Open forum, vol. 5, no. 12 (March, 1928)

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Vol. 5

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 24, 1928

No. 12

Copley Man "Welcomes" Hearing

By LEW HEAD

All of us have heard of the "shot that was heard

around the world," fired at Concord Bridge, Massachu-

setts, when a group of Yankee farmers precipitated

the War of the American Revolution. We have now

the opportunity to take off our hats to The Open

Forum, for it was this weekly publication that let

loose another volley, March 3, 1928, that found an

echo in the Halls of Congress last week, March 16.

Honor and support to whom honor and support are

due!

The Open Forum was the only periodical in the

United States that had the courage to expose the

invasion of the Pacific Coast by Ira C. Copley, power

trust partner of Samuel Insull. As one of its con-

tributing editors, in company with Willis J. Spauld-

ing, president of the Public Ownership League of

America, I went to San Diego and later got in com-

munication with newspaper friends in San Francisco

and Los Angeles. Mr. Spaulding and I established

the facts that I presented in my article to The Open

Forum March 3.

Now comes Senator George W. Norris, Nebraska,

who communicated these facts to the United States

Senate on March 38, on information supplied to him

by Mr. Spaulding and myself. Later, on March 15,

Senator Norris again offered our information to the

Federal Trade Commission, demanding that body

include in its investigation of the "power trust" the

purchase of more than a dozen newspapers in South-

ern California. Interesting to many will be the fact

that the story of Senator Norris' activities is printed

in extenso in the Los Angeles Times of March 17.

At the end of: a column article, in a dispatch dated

at Chicago, John Callan O'Laughlin, in charge of the

Copley papers, is credited with denying the allega-

tions that have been made against the gentleman

who pays him his weekly salary. Mr. O'Laughlin

asks the privilege of appearing before the commis-

sion and `telling the facts."

Next comes the Los Angeles Evening Express, in

a statement published in the Los Angeles Times,

March 18, quoting a telegram to Senator Norris, de-

manding retraction of charges made in The Open

Forum March 8 that Ira C. Copley was negotiating

for the purchase of that newspaper, and admitting

in its own telegram to Senator Norris that Copley

had negotiated for the purchase of "stock in the Los

Angeles Express" about a year ago. In other words,

the Los Angeles Evening Express admits the very

thing that it asks Senator Norris to retract.

It has been my experience as a newspaper man

for over thirty years that the man or the company

or the interest that rushes into print denying charges

and asking the opportunity to explain them is usual-

ly guilty, while he or it that is falsely accused leaves

its case to the judgment of calm and considerate

men and women.

The fact that John Callan O'Laughlin shows a

willingness to appear before the Federal Trade Com-

mission and defend his paymaster; the fact that the

Los Angeles Evening Express demands a retraction,

as well as the fact that everybody who knows any-

thing about the facts in the case is willing to be-

lieve that the charges that have been made in The

Open Forum are true, leads me, as it will lead you,

to the conclusion that all these interests who are

urging that they be heard in defense are GUILTY

OF THE CHARGES MADE.

My advice to Mr. O'Laughlin and Mr. "Eddie"

Dickson, editor of the Express, is that they stay

away from the Federal Trade Commission Investi-

gation unless they wish to return home very much

more dirtied up with the kind of truth that George

W. Norris can hurl at them.

In my own opinion, Mr. Copley is forced to buy

the Los Angeles Evening Express or lose about 75,-

000 circulation that is furnished at approximate cost

or less to Copley, by the free distribution of the Ex-

press in a dozen suburban towns, with the Copley

papers, under a contract made with Fred Kellogg

several years ago; or the Los Angeles Evening Ex-

press is forced to sell to Copley or lose the said

75,000 circulation that the Express is now securing

in the suburban towns of Los Angeles county, that

it would not have, were it not for the Kellogg con-

tract.

How long can any newspaper live successfully

without circulation? How much money will large

advertisers spend with newspapers that stand a

chance to lose 75,000 subscribers at the sudden ex-

piration of a `clever' contract?

Do you wonder that Callan`O'Laughlin, Copley and

"Hddie" Dickson are staging an amateur riot over

the exposure that has been made of their pretty

little game?

Let me bring this article to an end by informing

you that the most damnable, menacing and corrupt-

ing influence in the United States at this vital mo-

ment is the "power trust,' believe it or not. If you

have any semblance of democracy left in this coun-

try, which is doubtful, there will be not a vestige

of it left when Copley, Insull and his fellow pirates

get through exploiting you and making you like it.

Sunday night I telegraphed Senator Norris as fol-

lows:

"Please note in telegram sent you by Los Angeles

Express that retraction is demanded by you of

charge that is admitted in their own telegram, that

they HAVE NEGOTIATED with Copley for sale of

Express. I understand negotiations still pending.

My article in Open Forum mailed to you stands sub-

stantially true. Retract nothing!

(Signed) "LEW HEAD."

How to Produce War

By H. G. WELLS

The thought of war will sit like a giant over all

human affairs for the next two decades. It will say

to all. of us: "Set your houses in order . If you

squabble among yourselves, waste time, litigate, mud-

dle, snatch profits, and shirk obligations, I will cer-

tainly come again. I have taken all your young men

between eighteen and fifty and killed and maimed

such as I please, millions of them. I have wasted

your substance contemptuously. Now you have mul-

titudes of male children between the ages of nine

and nineteen running about among you, delightful

and beloved boys. And behind them come millions

of delightful babies. Of these I have starved and

smashed a paltry million perhaps. But go on mud-

dling, each for himself and his parish and his fam-

ily, and none for all the world, go on the old way,

stick to your rights, stick to your claims, each one

of you, make no concessions `and no sacrifices, ob-

struct, waste, squabble-and presently I will. come

and take all that fresh harvest of life, all those mil-

lions that are now sweet children and dear little

boys and youths, and I will squeeze it into a red

jam between my hands, and mix it with the mud

of the trenches, and feast on it before your eyes,

even more damnably than I have done with your

grown up sons and young men."

"The major problem of human society is to com-

bine that degree of liberty without which law is

tyranny with that degree of law without which lib-

erty becomes license."-Heraclitus of Ephesus.

To make people industrious, prudent, skillful and

intelligent, they must be relieved from want.-Henry

George.

Court Blocks Colorado

Check Weighman Law

A restraining order preventing the Colorado state

mine inspector and the district attorney of Free-

mont County from assessing a $100 per day penalty

against the Victor American Fuel Company for vio-

lating the state check weighman law was issued by

Federal Judge Kennedy of Cheyenne, Wyo., sitting

at Denver, Colo., on March 5.

The order also restrains the check weighmen

elected by the miners from all activity towards

either trying "to place themselves on the tipple of

the Chandler mine or of instigating a strike or other

protest against the action of the company."

Colorado coal companies have continually violated

the state law requiring a check weighman elected by

the miners at each tipple, and the issue was one

of the most important demands in the strike which

ended February 20.

- According to Rev. A. A. Heist, Denver representa-

tive of the Civil Liberties Union, the election of a

miner, Dave Lewis, as check weighman of the

Chandler mine was approved by the state mine in-

spector. However, when Lewis arrived to assume

his duties the officials would not permit him on the

tipple on the ground that he was not an employe of

the company. The company held that the men must

elect a check weighman from among the employes

of the company. "This would nullify the law,' Mr.

Heist declares, "because they could fire any man

whom they did not want as check weighman, and so

compel the men to vote for the puppet of their

choice."

Judge Kennedy set April 4 as the date of the

hearing on the merits of the case. In the meantime,

the miners at the Chandler mine must accept the

weights credited to them by the company, without

any representative of their own to check up on the

company's weigher.

Pullman Porters Plan

Strike After Turndown

NEW YORK.-(F.P.)-Creation of a national emer-

gency, which means threatening a walkout of Pull-

man porters, is the next move of the Brotherhood of

Sleeping Car Porters. General Organizer A. Philip

Randolph makes this announcement following the

dismissal by the Interstate Commerce Commission of

the Union's plea to have the company pay full wages

instead of counting on tips.

Preparations for this action have been going on

for some time, says Randolph. Under the Watson-

Parker law, in case of a national rail labor emer-

gency, the President of the United States can inter-

vene and appoint an investigating committee.. The

investigators are required to report in thirty days,

during which no action is supposed to be taken by

either side. A strike at the end is not forbidden and

the recommendations of the investigators is not

binding.

Hays to Aid Defense

Of Brophy and Toohey

Arthur Garfield Hays of New York, noted attorney

in free speech cases and a member of the Executive

Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union,

will take part in the defense of John Brophy and

Patrick Toohey, leaders of the insurgent miners,

who were arrested at a meeting at Renton on March

4 by state police, who slugged Toohey and placed

charges of inciting to riot against both men.

`The police broke up the meeting by force when

Toohey criticised the policy of the United States

Government in Nicaragua. 3

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 1022 California Building,

Second and Broadway,

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836

Clinton J. Taft. Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills Robert Whitaker

P. D. Noel Lew Head

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

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

Two Cents Each, if ordered in advance.

Advertising Rates on Request.

Entered as second-class matter Dec. 12, 1924, at

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1928

- This paper, like the Sunday Night Forum, is

carried on by the American Civil Liberties

Union to give a concrete illustration of the

value of free discussion. It offers a means of

expression to unpopular minorities. The or-

ganization assumes no responsibility for opin-

ions appearing in signed articles.

e e

Nation Dinner

A general committee of readers of The Nation in

Southern California is arranging for a public dinner

in honor of Oswald Garrison Villard's ten years of

editorship. March 81 is the date selected, at 6:30

P. M., at the Los Angeles City Club, 833 South Spring

Street. Tickets are $2 and may be secured at the

Civil Liberties Union office. An unusual program

is being prepared. Lew Head is chairman of ar-

rangements.

Officials Enjoined

Federal Judge J. C. Hutcheson, Jr., of Houston,

Texas, has issued an injunction against three high

officials of the Southern Pacific Company (Texas

lines), restraining them from interfering with the

Brotherhood of Railway Clerks.

Tyrants forego all respect for humanity in pro-

portion as they sink beneath it; taught to believe

themselves of a different species, they really be-

come so, lose their participation with their kind

and in mimicking the good, dwindle into the brute.-

Hazlitt.

James P. Cannon

National Secretary I. L. D.

THE

AMERICAN FRAME-UP SYSTEM

SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 7:45

MUSIC-ART HALL

ADMISSION 25c-Includes three Months Sub-

scription to Labor Defender.

oslovakia.

Banned from Boston and Glasgow.

Queens!

William McFee:

Clarence Darrow:

`Oil' 1

Arthur Conan Doyle:

Boycotted by Los Angeles Newspapers !

The Best-Selling Novel Throughout the World

Do you know that the most widely read novel in the whole world to-

day deals with Southern California life, and that the newspapers of

Southern California, with few exceptions, have boycotted it?

OIL! ;

By Upton Sinclair

Author of "The Jungle', "The Brass Check'', Etc.

Fifty-five thousand-sold in first three months in Germany. A best-

seller in Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Australia and Czech-

Running serially in the biggest papers in Paris and Copenhagen.

All the world is reading about California Oil-Kings and Movie-

Johan Bojer: `This novel is created by a great poet, a great artist,

and a great heart. Since Emile Zola I can't remember a similar work."

"Story-telling with an edge on it.

panorama of Southern California life.''

"Few novels have impressed me as much as

"I was amazed at the power of the book."

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Price $2.50. At all book stores.

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Or order from A. and C. Boni, 66

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See

EXPIRATION NOTICE

Dear Friend:If you find this paragraph encircled

with a blue pencil mark it means that your sub-

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OPEN FORUM

Lincoln Hall

Walker Auditorium Building

730 South Grand Ave.

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

March 18.-ECONOMICS AND THE RACE QUES.

TION, by George S. Schuyler, editor of The Messen.

ger, a Negro magazine, and. contributor to many

publications.

March 25.-DEBATE: Resolved, That the Prohi-

bition Laws of the United States Have Proven More

Beneficial Than Detrimental, by Lucius C. Dale, af

firmative, and Lew Head, negative..

April 1-THE AMERICAN FRAME-UP SYSTEM,

by James P. Cannon, national secretary of the In.

ternational Labor Defense, who started a coast-to.

coast lecture tour in February, which will end in

May. This meeting, under joint auspices of The

Open Forum and the International Labor Defense,

Los Angeles branch, will be held at Music-Art Hall,

233 South Broadway. Admission 25c, which will in

clude a three months' subscription to the Labor

Defender.

"More governments have perished from corrup.

tion within than have from armies without. It is

easy to get some men to fight for their country

in time of war, but it is hard, to, arouse them t

the importance and necessity of fighting in time of

peace to preserve free institutions."-Senator J.

Thomas Hefflin of Alabama.

It is not that a particular class is unfit to govern;

every class is unfit to govern. Imagine a class of

such celebrities as More, Bacon, Gratius, Pascal,

Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon

and Pitt. The result would be an encyclopedia of

error.-Lord Acton in.a letter to Bishop Creighton.

Coming Events

FREE CLASS IN ENGLISH, Room 218, 224 South

Spring Street, Tuesday and Friday, 8 to 9 P. M,

Mortimer Downing, teacher. Administration mat

ters conducted by class.

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W., 701

Bryson Building, Second and. Spring Streets, free

reading room open every day; business meeting

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE educa

tional lectures on peace and war: Public Library

Lecture Hall, Wednesdays, 8 P. M.; Hollywood

Library, Mondays, 4 P. M.

WOMEN'S SHELLEY CLUB, second and fourth

Wednesday, 936 West Washington Street, fifty cent

luncheon, 12:30; MUtual 3668 for reservations. Ione

G. Woodard, president, HUmboldt 7668-W.

NEGRO FORUM, Masonic Temple, Twelfth and

Central Avenue, Sunday, 4: 30.

WORKERS' BOOK SHOP, Room 101, 122 West

Third Street. Obtain books-keep pace with Work

ers' Movement progress. Same address: The Daily -

Worker and Circulating Library.

ENGLISH SPEAKING BRANCH, I. L. D., business

and educational meetings every first and_ third

Thursday at Cleveland Hall, Walker Auditorium, 730

South Grand Avenue.

PROLETARIAN PARTY Economics Class, Thurs

day, 8 P. M.; Saturday Night Forum, 8 P. M., al

Cooks' Union Hall, 3871%4 South Hill Street. Admis

sion free.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 418 Bryso2

Building; R. W. Anderson, Secretary. VErmont 6811.

County Central Committee meets second and fourt!

Mondays.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discus

sion every Monday night at 8 o'elock, Libertarial

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Wintel :

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday i?

month.

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FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

Perhaps Tomorrow

Editor The Open Forum:

Brisbane dares to say, today, to millions of people,

that big business would always oppose anything sug-

gested to abolish unemployment as socialistic, an-

archistic, bolshevistic. When will they learn that

every conceivable thing in the way of human tragedy

happens as the result of unemployment and its con-

comitant-poverty-and then comes discontent be-

yond the power of human endurance, with its re-

sultant-revolution.

He states also that workers should have sixteen

free hours out of twenty-four. Now all these good,

humane measures are branded as socialistic and yet

Socialism is considered too idealistic and at the

same time classed as a red menace! Is this not

all rather incongruous? Until all men are con-

sumers as well as producers there will be no market

for their over-production.

* * *

It seems as if the guarantee of free speech in our

Constitution is obsolete, as shown in the case of

Roger Baldwin, when men like him, who agitate

for better living and working conditions, acting in

defiance of high finance, must go to jail, where, how-

ever, many idealists from the beginning of time have

languished. Why should we be asked to uphold the

Constitution by the Better-America Federation and

their ilk every day-if we do we find ourselves in

jail for it, when they defy it by denying free

speech, and only when that free speech is always

for a good cause.

When the first principles of our civil society are

violated and our rights of free speech revoked, then

the demeanors of the law, of which we know many

examples, are not to be respected. These man-made

laws very often contradict the very purpose for

which they were instituted and then they should

automatically become null and void. There are some

principles beyond the realm of law.

Kee CaaG;

(Continued from Page 2)

than had been the lot of that rather tough town

for years that one would have thought that she

would have been returned. Her opponent is a medi-

cre circus and theatrical man, almost unknown in

civic life and without any known opinions on gov-

ernmental affairs.

However, he is a man and she a woman.

that is the answer.

I judge

* * *

A COMING EVENT

A Nation dinner will be given the end of this

month at the City Club to commemorate the tenth

year of Villard's editorship of that admirable week-

ly. If Jim Tully is to be one of the speakers, as

is announced, that alone will be worth the price

charged for the dinner.

By the way, in a recent number of the American

Mercury he writes of another visit to San Quentin

penitentiary. For some reason or other he makes

a rather nasty attack on Jack London. They have

written from similar rough experience in life, both

very virile. One is an anarchist, or at least an ex-

treme individualist, while the other was a Socialist.

Possibly that explains the unfortunate assault.

* * *

I'M FROM MISSOURI

Judging from talk by the average person, there

is not much belief that Doheny, Fall, Stewart, Sin-

clair, Burns or others of the oil `"malefactors of

great wealth" will serve a term in jail. There seems

to be a dubious feeling regarding our courts as a

whole. Chief Justice Taft's biting criticisms of our

administration of justice, especially the distinction

between rich and poor defendants, seems to have

sunk into the consciousness of men and women.

Also, Francis Heney's saying that "you can't con-

vict a million dollars" is increasing the general dis-

trust. Along this line it might be well to mention

that in the last issue of Bob Shuler's magazine there

is an article with local facts regarding the miscar-

riage of justice that is no more outspoken than

what might be found in The Open Forum. He sure-

ly shows how there is one kind of justice for the

powerful and another for the poor.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I

believe this government cannot endure permanently

half-slave and half-free-Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Cutting's Plan

Editor The Open Forum:

Being an aspirant for the prize offered by Mr.

Henry C. Cutting "to anyone who will point out to an

unbiased committee" any defect in his "plan to make

all prosperous and happy," I respectfully ask you to

publish the following response in your paper:

Mr. Henry C. Cutting's plan for making "prosper-

ity continuous, so that all may have plenty and be

happy,' looks and is fine. That his description of

conditions under capitalism is correct canont be dis-

puted fairly.. Government control of bank credit

might even be more effective than the Sherman

Anti-trust law and the Railroad Commission's rate

fixing. I freely admit that it should be adopted,

that the people should no longer allow their Consti-

tution to be violated in this or anyother matter.

Bank credit regulation would no doubt stabilize

money and make living conditions far better than

they are now.

Nevertheless, there is to me one glaring defect

in it, and if I can make it appear to you as it ap-

pears to me, you will vote the prize to me.

No doubt you have read or heard of all the strikes

that are such a prominent part of the history of

capitalist countries. Not long ago there was the

great general strike in England, to speak of one

foreign country only. Then the many strikes in

America. And you know that workers don't strike

unless there are good reasons for it. Wages may

be too low, conditions very bad, such as neglect of

companies to safeguard the lives of their workers.

Now such facts are not the result, as a rule, of em-

ployers not being rich enough to make them differ-

ent. They are the result of the employers' desire

to make still more money.

Mr. Cutting's plan will make it easier than now

for people who have personal property or real estate

to give as security for money they need to work

with, as farmers, or to carry on business with. The

appraising will be done, not by appraisers in the

pay of the banks, but by government assessors, and

bankers will be practically compelled to loan to

people who can show good security. Hard times

will be avoided. Crises caused by big banks mak-

ing money tight will be prevented. Then there will

be steadier activities in every line of work. But-

employers' desire to increase their profits will not

be changed. `They will keep on speeding up their

workers, installing labor-saving machinery, violating

laws, cutting wages, discharging all the workers thus

rendered unnecessary. Unemployment will therefore

continue, and strikes, and many workers will not

enjoy prosperity.

Mr. Cutting should add to his plan regulation of

wages and compulsory employment, with a scheme

to gradually shorten the work day as production al-

lows or requires it. Minus this addition, his plan

will not accomplish its aim. With it, it seems to

me that it would, especially if he adds still another

essential, viz, the use of the enormous sums of

money now criminally wasted on generals, war

forces, and war, in making fine roads, parks and

additional educational facilities.

S. GARBORG.

Construction, Not War

Editor The Open Forum:

When reading a recent issue of The Open Forum

I was very much interested in the article by Kate

Crane-Gartz on the San Francisco unemployment

situation and the definite plan presented to the City

Fathers by a Mr. Levin. The plan was to provide

for the idle through the public works for which a

bond issue was voted recently.

It came to me that when the ruling class wishes

to provide work they do it in the shape of a war.

They study the psychology of the people and then

proceed. First they invent a slogan, next they sup-

ply an objective and lastly they get rapid action.

To offset this practice, we must have some construc-

tive measure. Mr. Levin has pointed the way.

The majority of people want peace, so the psychol-

ogy is in our favor. I now suggest a slogan: `"Mil-

lions for construction and not one cent for war."

MARGARET B. MOORE.

Steep regions cannot be surmounted except with

winding paths.-Goethe.

Hapgoods Out on Bail

Powers Hapgood, miner and leader of insurgent

miners, and his wife, Mary Donovan Hapgood, who

were arrested at Pittston, Pa., March 4, and charged

with "inciting to riot" solely for the offense of wear-

ing arm bands mourning "the death of free speech,"

were released on February 6 under bail of $5000

each.

The Hapgoods and another miner, John Licata,

were arrested near the Pittston armory, where a

meeting to raise funds for the defense of Sam Bonita

and two other Pittston miners accused of the murder

of Frank Agati, aid to District President Cappelini

of the United Mine Workers of America, had been

forbidden by the authorities. Licata was released

shortly after under only $1000 bail, but Judge Benja-

min R. Jones of the Court of Common Pleas at

Wilkes Barre, who freed Licata, insisted on holding

the Hapgoods on the $5000 bail, even though the

district attorney had asked for only $4000 for each.

Judge Jones set the bail at this figure despite the

testimony of Capt. William A. Clark of the state

police, who testified that the crowd at the armory

numbered hardly over forty people and that the Hap-

goods made no attempt to address them. He testi-

fied that the Hapgoods told him they were wearing

the arm bands as a means of notifying the people

that no meeting could be held and that under ordi-

nary circumstances he would not have arrested them

at all.

Judge Jones however exhibited a vindictive atti-

tude toward the Hapgoods throughout the hearing.

When told that they had been residents of Wilkes

Barre since last January and that Hapgood was a

member of the Mine Workers' Local No. 5, Judge

Jones interrupted to ask them if they intended to

remain in Wilkes Barre. Hapgood answered "yes."

The judge then fixed the bail for each at $2500 on

the charge preferred and $2500 as an additional bond

to keep the peace, intimating that this would not

have been done if they had promised to leave the

region. When questioned by defense attorneys as to

why he made such a difference between their case

and that of Licata, who was arrested under exactly

the same circumstances, he replied, "I have my own

reasons for that."

The case will go to the grand jury in March in

an attempt to indict for inciting to riot.

After the. hearing, Robert W. Dunn, a member of

the Executive Committee of the American Civil Lib-

erties Union, who went to Wilkes Barre to arrange

for their defense and bail, issued the following state-

ment:

"Our sole interest here is to secure freedom of

assembly for any organization or group denied that

right, whether it be the Bonita-Mileski-Mendola De-

fense Committee, the Save the Union Committee or

the administration of the district union represented

by Mr. Cappelleni. We believe that the suppression

of opinion makes for violence and that social prog-

ress is best obtained by unrestricted freedom of

opinion.

"The arrest and detention of Mr. and Mrs. Hap-

good was an unwarranted act of suppression. The

charges against them are absurd and outrageous.

We shall defend them to the limit in the courts."

Villard Anniversary

The Tenth Anniversary Committee of Nation Read-

ers of Los Angeles has announced the program for

the Nation dinner, in honor of Oswald Garrison Vil-

lard's ten years' service as editor of The Nation and

his own fifty-sixth birthday, to be held at the Los

Angeles City Club, 833 South Spring Street, March

Siecal Oc oOMe. wl.

Five-minute talks will be made by Albert Rhys

Williams, who was asked to speak at the New York

Nation dinner, but declined on account of his trip

to the Pacific Coast; Jim Tully; Samuel Ornitz, au-

thor of "Yankee Passional;" M. M. Mangasarian;

Thora Baugaard and others. There will be music

by Max Amsterdam, violinist; Senorita Maria Luisa

Bernal and the Golden State Quartet, singers of

Negro spirituals.

Aaron Riche is general chairman. Tickets may

be obtained at the Civil Liberties Union office, 1022

California Building.

2 :

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"UNPROVIDED MOTHERS" IN RUSSIA

By CLARA TAYLOR WARNE

Children born out of conventional wedlock present

a problem in any form of society and with any peo-

ple, and various methods of dealing with it are be-

ing developed, varying, from time to time, with the

changed attitudes. Old Russia had its problem, prin-

cipally presented in the form of foundlings, babies

abandoned by their mothers, usually peasant girls

and those in domestic service. The government

maintained foundling homes in great numbers in

order to prevent deaths of infants in the streets.

Inadequate care, coupled with the poor conditions

of delivery of babies made for a high infant mortal-

ity rate. The unfortunate survivor was branded for

life and faced an almost insurmountable handicap.

The New Russia makes an entirely different ap-

proach to the problem. To quote Dr. Vera Lebedeva,

head of the Department for the Protection of

Mothers and Children for all Russia, "We consider

mothers' and infants' welfare as a task of the state;

motherhood we consider a social function." This

attitude prevails in the work done with the "unpro-

vided" mother and in the care of foundlings.

First, as to the foundlings under the new regime.

I found a definite form of propaganda against the

practice of abandonment. I heard public lectures

against the custom in Moscow, which were attended

by many working women. There are exhibits in the

various museums where booklets and pamphlets are

distributed. In line with the plan of education by

visualization there is a striking poster widely shown.

On one side it depicts a girl abandoning her child

and being accosted by a Government nurse. The

other side shows the nurse in company with the

mother and her child, calling the attention of the

mother to a large bulletin board on which is posted

the following statute:

"Any woman who has conceived a child out of wed-

lock can secure the support of her child if she will

do the following: In the sixth month of her preg-

nancy she should publish in the local news organ

for two consecutive weeks her name and address,

the name and address of the father of her child, and

the time when she became pregnant. If the man

named does not protest the publication the parent-

hood becomes an established fact and the man is

made to support his child."

Printed below, under the highly colored pictures,

is the following inscription: "Don't Throw Away the

Child, We Will Get the Father to Support It."

I found in Odessa, where I had trained as a nurse

years ago, that the foundling homes of the old order

had been continued, but improved, and are now be-

ing conducted with a view, to developing the child

in the best possible way. There is a placing-out

department with a nurse in charge. She visits

nursing mothers in the nearby villages. If one of

the mothers lives near a baby welfare center, and

she has more milk than her own baby consumes, a

foundling is placed in her home. Not only is the

_foundling given breast milk while it is needed, but

it has also the advantage of a home atmosphere.

Ten rubles a.month are paid to the mother. If there-

after the child is adopted, concessions in the way

of land are granted to the family. One of the stipu-

lated regulations is that the infant must be brought

regularly to the child welfare center for examina-

tion. One of the nurses told me that ninety per

cent of their foundlings had been so placed, and re-

ported co-operation on the part of the foster mothers.

The work is only two years old, so no full report of

its success is yet obtainable. All the workers, how-

ever, appeared enthusiastic as to the prospects. It

must be said that the children in the foundling

homes who had not yet been placed, even though

they receive the best medical attention available,

looked. pitiable. It was enough to spur those in

charge to greater efforts at placement and the pre-

vention of abandonment. The work in all Russia is

on the same plan, I was informed. It is the hope

of Russia that as the homes for unprovided mothers

grow in increasing numbers, foundling homes will

become unnecessary and will be done away with.

As to the "unprovided" mothers the same general

attitude can be noted, viz., the mother and child are

units of social value to be conserved. Rated in the

above categories are abandoned wives with children

and the unmarried mothers. No distinction is made

as to either group. There is a definite effort to make

such mothers economically independent. Homes have

been established under the Department for the Pro-

tection of Mothers and Children.

conducting the work in the large cities while the

EERSTE ASI 9 OT ONLI L" TE:

Local units are |

national department is sending workers into the

smaller places. These "homes" are training stations,

where both the mother and her child are provided

for, and at the same time the mother is taught a

trade or occupation. Here she is helped to fit her-

self for a life work and is also being trained in the

proper methods of caring for her child. The mothers

are admitted to these "homes" upon their own ap-

plication and not by direction or order.

I met Tovarishch Fayvenova, director of the Lenin-

grad Community Home No. 2 for Unprovided Mothers

and Children. An old school revolutionist with a

prison record, she is a Communist who carries her

idealism to the specific work at hand. A most in-

teresting character, she is a pioneer in this work.

Being a mother of four children, she knows the prob-

lems of motherhood at first hand. Also she is in fact

a mother to the fifty young women and their babies

in the home. As she described the plan to me, they

are making an attempt to train the mothers in the

occupations for which they have an _ inclination.

Take, for instance, the peasant girls who come from

the small villages. Ordinarily, they have had little

or no training and most of them are physically

strong and healthy, and are thus fitted for work such

as the laundry offers them. On the other hand, if

a mother shows special aptitude in the handling and

treatment of babies she may be entrusted with the

care of one of the nurseries and thus develop into a

practical nurse . In many cases, such mothers, after

the three-year training period, are sent out to estab-

lish nurseries or take charge of nurseries already

established in the small villages. They are paid

salaries by the Government. Other girls who are

good with the needle go into the needle-work fac-

tories after receiving training in the "home" shops.

After three years they are considered good workers

and have no difficulty in getting located in some one

of the many factories and shops in Russian cities.

A converted tenement house has been subdivided

into dormitories for the mothers and nurseries for

the babies . Also in the same building are workshops

with dressmaking, children's clothing, overall, em-

broidery and laundry departments. Some mothers

who have graduated from the home return to work

in these shops. The work is so divided that: the

nursing mothers are put.in charge of the nurseries,

thus receiving a training in child welfare under the

direction of a trained resident nurse and a pedia-

trician who calls regularly. The training also in-

cludes practical work in preparing proper diets and

in housekeeping. Later, these mothers take up some

branch of work that is being done in the home shops

and work eight hours a day. There is a communal

purse and a communal kitchen. This home is more

than self-supporting and when a mother leaves she

is given her share of the earnings during her stay.

The period of training is usually three years. This

home has been in operation since 1922. The spirit

of the place is excellent and some of the mothers

have returned to board there when the opportunity

offered. Social activities of every character are car-

ried on and classes are organized for training along

other lines, such as academic subjects, reading and

even music lessons for those who show a talent.

Adequate records are kept of the mothers and babies

and also of the affairs of the place. There is a

"House Soviet," which is the governing body, deter-

mining questions of policy and direction. I spent a

whole half day with "Comrade" Fayvenova and the

girls. I had to answer their many questions rela-

tive to the treatment of mothers and children in

the United States.

In Moscow I visited a "home" of similar type, also

in Kharkov, and one in Odessa. None of these in-

stitutions was in as good condition and running or-

der as that in Leningrad. The latter is generally

referred to as the "model" home. However, the

same plan of work is being followed in all the in-

stitutions, although the others are not yet self-sup-

porting and are operated under local budget. Dr.

Lebedeva advised me that Russia had 107 such

homes in operation on January 1, 1926. In passing,

one of the most favorable impressions is the attitude

of "right" on the part of the mother, whether mar-

ried or not, and the duty of society toward her. No

feeling of charity or philanthropy is present. The

mother is considered as contributing to society and

the latter is responding `in kind, a sense of mutual

aid.

`(Concluded Next Week)

encarta ere

NEWS AND VIEWS

By P. D. NOEL |

A MAN WITH NERVE

I met Bob Shuler once, some years ago at the

City Club, have never listened to him over the radio,

but have been reading his magazine for some months,

Anyone who fails to read his little monthly is miss.

ing much, and cannot possibly keep in touch with

local public affairs.

Ordinarily we have very little in common, he being

a fundamentalist and steeped in religious superstj.

tions, while my philosophy is materialistic and |

label myself an atheist. But here is a man with un.

limited courage engaged in exposing crookednegs

and evil in a manner which deserves the highest

commendation. Possibly his statements are not al

ways facts, but when a man publishes names over

and over in connection with civic rottenness, laying

himself open to prosecution for libel and possibly

physical violence, it stands to reason that there must

be much truth in what he says.

His March number comes out openly with the _

name of Von KleinSmid, president of the Univer.

sity of Southern California, as having testified to

the good character of a man who was defendant in

one of the filthiest cases ever before our courts. Von

KleinSmid's testimony and that of other "promi.

nent citizens" was sufficient to permit the escape

of the degenerate. Police Commissioner Webster,

Marco Hellman, District Attorney Keyes and ``Aimee"

are regularly on his list, while judges, public offi- ;

cials and prominent citizens are openly accused in

varying degrees.

* * *

A MORAL OBLIGATION

While the lives lost in the breaking of the dam

in the San Francisquito Canyon cannot be brought

back, much can be done towards alleviating any fur.

ther suffering by compensating the families of the

dead and compensating those whose lands and prop-

erty were injured or destroyed.

It is possible that some unavoidable cause, "an

act of God," may be shown to have produced the

catastrophe. With a private corporation this would

be sufficient for denying responsibility and dam-

ages. But a public body should recognize a moral

accountability and remedy the damage to the extent 0x00B0

that money can. This is in consonance with the

idea of social insurance.

We all instinctively agree that the community as

a whole should see that the individual should not

suffer from accidents and other unavoidable causes.

This can be seen every day in jury trials where

public service corporations are being sued for dam-

ages as results of accidents. The judge will instruct

the jury that it cannot consider the ability of the

defendant to pay in assessing damages. However,

in the jury room the ability of the company or in-

dividual to stand damages will be discussed directly

or camouflaged.

Los Angeles' dam caused the calamity. She is a

very rich city. Therefore, she should pay gener-

ously, not through the Water Department, but by

the city as a whole.

; * * *

REACTIONARY ATTEMPTS

Ordinarily one would not look for much of inter:

est in perusing the official record of the doings of

the Legislature. It is even less thrilling than the _

Congressional Record. But just a skimming over

the bills introduced will show numerous attempts

to sneak through measures for the undoing of much

progressive and humane legislation.

One which seems to be without excuse was for a re

peal of the act which permits the asexualization of

inmates of insane asylums and other institutions for

the subnormal. Why anyone should wish for this

unfortunate class of humans to breed is incompre-

hensible.

* * *

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

The defeat of the woman mayor of Seattle for re-

election is another example of the lack of solidarity

among women, and the possession of it by the men

when their liberty or license is involved. Ags a rule

the women are divided politically to as great an

extent as is the case with the working classes. On

certain issues women have an entirely different

psychology from men, and the same is true with the

workers when confronted with the possessing

classes on wage and economic issues.

Mrs. Landes was a rather high type of woman,

with considerable vision and a level head. Her ad-

ministration had been so much cleaner and honester

(Continued on Page 3).