Open forum, vol. 2, no. 7 (February, 1925)

~ THE OPEN FORUM

A Pacific World Around The Pacific Sea

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 14, 1925

A Plain Talk

When this paper began its publication one of the

items quoted to encourage us to its publication was

that "two hundred thousand men and women in Cali-

fornia voted for Robert M. LaFollette. We ought

to be able to get at least five thousand of these to

back a liberal publication."

Not ten per cent of this number have so far mater-

ialized as subscribers to the OPEN FORUM. Our

list is larger than this confession would imply, but

it is not larger by reason of the support of Southern

California liberals. It is doubtful whether fifty

people have subscribed for our paper because they

were of the two hundred thousand who voted for

LaFollette.

The fact is the forces of liberalism in the United

States are at the present time almost as badly de-

moralized as were the forces of the Union after

the first battle of Bull Run. They are not support-

ing any liberal paper in any very liberal fashion.

Hven so great and effective a publication as THE

NATION is having hard sledding to get by the space

of bare, wind-swept soil where there is neither ice

nor snow for the runners. Liberal meetings are

practically non-existent, and liberals write one an-

other in the most downcast and disheartened way.

Here is a letter from one of the finest liberals I

know, a man of mature years, a teacher by pro-

fession, well-read, and clearer in his views by far

than most liberals are. He might almost be called

a radical, so much more does he see than most of

the liberal-minded. or forward-minded people do.

Yet he sends this, not for publication, but to a

friend as forward-minded as himself. It is too signifi-

cant an utterance not to be quoted. He speaks for

himself and for his family, which contains other

teachers:

* % *

"The powers that be are reaching for our scalps

at the slighest opportunity given. I have utterly

lost hope of anything worth while being -accomplish-

ed in any reasonable time-perhaps in a thousand

years. Everything is reaction now, and all the facts

of past history, especially the immediate past, are

conclusive against anything but slow evolution. If

one has a hankering for fight, he can get all he wants

from the plutes, with the odds hopelessly against

him. These are the people who help to get what

_little progress is possible, and they are entitled to

great credit. But me! I'm too old to fight any

"more, and I never was the stuff martyrs are made

Ob If you ever come this way do not fail to drop

in and see us. I keep my ear to the ground for

indications of world progress. The hope, if not

faith, is still present, but I am persuaded as for

myself that the tactic should be for gradual evolu-

tionary efforts-not reformist simply."

3% * *

Now it. is foolish for liberals to get as downcast

and submissive as their present apathy and melan-

choly correspondence implies. If the disaster of last

November, as they see it, were tenfold as bad in

fact as they make it out to be there would still be

No occasion for such surrender. The world doesn't

depend on the success of the liberal program, any-

way, half so much ag a lot of us imagine.

aie you ever study that curious book in the Old

= 8 men, "THE LAMENTATIONS OF JERE-

ne eh it is worth studying. It is artificial

ne ast degree, a agrOs of acrostic poems, repre-

Pe i aloe low form of literary art. But the thing

ogee Hote about it, is that the writer, probably

ae emiah by the way, was utterly down in the

ice He had been as sure as a man can be that

m couldn't be destroyed by the heathen.

With Liberals

Why it was God's city, and God wasn't going to be

licked-out by a lot of foreign plutocrats. Just the

same old, hard-boiled Nebuchadnezzar got the town,

and did with it what he pleased, and what he pleased

wasn't a very pleasant thing. It was so much worse

than anything we know about we haven't any way

of saying just how horrible and utterly overwhelm-

ing it was.

And this chap who wrote the LAMENTATIONS

was all in. To him the world was a dead world,

and God was so nearly out of business that He

didn't count much, except as a receptacle for tears and

complaints. ``Why the world can't get along without

Jerusalem," wailed this fellow. `And besides Jerusa-

lem deserved a better fate. And then, too, this

bunch that did up Jerusalem are such an utterly

hopeless lot. Really, there's no use trying to do

anything after this. The world won't get anywhere

for a thousand years, if it ever does."

Well, apparently the world didn't just exactly rush

into the millenium for more than a thousand years

after that wail was let out. But Jerusalem came

back, and that very soon. And the world moved on,

if not toward betterness at least toward another and

a larger and more powerful world-order. Old Neb-

uchadnezzar died off, and is remembered now as a

good deal of a joke. Others like him came along,

of course. But so did folks of quite another ilk,

practically all the liberals the world has had, with

some who were more than liberals, in fact.

That splendid old fighter for every good cause,

Theodore Parker, once rebuked himself with the

remark, "I guess the trouble with me is that I am

in a hurry, and God isn't."

No, God isn't in a hurry. Or Nature, if you prefer

to put it that way. But there are three things lib-

erals will do well to remember just now. One is

that the world's progress isn't all in the realm of

ideas, by a good deal. Just filling up the world is

a man-sized job for humanity, taking possession of

the earth. And then learning how to handle the

world when you get it filled up is another job that

is worth a few hundred years. Better individuals

we want of course. And better ideas. But progress

has very much to do with just breeding and just

feeding folks. And that brings you to the second

thing liberals may well study; which is that things

move more rapidly a whole lot than they did of old.

We have done more on lines of breeding folks, and

feeding folks in the last five hundred years, the last

one hundred, than in ten or a hundred times that

period before. We are travelling faster today on

lines of social evolution than we ever did since man

was man, so much faster that our speed is as the

flying machine to the stage coach. A thousand years,

now, are as "yesterday when it is. past, or as a

watch in the night." And finally, let liberals re-

member, that evolution has to be figured in terms

of revolution also, or else it is lacking in reality.

The educators are always slipping up at this point.

They cannot get away from trusting to talk, books,

votes and all manner of other nice things. But

every now and then something that isn't at all nice

happens, and jolts the world ahead like a blast of

dynamite in a canal cut.

Drop out the thousand year stuff, folks, and get

busy now. This reactionary bunch that are running

the nations today are driving toward the ditch.

There'll be another header besides the Russian

header soon. Meanwhile let's get ready for it, by

facing facts, and trying to understand them. Social

understanding is what the world needs. That is

what THE OPEN FORUM is trying to give. That is

what we particularly need here on the Pacific Coast.

Let's work together for it. Lend us a hand.

R.W.

NO WORKERS NEED APPLY

PHOENIX, Ariz-If you are a poor but honest

laborer seeking a job and a chance to make a home

and enjoy the mild winter climate of the southwest

you are not the man the chamber of commerce and

the Phoenix Arizona Club are looking for. They are

trying to sell the climate and the wonders of the

Salt River valley to the moneyed class, according

to an article in a local paper, which states that many

letters are being received from persons now em-

ployed elswhere who are seeking positions in this

city on account of the warm winters, but that "the

chamber is not encouraging migration of that char-

acter."

i

Hair Nets And The Y.M. C. A.

Another striking example of the commercial inter-

dependence of the world is to be found in the re-

cent announcement of Dr. John Y. Lee, acting na-

tional secretary. of the Chinese Y. M. C. A,, that

the branch of that organization in Chefoo is in

serious financial difficulties. Chefoo is the city in

which most of the world's hair nets are made.

The financial support for the local "Y" came large-

ly from men interested in these hair net factories.

Since the women of the west began to bob their

hair, Chefoo's factories have been almost idle. It

seems to be a pretty crowded world when you can't

go to a barber in Chicago without upsetting a

men's Christian Association in China.

-From The Christian Century.

ee :

THE FOG

A Parable For Liberals

The valley dripped with fog all day,

One vast and all pervasive gray,

A veiling so impalpable

Where it began you could not tell.

The moisture brushed against your face

Soft as a breeze blown bit of lace.

Yet looking straight into the air,

You could not say that it was there.

But all the earth was white and still,

There was no outline of a hill.

The higher tree tops scarcely showed

A little distance down the road.

Save that the nearer trees were bare

You hardly guessed 'twas winter there.

And somewhere up above the trees

You heard the honking of the geese.

Scattered and broken in their flight

The wild things knew not where to light.

Yet were too heavy quite to stay

Above that filmy sea of gray.

And now and then a booming gun

Told of some more adventurous one

Whose dubious fate filled all the skies

With his lost mates' resounding cries.

So are there folks who seem to go,

While the world fog is hanging low.

Flying between the earth and air

And never lighting anywhere.

Too heavy are their thoughts to rise

Into the sun-kissed upper skies.

Too timid now at every sound

To find a harbor on the ground.

Better it fares these troubled days

With those who calmly hold their ways.

Making the most of fireside cheer

While the drear landscape seems more drear.

But happier the few who dwell,

Where on the heights ineffable,

They look down on the misty sea,

And glimpse the day that is to be.

-R. W.

BSR rcam eee rs hn cee Oa

ay SARS TRON EE

Man and His World

By Robert Whitaker

Vv

THE MOVEMENT OF HISTORY

The easy going optimism which says, "God's in

his heaven; all's right with the world,' no longer

satisfies the thoughtful mind. Even the people of

the churches are no longer content to accept the

notion that things are going well. On the contrary

millions of them insist that progress is a delusion;

that the world is getting worse rapidly, and that

we are close to bankruptcy proceedings on the

part of High Heaven against man and all his works, .

and the substitution of a supernatural receivership

in the person of the returned Christ. The liberals,

to whom this doctrine of catastrophic salvation is

impossible, are confessedly bewildered at the situa-

tion of world affairs, and find it hard to hold fast

their ancient faith that there is a gradual progres-

sion along quite natural lines toward a higher and

a better social order.

Yet the testimony of history is unmistakable that

there is a distinct movement in human affairs, and

that this movement can be followed with assurance

along certain quite ascertainable lines. Intellectual

improvement it may be hard to demonstrate. Moral

improvement may be open to question. Whether

man is a better man physically than he was under

the conditions of primitive life is debated with a

good deal of weight of argument on either side.

Men of very high scientific standing can be quoted

to the effect that there is no conclusive evidence of

any appreciable progress of man within the historic

period. But all these who argue so measure progress

in terms of the individual and the idea, or of in-

stitutions that are built around ideas. There is a

forward movement of man which cannot be denied

and that movement was never so distinct and pro-

nounced as it is today.

That movement may be defined in two phrases,

THE EXPANSION OF HUMAN CONTACTS, and

THE EXPANSION OF HUMAN LABOR POWER.

Just what do we mean by these terms?

THE EXPANSION OF HUMAN CONTACTS

means that man is filling up the earth today and

crowding upon other men as never before in the

history of the past. Our own country has grown

enormously in population within the past one hund-

red and twenty-five years. Two hundred years after

the landing at Jamestown of the founders of the

first permanent English settlement our fathers were

still clinging to the Atlantic Coast, and numbered

hardly Five Million all told. Within another hundred

years we had multiplied that number twenty times.

If it be said that our growth was largely due to

immigration from Europe it is to be remembered

that in spite of all the millions who left Europe

for the United States of America during the nine-

teenth century, and who migrated to other parts of

America, to Australia, and to Africa and every other

section of the earth, Europe itself increased from

One Hundred and Twenty Five Million population

in 1800 to Three Hundred and Seventy Five Million

a hundred years later. And this in spite of the

Napoleonic Wars, and all the other wars that devas-

tated Hurope during that period.

Primitive man did wonders in finding his way to

all parts of the earth. But his numbers were few.

The Red Man had been in North America an in--

calculable time when the Spaniards discovered the

New World, yet within the territory which now

makes up the United States there were probably

fewer humans when the European arrived - than

there are in Seattle, Washington today, or in Port-

land, Oregon, or in Oakland, California.. Three

Hundred Thousand would probably be a liberal esti-

mate. In all America the natives at the time of

Columbus were a handful compared with the popula-

tion of the Same areas now.

Whether man is abler physically than he was

ten thousand years ago, or mentally more potent,

or morally improved under the surface of civiliza-

tion's veneer, may be questioned. But it cannot

be questioned that he is vastly more numerous, and

that his communication with his fellows is an al-

together different matter from what it was even so

recently as a century ago. Whether this is progress

or no is not `the issue here. It is movement, and

movement of a tremendously significant kind. If

man's first business is, as the Old Book has it, to

"be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

and subdue it," he is carrying out the program

in modern times at a remarkable rate, so rapidly

indeed, as to be disconcerting to many who fear

that the passing of war, and pestilence, and famine

may lead to an oOver-populating of the face of the

earth.

Those who reason so, whatever pretense of scien-

tific standing they may make, are poor observers

of the second great item in the movement of man,

the EXPANSION OF HUMAN LABOR POWER.

Man as a food producer and as a food distributor

has increased his capacity within the past one

hundred and fifty years far beyond the increase in

his numbers or his adjustment of his relations with

his fellows.

Man had been a producer of goods a long time

when George Washington died, at the end of the

eighteenth century. But he was little more effec-

tive in the days of Washington than he had been

in the days of Caesar or Alexander or Khamurabi of

Babylon, or in the remotest ages of which his

records tell. Some increase of human labor power

there had been, but it was very slight. Between the

death of Washington and the death of Abraham

Lincoln, though the period is only about sixty five

years, there was a greater multiplication of the

labor power of the world than there had been within

the whole historic period before. `This increase has

continued in the sixty years since Lincoln died

hardly less miraculously. The THREE BILLION

MAN POWER which we have in the United States

today is greater than the whole man power of the

world when the United States was born, though that

event is less distant from us than the span of two

human lives.

Here is movement enormous and _ undeniable.

What if it be granted that man is individually no

stronger in body, no abler in mind, no better in

character than he was when he came forth from

primeval cave and forest ten or twenty or fifty

thousand years ago? Even fifty thousand years is

but a moment in the reach of the ages. He has

moved, unmistakably, to the filling up of the earth,

and to his command of the earth's resources and of

nature's powers. And his movement on these lines

has been lightning-like in its rapidity and spectacu-

lar glory within the last one hundred or one hundred

and twenty-five years. He has increased in numbers,

and he has increased in power. What if that move-

ment be vital to the greater things he is yet to do?

Grant that at points the increase has menace as

well as promise in it. The pressure of poulations

upon populations, with the multiplication of man's

ingenuity in working out destruction on a vastly

greater scale than his savage forbears knew, may,

it is conceivable, precipitate a world struggle in

which all that he has achieved could be wrecked,

or such damage done as it would require milleniums

to undo. This may be admitted without involving

any admission that there is lack of a discernible

movement in life, or that such movement holds

forth no reasonable hope of an end that is to justify

the best that men have dreamed. The very vastness

of the menace, if humanity miscarries, is a token

of the even greater promise which this movement

of history portends if the world order that is strug-

gling in the womb of today can be brought forth

alive.

But we must see clearly where and what the

movement is if we are to act intelligently and effec-

tively to relate the life of our own times to the

majesty and meaning of the past.

--- - and --___

*

"The proposal to put Christian principles into prac-

tice would be bitterly opposed by all the Churches

in Christendom."

Professor F. T. Schiller of Oxford.

Ss a ANU ia ia

"CARRYING

ARMS SHOULD BE A FELONY:

is the title of an editorial in the Los Angeles Bxap.

iner of the date of February 5, 1925. There follows

some statement of the legislation proposed before

the California legislature to make the carrying of

arms such a crime in this State it will enable the

courts to deal very drastically with it. The write

says:

"If the burglars, highwaymen, and other

dangerous characters could by any system be

prevented from carrying firearms they would

resort to crimes of lessor risk to them-

gelves-because they are constitutionally

and almost unanimously without the physi- (c)

cal courage to carry out any daring scheme. .

In fact they are mostly cowards. That is

the reason they carry firearms; that is the

reason: they. shootee eon we

Whether the reasoning as to what "burglars, high.

waymen, and other dangerous characters" would do

in case it was made more difficult for them to get

guns is conclusive or not, the argument is sugges.

tive of a good deal more than the editorial says.

If the argument has any force with respect to

individuals why has it not at least equal force with

respect to nations? The writer of the Hxaminer

editorial is undoubtedly right when he says that,

"Burglars, highwaymen, and other dangerous charac:

ters,'-a pretty sweeping description by the way-

"are constitutionally and almost unanimously with-

out physical courage to carry out any daring scheme.

In fact they are mostly cowards. That is the reason

they carry firearms; that is the reason they shoot."

Well said, Mr. Editor. But why not say it of

nations also? Is the collective carrying of firearms

any less dangerous or mischievous than the use of

such weapons by individuals? Is it not rather im-

measurably more menacing to the welfare of man-

kind and more actually destructive in almost. in-

finite degree than all the damage which so-called

"burglars and highwaymen" have done?

And is the carrying of arms on the part of

nations any less a matter of felonious intent and a

cowardly spirit than it is where individuals only

are involved? What is all this "preparedness" which (c)

the Hearst papers have themselves preached s0

much but a polite camouflage for scaredness? NA-

TIONAL "SCARE-RED-NESS" would be a far more

truthful designation of it than NATIONAL PRE

PAREDNESS. And back of this SCARE-RED-NESS,

it will be found if honest examination ig made, is

the collective burglary and highwaymanship of the

masters of great capital, playing upon the cow:

ardice of the common crowd. Militarism is, and

always has been a combination of felonious intent

to plunder other people when the opportunity pre

sents, and of cowardly fear that someone is under

the bed.

It is not only recognized criminals who are "mostly

cowards:" Unhappily that description fits too ac:

curately the great majority of respectable people.

"Mostly cowards" describes our judges, our preach-

ers, our teachers, our editors, indeed the bulk of

"nice" people in all classes. Don't ask us to prove

it; the process is too painful, and the evidence too

overwhelming. Get into trouble yourself for any

real issue of conscience, or on behalf of any vital

new cause and you will have all the proof you want,

and a good deal more. The "burglar and highway-

man" intent is nothing like so widespread as is

the cowardly spirit. But back of all the high non:

sense which the Hearst papers, and their literary

high priest, Arthur Brisbane, and all the rest of those

who are shouting up preparedness for America just

how are getting off, there are groups of national

and international looters who are the profiteering

promoters of the Big-Gun policy. And they get by

with it because most of respectability ig a thin

veneer for either the thieving spirit, or the coward's

heart in ourselves.

Undeniably carrying arms, nationally, is very muccentl

a matter of the burglar and the highwayman of high

finance, and the tragic reality that civilization is

made up yet of "mostly cowards. That is. the

reason they carry firearms; that is the reason they

shoot." Say it again, Mr. Hearst.

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

*K

A Clearing - House

For Peace

By B. C. Huber

Perhaps many of us have snickered as we allowed

Charles Lamb to tell us how we came to eat roast

pig. Cumbersome as this original oriental method

of cookery appears to us moderns, perhaps to poster-

ity it may seem fairly efficient compared with our

present European way of making the world safe

for democracy. Democracy, efficiency-one gets the

impression from the newspapers that they are a

married couple.

But the Chinese no longer burn the house down

when they want roast pork for supper. It is logical

to suppose, therefore, that at length it really did

occur to some radical innovator to suggest building

a very small house to burn the family pig in. This

in place of burning the family palace was certainly

a step in the right direction. At the risk of being

charged with atheism I wish to suggest a Somewhat

similar simplification of our modern process of ar-

riving at whatever it is we're arriving at. :

When in our sappy days we pursued the three Rs

or were perhaps pursued by them, we learned that

the fraction 7x7X7x7x6x8+7x7x7x7x5x11 could be

much simplified and many brain cells saved for

baseball by cancelling the sevens. That is we de-

mobilized the factors common to both numerator and

denominator. Wetting the end of our lead pencil

with our tongue we welcomed the discovery as a

real boon to the poor oppressed-by-learning. Later

when we grew to the years of indiscretion, we heard

that the banks in the city employed the same prin-

ciple when they used a clearing house to do away

with the necessity of driving truckloads of dollars

from place to place and counting them over.

Now, here we are not dealing with who is going

to start the war. We are not concerned with that

feather edge of morals. As red blooded go-getters,

we're aiming to roast our pig in the most up-to-date

manner. Not who propounds the question, but what's

the answer. Let's find a common factor and cancel

it before we start to divide.

In the last war we find there were in all coun-

tries, some men who could not be made to fight

either by propaganda, profits or torture. This class

was certainly a drag on the war makers. It was also

much larger than is generally supposed. In another

war it will number among its members many who

were active killers, the last time Europe burned

down the house. French, English and German offi-

cers aS well as an occasional clergyman are among

those who have declared their non-participation in

future international slaughter. It is really too beast-

ly to murder these fellows for we have tried it

and it don't make them fight. Besides many of

them are quite intelligent and useful if they are

left alone. Being common to all countries they

constitute a common. factor.

Certainly it is cheaper to cancel a German con-

Scientious-objector against an English CO before

we start to divide, than it is to try to argue with

them. We can't convince them you know, they just

are that way. We don't kill our milk cow because

She doesn't happen to be a good saddle animal.

Neither is it good business to shoot, torture or im-

prison the COs because they are by nature wealth

producers if left alone. And war is made with wealth

a8 well ag for it. Besides, much as it is to be re-

gretted many of these peaceful men have strong

friends among the soldiers and it is not good for

our morale to start in murdering our neighbors.

Of course to do the job up brown we need a clear-

ng house' for non-combatants through which to

sees these men. The League of Nations would be

eat by taking over the job of cancelling

a ee rors for it would -be a positive function

es not in conflict with national powers. It

ee the league some real supporters in all

ea anes would put the high aims of the league

i ee y considerations, because a clearing house

one `combatants would make a respectable per-

Bua a 2 peaceable citizen. No one could say a

he sai e dots his bit in war time for already

elena ave eliminated an enemy through the

5 Mouse of the league long before the fire-

K

A QUERY

In the Christian Science Sentinel of December 27,

1924, page 329 under the caption "Extracts from Re-

ports of Christian Science Committees on Publica-

tion for the year ended September 30. 1924," I read

the following:

"At the request of this office several book pub-

lishers have revised incorrect copy, and one pub-

lisher destroyed plates containing disparaging refer-

ences to Christian Science. An unauthorized work

on Christian Science was removed from circulation

at the Chicago Public Library, and an obnoxious

text-book on hygiene, containing derogatory refer-

ences to Christian Science, has been withdrawn from

use in. a university. It is also noteworthy that a

plan purporting to accomplish the removal of ob-

jectionable books from all public libraries is now

receiving the attention of Assistant Committees on

Publication,"

As a citizen and tax payer I would like to ask if

we must support Public Libraries where we can

have access to such books only as the Christian

Scientist will permit us to read?

Surely their fear of criticism has made them des-

perate. Cu W..

eater next door could get over to No Man's Land

and become a hero on a piece of barbed wire.

It is true that from the point of view of a general

the grave is a sufficient clearing house, but some-

how looking at it from the business angle it's more

like a safety deposit box-and both keys lost. To.

the general no doubt a soldier is like a chessman

and if the mothers of men have not taught the

generals perhaps we can not blame them for their

ignorance of the fact that there are some points

of difference-nowadays. These points of difference

between chessmen and soldiers refutes the conten-

tion of the generals that the grave is a sufficient

clearing house.

Certainly the establishment of a Clearing House

of non-combatants will make it to our advantage as

business men and patriots to urge aS many men

as possible to use the clearing house, because even

if we start the war `ourselves, it will reduce the

expenses, both running and overhead to work with

as small volumes as possible. That is, unless we

put profits from war contracts above the national

good in which case we are nothing but aristocrats.

But assuming that we are fighting for democracy

the use of the clearing house for non-combatants

will reduce the power of the enemy equally with our

own. The League Clearing house will guarantee it.

The League guarantee will be backed up by the

peaceable citizens who have cleared. Why it will

pay enormously even if we have to transport the

non-combatants to neutral territory and feed them

for the duration of the war. It will cut out muni-

tions for that number of fighters. Possibly these

fellows while on a neutral territory might .even

become producers. This seldom happens to soldiers.

From the war makers standpoint of course the

chief objection will be, that thus thrown together

these men might even come to admire and respect

civilizations alien to their own, thus drawn to their

attention, but even if this happened it would help

trade as soon aS peace was declared and so again

business would be sitting on top of the world.

I hear somebody growl that few would fight if it

was respectable to get out-of it by knoeking an

enemy out through the Clearing House. The fellow

that makes that growl has no faith in bunk like

he'd ought to have. He will probably be found

to be one of these old Nordic 100 per cent efficiency

guys and he'll be wheezing out something like this

next, "It don't pay to burn the house down even

if the pig is in the kitchen when the: whole family

is asleep upstairs like they were last time and its

got so nowadays what between airplanes, radio and

poison gas we all live in the same house anyway.

Why not have a civilized barbecue if were going to

roast pig-provided we're going to eat pig?"

One answer to a fellow like that is to tell him

he ain't even as heathen as a Christian. That will

give him something to think about besides business

and pork.

K

War Talk

By Malcolm Hardyman

War is inevitable! Why waste time talking of

peace when the clouds of war loom denser than in

1913?

There are two methods to stop war and neither

of them are, at present, practicable. The first method

is to make the manufacture or possession of arms

punishable by death and the second, the establish-

ment of International free transportation.

To make either of the methods popular it is first

necessary, to prove profits in dollars and cents for

the exponents.

It is worse than useless for the radical to shout

and rave against capitalism and thereby antagonize

the vast majority of his fellow embryo millionaires!

What he must do is.to prove to the selfish inter-

ests of the capitalist that more money can be

made by sharing profits with the employee. Free

international transportation would very soon create

a world so cosmopolitan that war would be impossi-

ble. To attain this dream, it is necessary to prove

in a small way the commercial possibilities of such

a plan. Who can deny that were the merchants of

Venice to institute free transportation to their watery

jazz fields, there would nightly be a vast influx of

pleasure seekers to patronize their shimmering bath

rooms? If such a step were adopted gradually the

public consciousness would become aware that it

pays to have people where they want to be.

Nations have only to mix freely to forget the differ-

ences foisted upon them by those whose coffers de-

pend upon racial antagonism. War today severs the

first law of Nature-the survival of the fittest. When

ultimatums and all the other pre-war diplomatics are

terminated the cry is for those who are most fitted

to propagate their kind. Having exterminated th

fit and sane and diseased and imbeciles, gather to-

gether and continue to carry on a world which the

former have failed to make habitable.

As to the inevitable, there are consolations, from

the biological standpoint. The unfit and diseased

will be swept away with the old folks early in the

day. Clouds of unmoored aeroplanes will spread de-

struction behind the armies, ignoring the entrenched

battle lines, and very soon little will be left of the

great cities. Then will the veteran diplomatics

shiver in their cellars as the waves of deadly fumes

billow upon them. Then will the fighting clubmen

who wished that they: were young enough to go,

have an opportunity to prove their mettle against

flying steel. Practically speaking, with the present

trend of culture, the only certain method to stop

war is to make it unendurable. Hence it is up to us

to pursue our devilish experiments and construct

weapons so deadly that fear will over-ride avarice

in the dark souls of the makers of war. Suffering

is the only path to knowledge, so let us see to it

Mat the facilities for suffering are adequate.

War is sometimes a boomerang. The vanquished

are not always the final sufferers. The nation that

sent its physical garbage to the front would, at least,

be more fitted to wage peace after its defeat.

Greed is the root of all wars. Hence the way to

prevent war is to prove in dollars and cents the

profits of peacetime co-operation. Altruism must be

forgotten and greed must be counted. Dollars and

cents are alone understood by the war lords, so we

must study GREED.

SP SS

a

Crime costs American business, we are told, ten

billion dollars a year. The direct property loss alone,

it is estimated, is $3,500,000,000. The remainder of

the ten billion dollar total is to be charged to the

expense of policing the country, paying the salaries

of court functionaries, maintaining penitentiaries,

prisons, jails, reformatories and-yes, asylums.

Clayton B. Trost.

a

RANK

"Superior worth your rank requires;

For this mankind reveres your sires:

If you degenerate from your race

Their merit heightens your disgrace."

Author Unknown.

RI Ca en

A Re, See ae

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.

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SATURDAY, FEB. 14, 1925

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Program for February, 1925

A Lesson in Psychology `for the Working Class,

Ps PCPS ame Nees .....February 21

THE REVOLUTION NON-RESISTANT, Fanny

Bixby Spencer a February 28

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,

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Feb. 16-"Food as a Cause of Disease," by Dr. Axel

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Capitalism Est Delenda

When the old Roman, Marcus Cato, looked out

across the Mediterranean and saw in vision the

city of Carthage, expanding on the opposite shore

as a formidable rival of his beloved "Eternal City,"

he was filled with discomforting forbodings. It was

a thorn in his side and in the side of many of his

fellow citizens. They regarded it as a menace to

the future expansion and glory of the Roman Em-

pire. Carthage and Rome could not go on together;

one must give way to the other, and of course the

one to give way must be Carthage.

Therefore `"Carthago est delenda!'' was the climax

with which this old Roman sought to bestir his

countrymen to action in every speech which he de-

livered to the senate. "Carthage must be destroyed!"

got under their skins at length; they were made

to see the peril of allowing Rome's rival to prosper

and grow more menacing, and finally it was decreed

that the proud African city should be overthrown.

Ships were assembled, soldiers transported, and

Carthage was besieged. For two long years Publius

Cornelius Scipio battered away at its walls and gates

before it surrendered; and then the fight continued

in the streets of the city for six days, both men and

women engaging in it with a dogged determination

paralleled. only by that of the Jews in the case of

the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. Carthage was

indeed destroyed before the process ended-the 700,-

000 inhabitants driven out or killed, and the city it-

self razed to the ground.

I have often reflected upon the persistence of that

old Roman who kept crying, in season and out of

season, that Carthage must be destroyed; and in

the insistent cry that is raised by statesmen of the

New Era-``Capitalism must be destroyed'-I think I

can discern echoes of his eloquence. The call for the

destruction of capitalism, however, is motivated by a

nobler purpose than that of Cato. No mere ven-

geance is in this modern demand. It is not that

we would get rid of one evil that another may thrive

-more lustily. Rome was as full of cruelty and es-

sential barbarism as was Carthage. Her preserva-

tion and prosperity after Carthage went into the dust.

gave no assurance of progress or happiness to the

human race.

But if capitalism can be destroyed and the co-

operative commonwealth set up in its place there

will begin a new, glorious epoch for humanity. This

is no idle Utopian prophecy either. Glimpses. and

even foretastes of the better civilization already

have been vouchsafed us. Wherever cooperation has

been substituted for cut-throat competition real

improvement has followed. Even the milder forms

of cooperation that have found expression in Con-

sumers Cooperative Leagues, profit-sharing plans

set up by various corporations, and other experi-

ments along similar lines have demonstrated the

practicability and the positive advantages of work-

ing together. Only those who are selfishly profiting

by the present system, and such others as are in

darkness as to its functioning, offer stout resistance

to the change that must come-indeed, is coming all

the while. Sidney Webb is quite right in declaring

that the capitalistic civilization is crumbling and

must inevitably perish in favor of the new and

better order of social life.

This then is no time for preachers to be coming

to the defense of capitalism, or for any other

enologists to rise up and seek to prolong its wretch-

ed life. Rather should we all be seeking to discern

"the signs of the times,' the unmistakable indica-

tions that the old order is crumbling and that a

new day is dawning. A new heaven and a new

earth are in the making. Look at Russia as evi-

dence of what I say. Of course there are pains

and pangs in the process, but that always occurs

with the emergence of new life from the womb of

the older order. Mistakes are being made here and

there, but they are by no meang so serious as is

the supreme blunder committed by many-that of

trying to arrest the ongoing of the process and the

prevention of the birth of the better day.

Above all else let's get our eyes open to the

evolutionary social process of our time and help it

on. "Capitalism must be destroyed!" It will be

destroyed by and by, root and branch. Will you

have had a worthy part in consummating its de-

struction? -C. J. T.

"The Jesus of the gospels found his most formid-

able opponent in the Judaism of his day; his chief

present obstacle is the Christianity of our day."

Professor Henry C. Vedder, Baptist Historian.

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

_ 233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

Program for February

FEB. 15--`"AMERICA'S SERVICE IN THE NAR

EAST" (Illustrated by two reels of motion pictures)

by CHARLES H. EMMONS, who recently made ,

visit to the Mediterranean area, where he met many

famous men and was given access to points of interes

and documents not often viewed by the average tour.

ist. What is at the bottom of the ancient quarre

between the Turks and the Armenians? How dog

Greece enter into the problem? What constructive

work is going forward over there? A program of

Armenian music will be furnished by Mrs. Prapioy

English, a singer in native costume, Mr. K. Vronyr,

violinist, and Mrs. M. G. Ferrahian, pianist.

FEB. 22-"THE MENACE OF FUNDAMENTAL

ISM" by MAYNARD SHIPLEY, of San Francisco,

President of the Science League of America. Shouli

the fundamentalists be allowed to block the prog.

ress of science? Are laws likely to be passed in Cali.

fornia forbidding the teaching of evolution in the

schools? Whither are we drifting? and what should

be done about it? CARL ROSSNER, 'cellist, will

favor us with some of his excellent music. a

a

HH

Church of the New Social Order

Symphony Hall, 232 So. Hill St.

Sunday Morning Service: 10:45 o'clock

Feb.156. `WHAT... DID JBSUS RBALLY., TA

ABOUT?

Feb. 22. WAS THE SPIRIT OF JESUS MILD OR

REVOLUTIONARY?

peice eS a ag

Meet the Japanese

The Los Angeles Branch of the FELLOWSHIP OF

RECONCILIATION will hold its monthly meeting:

Monday evening, February 16th, in the Japanese

Union Church, at 120 North San Pedro Street. Sup-

per will be served there, `at a moderate price, about

Fifty Cents each . Addresses will be made by the

Hon. K. Wakasugi, Japanese Consul in Los Angeles,

and Rev. K. Ogawa, minister of the Japanese Union

Church, and Rev. Robert Whitaker, Field Secretary

for the F. O. R. Americans and Japanese expect to

mingle together at this banquet in a real fraternity

of thought and spirit, and people of any race and any

tongue are welcome. It is necessary however that

reservations be made in advance for a place at the -

tables. Kindly telephone in your reservations as

soon as you can to Miss EK. Mills, phone, 560448, or to

this office,

ae ie ae

Beware of being too serious. The asses have

crucified all the saviours of the world. The pre:

tense of wisdom:is the favorite disguise of folly.

Most of our tragedies would pass quickly enough

if we could but get people to laugh at the right

time, and at the things that are really absurd. Sol:

emnity is frequently if not usually at war with sense.

If most of us could spend half an hour a day laughing

at ourselves we would be not only a good deal

healthier for it but of vastly more use in the world."

R.W.

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