Open forum, vol. 6, no. 33 (August, 1929)

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"THE OPEN FORUM

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties: -Milton

--

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 17, 19 29

No. 33

ee

"A Tale of Two Cities"'

This week we have seen family and friends off to

urope on three great ocean liners, Leviathan, Ma-

jestic, Mauretania, and can never cease to marvel ai

these floating Woolworth buildings; so big and un-

wieldy that it takes a fleet of little tugs pushing

and pulling, at both ends, to get them in and out

of their berths. If they could only park on the bias,

as automobiles do in some well regulated towns, it

would save hours of time and thousands of dollars.

Now the beautiful new Bremen that we saw in

the harbor at Southampton has arrived in New York

and made the fastest record of any ship by nine

hours! Fifty thousand people a day secured passes

to visit it We also visited the oldest boat afloat-

the old English convict ship, built in 1790 in India,

tonnage 1,100 in contrast to the Majestic of 58,000.

Twenty-one million people have visited this house

of torture since it was raised from its watery bed

in Australia, in 1890, where it had lain for five years.

The only purpose it serves now is to remind us

that, wretched as our prison system is today, we

have improved some in the last hundred years over

the record of cruelty which this ship-misnamed

"Success'"-tells the world of today. But the riots

in the state penitentiaries of Dannemora and Auburn

aud now Leavenworth would seem to indicate that

there is plenty of room for improvement yet.

Ossining, N. Y. has asked for armed cruisers to

be on call in case of a riot in Sing Sing prison. At

Al-

teady they are ordering investigations of unbear-

able conditions, and perhaps prison reformers will

wake up and take another start. Auburn was built

in 1816 for 1,200 prisoners, and now houses 1,700.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is just now

very much occupied with the Gastonia textile strike.

Today's paper, July 29, says that when wages were

reduced, the owner, a man named Forstmann, sailed

`way on his private yacht, so of course somebody

has to pay.

Our most interesting experience today was a visit

'o the Community Church, to listen to John Haynes

Holmes, than whom there is no finer spirit in New

York. He is as devoted to the cause of human

freedom as was Debs. He spoke of the things that

should interest us most today-War and Peace. War

must be eliminated before it eliminates us. The

Kellogg treaty promises that war shall be no more

`an international policy-so of course we can now

tp all war paraphernalia. He said the greatest

thing that has happened today is the election of

Ramsay MacDonald. The peaceful revolution has

irived in England. The Russian revolution, while

ot 0 peaceful, was forced to be that way-much

A deplore any use of force, for any cause what-

fan Even we, so Hoover admits, are spending

fe mane aS much now on force as we did before

Dr Ae So why put all the blame on Russia?

a - asked everybody to refuse to fight no

104000 what me pretext. Also, he mentioned the

Ap Pere store who signed the Ponsonby peti-

ae war in England some time ago.

ee Hs hope for a revolution in this country;

hier pr et srow fat and burst, as Rome did. We

Tei: pen nake capital, but have not learned

ie ute it, me Holmes is a great friend of the

ie The organist, ushers and many of

egation are colored.

a Chicago, which still enjoys the reputa-

Can be ie the dirtiest city in the world. Nothing

unity re disgraceful to a so-called civilized com-

ie the wrecks of lodgings strewn along

One tis : Which we arrive from New York. No

tileg init care about back alleys or rubbish-

as ots as a setting for human beings who

` rorie of the world. It simply chokes

: a time I come to town, I visit the

ce, and they remember me, but forget

ein

me immediately. "No appropriations" for that!

They are too busy filling in the lake, building civic

auditoriums and skyscrapers, to think of the degra-

dation that squalor means to human beings. Why

can't they solve the unemployment problem every-

where existent, and at the same time have decent,

not to say beautiful surroundings, as other, less

prosperous, cities are doing? Even in war-torn

countries in Hurope, they are doing away with chari-

ties and doles, putting money into circulation from

the hands that have a right to earn it, and thereby

benefiting everybody. Steffens wrote, "The Shame

of the Cities;" well, they are all shamefully and

disgracefully mismanaged. Instead of these private-

ly owned railroads paying huge dividends, they

should be made to keep their rights-of-way and sta-

tions. in order.'

In the Chicago papers I notice that the State of

California, represented in this instance by Judge

Emmett Wilson of Los Angeles, would send a young

expectant mother, 22 years old, (stepmother of six

children) and her husband to San Quentin for five

years, for the crime of home-brewing. Thus does

the prohibition act operate to break up families!

Fortunately there were some clubwomen to protest

against some of the injustices of our Courts of

Justice.

How wonderful is Anita Whitney and all those

associated with her in their protest against war!

Within their constitutional rights always-but tne

backward state of California, with all its essay con-

tests on the Constitution, does not know yet what it

really means, and is still trying to jail-ideas, as was

done in the dark ages. And just now, too, when all

over the world, similar protests were taking place!

The only answer of the state is the policeman's club

and the gun! What a blind, stupid performance on

their part, if they really want peace in this world!

Only in Germany, where 300,000 people took part in

the demonstration, were they undisturbed in their

protest against war, on this fifteenth anniversary

of the most colossal blunder that statesmen ever

perpetrated on a gullible people.

And now Commander McNutt of the American

Legion wants us to go on with our cruiser-building,

notwithstanding the Kellogg agreement not to use

force as a national policy. The President takes the

trouble to explain why we should stop squandering

any more money on machinery meant to wipe out

the human race, which question we settled way back

in 1917. McNutt evidently does not know yet what

the legions of America were fighting for.

Another depressing sight is a fleet of defunct war

boats anchored in the Hudson near West Point,

similar to those at San Diego. Just why, for eleven

years after the war, should they be left as a grue-

some reminder of that barbarous period in our his-

tory? They never were any good, and never can be

in the future. Blowing them up would make a good

"movie." West Point and Annapolis may also be

abandoned as schools where the art of killing is

taught, and transformed into schools where the art

of living will be the thing sought for.

Chicago, July 30. K. C-G.

Mooney "Celebrates"

13th Year in Prison

SAN QUENTIN, Calif-(FP)-Tom Mooney has

just "celebrated" the thirteenth anniversary of his

imprisonment in San Quentin penitentiary. `Per-

haps," he says, "now that the thirteenth year has

passed, the jinx that has kept me here will give up."

Meanwhile Governor Young is at his summer

home, presumably reading the testimony in the

Mooney-Billings case; but no word has so far come

from him.

U.S. Police Lawlessness

Marks War Anniversary

NEW YORK-(FP)-Radical demonstrations on

the fifteenth anniversary of the opening of the world

war were met by elaborate police preparations not

only in the Huropean capitals, but in the United

States where meetings were raided, speakers arrest-

ed and parades broken up in many cities.

Armed with night sticks and tear gas bombs, and

riding down the unarmed demonstrators with motor-

cycles and yellow-painted detective squad cars, the

Chicago police made August 1 memorable to its

citizens by brutally and needlessly breaking up a

peaceful gathering of Communists and other radi-

cals come to make their annual international protest

against imperialist war.

An old woman was felled by a husky detective

who swung a heavy banana stem that had come

handy to his grasp. Girls were bruised by snorting

motorcycles. Tear gas burned the noses and throats

of the victims of police lynching spirit.

Communist demonstrations in New York were

broken up by police, although the workers were

orderly. In Pittsburgh thirty Communists were

arrested in many meetings. Although the police

superintendent had granted permits for Communist

party meetings, he changed his mind later and

ordered general raids_to break up all meetings. At

McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb, the mayor re-

fused a permit for a demonstration. At Wheeling,

W. Va., police announced that all meetings would

be suppressed. In New Kensington and other indus-

trial suburbs of Pittsburgh police interfered with

demonstrations.

In Boston eight workers were arrested and scores

beaten by a squad of fifty policemen who brandished

clubs indiscriminately. Many protests were made

against their brutality. More than 1,000 police were

put on reserve duty in preparation for the demon-

stration. Superintendent of Police Crowley divided

his force into rifle units, riot squads and machine

gun detachments and instructed them to "go the

Hmit:" hey vdidk

If the police had remained quiet and permitted

the customary remarks on the anniversary of the

world war's outbreak to be made, nothing would

have happened and hundreds of innocent curiosity

seekers, mistaken for participants, would today have

whole skins and skulls instead of nursing bruises

and the beginning of a long hatred against Ameri-

can police and justice.

Misdemeanor Charge in

Children's Camp Case

An additional charge of failure to obtain a license

has been placed against the seven adults arrested

at the Workers Children's Summer Camp in San

Bernardino County, August 2. At the time of arrest

the defendants were charged with felony for dis-

playing a red flag under section 408a of the Penal

Code, and conspiracy to violate said section, and re-

leased August 6 under 1,000 bond each. Their pre-

liminary hearing on the felony charge and also their

trial on the misdemeanor charge was to have been

held August 16. Leo Gallagher of the International

Labor Defense is the attorney in the case and bail

was furnished by the American Civil

Union.

Liberties

O! Start a Revolution

O! start a revolution, somebody!

Not to get the money

But to lose it forever.

O! start a revolution, somebody!

Not to install the working classes

But to abolish the working elasses forever

And have a world of men.-D. H. Lawrence.

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

INGO: DaLteeerecssie tee Gosce cocoa eee ssueccseresceeece Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Fanny Bixby Spencer Doremus Scudder

Leo Gallagher Ethelwyn Mills P. D. Noel

Lew Head

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

ver 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. 18, 1924, at

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 38, 1879.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1929

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.

Important Publications

The American Civil Liberties Union has for distri-

bution five pamphlets and one leaflet dealing with

cases and problems of the first importance, all of

which may be obtained by sending 50 cents to the

Union, 100 Fifth Avenue, New York City. These

" .

pubiications are?

Free Speech 1928-29-the annual report of the

Civil Liberties Union.

Blue Coats and Red-a tabulated report of the

official attitude of American chiefs of police toward

those they call `red.'

Alien Pacifists Not Wanted-the issues involved

in the United States Supreme Court decision against

the application of Mme. Rosika Schwimmer for

naturalization.

The Case of Mary Ware Dennett-the story of

the woman who was sentenced to pay $300 because

she wrote "The Sex Side of Life."

Pardon Tom Mooney-Mooney's own pamphlet on

his case with the documents; published by Tom

Mooney Molders Defense Committee.

Help Free Mooney and Billings-a leaflet briefly

setting forth the facts of their conviction on per-

jured testimony and the efforts to secure pardons

for them,

Any of the above may be purchased separately

for 10 cents, except the annual report and the

Mooney--Billings leaflet, which are free.

Works in Vain to Get

Communists Deported

Uncovering the activity of a Labor spy attended

the successful defense of a member of the Workers

(Communist) Party against deportation in the

United States District Court for Southern New York

on July 26.

Federal Judge William Bondy ruled that the Im-

migration Bureau did not prove its charge that

Rade Radicovich of Arizona belonged to an organiza-

tion which aimed to overthrow the Government.

Inasmuch as Radicovich was considered by the

judge to have belonged to the Workers Party by

virtue of money contributed thereto, this decision

is equivalent to the judicial dictum that members

of the Workers Party can not be deported merely

for such membership.

The Labor spy who fomented deportation action

against Radicovich and John Voich (who was held

non-deportable several weeks ago for the same rea-

son) was shown during the hearing on Radicovich's

case to be J. E. Wilkie, formerly of the bureau of

investigation of the Department of Justice and now

employed by several large mining companies in

Arizona to ferret out radical activity. It was Wilkie

who brought complaints against Radicovich and

Voich to the district director of immigration for

Arizona.

Radicovich will be released from Ellis Island,

where he has been confined since the deportation

proceedings began, on August 5, unless the Govern-

ment brings new charges against him. These new

charges would be based on Radicovich's alleged be-

liefs in the overthrow of all governments.

Radicovich was defended by Carol Weiss King, in

behalf of the International Labor Defense.

General Sandino Hailed

MERIDA, YUCATAN-(FP)-General Sandino,

leader of the independence movement in Nicaragua,

who drew wide attention when his ragged army of

rebels fought the Yankee marines for a full year,

is in Merida hoping to return to his native country

before long. The v*ry young General Washington

of Nicaragua is hopeful that his cause will arouse

other Latin American nations to join in resisting

the imperialist aggression of the United States Gov-

ernment. Sandino was enthusiastically greeted when

he landed in Vera Cruz. Shortly after he placed a

wreath on the tomb of the Mexican cadets killed by

order of President Wilson in the bombardment of

Vera Cruz in 1914.

Shelley Club

The next meeting of the Shelley Club will be held

on Wednesday, August 14, at 1 P. M., in Turnverein

Hall, 986 West Washington. J. W. Gillette, presi-

dent, Musicians' Union, will speak on "The Truth

About Equity and the Musicians' Struggle."

Forum Singer Pleases

Assunta Bosio, pupil of Pierre Gordon of Santa

Monica, delighted the Open Forum audience at

Music-Art hall Sunday evening with her singing of

"Stizzoso, mio Stizzoso" (Pergolesi), "Nymphs and

Shepherds" (Purcell) and "Staccato Polka'

(Mulder).

7:30 P. M.

WHY IS TOM MOONEY STILL IN PRISON?

Judge Franklin A. Griffin

(Who Sentenced Mooney to Hang) (c)

Will Answer This Question at a Mass Meeting at

Trinity Auditorium

Friday Evening, August 9th

Other Speakers will include: Father Robert E. Lucey, of Long Beach; Rev. E. P. Ryland,

Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles Church Federation; Ignatius McCarty,

Federal Investigator in the Mooney case; Joseph Ford, Attorney.

and Fremont Older.

Admission Free

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

Music Art Hall

233 So. Broadway

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7:45 O'CLOCK

Aug. 11-IS THE TENDENCY IN RUSgi4 10.

WARD CAPITALISM OR COMMUNISM? py Pre

Evans, well known speaker and writer. This ig gy

of the most vital questions concerning the Sovie

Republic that could possibly be raised, ang tr

Evans will attempt to give it a careful answer.

Aug. 18-PRESENT DAY TRENDS IN Lagop

EDUCATION by Kate Richards O'Hare, who hag

been connected with a Labor college for seyeyy

years and who contemplates starting an institutig,

of this kind here on the coast. Along what lines j

should the workers be educated today? How ep

the work be accomplished most effectively?

ING. The second anniversary of the execution of

these two Labor martyrs will be fittingly celebrate

at this time. Addresses will be made by Piotr

Cane and others. Let us make this one of the grea {

nights at the Forum. Q

h

a

Aug. 25-SACCO-VANZETTI MEMORIAL Mapp | 0x00B0

q

W

God honors me when I work |

He loves me when I sing.-Tagore. t

eer ti

Coming Events .

LOS ANGELES BRANCH of the I. W. W,, 4

Bryson Building, Second and Spring Streets, free t

reading room open every day; business meeting |

every Tuesday, 7:30 P. M.

MOONEY-BILLINGS BRANCH, I. L. D., business

and educational meetings every first and thir

Thursday, at Rooms 113 and 114 Stimson Building

Third and Spring streets.

FREE WORKERS' FORUM, lectures and discus

sion every Monday night at 8 o'clock, Libertariad

Center, 800 North Evergreen Avenue, corner Winter

(B car); dance and entertainment last Saturday iD

month.

SOCIALIST PARTY, headquarters 430 Douglas

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

County Central Committee meets second and fourth

Mondays.

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD WELFARE

ASSOCIATION, 107 Marchessault, opposite the

Plaza, open forum, Sundays, 3 p. m.

a

ee

Workingmen!

Protect yourselves and your families in case

of Sickness, Accident and Death. |

JOIN

The Workmen's Sick and Death

Benefit Fund.

Founded 1884, now. represented with 344

Branches in 28 States of the Union having

60,000 Members.

Information:-F. Koehler, Sec. Br. 202, 440 i |

41st St. L. A., or E. Wirth 424 So. Broadway;

Room 700, Los Angeles.

le

MR. BENT

Private Teacher in General English Bre e

WAshington 6806 2879 Sunset Pla

Los Angeles

ee

INSURANCE

Fire and Automobile

Best Board Companies

P. D. NOEL

301 WEST AVENUE 43

GArfield 4338

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c.L. U. Lawyers Print

Brief in Mooney Case

A printed brief, Memoranda Re Principles Under-

lying Bxecutive Clemency, in the Matter of the

Application of Thomas J. Mooney for Pardon, has

been submitted to Governor Cc. CC.' Young by three

Los Angeles attorneys, John Beardsley, 610 Rowan

puilding; John C. Packard, Chester Williams Build-

ing, and Clore Warne, Union Bank Building. John

peardsley is chairman and Messrs. Packard and

Warne are members of the Executive Committee,

american Civil Liberties Union, Southern California

Branch.

A citer

Honorable C. C. Young,

covernor of California,

Los Angeles, California.

My Dear Governor Young:

May I personally supplement briefly the printed

memorandum on the subject of a pardon for Thomas

J, Mooney, submitted to you under date of July 26,

1929, by Messrs. Clore Warne, John C. Packard and

myself?

I realize that the problem is a serious one to you,

and I have the deepest respect for your purpose to

decide the matter justly and fairly not only to

Mooney, but to the whole people of the State. I am

much more concerned, as a citizen, in the hope that

the State shall do justice, than in the personal for-

tune of Mooney. In other words, it is not nearly

so important, in my opinion, that Mooney should be

released, as that California should clear itself, be-

fore the world, of the charge of continuing the im-

prisonment of one of its citizens to whose conviction

perjured testimony is definitely shown to have con-

tributed. If it be argued that there was sufficient

evidence, disregarding the perjury, to warrant con-

viction, that would not affect the fact that Mooney's -

tial was unfair. Judge Griffin would have granted

anew trial, after he learned of the perjury, if he

had had the power. The law prevented his doing

so. The judge is powerless. But the State of Cali-

fornia is not powerless. It can grant a new trial,

through the pardoning power vested in its Governor.

There is no statute of limitations on a murder

charge. Mooney can be tried again at any time on

the charge of murdering one of the other victims

of the Preparedness Day explosion. If a jury can

be convinced of his guilt he can be convieted and

hanged. Thus it is clear that justice need not be

cheated by Mooney's release, if in fact there is

siflicient honest evidence to establish his guilt.

My main purpose in addressing you is to try and

point out that in a case like this it is the duty, and

un merely the privilege, of the Governor to exercise

his pardoning power. The State must do justice.

The Governor is the only agent through whom the

State can act.

May I add, with all respect, that the personal be-

lief of the Governor as to the guilt or innocence of

Mooney Should not be made the basis of decision of

`his important problem. `The position of the District

Attorney of San Francisco is a different one. If he

'elieves Moonley "guilty it will be his duty, after

ame pardon, to proceed against him on another

ee Would not that procedure afford a

me a9 of determining the prisoner's guilt or

ment ra than to submit that question to the judg-

be the afi Single citizen, even though that citizen

ett ere of the State? I do not overlook

O nays hat some -of the witnesses may have died

tient a be available, and that it may be more

a0 to aie than it was twelve or thirteen years

should 1 a the necessary proof. Still, that fact

not fs be given undue weight. The State, and

about ae ey, is responsible for the delay in bringing

other trial,

ae see must be fully satisfied from the evi-

tal was * pats Submitted to you that Mooney's

Clearly ty per eully unfair. If that is true, it seems

ooney's 3 obligation of the State to terminate

Those "dit oman without further delay.

Cause top 10 believe Mooney guilty can have no just

lunity to it They will have ample oppor-

Ose of ae that another trial should be had.

Mooney sho em, if any there be, who hold that

trai) Wd be kept in prison whether or not his

Wa ; ` : `

8 fair, are entitled to no consideration at

We welcome communications from our read-

ers for this page. But to be acceptable letters

must be pointed and brief-not over 500 words,

and if they are 400 or less they will stand a

better show of publication. Also they must be

typewritten-our printers can't take time to de-

cipher hieroglyphics.

Page Governor Young

HonOn (c),.vouns,

Governor of the State of California,

Playa Del Rey, Calif.

We respectfully request that you do your duty as

a man and as Governor of California granting imme-

diate and unconditional release to Mooney and Bill-

ings. You know and we know and all enlightened

people throughout the entire world know and have

known ever since 1917 that Mooney and Billings

were framed and convicted on perjured testimony.

Under such circumstances their imprisonment since

1917 without even a new trial places the Mooney

and Billings case so far as outrageous mockery of

justice is concerned exactly side by side with that

of Sacco and Vanzetti and other similar ones, some

of which are even at this moment in the making on

a larger scale than ever before, by. which we par-

ticularly refer to the Gastonia case where it is pro-

posed to send a score of organizers of the National

Textile Workers Union to long terms of imprison-

ment and the electric chair. So far as the word

pardon is concerned it is up to the State of Cali-

fornia to ask pardon of Mooney and Billings for

the heinous crime which the State has committed

against them and in what little degree it now can

to compensate them in some fitting manner for the

thirteen years which the State of California has

stolen out of their lives. The next thing to do is

to get the perjurers and those who hired the per-

jurers and as a minimum penalty for their crime

place them for the balance of their lives where

Mooney -and Billings have spent their last thirteen

years. That would be real justice and only justice

as we understand the term.

Arthur Ackland,

Lulu Ackland.

Definition

A Cossack is any public official who interprets the

law to suit his own ends and who enforces it

brutally, unjustly or unreasonably.

In other words, a Cossack is the greatest enemy

of law-enforcement in America. He is the officer

who shoots innocent people in the back, who tricks

them into breaking a law that he may prosecute

them, who bludgeons and browbeats citizens he

merely suspects of wrongdoing, who invades homes

without warrant, who taps telephone wires and

who, in short, brushes aside every human right to

secure his own doubtful ends.

These men are not law-enforcers;

destroyers.-Los Angeles Record.

they are law-

Police Spying

Start a system of official spying and you've intro-

duced anarchy into your country.-D. H. Lawrence.

It is the most serious defect of our existing eco-

nomic system, that men should want to work and

not be able to do so.-Zechariah Chafee, Jr.

the hands of the one State official to whom is com-

mitted responsibility to see to it that justice is done.

May I add in closing that the three Los Angeles

lawyers who submitted the printed brief to you did

so as citizens of the State, without consultation with

any other persons, and at their own expense. The

argument was submitted to you, not on behalf of

Mooney, but on behalf of the three men who signed

it and of all those citizens of California who believe

that to pardon Mooney is the obligation and duty of

the Governor of the State. It is our hope that in

our brief you will find authorities that will be con-

vineing to your own mind and will afford sound sup-

port in law and in justice for a decision which will

stand before the world as both righteous and

humane.

Yours very truly,

August 8,.1929. John Beardsley.

FROM VARIED VIEWPOINTS

Textile Workers Still

Face Desperate Fight

GASTONIA, N. C.-(FP)-Sober second thought is

tempering the enthusiasm felt by friends of the

twenty-three textile unionists who go on trial in

Charlotte, August 26, over the victory achieved by

the defense in having the case switched from Gas-

tonia. While at first glance, the change in venue

indicated that a fair and impartial trial is now as-

sured, it becomes apparent that this is by no means

guaranteed.

Charlotte is but twenty miles away from Gastonia,

and the Loray mill village system is as much a

part of Charlotte as it is of Gastonia. The mill vil-

lage is an isolated adjunct to Gastonia proper and

is considered a necessary evil to the upper strata

of the city. Psychologically it has the same rela-

tion to Charlotte.

The Gastonia Gazette is a daily paper circulated

in Gaston county and its insanity was the main rea-

son for changing the place of trial. In Charlotte

there are two dailies of a considerably higher calibre,

and therefore much more influential-but both are

pro-mill organs and both have opposed the strike

campaign as vigorously, if not as stupidly, as has

the Gazette. The Gazette circulates in Mecklenburg

county also.

Then, too, the Textile Bulletin, edited by David

Clark, is published in Charlotte. This publication

is the trade organ of the textile mills in the South.

The Bulletin is notorious for its anti-union policy

and toward the Loray strike has been as venomous

as its neighbor, the Gazette.

Solicitor Carpenter, who prepared the Gastonia

prosecution, will also prosecute in Mecklenburg

county and the same aggregation of snooty textile

lawyers will prosecute for the "state." `There is a

hard road between Gastonia and Charlotte with bus

service by the hour, so that for all practical pur-

poses the atmosphere will be identical.

Charlotte is one of the largest cities in the South.

It has a population of 75,000 and is the home of a

special privilege group of -super-rich. Intelligent

southerners call it the citadel of reaction and con-

servatism.

`The city is also a textile manufacturing center and

mill conditions there are, by and large, on a par

with the horrible labor conditions at Loray. A few

months ago a Charlotte textile magnate purchased

one of the palatial homes in that city of the deceased

Duke, multi-millionaire of Duke's Mixture fame.

The American Federation of Labor has a small

central labor union in Charlotte, but it is of little

significance. The campaign of the United Textile

Workers a decade ago was crushed by the powers

that be in Charlotte. The National Textile Workers

Union has a membership in Charlotte and has chosen

that place for its organizing conference in Octobex.

The locality has an ancient tradition of fre loim,

which doubtless will be dug up from its musty

grave. But 1929 America has a convenient way of

forgetting its heritage. The very spot where these

sixteen modern textile serfs will be tried for mur-

der witnessed a splendid gesture of freedom 154

years ago; and gave our history the ringing Mecklen-

burg Declaration.

In 1929 there is a million dollar spacious court-

house on the same ground through which. is. spun

a mysterious web of ambiguous laws which. were

supposed to bury deep into oblivion the abuses of

an English autocrat, but which come back from the

grave in a far more menacing fashion to protect the

special privileges of a thousand American industrial

kings far more powerful than the English despot

of our colonial days.

Every decent citizen in the county ought now to

rally to the Gastonia strikers' defense and help along

the new declaration for freedom.

The Caucasian

Kinsman of Alexander and the Christ,

He owns the world and is the pet of God.

He knows the pigment of a pumpkin's rind,

Can make the pumpkin worthy. They who plod,

Dark aliens through this world, must acquiesce;

But they could tell him how his white-hot fire

Of persecution smelts them.from the dross,

And burns their base content to high desire.

Jonathan Henderson Brooks,

Mooney Case Live Issue

The Mooney case is not dead in Los Angeles. Far

from it. The overflow mass meeting August 9 in

Trinity Auditorium, which has a capacity of 2,200,

left no doubt of the fact. And the crowd's enthusi-

asm was not feigned. It was as genuine as the

speeches of the trial judge, Hon. Franklin A. Griffin,

Fremont Older, Ignatius McCarty, Federal investi-

gator, Father Robert E. Lucey and others.

Judge Griffin impresses one immediately with his

sincerity and integrity. There may be some ques-

tion as to whether real justice is meted out in our

present brand of courts, but there is certainly no

doubt that this particular jurist believes absolutely

in fair play.

"T am not here,' Judge Griffin asserted, ``because

of any personal interest in Thomas J. Mooney.

"With the ideas and opinions that he is alleged

to advocate I have no sympathy. His political

opinions and mine are as far apart as the north

and south poles.

"But I have a personal interest in the case of the

People against Thomas J. Mooney. For it was in

my court that that gross miscarriage of justice

occurred and I resent with all the power of expres-

sion that I have that such a thing could have oc-

eurred in the court over which I presided.

"IT am here from a sense of duty. I still cling to

that old-fashioned belief that a court of justice

means just exactly what the words imply-a place

where justice shall be administered and the truth

shall be ascertained..

"And believing that no man should be denied jus-

tice, I come to advocate the cause of Thomas J.

Mooney and to tell you the history of the Mooney

case."

Then followed a graphic description of the `"das-

tardly frameup," through which two Labor leaders,

Mooney and Warren K. Billings, have spent thirteen

years in prison for alleged complicity in the Pre-

paredness Day bombing in San Francisco in 1916.

(Besides the Judge and the Federal investigator,

ten living jurors have appealed for a pardon for

Mooney.) It ended with the indignant remark, "I

say to you you wouldn't hang a dog on such testi-

mony!"

Father Lucey told the audience that Mooney's

wrongful imprisonment was the result "of a certain

philosophy of life, a certain type of thinking which

is very dangerous in America."

"To me," he said, "it is just the old struggle be-

tween powerful interests and those who labor for

their bread." ; d

Secretary J. W. Buzzell of the local Labor council

deplored keeping Mooney in prison because some

folk think he is "dangerous."

"Who is to decide who is dangerous?" he asked.

Fremont Older, introduced by Chairman A. E.

Briggs as the "Grand Old Man of Freedom," was

given a tremendous ovation, the audience standing

and cheering for several minutes.

Older said he came to the meeting "at the request

of Mooney." .

' He said he thought Governor Young. would free

Mooney after he had completed his investigation.

Dr. E. P. Ryland, secretary of the Los Angeles

Church Federation, took the same view of the

Governor.

"The Mooney case," he said, "involves the honor

of all California."

Rabbi Herman Lissauer said Father Lucey's ad-

dress on human rights was "the finest sermon" he

had ever heard in his life.

"Tom Mooney," he said, "is a symbol of the re-

sentment of the people at the injustice of our pres

ent economic system."

Ignatius McCarty told what the dictograph which

he planted in District Attorney Fickert's office in

San Francisco disclosed as to Fickert's bitter

prejudices and his alliance with powerful San Fran-

cisco interests.

Attorney Joseph Ford riddled the testimony in

the Mooney case.

Upton Sinclair demanded that Governor Young act

at once to free Mooney.

"The good men who have spoken to you," he said,

"are willing to give Governor Young six more weeks

in which to act. I am not willing to give him six

more days.

"The Governor will free Mooney when the people

of this city and state make plain to him their de-

mand." 0x00B0

Kate Crane-Gartz, back from a world tour, said

the Mooney case was better known in Europe than

in this country.

Injunction Defied by

Southern Mill Strikers

MARION, N. C.-(FP)-Striking mill workers of

the Marion Manufacturing Company gave an injunc-

tion calculated to break their strike the respect it

deserves when they marched through Marion in a

great parade shouting defiance to the court order.

Banners carried by the workers read: "What Do

You Mean, Injunctions?"-`We Won't Work Twelve

Hours a Day!"-"From Now On We Count!"

Sheriff Adkins and the police stood by, helpless

to enforce the anti-picketing injunction, as hundreds

of workers swept past the courthouse. Town authori-

ties had refused to grant a parade permit four weeks

before when the union asked for one, so the strikers

did not go through the formality of being turned

down this time when they decided to parade.

On the picket lines the injunction is likewise be-

ing ignored, with the strikers throwing stronger

patrols than ever around the mill. Alfred Hoffman

and Tom Tippett, strike leaders, were among those

restrained from picketing by the court order.

In the local paper W. L. Logan, a striker, comes

forward to give the lie direct to public statements

about wages and working conditions made DYa Re VW.

Baldwin, president of the mills. In the news col-

umns of the Star, Baldwin assured the community

that no worker in his mill got less than 70 cents

an hour. In the correspondence columns of the

paper Logan demolishes Baldwin with facts taken

from the company's own time sheet.

"Tie-in hands in the spinning rooms," he says,

"get 18 cents an hour; sweepers 17 cents an hour-

twelve hours' run and ten hours' pay. Spinners get

23 cents per side, and the average spinner runs

eight sides, which would be $1.84 per day, or 18 2/5

cents per hour for a ten-hour day-but they run

eleven and twelve hours a day.

"A learner in the spinning room works thirty days

before he makes anything. Spoolers get 16 cents

per box, and spool 8-10 boxes per day, which works

out to $1.28-$1.60 per day. They work ten and twelve

hours daily. Sweepers and loom cleaners in the

weave room work by the day and make $11 per

week. Quartering hands run thirty looms, and make

33 cents for two hours, or $1.65 for a ten-hour day.

"The spinning room gets only fifteen to forty-five

minutes for lunch; the card room gets thirty minutes

on the day shift and has to double up on frames

to get that. Weave room workers get twenty min-

utes for lunch at night. At night the card room

gets no time for lunch-they grab theirs on the iver,

Thirty-two workers have been discharged from the

mills because of union membership. Their rein-

statement and the abolition of twelve hours' work

for ten hours' pay are two of the main strike issues.

Dean A. J. Muste of Brookwood Labor College has

been the main speaker the past week at mass meet-

ings of the Marion Mill Company strikers. Alfred

Hoffman is a Brookwood graduate, while Tom `Tip-

pett, the other strike leader, is a Brookwood faculty

member,

Relief for the strike is beginning to come in from

North Carolina unions, in response to an appeal by

President T, A. Wilson of the state federation of

labor. A Negro hod carriers' local added its mite to

the second $1,000 check sent by the Emergency Com-

mittee for Strikers' Relief in New York. McDowell

county farmers continue to bring their bushels to

the strike commissary.

Socialist Party of Los Angeles County

BANQUET

a in honor of Kate Crane--Gartz

(Just Returned from World Tour)

SATURDAY, EVENING, AUG. 24TH

6:30 P. M,

Windsor Tea Room

12th Floor, Brack Shops O2ZTNV a) Ath

Rita Kissen on

"THE SOCIALISTS IN VIENNA"

and Upton Sinclair Will Speak.

$1 Plate - Make Reservations Early

(Room for Only 200)

430 Douglas Building MUtual 7871

eee

NEWS AND VIEWs

By P, D. NOEL

Old Timers

News comes of the death of Martha Moore Avery

of Boston. About the beginning of this century i

was very active in the Socialist movement in Massa,

chusetts. Of a prominent family and wel] educated

she was associated with a Jew named Bernstein,

Suddenly they abandoned the Marxian doctrines and

joined the Catholic church, she becomin

the Catholic Truth Guild.

Also comes the announcement of the demise of

W. C. Owen in England. Of a "gooq" family, he

early became a leader among radicals, being assoc.

ated with Oscar Wilde, Shaw and the Fabians, for

years he was active in Los Angeles ag an anarchist,

being responsible for the Magons adopting that

philosophy.

active jn

The death of Victor Berger reminds one of how

the "old timers" are disappearing-wWilshire, Harri.

man, Bowman and others.

Cartoons

Pictures in the newspapers probably reach more

persons than do the printed words, just as the

masses can be reached by the movies much easier

than by books. However, these millions of grown-up

children are becoming leary of the lessons taught

by cartoons by having so many of them foisted

upon their attention which are so obviously unfair,

One in the Hearst papers recently is a sample of

this, in which Russia is depicted as being "out of

step" wtih the other nations, who are portrayed as

being unanimously for peace.

been consistent in its attitude against war that one

15) UheeUn Son ky.

A Hundred Percenter

In the justice's court in Redlands, where the

Yucaipa camp women and children were arraigned,

I met a naive. specimen of. a policeman. Good

natured, but stupid, he wondered why these people

were not satisfied with this perfect form of govern-

ment, especially as they came almost directly from

a country which had "no liberty or freedom." His

air of superiority over these "foreigners" was et:

joyable.

Search Warrants

The recent action of the Police Commission in

insisting that its men obey the law and not violate

the sanctity of residences is fine, but will require

constant vigilance to see that it is not "forgotten"

in a short time. The advent of a man like Drake on

the Commission gives one hope that this action will

be enforced, and that the third degree and beatings

of citizens will become rare through the discharge

of those perpetrating these cruelties and their

further punishment by bringing of criminal and civil

charges.

The Point At Issue

In last week's issue Mr. Whitaker makes many

extraneous statements regarding my criticism of

Miss Whitney which could be easily refuted. But

what's the use? Mooney's pardon lies entirely

Governor Young's hands. Undoubtedly, as 4 politi-

cian with ambitions, his main worry is what the

pardon of Mooney would do in arousing dangerous

opposition from powerful interests. He wonders it

Tom, on his release, would again become a "pest!

lential agitator," as Miss Whitney has done. All of

this business of his reading thousands of pager of

testimony is camouflage, as it is worthless, bem

acknowledged by all as perjured. He simply wants

to offer to the public a good excuse for the pando?

if no monkey wrenches are thrown into the works

Make it as easy for him as possible.

My heart rebels against my generation,

That talks of freedom and is slave to riches.

And, toiling `neath each day's ignoble burden

Boasts of the morrow.

-George Santayana.

ing knowa

What is celebrity? The advantage of being k

to people who don't know you.-Chamfort.

If any nation has :