Open forum, vol. 3, no. 3 (January, 1926)

Lift labor and you lift everybody

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 16, 1926

No. 3

Impressions of Mexico

By Kate Crane-Gartz

My first and lasting impression of Mexico is dirt,

and dirt, and more dirt! There is literally no cul-

tivation or civilization between here and Mexico

City. Hundreds, yes thousands of miles of desert

waste and empty space as far as the eye can reach

on both sides of the tracks, all the way down. And

still we begrudge an acre of land to the Japanese,

who could make this desert blossom. Mexico is

willing, but we are not.

There is only one train a day in, and one out. Un-

fortunately they pass through the larger towns at

night, but those we did see were far from attractive

or picturesque, as I thought I had remembered them

to be years ago.

I have seen no such poverty in any country in the

world, and it is not even picturesque, but heart-

breaking. To bear children seems to be the only

business of life of the women. They are bare-

footed and thinly clad, never without the `"rebosa"

around their heads, and never without a baby in its

folds. The men wear wooden sandals and warm

woolen serapes. Their huts are put together of old

yailroad ties, with any and all kinds of rubbish for

a roof, an opening for a door through which

pigs, goats and chickens pass as freely and as much

at home as the family, which is always large. They

certainly need birth control clinics there, for I am

`sure those poor women do not want all the children

that are thrust upon them. But perhaps they think

the Lord sends the children-as it is surely a land

of churches. The only people ever seen in or near

them are the poor and forlorn, the deformed and the

beggars, who fill the doorways. It is sickening to

sensitive souls, and such a contrast to our own cus-

tom-where only the well dressed are seen in

churches!

We did, however, attend a gorgeous wedding of a

"marques," or some such title, in a church used for

weddings of the "higher classes." Some royal rela-

tives from Spain had arrived for the occasion. The

day previous we had passed on the road from Cuer-

nevaca the wreck of the Princess Pignatelli's auto-

mobile, in which she lost her life, as she and her

husband were hurrying to this wedding. They were

both descendants of Cortez, who, of course, was a

`Spaniard, but they changed their nationality to Ital-

`an, which to us would seem an impossibility and

unreasonable, Thousands of Easter lilies and came-

lias were used in the decoration, red velvet covered

the pews for the occasion. The ceremony was per-

formed in the rear of the church as the participants

entered the aisle, so all the congregation turned and

faced them. Then they walked up to the altar and

knelt for a long time, while many things took place

Which are not understood by the layman. The

bride's veil ig placed around the shoulders of the

groom, a very pretty and touching custom, and a

gold chain around their necks. Later in the day a

cvil service was performed, as the church is not

"ecognized by the government.

Outside the massive iron gate and gay awnings

and royal canopies stood the ubiquitous beggars and

a (eformed, with outstretched hands; quite a con-

tast to the high silk-hatted men and wedding finery

med Tome One wonders if this is civilization,

it a at part the church really plays in the making

a oe shock was the bull fight. To think that

a (c) people can really enjoy the spectacle of tor-

he innocent animals! So long as they do this,

Sport if beyond the pale of civilization. But the

nielina patronized by all classes every Sunday-a

lett ie Source of income for the government. We

er the first killing; there are. always six, or

* People demand their money back.

one are no women's clubs nor lecture courses.

ciety activities are exclusively confined to So-

ae Oh. Luncheons, dinners, bridge parties,

Utes j : One good theater. We stayed fifteen min-

_ their best. The beautiful white marble Opera

i

rte

House stands unfinished, waiting for more auspicious

times, or until the bread and butter question is

settled.

I am sorry to report that I did not meet Calles.

I called at the castle of Chapultapec, where the gate

is guarded by twenty soldiers, and at the palace

where there are also as many soldiers, who salute

his entrance and exit. I saw him both times, but

as his secretary, Toneblance, was late, I could not

get through all the red tape. I asked everybody I

met about him, and there were as many different

opinions, so I will not set them down.

I asked who owned all the stylish automobiles, as

there seemed to be no background to support so

much extravagance-I was told that they belonged

to government officials who support, not one family,

but several. Of course I did not like that in a so-

called Socialistic experimental government. There

are 30,000 government employees in the city. Down

there the revolutionists are the patriots, while in

our country just the opposite is the case-the pa-

triots are the conservatives, the 100 percenters, the

satisfied ones. ;

A tea at the American Embassy was a very in-

teresting experience, meeting and speaking to the

thirty Americans who constitute our representation

there. A beautiful palatial building with black and

white marble floors, white marble stairways and red

velvet carpets, quite common in Mexico. Their archi-

tecture, generally speaking, is so much more beauti-

ful than ours-always around courts, the enchanting

glimpses of which one gets through the great doors

and gate-ways; there are balconies, flowers, foun-

tains, stairways. All the family life is in there,

and not on the streets and "front porches."

The blue and white tile palace I never can forget.

I think there can be nothing more beautiful in all

the world. It is now used as an American tea room

and gift shop. Then there are the wide diagonal

tree-lined avenues, with great circular intersections,

surrounded by beautiful high-backed circular benches

of carved stone. In the center of this space rise

great monuments or columns to peace.

But Mexico's problem is a big one-to eliminate

poverty. They could produce so much more than

they do for themselves. Why pay us twelve million

a year for corn, their staple food? I saw very little

cotton, no grapes; plenty of maguey for their pulque;

no industries to speak of; and the oil and mining

industries pay about 65 per cent of the national

taxes.

Leaving Mexico we are held up on the interna-

tional bridge, where we are relieved of oranges and

apples, nobody knows why, unless California's

blockade against fruit from any other state. We

are also obliged to be vaccinated, whether we believe

in it or not. Arriving in San Antonio we drove to

Kelly Field where war preparation is still going on.

There are 25 large buildings (besides many others),

each containing 8 aeroplanes-200 in all-for what?

After a war to end war!

The World Court

There are a lot of well-meaning Americans who

are greatly exercised as to whether we are going to

join, or not going to join the World Court. Back of

the contending groups are the economic groups

which are striving for the mastery, the Hog-the-

trough capitalists, who want America to go it alone,

and fight the world if need be to have her own way,

and the Share-the-swill capitalists, who think that it

will be better to divide with outside capitalists and

thereby more effectively loot the world. Labor will

pay for the looting in either case.

Spiritual leadership is not a profession; it is a

renunciation-Fanny Bixby Spencer.

Birth Control in Mexico

The State of Yucatan is a Socialist state. It is

the nearest to the Socialist regime that we have

had in the history of the country. They officially

printed and published Margaret Sanger's pamphlet

on Birth Control-the one that is not permitted to

circulate in the United States...

The trouble with Mexico is not overpopulation.

Mexico is about one-third the size of the United

States and it only has fourteen million people.

are not concerned in Birth Control from that point

of view. Mexico can easily take care of 100,000,000

people. Most of the country is very fertile and in

most of Mexico you can raise two and three crops

a year. But what we are troubled with in Mexico is

an enormous amount of wastage, due to the ignor-

ance, the state of slavery and the peonage of the

workers, previous to the revolution due to lack of

education and due to the many counter-revolutions.

We had a first class counter-revolution last year

against the labor movement and the government.

The economic condition is not as good as it should be.

I am going to give you some figures which were

published two weeks ago by the Governor of Yuca-

tan. This is the most prosperous state in Mexico,

not only in Mexico, but I think in the world over.

With all that prosperity every Indian owns his own

land down there. Besides that fact he has oppor-

tunities to earn quite a good salary (or wages) for

working in the hemp fields. With all this splendid

economic condition, due to the lack of education,

due to this irresponsible breeding of children, we

have the following result:

In the period from the 1ith day of May to the

380th of November last year, in the city of Merida,

there have been 1,835 births and 1,845 deaths. That

is in the city of Merida, which is quite a modern

city. It has sewerage and modern sanitation. The

medical school is there, also the Board of Health.

They have dispensaries and all that. The population

of Merida by the way, is 80,000 and in the rest of

the state which makes up another 300,000 for that

same period, there have been 6,642 births and 5,541

deaths, almost another 100 per cent.

Three years ago this month I happened to be in

Merida, Yucatan. The Director of the School of

Medicine told me that out of three births, two never

reached the age of five---Roberto Haberman in

Birth Control Review, January 1926.

Official Barbarism

San Francisco (FP)-Captain of Detectives Dun-

can Matheson of San Francisco speaking:

"Our prisons in California have become merely

recreation grounds. Our parole system is far too

lenient. I believe in flogging criminals. If I had

my way, I would confine all reformers, psychiatrists

and penologists in a state institution and keep them

there.

"There was no miscarriage of justice in the

Mooney and Billings case. While it is true that

Oxman was something of a romancer, I believe that

Mooney and Billings were both guilty."

Matheson's allusion to "reformers, psychiatrists

and penologists" evidently harks back to a lecture

given, under the auspices of the Science League of

America, by a criminologist connected with the Uni-

versity of California. At this lecture Matheson, who

was present by special invitation, became so en-

raged at the professor's plea for kinder treatment

of criminals that he got up and begged for an op-

portunity to give the other side of the case.

The above remarks, made during a speech before

the Los Altos club, are evidently "the other side"

he has been anxious to present.

It is through the church that the teachings of

Jesus are being lost and the name of Christianity

discredited-From "The Jazz of Patriotism."

A position is a job where you accept 60 per cent

less wages for the privilege of `keeping your hands

clean.

We .

"THE OPEN FORUM -

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`The Story of the Anita Whitney Case

The trial of Miss Anita Whitney began at Oak-

land before Superior Judge James G. Quinn on Janu-

ary 27, 1920-two months lacking one day since her

arrest.

Indignant over her arrest, on utterly indefensible

grounds and a trumped up charge as she believed,

she had asked for an immediate trial, confident that

her innocence would bring a speedy acquittal. But

she had failed to take note of the intense feeling

that the police and press had been able to stir up,

and she did not, of course, foresee the methods that

would be used to persuade a jury to convict her.

Judge Quinn she had known for years, when he

was a justice of the peace and she had served on

`charity boards for the county, and had worked for

the closing of the Emeryville race track and the

Redlight district of Oakland. Quinn had been ap-

pointed to the superior court by Governor Stephens,

was then defeated at the polls when he stood for

election, but had received another appointment from

the governor and was now facing a second election.

At the eleventh hour the defense had secured the

services of Attorney Tom O'Connor of San Fran-

cisco, noted for his brilliance as a criminal trial

lawyer. But O'Connor had not been able to prepare

for the trial because of the illness of his little girl

with the flu, which was then raging through its

second great epidemic here, and his first request of

the court was for a postponement of one week. This

request was denied and in two weeks Tom O'Connor

himself had died of the. 'flu.

The first juror called was Margaret E. Garcia, a

housewife. The jury deserves a word in passing.

Six were women, six were men, the latter all very

advanced in years. From their answers in qualify-

ing for this responsible post it was obvious that they

had at the best but a very hazy notion what this ado

over "syndicalism,"' "Communism" and. the "indus-

trial struggle" was all about.

In the popular phrase of that day they could be

described as "one hundred per cent Americans"

which meant that they were thoroughly alarmed by

what had taken place in Europe and especially in

Russia, and feared above all else any sort of a social

storm in this country. Not only that, but they were

thoroughly suspicious of anyone who did not sub-

scribe one hundred per cent to everything said by

President Wilson, the police, or some other similar

authority on social and political matters.

Myron Harris, son of Superior Judge W. T. Harris,

retired, associated with John U. Calkin in the pros-

ecution, made the opening statement to the jury.

In substance he said:

"We expect to show that Miss Whitney was for a

long time a member of the Socialist party; that she

joined with the radical group when it broke away

and formed the Communist Labor Party; that this

group adopted the Communist Labor program as

formulated at the Chicago convention, and by this

act indirectly approved of what the Third Interna-

tionale had done at Moscow that previous March."

He talked of what was in this Moscow Manifesto,

and also of what the I. W. W. had been doing, as-

suring the jury that Miss Whitney would be con-

nected up with all of these iniquitous things.

Naturally ,the jury was impressed, and it was

days and weeks later before the facts were slowly

dragged out that Miss Whitney was not connected

at all either with the Russian manifesto, or the

Ee WW.

And what were the facts, as brought out days

and weeks later through the tedious process of testi-

mony by witnesses? That neither the Russian mani-

festo nor the I. W. W. were as much as mentioned

at the meeting in Loring Hall.

Those promises of what the prosecution would

show specifically against Miss Whitney referred back

to what had taken place months before at the Chi-

cago convention, where the I. W. W.'s methods of

organization (not tactics or its acts of sabotage)

had been approved, and where the principles of

Communism, as defined in the Russion Manifesto,

and again not the Internationale's tactics, had been

given approval.

All the public bitterness which existed then

against both the sabotage methods of some of the

I. W. W., and Bolshevists of Russia, were laid

against Miss Whitney's door because the Oakland

communists without reading the national platform

By C. E. KUNZIE

SIXTH INSTALLMENT

of their party, had voted an endorsement of it.

Through this action the prosecution argued Miss

Whitney, by the vote of the meeting, had logically

committed herself to any form of violence which

could then be hung either on the Russian Bolshe-

vists or the American I. W. W.

The full text of all these documents were read be-

fore the jury and became a part of the record.

Pages and pages of these documents were read word

for word by the prosecuting attorneys. But any

direct evidence of what the Communist Labor Party

had preached or advocated was objected to by the

prosecution. Thus:

John C. Taylor, secretary of the Loring Hall meet-

ing, was asked by Attorney O'Connor-

O'Connor: "You have read the platform of the

so-called Communist Labor Party?" Answer: "I

have."

O'Connor: "I will ask you if you know whether

or not the Communist Labor Party is an organiza-

tion to teach, advocate, aid and abet criminal syn-

dicalism ?"

Harris: "Just a second-to which we object upon

the ground-", ete.

The objection was sustained by the court and the

question remained unanswered.

And later when O'Connor asked: "Did you ever

hear Anita Whitney at any time under any circum-

stances, advocate, teach, aid, and abet criminal syn-

dicalism?" the same objection was made and the

same ruling prevented an answer. In fact Miss

Whitney herself was not permitted to tell the jury,

in answer to a question from her counsel, that she

had said nothing at the Loring Hall meeting that

advocated terrorism or violence.

The trial of Miss Anita Whitney was marked by

two deaths, that had of course a direct effect, how-

ever inscrutable, upon its outcome. They both

occurred during the second week, when one of the

jurors, Lucille Stegeman, died of the 'flu, and Attor-

ney Thomas O'Connor, chief counsel for Miss Whit-

ney died of pneumonia, brought on by the 'flu.

O'Connor's death was a blow to the defense from

which it did not recover. He had been on the case

only four days, and on the fourth, which fell on

Friday, January 30, he sat during the whole after-

noon at the counsel table too ill to take much part in

the proceeding's.

Normally O'Connor was of a very vigorous type.

He had a fine lionine type of head that was very

impressive and inside of this a brain that was the

constant menace of the opposition when it was en-

gaged in the conduct of a case. In the four brief

days that he sat before Judge Quinn he had already

gone far to wreck the whole structure which Police-

man Fenton Thompson and the prosecuting attor-

neys had built up against her.

But the sable hand of fate did not permit him to

complete his first onslaught even. This was in con-

nection with the "red flag" frame-up, already de-

scribed in these articles.

The reporter Ed Condon, under O'Connor's ques-

tioning had admitted that the red flag was a police

plant at the Loring Hall meeting, and he excused

himself for not having told this to the jury on the

rather lame explanation that he had not been asked.

Taken completely by surprise the two deputy

prosecutors held a hurried conference, calling Fenton

Thompson into their office, and the reporters learned

that Thompson denied Condon's story. But Condon

did not know this, and O'Connor again took him

over the details of the red flag frameup.

"Did you tell Judge Samuels about it," O'Connor

asked, "when you testified before him?"

"T did not," was Condon's reply.

"Why didn't you?"

"T was not asked."

"Oh, you were not asked?"

NTO .??

"And, unless I had happened to ask you now, you

never would have told the jury that that was a

frame-up, and you would have permitted this little

woman, if need be, to go to the penitentiary with

that in your mind?"

"TI would, yes-No, I would not, no!"

O'Connors "That is: all."

Condon: "Wait a minute-I would not have per-

mitted it to go to the jury as I do not Consider thy,

that is an essential piece of evidence, myself, sen

ing her to the penitentiary-that is not-the fact

that the red flag was draped there by any ody

doesn't indicate that she is guilty of crimina] sync.

calism any more than the mere fact that she Stayed

there after this flag was draped makes her no more

guilty than it does me."

O'Connor: "You say that some of the Newspapers

said it was not draped, and others said that it Was)! .

"Yes."

O'Connor: "You haven't any illusion about hoy

the average man, and the average community, aj

the average juror feel about the red flag, have you?"

"No sir, I have not."

"And yet, having no illusion about that, you were

quite willing to let these gentlemen and these latigs

believe that the American flag at that meeting yy

obscured and covered up by the red flag, weren'

you?"

"Yes."

(c):Connor. Lhat 1s alliz

In this same manner O'Connor next dragged out

from this witness the true nature of the red decor.

tions in Loring Hall, to which Condon had refer

in his direct testimony.

These decorations, it appeared, were ordinary rel

paper streamers hung from the ceiling to the center

of the hall, and had been there for months prior to

the time that the Communists had rented the hall

They had been put there by some other people for

festival purposes.

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All this occurred on Thursday, January 29. That

evening O'Connor had a fever and he asked fora |

postponement of the trial, but again the request

was denied and he came back on Friday, a very sitk

man. i

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The prosecution brought Fenton Thompson on the |

stand, to deny Condon's story of.the red flag, At: |

dressing himself to the court, and too hoarse to speak

above a whisper, O'Connor said:

"Let me suggest to the court. I want to say thal |

I am going to ask your honor's indulgence for his

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police had framed the red flag episode, and O'Connor -

cross-examination."

Thompson denied he had told Condon that the

protested that the prosecution could not thus it

peach their own witness. John U. Calkin was nth

tled. He said they merely wanted to put their catts

on the table.

"The cards should have been on the table yeste"

day," replied O'Connor, `before the gentleman left,

which gave Mr. Thompson thirty-six or twenty-fout

hours to think over his testimony. It was Mr

Thompson's cue to come forth yesterday and "|

`That is a lie,' and he stood there silent with not

word from him."

O'Connor asked, when the time for cross-examlt

tion came, that he be given an opportunity at some

later day when his health and his voice should be

more equal to this important matter. Judge Quit |

granted his request, over the protests of the pi

ecution. It was late in the day on Friday, the ls |

day of January. It was the last day of the tral

for that week anyway, but for Tom O'Connor tt i |

the last day of the trial for all time. On Mont

ee he

he was delirious, and before the week was ae

ss

was dead. Fenton Thompson was_ never cr

examined on the red flag episode.

The International Labor Defense is holding

cessful meetings in Pennsylvania and Ohio towns 4

the interest of class war prisoners. Both nen

ship applications and contributions to the oe

fund are excellent according to reports to the

cago headquarters at 23 S. Lincoln St.

The adverse antilabor ruling of the U. S. Supt r

court in the California criminal syndicalism

brought before it by the conviction of Anita ie

ney seems to have inspired the upholders of the 4

diana criminal anarchy law to revive old indictme

against radicals for a meeting held in Gary f

1923. The Indiana prosecutor is bring!

Loeb, business manager of The Daily Work at

Communist daily, to trial Jan. 6. Loeb wa a

tary of the Labor Defense council when ne

two and one-half years ago. The council has

been merged with the International Labor

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It Occurs to Me

By J. H. Ryckman

That things economical and political in Russia

t be going very well, to judge by the conniption

a which the steamed Times was thrown the

ut a by a revised version of the story so often

ati e `ist how and where the late Czar came to

told Aiieeerved end. A big cartoon found a place

his ie front page of this great organ of light and

a depicting Bolshevik Russia as a hideous

ie monster of revenge with its two blank

Pade sing with the blood of the late Czar and

te atly On the editorial page is a column of

sob stuff about the victims of Bolshevik atrocity

such as can be written nowhere in the world except

in the sanctum of this groveling apologist for ty-

rants. I beg to ask of the writer to turn to the

pages of John Milton and Theodore Roosevelt as to

the fate that ought to await all tyrants like the late

(yar, That their families should fall victims, too,

sometimes, is written deep in the heart of man lately

emerging from barbarism. The Times has no word

of sympathy nor emotion of pity for the hundreds

of Russia's poor and exploited who fell dead or

mangled in their tracks on that bloody Sunday in

1905 when they went in all meekness to call upon

the Little Father and were ordered shot for their

temerity. They asked a crust and were given bul-

lets, Nor does the Times recall the tens of thou-

sands of victims of the cruel pogroms ordered by

the savage ruling class of Russia in all the years

preceding the revolution, filling the hearts of the

poor with bitterness and resentment and arousing

within them all the smouldering savage instincts of

rimitive man.

vot old it was written and remains eternally true

that they who use the sword shall perish by the

sword,

The news from Russia disturbing to standpatters

coming through just now is of great variety and

profound significance. A group of British trade

union women lately spent three months in Russia

studying the condition of women and children. About

21% of the workers in Russia and 25% of the union

members are women. Equal pay for equal work is

the rule and it is observed. Machinery is antiquated

but factory conditions are good. "But when con-

sidering the wages of Russian workers," the report

`says, "it should be remembered that the wages of

both men and women are supplemented by a variety

of benefits not enjoyed by the workers of scarcely

any other country, viz.: low rents graduated accord-

ing to wages so that a man with a very low wage

pays a purely nominal rent .. . Wages are also paid

for holidays. Free medical service, free holidays, at

rest homes, including traveling expenses, similar

free treatment at sanatoria, insurance against dis-

ablement, illness, accident and unemployment to

Which the worker contributes nothing, leave-of-ab-

senee with full pay for child-birth, an allowance for

the needs of the new-born infant, care of young chil-

dren at the factory nurseries, free of charge, reduced

charges for all municipal services, as gas, water,

electricity, tramways, etc., free or very cheap con-

cert and theatre tickets, premises free of charge for

trade union meetings, clubs, etc. Before 1905 the

Work-day was 14 to 16 hours; before the World War

a 12 hours, now the 8-hour day strictly. The

aoe look better and are much better cared for

, i eueien. The report of these British women

ita ve news from Russia in a long time and

eas euro sanity of the new social order being born

ussia. The gravest crime in Russia now is be-

- trayal of a public trust."

okie writes: "The other day we hanged by

neck 12 grafters. In England such men are re-

_ iembered by the King; in America, if they live,

a considered great statesmen, and if they die

`i o hee sumptuous burials, while in France

aie c statues to their memory. This is where

osheviks are cruel and ruthless. When we

not intended as a joke." Here we

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pop Fall with all the powers at Washington.

(c) 1S another story from Russia. Believe it or

Dass it,

ees the Russian collapse in the World War,

Drisoners . captured several thousand Hungarian

gave those hen the Bolsheviks got into power they

Prisoners the choice of recognizing the

ment, joining the Red army, or remaining

(c) latter f war. They joined the Reds. In return

teticultural vs them 400,000 acres of the best land,

merly owned me achinery and domestic animals for-

y Russian land magnates. These Hun-

an soldi

in Idiers now are prosperous farmers on the

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| 2nd Rus er, having married Mongolian, Chinese

Sian : .

4n women and have a veritable kingdom

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i own under the red flag of world peace.

Extra! Extra!

U.S. Conquers Canada

By Leland Olds, Federated Press

Acknowledgement that the economic United States

of America has annexed Canada, forming a single

financial empire for exploitation of all workers of

the western hemisphere, marked the address of

Frederic Hudd, Canadian trade commissioner in the

United States and special delegate to the Pan-

American commercial congress in New York. His

statement to the congress aroused jealous comment

in England which still thinks Canada part of the

British empire.

"Canada," said Hudd, "is an integral part of eco-

nomic America. Canada is the eldest daughter in a

great commonwealth of nations but her immediate

destiny lies on the North American continent. The

commercial economic and strategic problems common

to us all furnish indestructible grounds for enduring

and permanent cooperation. In behalf of the Can-

adian delegation here I pledge our allegiance to Pan-

Americanism in its broadest spirit."

Hudd voiced Canada's conviction that "there is no

problem too difficult for the countries of Latin

America and North America to solve provided they

stand together as a United States of the American

continent."

Behind the scenes lies the invasion of Canada by

over 2,000000,000 American dollars. These billions,

poured in between 1915 and 1925, gave U. S. finance

a claim on Canada exceeding by half a billion dollars

the claim of England.

"This American invasion of Canada," said a New

York Times editorial of June 6, 1928, "has excited a

certain alarm on the part of some British interests.

They are disquieted by the way in which English

investments in Canada are being outstripped by

American. The statement was recently made to the

Canadian chamber of commerce in London. that if

American capital continues its present rate of flow

into Canada it will before long control 75% of the

natural resources and industries of the dominion.

With this form of financial conquest, it is feared

that there will go forward an unwelcome American-

ization of Canada." ;

"Economically and socially," said the U. S. de-

partment of commerce a year ago, "Canada may be

considered as a northern extension of the United

States."

Winnipeg, (FP)-Will the Canadian people be

consulted at a general election before the govern-

ment declares war in the future? The Hon. Arthur

Meighen, leader of the Conservative party at Ottawa,

has stated publicly twice recently that this was the

attitude of the Conservative party. He first made

the statement in November at Hamilton, Ontario,

and repeated it Dec. 1st before a French audience

in the Bagot constituency of Quebec. This is a com-

plete reversal of the policy he advocated in Septem-

ber 1922 when addressing the Toronto Business

Men's Association. He then opposed consulting

parliament before the cabinet took action to support

Britain, and claimed that grave disaster might accrue

to the nation if the cabinet had to consult parliament

before a decision could be given. In December 1925

he says that not only would parliament be consulted,

but also that the people would be consulted at a

general election.

Should this policy actually be adopted in Canada

then this would be the first time such a thing had

been done in any country in any age. That it ought

to be done few advanced thinkers will gainsay, but

that it actually will be done by the conservatives is

probably more than can be hoped for. It looks as

if Mr. Meighen were offering a bribe to Quebec in

order that they might elect a conservative and thus

assist his party to power. The conservative press

promptly took him to task for his statement and

declared that the Conservative party had agreed to

no such policy.

OPPOSES WAR MEMORIAL

San Franciseo-(FP)-Daniel O'Connell, San

Francisco attorney, disbarred because he served a

sentence at MeNeil's Island for opposing the draft,

is seeking an injunction to prevent the purchase of

a site for erection of a war memorial building.

O'Connell claims that this memorial will be for the

benefit of the American Legion and not for the

public. :

Grocer-``Don't you find that a baby brightens up

a household wonderfully ?"

Woman Customer-`Yes, we have the electric

lights going most of the time now.'-The Progres-

sive Grocer.

Coolidge Keeps "Em Cool

and Ford Fires Them

By Stanley Boone

Detroit-(FP)-While filling the papers with pub-

licity on its 8% payment to employe holders of Ford

investment certificates, the Ford Motor Co., with

typical Ford strategy ordered 10,000 men off the

payroll a few days before Christmas and replaced

them with 16,000 at lower pay, according to workers

at the River Rouge plant. ae

The switch was made without warning to the

10,000. By this manoeuver the Ford Motor Co. grows

richer. Sixteen thousand men now give their labor

for eight speeded hours a day for total wages no

greater and perhaps actually less than the total

paid 10,000 up to the time of the change. The dis-

missed men were simply given slips to sign saying

they held nothing against the Ford Motor Co. A

worker knows he would never be rehired if he re-

fused to sign. And the slips give the Ford Motor

Co. a clean record in an investigation or a suit for

damages.

The 16,000 new men were taken into the plant

without knowledge that 10,000 were at the same time

being driven out the back door. This replacement

has not been reported in any capitalist newspaper.

The only Ford Motor Co. report generally published

at this time in the capitalist papers has to do with

an 8 per cent payment on employee investment cer-

tificates. Since the plan was devised about 30,000

employes have in this manner turned back part of

their wages for use by the company, deriving a small

gain for themselves. But the company discontinued

selling the certificates last April and has been grad-

ually retiring them. Last April employes held cer-

tificates totaling $25,000,000. The total outstanding

today amounts to $21,800,000.

Dear Open Forum: I wish to make a few re-

marks suggested by Judge Rykman's eulogy of

Judge McCormick. Since the latter refused my ap-

plication for citizenship I naturally scrutinized the

points made in his favor. You see it does not look

to me as if the Judge, who has upheld Mr. Pandit's

citizenship, was anything but unfair. in rejecting me.

My education was attained mainly in American

schools, among them two normal schoals and one of

Unitarian divinity. I had been naturalized in Minne-

sota and had taught many terms of school; I had

trained my pupils to sing patriotic songs while wavy-

ing the Star Spangled Banner in the belief that it

had never been sullied by those in power suppressing

foreign peoples in the interests of the American

plunderbund. All this patriotic service to Wall

Street had been performed before 1902, when I mi-

grated to Canada with other American citizens. To

be sure, the Judge did not know of all this patriotic

service of mine. He rejected me on account of my

radical sympathies, of which I frankly informed him,

and a doubt I expressed as to the present U. S. gov-

ernment being one "of the people, by the people and

for the people," and not one of, by and for the profi-

teers and grafters of the country.

Now by a decision of this Judge, the Doheny-

Sinclair-Fall attempt to defraud the people of rich

oil fields has been frustrated. This would seem to

be an act of the government in favor of the people.

But does a judge need to be especially praised for

doing what he is under oath to do? What about

the judge who sided with the criminals? Should he

not at least be removed from office? What punish-

ment will be visited upon the thieves? How does

another government official-the brewer Mellon-

keep his oath to uphold the constitution of the coun-

try? What punishment did Fall get? What should

be done to Mellon? And the rest?

Workers and radicals are shot down or given long-

term sentences for exercising their right of free

speech, but rich fellows may be caught actually vio-

lating laws and nothing, practically, is done to them.

The Judge may think he did something for the

people when he barred me from citizenship. As a

citizen I should have voted for communists and com-

munist measures. That's what Wall Street and its

agents do not want. The people read capitalist

papers and also think they don't want communism.

If this gospel could reach them they would discover

that there is no form of control better for them and

then they would be ready for it. Therefore the

Judge deceives himself if he thinks withholding from

me the rights of citizenship was an act in favor of

the people. Yours truly,

S. GARBORG.

Christ was a moral militant, not a warrior. He

was never a patriot, nor a conqueror.-F. B. S.

a ea

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

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1926

iiceiemiericeeaciaiaeniriientiecae ee eT) Tt TT

COMING EVENTS

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Other meetings every Thursday at 7:30 p. m.

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Meets Monday Nights 8:15 O'clock at 420 N. Soto St.

(One block No. of Brooklyn Ave.)

PROGRAM FOR JANUARY, 1926

January 18-"Is a Rational Vegetarian Diet Essen-

tial in Establishing a New Social Order?" by Otto

Carque, author of "Rational Diet" and "Natural Food,

the Safe Way to Health."

Questions and General Discussion

man tf - -

THE CONGREGATION OF THE DAILY LIFE

Meets every Sunday morning at 10:30 o'clock in the

Columbia Building (4th floor), 313 W. 3rd St.

Next Sunday morning Robert Whitaker will speak.

Subject - "WHAT ABOUT RELIGION AND

PATRIOTISM ?"

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PROGRESSIVE CLUB

Meets first and third Tuesdays, for supper and pro-

gram, at Stillwell's Cafe, 426 South Spring Street,

Los Angeles, 6 p. m.

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PROLETARIAN FORUM

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224 South Spring Street, Second Floor

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SOCIALIST PARTY DIRECTORY

Headquarters, Room 418 Bryson Bldg., corner 2nd

and Spring Streets. R. W. Anderson, Secretary, City

Central Committee, Phone VErmont 6811. C. C. C.

meets second and fourth Mondays. Branch Central

meets every Tuesday evening at Headquarters.

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

On Being Happy

How can a man be happy when the world is so awry?

When strong men beg for work to do, and unfed mil-

lions die?

When little children lift their heads and plead in vain

for bread?

How can a man be happy if he isn't worse than

dead ?

What if the fates have favored us and we have bread

to spare;

A decent roof to shelter us, and what we need to

wear;

And friends to love, and work to do, and joys we

eannot tell;

How can a man be happy when his brothers live in

hell ?

Alas for those who are content with preachments,

prayers and psalms;

With nicely ordered charities, or with spasmodic

alms;

Alas for creeds, and cults, and schools, describe them

as you will,

That make us self-complacent if we only have our

fill.

It isn't outright wickedness that wrecks the human

race;

It's the shallow, selfish goodness that we glorify

apace;

Our mean self-help philosophies, our honor and suc-

cess;

Our skill at being happy when the world is in

distress.

-ROBERT WHITAKER,

In The Industrial Pioneer, October 1925.

Walter Trumbull and Paul Crouch, the two sol-

diers convicted at Honolulu for communist activi-

ties and now serving sentences at Alcatraz Island,

San Francisco, have refused to allow appeals for

clemency to be made to the War Department at

Washington. Their attorney, Austin Lewis of San

Francisco, has advised the American Civil Libertiers

Union that the men will endeavor to seek their free-

dom only through action in the courts.

Crouch's three-year sentence has been appealed

and an application for habeas corpus for Trumbull

is about to be filed. Trumbull's one-year sentence

expires in February. The men were originally sen-

tenced to long terms, Crouch to 40 years and Trum-

bull to 26, solely on charges of expressing radical

views. Widespread protests against their excessive

length resulted in a reduction to 8 and 1 years by

the commanding officer at Honolulu.

vo

Anna Louise Strong Coming

' Anna Louise Strong, well known writer, traveller,

and lecturer, right fresh from Russia, is to be in

Southern California January 15-20, 1926. She will

speak twice here on Sunday, both times in Music

Art Hall, 233 South Broadway. Sunday afternoon, at

a Big Special Mass Meeting, she will speak on

"WHAT'S NEW ABOUT RUSSIA?" At 7:800x00B0p. m.,

she will speak on "THE AWAKENING OF CHINA,"

as she visited China on her way to America. Both

lectures free. Two great opportunities. Don't miss

either of them.

See Open Forum notice also.

J. STANFIELD, TRANSFER

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We hope that you have found it indispensable, and

will therefore immediately fill out the blank below

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OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

January 17, 1926. "THE AWAKENING MASSpg

OF CHINA," by Anna Louise Strong, She i j

back from Russia after four years in that site

Her return journey took her through China, ae

she naturally kept eyes wide open to take `

new developments in that land that is 80 rapidly

asserting itself. To hear so distinguigshoq

sonage as Miss Strong will be a gre

in the

at Opportunity

for our Music by JAMES FRANKLIN

GABLE, boy violinist, pupil of Max Amsterdam, (a)

La Paloma (Yradier), (b) Love Song (Henselt)

Gypsy Dance (Ernst).

audience.

January 24-DEBATE: "Resolved, That the United |

States should go to war only by a direct vote of the

people, except in cases of invasion or rebellion,"

Students from the University of Southern California

will handle this-two teams-William Henley and Ip.

land Tallman upholding the affirmative, and Ray:

mond Brennan and Adna Leonard the negative, Thy

music also will be by university students, we expec,

So altogether an evening of pep may be looked {op

ward to,

January 31-`THE RACES OF MEN IN THR

LIGHT OF EVOLUTION," by Joseph McCabe a _

pep |

(a) fF

London, England. He is the author of seventy

volumes and a lecturer of international reputation

His present tour in America embraces all the large

cities. We are fortunate indeed to be able to secure

him. Music by a trio, JACOB WEINSTOCK, vocal

ist; GENEVA ZUBRINSKY, violinist, and MRS,

LOUIS RATTNER, accompanist. Admission will be

by ticket tonight, the charge being 50 cents, or $1.5)

for the course of four lectures-two by Joseph Me:

Cabe and two by Paul Blanshard of New York. (Se

full announcement in another column.)

The American Appeal, the new national Socialis .

weekly, reports selling out a large printing of its

initial number dated Jan. 1. In makeup and pur

pose it somewhat resembles the old Appeal to

Reason, as it was before it truckled to capitalism

during the World War to permit its editor to seek to

evade the draft. Eugene V. Debs is editor of the

new American Appeal with Murray King as mal

aging editor. It is published from 2653 W. Wash

ington Blvd., Chicago, at $1 a year.

The World Court

TO JOIN, OR NOT TO JOIN?

Professor Arthur E. Briggs will speak hefore the

Los Angeles F. O. R. group on the above timely sub:

ject Monday evening, January 18, 1926, at the Blue

Triangle Club, 631 S. Spring St. Supper 50 cents, al

6 p. m. Phone for reservations-T Ucker 6836, of

WAshington 5116. Come and enjoy a good fellow:

ship feast, and an able address.

Gym Teacher (to girls) -`Lots of girls us

bells to get color in their cheeks." holt

Bright One-`"And lots of girls use color on thel

cheeks to get dumb-bells."-Kansas Sour Owl.

e dumb-

LECTURE COURSE

i

The lecture course given in Los Angeles by AM

Nearing last spring was so successful that a

going to undertake another course soon. Two lee

ers will be employed this time insteac thot

Joseph McCabe of London, England, famous Ps at

of some seventy volumes, and Paul Blanshart

New York City, distinguished traveler al smbraee

to progressive audiences. The course will em

the following lectures:

(1) "The Races of Man in the Light Of

by Joseph McCabe, in Music-Art Hall, 23 saat

way, on Sunday evening, January on) Tis voli

the place of the regular Sunday night Forum ine 0"

(2) "The Evolution of Life and of Mab al St,

seph McCabe, in Symphony Hall, 932 South i

Monday evening, February 1. This lecture V

fern slides:

iuates ; fe `y fine lantern slic ,

illustrated by some sixty very fine and Japa

avolution"

8 So, Broat:

11 take

(3) "Labor and Imperialism in Chi 939 Goulll

by Paul Blanshard, in Symphony Balt

Hill Street, on the evening of February ms pall

(4) "What I Saw in Soviet Russia, | away

Blanshard, in Musiec-Art Hall, 233 South B

on the evening of February 3. i

The third and fourth lectures wil nis pound:

recently gathered by Mr. Blanshard Be grclock

the-world trip. Each lecture will begin single Jet:

and the price will be 50ccent apiece for the 0x00A7 .

tures, or $1.50 for the course, covering

tures. Tickets may be obtained from

the American Civil Liberties Union. | vwaat Cf

It is anticipated that there will be 8! "ha distil

at all of these lectures, as both men er dabe jg now

guished in their respective fields. Mr. se g, and Mr

on a tour of the principal American cit cA gtudent(R)

Blanshard is speaking to groups of colle'

1 cover material

all four

the office of

1 of one 0x00A7

and lecturet |

all over the United States.

Oo a agg a eae pe