Open forum, vol. 13, no. 34 (August, 1936)

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FORU

Free Speech - Free Press - Free Assemblage

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

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Vol. XII.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 22, 1936

No. 34

a : '

Appeal From Injunction

Declaring that an important section of

the New York Anti-Injunction Act of 1935

was at stake in the appeal of the Syracuse

Remington-Rand strikers from the tempo-

rary injunction against them, the Ameri-

can Civil Liberties Union htrough its Syra-

cuse attorney, Warren W inkelstein, joined

as friend of the Court with lawyers for the

six labor unions involved in the hearing

last week before the Appellate Division of

the Supreme Court, Fourth Department.

A decision is expected August 21.

Atemporary injunction was granted July

18 by Supreme Court Judge E. L. Robert-

son of Syracuse and restrains the number

of pickets for the entire plant to four. On

the orders of Gov. Herbert Lehman a spe-

cial session of the Appellate Division was

called to hear the strikers' motion to va-

cate the order.

"This hearing was of unusual impor-

tance,' Lucille B. Milner, secretary of the

Civil Liberties Union, said, "in that it was

the frst occasion on which a governor had

acted tto speed up final determination of

the leegality of an injunction challenged

by labor unions. Ordinarily the tempo-

rary stay would have remained in force

util the October term of the Appellate

Division. .

"We contested this injunction on the

gounds that it was issued in violation of

the provision of the law requiring an em-

ployer to `make every reasonable effort to

settle the dispute by negotiatnig, mediat-

ing, and arbitrating.' It was our conten-

tin that the evidence at the prelimniary

hearing clearly showed that the Reming-

ton-Rand Company had failed to cooper-

ate in efforts to end the ten-week-old strike.

The refusal of James H. Rand, Jr., presi-

dent of the company, to participate in the

proposed conference with the governors of

Ohio, New York and Connecticut demon-

strated further the company's unyielding

attitude.

"The provision that an honest effort must

be made to settle strikes is of great impor-

tance. If employers can violate it and still

secure restraining orders, the Anti-Injunc-

tion Act loses much of its effectiveness as

a protection to workers in their right to

organize and strike."'

_NEA SUPPORTS ACADEMIC FREEDOM

oe following resolutions were among

ose adopted by the National Education

Ssoclation in convention at Portland, Ore.,

from June 28 to July 2:

Opposition to War-The National Edu-

tation Association definitely opposes war as

_ `method of settling international disputes

and reaffirms its opposition to compulsory

ay training in the public schools, in

"aeaee and in universities. The associa-

ing peer urges that, when military train-

= p euded in the curriculum, it be un-

ular school authorities.

moendemic Freedom-The National Edu-

With y eussociation reaffirms its position

full 9 "terence to freedom of teaching and

of er unity to present differing points

tions a any and all controversial ques-

Mitte t commends the work of the Com-

Mends its Academic Freedom and recom-

mM ig ts continuance. Intellectual free-

Euarante public safeguard. It is the surest

Dpr euroe of orderly change and progress.

eurossion of such freedom inevitably

seal ogee and reckless change in the

euro direction and administration of reg--

Keep This In Mind

It must not be forgotten that the teach-

ers in California's schools are constantly

under the theat of "the criminal syndical-

ism law,' which has been for two years

an organic part of the Tenure Law.

As it now stands, the law provides for

the penalty of suspension or discharge of

any teacher accused, in writing, of immoral

conduct or of criminal syndicalism as so

astutely defined in the infamous "`criminal

syndicalism law.'' The school authorities,

however, have the power granted to dis-

charge or retain a teacher judged guilty

of personal immorality, but must discharge

the teacher judged guilty of any of the

many acts defined under this law as crimi-

nal syndicalism: one who prints, publishes,

edits, issues or circulates or publicly dis-

plays any book, paper, pamphlet, docu-

ment, poster or written or printed matter

in any other form, containing or carrying

written or printed advocacy, teaching, or

aid and abetment of, or advising, criminal

syndicalism, is guilty of a felony and pun-

ishable by imprisonment in the State prison

not less than one nor more than fourteen

years."

Under such a threat as this the moral

strength of the teachers of California's

children can easily be destroyed. Our

teachers are in grave danger of being

driven to moral cowardice. The following

letter to Eugene Linder, chairman of Los

Angeles Discussion Clubs, is self revealing.

"My Dear Mr. Linder:

"T am sorry I cannot accept your invi-

tation to talk before your Discussion

`groups on (date). I am sympathetic

with the work of your organization in

promoting free discussions, but at the

present time I find it inadvisable as a

public school teacher to give any talks

on sociological or economic questions on

which, as you know, I have definite

opinions.

"During the last day of last year's

(1933) session of the State legislature, a

Criminal Syndicalism Law for Teachers

was slipped through and it has many of

us teachers considerably alarmed. Any

heresy hunter can make lots of trouble

for a teacher. I am, therefore, com-

pelled to decline any invitation to speak.

"Perhaps some day I shall be freer

than at the present time and can talk

freely before your groups.

"Yours for free speech and assem-

blage."

te Cee ee (Signed. )

INTERNATIONAL PEACE CAMPAIGN

An international peace campaign will

start from Geneva with a world peace as-

sembly to be held there September 3-6 un-

der the presidency of Viscount Cecil. Pierre

Cot, former French air minister and a mem-

ber of the present French Cabinet, is au-

thor of the plan. More than forty coun-

tries have agreed to send delegations. The

National Peace Conference of the United

States will be represented by over twenty

delegates, among whom will be Mrs. Laura

Puffer Morgan and Mrs. Florence Brewer

Boeckel. The need of a world peace move-

ment has long been apparent. The begin-

nings of such a movement have been dis-

cernable in the cooperation that has devel-

oped at Geneva among representatives of

national and international organizations

since the opening of the World Dis-

armament Conference in 1932. The ap-

proaching conference can do much to carry

this cooperation further, although in the

present state of Europe wise leadership will

(Continued on Page 2, Column 2)

Judge's Ruling Praised

Federal Judge William Clark's ruling in

reducing bail of three persons selected as

test cases from those of eighty men

and women, arrested in the recent strike

against the RCA-Victor Company in Cam-

den, N. J., and forced to post bail totalling

$875,000, was praised by the American

Civil Liberties Union as "`a welcome prece-

dent and a warning to state judges who

take a prejudiced position in cases grow-

ing out of industrial disputes."' The deci-

sion was on habeas corpus proceedings

handled by Abraham J. Isserman, counsel

for the New Jersey Civil Liberties Com-

mittee.

In reducing the bail of Powers Hapgood,

organizer for the Committee for Industrial

Organization, from $5000 to $100 and in

two other cases from $10,000 to $5000, and

$5000 to $1000, Federal Judge Clark was

reversing Justice Frank T. Lloyd of the

New Jersey Supreme Court, who had sat

as committing magistrate and Quarter Ses-

sions Judge Frank Neutze. "I might say

in doing this,'' said Judge Clark, "I think

it is very unwise to attempt to place the

Court in a position to take sides in a strike,

no matter what the merits may be. It is

certainly not their function."' Of the Hap-

good case, Judge Clark declared, "It is

true that he is an industrial organizer, that

he was in Camden for the purpose of or-_

ganizing the strike, but apart from that

T understand that was a right that we all

had." Justice Lloyd in a surprising state-

ment to newspaper men declared that he

did not understand the basis of Judge

Clark's decision. Judge Clark fol-

lowed the usual judicial custom in refusing

to comment on the Justice's remarks.

During the strike there were between

400 and 600 arrests, many of those seized

being onlookers and sympathizers who took

no part in the picketing. Apparently all

those from outside Camden were promptly

arrested. An unusual aspect of the pro-

ceedings was that the grand jury, ordi-

narily not in session until the fall, was

called to expedite indictments. It is un-

derstood that authoritites are making every

effort to rush through the eighty pending

cases while feeling is still running high in

official circles against the strike. Mean-

while Mr. Isserman has filed a number of

civil damage suits against the police for

false arrests.

NEW LIBERAL VETERANS'

ORGANIZATION FORMED

Driven by "the reactionary leadership

of the American Legion, the Veterans of

Foreign Wars and other veterans' organi-

zations" and by "`the increasing menace to

the cause of liberty, justice and democ-

racy" which such organizations imply, a

group of prominent ex-service men com-

posed of educators, statesmen, lawyers,

authors and retired army officers have or-

ganized the American Veterans' Council.

In its tentative preamble the Council

pledges itself "to defend liberty, justice

and democracy; to uphold the freedom of

worship, speech, press and assembly; to

oppose reactionary forces which would

subvert this heritage; to resist discrimina-

tion as to race, color, creed or political

belief; to repel the advances of facism;

to cooperate with veteran groups throug-

out the world holding to these beliefs, for

effective peace ...." There is also a

pledge of resistance to war and prepara-

tions for war. The Council will soon issue

the first number of its official monthly

(Continued on Page 2, Column 1)

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 624 American Bank

Building, 129 West Second Street

Les Angeles, California, by the Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836

CHnton J. Taft Editor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz

Doremus Scudder A. L. Wirin

Ethelwyn Mills Ernest Besig

Edwin P. Ryland

Leo Gallagher

John Packard

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

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

post office of Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., AUG. 22, 1936

FIVE TAMPA COPS SENTENCED

The sentencing of five Tampa policemen

to four years imprisonment in the first of

the Florida flogging-murder trials was

hailed recently by the American Civil Lib-

erties Union as "another encourgnig step

in one of the most dramatic and impor-

tant civil rights fights in years. If this case

is brought to a victorious conclusion it will

mean a setback to the Ku Klux Klan and

reactionary forces throughout the South.'

In sentencing the kidnapers, Judge Robert

T. Dewell rejected their plea for a new

trial.

The five cops were convicted late in May

on the single charge of kidnaping Eugene

Poulnot. Counts of kidnaping Sam Rog-

ers and of murdering Joseph Shoemaker

are still outstanding against these five, one

other policeman, and three Klansmen from

Orlando. The three victims of the kid-

napers had been leaders of a liberal-re-

form group called the Modern Democrats,

that challenged the Klan-Gamblers' ring

that ruled Tampa. Seized at an organiza-

tion meeting, November 30, the three were

taken to the police station and from the

station out into the country, where they

were severely flogged, tarred and feath-

ered. Shoemaker died after nine days of "

agony.

The American Civil Liberties Union at

once offered a reward of $1000 for infor-

mation leading to the arrest and final con-

viction of the kidnapers. Labor and radi-

cal groups joined in the protest and Wil-

liam Green, president of the American

Federation of Labor, threatened to move

the 1936 A. F. of L. convention, scheduled

for Tampa, to another city. The National

Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights

in Tampa was formed with Norman Thom-

as as chairman. Indictments followed the

nationwide protest. At the first trial, held

in Bartow, some miles outside of Tampa,

the fivepolicemen were convicted.

The ruling last week by Judge Robert

T. Dewell was greeted with the announce-

ment that the policemen who are now out

on bail furnished by cigar manufacturers,

would appeal at once to the state supreme

court. On the other side, the National

Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights

in Tampa commended the decision and de-

clared that it would press for a prompt

trial of the other persons indicted. The

Committee also declared that it endorsed

the damage suit of $100,000 brought by

Eugene Poulnot against the five convicted

floggers.

(Continued from Page 1, Column 3)

journal, "The American Veterans' Coun-

cilor."'

Among the promotors of the new Coun-

cil are Congressman Maury Maverick

(D.,Tex.); Brig. Gen. Pelham Glassford;

Prof. Stearns Morse of Dartmouth Col-

lege; M. E. Curti, author of "War or

Peace"; and Dr. Robert W.~-Searle of

the Greater New York Federation of

Churches. Any questions regarding the

organization may bbe addressed to Dr.

Searle, 71 West 23rd St., New York City.

PETITIONS LEAGUE OF NATIONS

New York.-According to word received

here by the American Committee for Pro-

tection of Foreign Born, the International

Conference for the Right of Asylum, which

met in Paris June 20 and 21, 1936, passed

several resolutions calling upon the League ~

of Nations to seriously consider the emer-

gency problems created by the ever-grow-

ing insecurity, legally and financially, of

anti-Fascist refugees who have been forced

to flee their homelands and seek refuge in

foreign countries.

One resolution adopted recommends:

"1. The amnesty of all political ref-

ugees condemned for `crimes' determined

by their situation as refugees.

"2. The interdiction of expelling politi-

cal refugees, of conducting them to the

frontier so long as no other country is

ready to receive them, of sending them

back to their country of origin, or of al-

lowing them to be extradited. In the case

where an illegal delivery has been accom-

plished, the government of the country of

asylum should demand, by diplomatic chan-

nels, the restitution of that refugee.

"3. The annulment of all orders of ex-

pulsion of political refugees.

"4. The right of a refugee to travel and

to hold a salaried position.

5. While awaiting the regularization

of the juridical situation of the refugees

a `paper of identity' should be issued,

which would state all the rights enumer-

ated above."'

DENIAL OF CITIZENSHIP

SAN FRANCISCO-A battle is waged

over the petition for citizenship entered

by F. J. McConnel on the grounds that the

non-citizen argued for the repeal of the

Criminal Syndicalism Act before the Board

of Supervisors, and because he is a member

of the Civil Liberties Union. The forces of

discrimination are being led by the Sup-

versive Activities Committee of the Ameri-

can Legion. Attempts have also been made

to have McConnel denied citizenship be-

cause he was on relief for several months

while his petition for citizenship was pend-

ing, an attempt being made to use Judge

Borah's decision denying citizenship to re-

lief workers in Louisiana as a precedent.

(Continued from Page 1, Col. 2)

be required to prevent the conference from

accentuating instead of relievnig the di-

visive tendencies that threaten European

peace.

Hard Times Offer

Because of the eontinued financial depression we

are going to make you a very special offer-THE

OPEN FORUM eight months to new subscribers for

only fifty cents. Get busy and flood us with new

subscriptions.

THE OPEN FORUM

624 American Bank Building LOS ANGELES

JOIN THE A: C. L. U.

Many of you who read this paper

must find yourselves in accord with

the work which the American Civil

Liberties Union is doing to protect our

fundamental rights of free speech,

press and assemblage. But you have

not yet enrolled as a member of the

Union. Why not doitnow? Weneed

you badly and will greatly appreciate |

your becoming affiliated with our or-

ganization. Please fill out the blank

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NAIC 5 op ae ee Oe he

Streets ee ee ee ie

Cy a ee

years a member of the executive comm

-

NEWS BRIEFS

Most of the cases involving deportat

eign Born, with headquarters in New Y

City, which reorganized its forces and cento |

ducted a vigorous piece of work to red

attempted deportations for opinions ang

beliefs. . . . The (American) Committ

for Protection of Foreign Born issued .

booklet on deportations, which

time comprehensively covers Sovernmey,

policy, history and the law, in the |

of pending cases and legislation,

aliens, caught between the presgureg

the one hand of the Hearst press, `paty

otic' agencies, the American Federatioy of

Labor and the anti-alien majority jn Con.

gress, and on the other, pro-alien AL ENCies

strong liberal sentiment and the resistance

put up in contesting every political depor.

tation. In all cases where`aliens were oP

dered deported to Fascist countries Wher 0x00A7

they would face imprisonment or death, the |

Department offered the choice of voly,

tary departure to some safe country, Thi |

choice, however, becomes increasingly dif

ficult to exercise because so few countries |

will admit deported aliens. It is even (if.

ficult to obtain their admission to the Soviet

Union. No alien, however, has actually

been deported to a Fascist country, al |

though a dozen cases are pending in which |

that fate is threatened." (From How (ox |

a report of activities |

of the American Civil Liberties Unio, |

the Bill of Rights?;

1935-36.)

`

frontiers, we are assailed by harsh voices

... They insolently command us in thei |

`If you don't like this country, go |

rage:

back where you came from.' .. . Dele.

gates of America assembled in our Con

gress! Let us go back and see what i

happening where we came from.

"You delegates from Arkansas. What

is there back where you came from? Mea

and women flogged by night riders for the L

crime of organizing sharecroppers and ten |

ant farmers.

"You delegates from Pittsburgh, from |

Youngstown, from Gary, from Baltimore,

from mines and mills that mold the sted (c)

of the world. What is there where yol |

came from? Arrogant and sinister prepi

rations for war by the steel trusts agains!

those who would better their conditions |

... We are sent by the young people a

America to map out plans that will help

secure jobs, freedom, and progress. Whel

we have finished this work, THEN WI

WILL GO BACK WHERE WE CAM

FROM." (From the opening address by

William Hinckley, Chairman, at the Thitl

American Youth Congress.)

JAMES P. CANNON TO

LECTURE IN LOS ANGEL(R)

The Sunday Night Open Forum located

at 11614 West Ninth Street has engage!

James P. Cannon of New York to give#

series of six lectures on national and intel

national subjects.

"Capaign Issues of 1936" will be the

subject for August 23rd. The lecture

starts at 8:00 P. M., and those who wi

to attend are urged to come early to 8%

a seat.

Cannon-was formerly chairman of tht

Communist Party of U.S. A.; for a

of the Communist International, an has

now joined the Socialist Party. "

Cannon is one of the foremost author

ties on questions concerning the labor Ly

ment. Watch for announcement of subs

quent lectures.

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ight

"The Department of Labor followed " :

middle-of-the-road policy dealing with 0x00A7

ony

`... when we attempt to move on to ney |

for political opinion were handled by a I

American Committee for Protection of For ;