Open forum, vol. 2, no. 6 (February, 1925)

THE OPEN FORUM

To Understand Reality is Education.

a.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 7, 1925

BROTHERS OF DIVES

In the field of social subserviency and protest here

in America today few things are more remarkable

than the manner in which Mrs. Kate Crane Gartz

has challenged and does challenge the leaders of

the master-class in this community. Southern Cali-

fornia is pre-eminently THE PARADISE OF AMER-

ICAN PARASITISM. Nowhere in the world is cap-

italism more arrogant, more intolerant, more con-

temptuous of all reason and decent restraint. Not

less in evidence is the apathy and cowardice of the

general public here. Los Angeles, more than any big

city in the world is a magnified GOPHER PRAIRIE,

the WESTERN END OF MAIN STREET. American

moronism is rampant here. Therefore, the master

class are able to lord it over the community very

much to their heart's desire.

That in the midst of this situation there should

appear a woman of the "upper class," who in the

spirit of Moses despises "the riches of Egypt" and

dares to talk back to her own class like one of the

Hebrew prophets is a fact of more than local and

incidental significance. It is drama of a high so-

cial order which needs to be viewed with a cer-

tain detachment to realize its meaning and value.

And that the fine emotional quality of Mrs. Gartz'

appeals, illumined as they are with the burning

compassion of one whose reaction is always human,

tender, and yearningly personal rather than coldly

intellectual or rigidly economic, gets such slight

response from those to whom she makes her in-

sistent appeals is a far more damning indictment

of them than anything that she or any of us can

say to them. How set the owning classes are on

their *own way, how determined upon their own

destruction nothing could more conclusively dem-

onstrate than the deaf ear which they turn to this

voice of our day, the "voice of one crying in the

wilderness,' and crying apparently to those who

cannot and will not understand. Here is food for

study which all of us may well take time to digest.

THE EDITOR.

(R) * * *

1/1/24.

J. A. Graves,

Los Angeles, Calif.

Dear Sir;

Although I realize that it is futile for a Radical

to argue with a self-confessed Conservative, I will

just register my protest against your "Reflections"

in today's Times. You are a Conservative because

you have not allowed a new idea for a better, saner

social system than the one we are now struggling

under, to penetrate your cranium.

Just what is radicalism that you, better, bigger

business men so fear? Define the word and try to

understand what it's all about and tell us why you

are a Conservative, and what do you wish to con-

serve-surely not the Constitution for you made of

that a scrap of paper during the war, and the radi-

cals went to jail for living by its precepts.

Most people would consider LaFollette in good

company with "the demagogue" Thomas Jefferson,

and when you voted for Coolidge you sanction cor-

ruption which for forty years never touched La-

Follette. He was essentially a people's candidate

and not big business, but the masses were frightened

about their jobs the last minute by the propaganda

of your "brass check" newspapers.

As for the Supreme Court, composed of mere

men, like other men, just as fallible as other law-

yers, judges and statesmen-otherwise why are so

many constructive measures that the people want

always declared unconstitutional? You also con-

demn the Adamson bill, that we Radicals approve,

ant uphold the smashing of strikes by federal troops,

instead of going to the root (radicalism) of the

grievance and eradicating it. No, Radicalism is not

Suppressed and will never die, so long as such in-

justices exist and you Conservatives continue to ig-

nore them.

Sincerely,

KATE CRANE-GARTZ.

* * *

Jan. 6th, 1925.

Kate Crane-Gartz,

The Cloister,

Altadena, California.

Dear Madam:-

Of course it would be impossible for you and I

to agree on these questions, as we are not walking

upon common ground.

It is, however, very gratifying to me to know that

but four million voters in the United States were

for the doctrine of LaFollette and yourself.

While it may not be easy to define a Radical, their

actions always betray them. For instance, they ad-

vance money for the I.W.W., who are confessed crim-

inals. If you know anything, you know that, dur-

ing the war they destroyed fruit trees, burned hay

stacks, destrcyed thousands of acres, in the north-

west, of growing grain. We people, who claim not

to be Radicals, look upon it as our duty to suppress

rattlesnakes and mad dogs, whether in human form

or not.

Very respectfully,

J. A. GRAVES.

JAG.B.

January 7, 1925.

Mr. J. A. Graves,

Farmers and Merchants National Bank,

Los Angeles, California.

Dear Sir;

Yes, of course it would be impossible for you and

I to agree, because we have no "common ground."

However, I cannot let your statement that the I.

W.W.'s are "confessed criminals" go unchallenged,

so I will endeavor to set you right on a point or

two. First, by enclosing a letter that came in the

same mail with yours.

San Quentin, California.

January 5, 1925.

Mrs. Kate Crane-Gartz,

Pasadena, California.

Dear Madam;

Mr. Matt Smith of this place informs us that you

have sent us a Christmas present through his sister.

We have asked' that it be given to a fellow worker of

ours, Jim Roe. Mr. Roe was released from here De-

cember twenty-sixth last, upon completion of a four-

year term. He is a very old man, 72, and due to his

hard life as a miner and the rigor of a prison term,

he is in bad shape physically; he will not be able to

work any more now.

Jim Roe's deeds as a_ class conscious rebel have

placed him beyond any praise that we might give.

.. We thank you for having made this service pos-

sible and wish you a Happy New Year,

Yours for a better world,

SAN QUENTIN WOBBLIBS.

Per. John McRoe.

Now Mr. Graves, I ask you if any of your banker

friends could compete in magnanimity with these

"confessed criminals," "rattlesnakes and mad dogs."

Also, I am enclosing some of their literature that re-

futes your statements about "violence and _ gsabot-

age." If, after reading this literature, and especially

the sentences I have marked with red-you are not

a more understanding and less prejudiced `Better

American" than when you penned those lines of

hatred, it is because you do not want to be. It

might be prejudicial to your interests. Perhaps you

might lose your job, and become a hobo or an I.W.

WS then, and then only, would you understand the

working class psychology, and the growing revul-

sion against the tyranny of the master class which

holds their very lives, and those of their families

in the hollow of its hands.

The better elements of this country recognize this

fact, and are trying to change it. LayenFollette, for

instance. But unfortunately, they are in the min-

ority as you realize when you rejoice because he

received only 4,000,000 votes. But despite your an-

tagonism, and the attacks of the enemies of jus-

tice, the wheels of progress are turning, and we may

live to see an order of society in which every man

may stand on his own two feet and defy another

man to deprive him of his right to "life, liberty, and

the pursuit of happiness," which our Constitution

writes on paper, but fails miserably to make into a

reality.

If you really understood radicals you would want

to be one, for all they want is fundamental justice,

and all you conservatives want is better, bigger busi-

ness, with nothing but the dollar in your psychology.

You do:not take into consideration the human suf-

fering in the world, or that there is reason for so-

cial and economic reconstruction.

I do not condone violence or sabotage committed

by the I.W.W. renegades,-now employed by the

state--no more than I condone it when committed

by the class at the opposite extreme, such as the

ship builders who burned millions of dollars worth

of lumber, right in the sight of the Capitol, under

the cost plus plan-payioteers and dollar a year

men! Neither do I condone the government which

conscripts. our children and sends them across the

sea to murder other children in the name of

patriotism!

T have found no such cruelty in my acquaintance

with the I.W.W.'s. I find them renouncing indiv-

idual glory, I also find them self-sacrificing in their

devotion to the common good, believing that "an

injury to one is an injury to all'; so that when one

man is sent to "solitary" for some little infraction

of prison authority, they all go too, and refuse to

eat or drink until their comrade is reledsed!

They visualize a tranquil, helpful, co-operative

world, all sharing and enjoying life to the fullest

extent. Because they go on strike to make known

their wishes, desires, and needs, the militia is called

out to "preserve order" and they are clapped in jail.

The whole world knows that there are innocent

men in jail today, eighty in San Quentin, and others

in Folsom; and yet we cannot get them out, because

of the blind selfishness of those in power. They will

not even permit them to form this new "structure of

society in the shell of the old,' but ard@ driving

them to revolt against these unjust persecutions of

innocent men whose only weapons of defense against

exploitation is their own solidarity.

I try not to lose hope in human nature and so-

called Christianity. But I see we cannot look for

deliverance from the cruel domination of the em-

ploying class, who seem to be frenzied by fear of the

dawn of a new day in our modern "civilization" and

resort to suppression and cruelties that belong to

the dark ages. We radicals simply want radical

changes for the better; better living and working

conditions for 100% of the human race, not just for

about 5% as now. You have really nothing to fear

from radicalism, but you have everything to fear

from your own self-righteousness and indifference

to the common good.

KATE CRANE-GARTZ

* * *

January 27, 1925.

Kate Crane Gartz,

The Cloister,

Altadena, Cal.

Dear Madam:

I herewith return you your letter and enclosures,

which I confess I have not read. I am busy and no

useful service will be subserved by either of us by

continuing a correspondence begun by you.

Yours truly,

J. A. GRAVES.

* * *

Do you remember that in the story of `The Rich

Man and Lazarus," the rich man lifted up his eyes,

in torment, and asked for a cooling drop of water

on his tongue from the finger of Lazarus, the beggar

who had sat at his gate. And when Abraham ex-

plained to him that there was "a great gulf" between

them so that Lazarus could no pass, the rich man

petitioned,

"Well, then, let him at least carry word back to

the earth to my five brothers who are there, that

they come not here to this place of torment."

And Abraham said, "But why should I send Laz-

arus to tell them what is already told? They have

Moses and the prophets, let them hear them."

"No, no," said the rich man, "that isn't enough.

I had Moses and the prophets too. But if one could

go to them from the dead they would take notice."

"Not at all,' replied Abraham. "If they will not

hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be per-

suaded though one rose from the dead."

Neither would the "brothers of Dives'

living in Los Angeles today.

who are

Man and His World

By Robert Whitaker

IV

THE EPOCHS OF HISTORY

Human history is so large a subject that for the

sake of convenience in the study of it the field as a'

whole is divided into sections, known as periods, or

epochs. These divisions themselves, indicate, how-

ever, the lines of our approach to the study of man.

The first emphasis of CHRONOLOGICAL, by per-

iods of TIME. The ordinary division is three fold,

ANCIENT HISTORY, MEDIEVAL HISTORY, MOD-

ERN HISTORY. Sometimes lesser sections are em-

phasized; as for instance, The History of the Nine-

teenth Century. This way of viewing history is

obviously quite artificial and arbitrary, as much so

as would be the effort to consider a hundred miles

of the Mississippi River by itself. History is a con-

tinuous current, and its ramifications are greater

than those of any river system on the earth.

Not much' more satisfactory is the GEOGRAPHI-

CAL emphasis in the analysis of history, that is the

study of history by COUNTRIES. Commonly. this

- course is followed not only as a matter of conveni-

ence but because man has thus far been a very much

localized being. Patriotism is a term of geographi-

cal origin, and while"for most men it represents a

certain expansion of interest, beyond the self and

beyond the family or tribe; it is nevertheless a re-

stricted and restrictive term.

The geographical emphasis runs naturdlly, and al-

most inevitably into the POLITICAL analysis of

history. Although we use the names of countries

when we talk of American History, or English His-

tory, or the History of France, and Germany and

Holland, or Greece, or Egypt, and although we talk

as if our loyalty was to place, local feeling having

in fact much to do with it, the larger fact is our

actual emphasis of the STATE, that is of the politi-

cal entity. It is the American State we are really

talking about, and the GOVERNMENT of England,

or the BRITISH EMPIRE which we have in mind

when we talk of the History of America or the His-

tory of England. This we recognize in a way in our

Own case by describing "American History" more

specifically as "The History of the United States."

So when we speak of The History of Rome, it is not

so much Rome as a city we have in mind, as it 1s

Rome as a State, a Government. Or if we use the

BIOGRAPHICAL emphasis in our divisions of human

history, and speak of The Age of Pericles, the Age

of Augustus, the Age of Charlemagne, the Age of

Elizabeth, the Age of Louis XIV, the Age or Epoch

of Napoleon, or Metternich, or the Victorian Age,

the real emphasis is political. Very few people

realize to what extent the STATE ig IT in the tell-

ing of the story of man. Washington and Lincoln

are our foremost American heroes, not because they

were better thinkers, or better men than thousands

of others who have lived and labored in America, but

because of their prominence in relation to the Amer-

ican STATE.

In a way the scientists have been the leaders in

helping us to get away from such superficial and

artificial lines of historic emphasis. They have

stressed the history of the earth itself through the

millions of years in which the setting of human his-

tory was in the making. We are not concerned here

with the geological divisions of the earth's story.

But compared with these ages of earth history what

we call, in the story of man, Ancient History is a

tale of yesterday. The earth was very much longer

in getting ready for man than man has been yet at

the job of using it.

And the story. of this job the scientists tell much

better than ordinary historians do. Modern science

was born of the modern industrial revolution, and is

"much more directly indebted to it than either the

scientists themselves or scholars in general have any

idea is the case. Perhaps it is an unconscious or

. subconscious recognition of this fact which has led

the scientists to talk of human history in terms of

man's weapons and tools. The PALEOLITHIC, or

the OLD STONE AGE, the NEOLITHIC, or THE

NHW STONE AGH, and THE BRONZE AGH, THE

IRON AGH, THE AGE OF STEAM, and like terms

which the scientists use, all are industrial in their

emphasis. They have to do not with an arbitrary

- chronology, ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, and MODERN;

not with a slightly less arbitrary but hardly less

_ Superficial geographical sectionalism, by countries;

and not with the mischievous over-emphasis of the

/

political STATE; but they deal with an approach at

least to the real process of history, MAN'S ACTIVE

ATTITUDE TOWARD NATURE, AND HIS DEVEL-

OPMENT AND USE OF THE PRODUCTIVE PRO-

CESS.

Social science, in the main, has been slower thus

far to. recognize the real determinants of human his-

tory than have been those whose province is the

natural sciences, with whom the anthopologists gen-

erally belong. But social science is turning toward

industrial emphasis, and will certainly make that

emphasis more and more pronounced as the workers

of the world come into larger control of the govern-

ments and the business of the world. Even now the

lines of such a science are quite plainly marked out.

Human history from this viewpoint falls into two

great periods, of indeterminate length. In the first

period, which may have covered hundreds of thou-

sands of years, man was a FOOD-GATHERER, as

are the other animals to this day. In the second

period man has been and is the FOOD-PRODUCER.

In the earliest stages he is not so very different from

the bees and the ants, except that he might be re-

garded as backward compared with them both. He

lives upon fruits and nuts, perhaps in some meas-

ure upon the roots of the ground, and on such ani-

mal food as he can get with his own unaided hands,

or with the most primitive of weapons. As a whole,

this is the epoch in which man is without tools, and

has not yet assumed that active attitude toward

nature which has since marked him out from every

other creature. He takes what nature gives him,

and immeasurably less than nature is willing to give

him when he is ready.to assume for himself a crea-

tive part. It is man as CREATOR with whom real

human history begins.

All that lies before this may be described as the

ARBOREAL PERIOD of man's story. This would

include also man's experience as a hunter, before he

had learned the domestication of animals, and the

cultivation of the ground.. How long a time this was

nobody knows, and concerning what went on we can

only draw upon our imagination, as Jack London

has done in his well-known story, "Before Adam."

That is hardly, however, a scientific treatise.

There follows the PASTORAL PERIOD, when man

had learned a richer and a more stable food supply

by the domestication of animals. This life in many

of its aspects is fairly familiar to us by reason of

the Old Testament stories, and other records of

pastoral life. It has, indeed, come down to our own

time, and there are still nomadic peoples who have

hardly passed beyond this stage of human history.

It is enough here to say that man's debt to the

domesticated animals is very large; it can be said

with confidence that primitive man rode through the

gates of civilization upon the backs of the lower

animals. It was the want of domesticable and

domesticated animals in the New World in the per-

iod before the coming of the Europeans which had

as much to do as any one thing, probably, with the

backwardness of civilization upon this side of the

sea. This, and the want of the most important

cereals which the Old World had, wheat, and oats,

and barley, and rye, and rice.

It is with the cultivation of the cereals that the

third stage of man's story gets fairly under way, the

AGRICULTURAL PERIOD. Man merely as hunter,

man as a gatherer of fruits and nuts, even man as

the user of roots, gets very little above savagery.

The roots call upon his effort more than do the other

processes of food-getting named above, but very lit-

tle, though in a way it may be conjectured that the

stirring up of the soil in getting at the roots was

one of the earliest stages of agriculture. But with

the cereals it is quite another story. The earliest

civilizations we know were in great grain raising

belts, the valley of the Nile, the basin of the Tigris

and the Huphrates, the valleys of India and China

farther east with their immense rice-eating popula-

tions. Such civilizations as there were in America

previous to the coming of the white man were lar.ze-

ly identified with the distinctive cereal of the New

World, maize, or Indian corn, and with such veget-

ables as melons, pumpkins, and squash, and beans.

Agriculture must always be basic to any civiliza-

tion as without it no civilization can live, unless man

learns, quite improbably, to use creative chemistry

so as to supersede the processes of the fields. But

although agriculture is still with us, and long will be,

we are in a later stage of the human process. Only

as we understand this, and can fairly measure it can

we know the world in which we live today.

Our's is the MECHANICAL AGE, the only period

of man's history which we can even approximately

measure in terms of years, and the epoch, however

recently begun which has witnessed greater miracles

of progress than all the preceding ages of man.

The MACHINE has made man a producer as he

never was before. We have THREE BILLION MAN

POWER IN THE UNITED STATHS, thirty times

our population. This is the key to modern history,

as nothing else is.

`vails.

|

| BRISBUNK

|

The birthday of Abraham Lincoln is at hand again,

It falls in the same month with the birthday

George Washington. Also there are several othe

Americans of note whose birthdays fall within the

month of .February. Yet there is hardly an Ame.

ican child, or for that matter an American adult

who could name one of them. James Russel4 Lowell

was born on Washington's birthday, February 2)

1819. Dwight Lyman Moody was born a week befor

Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 5, 1837

These two will suffice to indicate what wealth oj

biographical material we might find if we followe

February, the month of Lincoln and Washington,

into the lives of other men just as worthy to be

remembered as either the first or the sixteenth

president of the United States. Bid

Lincoln's fame is the most remarkable exhibit in

the whole field of American biography. There js

very much about his reputation that is fortuitoys

and artificial. One can say that, without in the leas

discounting the greatness and goodness of the man

himself. It ig the very excellence of Lincoln which

has made him such capital material for the ex

ploiters of other men's fame. His character is one

of the richest assets that has fallen to the fortune

of the Republican Party, and the American plunder.

bund, whose political hired men the politicians of

the dominant Republican regime are. They have

exploited that fame with as little conscience ag did

John D. Rockefeller the oil resources of America in

the days of Standard Oil railway deals and rebates,

And they have done more harm with Lincoln's fame

than the oil monopolists and exploiters have done

the. American people.

Truth telling about Lincoln is very rare. And

that, not because there is anything to tell about

Lincoln of which any decent man or woman need be

ashamed. If it were a mere matter of substituting

scandal for praise there would be no profit in it :

anyway. Who wants to depreciate Lincoln, and to

what advantage would depreciation work? No, the

difficulty of telling the truth about Lincoln is. not

that it would depreciate him, but that it would show

the American people themselves in a less flattering

light. It would reveal him as the outstanding Amer.

ican pioneer, and would give a different picture of

the pioneer as a type from that which commonly pre-

Perhaps the pioneer would not be a less

heroic figure, but he would certainly stand out a far

more pathetic figure. The short-comings of America

today are largely the hertiage of the limitations, out-

ward and inward, of the pioneer.

The truth about Lincoln would spoil our supersti-

tious lip-service of the Constitution, and the fathers

of the Republic. Had they done their work better,

Lincoln would have had no such impossible task on

his hands. The truth about Abraham Lincoln would

give us an altogether different story of the war be

tween the States from that which we have in our

school-histories, either North or South. It would be

a different story of New Engiand as well as of Vir-

ginia from that which is told to the children of

either section now. It would be a tale of Pennsyl-

vania and the mining and manufacturing lords there,

not a whit more flattering to them than was Uncle

Tom's Cabin to the slave-oligarchs of South Carolina

and the Gulf States. It would be a different account

of the years from 1861 to 1865 than that which

Grand Army veterans have been spreading abroad

in the sixty years since then. A real story of Lin

coln would, if published in our leading newspapers in

everyday English, stir up more consternation among

the money oligarchs of our time, their lackeys and

apologists, than would be the landing of a Russian

Army in Alaska.

But the real story of Lincoln igs, not going to be

told in our day. There are not many who could tell

it, and not one of them is to be found in the list of

our recognized historical writers or our teachers of

American history. And if they could tell the story,

and did tell the story, it would not be published, or

if published it would be suppressed by one hundred

per cent mobs.

Yet Lincoln would appear in such a story an evel

more appealing figure than he appears today. His

chi'dhood and youth would be not merely hig own

tragedy, but that of innumerable millions who have

fought the fight of the American frontier, with the

difference that he escaped from it, while they did

not. His manhood would add chapters not. less

tragic in their revelation of what the actual "win:

ning of the west" has been. And his presidency, if

intelligently and honestly viewed, would be as su:

premely pathetic as the closing years of Woodrow

Wilson.

No, the story will not be told. The BRISBUNK

about him pays too well, and is too altogether valu:

able as a smoke screen for the pirate fleets of Amer:

ican profiteers who are looting his reputation only

that they may the more effectually loot the world.

But someday, perhaps a distant day yet, when the

workers have the world in their hands, and need no

more to gloss over wage slavery and its long, bloody

record than they do now to gloss over the facts

about chattel-slavery, someday the real story of Lin

coln will be told. And then he will be not a hero,

but something much better,-he will be one of the

common folks whose cause he sincerely loved. Until

then we shall have our. yearly dose of BRISBUNK it

his name. ~ '

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`Months'

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

Scott Nearing is

Coming

The GREAT EVENT for the forward-minded folks

of the Pacific Coast: this spring is the tour of the

Coast by SCOTT NEARING of New York. He is to

be in Los Angeles March 2, 3, 4, Monday, Tuesday,

and Wednesday. He will give three lectures in

Los Angeles, at the Knights of Columbus Auditor-

ium, 612 South Flower Street, under the auspices of

The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Cali-

fornia Branch. The general subject of the course

is:

`"HCONOMIC CHAOS AND RECONSTRUCTION."

Here are the lecture subjects in particular:

Monday evening-"THE DECAY OF CAPITAL-

ISM

Tuesday evening-"WHERE IS CIVILIZATION

GOING?"

Wednesday evening-"LEAGUE OF NATIONS OR

LHAGUEH OF INDUSTRIES?"

To hear Scott Nearing is an education in itself.

You can get this whole course, including a Three

Trial Subscription for yourself or your

friend to THE OPEN FORUM, for ONE DOLLAR.

A single lecture will cost you THIRTY-FIVE

CENTS. Send in your orders for tickets now. Let

us give NEARING the largest hearing the hall will

accommodate. We bespeak for him a big hearing

all along the Coast. He is to be in Seattle and San

Francisco prior to his dates in Los Angeles, at the

end of February and on the first day of March.

Remember the dates here, March 2, 3, 4. BETTHR

THAN ATTENDING THE PRESIDENTIAL IN-

AUGHRATION AT WASHINGTON MARCH 4, IS

THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A REAL COL-

LEGE COURSE UNDER SCOTT NEARING THAT

WEEK. AND ALL FOR ONE DOLLAR, WITH A

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION TO THE OPEN FORUM.

HIE, THERE! LISTEN WORLD!

XY,

ey

The End of the

W orld--- Feb. 6th!

The following article appeared in one of the L. A.

papers last week:

A celestial kingdom in Southern California, over

which Jesus Christ will sit in judgment, is seen by

followers of the faith in the statement of Dr. B. E.

Fullmer, 1112 Gower Street, self-styled "Apostle of

the Derelicts," yesterday, defending the prediction

that-

"The world will end February 6. Human life will

be wiped from the earth for 1000 years. During

that time Christ will sit in judgment. Afterwards

the elect will live forever."

Reconsideration of the finding in Santa Barbara

about a year ago of two prehistoric skulls which

some persons said may have been those of Adam

and Hve, has lent strength to the belief of some that

the heavenly kingdom would be located in the South-

land should the prediction come true.

The prediction was made in November, 1923, by

Mrs. Margaret W. Rowen of Hollywood, prophetess

of the Reformed Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Mrs. Rowen said last night that she is still firmly

convinced the end of the world is coming one week

from next Friday.

Strange things come out of Hollywood! But after

all it is only of a piece with numerous pre-millenial

predictions that have appeared repeatedly ever since

the death of Jesus. In the year 1000 A. D., many of

the saints were sure the Messiah would return, and

having disposed of their earthly possessions they

went forth to meet him, arrayed in white.

But He did not come, and He has not manifested

Himself on subsequent dates that have been set for

fier etna will He appear on February 6, 1925.

: will rise and set that day as usual, things

wy move on in their regular channels,-and the day

will end with another prophetess discredited.

e

ok

TAINTED EDUCATION

"Tainted money" is bad enough, but tainted edu-

cation is worse. Here are two items, one showing

the fine fashion in which the United Mine Workers

of Pennsylvania have repudiated the "education"

offered them by their masters, the other dealing with

the sort of intellectual espionage program which is

being carried out by the University of California in

its public school teachers' examination. The first

item is furnished us by the Federated Press. The

second one, the "Final Hxamination" came to our

hands indirectly from a school-teacher who was put

through this capitalistic grilling within the past two

weeks.

R. W.

* * * *

Poisoned Education

CARBONDALE, Pa.-The Hudson Coal Co.'s

monthly banquets to the anthracite miners in the

Powderly and No. 1 Collieries of the company are

educational in purpose. So the company says.

Local 877, United Mine Workers of America, ob-

jects to this kind of education. At an all night ses-

sion, attended by several hundred coal diggers, the

union unanimously passed a resolution forbidding

any union member to attend any more of these ban-

quets on pain of union discipline. Pickets will watch

the banquet hall entrance.

Hudson coal employes have numerous grievances,

similar in part to those against which the Pennsyl-

vania-Hillside men are now striking and which

threaten to engulf the entire district in strikes.

* * *

GROUP ik

1. Give five views of the origin of the state.

Discuss one in detail. Which view greatly influenced

political thought in the U. S.

2. Discuss American citizenship from the follow-

ing standpoints (a) sources; (b) process of acquisi-

tion; (c) rights; (d) responsibilities. (Note. This

refers to one's status as citizen).

3. What are the rights and limitations of the

states under the federal Constitution?

4. Discuss and explain the following terms: bill

of attainder; ex post facto law; writ of habeas cor-

pus; treason; original jurisdiction; equity; letters

of marque and reprisal; due process of law.

GROUP II.

1. Write for or against the proposition that the

United States should change its form of government.

Compare with the main features of leading Euro-

pean governments.

2. Discuss the proposition that the Supreme Court

should be denied power to declare void acts of the

Congress of the United States. Support your dis-

cussion by referring to cases which have resulted in

disallowing acts of the Congress.

3. Outline a plan for teaching the Constitution

to students of any age you Select.

Answer three questions in Group I, and two ques-

tions in Group II.

Nevertheless, the world

Nothing is surer than this-I mean the present

world order-the world of big business that is shot

thru and thru with the practice of exploiting human

kind. That world is doomed to pass away in favor

of a worthier world, an equitable, brotherly, gener-

ous world in which man shall count for more than

things.

"A celestial kingdom in Southern California!"

Can you envisage such a reality in a section where

now Satan's seat exists almost supreme? Yes, it

will come at length, for as Blisha said to the aft-

frighted young man in the beleagured city of ancient

Israel, "They that be for us (the new and better

order), are more than they that be against us."

The very "stars in their courses" are fighting

against the continuance of: the present evil world;

subtle forces, often unobserved, are gnawing away

at the very vitals of the discredited system of things

as they are. It requires no prophet with a divine

gift of penetrating the veil of the future to forecast

the doom of such a world. The person with half an

eye who uses it to follow the course of events in the

past and the trends now discernible in current his-

tory can safely predict the end of our world.

Yes, the end of the old selfish, profiteering world

is surely coming-but not on Feb. 6, 1925!

C.. J.T.

"k

is coming to an end! |

Mrs. Spencer

Speaks Out

One of the bravest utterances made in California

in many a day is this from Fanny Bixby Spencer.

The report given here is from the Hearst papers,

and should be read as coming from the daily press.

But whoever can read Mrs. Spencer's words with an

open mind will thrill to them, not only for the rare

courage they exhibit, but for their evident fidelity

to reality and common sense.

SACRAMENTO, Jan. 29.-Attacking the Star

Spangled Banner as "Bombastic, fraticidal and blood

lustful," Fanny Bixby Spencer, an author who lives

at Costa Mesa, Orange County, today petitioned

State educational authorities to take steps toward

preventing children from singing the National an-

them in the public schools.

In a letter to Will C. Wood, State Superintendent

of Public Instruction, Mrs. Spencer declared her

proposal is in keeping with David Starr Jordan's

assertion that peace must be promulgated through

popular education.

GLORIFIES WAR

The author charged that the Star Spangled Ban-

ner glorifies war and "hatred of the English."

Her demand for elimination of the anthem from

the schools will be referred by Superintendent Wood

to the State Board of Education. Here is her letter

written from Marina Vista Ranch, Costa Mesa:

"Since David Starr Jordan has shown the

necessity of promulgating the ideas of peace

through the channels of popular education, I

think it auite appropriate to bring to your at-

tention the matter of the use of the American

National anthem in the public schools.

"It is generally recognized that music exerts

a great influence on children and young people

and that words frequently repeated to music

sooner or later become a part of the conscious-

ness of those who repeat them.

WORDS `MALICIOUS'

"The rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting

in air,' are words which have only one signifi-

cance, namely, the glorification of the killing of

man by man. A subsequent line of this same

song, `their blood has washed out their foul foot-

steps pollution,' expresses hatred of the English

in terms so malicious as to make one blush with

shame for a country that would perpetuate

them.

"The Star Spangled Banner is unquestionably the

most bombastic, fraticidal and blood lustful of any

National anthem in the civilized world today. If it

is given to the children of the Nation, generation

after generation, as milk from the mother's breast,

how can we hope for peace? The time has come for

those in charge of public instruction to take steps

to discontinue the singing of this song in the

schools."

When Labor Speaks For Itself

CHICAGO-Five per cent wage increases without

vital changes in working conditions have been

granted to the locomotive engineers and firemen on

the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. This agree-

ment is another blow at the vanishing prestige of

the U. S. rail labor board which attempted to fore-

stall the triumph of the brotherhoods on western

roads by hastily granting an increase which it took

away in the same decision by making revolutionary

changes in working rules.

"The new agreement follows the Southern Pacific

agreement," declared Chairman Maguire of the engi-

neers on the Northwestern system. `The labor board

had nothing to do with the new contract and its re-

cent decision did not affect our negotiations."

Northwestern earnings in 1924 were $1,500,000 larg-

er than in 1923.

Federated Press.

4

"Oh, of course, I have made mistakes. Take

the mistakes out of my life and I wouldn't have

six bits left.'-Joaquin Miller.

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 Each.

Advertising Rates on Request.

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

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of -March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, FEB. 7, 1925

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By Robert Whitaker

There is no name in all our country's story

So loved as his today:

No name that so unites the things of glory

With life's plain, common way.

Poor as the poorest were his day's beginnings,

The earth-floored cabin home.

And yet, compared with his, our rich men's winnings

Are fleeting as the foam.

His was a tragedy such deeps concealing

All eyes with his grow dim.

And his a humor so sincerely healing

_. The whole world laughs with him.

He knew the doubter's doubt, the restless heaving

Of the swift waves of youth.

He knew the calm of faith, the strong believing

Of him who lives the truth.

So manifold his life, the great-souled Lincoln

Makes every life his own.

Therefore of all our heroes whom we think on

He has a place alone.

a

APPARITIONS

By Thomas Curtis Clark

Who goes there, in the night,

Across the storm-swept plain?

We are the ghosts of a valiant war-

A million murdered men!

Who goes there, at the dawn,

Across the sun-swept plain?

We are the hosts of those who swear:

It shall not be again!

(From The Christian Century.)

a

Church of the New Social Order

Symphony Hall, 232 So. Hill St.

Sunday Morning Service: 10:45 o'clock

y Web. 80x00B0 WHY DO" THE "CHURCHES TALK: SO

MUCH ABOUT JESUS' DEATH?

Feb.15. WHAT DID JESUS REALLY TALK

ABOUT?

Feb. 22. WAS THE SPIRIT OF JESUS MILD OR

REVOLUTIONARY?

FREE VIOLIN LESSONS

To Talented Children of Parents who

are unable to pay

MAX AMSTERDAM

Prominent Violin Teacher and Soloist

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

Reasonable Rates to Beginners

COMING EVENTS

kkk kw kk kk kK

Los Angeles Open Forum, Music-Art Hall, 233

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

----_ 4

[Ba We, Ae PORDLIVE

At the Brotherhood Hall, 515 San Julian St.

Sunday Afternoon Meeting 2:30 P.M.

All are Invited to Attend

Geo. McCarthy and J, Eads How, Committee

24

OPEN FORUM every Saturday evening at 8:00 P.M.

IL.W.W. HALL, 224 S. Spring Street, Room 218. In-

teresting Speakers-Interesting Subjects.

----_-_ +--____-_

PROLETARIAN FORUM

Every Sunday at 8 P. M.

February 8th

THE MARXIAN METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING

G. Hvans

ODD FELLOWS HALL

220% South Main Street

Questions and Discussion Freely Invited

Admission Free

SS EINES GlneEneeeeeeeee

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION

At Eight O'clock

A Free Education is Offered at

EDUCATIONAL CENTER

By Industrial Workers of the World

Program for February, 1925

Organizing to Consume, or How to Solve the Eat-

ing, Question,: Krank Cassidy =... i. 2.. | February 7

A:%.esson in Psychology for the Working Class,

E. A. Cantrell oa February 21

THE REVOLUTION NON-RESISTANT, Fanny

Bixby Spencer February 28

HEALTH TALKS: The entire field of health, all

isms, fads, cures, and common sense of health

matters are being covered in a series of Lectures,

being delivered every Tuesday night. No Admis-

sion Fee.

Program for Ensuing Month Announced Soon

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

224 South Spring Street, Room 218

-_-__ -______

FREE WORKER'S FORUM

420 N. Soto St., Los Angeles, Cal.

(One block north of Brooklyn Avenue)

Program for February

Feb. 9-Debate: "Resolved that the Present Dic:

tatorship in Russia is Justified."

Affirmative-Harry Larner.

Negative-Clarence Alpert.

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

EK. Gibson.

Feb. 283-Speaker and subject will be announced later.

HE

SHELLEY CLUB LUNCHEON

Mrs. Julia Bracken Wendt noted Los Angeles

sculptor, will be the speaker at the Womans' Shelley

Club luncheon, Wednesday noon February 11th. The

luncheon will be at Rector's, 21514 West Fourth St.,

60cent a plate. Phone early for your reservation to

Mrs. Woodard, Humboldt 7668-W. All are welcome.

es

The men who talk most against revolution are

the men who are making it most necessary, if utter

stagnation or world destruction is not to win. Vio-

lence ig the child of repression.

Bind herewath $".......... as payment for... ......

{ Yearly

Six Month

Three Month

subscriptions to THE OPEN FORUM.

INA es Oe a elie en i eee eae ee ae

A COT CSS ac oe ea lyin Meee ee one re

Date oye en ees Seay are

Linotyping and press work done in Union

Shops. The make-up is our own.

fee Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

Program for February

FEB 8-`MAMMONART" by UPTON SINCLAIR.

This address will reveal the way in which the money

power has controlled literature and the arts dow)

through history. For years Mr. Sinclair has bee,

investigating along this line and has secured much

data on the subject. His new book bears the same

title and will be on sale the night that he speaks,

it is expected. MR. MAX AMSTERDAM, talente

first violinist, of the Philharmonic Orchestra yill

provide the program of music.

FEB. 15-`AMBERICA'S SERVICE IN THE NEAR

EAST" (Illustrated by two reels of motion pictures)

by MRS. JEANNETTE WALLACE EMRICH, for

many years a resident of Asia Minor, and well-in.

formed as to the currents and counter-currentg of

life that have run through that bloody area for

centuries. What is at the bottom of the ancient

quarrel between the Turks and the Armenians? Hoy

does Greece enter into the problem? What construc.

tive work is going forward over there today? These

and other matters will be discussed. A program

of Armenian muSic will be furnished by MRS. PRA.

PION, a singer in native costume, MR. K. VRONYfR,

violinist, and MRS. M. G. FERRAHIAN, pianist.

FEB. 22-`THE MENACE OF FUNDAMENTAL

ISM" by MAYNARD SHIPLEY, of San Francisco,

President of the Science League of America. Should

the fundamentalists be allowed to block the prog.

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

fornia forbidding the teaching of evolution in the

schools? Whither are we drifting? and what should

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

favor us. with some of his excellent music.

i

He That Will Not Toe The Mark

Neither Shall He Eat

NEW YORK-Everyone wiust register with the

police and carry an identification card bearing his

photograph and finger prints, with duplicates on file

at police headquarters, if police commissioner En:

right is successful in putting through the plans

he brought back from South America. Enright

announced his program at a banquet tendered him

at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Blacklist possibilities were plainly indicated by

Enright in describing the Buenos Aires system. In

Buenos Aires employers refuse to hire anyone no

having an identification card and the police. refuse

to furnish cars to persons with "criminal records.'

Prisoners arrested for picketing, violation of injuncent

tions and other class "crimes" would `produce a large

number of workers without identification, that is,

employment cards.

Federated Press.

3.

As Competition Works

INDIANAPOLIS-The superior court of Indianap0

lis refuses to recognize the validity of the contrat

made by the prison trustees of Indiana with a Nev

York garment company for convict labor to be use!

in making clothing. An injunction will-be issued

to forbid trustees from carrying out the contract.

This legal victory in the fight of union labo!

against convict cut-throat competition marks a vital

stage in the campaign jointly waged by union gat

ment manufacturers, the organized needle trade

workers and the trade union public. For years

the dangers of prison-made garments have _ beel

painted to consumers. Tuberculosis and venereal

disease germs have flourished in the products and

there has been no adequate protection of the wearel'

against infection.

Prison labor is usually furnished to the contracto!

at a loss to the state and at a cost far below tb?

prevailing wage of free labor. The effect has bee!

that the state uses its criminal population to throv

its law-abiding workers out of jobs and to enrit!

the profiteers, usually from other states, that ente!

the degrading business of prison labor exploitatiol

Kate Richards O'Hare, who herself bent over #

prison sewing machine for several years, has le

the fight against the evil since her release.

Federated Pres.

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a