Open forum, vol. 2, no. 3 (January, 1925)

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~ THE OPEN FORUM |

Most of our caution is sugar-coated unbelief. :

Vol. 2.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 17, 1925

MAN AND HIS WORLD

A STUDY IN SOCIAL EXPERIENCE

Our Serial Story

We are beginning with this issue of THE OPEN

FORUM a new kind of Serial Story. It is an attempt

to tell briefly, simply, and as comprehensively as

possible, the story of mankind Mr. Whitaker, who

writes the story, and who has been urged to tell it

here, has been giving this story to a class chosen

from among the attendants at the CHURCH OF THE

NEW SOCIAL ORDER. Many of the old line

churches are in the habit of observing the first week

in the year as a WEEK OF PRAYER. These weeks

of prayer which have been held over a long period

of years have not availed much to keep the churches

from blundering into all kinds of bloody business

between times in support of whatever wars the poli-

ticians and financiers have thought it convenient to

precipitate whether in the international or the indus-

trial field. If the church folks spent less time in the

"vain repetitions" against which Jesus warned them,

and more time in trying to find out what God is

`really at in this matter-of-fact world of ours, there

would be vastly more hope of social progress. How-

ever, if they did make serious effort to find out the

facts about our workaday world, and to get the drift

of events in advance, they would have little help

from the schools or from most of the books that are

written on these lines. Even so advanced a writing

as H. G. Wells' "OUTLINE OF HISTORY," abounds

in a vast body of burdensome detail, and is almost

altogether silent as to the main matters which con-

cern our everyday life and which have had most to

do with shaping the human world to what it is.

THE CHURCH OF THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER,

therefore has been holding, instead of a WHEK OF

PRAYER, what may be called a WEEK OF STUDY.

For five nights in succession a class of more than

forty members have met in the home of certain

members of the congregation, and have discussed

these five topics, after hearing each evening a lec-

ture on the same:

THE SETTING OF WORLD HISTORY.

THE PROCESS OF WORLD HISTORY.

THE EPOCHS OF WORLD HISTORY.

THE MOVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORY

THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF WORLD HIs-

TOT:

It is expected that the same course, in substance,

will be given before a class in Santa Barbara, begin-

ning within a week or two. Mr. Whitaker will be

glad to arrange with other groups, locally and at a

distance for a similar course. The outline is pub-

lished here for the sake of the many who cannot

attend such classes, and for the convenience of those

who have taken the course of lectures or are about

to take them, that they may hold the matter better

in mind.

The OUTLINE does not pretend to be anything

more than tentative and suggestive. It is intended

to be used not to take the place of the reading of

other books and the instructions of other teachers,

but as an incitement to much additional research and

consideration of the subject of world history. The

point of view is not that of dogmatic materialism,

or of any other dogmatism. It is a study of phen-

omena not of ultimate origins or ends. It deals

emphatically with the primary factors whose opera-

tions can be observed in every day life. In this

Sense it is economic. But as far as possible economic

Scholasticism, and every other kind of scholasticism

have been avoided in the interests of a plain common

Sense talk about "things as they are." If there is

Sufficient, demarid to justify it the series will be

republished in book form.

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4

By Robert Whitaker

I

The Setting of World History

Man lives his life as far as we know it on the

surface of a solid sphere which is rolling around in

space. We call this sphere THE EARTH.

THE BARTH exists and moves within an all-en-

compassing envelope of ATMOSPHERE. The word

is from the Greek,-atmos, vapor, and sphaira, a

sphere, or globe. This sea of vapor which envelops

the earth may be as much as five hundred miles

deep. It varies very much as to degrees of density,

that is of lightness or heaviness; as to degrees of

temperature, cold and heat; as to humidity, wetness

and dryness; and as to movement and the measure

in which it is or seems to be at rest.

"The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers."

-(Wordsworth.)

All of these conditions and variations of the at-

mosphere have had much to do with man's use of

the earth's surface, his food supply, his clothing and

shelter and so with the whole range of his social and

individual experience.

Much of the earth's surface is too cold for man's

residence, except on the part of few and scattered

folks who live very circumscribed lives. Alaska has

only one human being to every ten square miles of

its surface, a fact which is almost wholly due to the

atmospheric conditions there. The Sahara _ Desert

is even more sparsely settled for similar reasons,

that atmospheric conditions do not favor human effi-

ciency and comfort. Between these extremes of the

frigid North and the torrid and arid South, the

earth's surface exhibits a vast deal of atmospheric

variation from place to place and from one part of

the year to another. Man has ranged over almost

all of the surface of the earth but he inhabits and

uses effectively only a very small part of it. And

one of the chief determinants as to his use of the

earth, from the time when man first appeared, where-

soever his first appearance was, until this present

hour, has been the prevailing moods of the at-

mosphere. The influence of climate upon the course

and character of civilzations we are just beginning

to fairly estimate and understand. ``Man's bounds"

have been fixed by the weather-vane more than they

have been determined by constitutions and laws.

The Constitution of the United States is nominally

as dominant in the glacial passes of Alaska as it is

on Fifth Avenue, New York. But the United States

itself, humanly considered is very much more in

evidence on Manhattan Island than it is along the

course of the Yukon,

The earth is covered not only with atmosphere,

but it was altogether covered for a long time with

water, and three-fourths of it is still continuously

under the waters which we variously describe as

rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. THE HYDRO-

SPHERE, as we call the water surface of the earth,

has played a part in determining the bounds of man,

and in affecting his experience, only second to that

of the atmosphere. A very large part of man's his-

tory has been written in water.

The water of the earth is in the main one vast

body, and all the lands of the earth, large and small,

are in fact islands, Many names are applied to the

various sections of this one vast sea which encom-

passes the whole mass` of exposed land,.but the two

major portions are known as the Atlantic and the

Pacific, the one being thought of commonly as the

ocean of the West, and the other as the' ocean of the

Bast. . Measurements are difficult and uncertain

where boundaries are so arbitrary, but for practical

purposes the Atlantic may be reckoned inclusively

as comprising an area of about forty-three million

square miles and the Pacific as covering something

more than twice this area, or about ninety-one mil-

lion square miles. The most striking contrast be-

tween them, however, is not their disparity in size,

but their unlikeness in relation to the lay of the

land which borders upon them. The shores of the

Pacific, on both sides of the earth, are, generally

speaking bold and precipitous, the rivers few and

their fall line short and not very navigable and

their drainage. area therefore is comparatively small.

The shores of the Atlantic, on the other hand, are

mainly low and level and the land is everywhere

intersected by the sea, so that the drainage area is

vastly more extensive, and the rivers themselves

much more usable for purposes of traffic. The Pa-

cific, with all its gigantic size, drains but ten million

square miles of the earth's surface. The Atlantic

with less than half the size of the Pacific drains

twenty million square miles of land, and this,

emphatically the land where the dominant civiliza-

tions have been for thousands of years and where

they are today.

sun" to the cities and states which lie upon the At-

lantic sea-board of the world. The Mediterranean is

a pocket of the Atlantic.

ribbon or necklace of the same sea. Yet these two

sections of the same great water have had more to

do with human history for the past twenty-five hun-

dred years than it is possible to put into words.

So large a part have the waters of the earth played

in human history, so determinant have they been of

the character of civilizations, that the social exper-

ience of man is sometimes classified as POTAMIC,

THALASSIC, and OCEANIC, from the Greek word,

potamos, a river, thalassa, the sea, and our own

word, also of Greek origin, the ocean. Man con-

quered the rivers and their shores before he con-

quered the seas, therefore, the notable early civiliza-

tions were emphatically associated with great rivers,

as the Nile, and the Tigris and the Euphrates, and

the rivers of India and China. The period of "classic

history" was that of the "Great Sea," the Mediterran-

ean, and its allied seas, to the east and north. Ours

is the oceanic age, the rise of which was coincident

with the discovery of America. The Golden Age of

geography, and the most revolutionary age of his-

tory, except only one, was the epoch in which the

Atlantic and the Pacific were made tributary to the

navigation of man. The one age that surpassed this

was nearer to our own, we are yet in it, in fact, but

its story belongs only indirectly to the romance of

the waters of the earth.

ee be

Child Labor Preferred

CHICAGO.-A Canal Street office, which, in these

times, is misnamed an employment office, has hang-

ing in its window a picture of the Christ child, while

directly beneath is suspended a sign bearing the in-

scription, No Men Need Apply.

-____ a_-_----

K-K-K-K-K

SACRAMENTO, Cal.-Within the past month six

warring factions of the Ku Klux Klan have applied

for California charters to secretary of state Frank

Jordan, or have sent in petitions or gone to courts

in attempts `to keep each other out of the state.

-Federated Press.

It is physical fact, Kydrospheric -

fact one might say which has given the "place in the

The English Channel a'

2

[ BRISBUNK |

"THE PUBLIC BE SERVED" reads better than

"THH PUBLIC BE DAMNED." But it is really very

much `the same thing, and the same thing, if there

be any difference, said in a more mischievous way.

The elder Vanderbilt looted the public without

apology, and on top of his looting cursed the public

as an ass for letting him do it. Does the younger

Vanderbilt really respect the public any more, or if

he does, is he doing the public any less damage? He

has reduced the price of his paper to one eent as

against the five and ten cent toll which the other

papers take for their printed muck. Vanderbilt

gives less space to scandal, murder, and violence: in "

general because he has less space to use. One can

get from his papers quickly the substance of the

morning news, such as the Associated Press and the

United Press and other capitalist purveyors of pub-

licity allow us to have. Here in Los Angeles The

Illustrated News gets off a column under the title

of "THE MAN IN THE STREET," which is often

refreshingly frank and sensible. Also the public, or

a small part of the public, are allowed to talk back in

"THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE." The letters are

short, and occasionally there is one that has a gleam

of intelligence in it. Usually "Contributors Columns"

are more appalling as a revelation of average ignor-

ance and imbecility than are even the editorial pages

of the daily press.

But if one grants the sincerity of the younger Van-

derbilt, and recognizes cordially what features there

are in his paper that are reasonably commendable

none the less the motto that he carries on his editor-

ial page and the character of his publications as a

whole calls only the more insistently for an unmask-

ing of the reality which they present. Why should

the public be "served" any more than "damned," and

are they not damned in the very idea of being

served? Train robbing we all know is something to

be discouraged and out-lawed. But anybody who

travels knows that for every. dollar the public has

lost to outright train. robbers, they have lost thou-

sands to uniformed officials, porters, and dining

room waiters who have "served" them at a price far

and away beyond what the service should have cost.

*George M. Pullman pillaged the American public be-

yond the total stealings of all the train highwaymen

of his time, and his successors are still at it. Calling

it service doesn't make it any less robbery in fact.

On the contrary, it is calling it service which enables

them to get away with it,

The churches have never talked about service so

much as they talk of it now when they are taxing the

_ people for bigger buildings, more pretentious equip-

ment, and higher salaried officials and are standing

in everywhere with the whole raft of public looters,

industrial and international. The same is true every-

where in the business world. The more pretense of

service there is the richer are the pickings from the

people's pockets. Drop the gun and put on a waiter's

apron a porter's or a conductor's uniform, a Prince

Albert coat and stove-pipe hat, and you can get away

with millions where the poor boob with a pistol gets

away with a few hundred or a few thousand at the

most. And the gun-toter takes his own life in his

hand, and sooner or later lands before a fat bellied

judge who has had sense enough to put on an air of

serving the public and has thereby beaten the hold-

up man at his own game without the slightest danger

that the public will do anything but lick his shoes.

The most pretentious piece of "service" in our

modern cities is that of the bankers, and everybody

`who knows anything knows that they are the most

successful looters of the age.

This whole idea of service is as false as it is low

spirited and mean. Its object is always to get some-

thing for nothing. The gambler and the confidence

man are the real artists on that line. They lead the

way in dressing for the part, and in studying the

palaver with which to put it over. The rest of the

"public servants" are followers of these oleaginous

gentry though it will doubtless scandalize a lot of

nice folks to tell them. where they belong. A public

that wants to be "served" ought to be damned, and

usually is. The whole idea of service is fundament-

ally immoral, more immoral in fact than the con-

temptuous vulgarity with which honest free-booters

tell their victims what they think of them. "We will

work with each other, but not for each other," said

the spokesmen of American "wobblies," in a conver-

sation which I had with him some years ago. When

a newspaper puts that on its front page that page

will probably be worth reading.

Glimpses|ae reat

An interesting item on Mexico appeared the other

day in an editorial in the esteemed Times. It ran:

"With each succeeding day the sun of hope shines

more brightly upon the approaching era of peace

_ and prosperity that will lift the republic of Mexico

to the plane of civilization she so richly deserves.

President Calles signalized his inauguration by de-

claring that the great need of his people is education,

books, plows and industries."

On another page of the same issue of the Times

in the news columns this appeared: "A flamboyant

Red soviet diplomat now is fully established in

Mexico ' with a complete staff of secre-

taries and assistants. - The soviets picked a man of

highest standing in the Bolshevik government. serv-

ice, a costly man and a real Red and ardent ad-

herent and promulgator of soviet ideas: The soviet

envoy comes equipped with a competent staff speak-

ing Spanish, English and other languages fluently.

He started working in favor of his ideals almost at

once and a few days after his arrival addressed

Mexican workers and peasants through El Machete,

a glaring Communist organ on the occasion of the

anniversary of the establishment of the soviet. He

left nothing unsaid about the Moscow plan of action,

went-into details on the birth of Bolshevism with

all the anti-capital arguments common to the sup-

porters of the soviet doctrines."

A FABLE

The other night at the Open Forum a distinguished

personage by name, Pococurante, was in the. audi-

ence. He was so distinguished he was not noticed

by the others. In fact he was so like them he

was not readily distinguishable. He gave many

signs of disapproval of the speaker's remarks. Noth-

ing pleased him. Going out the chairman said to

him: "How did you like the lecture?" "Bunk! All

bunk." "You must be hard to please." "Not at all,

sir. My sole pleasure in life is not to be pleased

with anything."

HALDANE - RUSSEL - SCHILLER

The men of the Victorian Era believed in progress.

They saw in evolution the possible ascent of man

to perfectibility. Many scientific discoveries con-

firmed them in these beliefs. Now many wise men

aver there is no such thing as progress. They say

morally we are not better than the amoeba from

which we began our ascent millions of years ago in

the ooze of old ocean. Even Bertrand Russell says

as to our moral superiority over the amoeba we

ought to suspend judgment until we can get the

opinion of the amoeba on the subject. Three little

books have recently been published by Dutton, which

ought to have a wide reading. The first is by the

great biochemist, J. B. S. Haldane, who takes a

hopeful view of man's future. It is entitled Daeda-

lus, after the great inventor of antiquity, who with

his son Icarus started to fly from Athens to Crete.

Icarus flew too high, the sun melted his wings of

wax and he fell into the sea. His father, wiser,

landed safely. Bertrand Russell comes back at

Haldane, calling his book Icarus, in which he shows

how man's scientific ingenuity has so far outrun his

spiritual development that man has become a nuis-

ance to himself, a terror to his fellows and a men-

ace to civilization. Now comes the great pragmatist,

Dr. F. C. S. Schiller in Tantalus, the third book of

the series and blights the last hope of the last

optimist of the race. He says: "Alike in morality

and in morals, modern man is still substantially

identical with his paleolithic ancestors. He is still

the irrational, impulsive, emotional, foolish, destruc-

tive, cruel, credulous credture he always was." Then

the doctor expatiates on the enormously increased

power of man to hurt and destroy himself, on birth

control reducing reproduction in the intelligent

classes to zero, while the mediocre breed like rab-

bits, on public hygiene saving millions not worth

saving, on pacifism aiming to end the extermination.

of the unfit and so on till your head swims. Then

he says: "The biological penalty attaching to social

promotion is racial extinction. Thus the ultimate

reward of merit is sterilization, and society appears

to be an organization devoted to the Suicidal task

of extirpating any abillty it may chance to contain,

by draining it away from any stratum in which it

may occur, promoting it into the highest and then

destroying it. It is exactly as though a dairyman

should set in motion apparatus for separating the

cream from the milk, and then, as it rose, skim it

off and throw it away."

Oxied, Fi

THE VIOLENCE

OF THE RESPECTABLE |

i

THEIR DAY IN COURT

By J. L. Bronson

Tuesday last was Wobbly day in Department Two

of the Police Court here. Judge Fredrickson presided .

and the people were represented by LeRoy Reams,

the Deputy Prosecutor. Thirteen members of the J],

W. W. were up to have dates set for the trial of

their cases. . All were charged with violation of the

Busick Injunction. One other fellow-worker was to

be tried for vagrancy.

In the vagrancy case, which they had promised

faithfully to try on that day, the absent-minded

judge forgot to have the jury report for work and

so it was impossible to try it. So he released fellow.

worker Brode on his own recognizance until Febru-

ary twentieth.

The balance of the morning was spent in arguing

for dismissal of the Injunction cases. These fellow-

workers have been out of jail on their own recog-

nizance after spending from sixty to seventy-five

days in the Stockade waiting for trial. Most of them

were arrested early in September and one of them

was arrested on August 9th. This fellow-worker had

one trial which resulted in a hung jury. He has

waited over five months for disposal of this case.

The judge was forced to take a recess for about

an hour and after wrestling with his goul, or hig

conscience, or whatever a judge has, he decided that

he would not dismiss the cases. But he told the de-

fendants that he released them of all obligations

to appear and told them that if any of them wanted

to take a trip, that there was nothing to prevent.

He set the cases for the second and third week in

February. How the learned judge arrived at this

decision has not been figured out yet.

Judge Fredrickson at the same time informed the

prosecution and the Red Squad that there was no

use trying these cases unless they had more evidence.

They promised to have the

than in former cases.

required evidence. The fact is, there isn't as much

as they usually have. But the lack of evidence

doesn't seem to interfere with the trial and convic:

tion of members of the I. W. W.. So these men are

forced to wait another month for trial, with little

possibility of trial then.

In the course of the morning, the prosecutor;

Reames,. made. the statement that "of course the

Wobblies don't get a fair trial here; Wobblies aren't.

human, so how could they expect to get fair treat-

ment." The next day he remarked that he "got a

kick out of railroading Wobblies to jail." "We run:

a kangaroo court here for the I. W. W.'s," he said.

One of the Los Angeles news-venders, Allen Doble,

was arrested twice during the last week of the old

year. He was arrested the first time on Sunday

afternoon and was held until Monday noon. Was

re-arrested on Tuesday afternoon and held until

Friday afternoon. He was never given a hearing.

When questioned about this abuse, Chief of Police

Heath claimed that he didn't know such things were:

done, and would look the matter up.

Later on in the week, Doble met the officer who

had arrested him. The officer was: very apologetic

about the affair, claiming that the only reason he

made the arrest was the fact that he had a wife:

and children and must keep his job at all costs.

--_-_- e-_-____

Lesson of the Great War

Personally, I cannot believe that any good can:

come out of any war. However,.a great object les-:

son was given to the world in the fact that for the

first time in history jobs were made to seek the

men. There can be no freedom in the world worthy

of the name while men are compelled to seek, beg,

and even pay for jobs-to this extent, for the first

time in history the workers tasted a degree of

economic freedom during the late war. Marriages

exceeded any other period in our history, and it

was almost impossible to find a woman who would:

sell her body, simply because high wages at easy

tasks were to be had in any community. Here is:

a theme worthy of exploitation at the hands of our'

most eminent economic writers.

JESSE T. KENNEDY

345 Flower St., South

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

K

America and 1924

By Scott Nearing

(Federated Press Staff Writer)

The year 1924 saw the United States climb clear to

the top of the imperialistic heap. Can it remain

there and prosecute its worldwide financial con-

quests without fighting Japan for control of the

Pacific and Great Britain for control of the world?

' The year 1924 has been a tragic year for those who

are looking and working toward a new day. To the

student it has been a revealing year-the forces of

international life have moved with such inexorable

logic. The imperialists have made it a year of new

triumphs. The heights which they now occupy are

dizzier than any heretofore attained, and this is

particularly true of the United States banking fra-

ternity.

During 1924 the whole world got on the front page,

Japan, China and India; France, Germany, Italy and

Russia; the British Empire; the American empire,

including its sattelites in Latin America, all had their

turn. In all of the industrial countries, save Russia,

the actors moved to the right. In the countries that

are under the heel of the imperial nations, there

was more than one vigorous effort, both in Asia

and in Africa, to protest and revolt.

Imperialism matured in 1924, and its center of

power shifted noticeably to the United States. The

past year has again demonstrated that the United

States is, economically, at the top of the heap. An

American loan, handled by Morgan, saved the franc;

55 per cent of the recent German Bond issue to pro-

vide capital for the Dawes Plan Bank, was subscribed

in the United States; Belgium is arranging for a loan

here; the total of foreign flotations in the United

States for 1924 was about a billion and a quarter of

dollarsthree times the amount for 1923. The world

now turns to New York: for loans as it formerly turn-

ed to Paris and London. Thus far, the loaning re-

sources of the United States have been little more

than scratched.. The recent United States treasury

loan of $200,000,000 was oversubscribed almost 10

times.

Both the subject matter and the method of the

Japanese exclusion were direct blows at the pride

and the position of Japan. Now, at the end of the

year, announcements :describe the coming, naval

display in the Pacific, with a rumored protest from

Japan. Diplomats apologize and explain, insisting

on their friendly and pacific intentions, but no in-

telligent person believes them.

Relations between the United States and Britain

are more than friendly on the surface. Underneath

they are a seething mass of economic rivalries and

of long-established grudges and prejudices. The

MacDonald government was cordial-almost obsequi-

ous. The new Conservative administration has evi-

dently decided to contest every foot of the ground.

The basis is being laid for the coming struggle to

determine whether Japan or the United States shall

control the Pacific, and whether Britain or the

United States shall dominate and exploit the world. -

Some protest comes from the plundered peoples.

The Chinese are in open revolt against certain offi-

cials who are charged with being in the good graces

of the Western capitalists. As for the Mohammedan

world, in India, in Persia, in Arabia and in northern

Africa, it is plotting or openly fighting against the

western nations.

Most important of all, from Russia comes the news

that for the year ending Sept. 30, the productivity of

Russian industry was a third greater than during

the preceding 12 months. This makes the fourth

Successive year in which Russia has been able to

report important gains in productivity. There is no

other European nation with so enviable a record.

The United States is actively preparing to meet

any emergency. The army and navy are receiving

unusual consideration. Militarist propaganda, par-

ticularly in the schools, is widespread.

The labor movement, in the face of this tighten-

ane) of the lines of imperialism, is hesitant and di-

`vided. The British Labor government has been

Swept from office. The German Social Democrats

are working frankly with the imperialists. The

{

1

ve :

"K

*e

California Lines Up

Against Child Labor

The California Legislature is certainly to be highly

commended for the speed and summary manner in

which it placed itself on record in favor of the Child

Labor Amendment. There had been previous talk of

shelving the matter till later on, and doubtless the

reactionaries did work assiduously to prevent aL

early vote. But the members who were swayed by

humanitarian impulses got the upper hands of things

and insisted upon a vote immediately. The senate

passed the resolution. with a whoop-36 to 3. The

assembly vote was 69 to 9. Congratulations, gentle.

men.

The action of California in this matter should

prove a stimulus to other states which are hesitant-

Arkansas is the only other commonwealth that has

gone on record as favorable to the amendment. Three

have refused to ratify it including Massachusetts.

Think of the old Bay State, boasted leader of educa-

tion and culture, turning against the children!

But it must be remembered that powerful interests

are working tooth and nail to prevent the amend-

ment becoming part of the constitution, and it is

going to require some heroic efforts to line up the

necessary thirty-four additional states. That such

an amendment is needed to curb the cupidity of the

profiteers is manifest from the following facts:

Eleven states allow children under 16 to be worked

from nine to eleven hours a day. One state puts no

limit whatsoever on children's hours of labor. Four

states say nothing about night labor for children

under 16. `Thirty-five states fail to require so much

as a common school education for children between

14 and 16. Thirty-five states do not carry their re-

strictions on dangerous occupations up to the 18-year

standard. Five states sav nothing ahont children in

dangerous occupations, Twenty-three states. with

nominal 14-year age limits allow so many exemptions

as to practically nullify the law.

These conditions will not be remedied for long

years if ever by state legislative action. The Federal

Government must take cognizance of this deplorable

situation and make its continuance impossible by a

uniform, country-wide enactment. The proposed

amendment will do the trick. May the people every-

where therefore rouse their legislators to immediate

action favorable to the amendment.-C. J. T.

CRN Nae gS

Zs

BROADCASTING THE WORD

Just after we had received the item that we pub-

lished recently concerning the wide-spread reading

that Upton Sinclair's work is getting in Hurope we

had this likewise cheering word concerning another

of our Pacific Coast light-bearers, whose message is

going out `to the ends of the earth." The com-

mendation of Fanny Bixby Spencer's play, "THE

JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM," which is published here-

with was written by a minister in Deerfield, Massa-

chusetts, and was sent to another minister in Seat-

tle, Washington, from which last named city it came

directly to us. The play has been given on more

than one occasion in Seattle, with marked success.

The Massachussetts minister writes to a Seattle

friend:

"Do you know Fanny Spencer? Her play I call

powerful. And, oh, the scenes and experiences it

brought back to me of the war days when I was in

Worcester, Massachussetts,-hot bed of manufactur-

ing and so of fanatical patriotic business. But I

think that this play does better than just recalling

and holding up to a sober, more normal judgment

the deeds of the past; its setting forth of real heroic

spiritual resistance to violence, and its exhibition

of such a character in real action-and the ideas

dominating that character, is fine."

French liberals under Herriot are carrying on an in-

tensive persecution of the Communists. The dicta-

torship in Spain has been ruthless. In the United

States the American Federation of Labor under its

new president, will be as reactionary as the Demo-

cratic party, in which William Green has served a

long and active apprenticeship.

Meanwhile _Russia continues to strengthen her

economic position and to tell her story of achieve-

ment to all who are wise enough to listen.

K

*e

The New Order

In Labor

By Laurence Todd

(Federated Press Staff Correspondent)

WASHINGTON.-Reorganization of the headquar-

ters staff of the American Federation of Labor, in

order that the personnel may reflect the policy of the

new regime, is the first task to be considered by Wil-

liam Green, when he enters upon his duties as presi-

dent on December 29.

How far Green will go, in adapting the machinery

to the change of control, will depend upon the flexibil-

ity of the men who have worked for years under the

orders of Samuel Gompers and Matthew Woll. For

it became evident in the New York meeting of the

executive council when Green defeated Woll for the

presidency that Woll's prominence before the public

as the lieutenant of Mr. Gompers was not endorsed

by his associates. Rather than have chosen him pres-

ident they would have selected the aged James Dun-

can, first vice-president, who withheld his vote and

offered his resignation in a dramatic protest against

their choice of the coal miner. Woll is not considered

likely to be able to muster a real opposition against

Green in the convention of 1925. The new order is

one of big unions in close alliance, free to adopt new

policies in domestic and foreign fields.

For instance, Green is reported to be inclined to

favor affiliation with the Amsterdam international of

trade unions. He is likewise inclined to look upon

the anti-Russian and anti-radical propaganda con-

ducted by Gompers and Woll during the past seven

years as being no longer important, and as being a

waste of time and money. He would have the labor

movement devote more of its energy to fighting the

dictatorships represented by the steel trust and the

Pennsylvania Railroad, the southern anti-union coal

operators and the employers of child labor. William

English Walling's fiery polemics against Mo8cow will

probably cease to be a leading feature in the Ameri-

can Federationist, but that magazine will publish

instead a greater number of articles on conditions

in the terrorized industrial regions of the United

States,

Duncan's resignation is scheduled for acceptance

when the council meets at Miami in February.

Whether Johnston of the Machinists, or Flaherty of

the Postoffice Clerks, or some other man will replace

him, depends on the lineup of Green with his allies.

These allies are understood to be Duffy of the Car-

penters, Ryan of the Railway Carmen, Tobin of the

Teamsters and Chauffeurs, Noonan of the Electrical

Workers, Morrison of the Typographical Union and

Wilson of the Pattern Makers. These remain to be

counted only Woll of the Photo Engravers, Fischer

of the Barbers and Rickert of the United Garment

Workers. They cannot, if they would, run counter

to Green's policy.

With the passing of Gompers and Duncan, the

militant anti-prohibition and anti-public ownership

element in the council becomes a minority. Interest

in social welfare legislation is increased. Opposition

to the creation of a labor party is. less definite,

though it still rules,

-----_-

Education a la California

Upton Sinclair has received the following letter

from a school teacher in Los Angeles County:

"You have formed so fair an opinion of the Los

Angeles school system and abuses that I would like

to tell you of an occurrence of yesterday at Teachers'

Examination, (County).

"The subject was General History. One question

was `Who was the greatest law-giver of ancient

times?' And another was `What person wields the

greatest influence in the world?'

"Mark Keppel on giving us the question sheets,

gave us a talk on the latter subject. His father had

apparently greatly influenced his life.

"Later, after our answers had all been passed in,

he gave us a tongue lashing. The answer to the

first question, he said was `Moses,' and to the second

was `Jesus Christ,' and any other answer would be

marked zero.

"What do you think of that!

the schools? Oh, no!"

Secular training in

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

Doremus Scudder

Ethelwyn Mills

Upton Sinclair

Fanny Bixby Spencer

Leo Gallagher

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

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

Two Cents Hach,

Advertising Rates on Request.

Application for second-class rates pending.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1925

WINTER

By Sarah Bixby Smith

This is February.

Into the valley the sunshine spills.

"Green the grass sweeps up the hills

To the sky.

By the Rio Honda

Veils of new leafage lie

Over the thickets of willow.

The gnarled: old sycamore trees

Show curling leaflets of velvet,

Tawny and rose;

And where the blossomed acacia grows

Hover the humming bees.

In the sage the alfilerilla spreads

A carpet of lacy leaves,

Green and varied reds,

With orchid-colored gilia decked,

And plue eyes, bits of sky, cloud-flecked.

There's a whirr of wings

When the quail fly,

And a flash of flame with the flicker;

A lark sings;

That bolt of blue is a jay.

Spring's in the valley today

While winter rides in the snow,

Astride the Sierra.

SEER? eee

All our titles are simply civilization's red ochre

and grease. Rub it on, brethren, rub it on, if you

like that sort of thing. But don't fool yourselves

into the notion that anyone really takes the red

ochre now for real red blood, or the oily unctuosity

for anything else than the rancid lubricant that it

is.

--_.4--__-

Church of the New Social Order

Walker Auditorium, Cleveland Hall

730 So. Grand

10:45 o'clock

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.

Sunday Morning Service:

: Wind herewith Bee eS boas L as payment for.../.-2...

{ Yearly

Six Month

Three Month

subscriptions to THE OPEN FORUM.

INET pes te egar i Micra ee ie lg nel gc ee eI Seca

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in Union

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COMING EVENTS

KOK KS KE SEK EK

Los Angeles Open Forum; Music-Art Hall,

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

ee eee ees

At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

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

i

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

Health: Oe, D. J. Haskell Kutzer M.D.

Jan. 26-The Fetich of Liberty_______. Robert Whitaker

SERED: ane

SHELLEY CLUB

Meets Wednesday Afternoon, Jan. 14, 1925

At 2 P.M. (Members 1:30 P.M.)

Rowland Hall, 331 W. 8rd Street

President, Mrs. W. E. Kleinpell

Speaker of the Day-J. Covington Coleman

"Summer in Soviet Land"

Everybody Welcome

i

SONNETS. By M.C.S. With an introduction by

Upton Sinclair.

MY SAGE BRUSH GARDEN. A Book of Califor-

nia Verse by Sarah Bixby Smith.

"Many are called but few are chosen' when it

comes to writing poetry. Indeed actual experience

with the many who want to write poetry and cannot,

reminds us of the little girl's emendation of the text

given above "Many are cold, but few are frozen." At

least a good many are frost-bitten.

But these two women writers are both real poets.

Their verse is very different, both in form and sub-

stance. Mary Craig Sinclair's sonnets represent per-

haps the most difficult and highly developed form of

poetry and she handles it with singular felicity and

power. But her sonnets are more than finely phrased

and felicitously worded examples of literary work-

manship; they are alive and vibrant with social pas-

sion. Readers of THE OPEN FORUM are already

familiar with some of Mrs, Sinclair's work. Social

minded folks all over the country ought to thank

Upton Sinclair for persuading the author of these

strong, high songs to allow their publication. I wish

every one who has understanding enough to appre-

ciate both the workmanship and the message here

could have a copy of this little book for their own.

Sarah Bixby Smith's work is cast in the main on

lines of free verse, which she handles well. There

is no touch of the social emphasis or interest upon

it. Paul Jordan Smith, who knows her better than

anybody else presumably, and who despite the fact

that he is her husband, can still manage to hold the

attitude of a detached literary judge, writes this con-

cerning the book: "These poems are charged with

the breath of California springtime, with the desert

sage and wild lilac, its orange blossoms and acacia;

more than that the poems reveal a brooding philos-

ophy of life that is reminscent of Thomas Hardy."

A delightful "garden of verse" it is.

--------t+_______

"What I need to realize is how infinitesimal is the

importance of anything I can do, and how infinitely

important it is that I should do it.'-Herbert Spencer.

FREE VIOLIN LESSONS

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Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

"ED." MORRELL ON "NEW ERA PENOLOGY" AT

THE FORUM

A world-famous character, "Ed." Morrell, will be

the speaker at the meeting of the Los Angeles Open

Forum next Sunday night, January 18th. He is to

take the place of Margaret Sanger, who is ill in q

New York hospital and cannot come to the coast at

this time. We hope to have her later.

Mr. Morrell will be recalled as one of the char.

acters in Jack London's `Sea Rover." He has had a

varied experience, including considerable time behind

prison bars. His studies into the penal system have

gone away beyond the mere superficial. In his book,

"The Twenty-fifth Man," he shows a profound insight

into the subject. At the Forum he will discuss

"New Era Penology,"' and a most interesting eve.

ning is promised.

The music will be furnished by Miss Helen Much-

nic, phenomenal child violinist. Come by 7:30 if

you want to be assured a seat.

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 U.S.C.

--_-_-_ a-----_--

Students Must Pull In Horns

PORTLAND, Ore.-The regents of Reed college,

a privately endowed Portland institution, once fam-

ous for its liberal educational experiments, are giving

notice to the students that there are some things in

the established order that are sacred. When Pres.

Richard Scholz died the students wanted Alexander

Meiklejohn, ousted liberal president of Amherst, to

be appointed but the regents named Norman Cole-

man, practically an unknown figure..

The Oregon Liberal, published at 215 4th Street,

declares that the regents are determined to sit hard

on economic heresies in the student body. "The

cry set up that youth is responsible for the dissatis-

faction at Reed," says The Liberal, "is a smoke screen

to hide the fact that economic teaching at Reed is to

remain well in hand and that the students shall not

do too much prying around the foundation stones of

economic privilege lest they discover just what con-

ditions are.

"These are days when you may be -ag radical as

you please about the depths and structure of the

sidereal universe or the chromosomes of guinea-pigs,

but a little digging now and then on the question

of the distribution of the economic income of the

local community or the nation is held up as danger-

ously radical and evidence of an impulsive revolt of

youth which must be sternly curbed.-Federated

Press.

--_--_ + ________

A Disclaimer and a Confession

Editor The Open Forum,

Dear Comrade:

I notice on your Brisbunk page of the issue of

January 8rd the paragraph, "Will Resist, Law Or No

Law."

Did you notice the unadulterated Anglo--Saxon

ring of the name, of, that brave general; "Griesbach'?

The von Plehnes of the Czar's regime, the von

Hindenburgs of Prussia, and the Canuck Griesbach's

ere all of the same breed of henchmen and of the

blood that has given to the world the greatest think-

ers aS well as the greatest flunkeys, unsurpassed in

either field. I am neither, though of the same blood.

ALFRED G. SAUFTLEBEN,

The Sarcastic Cuss of the Mojave Desert.

--_--_-_-_ e-___-_.

"A lot of so-called firni faith is merely fixed and

rocky egotism. Many a man thinks he. has princi-

ples when he has nothing but what was a slushy

Portland cement of ignorance now hardened into rigid

prejudice.""-DR. FRANK CRANE.