Open forum, vol. 2, no. 19 (May, 1925)

~ THE OPEN FORUM

`"`Rarnest for the Freedom of Others.'' --- Lowell.

Vol. Di

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MAY 9, 1925

No. 19

BALDWIN'S CRIME

THE TEXT OF A SPEECH SUPPRESSED AT

THE PATERSON TRIAL

By Roger Baldwin

This introductory statement from the New Leader

of New York City will serve here to explain why

we are publishing Baldwin's address.

* * *

That Roger Baldwin, the courageous director of

the American Civil Liberties Union, has been sen-

tenced to six months in jail because of his insistence

on exercising his constitutional right of free speech,

is known to New Leader readers. Some of the

unsavory details of this arbitrary conviction are

still unknown. The daily press has done little to

bring them to light.

-Not content with a wholesale flagrant violation of

the Constitution, the Paterson court rode roughshod

over the elementary rights of the defendants in the

case, refusing them permission to speak on their

behalf before sentence was pronounced. The follow-

ing was prepared by Baldwin as his statement to

the court, but the presiding judge would not hear

it. For this reason, and for the additional reason

that the daily papers have refused to print any part

of Baldwin's statement to the court, the New Leader

is especially gratified to present it herewith:

* * *

Your Honor, before you pass sentence on me I

desire to make a statement of the facts and issues of

this case as I see them. There is no stenographic

record of this case, nothing indeed but our own dif-

fering memories of the evidence submitted three and

a half months ago, together with the citations of

law. And yet it is a case remarkable from the fact

that it is the only one of its kind tried in all the 126

years during which the statute creating the offense

has been on the books. In view of that situation,

I desire to say what it is my privilege to say be-

fore sentence is passed on me. ;

You have found all of us eight defendants guilty

of the crime of unlawful assembly as charged in

the indictment. That indictment was based on a

statute of 1798, reenacting the old English. common-

law offense of unlawful assembly. We understand

this crime to consist of gathering together in a pub-

lic place for the purpose of creating disorder and

disturbing the peace.

The indictment, in the quaint language of 126

years ago, charges us "riotously and routously" with

making "great and loud noises' and with using

force of arms" and with intent to commit `assault

and battery on police officers" and "to wreck the

City Hall.

All of us have denied any such intent or acts,

`nd no evidence was submitted, contradicting us.

We therefore assume that your Honor sustains the

bia doctrine that we intended the consequences

tip act-namely, the breaking up of our meeting

police with its attendant disorder.

ae believe that in assembling on the City Hall

oatee the night of October 6 after the Chief of

see ad closed our private hall we were within

Deacef Beg one rights. The right to assemble

a y for a redress of grievances is to us clear.

cise toe be no more appropriate place to exer-

City fae at the seat of local government, the

not oa, That the exercise of such a right should

Seems upon the notions of a Chief of Police

conceptio us equally clear. If submission to police

guide Sats of constitutional liberty is to be our

Tights will not exist when most needed.

I stated to your Honor during this trial that the

City Hall meeting, in the face of the Chief's ban on

strikers' public meetings, was held to test out the

legal rights involved. We welcomed such a test to

end the intolerable police dictatorship over freedom

of speech and assemblage. We had endeavored un-

successfully to settle this issue by getting an order

from the Vice-Chancellor restraining the police. We

had sent our attorneys to plead with the Chief with-

out success. There was no recourse left but to

submit, or to protest by a meeting in a public place.

It now appears that in view of the statute of 1798,

as construed by this Court, we had no such right.

Now I desire to call your Honor's attention to the

fact that as a practical-not a legal-matter, the

right of peaceful assemblage during the silk strike

was achieved by that meeting. When we announced

the day after the City Hall meeting that we would

meet in Turn Hall the following week with Bishop

Paul Jones of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. John

Nevin Sayre and other speakers, and notified the Chief

of Police, he abandoned his arbitrary and lawless

position, and told the strikers that the police would

not interfere further with their meetings in Turn Hall.

We held our scheduled meeting the following week.

continuing the City Hall meeting from the point at

which the police broke it up. Two days later we

held another meeting at which the principal speaker

was the Workers' party representative, whose at-

tacks on local officials had caused the Chief to close

the hall. From that time on during the strike there

was no police interference with freedom of speech

and assemblage. There was no violence or disorder.

Our practical purpose had been accomplished.

But the Chief of Police was not satisfied to let

matters rest there. He went to the Grand Jury

and secured this indictment on which we have been

tried before you, the first trial on this ancient charge

ever to take place in this State. Although, by his

surrender after the City Hall meeting, he admitted

his error, nevertheless he sought to vindicate police

brutality by punishing our defiance of his orders.

We believe that the evidence showed that what-

ever riot or disorder took place at the City Hall

meeting was caused solely by the police in violently

dispersing a peaceful meeting held to protest against

their high-handed abuse of power. There were scores

of officers there, ready with drawn clubs to act. The

testimony clearly shows that the procession from

the strikers' hall arrived with the flag at its head.

and that Mr. Butterworth was attempting to read

from the Bill of Rights when the police began swing-

ing their clubs. Two men were brutally assaulted,

and their scalps split open. The testimony shows

there was no resistance worthy of the name by the

crowd, which was dispersed in a few moments. It

was stated that a few men struck back at officers

in their indignation at this assault upon a peaceful

meeting, the effort to tear the American flag from the

Kimball sisters and to prevent the reading of the

Bill of Rights. Those cases are incidental. They

are covered by another indictment, and have no ref-

erence to the purpose of this meeting. The undis-

puted testimony clearly shows that the meeting was

held with the declared purpose to protest grievances

in orderly fashion, and that the chairman, speakers

and flag-bearers were instructed, and had agreed in

case of interference, to submit quietly to arrest in

order to test the issue out in the courts. One officer

alone could have dispersed that meeting by an order-

ly arrest of the chairman and speakers. I say again,

your Honor, that the police and the police alone

were responsible for the disorder; that whatever law-

lessness attaches to that meeting was committed by

them.

We elected to try this case on clear-cut issues of

law. We, therefore, waived our right to a jury in

order to avoid the inevitable prejudices which are

always aroused in a jury trial. We have hoped for

a decision which would make it clear for the future

that citizens of Paterson have the right, so long

abused by the police whenever industrial conflicts

have taken place, to take such steps as we took.

We are disappointed that, in your Honor's view, the

statute of 1798 impairs that right.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which re-

sponded to the strikers' appeal to handle the test

of their rights, assumes full responsibility for the

meeting and for the litigation growing out of it.

It ig virtually that organization which is before you

for sentence, an organization whose sole aim is to

help maintain freedom in exercise of those rights

guaranteed by the Constitution, and so often flouted

by the police. We serve impartially all who appeal

to us for help-strikers, radicals of all sorts prose-

cuted for their beliefs, the victims of mob violence

and of the Ku Klux Klan-equally, for instance,

Roman Catholic school teachers whom the Klan has

sought to oust from public schools, and the right of

the Klan itself to meet unmolested on private prop-

erty against the unlawful prohibition of a Roman

Catholic mayor. We have been involved many times

in meetings forbidden by the police, in order to

test out the legal issues in the courts. We have

followed in other places precisely the same tactics

which we followed in Paterson, and in such cases

our belief in what are our rights has been vindicated.

Accepting as I do full responsibility for this meet-

ing, it is clear that my fellow-defendants who attend-

ed at my request and direction are not equally re-

sponsible with me. For them, I ask the utmost leni-

ency of this Court. As for myself, I was acting

officially for my organization, not from any personal

motive or interest. My personal views and my im-

prisonment during the war as a conscientious ob-

jector, of which the prosecuting attorney endeavored

to make an issue, have, I believe, nothing to do with

this case. Any one of the officers or members of the

Civil Liberties Union might as well be before you

for sentence.

What is really behind. this case is, of course, the

struggle between two classes in society-the working

class and the employing class. This indictment

would clearly never have been brought unless this

assemblage had been held by strikers to get their

rights. | venture to say that the police would not

even have interfered with the strike meetings had

they been conducted by an A. F. of L. union with

its powerful political and industrial backing.

But because these strikers happen to belong to an

independent union without affiliation elsewhere, and

are chiefly aliens, they were easy to attack. Fur-

thermore, the strike issue was aggravated by the red

bogey of Communism and revolution, because the

strike committee was assisted by a representative

of the Workers' party from New York. Yet none

of these factors offers any moral or legal justifica-

tion for the action of the police.

This trial is, of course, merely an incident in the

long struggle of the working-class for the rights to

organize and strike. In this struggle the police al-

most everywhere side with the propertied employing

interests as against the workers. We were, there-

fore, not unprepared for the conduct of the police.

We have not ever looked to them to protect any-

one's rights. But we hoped that your Honor's de-

cision might be in conformity with our conception

of our Constitutional liberties. It is our belief that

Section 18 of the Constitution of New Jersey assures

us the right which we have taken. This section

reads:

"The public have the right freely to assemble to-

gether, to consult for the common good, to make

known their opinions to their representatives, and

to petition for redress of grievances."

Though you have decided against us, we believe

that our position will ultimately be vindicated, and

that those rights by which alone industrial conflict

can be settled peacefully will be fully established.

'

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

By R. W.

II

The Appeal To The Ballot

The United States was not born of the ballot. Free-

dom from England did not come by way of the

franchise, nor is there any probability whatever that

if the ballot had been universal and the issue had

been submitted to a vote that the majority of the

people in the British dominions as a whole would

have voted to allow such separation.

Neither is the United States what it is today, a

union of forty eight states, because of the ballot. The

issue as to whether certain of the states were to be

allowed to secede from the Union was not voted upon.

Abraham Lincoln was not elected on the straight

issue of secession, or no secession, and if he had been

he was not a majority president. Even in Novem-

ber 1864 eighteen out of every forty voters, all of them

from northern states, voted against him.

The thirteen colonies fought for their right to se-

cede from England, and won. A slightly lesser num-

ber, with a total population three times greater than

that of the thirteen colonies in 1776, fought for the

right to secede from the rest, and lost. In neither

case was it a determination of the ballot, but of

plain, outright force. Quite possibly in both cases the

ballot might better have been used, but it was not.

With all our talk in defense of the ballot we are

exceedingly chary in the use of it. The issue as to

whether we prefer to operate under a Constitution

made up by fifty-five men, sixteen of whom refused

to endorse it after it was debated and opposed the

adoption of it after it was done; made up behind

closed doors and with the utmost secrecy of council;

made up by property owners, money speculators, and

lawyers; and made up before the industrial order of

our day was born, one hundred and fifty years ago;

the question as to whether we prefer to continue

under such a constitution or to make a new one more

in accord with the conditions of our time, that ques-

tion has never been submitted to the ballot in these

`United States, and the proposal to submit it to the

voters would be denounced all over the country as

Bolshevism of the worst kind. Yet if we believe in

the ballot why should we not vote on just such a

real and serious issue?

If we believe in the ballot why should we use it so

rarely, so indirectly, and so inconsequentially? Why

should we not vote for our presidents directly, and

recall them if they do not carry out the people's will?

Why should we not vote for the nine men who sit for

a life tenure on the Supreme Bench, and who cau

reverse the decisions of both Houses of Congress,

even with the President's veto on the side of what the

people's representatives have voted, and what the peo-

ple themselves obviously want? Why should they not

be subject also to recall, that is to the continuous

exercise of the people's ballot if the ballot is some-

thing in which we really believe?

As a matter of fact the folks who talk the loudest

about the American people having the ballot are the

folks who believe the least in it, and are the most

terrified at the prospect of any real use of it. The

only reason they favor it in appearance is because

they have fixed it so that the people have very little

real use of it in fact. A proposal to set the people

really free to vote at any time on any issue of import-

ance, and to determine by a direct expression of their

will what they would do in any given case, as in the

matter of making war upon another nation, owning and

operating for themselves mines, and water power, and

key industries, and public transportation, and like

items of everyday importance, such a proposal would

set the Chambers of Commerce, Kiwanis Clubs, Ro-

tary Clubs, Better American Federations, Sons and

Daughters of the American Revolution, American

Legionists, and all the rest of the "safe and saners"

off into worse hysterics than they had during the

world war, All their talk about believing in the bal-

lot is the shallowest kind of bunk. They have no in-

tention whatever of allowing the people a real vote

on any real issue.

Nor could they really give the people the ballot

without giving them a good deal more than a chance

to vote oftener and more directly than is now the

case. It would be necessary for an actual exercise

of the franchise fairly and squarely that the people

should have the same opportunity to present their

side of every issue as have the special interests at

any time. In other words the press would have to be

open to the people's cause on equal terms, as would

the public platform, and the schools. The ballot is

not just a piece of paper, with some bits of print

upon them. If the ballot means anything it must be

a real vote, and to be a real vote it must represent a

fair opportunity to get at the facts on which the

vote registers decision.

There are churches, clubs, fraternities, and other

limited organizations in which there is a real use of

the ballot, and where actual faith in the ballot pre-

vails. But in these organizations all the members

vote; they vote on real and not just on sham issues;

they vote after full and free discussion, and one side

is heard as openly as the other. Only under such

conditions has the ballot any real existence. And

such conditions have never prevailed in any Ameri-

can State, or in the American Union as a whole. The

ballot there has always been witholden from large

masses of the people. Where it is not witholden

now, it is so hedged about with artificial conditions

and so manipulated by mechanistic devices, and so

handicapped in the hands of the common people by

the barrage of falsehood directed against it from the

batteries of press, pulpit, platform, school, movie

screen, radio, in the hands of the Big Interests in

nearly every instance, as to be one of the biggest

humbugs on the face of the earth today.

The patriots, profiteers, and politicians generally

have no more intention of letting the people of these

United States pass judgment, easily, continuously,

intelligently and effectively than have the Great

Powers of Europe the intention of establishing a real

world democracy over. there.

And even if all this were granted, the appeal to

reason under any conditions of ballotting, would still

be limited where a man's living is in another man's

hands. _

atin tis Oe

THE PARASITICAL PLANT

(Translated from the Dutch of `"`Multatuli."'

By Alfred G. Sanftleben

It was winter. Over there on the wide canal

folks enjoyed skating. The ice was on an even level

with the road. One had only to step up.

But a bridge was laid over a broad gully free

from ice which I had not noticed the day before.

Each one passing the bridge paid to the man one

cent who, as he said, had made the bridge "on

account of the gully." Yet there were those who

whispered "he has made the gully for the sake of

the bridge!"

Is it not a shame that means have been found

to make a profitable profession out of the interpre-

tation of the law?

Everywhere human society is traversed by such

gullies, and mostly only in order to keep alive just

such a "bridgeman."

What would become of the teaching profession if

we were to write plainly like an educated human be-

ing? ;

What would become of the soldiers if we could

grasp the truth that the smallest people is stronger

than the largest army?

What would become of the lawyers if we had

lawgivers capable of expressing their thoughts in

a plain everyday language?

What would become of the preachers if we could

conceive the truth that each has to seek for religion

in hig own heart?

And finally what would become of the teachers

of morality if we. knew how to re-discover these

moralities in communion with dear nature?

Ah, what a mass of bridgemen in unproductivity?

--_ -____-_.

On full investigation it will be discovered that

there is scarce a departure from order but leads to

or is indissolubly connected with a departure from

morality. AARON BURR.

=

The Third Degree

The proposed law abolishing the third degree hay

been defeated. This is sad news both for crooy

and a justice-loving public. The legislative commit

tee, after hearing various police chiefs, decideq ty

table the act. Now there is no need for cops to let W

in their attacks of men and boys suspected of Using

slugs in gum-vending machines or of some Othe

hideous crime.

Once upon a time I was a night police reporte

The little work that I did consisted of hangin

around the detective bureau. It was during that

period that I learned what third degree methods ay

I have seen big, stupid hulks and nervous, unde

nourished, repulsive little rats covered with blooj

from the wounds made by cops with their sap stick

or their fists.

I have seen two brothers, guilty of a minor crime,

but accused of something far worse, all battered api

bleeding, and have seen the walls of the room whey

the bulls administered the beating bespattered with

red.

I have seen timid little men, without sufficien

mentality to know what it was all about, bein

grossly manhandled by cops who believed they coulj

wring a confession of some terrible crime out

them. And I have seen hardened crooks sit in chair

and take all the blows that were given them withou!

spilling a word.

These beatings all are part of the third degre

methods used by the police. They are a part of the

theory of justice prevalent in our courts that a man

is guilty until proven innocent. You may remember

that in the histories of the land it is stated that the

courts were founded on the premise that a man is

innocent until proven guilty. That has all been re

versed. A criminal in court is regarded ag guilty

or he wouldn't be there. It is this law that an

innocent man must surmount before he can get back

on the street.

Douglas Churchill in the Daily News,

Who Says Class

Strussle?

CHICAGO-Class lines, drawn partly by pride anil

partly by suspicion, are showing in the nationwide

response to the needs of the tornado victims of

southern Illinois and adjoining states.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners

announces from its Indianapolis headquarters thal

$500,000 will be raised from its subordinate unions

so that no union carpenter in the storm area neel

depend on stranger charity to rebuild his home. The

brotherhood takes pride in caring for its own.

The Chicago carpenters' district council has appre

priated $1,000 from the district treasury and is call

ing upon its affiliated local unions in Cook and Lak

counties for the remaining $49,000 fixed by the inter

national as the local quota. The Chicago districl

is expected to raise 10 per cent of the entire hall

million.

More outspoken in its class-conscious plans fo!

storm relief and more suspicious of the usual chal -

ity mediums is the Chicago Council of Labor Defens?

and Relief.

"The storm that has just visited inexpressible sul

fering on a large section of the union coal miners

and other workers in southern Illinois and the at

jacent fields," the Labor Defense appeal reads, "i

likely to be seized upon by the capitalist class t

further beat down the workers' resistance and dcent

stroy their union organization." The appeal there

fore asks that labor relief funds be sent to the Intl

Workers' Aid, 19 S. Lincoln St., Chicago, as a meals

of counteracting "attempts to use the capitalist chal

itable agencies to discriminate against the mole,

militant workers.

Federated Press.

_

Urges Strikes To Resist Wage Cuts

CHICAGO-"A sweeping offensive of wage-cuttine

is under way, which will spread to every indust!!

where the workers do not resist it,' the Workers

Monthly declares. `The workers must have thei!

Strike weapon ready for use, and they must use it."

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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,"

that is letters of not more than

One Hundred words.

Write on subjects of general

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.

DD mmm comm

More About Prohibition

May 1, 1925.

The Open Forum:

I have just read the letter written by Clarence Lee

Swartz in reply to Upton Sinclair's letter on Pro-

hibition. Mr. Swartz must have always lived in

very fine neighborhoods not to have seen the harm

done by the use of alcohol. I wish I could pick my

homesites as well. For his sake I will say that there

are thousands of cases where the individual, while

perhaps not being a "dangerous criminal' is a great

menace to the happiness and liberty of others and

forgets all respect to his family. If we can pre-

vent this in the future, ig it not' worth sacrificing

a selfish desire on our own part? To anyone who

has seen the harm that drink has done, it is.

In spite of all the violation of this law, it has

done a great deal of `good already.

As for comparing the use'of alcohol and burglary

with carrying I. W. W. cards, I do not see the con-

nection.

MRS. W. C. KEMBLE.

* * * *

Editor Open Forum:

Noting that an article by B. C. Forbes in April

25th issue gave the annual increase of wealth in

this country as around eleven billion dollars, I took

occasion to look up some figures given by the Fed-

eral Census Bureau. Here they are:

The national wealth in 1904 wags $107,104,211,917.

In 1912 it was $187,739,071,090. In 1921 it was esti-

timated at $300,000,000,000. In 1922 it is given at

$320,803,862,000.

These figures give an annual increase of at least

six and a half per cent in wealth, or five times the

increase in population. In the meantime 10,737,843

savings accounts averaged $600 in 1921, and 13,340,-

333 accounts averaged the same in 1923. And while

the increase in number of deposits from 10,010,304

in 1912 indicates that an increasing number of work-

memen are exercising a little forethought, the fact

that the average account of $450 of that year had a

greater actual value than the $600 at present, does

hot indicate that it is doing them any great amount

of good.

L. O'DELL.

%* * *

Beaumont, Cal., April 27, 1925.

Editor Open Forum, Los Angeles:

Practically every civilized nation except the United

States is now on an 8-hour basis, and it has proven

a success wherever tried. We, the richest nation,

Surely Can afford it if others can. The time is ripe

for it right now in California.

h Organized labor, with its usual short-sightedness,

fal ee either apathetic or opposed to an 8-hour

sult in it ee that any recuetion of hours must re-

hewone oo PACT RARS of wages seems to be quite

there jg 7 grasp of the leaders of unionism; and

litle probability of any action from this

quarter,

{

fh

"Eventually! Why not now?' There seems to

be no good reason why a sanely written 8-hour in-

itiative measure should be defeated at the polls.

-W.A.H.

* * * *

What About The Younger Generation?

However excellent may be the elders, they have

bequeathed to youth a world scarred by wrong and

festering with danger. Thus youth must either step

into the pitfalls prepared or install sanitary pro-

cedure and create better conditions of living.

Many signs indicate that youth will clean up on

rather a large scale. Unnumbered thousands have

glimpsed the desirablity of a new standard of suc-

cess and basis of satisfaction. Instead of getting

money and honor for individual attainment, they will

work together on so vast a scale as to insure well-

being to an ever-increasing proportion of humanity.

Groups are saying, even in the words of ancient seers.

"While others want, we can not wholly enjoy com-

fort; while others suffer, we are not without pain;

while any are in prison we are not free'.

With courage and patience large groups in many

countries have united in the determination to live in

such a manner as finally to free each other from

financial and social tyranny and to secure fair dis-

tribution of earth's bounty.

If it is only a beautiful bubble, yet,is it blown of

the finest aspirations, and if it must burst, let it burst

of its own gas-not ours.

Alice Anderson

Chico, California

Paaade Pater Abe PAs

Dear OPEN FORUM:

I enclose for publication the enclosed which is

not a product of the imagination. Please send me

a copy of the publication. I will become a sub-

scriber when I can for I wish to assist with this good

work. I am a personal acquaintance of two of the

contributing editors and realize the support that

the personnel is to the cause of freedom.

Yours for. success,

ELSIE LONG

* OK

INASMUCH

A generous friend treated me to "Manna" last

week. The theme-lines of the play were these, "In

ag much as ye have done it unto the least of these

ye have done it unto Me." I was instantly aware

that my hostess need not wince at their ennuncia-

tion; but mentally I proceeded with this drama:

I saw the Master stand beside the electric chair

and I heard him say, "In as much as ye have done

it unto the least of these ye have done it unto Me."

He sorrowfully witnessed a "turnkey" brutally

scoff as he thrust through the gate one who should

be treated as innocent till proven guilty; and I

heard him say, "In as much as ye have done it unto

the least of these ye have done it unto Me."

He watched detectives follow their despicable busi-

ness of providing victims for "`shysters" and sighed

as they split the proceeds, "In as much as ye have

done it unto the least of these ye have done it unto

Me."

Invisible He stood in a psychopathic ward, watch-

ing a helpless, mental patient, guilty of no more

heinous an offense than that of being a nervous

wreck in the delirium of brain fever, the result of

privation, struggle and hunger, knocked flat on the

floor by the brute fist of one supposed to be ``sane"';

but the brute did not hear The Master say, "In as

much as ye have done it unto the least of these ye

have done it unto ple."

He observed the `wise' defraud the undeveloped.

He saw the magnate rise from prayer to turn the

full power of his mind and soul on the laying up

of riches "where moth and rust corrupt" and some

other thief breaks through to steal; and again the

unheard admonition, "In as much as ye have done

it unto the least of these ye have done it unto Me."

When little unwelcome children toil and are de-

prived of their birthright, play time, surely then

He says, "In as much ag ye have done it unto the

least of these ye HAVE done it unto Me."

And so on ad-infinitum, till we realize there are so

many of "the least of these" there should be as many

great enough "to do unto others as ye would."

With the poet I can say, "I only know of life what

life has taught me."

ELSIE LONG

Ten Years Ago

In the Los Angeles Public Library I found a few

days ago a volume entitled, "GREAT RUSSIA," by

a Professor Sarolea, It is a very readable book,

whomsoever this Professor Sarolea may be, and

throws much light on natural conditions and their

influence in the shaping of Russia. The book was

written in 1915, that is only ten years ago. The

writer, though conservative, appears to have been

fair-minded and at many points far-sighted. But

the following passages taken from different sections

of the book are an interesting exhibit of the diffi-

culties of prophesying. The whole thing reminds me

of an incident that Henry Drummond gives, I think

in his famous lecture on "The Greatest Thing In

The World." He says, in substance, that an eminent

scientific teacher in one of the Universities of Scot-

land instructed the janitor to go into the library,

and take every book dealing with a certain special

science which was over ten years old, and retire it

into the basement. There are certainly a lot of books

that have gone out of date in the last ten years.

Reawe

* * * *

"To imagine that those one hundred and twenty

millions of Russian peasants, thus riveted to the soil,

thus living under the pressure of poverty, in igno-

rance and insolation, should be mature for revolu-

tionary utopias, seems to me to be the wildest of

dreams. However prodigiously fertile the Russain

soil may be, and however gifted the Russian people,

political discipline does not grow in a day like the

grass of the steppe, it is not a plant without roots

in the past, in the traditions and manners of the

people. No doubt the peasantry may be got to rise

in some bloody `jacquerie.' They might be drawn

into some agrarian revolution-like the Pougatchef

revolt in the eighteenth century-which would sat-

isfy their craving for possessing and extending the

soil they cultivate. But the hunger for land once

satisfied, the peasantry would again become conser-

vative, like the French peasant proprietor after the

French Revolution, and so far from joining any

mere `intellectual' revolution, they would dread such

a revolution as a possible reaction and as a menace

to their newly acquired rights."

2 1 * *

"No doubt the political awakening of the rural

masses is coming. Popular instruction is spreading.

Proprietors will be induced more and more to re-

side on their estates. Religious freedom and the

threefold struggle against Catholicism, Non-conform-

ity, and rationalism will compel the orthodox clergy

to emerge from their ignorance and their subjection.

The priests will receive a better education and there-

by acquire a moral authority which will enable them

in turn to educate their flocks, hitherto so sadly

neglected. And above all, with the progress of trade

and industry there will arise a middle class, and

with the middle class a strong and independent

opinion, which is the prime condition of all political

liberty. But.even when these changes are accom-

plished, when a ruling class and an independent

class are constituted, the rural masses and. their

leaders, the clergy will continue to respect the estab-

lished authorites. For generations to come the

peasantry and the clergy will continue to see in the

Hmperor and the Church their spiritual and temporal

Providence, a patriarchal and beneficent despotism.

In one word political reform in Russia shall be con-

servative, or will be a failure."

oe

Cultivate Farm Deficit

WASHINGTON-(FP)-American farmers actual-

ly ran behind in 1924 at least $5,144,000,000 despite

all the hue and cry about their restored prosperity,

says Benj. C. Marsh, Farmers National Council, ana-

lyzing reports from the federal department of agri-

culture.

Marsh shows that the combined value of crops and

livestock was $12,404,000,000 in 1924, while the ap-

proximate cost of producing them exclusive of labor

of farmers and their families, was $8,248,000,000.

This left an average of $671.93 per farm family.

Federal taxes, payments on interest and principal

of $13,000,000,000 of mortgages and short term debt,

payment of insurance, purchase of clothes and food

not produced on the farm, upkeep of farms and build-

ings, support of churches, ete., and savings for old

age had to be covered by this pitiful sum. Figuring

the minimum average return for the labor of each

farm family at $1,500. for the year, the total due for

this farm labor was $9,300,000.000. Taking from it

the $4,156,000,000 received, we have an unpaid differ-

ence of $5,144,000,000.

Federated Press.

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 Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman

Doremus Scudder

Ethelwyn Mills

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 Each.

Advertising Rates on Request.

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

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act or March 3, 1879:

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1925

COMING EVENTS

RR KK RE OK

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

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

4.

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION

At Eight O'clock

A Free Education is Offered at

EDUCATIONAL CENTER

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

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At the Brotherhood Hall, 508 East 5th St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

All are Invited to Attend

John X. Kelly and J. Eads How, Committee

tt

Mob Attack In West Virginia

A mob attack led by officers of the law is only a

"simple assault" in West Virginia, according to the

Pocahontus County authorities, who have reported to

Governor Howard M. Gore that the beating adminis-

tered to Lawson McMillion at Marlington on April

10, against which the Civil Liberties Union protested,

"has been taken care of."

The report, which was made in reponse to an in-

quiry by the Governor, did not relate the events

leading up to the assault, the injuries suffered by Mc-

Million nor the manner in which the assault had been

"taken care of', Governor Gore accordingly announ-

ced that he would investigate further.

According to information received by the Civil

Liberties Union, McMillion, who is a world war vet-

eran, was ambushed by a mob led by Lincoln Coch-

ran, town Sergeant of Cass, and beaten up so Ssever-

ely he had to be removed to a hospital where "he is

in a critical condition." Upon receipt of this infor-

mation the Civil Liberties Union wired Gov. Gore,

urging an "immediate investigation and prosecution

of the leaders of the mob which attacked Lawson

McMillion.

"The brutal attack on MecMillion", the Union's tele-

gram stated, "presumably resulted from the dismiss-

al on April 8th of charges against him growing out

of the Ku Klux Klan attack on him at Cass last Oct-

ober." According to the Civil Liberties Union McMil-

lion had received permission from Cochran to ans-

wer the Klan's warning to him "to get work or leave

town." When he started to speak he was assaulted

by Sergeant Cochran, Justice of the Peace J. B. Sut-

ton, and Constable James Belcher. The case was dis-

missed April 8 by order of Mayor Brice of Cass.

a ne

NEW YORK-(FP)-Immediate investigation and

prosecution of the leaders of the mob which attack-

ed Lawson McMillion, world war veteran, at Mar-

lington is demanded of Gov. Howard M. Gore of

West Virginia in a telegram by the American Civil

Liberties Union. According to the Liberties Union

McMillion was ambushed by a mob led by Lincoln

Cochran, town sergeant of Cass, W. Va., and beaten

60 severely that he had to be removed to a hospital.

Federated Press.

A Tory `Talks

The following article, forwarded to us by Upton

Sinclair, is one of the most extraordinary utterances

the present extraordinary world situation has

brought forth. When whilom tories talk this way

who shall wonder at a little outright speech now and

then from radicals. And if our American tories will

not listen to those whom they esteem "reds" let them

weigh well what one from their own class has to

say.

* * * *

LONDON, April 4.-J. Lort Williams, K. C., form-

erly a Tory member of Parliament, has issued a

warning to the leaders of the Conservative party

which is attracting much attention, and, incidentally,

giving the members of the Labor party a lot of sat-

isfaction.

The voters, he says, "have been driven to the con-

clusion that no hope of thorough reform, no com-

prehensive attack upon the intolerable evils of our

social system, can be expected from either of the

older parties."

Then this Tory statesman proceeds to castigate

the existing social order in the following remark-

able fashion:

""Tranquility' in 1923 has become `Stability' in

1925. But tranquility in a slum is the silence of

death, and a workless, half-starved, hopeless people

means stagnation or worse, not stability. This is

the moment rather for action and service and sacri-

fice-for a national uprising as great as in the war

years.

"One and a half millions of willing able-bodied

working people can not earn the means to live. The

law forbids them to work.

"They may not build themselves houses. nor

grow their own food, nor make their tools, nor clothe

themselves. They may not even anticipate death.

"The only right which the law gives them is a

claim to a charitable dole just sufficient to sustain

life, but in a country teeming with wealth no part

of it ig theirs.

"A further two million people are dependent on

the poor law, and one million are qualified by pov-

erty to draw the pittance of an old-age pension.

"According to Prof. Henry Clary, two and one-half

million people out of a population of forty-seven

and one-half millions, own the entire wealth of the

country.

" Property,' said Bacon, `is like muck, it is good

only if it be spread.' Ten years ago the national

income was 2,000 million pounds. One million per-

sons had incomes over 160 pounds per annum, and

their aggregate income was 1,000 million pounds, or

half the entire national income.

"Half the land of the British Isles is owned by

2,500 persons. Out of the 300 million pounds left

at death in one year 4,400 persons owned 212 mil-

lions pounds. Out of 670,000 persons who died, 594,-

000 left nothing or under 100 pounds. Today these

monstrous discrepancies of fortune are even worse.

"Tf a future Labor government orders a: capital

levy on estates over 1,000 pounds, 95 per cent of

the electorate will be untouched by such taxation.

`The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind ex-

ceedingly small,' and, surely, even a child can ap-

preciate that such conditions can not persist in a

democratic country, where eventually the little man

has the last word.

"It is stupid to suppose that you may conspire

to encourage a rapid increase of population in order

to provide cheap labor and plentiful cannon fodder,

a conspiracy in which even the churches are actively

involved, and then be allowed to turn round and say,

`there are too many of you; the resources of the

country are not sufficient to enable you all to live.'

The obvious answer would be a wholesale massacre

in which, as Mr. Chesterton says, `the gutters will

be running with the blood of philanthropists.'

"The real truth is that there would be abundance

for all if all were owners and producers, and pro-

duction were efficiently organized.

"Elimination of waste alone would feed half the

nation-the production of unnecessary things, the

performance of unnecessary services, the payment

. unnecessary wages to a huge parasitical popula-

`ion.

"It is not only the rich who are parasites. Com-

paratively few are. The great middle classes are

the greatest parasites-lawyers, pressmen, account-

ants, agents, middlemen, brokers, bankers, financiers

company promoters, money lenders, bookmakers and

toastmasters, in fact, nearly all the `respectable'

people."

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

Program for May

May 10-DEBATE on the question, "RESOLVE,

THAT CONGRESS BY A TWO-THIRDS Vong

SHOULD HAVE POWER TO REENACT LAWS,

MAKING VALID ACTS DECLARED UNCONSq,.

TUTIONAL BY THE SUPREME COURT." Affirms.

tive, University of Redlands, Mr. Andrus, Mr. Ortop

Negative, University of Southern California, Mr, Nei

Lewis, Mr. William Barber, both students of the

University of Southern California, who have returned

from an extensive trip among the colleges debating -

this question. Music by HOWARD GRIFFIN, violin.

ist, accompanied by MISS CLAUDE WILLIAMS 0)

the piano. :

May 17-"THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF THR

MODERN WORLD" by EDWARD (CAnt)

RELL. Our audience is well acquainted with the

lecturer who has twice before appeared on the Forun |

platform. He knows how to handle his subject well, .

|

|

|

Music by J. M. FIX, a violinist of the old school,

He made his own instrument and will play pieces

that were popular a hundred years ago.

May 24-"FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS" by

PROF. ARTHUR BRIGGS of the Los Angeles Lay

School, Everyone should be familiar with the Freud.

ian philosophy whether he takes any stock in it or |

not. Dean Briggs is ably qualified to make this a

most interesting evening. Music by BHRNARD

COHN, phenomenal boy pianist.

May 31-`THE PRICE OF LIBERTY" by ROBERT

WHITAKER." During the days when America was

carried away with the World War there was much

talk of liberty, from `Liberty Bonds" to "Liberty

Steaks." Of recent years liberty and democracy

both seem to be at a discount. What is liberty?

What is the movement of the world today, toward

liberty, or away from it? Are we ever going to

get liberty, and when, and how? All who know M. -

Whitaker know that what he has to say on these

lines will be outright, and interesting. Nobody is

asked to agree with him, but everybody is welcome

to hear him.

}

|

rH

CLEVELAND.-Confronted by the Republican con-

vention last June, Cleveland city fathers halted a

street railway strike on the promise of a square deal.

An arbitration board later awarded the union mel

a 12c an hour increase. The Cleveland Railway Co.

appealed, and has' so far been sustained in refusing

to apply the award. Now nearly a year after the

city's promise, the car men are formulating a new

demand for the 12ccent raise. The company offers 5cent.

EXPIRATION NOTICE

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