any guilty knowledge or

intent is still undecided.

----h-___-_

Church of the New Social Order

Walker Auditorium, Cleveland Hall

730 So. Grand

Sunday Morning Service: 10:45 o'clock

January 11-RELIGION AND SCIENCE, A Study

of Miracles.

January 13-SAMSON AND THE PHYSICAL

CULTURE FAD

January 25-JONAH AND THE PRODIGAL SON,

A Study in Religious Exclusiveness.

Services open at 10:45 A. M. Come early if you

want to get a seat.

FREE VIOLIN LESSONS

To Talented Children of Parents who

are unable to pay

MAX AMSTERDAM

Prominent Violin Teacher and Soloist

2406 Temple St. - - "= "= - -"" DRexel 9068

Reasonable Rates to Beginners

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

JAN. 11-"SHALL WE GIVE THE NEGROES OF

THIS COUNTRY A SQUARE DEAL?" There will

be two speakers, MRS. LILLIAN WILLIS on "FUN-

DAMENTAL WRONGS," and DR. H. C. HUDSON on

"THE DIFFICULTIES AND HOPES OF THE NE:

GROHS." The latter is the newly-elected president of

the local branch of The National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People. Both are excel-

lent speakers and will strongly present the case of

the black man. Th program will begin with music

by colored people, the names of the artists to be an-

nounced later.

JAN. 18-"BIRTH CONTROL," by MARGARET

SANGER of New York-yes, we mean the original

and only Margaret Sanger, the one who has pio-

neered and suffered through the years in her insist-

ence upon the right of women to know how to con-

trol the number of their offspring. She is coming to

the Pacific Coast to deliver a number of addresses

and will give the first one at our Forum. Music by

MISS HELEN MUCHNIC, child violinist

JAN. 25-DEBATE: "RESOLVED, THAT THE

1924 IMMIGRATION LAW SHOULD BE SO AMEND.

ED AS TO ADMIT JAPANESE ON THE SAME BA-

SIS AS EUROPEANS." Students of the University of

Southern California will be the debaters, the affirma-

tive being upheld by LELAND TALLMAN and AL W.

GRIEWE; and the negative, by RAYMOND BREN-

NAN and ADNA LEONARD, JR. This is one of the

questions that will not down; come and hear both

sides of it discussed. Music by students of the

School of Music connected with the UeSiee

Sinclair's Standing

in Europe

A Seattle friend, himself a Y. M. C A. worker and

therefore not to be reckoned as a radical, told his

friends on the Pacific Coast when he returned in the

late summer of 1923 from an extended tour through

Europe that the American writer who was most

widely read all over Europe was Upton Sinclair. The

following, from the pen of Louis Untermeyer, in The

Saturday Review of December 13, 1924, is a remark-

able confirmation of this interesting and important

report. Will the Los Angeles papers please copy.

"The story of Sinclair's tremendous following on

the continent, from Scandinavia to Italy, is not a

new one. But never has Sinclair's popularity been

greater than today-especially among the defeated

nations who see in the author of "Jimmy Higgins,"

"100%," "Samuel, the Seeker" and others (all of

which can be had anywhere abroad in English as

well as the language of the country) a spokesman for

a different peace from the one they "enjoy." Even

a book as old as "The Jungle" has a steady sale, not

as an expose of a certain phase of corruption in

America, but as record of a period in the develop-

ment of these times. Sinclair is read, with seem-

ingly equal enjoyment, by Huropean high-brows and

low-brows. Neither class is disturbed by his style or

his lack of it. The average reader relishes Sinclair

for his directness, his energy, his lack of intellectual

sententiousness; the literati-men like Werfel, Kai- |

ser, Toller-care for him not, they will tell you has-

tily, as an artist, but as a writer who has something

vital to say to everyone, who, in spite of errors in

taste and proportion, is one of the courageous spirits

of our day."

Louis Untermeyer in The Saturday Review,

----_+-________

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