Open forum, vol. 2, no. 17 (April, 1925)

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~ THE OPEN FORUM |

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Knowledge is Power--- Multiplied Power, when it is Organized.

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Volk 2.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 725, 1925

No. 17

Oiling Up Our Ideals

Washington, (FP)-Of course there is nothing to

this Japanese oil concession, secured from Russia

in the Russo-Japanese recognition treaty to worry

athe Coolidge administration. The White House has

spent the week making that perfectly clear. If

Japan has secured a naval oil supply at her own

door, and if the Soviet Union has thereby made

itself popular in Japan, and if American prestige

in the Far East is thereby somewhat dimmed, what

P ote:

True, the administration is aeeply concerned that

American companies should get as many foreign oil

fields as possible. The race for oil is the race on

which, apparantly, depends the future, commercial

conquest of the world. Sinclair had an even better

concession from the Soviets, in Russian Saghalien,

than has now been given the Japanese. An American

company has a still stronger cinch on an oil field

in China. Sinclair has until January, 1928, so he

contends in a brief filed with the state department-

to make good his concession in Saghalien. He de-

nies that the recent decision of a Moscow court

that he has forfeited his privilege by failure to

overcome Japanese refusal to permit him to bore

for oil, is binding. If the administration were to

recognize the Soviet Union, Sinclair might get half

of that Saghalien oil.

But the Coolidge administration is not going to

be hurried into trading recognition for an oil field

and for development of trade. Not yet.' There is

much to be said on both sides. Just now, recogni-

tion of the Moscow government seems unthinkable

to the Republican leaders. And besides, Mr. Coolidge

has not been shown that Sinclair and Standard Oil

and the Mellon interests have reached an under-

standing. That is an important point. Now, if

Standard had bought control of the Sinclair inter-

ests and had taken the Mellon oil companies into

a merger, there might be a different situation.

Rumors are going around that Standard is going

to do this, after it has swallowed the Doheny con-

cern. Prove to Coolidge that Standard Oil is back

of Sinclair, asking recognition of the Soviet Union,

and he may show that he can act.

Sinclair's concealed press bureau has been rather

mean about trying to hurry Coolidge. While it has

spread the oil uphill from the administration, so

that it may seep down and gradually set the White

House moving toward a Russian treaty, it has like-

Wise exploded a few suggestions under the wall.

For instance, it has brought up the fact that Japan

18 already indignant because the American grand

gpcet is starting maneuvers off Hawaii. It has re-

minded the public that Japanese-American relations

are strained by the unfairness of the immigration

ban, and that only the gentlest tone on the part of

the United States can avert a serious dispute with

Tokyo. It has shown that American interests threat-

"ned by Japan cannot be protected unless the Wash-

`ington government either makes friends with Russia 0x00B0

or takes a chance of war with the Japanese.

Ce Secretary Lansing, who now appears as

nthe ee has filed 2 formal brief and various

nee en arguments with the state department.

ene ae conspicuous as a friend and enter-

hig ees aie monarchist refugees, and hence

any ioge ' o the department SHEROE be tainted with

bases ae the Soviet Union. He speaks as a

hat ake ee for American business interests

Russian ee for profits from oil fields in the

around the Han Ponony, when trying to get

save his of mecca revolutionary constitution and

his ae ae in Mexico, employed MeAdoo as

Tine Inclair, dealing with a reactionary ad-

Mellon oe eet by an admirer of Morgan and

idge is not : a retainer to Lansing. Of course Cool-

Russia, (c) be influenced in his hostility to Soviet

is th But business is business, especially when it

euro oil business,

Federated Press.

The Red Scar

By Jack Blair

Her sallow cheeks stand out in sharp contrast with

the rosy faces of the children with whom She plays

on the days when her "cold" will allow of her ven-

turing out.

She is one of the little scalded children of San

Pedro.

They threw the boiling coffee over her back; it

caught in the folds of her costume and undercloth-

ing; it parboiled the skin and cooked the flesh so

deeply that it fell away in shreds after they got

her out of the clutches of the Klansmen and rend-

ered first aid.

Her whole back from a point near the shoulder

blades down to the calves of her legs is an ugly

red, distorted, twisted caricature of a child's back.

After long months of the most cruel suffering the

little back finally "healed" but it left all that af-

fected area of her body with the surface pores de-

stroyed.

May Sunstedt's back has no surface excretory

organs and the other organs of her body must carry

the load.

Time alone can tell if she is to live to womanhood

and participation in the industrial revolution with

her fellow workers.

The sallow cheeks-the dark-rimmed eyes-the

slim, delicate figure-they all augur against this

happy hope.

In old Pagan times the children's bodies were en-

cased in the finest product of the gold-beaters art

and exhibited by the high-nriests ta gaping poten-

tate and publican.

The children always died, but it gave flair to the

ceremonials, and made secure the golden treasures

of barbaric lords.

They parboiled little May's back and destroyed

a goodly portion of her surface means of poison

excretions-

` That the golden treasures of the overlords of in-

dustrial feudalism may remain secure.

The pagan method was slightly different from

that of the high priests of the K.K.K. but for the

children the result may be the same.

But the blessed law of compensation is at work

in its cosmic way in the body and brain of little

May. 0x00B0

We watched her in repose and we watched her

as her delicate limbs played in unconscious rythm

with the other roly-poly children.

The bright eyes-no longer holding the terror that

shone from them for weeks after that awful night

cf June 14, 1924-are instinct with intelligence-pond-

ering, thoughtful eyes-eyes eloquent of an inquir-

ing, restless brain, awaiting its chance to develop.

Little May must be given that chance.

She must have the best literature telling of the

care of the child-woman body, and the proper foods;

she has a terrible load to carry and she must be

taught how to carry it.

Then she must have the world's best proletarian

literature and the best products of the world's artist-

writers.

You readers of the Open Forum-many of you-

have more of such literature than you need-some

have more than they know what to do with.

If you will send your offerings to Reverend Clin-

ton J. Taft, Secretary Civil Liberties Union, 506

Tajo Bldg., Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., May will

get them.

This is not much to do and it may save a rebel

child's life and fertile brain for the revolution.

We can not tell you where May lives; the arms

of the ruling class of California are long and their

myrmidons of torture are numerous.

Sometime we will tell you about the other little

scalded ones of San Pedro and how they are faring.

In the meantime, let's all do all we can to get

the I. W. W. boys out of the twin prison hells of

San Quentin and Folsom, California.

May has lots of friends in there who would like

to visit her and all the other little scalded children.

Unstressed News From

Japan

By W. P. Calkins

A few days ago there was tucked away in the

inside folds of the great "news" papers of America

the following Associated Press Dispatch from Tokio:

"The House of Peers today passed the manhood suftf-

rage bill. The measure, previously passed by the

lower House, fixes the voting age at twenty-five and

abolishes property qualifications."

If the Japanese government had passed a bill ap-

propriating an equal number of dollars for the con-

struction of aeroplanes as the suffrage bill extended

the franchise to Japanese men, every paper here in

America that so considerately obscured the item

telling of the removal of property qualifications that

enabled ten times as many to vote as previously and

that made Japan as democratic as Hngland, these

same newspapers would undoubtedly have used all

the black-faced type in their shops heralding the

"Japanese Menace."

Is the fact of the Japanese people having by a

peaceful stroke removed a despotic government-a

menace to world peace-of such minor consequence

that it merits obscurity? or is it that publicity

of such foreign news might allay the fears of our

100 per cent Americans to such an extent that they

would paralyze the petroleum market by calling off

the Pacific Naval Cruise and threat to Asiatics?

We leave the question with you.

* * * *

Addenda-iIt is to be noted that in passing this

commendable measure extending the suffrage in

Japan the Japanese authorities also passed a very

strict espionage law which may be used for the

suppression of anything like free discussion or the

effort to get over any real information to the people.

In Japan, as in America, the ballot is to be tied up

as much as possible if the people insist upon having

it. Those who talk most in praise of the ballot are

often those who are most afraid to have the people

enjoy any real use of it-R. W.

From San Pedro

Mind You!

Withdrawal of moral and financial support from

the schools and colleges where evolution is taught

and expulsion from all educational institutions of

those who teach the theory of evolution was de-

manded yesterday in an address before the Bible

Institute by Dr. Martin Luther Thomas of the First

Presbyterian Church of San Pedro.

The speaker attacked the theory of evolution as

"responsible for the spread of Socialism and an-

archy" and declared that Huxley and Darwin had

been substituted for Christ in the educational insti-

tutions.

"The school books of the country will have to be

rewritten if America is to survive,' he declared.

"IT know of no course in any college or university

that is not based on the evolutionary hypothesis of

the descent of man. We are facing the greatest

crisis in the history of religion and our nation be-

cause, while in the past all controversialists appeal-

ed to Scripture, today the authority of the Scripture

is under fire. Our Constitution is based on the

Holy Book and when the Bible goes America falls.

The need of the hour is for Christian men and wo-

men in the biological, geological and all other re-

search departments of our institutions of learning."

The speaker declared that the theories of Huxley

and Darwin, through the influence of Karl Marx and

Bakunin, have wrecked Russia and made Southern

Europe a hotbed of anarchy.

Every sincere evolutionist, in his opinion, Dr.

Thomas said, must either be a Socialist or an an-

archist and every modernist or liberalist igs either

covertly or openly in sympathy with Communism.

PT Lhe TRO REN TES " Ras son een STEED GO cern feo

Ku Kluxism In

Komatose Kondition

A striking decrease in the power of the Ku Klux

Klan is reported by the American Civil Liberities

Union, in a report issued yesterday, based on the

replies of correspondents in Klan territory to a

proposal for holding meetings in behalf of tolerance

in Klan strongholds.

According to most of the correspondents the Klan

is dying out owing to "factional disputes within the

organization, failure of members to pay their dues

and lack of interest in its objects." The Klan has

been further crippled by political failures, `unmask-

ing" legislation and "the general apathy on the

part of the public." Practically all the correspond-

ents advised against holding the proposed meetings

on the ground that they would strengthen the Klan

through opposition and publicity `on which it

thrives."

"The growth of antagonistic factiong in the Klan

is.common knowledge out here,' writes a corres-

pondent from Indiana. "Many of the members have

become discouraged and have quit paying dues."

Another correspondent in Oklahoma writes that

"the Klan is dying and if left severely alone will

be completely dead within another year or two."

The Oklahoma correspondent informs the Civil Lib-

erties Union that "the Klan's state paper, which had

a large circulation, has been suspended and thou-

sands who joined the organization are either pub-

licly withdrawing or are refusing to pay further

dues."

Similar reports have come from Arkansas, Georgia

and Texas. In the latter state "the legislature that

has just adjourned passed an anti-masking law that

virtually puts the Klan out of business." The Texas

correspondent also declares that "one of the Klan

leaders, Billie Mayfield, who published a daily Klan

paper that boasted of 200,000 circulation, and that

one time got out an issue of a million copies, has

just been sentenced to prison for two years, for

slandering through his paper T. W. Davidson, one

of the candidates for Governor. His paper suspended

some time ago for want of patronage."

Correspondents from West Virginia, Pennsylvania,

New Jersey and New York report that "the Klan

is on the wane."

The Klan is reported to be still strong in Alabama,

Colorado, and in parts of several middle-western

states. The conclusions expressed are summarized

by the Civil Liberties Union in saying:

"The peak of Klan membership and activity ap-

pears to be reached the second year of its invasion

of any section, and after that it declines rapidly.

Local political, racial or religious issues have kept

the Klan going strong in a few centers, but these

are all exceptions to the general rule of decline and

decay after the second year."

The Civil Liberties Union, as a result of the

opinions received has decided not to arrange the

proposed meetings in Klan territory.

4

REPORT MELLON FOR RUSS

NEGOTIATIONS

WASHINGTON-Now it is Secretary Mellon, the

actual power in the Coolidge cabinet, who is reported

convinced that American loans must be made to Rus-

sia in order that France and Italy and other EHuropean

nations may be enabled to pay something on their

war debts to the American treasury. This is the

position Borah took a long while ago.

Mellon is said to want to collect from the French

and Italians and other bankrupt debtors. Their re-

pudiation in fact-whatever their pretense of purpose

to pay up-has a tendency to undermine the credit

of world commerce, and to justify the Russian atti-

tude on pre-revolutionary debts of the czar. To col-

lect from France, he must enable France to collect

from Germany. The Germans cannot pay unless they

develop the Russian market for their manufactured

goods. Russia cannot buy in sufficient amounts to

make Germany prosperous unless American gold is

loaned to the Soviet Union at reasonable rates.

In other words, the Dawes plan will not work un-

less Russia be first brought in and given the same

financial "help'' promised to Germany.

Federated Press.

In Woodrow Wilson's

Baliwick

"The Civil Liberties Union will carry up to the

New Jersey Supreme Court the conviction of the

Union's director, Roger N., Baldwin, and the seven

silk strikers charged with unlawful assemblage in

holding a meeting on the City Hall steps at Paterson

on the night of October 6th when they were pre-

vented by the police from meeting in a private hall

which we had engaged. In our judgment the convic-

tion is utterly unfounded in law or in fact, and we

propose to test out the issue in the highest courts.

The case is extraordinary from gceveral angles.

First, it is the only case of its kind ever tried in

New Jersey. It was brought under a statute passed

in 1798 re-enacting the old English common law

offense of unlawful assemblage. The only prece-

dent in New Jersey was a decision in 1913 by Judge

Minturn releasing William D. Haywood on a writ

of habeas corpus because no meeting had actually

been held. Second, the case was tried before Judge

Delaney without a jury and without a stenographer

to take minutes. The decision was rendered without

an opinion after three months' deliberation.

"The Civil Liberties Union accepts full responsi-

bility for the meeting and for the conduct of the

case. All the defendants attended the meeting held

under Mr. Baldwin's direction, acting officially for

the Union. We had gone to Paterson to test the

issue of free speech at the request of the Associ-

~ ated Silk Workers which was then conducting a

strike of 6,000 broad silk workers. Their meeting

hall had been closed by order of Police Chief John

M. Tracey who objected to attacks on local officials

by one of the speakers from New York. The Civil

Liberties Union test meeting was scheduled for the

hall used by the strikers, which the police closed

an hour before the meeting was to be held. In

order to protest illegal police power, the speakers

and audience went to the City Hall Plaza where they

were met by the police with drawn clubs. The

meeting was broken up at its start. Several heads

were cracked by the police. Eleven persons were

arrested and fined in police court the next day.

"The Civil Liberties Union immediately arranged

another meeting for the same hall for the follow-

ing week, addressed by Bishop Paul Jones, Rev.

John Nevin Sayre, Grace Hutchins, Roger N. Bald-

win and two strike leaders. In the face of these

tactics, the Chief of Police surrendered and allowed

the strikers to resume their meetings. Even the

speaker who attacked local officials came back un-

molested. There was no further interference with

strikers' meetings during the strike, which ended

in December. The Chief of Police however went

to the grand jury and secured indictments for un-

lawful assemblage against ten persons. These were

tried from December 15th to 19th. Charges against

two of the defendants were dismissed during the

trial.

4

"The Union will be represented in the appeal by

Addison P. Rosenkrans, the Paterson attorney who

has had charge of all the cases growing out of the

free-speech issue."'

Federated Press.

Treason!

Is The Better American Federation of Los Angeles

going Bolshevik?

Listen to this, right out of their "Weekly News

Letter" of Feb. 3, 1925. Here it is in black and white,

s'ander outrageous and treasonable, about our b'lov'd

Constitution. And horror of horrors, it's true. But

what has The Better American Federation to do with

telling the truth, especially where the Constitution

is concerned? Listen to this scandalous confession

of-fact:

But never before 1787 had the supreme task of

framing a constitutional government been assum-

ed by a group of men acting upon their own ini-

tiative, without any public authorization, under

the seal of secrecy and behind locked doors. Never

before had any body of men called together by

their Government to do a specific work, entirely

abandoned such work and created a totally

different result. Never before was such an ef-

fort consummated in a time of peace and with-

out bloodshed.

"Blessed are the

Peace-makers"'

Following this we are publishing a brief Statemey

from the Hon. Winston Churchill, the Well-knoy,

English statesman, on the much discussed toni

"THE NEXT WAR." The item is packed from fy

to last with an irony so immense that the Daragray,

ought to be preserved in the museums of CON

SERVATIVE CURIOSITIES, or shall we gay, TH

CURIOSITIES OF CONSERVATISM.

First of all is the irony of the title, Honorable, ah

plied to this "great statesman." Was there eyo,

man to whom the title was applied who was yy

a good deal of a boob on stilts? If exceptions gy

pleaded it is quite evident that Churchill is not oy

of them.

Then there is the irony of the fact that after oy

"war to end war" the most discussed question 4

the day is "the next war." Adequate comment i

impossible.

Finally, there is the supreme irony of the conty

sion that our "Honorables," and our "wars to gay

civilization" have resulted in this glorious congy,

mation "the blessed respite of exhaustion." Reali

this is about the finest phrasing of the crown ani

glory of our civilization ever penned. All that

needed is to build us a pyramid adequate to can

the epitaph, and then there should be carved thereon,

in letters large enough for all the world to read:

"HERE LIES THE CARCASS OF CIVILIZATION! |

"In the blessed respite of exhaustion."

* a *

What Another War Means

"All the hideousness of the explosive era will cor

tinue; and to it will surely be added the gruesome

complications of poison and of pestilence scientit

cally applied," is the warning of Hon. Winsto

Churchill, in speaking of a new war.

"Such is the peril with which mankind menace

itself. Means of destruction incalculable in thei

effects, wholesale and frightful in their character;

the march of science unfolding ever more appalling

possibility; and the fires of hatred burning deep

in the hearts of some of the greatest peoples of the

world, fanned by continual provocation and uncess

ing fear and fed by the deepest sense of. nation

wrong or national danger!

"On the other hand, there ig the blessed respite

of exhaustion, offering to the nations a final chane

to control their destinies and avert what may well,

be a general doom. Surely if a_ sense of sel

preservation still exists among men, the preventiol

of the supreme catastrophe ought to be the palt

mount object of all endeavor."

MUZZLES PRESS

BY THREAT

Washington, (FP).-Supt. of Schools Ballou,

the City of Washington, has refused to investigale

and strongly disapproves, the platoon system of

modern primary schools, now established in 92 Amel |

" ican cities and including 90 modern schools in Dt

troit! When Miss Rose Philips, superintendent of

platoon schools in Detroit, was brought to Washie

ton by the League of Woman Voters to give a lectil!'

and show moving pictures of this work-study-pla!

system. Ballou notified the five local newspapers 0

his disanproval. Reporters state that he told the

editors that if this lecture were mentioned in the!

co'umns, either before or after its delivery, it woul

"hurt the building program" under which he expedls

to boss the spending of $15,000,000 on school plats

in the next five years.

As a consequence, when column-long interview'

and articles were writen by the reporters of the

five papers, they were cut down to brief paragrapls

or the fact of the lecture was wholly suppress?(R)

Five hundred educators and friends of modern eit

cation had attended.

Ballou is about to be banqueted in recognition a

his election as head of the division of superinten!

ance, National Education Association.

Federated Press:

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SAY SO

We want letters.

Lots of them.

From lots of people.

On lots of subjects.

BUT NOT LOTS OF WORDS.

Make them "Century Letters," i

that is letters of not more than

One Hundred words. `

Write on subjects of general

( aE

interest.

Typewrite your letters,

if possible. If you are

interested in anything worth-

while, say so. But say it in

as few sentences as you can.

Sign your name. It will not be

used if you do not wish it

published, provided you say so.

Let's make "SAY SO' the best

page of this paper. Mind you,

be brief. And again, BE BRIEF. i

() qmmme comeet eet eet ct st

Co-operative Center in Boyle Heights

Stanislavsky perceived that the basis of the his-

trionic art lies in the actor's ability to lose himself

in a "Creative If." "If I were Hamlet-how would I

act?'-and then the great actor is Hamlet. It seems

to me, that it is precisely this lambent and creative

imagination, which we radicals lack.

True, economic necessity holds us by the heels;

but even when we do create,-how conventional is

our urge and vision! What a pity that an architect

of the future should so have materialized his dream

of a "cooperative centre;" and what is worse, that

this dismal reality with dressmaker's trimmings

should have been accepted and rejoiced over!

There are rumors afloat of the building of a Labor

College in Los Angeles. I hope that it will be built

with the spark of Stanislavsky's "Creative If." "If

the new social order were here, how would I build?"

-and then the great architect will actually build

the future now!

I hope that the college will include courses in

drama, music, aesthetic and interpretive dancing,

and painting, as well as the more academic and nec-

essary courses in philosophy, history, sociology, etc.

Builders of the future world must learn to make

of life an art. First of all, we radicals must free

ourselves from the ugliness we' profess to hate, by

acquiring a knowledge of, and a desire for, the

beautiful. We must usher in the new day with

dance and song!

Sophie Feider

a

How Much Did You Get?

B. C. Forbes says:

Our savings as a people made possible these tangi-

ble additions to our wealth during 1924:

Houses and other buildings $5,500,000,000.

Railroad improvements, $1,000,000,000.

firey utility extensions and improvements, $1,600,-

000.

Additions to manufacturing plants, $1,800,000,000.

Roads, pavements and public improvements other

than buildings, $1,000,000,000.

Automobiles added, $1,500,000,000.

Gold and currency imported, $30,000,000.

Foreign securities imported, $1,000,000,000.

Total, $13,700,000,000.

After making a liberal allowance for duplications

nud replacements, a net total of $11,000,000,000 re-

mains,

ees ae

-

ak pare arrowed their minds, and so fettered

f iY . n the chains of antiquity that not only do

a ae. to speak save as the ancients spake,

th y refuse to think save as the ancients

Ought-Savonarola.

- value of around $238 a share.

The Steal in the

Steel Trust

Workers in the steel mills of the U. S. Steel Corp.

during 1924, turned over to the owners a _ profit

of $153,114,811. Calvin Coolidge's share of this

amounts to $589 while George F. Baker, dean of

New York bankers and largest stockholder, gets

$690,500.

Cal's share on his steel trust holdings just about

equals the wages on which the average steel work-

er's. family is supposed to live for four months.

Baker's haul would cover the entire year's budget

of 387 familes in the steel towns.

Profits of the corporation since its organization

in 1901 have totaled $3,517,348,727 or more than twice

the capitalization, nearly half of which was water.

Out of this enormous total $2,087,771,000 hag been

available for dividends on the preferred and com-

mon stock. This represents about four times the

actual investment represented by stock at the time

of organization. The corporation has paid $1,176,-

473,763 in cash dividends.

The water in the common stock has been squeezed

out by annual appropriations for new construction

out of surplus profits. These have totaled $1,210,-

662,572, thus placing behind the common stock which

originally represented little if any investment a

Thus the real invest;

ment represented by the common stock has been

put in by under-paid workers and overcharged con-

sumers and the $595,960,000 in cash dividends to

common stockholders has been little more than

legalized robbery.

Figures of interest to labor in the last two annual

reports are:

U. S. Steel 1924 1923

Products SOlde. se os $842,969,442 $992,916,162

INStEnDrolihie. mh TOS 153,114,811 179,646,674

Cash dividends... 60,800,852 54,447,071

Undivided: DROUts 1.4 717,960,222 693,650,134

Cash) checking" accts:.. 1, 131,357,416 143,499,628

Totalewa resourses wus 442,458,577 469,502,634

Number of employes... 246,753 260,786

Average wage $1,794 $1,800

Value produced per work-

OMe tite Praia oe ake ate eee Ny 3,417 3,806

Profitsper worker! 3: 621 689

The corporation can continue cash dividends for

a number of years even if it shuts down altogether.

In the last 10 years the average wage paid by the

corporation increased from $925 in 1915 to $2,173 in

1920 and then fell to $1,794. The average worker

employed right through the period received a total

of $15,860 for production worth $38,040. He turned

over a profit of $7,194 to the owners. In the two

years 1916 and 1917 workers averaging wages of

$1,041 and $1,295 provided the owners with profits

of $1,321 and $1,102 respectively.

For the entire period of the corporation's history

the owners sitting in comfort have received 60 per

cent as much in profits as the hundreds of thou-

sands of workers have been paid for 23 years of

gruelling work.-Federated Press.

_

Upton Sinclair's Mammonart

From a column editorial by Ernest Untermann, in

the Milwaukee LEADER, reviewing MAMMONART

by Upton Sinclair:

"The first serious effort in the English language

to view art in relation to the class economics of its

time. An event not only in Anglo-American

literature, but in the world literature of Socialism

We predict that this book will meet with

the enthusiastic reception of the leading Huropean

Socialists, and that it will become a permanent

classic of the world's labor and socialist movement

It is the finest of fine literature, written with

the skill of a man who knows his English, and who

understands the ins and outs of his craft as only

a master can. Intelligent workers everywhere

will spread it and treasure it as one of their rarest

possessions. A veritable encyclopedia of the

personalities, works and social significance of the

great writers of ancient, mediaeval and modern

times. No matter how well versed one may be in

literatvre, this book of Sinclair's will open up new

vistas and stimulate new.thought."

Revolt of Farmers

in America

(By The' Federated Press).

"The danger is that it is already too late to find

a remedy short of revolution," writes Herbert Quick

in his book The Real Trouble With the Farmers. He

sees a class conscious farm proletariat coming into

existence as a result of the increase in land values

due to the complete occupation of all good .farm

land.

Most writers, he says, are "ignoring the fact that

farm tenantry has increased until it is the controll-

ing factor in the condition of the farmer. It controls

the majority of the farms in most of our richest farm-

ing districts. When to the proportion of farms, un-

der tenantry is added the other farm areas which are

mortgaged and the owners of which are in fact if not

in law merely tenants, it embraces a vast majority

of the farms in the United States.

"Harm tenantry increases with such rapidity be-

cause land grows so valuable that a poor man cannot

buy it and pay for it. Farms in good farming

regions are not for people in even moderate circum-

stances, as working people go. Lands which sold for

$5 an acre in my boyhood have been sold in recent

years for $500 an acre. Rich people in towns and

cities bid with unvarying success against the dirt

farmer for the ownership of farms."

Quick points out that this passing of the land into

the hands of the rich is increasing the average size

of farms. The 40-acre and 80-acre farms of yesterday

have been combined into 320-acre farms worth

$100,000 to $150,000. Once young men could buy and

equip a farm with the savings of a number of years'

labor. Now that is impossible where land is good.

The curse of landlordism, he says settles on a

region wherever the land increases in value. It re-

sults in farms which lack flowers, shrubs and fruits.

It produces farms which are merely corn, hog, wheat

and cattle factories.

Remedies such as lower freight rates, diversifica-

tion, farm credits and cooperation, he says, will

eventually only boost the value of lands and the farm-

ers will be no better off. He cites an instance in

-which cooperation with a better system of rural

credits raised the price of land 200 per cent, 300 per

cent and 500 per cent until it became too valuable for

a poor man to hold.

The farm rental system in the United States is

described as the worst in the world. To find one as

bad we must go to prewar Russia. It is rack-renting,

a system in which the landlord has the right to get

as much out of his land as he can. It is filling the

land with people on a peon scale of living.

Crime and Education

The following, published in one of the Los Angeles

dailies under date of March 26, 1925, gives the sub-

stance of a report on the recent criminal record

of that city,

In spring crime is most prevalent in Los An-

geles the survey of crime conditions by Deputy

District Attorney Buron Fitts reveals. The fig-

ures compiled also showed that the average

criminal is single, native-born, a laborer, and

in his early twenties. Likewise, it was shown

that nearly 25 per cent of all crimes were

committed by persons under the age of 21, while

52 per cent are committed by persons under the

age of 29.

Fewer acts of criminality are committed by

persons, in the "educated" class, it was reported

after a study of the records at the county jail.

Crime is less prevalent among school teachers

than in any other vocation or profession, while

common laborers lead the list. Salesmen are

second on the list in criminality reports, with

machinists and mechanics third. Waiters and

street car men are at the bottom of the crime

list in the "unskilled" classification. Engineers

led the "professional list" in criminal acts, with

auditors and accountants second-and _ their

crimes usually are embezzlements or forgeries.

The survey was made into 5441 reported

crimes, of which 27380 were committed between

the period from May to October last. It also

was determined that in proportion to popula-

tion, fewer crimes were committed by natives of

California than from any other state.

a yi ve ee ee ay

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,

First and Broadway

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836.

MANAGING EDITORS

Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft

LITERARY EDITOR

Esther Yarnell

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair J H. Ryckman

Doremus Scudder

Kate Crane Gartz

Fanny Bixby Spencer

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills

Ce peepee ne

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

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1925

COMING EVENTS

eR RK I Ke

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

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

+

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION

At Eight O'clock

A Free Education is Offered at

EDUCATIONAL CENTER

By Industrial Workers of the World

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

224 South Spring Street, Room 218

eee

Free Workers Forum meets Monday Nights at

8:15, o'clock at 420 N.,,Soto,St., (one block, north, of

Brooklyn Ave.).

April 27-"The Fundamental Conception of Law," by

Ss. G. Pandit.

Steerer

I. B. W. A. FORUM

At the Brotherhood Hall, 508 Hast 5th St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

All are Invited to Attend

John X. Kelly and J. Hads How, Committee

PROLETARIAN FORUM

Every Sunday at 8 P. M.

ODD FELLOWS HALL

220% South Main Street

Questions and Discussion Freely Invited

Admission Free

Cosman Club will picnic again at Exposition

Park, Sunday, April 26. Same place, S. W.

corner of Park under the pepper trees. Bring

a basket lunch,

I can imagine no greater disservice to the country

than to establish a system of censorship that would

deny the people of a free republic like our own their

indisputable right to criticize their public officials.

While exercising the great powers of the office I

hold, I would regret, in a like thru

which we now passing, to lose the

patriotic and intelligent criticism.

President Wilson in "The New Freedom,"

crisis the one

are benefit of

Paces ee ee hay

A number of French professors have heen trying

to find out what women were like 100,000 years ago,

and some very interesting results have followed their

search. They gay that in the days when people

lived in caves woman was the most important of

the two sexes. Men were only tolerated for the

sake of the food and sking they provided. Women

ruled everything, and almost every art and science

we have today is due to the work of the women of

thousands of years ago.

Mussolini Strength

Rests on Bayonets

By Carl Brannin

MILAN, Italy.-The Mussolini government's vote

of confidence in the chamber of deputies on internal

policy might not seem at all strange to a foreigner

traveling through Italy.

quite normal. Trains

On the surface things look

run regularly, streets are

crowded with conventionally clad folk, business seems

as usual. There is much visible evidence in the way

ot posters and proclamations and black shirted men

of fascist predominance, but unless one digs below

the surface one could not full signifi-

cance,

estimate its

Milan, one of the first centers of fascist organiza-

tion, presents an fund of information.

People close to public opinion declare that elections

free from intimidation would give Mussolini 10 to 20

per cent of the vote and no more. A similar state-

ment was made in Rome by a well informed publicist.

The Mussolini government stands on the bayonet

points of the Black Shirt army and behind it stand

the dominant employers and large land-owners who

need a strong man to do their bidding.

interesting

An index of public opinion is given by the circula-

tion of newspapers in, Milan. The net street sale, in-

dependent of subscribers, is: Corriera de la Sera

(Liberal, anti-fascist), 80,000 daily; Avanti (Socia-

list, Maximalist Anti-Fascist), 23,000; Giustizia (Soc.

Reformist, anti-Fascist), 21,000; Unita' (Communist,

anti-fascist), 5,000; Popolo d'Italia, Mus-

solini, Fascist), 7,500.

(organ of

The steady increase in the cost of living (30 per

cent under Mussolini) new taxes (all municipal, fed-

eral and railway employes pay 10 per cent of their

wages as taxes), the decline of the lira, not to men-

worker and unions

tion the destruction of

and co-operatives, create great dissatisfaction.

peasant

this northern

prosecuted for

Strikes involving 12,000 workers in

are either just still

These have been called by the heads

section won or

wage increases.

unions in the hope of keeping their

of the fascist

membership.

While the murder of the socialist leader, G,

Matteotti, was probably no worse than thousands of

similar assassinations committed by the Fascisti, the

disclosure showing Mussolini's connection

make this stand out as a typification of Fascism.

direct

In spite of the unpopularity of the government, as

long as the dominant employers desire its continu-

ance it will go on. As a renegade radical Mussolini

understands mass psychology.

control his Black Shirt army.

have no strong leadership.

that

Mederated

He also knows how to

The anti-fascist groups

The

faces

Communists are a

group with a realities, but the

time is not ripe for it.

program

'

Press,

a ee eee

`There Are First That Shall Be

Last, And Last That Shall Be First''

the International The Uni-

versity of California in that a

"Military Commission" has just arrived in the United

States from Japan, to study in particular the extent

from Department of

serkeley we learn

and character of military training in the public

schools of the United States. The letter informing

us of this was dated April 6, 1925. The following

item, dated one day later, is most significant in

this connection.

a * "

OSLO, April 7.-(Copyright, 1925, by The Chicago

Daily News.)-The cabinet today presented a _ Dill

making refusal to serve in the army unpunishable

if military service is in conflict with the objectors'

convictions.

a I

Features Imperialism and the Next War

CLEVELAND-`"`Imperialism has become enthroned

in America,' declares the Locomotive Wngineers

Journal. "Imperialism is caused," it explains, "by

the lure of larger profits by exploiting a

supposedly inferior people than can be made from

legitimate business enterprises at home. Profit ig

the taproot of the whole imperialistic system."

weak or

--Wederated V regs

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

Program for April

APRIL 26-"THE WORLD COURT?" by MR. Bhp.

NARD BRENNAN of the University of Souther

Jalifornia Law School. Mr. Brennan hag _ pro.

sented this subject to many groups thruout Californig

and the Northwest. He has given it careful study,

and will give both the pros and cons of the argu.

ment. Music by BERWYN B. RISKE, baritone, anq

FRANK K. LUNDY, students of the U. S. C.

eee lh

Bledsoe's Case In Brief

"Harry calls him Ben.'-The Opposition.

"Everybody calls him Ben.'-His Supporters,

"Everybody will call him, Has Ben."'-The Prog.

nosticator.

-_---_4_____

Not Secretary Mellon, But Just Melons

The following incident cited by Mr. Joe Cook,

president of the State Teachers college of Hatties.

burg, Miss., throws an interesting light on the pres:

ent system of marketing farm products:

"Last summer, while in ordered a

portion of watermelon.

Washington, J

It cost me 380 cents. Judging

from the portion served me, I estimated that that

melon would yield 10 portions. The whole melon,

if all sold, would have cost the consumer three (ol-

lars. I made some inquiries and was told that the

car of melons from which that melon came had

been shipped to Washington on consignment, was

turned down by the broker, and gold by the railroad

at auction for freight. It lacked one cent per

melon of bringing the freight. The farmers who

grew the melons not only got nothing for the melon,

but had to pay one cent per melon for the privilege

of giving their melons away, and the people of Wash-

ington who consumed those melons paid at. the

rate of three dollars per melon."

Cx;

WHITH, Hazelhurst, Miss.

a

etn als ee

tS

"In the few intervals in which no striker's head

appeared to serve as a target, Lieutenant Murvin

Woerth varied the action by bringing down pigeons

with his riot gun loaded with buckshot."

Krom New York Tribune, spring of 1917.

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